Baban Serdeshti
What does this phrase means, and how does it relate to your own experiences of political action in the past and the present and other peoples’ actions? Where do people fit into politicos – whether “libertarian” or “statist”, “left” or “right”? Is politics at root about individual people and their views, or about political institutions and their interests?
Political is everywhere and it is used in different institutions, actions, conflicts, expenditure and such. The definition of the phrase ‘the personal is the political’ which means the view of the individual towards the discussion of human affairs is one of the first themes of this article. Furthermore, by analysing the word of politics it can be clearer that it is related to each person in society; therefore, the relevance of the phrase toward each individual in Kurdish society in the past and present shall also be discussed in this article. Individual faces with many problems such as leaving home, finding work, earning money, making decisions: where to live, what to buy and a lot more arguments in his life. Hence, the individual challenges to solve the problems and organise them in a right direction and these fit each person into politics’ sections which is the next part of this essay. Finally, the question of as to whether politic at root is about individual or political institutions will also be considered.
The phrase of ‘the personal is the political’ is defined in the broad sense of the world with extremely different meaning for an individual, group, party and country. The Idiom can be defined that the ‘personal’ means the individual in the society and ’political’ means the view of the person to the affairs towards a country and solving the problems in society. For example, students fees protest in London on Friday 10 December 2010 which was ended with more than 50 injured can be one evidence that individual tried to solve the problem which faces many students in the UK by demonstrating against the government’s law (1). What is more, human beings often have been faced with many different barriers and difficulties such as inhabiting liberty in society, economic problems, inequality especially patriarchy and religious discriminations. Therefore, each individual is related to one if not all of these affairs in some way and thus has always attempted to deal with them and this can be interpreted as a mean that the person in society is political.
The person can be part of the cause either in making decisions or formulating the system of a country. It is believed that individual’s liberty within the society brings power for people to contribute in the system of a country or state. This can only be done if the system covers one of the most valuable factors, which is freedom. Hence, this can be interpreted as a mean of individual liberty which is correlated with ‘the personal is the political’.
Political freedom is closely connected with the theories of human rights, civil liberties and equality which can be gained by election in democratic societies. The right to vote is one of the forms which would provide opportunities for individuals to engage in social and political activities. The election is held in the country for individual to vote for the right party or person either for parliament or for city council. In such a period the society may have been divided in to 3 groups. First group who vote to the candidate that she/he believes to be the right person, second group are the one who boycott the election and the third are the ones who do not believe in election at all. These ideas bring this to the mind that individuals analyse the events which are happening around them and react to them differently with regards to their own reasons taken from their assessment. For instance, those people who no longer contribute in election are not acting so because they are not political. This is due to the reason that these people no longer believe that the politicians carry out the important matters and this lack of trust to formal politics by an individual can be clarified by the decreasing people’s involvement in political parties. Research has shown that in many countries the number of people who joined in political party fell in last 4 decade. For example, in the period 1973- 1993 the number of people who have been included in political party had sharply decreased to less than 50 per cent in the USA. (Pharr et al, 2000: 11-16 cited in Todd & Taylor. 2004, P: 4) Therefore, the concern towards the political parties is pointed by the view of the individual in the society and this makes it clear that the individual is the political.
There are many people who sacrificed themselves in the way of gaining freedom both for their own nation and for all people in the world and this, made charismatic personalities. This is one of the main issues that individual struggles for her/his liberty and others in society. Many charismatic leaders such as Cha Guevara, Rosa Luxemburg, Huey Newton, Karl Marx, Emma Goldman, Lenin and Mao Tse- Tung had challenged to get freedom for their people in the society. One of these charismatic personalities who is struggling for liberty in the Middle East is Abdulla Ocalan, the leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which has struggled for the rights of Kurds over last three decade(2).
Kurdish people are recognised as ethnic minority in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria and their language, culture and religion are mostly banned. This is due to the reason that Kurds have been faced with a lot of barbaric and tragedy events such as chemical bombardments, burying alive, destruction of civilian residential areas and mass execution in front of the world eyes. Therefore, countless people lost their lives and many of them were given long sentences and thus many demonstrations have been held every year in the country and other parts of the world such as Europe. In spite of this, the Middle East and European Medias are quiet and do not see all these events, although many complaints has been put forward from Kurds in objection to this situation (2 and 3).
