The Role of the Youth in Defending Nature
It’s sometime in the late 70s in the small village of Amara, situated near the city of Riha in North Kurdistan. A young Abdullah Öcalan is returning to the place where he was born after he left it more than a decade before. He left to search for a freedom and a future for himself and for the Kurdish people that he could not find there. In the intervening years he has not abandoned his search. In fact, he has taken decisive steps to pursue it by starting a small but growing movement of young people determined to liberate and reunite the colonized land of Kurdistan and restore the dignity and life of the Kurdish people. But visiting his old family and neighbours, his vision of hope was met with distrust and scepticism. After years of genocides, assimilation and failed insurrections, the Kurdish people in the Turkish-occupied area of Kurdistan had been driven close to non-existence. Their culture, language and identity are almost forgotten. As a consequence, any thought of rising up again was seen as synonymous with death and calamity. And so, when the young Öcalan spoke to the people of his village, an old Kurdish man told him to abandon his dream for Kurdish freedom. He said, “The Kurdish people are like a dried tree. You can’t make it blossom again”. In response, Öcalan took the decision to dedicate his whole life to proving this wrong.
Today, the struggle initiated by Abdullah Öcalan is not only giving new life to the Kurdish people, but it’s also building a solution for the ecological crisis that threatens all societies and the majority of the ecological diversity of our planet. Because if we remain in the current system, even if we manage to survive this crisis, the way in which society would be forced to change in order to do so would mean to lose what makes us human in the first place. Under the current system, we would become a tree that is still standing years after drying up.
For all the many facts and statistics that tell us that our situation is hopeless and irreversible, there are as many reasons to have hope. We should never forget the almost unlimited capacity of nature to heal and renew itself. This capacity, this vitality and strength, is also the spirit of the youth. This is why young people are at the forefront of ecological struggles. This is why almost every uprising or mass movement of the last 20 years has had young people as the animating force. And this is why, when Abdullah Öcalan got told to abandon his dreams, he instead chose to keep pursuing them. And in the same way that his youth spirit gave new life to the Kurdish people, so can all the wounds and illnesses caused by capitalism on this earth be healed by the life-energy of the youth.
The root of the problem
The ecological struggle is one of the defining issues of our time. Of course, it’s not a completely new phenomenon. The ecocidal nature of Capitalist Modernity is one of its fundamental characteristics and has been experienced most violently by women and the colonized peoples since the beginning of the history of hierarchy. And in turn, resistance against it has always been present. But today every young person grows with the awareness that the ecological crisis will affect all of our lives. For this reason millions of young people feel the desire to fight in defence of nature, and many of them are organising to accomplish this.
But at the same time there is widespread hopelessness and nihilism spreading among the youth. The lack of perspective leads some to embrace reformist “green capitalism” solutions. And many more to give up the struggle or to continue fighting out of despair, rather than with a real hope for victory. But it is precisely in times like this, moments of crisis and chaos, when the youth must play its vanguard role in finding a solution.
So what is stopping us from achieving this?
It is obvious that a clear ideological perspective on what to do is still lacking. The ideologies that inspired our social movements were not able to fully overcome the current system of ecological destruction. This is because we were not able to get to the root of the crisis or build a workable alternative.
We must first understand that the destruction and exploitation of nature cannot be explained by purely economical or geopolitical interests. In order to open the way for ecocide, a sexist and capitalist mentality had to first develop within society. This was accomplished through continuous propaganda and education by the system, which created fundamental divisions in our way of thinking and living, separating us from each other, from the land and from our moral values.
We can name some of the most important of these divisions:
Subject – Object
Science as a way for society to understand the world and enrich it is a positive development and is not fundamentally tied to capitalism. What differentiates Western “Positivist” Science is the strong emphasis on the division between the subject (the one who observes, understands, is active) and the object (the observed, unconscious and passive). The subject-object mentality created by this positivist ideology has made us into individuals separated from nature and society who have no regard for the morality of our actions. Under the excuse of “progress” and “survival of the fittest”, we have justified only caring for personal self-interest and the pursuit of power. This mentality has infected all of society, promoting extreme individualism and apathy towards injustice even in the face of ecological catastrophe.
Men – Women
It was with the development of the hierarchical oppressive male mentality and the oppression of women that every other kind of oppression, including of nature, was made possible. Patriarchal violence is the basis for every other kind of systemic violence. Especially today, as our connection to society and nature is severed and everything that is meaningful, transcendent and sacred about life is hollowed out, many of our dreams and desires are being projected instead towards romantic love, sex and the satisfaction of physical desires. In this way, our feelings of love for society and nature are transformed into individual possessiveness and obsession. And the hate and emptiness we feel in the absence of this connection is redirected towards each other, and especially towards women. Until the sexist mentality is overcome, neither nature nor society will be free.
