Nilüfer Koç is member of the Executive Council and spokesperson for the Commission on Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK). She is also a Council Member of the Progressive International.

Koç writes about “New World Embassy: Kurdistan”, an artistic project initiated by her and artist Jonas Staal at Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne.

In this essay, published by Progressive International, Koç shares how the “New World Embassy: Kurdistan” embodies stateless diplomacy, infusing art into politics. Through workshops, roundtables and concerts, this project aims to offer a radical alternative to the century-old colonial Treaty of Lausanne, and stand as a symbol of hope for grassroots democratic confederalism in an age of injustice and oppression.

The launch of the New World Embassy: Kurdistan that I developed in collaboration with artist Jonas Staal at the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne with support of Progressive International, is both a chance to infuse aesthetics into politics and demonstrate that art is not detached from social and political issues. No, Kurdistan is not officially recognized as a state. And actually, we no longer want to become one. But through art we can imagine and visualize what a stateless embassy for a stateless internationalism could or should look like. Because art can articulate the visions and dreams of a people, it will always be a political act. As a result, we, the people involved in this critical project, are trying to transfuse a potent political-social idea, which we see as a desperately required alternative in this alienating century of crisis. And Lausanne is not the first planted seed on this mission: decades of struggle and (cultural) solidarity work of the Kurdish revolutionary movement have gone before.

The Problem: The Treaty of Lausanne

Our rulers would like us to believe that we have no other political alternative than the soulless one they present to us. This is a continuation of the colonial arrogance which emanated 100 years ago from the Château d’Ouchy hotel in Lausanne, Switzerland. Fittingly, this castle-turned-hotel where artificial lines were drawn that carved up people’s national memory, sits only 2 km from the site of our artistic resistance in the form of the New World Embassy: Kurdistan.

On July 24th, 1923, The French Republic, British Empire, Kingdom of Italy, Empire of Japan, Kingdom of Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, and Kingdom of Romania met at that hotel, and believed they had the authority to construct and determine the future of the Middle East. As the victorious powers in the First World War, they believed it was their divine right to divide up the spoils of the defeated Ottoman Empire, not according to what the people living there wanted, but based on what financially and geopolitically benefited them most. They did not a see a map representing centuries of culture, memories, and lived reality, holding the bones of our ancestors, but a playground to draw straight lines based on resource allocation and trade.

The group hardest hit by this inhuman cruelty were the Kurds, who were absent from all 143 listed articles of the treaty. It was as if millions of us did not exist and had never existed, as apparently a precondition of existence was being listed in their “gentlemanly” agreements. Our homeland of Kurdistan was divided between Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. This was the second such division, with the earlier one occurring in 1639 when the Ottomans and Persians (in what would later become Iran) had divided Kurdish lands between themselves.

Consequently, the Kurdish people, who had made great contributions to the Cradle of Civilization for millennia, were relegated into a political piece on a chessboard. The only fact that the Western powers and new existing states occupying Kurdistan would later agree on, was that the Kurds did not deserve a country of their own. Thus, birthed the “Kurdish issue”, “Kurdish problem”, and “Kurdish question”. Euphemisms that often overshadow a torrential downpour of torture, robbery, rape, destruction, expulsion, and death.

Because a few men relaxing along the lakeside in Lausanne believed they were naturally superior to the Kurdish people, we have had a century of linguistic assimilation, chemical weapons, burned villages, death squads, secret police, prison dungeons, hunger strikes, and self-immolation—where Kurds decided that they would be freer while on fire, than living under this unjust (dis)order. And as if the torment was not enough, our resistance was then defamed and slandered, where the very states who caused our suffering, then criminalized our desperate armed attempts to protect our families and communities. Now, even as Kurds prove the true nature common nature of their struggle by defeating ISIS on behalf of all of humanity, the same slander still persists, where the states that caused all of the aforementioned state terrorism, have the audacity to label Kurdish revolutionaries “terrorists”.

