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allatseaa wrote

His work heavily influenced the politics of the PKK in northern Syria which ended up founding Rojava.

This is an exagerration if not at outright fabrication (not by you, but by the people you heard it from). The PKK - who are a political party - started name dropping Bookchin to appeal to Western anarchists. They did this when their supply of Western marxists ran dry. Their Great Leader's correspondence with Old Man Murray was nothing more than a very politically experienced leftist manipulating a very naive one.

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train wrote

I think you're right in someways but wrong in others. For one I really don't know that the PKK and subsequently the YPG have ever really had a meaningful international unit. It's entirely possible they aimed to expand those ranks even if they were not very successful in doing so. Although to be fair I don't actually know what the numbers are.

This of course doesn't mean playing up Bookchin isn't part of the PKK's and now Rojava's external propoganda. It certainly is. They clearly want to inspire sympathies from westerners as their claim to legitimacy was in part due to the US backing them in a war against ISIS. However, this strategy is limited and has done little to protect Rojava from Turkey.

Lastly, this isn't just part of Rojava's external propoganda. It's clearly internal too. I legitimately don't think they would have had much buy in from people in norntheastern Syria had Öcalan and the PKK not embraced some form of municipalism.

That doesn't mean Rojava is actually communalist. It also doesn't prove that communalism or democratic confederalism are worthwhile political philosophies. Hower, as I said, I do think the relative success of Rojava has actually drawn more people toward Bookchin and communalism. I think that's true even if, as you say, the intention was to draw communalists to the PKK and Rojava.

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