As we went around Europe, discussing, proposing, engaging with a wide range of democratic forces, in all its colors and forms, we understood that the Peoples’ Platform Europe wasn’t just a proposal, it was a necessity. The XXI century began with a huge anti-globalization movement. It gave birth to the World Social Forum, an impressive Rio de Janeiro 2003, to face the challenges of the new century. Since then, the Zapatistas have called for a meeting with women’s organizations from all over the world, social-democrat alliances have been built and various initiatives have been established, especially in the form of counter-summits against the organization of the powers of capitalist modernity.
Nevertheless, there has been a general void, NGO-isation and a lack of proposals for far-reaching processes. Part of this void also reflects the recessive position of the democratic forces, which are focused on developing local empowerment and are not able to go further, even understanding the need for those international discussions and collective actions.In the imperial city of Vienna, among monuments in tribute to the “eternity” of power, a break in the decades long European tradition of fragmentation of social movements could be seen during the 3 day long conference, the Peoples’ Platform Europe 2025. More than 800 participants from 160 different groups, networks and organizations convened to take steps against the emergence of fascism and militarism in the continental birthplace of modern capitalism.The Peoples’ Platform was the culmination of an almost 1 year process of meetings, discussions, intellectual struggle and connection. This process aimed to find ways to work together, developing the base for the Workshops, created a base and perspectives to analyze the situation we are living as peoples in Europe. The workshops, which in each of those 9 topics around 40 to 100 delegates participated, discussed the steps we have to take to confront the dangers and opportunities we are facing. Each group produced their perspective on a burning topic of our era, the works without doubt will continue.
We are living in a time where, as panelist William I. Robinson stated, the three converging crisis of global capitalism (Cyclical, Structural and Systemic) are meeting into a point of internal chaos. Financial capital is the last scream of a system that promised welfare and to be a never ending story. This collapse opened the way for different outcomes. Now, the world is raising alarms when the system shows it’s most raw face, ruthless exploitation, war and fascism. We as democratic forces should be able to correctly assess and act upon the particular from a wider, historical and structural analysis. The long term crisis of capitalist civilization where the division of human beings from nature, men from women and subject from object is reaching an unbearable stage.
Europe as the seed of capitalist modernity bears a special responsibility to the rest of the world for the crises that we are living. It has managed to keep itself fairly clean from the material effects of the crises that it has led in creating, but lately even Europe is on the verge of internal social crises and even the threat of war and a revived fascism sweeping the continent.
This (if it hasn’t already) should confront us with the question: Are we, as freedom seekers and struggling peoples, ready to face this threats? Who if not we (reclaiming an old slogan) can carry the burden of confronting this issues? We are aware that can be frightening to consider the European historical example of beginning of the XX’s century. If the socialist, communist and social democratic movements of the time, with it’s strength weren’t able to succeed, we are right to be worried. But we will agree also that being worried is not enough, we should rather take the responsibility of this particular historical moment, with its dangers that we must consider and opportunities that we can seize .
We understand the Peoples Platform as a tool to answer these questions, to rebuild an international force, within its diversity, to create unity of action, to rip apart decades of fragmentation and sectarianism. We clearly see the need to develop a political culture that allows us to break with the same formula that bring democratic forces in Europe to the situation of marginalization and powerless.
What we learned
The preparatory ideological discussion that lasted for more than 5 months resulted in a series of papers or theoretical frameworks for each working group. At the conference itself this served as a basis for discussion and a basis to get to know each other and develop this framework. We worked to understand our differences and to find points we could agree on. At certain moments we felt frustrated and the project of unification maybe seemed too difficult to realize but in the end we managed to identify many fundamental points that we agreed upon. And a perspective describing the time we live in emerged and served to open a way for us to discuss how we could start working together and build organisative structure. Allow us to highlight some of the political points that were made.
During the platform itself, women were a practical source of inspiration in their energy and willingness to transcend the patriarchal mindset that we suffer from in so many areas of our struggle and to find new ways of working together. The issue of women’s liberation was also a transversal point in many of the discussions. The platform reminded us of the need to build a revolution led by women’s mentality values. Especially since we as Europeans have the idea that we are somehow very advanced globally in the struggle for women’s liberation. Despite this we have seen even in our own organizations that we suffer from deeply concealed patriarchal attitudes and mentalities. In a wider sense, the fact that feminicide is on the rise in Europe challenges us to question our self-image as a liberated and equal society. “Socialism can be achieved through women’s liberation. One cannot be a socialist without women’s freedom. There can be no socialism. One cannot go for socialism without democracy. My first test of socialism is to know how to talk to a woman. He who does not know how to talk to a woman cannot be a socialist..” -Abdullah Öcalan, 8 March 2025 message
A central theme discussed among the delegates was also the need for autonomy in all aspects of our struggle. We agreed that autonomy is a key point for our societies, organizations and the people who conform them. From how to sustain our lives, how to reclaim food sovereignty, we approached autonomy in a deeper and much more encompassing sense. It was about the importance of developing autonomy away from the capitalist system and the state structure and mentality that upholds it. If we can’t break free from state led education, we can’t develop our own ideas and attitudes that we so much need to break away from that system. At the end, our ability to decide over our own lives, in a collective sense.
