WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE GERMANY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Germany, Die Platform: In Memory of Omar Aziz - 12 Years After His Death (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Omar Aziz, born in 1949 in Damascus, was an intellectual, economist, and

anarchist who had a significant influence on the Syrian revolution since
2011. After years in exile, he returned to his homeland shortly after
the protests began to actively support the revolutionary movement.
Together with local residents, he gathered humanitarian aid and
distributed it in Damascus suburbs affected by regime attacks. ---- With
hist work, Aziz promoted local self-governance, horizontal organization,
solidarity, and mutual aid as means of liberation from state tyranny.
Together with other revolutionaries, he founded the first local
committee in Barzeh, Damascus. The model of these local committees
spread nationwide and became one of the most promising examples of
non-hierarchical self-organization during the Arab Spring.

However, Omar Aziz also recognized the shortcomings of the Syrian
revolution. He criticized the lack of connection between revolutionary
activities and people's everyday lives. Aziz emphasized that it was not
enough to participate in demonstrations while continuing to live within
the hierarchical structures imposed by the state. He described this as
the coexistence of "the time of authority," which dictates daily life,
and "the time of revolution," which is shaped by the revolutionaries.

For the revolution to achieve lasting success, he argued that
revolutionary activities must permeate all aspects of life and bring
about radical changes in social organization and interpersonal
relationships. Aziz saw positive examples in the numerous initiatives
across the country, such as the voluntary provision of medical and legal
support, the transformation of homes into field hospitals, and the
distribution of food packages. He viewed these actions as expressions of
the Syrian people's spirit of resistance against the regime's brutality.
His goal was to expand these practices through the establishment of
local councils.

Today, on February 16, 2025, twelve years after his death, we remember
Omar Aziz and his vision of revolutionary self-organization. His legacy
lives on in the ongoing struggles for a world built on justice and
solidarity.

For a world beyond oppression and authority. In solidarity with our
sister organization, Têkosîna Anarsîst.

"If the revolution fails, my life and that of my whole generation would
be devoid of meaning... all that we have dreamt of and believed in would
have been mere illusion."

- Omar Aziz

https://www.dieplattform.org/2025/02/16/in-gedenken-an-omar-aziz-12-jahre-nach-seinem-tod/#more-3428


_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca