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We thought you might be interested in this article from The National (a
UAE-based news outlet), which argues that grassroots democracy is starting
to take root in some cities, towns and villages in Syria. The author
describes a number of cases where self-organized local councils are
providing aid, services and hope, and in so doing, have created a local
democratic sub-culture.


The author's description of the work of Syrian local councils makes a
strong case for the type of work that NDI is undertaking with support from
the State Department, USAID and, Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
​By supporting local council members, community activists​,​ and civil
society groups with administrative skills training and material resources,
NDI is helping to strengthen local government in areas that the Assad
regime does not control.


NDI works in some of the areas mentioned in the article ​-​- ​​Rojava,
Daraya and Idlib province​ ​-​-​ and has plans to expand to other areas
like Ghouta in the next few months. The article mentions protests against
Jabhat Al Nusra, which took place in parts of Idlib province, where there
are NDI-supported councils. NDI works from an office in Gaziantep, Turkey
and utilizes a network of Syrian trainers, employees and partner
organizations to deliver assistance.


Please feel free to ask for more information on NDI's Syria programs.


Les Campbell

Regional Director,

Middle East and North Africa


Against all odds, village republics take hold in Syria

Robin Yassin-Kassab

*July 25, 2016* Updated: July 25, 2016 05:32 PM

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You may think Syrians are condemned to an unpleasant choice between Bashar
Al Assad and the jihadists. But the real choice being fought out by Syrians
is between violent authoritarianism on the one hand and grassroots
democracy on the other.

Interviewing activists, fighters and refugees for our book Burning Country:
Syrians in Revolution and War, we discovered the democratic option is real,
even if beleaguered. To the extent that life continues in the liberated but
heavily bombed areas – areas independent of both the Assad regime and ISIL
– it continues because self-organised local councils are supplying services
and aid.


For example, Daraya, a suburb west of Damascus now suffering its fourth
year under starvation siege, is run by a council. Its 120 members select
executives by vote every six months. The council head is chosen by public
election. The council runs schools, a hospital,and a public kitchen, and
manages urban agricultural production. Its office supervises the Free
Syrian Army militias defending the town. Amid constant bombardment,
Daraya’s citizen journalists produce a newspaper, Enab Baladi, which
promotes non-violent resistance. In a country once known as a "kingdom of
silence", there are more than 60 independent newspapers and many free radio
stations.


And as soon as the bombing eases, people return to the streets with their
banners. Recent demonstrations against Jabhat Al Nusra across Idlib
province indicate that the Syrian desire for democracy burns as fiercely as
ever.

Where possible, the local councils are democratically elected – the first
free elections in half a century. Omar Aziz, a Syrian economist and
anarchist, provided the germ. In the revolution’s eighth month he published
a paper advocating the formation of councils in which citizens could
arrange their affairs free of the tyrannical state. Aziz helped set up the
first bodies, in suburbs of Damascus. He died in regime detention in 2013,
a month before his 64th birthday. But by then, councils had sprouted all
over the country.


Some council members were previously involved in the revolution’s original
grassroots formations. They were activists, responsible first for
coordinating protests and publicity, then for delivering aid and medicine.
Other members represented prominent families or tribes, or were
professionals selected for specific practical skills.

In regime-controlled areas, councils operate in secret. But in liberated
territory people can organise publicly. These are tenacious but fragile
experiments. Some are hampered by factionalism. Some are bullied out of
existence by jihadists.


Manbij, a northern city, once boasted its own 600-member legislature and
20-member executive, a police force, and Syria’s first independent trade
union. Then ISIL seized the grain silos and the democrats were driven out.
Today Manbij is called "Little London" for its preponderance of
English-accented jihadists.

In some areas the councils appear to signal Syria’s atomisation rather than
a new beginning. Christophe Reuter calls it a "revolution of localists"
when he describes "village republics""such as Korin, in Idlib province,
with its own court and a 10-person council.


But Aziz envisaged councils connecting the people regionally and
nationally, and democratic provincial councils now operate in the liberated
parts of Aleppo, Idlib and Deraa. In the Ghouta region near Damascus,
militia commanders were not permitted to stand as candidates. Fighters
were, but only civilians won seats.

In Syria’s three Kurdish-majority areas, collectively known as Rojava, a
similar system prevails, though the councils there are known as communes.
In one respect they are more progressive than their counterparts elsewhere
– 40 per cent of seats are reserved for women. In another, they are more
constrained – they work within the larger framework of the PYD, which
monopolises control of finances, arms and media.


The elected council members are the only representative Syrians we have.
They should be key components in any serious settlement.

In a post-Assad future, local democracy could allow polarised communities
to coexist under the Syrian umbrella.

Towns could legislate locally according to their demographic and cultural
composition and mood. The alternative to enhanced local control is new
borders, new ethnic cleanings, new wars. At the very least, the councils
deserve political recognition by the United States and others. Council
members should be a key presence on the opposition’s negotiating team at
any talks.


And the councils deserve protection. Mr Al Assad’s bombs hit the schools,
hospitals, bakeries, and residential blocks that the councils are trying
desperately to service. If the bombardment were stopped the councils would
no longer be limited to survival. They could focus instead on rebuilding
Syrian nationhood and further developing popular institutions.

As the US-led invasion of Iraq showed us, only the people themselves can
build their democratic structures. And today Syrians are practising
democracy, building their own institutions, in the most difficult of
circumstances. Their efforts don’t fit in with the easy Assad-or-ISIL
narrative, however, and so we rarely deign to notice.


Robin Yassin-Kassab is co-author of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution
and War


Leslie Campbell
Senior Associate & Regional Director
Middle East and North Africa

National Democratic Institute
455 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20001

(202) 728-5500/main
(888) 875-2887/fax

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