The Solution: Grassroots Democratic (World) Confederalism

At the New World Embassy: Kurdistan, the solution of the grassroots is displays our alternative. Our attempt to take back our values from the states, as we reject their centralism, homogeneity, and singularity. Where they build a pyramid, we construct a circle. For the Kurdish revolutionary movement in the end was not tricked into asking for a state of our own: we developed our own philosophy, our own alternative, known as “Democratic Confederalism” or “stateless democracy.” Stateless democracy is built from the bottom up, radically forged by the desires and wishes of the people themselves. We want a democracy that rejects hegemony, imperialism, monopolism, industrialism, and “free market” capitalism, which is actually so expensive it costs us everything. Our water, our trees, our air, and our very lives. For us diversity is a strength, as we all form a mosaic of humanity where each group has valuable wisdom to teach us.

In the diplomatic circles of the New World Embassy: Kurdistan, Kurdish women from the four occupied parts of Kurdistan: Bakûr, Başûr, Rojava, and Rojhilat will speak. These women will explain how stateless democracy can still be implemented during a time of war, expulsion, dictatorial rule, and killer drone strikes. These valiant women have faced down dictators like Turkey’s Erdoğan, showed no fear while chanting the philosophy of Abdullah Öcalan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” (Women, Life, Freedom) before the Mullahs in Iran, and rejected the pan-Arabism of Assad’s regime—to construct a multi-ethnic model in Rojava and Northeast Syria that should serve as a model for the entire Middle East. These women – our stateless ambassadors – stand as a living personified avant-garde example of the paradigmatic shift which our world requires.

In order to proclaim this political and social message, the New World Embassy: Kurdistan is emblazoned with suns: an import symbol that has historically emerged across all four parts of Kurdistan. The use of the sun calls upon peoples to gather under a shared source of life, and emphasizes the ecological dimension central to the Kurdish movement, following the famous Kurdish slogan, “We are children of the sun and fire” (em zarokên agir û rojê ne). The table at which our ambassadors and speakers stand is also a work of art. It is shaped in the map of Kurdistan in bright yellow, not as a national state, but as a patch of earth on which a new alternative is being implemented. In this way, Kurdistan is a student and continuation of all revolutions in human history.

Kurdistan not as a state, but as a sun for us all.

Each ray of the sun on the theatre is like a different culture shining towards a forgotten path that the world of conformity and obedience wants us to forget. These aesthetics of art and architecture visually help us realise what Democratic Confederlism is and all it can still become. Within some of the suns, a red star shines from within. It is our determination that speaks through these red stars, which symbolize that we are ready to resist, as our very existence is at stake. But the red star also symbolizes that we respect every light in the sky as a cosmic event. Our hope is that each one of us can form our own constellations on earth, that help illuminate the path for others.

That is why we have brought together internationalists inside the New World Embassy: Kurdistan, each one with their own willingness to share and participate. Politicians, activists, artists, feminists, ecologists, and economists from Kurdistan, Switzerland, Bangladesh, India, Lebanon, Western-Sahara, France, The Netherlands and the US – including a delegation of the Progressive International – who will join the diplomatic circles to explore stateless democracy as a new internationalist paradigm: a world stateless democracy. But most importantly, their participation is not meant to speak of a revolution that is to come one day, no: we gather to practice stateless internationalism and stateless diplomacy in the here and now. We don’t wait for someone to give us an embassy, we make our own. We cannot wait for the revolution. We are the revolution.

None of these ideas came falling from heaven. It is a continuation of decades of hard struggle in the mountains of Kurdistan. It is also the synthesis of countless revolutions throughout history, each one with something to teach us, so that we may not repeat the same mistakes that they did. Thankfully, this latest synthesis was envisioned by the Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan, who despite being in a Turkish island prison cell, can never be silenced.

There might be “Kurdistan” in the name of the New World Embassy: Kurdistan, but this is an embassy for all of us in struggle. We invite you to join our diplomatic circles in Lausanne, or online. We need you: Your presence. Your resistance. As the Kurds say: “Resistance is Life!” (Berxwedan Jiyane).

May our resistance make new forms of life and living possible.

High hopes for National Conference

Rank and file members are expecting the upcoming ALP national conference to affirm a platform that properly reflects the values of a modern progressive political party. The 49th national conference is the first face-to-face forum in five years, the first one in Queensland since the 1970s and the first conference held whilst Labor is in government federally since 2011. It is the highest decision-making body within the Party and has an important role in setting its policy platform and future direction.

