Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Serra Bucak attended the Women’s Economy, Cooperatives and Communes Workshop, which opened up discussion on cooperative and commune-based models centred on women’s labour in local government.

The workshop, titled Women’s Economy in Local Government: Cooperatives and Communes, was organised with contributions from the Union of Municipalities of South-eastern Anatolia Region (GABB) and the metropolitan, Kayapınar, Yenişehir, Sur and Bağlar municipalities. It aimed to address the work of local authorities in the field of economy from a shared perspective and to restructure it in line with a women’s liberationist, ecological, democratic and communal understanding of economy.

Held in the Yenişehir Municipality Council Chamber, the workshop was attended by Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Serra Bucak; Neslihan Şedal, Co-Mayor of Van Metropolitan Municipality, who was removed from office and replaced by a trustee, as well as Co-Chair of GABB; co-mayors of district municipalities; and women working in the municipalities’ women’s policies directorates and economic units.

Delivering the opening speech, GABB Co-Chair Neslihan Şedal said that the economy constitutes one of the most fundamental areas of self-defence for women and society, adding that the system of capitalist modernity has targeted women’s truth for centuries and deprived women of their role in the economy.

“Women, the primary agents of the economy, have been left in deep poverty”

Şedal said that the economy brings societies together and that women are the main agents sustaining it, which is why women’s gains have been targeted. She continued: “Capitalist modernity built its system by targeting women’s labour and bodies. Women, who are the primary agents of the economy, have been left in deep poverty. For women to become agents once again, for an ethical and political society to be built, and for the basic foundations of peace to reconnect with the economy, this issue must be readdressed. We will be discussing how to develop an eco-economy.”

Workshop themes

Following the opening speeches, the workshop continued with sessions titled Democratic, Ecological, Women’s Liberationist Communal Economy and Cooperatives and Experiences. It will conclude with the publication of a final declaration.

Aim of the workshop

The workshop, which places women’s labour at its centre, aims to make care work visible, promote production based on local needs, and develop an economic model that is in harmony with nature and reduces dependence on the market. Cooperatives and communes will be addressed not only as tools of production and employment, but also as spaces for organisation and social transformation.

As part of the workshop, municipalities’ current efforts to strengthen women’s economy will be evaluated together with pre-2016 experiences and recent activities. Findings from cooperative visits carried out by the Economy Commission, which includes GABB, Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, and the municipalities of Sur, Kayapınar, Yenişehir and Bağlar, will also be shared. Different cooperative models, their functioning, and the challenges they face will be discussed.

The workshop will address a range of topics including planning in the cooperativisation process, sustainability, local needs analysis, municipality–cooperative relations, social procurement, marketing networks, and gender-responsive budgeting. Rather than rapid and unplanned cooperativisation, the aim is to develop long-term, sustainable models that are aligned with local conditions.