We see the threat of emerging fascism in Europe coming but we also understand that it can’t be confronted with classic anti-fascism. The deep systemic connection between capitalism and fascism was discussed and analyzed and we agreed that real anti-fascism has to touch all areas of the struggle and not just the physical threat of fascism. It starts with self education of communities, self sustenance and building communal economies. It will be led by women, youth and immigrants and has to be focused on rebuilding the social fabric of society. The anti-fascism of our era has to be social anti-fascism and the main area of struggle will be to rebuild society in our neighborhoods and villages so they can defend themselves starting from their internal struggle and being ready for the external threats that emerge.
We learned that genocide is not something that only happens at specific points in time and space, but it is an integrated part of how the nation-state system works and thinks. The genocides that occur are therefore deeply connected to each other and to all attacks on society in general. We shouldn’t fall into a competition of who is more or less suffering from genocide.
In our point of view, and shared by many others, only through construction of democratic and confederate structures of the peoples of the world will be able to respond appropriately to the brutal reality of the nation-state. We must free ourselves from the competitive colonial mindset that the system has implanted in us and distance ourselves from the act of hierarchization of struggles in a kind of top list of which struggle is the most important one. It is not a question about either us or them, that is the capitalist mindset speaking. Other voices were also raised, identifying not only the physical genocide, but cultural genocide, being waged inside “Fortress Europe” against the peoples and reaching a dangerous state of homogenization. There are two paradigms clashing, one is the paradigm of capitalist modernity, racism and patriarchy – the other one is the paradigm of democratic modernity, democratic nation and life. Within that paradigmatic struggle all struggles are connected, from Palestine to Sapmi to Kurdistan.
“While on the one hand science has been castrated by positivism and molded to oppose the world of belief and morals, on the other hand through liberalism it has transformed an individualism that destroys society into a nation-statist god capable of augmenting individualism to the point of committing genocides.” – Öcalan in “Manifesto for the Democratic Civilization, volume II – Capitalist Civilisation”
Critiques
Despite a general positive evaluation of the platform, which can be assessed as a big step in this new cycle of struggle, we would like to share some critiques, understood those for reflection and improvement for our collective struggle in the future.
The areas that need to develop autonomy are as many as the aspects of life itself. Developing autonomy is about breaking our minds free from the colonization we all suffer under and building ways to construct our own ideas and minds to serve life and existence itself.
Nevertheless, at times, we also saw a narrowed perspective on who was identified as “we”. This “we” had the shortcoming of an individualistic perspective rather than societal perspective. During the preparatory work and the platform work itself, an attitude revealing a patriarchal mentality came through as some of us took an individual and power-centered approach to political work. In such moments, instead of seeking consensus, we sought acceptance of our own opinions and agendas. Our perspective is, without doubt, to create spaces to share political perspective through political arguments. It is a mistake to understand the discussion in an either competitive or excluding way, the capitalist rule of “either mine or yours”. We saw the lack of willingness to seek unity expressed in provocative ways of expressing opinions that created conflict and division rather than strength in unity.
As we see patriarchal and divisive attitudes arise in our political work, we should remember that gender struggle goes on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and it must be waged in all fields of life, if we want to make the 21 st century the century of women’s revolution. This platform is a framework and a foundation to deepen this struggle, and our discussions around it. It gives also the chance to broaden our view of gender struggle, as we have seen a narrow understanding of this struggle among some participants. We consider women’s liberation at the heart of our struggle against the class system, against colonialism, militarism, and all forms of oppression. This is not a matter of women only, but of all freedom loving persons, and of course men themselves should actively engage in this struggle. Sectarianism, a deepened political approach in the (radical) left in Europe, should be deeply discussed among the organizations, chained to historical debates and rigid frameworks, many times also linked to personal and egocentric approaches, mistrust has become a starting point, sometimes closing doors to reach mutual understanding to build a common struggle.
Solidarity, especially in Europe, needs to be re-evaluated. How much can we offer other societies in struggle when our own society is so fragmented by individualism that it is barely recognizable as a society? Is solidarity only the act of sending material aid to other peoples in need? In the spirit of what was proposed in the platform, we should rebuild our own struggle from the local, so that we can find a solid ideological and social ground to support others.
It can be emphasized that we have lost much of our political culture in Europe. In the sense of loosing ourselves in practices of power accumulation, with division as a result. We must relearn how to cooperate and discuss in constructive ways. We must relearn the spirit of giving and taking, even in terms of opinion and thought. If we are not open to being convinced then why spend time discussing at all? Should we seek debate or should we seek conversation in our political life? Is it necessary to vote on everything if we develop true will and ability to understand our comrades? Consensus isn’t just another decision model, it is an attitude towards comradeship and an ability to seek agreement even when we aren’t fully convinced in order to cultivate a political process that is capable of progressing.