For example, more than 4000 people were arrested by Turkish Authorities in Diyarbakir, the biggest Kurdish city in Turkey, due to supporting Kurdish revolutionary movement, the PKK and celebrating the New Year festival of Newroz in 1999 which was illegal in Turkey. What is more, 1000 were arrested in Istanbul and several were injured seriously. Furthermore, more than hundreds of people lost their lives during the demonstrations which were held in most countries in the world. Many people blazed themselves in fire for their leader Abdulla Ocalan who was handed over to Turkish Authority on 15th February of 1999. Several demonstrators aimed to put the fire on themselves on same day in outside the Greek parliament to protest against his illegal abduction. These events can be easily understandable that single people are political and are aware of the things that government are doing. What is more, by scarifying themselves the individual has attempted to make others understand that they are wrong and have to listen to the people’s voice. It has been mentioned by the ones who put the fire on himself, sending the message that the struggle does not end by arresting our leader and killing our friends. Our leader taught us that protecting our dignity is to fight for justice and righteousness: not to fight for personal gains. We as a Kurds are fighting to protect our local culture, our rivers, mountains, forests as well as wildlife, and to have peaceful area in the future. We carry on our struggle not to torture ourselves but to get our right. This shows that individual is aware of the government’s politics which is not giving attention to the people’s view and made ourselves visible to say that we are here, to say that we are not in hiding but we are just human beings (4 and 5).
The other groups that are struggling for the equality are women that are made up of half the world’s population. Although they made 53% of the world’s total population and they do 75% of the world’s work, they own only 10% of the world’s wealth (Griffiths. 2000. P: 528). What is more, they are awfully discriminated by opposite gender and system such as domestic violence, job discrimination, unequal payments, reproductive right and sexual violence in different parts of the world. Therefore, the feminist movement, also known as the women’s movement, are struggling for reforms on such issues. The feminist response is to declare that the personal is political. This means that personal relationships are political because they involve an element of power (6 and 7).
The personal is political made a bright history for women which are argued that the fighting spirit of women has a long history in the world. For example, the Senegalese protester against rigging the elections of 1988, which was held for three month almost every day, was spearheaded by women (Notes from nowhere, 2003, P: 42).
Due to the reasons discussed above it can be argued that people are different in their political views. People who believe in democracy fit mostly into the left since the actual democracy is the only way for citizens to contribute directly at some point in the decision making process and having the opportunity to engage in social and political activities (Taylor 1999:34 quoted in Todd & Taylor. 2004, P: 9, 10).
There are some others who are going even further and believe in self-governing which do not need a government as an institution and election as a tool for government. These people are libertarian. This is due to the reason that they think elected people do not hold on important matters and discuss valid matters only during elections to pursue people to vote. (Todd & Taylor. 2004, P: 2). It is found that a quarter of the citizen who had not voted, took part in other political activities such as attending public demonstrations and have been a member of voluntary groups (Riddell, 2001, mentioned in Todd & Taylor. 2004, P: 7).
On the other hand, the politicians on the right wing believe that democracy ruled by many, is often illustrated as a cynical and harmful tool for the moral, social and institutional frameworks in society. Many conservatives consider that society will always be separated between a small ingenious minority (the bourgeoisie) that government must be ruled by them and a relatively passive majority (working class in particular). Therefore, people who believe in dividing people into different classes are normally from first class and mostly fit in right wing. Despite the fact that, some of these group move higher and a few people from the first class should be selected and govern permanently. These are the statist people that mostly seen in part of Asian countries and African such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Consequently, although some politicians believe that politic is just negotiating in a decorated building and belong to specific people, the politic is in outside and politic is developed by individual in society by demonstrating, trading and acting differently. Mujeres Creando noted that “Political activity does not only happen in particular parties or in organised groups: it happens as soon as you are conscious of your actions and your decisions – …” (Notes from nowhere, 2003, P: 260).
In conclusion, and in the light of arguments discussed above individual is political since each person in society has predominantly attempted to seek the exercising power and influence the policies. Additionally, the more individual has liberty, the more the person has the power to influence the system. Therefore, the majority of people attempt for equality and thus situate in the left with a very small minority who believe in absolute power in ruling people and so fit in right.
Notes:
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/dec/10/student-protests-tuition-fees-violence?INTCMP=SRCH> [accessed 20 April 2011] (1)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/280179.stm> [accessed 10 April 2011] (2)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6233926.stm> [accessed 10 April 2011] (3)
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/feb/03/son-of-babylon-iraq-film?INTCMP=SRCH> [accessed 12 April 2011] (4)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/300830.stm> [accessed 11 April 2011] (5)<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/280179.stm> [accessed 11 April 2011] (6)
< http://www.carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PIP.html> [accessed 7 April 2011] (7)
Notes from Nowhere (ed.). 2003. We are everywhere: the irresistible rise of global anticapitalism. London.
Todd, M.J & Taylor, G. 2004. Democracy and Participation. London: Merlin Press.
Griffiths, J & Hope, T. 2000. Stratification and differentiation. Hodder & Stoughton.