The Communal Defense Committee: An Alternative To Police (Rojava Excerpt)

Neighbor Democracy

*This is a audio version of a video originally made for Youtube: https://youtu.be/ojXxz1u1R4c* An excerpt from my previous video The Communes of Rojava: A Model In Societal Self-Direction (https://youtu.be/cDnenjIdnnE). I'll be releasing several other excerpts over the coming days covering each committee of the commune system. I try to provide insight into the question "Do we need police in order to be safe as a community?" by using the way people in Rojava/DFNS have come together to protect themselves as a case study. I look at the defense committees prevalent in many Rojavan communes as the outlines of a practical alternative to the police. The community defense members in the communes (HPC and HPC-Jin) are all: 1. Elected and from the community 2. Recallable 3. Mandated (only allowed to act as directly told by the commune members) 4. Enforcing norms that every commune member gets a democratic say on instead of rigid laws given from above 4. Rotating and dispersed to as many people as possible to prevent abuse of power and make community safety a collective responsibility 5. Undergo regular criticism and self-criticism sessions in front of the whole community This I argue makes them completely different from police, and a model I hope is incubated more to eventually replace the Asayish (regular security forces/police). I. A Short Introduction to the Commune System of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria 0:00-2:43 II. The Communal Defense Committee: An Alternative to Police 2:43-6:04