Humanity – Nature
For Modernity, nature is the ultimate enemy to subjugate. From this point of view, civilization has been a constant battle to “liberate society” from the limits imposed on it by nature. This mindset is in contradiction with the understanding present in many societies and cultures, which see humanity as being part of nature, each part of it possessing its own spirit and will. But this connection has been eroded, man has been placed above nature and the fragile equilibrium upon which our existence on this planet depends has been upended.
City – Countryside
The modern mega-cities are ecologically unsustainable. They are vast surfaces of concrete and pavement with an ever-increasing population density. They need unimaginable quantities of energy and natural resources to be continually brought from far away and produce mountains of waste and pollution. In order to open the way for this, the traditional communal life and culture of the village, the countryside and the forests has been destroyed in favour of the individualist and consumerist liberal lifestyle of the city. Similarly, the rise of the megacities of Europe and the rest of the Western world was only possible because of the cultural and material exploitation of the colonies, which continues to this day through exploitative international trade and warfare. Therefore, no real liberatory ecological movement will be able to develop until this parasitic relationship of dependency between the city and the countryside is dismantled both nationally and internationally.
The existence of these distinctions or contradictions are not inherently destructive. The solution to this crisis will not come from completely abolishing cities, technology, science or gender differences, which are all natural developments of society. The underlying problem is an ideology and a way of living that is based on expanding these divisions and exploiting them rather than finding a balanced and creative relationship between them rooted in freedom for all life.
The solution therefore can’t be to simply reform this system or develop new technologies to try to keep it going. Neither is it enough to simply aim to change the ownership or the mode of production. And it’s also not a question of conquering the state or destroying it. The ecological crisis can only be overcome by rebuilding a way of life in which society and nature nurture and depend on each other. To accomplish this we need a profound revolution in our way of thinking, living and acting that builds this alternative right now. As part of this, a revitalized ecological social movement led by the youth with a concrete vision and program for solutions can play a fundamental role.
Where to start – Building the ecological movement of democratic modernity
To contribute towards the transformation of the ecological movement into a social movement able to realise this vision, we present seven strategic points for the build-up of the ecological movement of democratic modernity. These are not a full programme nor are they new ideas. Rather they are points meant to inspire discussion and action based on the experiences of many movements and peoples from all around the world, while taking the paradigm of Democratic Modernity of Abdullah Öcalan as a guide in our search.
Developing the autonomous identity of the youth
As we will be the ones who will experience most of its consequences, the youth is the part of society that has the biggest stake in overcoming the ecological crisis. For this reason the youth must organise itself autonomously. First to develop an independent will and identity that reflects our nature, needs and role in society and one that is not subjected to the distortions of the system. And second, it must organise itself in order to be able to put our will into practice and play a vanguard role in changing society.
Reviving natural culture
The culture of a society is developed over thousands of years in relation to a particular place, geography, animal and plant life, weather conditions and historical developments. The incredible diversity in human culture is the result of the myriad ways that human societies have found to adapt and live a meaningful life together in their particular territories. In other words, the culture of a society also contains its ecological awareness.
Therefore, if we as youth want to develop an ecological consciousness and way of living, we must recover and revitalise the culture, history and knowledge of our societies. This can’t be limited to the superficial expressions of culture, such as songs, clothes and dances or even forms of social organization. What society is missing most of all under Capitalist Modernity is a shared understanding of the world, its meaning and our place inside it. So even though we can’t deny that our cultures have been infected by the mentalities of the patriarchal state civilization and capitalism, we as youth must struggle to find the democratic essence that lies inside of each culture, to revitalise it and to give it a new life and meaning in the context of a revolutionary struggle in defence of nature and society.
Fighting for the liberation of Mother Nature
Throughout history women have been the ones who had the greatest connection to nature and their territory. Before nature could be exploited, the woman, her main defender, had to be subjugated and enslaved. In this way the development of sexism opened the way for the exploitation of nature. For this reason, overcoming the dominant male mentality means overcoming the mentality that destroys nature and enslaves society. And In the face of the constant attacks against Mother Nature, the freedom of women can’t be postponed. The development of free women and free men personalities must be a priority for the ecological movement.