“First and foremost, politics must begin as a form of resistance to power. Since power tries to conquer and colonize every individual and social unit, politics must try to win over and liberate every individual and social unit that it rests upon. ” – Öcalan in “Manifesto for the Democratic Civilization, volume III – Sociology of Freedom”
Without wanting to generalize, an approach to politics based in one’s own emotionality rather than seeking for a balance between emotions and politics, linked with what has been previously said (individualism and lack of political culture), diminished the political potential of the discussions. As a proposal, it is important to read the moment and tempo of the discussions, to be able to think twice when speaking – “is it my personal opinion”? Who is represented when speaking? and what is it bringing to the general discussion? We are aware that in many cases, its a challenge to speak on behalf of an organisation, therefore the reflection that the comrades should bring home is, how much better organized will we be in future discussions? To be a political subject is not only about expressing opinions even if this is an important part. One must also be willing to do the work, to take part in meetings, discussions and processes and be a part of shaping the outcome of that process. To stand on the sideline and opinionate on the outcomes of a process that one hasn’t been a part of will always be of less impact than to be a part of that process and share the weight of that struggle.
There is a healthy dose of work and sacrifice of energy and time needed to become a political subject and we will benefit from learning how to dedicate more of ourselves into political work and less of ourselves into maintaining a liberal lifestyle. The mere act of being present and participating in a political process will enrich that process with your colors and ideas and is the first step towards building a democratic society.
We have a long and difficult struggle against individualism and liberalism in our personalities ahead of us. In Europe more than anywhere else we have been affected by the efforts of the capitalist system to fragment our societies and create people that put themselves in contradiction to their surroundings. This has deep repercussions in our political work. We put our own opinions before others’ and we insist on them to the point of creating division without taking into regards the damage we are causing to the community. It is important to seek to be right in our thoughts and opinions but there is also value in building our comradeship to other people. Sometimes being right is not the only value to defend and it is important to seek the balance in this act. As a society under great liberal influence we often forget this balance in favor for the “me” in that balance.
There are some political art forms that we maybe have forgotten and that might seem obvious but we would all be better off if we could revive them and strengthen them in our political lives. Such as listening and trying to understand what is really being said instead of applying just our own patterns of thoughts to what someone is trying to say to us. The ability to offer constructive criticism is also not just about expressing criticism. But it also has to carry within itself the will and openness to admit that maybe I am wrong or that maybe I should focus on self criticism first before I criticize others. How the criticisim will be understood when expressed, is also a reflection to be made internally. We can make the following reflection; sometimes even what is expressed as criticism is our inner self trying to tell us something about ourselves. Inner and outer reflection is a dynamic, emotional and complicated journey and it deserves a lot of effort.
Future steps
Just as the socialist internationals of the 19th and 20th century, the World Social Forums of the 21st century and all other internationalist conferences, this platform will only be as great and important as the lasting results and organisation that it manages to build. It will be judged in history by the political and systemic transformation that it manages to impulse. We love meeting our friends and affinities since the opportunities for this are very limited but our motivation is what we can build and organise together. We aim to repair the social fabric of the societies of the world and this requires tying back the perspectives we have generated to the local level, where the daily struggle is ongoing.
The aim is not to have a platform, the aim is to strengthen the social movements, the radical left organisations in Europe and beyond. Abdullah Öcalan expressed it in many ways and in many occasions and has always emphasized the central importance of being organised, building organisation to have a platform upon which we can act. We are only as strong as we are organised and this is what we are aiming for with the Peoples’ Platform.
The Peoples’ Platform has opened a space for discussion where we can re-think and re-evaluate our learned political practices. This platform now has to become aware of its own existence and lead itself into stronger and bigger forms. The opportunity for the peoples living in Europe has been created to unite in a front and challenge the capitalist system for real. And for this to happen the platform has to continue weaving relationships with more organisations, more topics and in new forms. Building strategy together and inventing new tactics to win against the system through unity in diversity. We believe the next important step in this platform has to be local. All organisations have to explore together with other local organisations how to build the Peoples’ Platform in their own cities, villages and countries.
Conclusion
In all honesty the closing act of this platform was beautiful, but we also felt a bit of apprehension. It is not the first international conference we are part of as a movement and during for instance the Women Weaving Future conference in Berlin in 2022 and the Youth Writing History conference in Paris in 2023 the last part of those events was an explosion of energy, dancing and celebration. This time we didn’t feel that intensity that we have felt previously. But we also believe that might have been for a good reason. As organisations in Europe we have suffered a long time under the plague of division and the idea of working together sometimes almost felt like a distant dream. But finally we have seen that we are capable of transforming that situation into one of cooperation and strength in unity. But of course, we are solving long standing issues, it is normal to feel some doubt. But with that in mind we are sure that next time we will gather knowing for sure that we actually do have the capacity to meet, discuss and build together, then possibly the celebration will come from a place of more courage and joy.We are closer to building a continental organisation that can challenge capitalist modernity than we have been in a long time. And as someone in the audience said on the last day, maybe we should consider changing the name from “Peoples’ Platform Europe” to just “Peoples’ Platform” because the next platforms can and should project far beyond Europe.
Long live the democratic confederalism of women, youth and the peoples’ of the world!