Annerley Labor has written to several national conference delegates outlining a range of key issues it insists should be included in the party platform. Among them include addressing housing affordability and access, decarbonising the economy and addressing climate change, media law and ownership reform, justice for asylum seekers, achieving a more progressive taxation system, and expanding Medicare.

Annerley Labor has backed a Labor Against War resolution which calls on the Australian government to “withdraw from the AUKUS alliance and cease any program in pursuit of the acquisition of nuclear submarines and any consequent nuclear industry that entails”. The resolution argues that the values of the ALP and trade-union movement dictate that the focus of public funds should be on public education, public health, aged care, housing, social security, the manufacturing industry, and the transition to a renewable energy economy.

The Community and Public Sector Union campaign to re-establish a Commonwealth Employment Service is also strongly supported by Annerley Labor. The campaign supports the end of the current ‘privatised, punitive and primarily for-profit employment services system’ and ‘believes that sourcing employment services through the creation of a modern, fit-for-purpose CES would be beneficial for the government, job seekers, employers and the public’. A resolution to enable this is expected to be debated at conference.

Many rank and file members believe it is imperative that the national platform enshrines the Party’s core values, ensuring that ‘Labor in government continually works towards a fairer, more just and more inclusive society’.

Annerley Labor has urged conference delegates to be brave. There are elements within the Party frightened by debate and, of course, how that debate is framed by the right-wing Murdoch media. The Party needs to be bold, and have these difficult discussions, as a sign we are a mature political party that properly and respectfully considers divergent points of view.

The national conference is in Brisbane from 17 to 19 August. More information is available at laborconference.org.au

Branch calls for rejection of Toondah fiasco

Annerley Labor has called on the Queensland Labor government to honour a unanimous State conference resolution to reject the proposed re-development of the Toondah wetlands. Opponents of the controversial plan have not only cited several critical environmental reasons, but also Australia’s international obligations as well as other key planning and transparency considerations that outline why the development should be clearly rejected.

Federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek MP, is expected to make a final decision on the development before the end of the year. Previously, the Federal Government’s own legal experts provided advice that the Toondah plan would breach Australia’s obligations under the Ramsar Convention.

Although the Queensland Government has the power to revoke or reduce a Priority Development Assessment (such as that covering the Toondah plan), to date, it has chosen not to, despite overwhelming grassroots Party opposition.

A ‘family friendly’ rally to support ongoing protection of the Toondah wetlands is scheduled to be held outside the ALP national conference on Saturday 19 August from 8:00 am.

Members welcome Holland Park Ward candidate

News that Dr Shane Warren (pictured) will be the ALP candidate for the Holland Park Ward in next year’s Brisbane City Council elections has been warmly welcomed by local members. Shane, a social work lecturer at QUT, was announced recently by the Party as the new candidate for the marginal ward held by the LNP.

Shane is a long term southside resident with a proven commitment to community, social justice and working with people from all backgrounds. He has dedicated his career to developing workable solutions to improve access to affordable housing and building community and social inclusion.

Shane has worked as a social worker for more than 25 years working supporting people from many backgrounds including working in Mount Gravat supporting people with disability and their families.

He has taken his experience supporting people to lead major reforms to improve access to housing, reduce homelessness, prevent domestic and family violence and to support young people.

Like many residents in the Holland Park ward, Shane is frustrated by the neglect of the current LNP Brisbane City Council administration towards many of the services needed by people living in Brisbane’s suburbs. Shane brings real world experience and a commitment to work with communities to deliver positive change and better services to the residents of Holland Park.

The Brisbane City Council elections will be held 16 March 2024.

Policy audit issue revived
The Queensland Branch’s Policy Co-ordination Council has been requested to ‘again’ authorise the conduct of a policy audit of the Party’s state platform, to be completed and reported on by July 2024.

Annerley Labor asserts that the platform is an important document as all members of the Party pledge themselves to uphold it and that the Parliamentary Labor Party, when in government, is responsible for its implementation.

Although the Policy Co-ordination Council agreed to undertake a policy audit, it was not carried out due to opposition from the government. Annerley Labor has since expressed its ‘dismay and deep concern’ that the audit was not undertaken.