Returning to the countryside
The only way to develop a sustainable way of living, start healing the earth, revive our communal culture and escape from the influence of Capitalist Modernity is to build a mass movement to revitalise the agrarian village lifestyle in the countryside. By reviving the countryside we can become rooted in our territories again, develop ecological means of subsistence and actually help the Earth heal and thrive again.
But more than the physical relocation of people, the main struggle will be to overcome the liberal Western-centric mentality of city life. Until this mentality is overcome, social movements will remain marginal and confined to the cities. It may seem unrealistic to think that young people will be willing to abandon the frenetic city lifestyle. But if one looks beyond the propaganda of the system, it’s easy to see that life in the cities is the source of many of the contemporary illnesses affecting the youth. Returning to the countryside is not only an opportunity to rebuild an ecological life but also a more meaningful and fulfilling one based on communality, moral values and reciprocity with the territory.
Creating education for an ecological life
To live in connection with the land and with each other, each society develops knowledge and skills in accordance with the conditions and history of the particular territory they inhabit. But this kind of knowledge has been stolen, repressed and devalued as backwards and obsolete by the system. This is why as youth we need to develop our own ways of educating ourselves, create knowledge rooted in our territories and develop technical advancements that serve society and nature. And most of all, we need to spread a culture of constant education, practice and self-criticism.
Building an ecological and cooperative economy
The unlimited pursuit of profit, unrestrained industrialism and technological development without moral boundaries are almost unquestioned pillars of Capitalist Modernity. But in fact what we call “capitalist economy” has nothing to do with a real economy, which means the organization of society to provide for its needs. Instead capitalism should be seen as a system that opens the way for the unlimited exploitation of society and nature through deceit and coercion. To avoid this we must fundamentally change our way of living by putting the economy into the hands of society. This means a communal and ecological economy that is based on democratic decisions making, collective ownership, local production and technological innovation guided by the moral and ecological principles of mutual dependency among people and with their territories.
Defending our territories
Just as every living organism has the capacity and the right to defend itself against attacks, so does society and the planet. Given their physical and vital strength, the youth must take a leading role in the defence of both. This is what in the Apoist movement is called the feeling of “welatparezî”, which can be translated as “love for the land”. The connection to our territory is what gives us the strength to fight, to make sacrifices and gives meaning to our struggle. For this reason, it’s important that as youth we learn about the history, culture and nature of our land and what makes it unique.
Love for the land has nothing to do with nationalism, loyalty to any nation-state or the enforcement of borders. In fact, born out of this same love we will be able to empathise with the struggle of every other people and feel the need to defend them too. On this basis different peoples and struggles can develop mutual and equal confederal relationships. This will allow us to take democratic decisions together about how to work together towards an eco-socialist transition that respects the diversity of culture, world-views, history and needs of every society. To accomplish the ecological transition, the project of World Democratic Confederalism proposed by Abdullah Öcalan represents a horizon towards which we can start walking together.
No one can be free until everyone is free
Today we face the reality that irreplaceable sources of cultural and biological diversity in our planet are under an immediate threat of destruction under the exploitative and homogenising expansion of Capitalist Modernity. In such cases the physical defence of these lands becomes a necessity and a responsibility for each of us, regardless of where we are from. The ecological movement must embrace the long and proud line of internationalism and not confine ourselves to thinking in terms of the borders drawn by nation-states.
Someone who embodies this internationalist spirit for the ecological movement is Şehîd Elefterîa Hambî. She was a German ecological activist born with the name Eva Maria Steiger. She went from participating in the forest occupations in Europe to fighting in the ranks of YPG in Rojava against DAESH and then finally joining the guerillas in the Free Mountains of Kurdistan. There she fell martyr on the 25th of November of 2019 as a result of an attack by the Turkish army.
For some her path may be hard to understand, but for Şehîd Elefterîa the struggle to defend nature was inseparable from the liberation of women, the fight against fascism and the organisation of a free and democratic society. For her to join the revolution in Kurdistan did not mean abandoning the struggle for her own land. Rather she understood that in Rojava and in the mountains she was fighting the same enemy that threatened the forests she loved so much back at home. And that the revolution that she was protecting there would one day spread to Germany and everywhere else. With her life she represents the line of action that we must follow in the ecological movement in order to succeed. For this reason we will conclude by remembering her words:
"This war is not just the war of the Kurds, it is the war of everyone oppressed by the system, especially women. For this reason, we must struggle at every moment of our lives to achieve what we believe in. No one can be free until everyone is free!"
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