Reimar Heider, Öcalan intermediary, to Murray Bookchin and Janet Biehl
6 Apr 2004
Dear friends,
please allow me to introduce myself: My name is Reimar Heider, I am one of the German translators of the books of Abdullah Öcalan, political prisoner and most influential kurdish thinker and politician.
Öcalan has been in solitary confinement for the last five years now. During that time he has read the Turkish translations of some of Murray Bookchin’s books, especially “The Ecology of Freedom” and “Towards an ecological society” which have influenced him deeply. He has re-built his political strategy around the vision of a “democratic-ecological-society”... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) In light of the current coronavirus crisis, we publish an analysis of Kurdish People’s Leader Öcalan adressing the issue of spreading diseases caused by Capitalist Modernity. The text is taken from Öcalan’s defense called “In Defense of a People”, which will be published soon by the International Initiative “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan – Peace in Kurdistan”.
Power and exploitation in the hands of the bourgeoisie have developed like a cancer devouring society. This social cancer has the same effects as cancer hitting people, AIDS or similar diseases. The moment capitalist society was born, Hobbes defines power (the state) as a necessity “to prevent every man from becoming... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) INTRODUCTION
My defense is not so much based on detailed replies to the charges in the indictment prepared by the Chief Prosecutor [of the State Security Courts], but rather, is it about what I see as a more important topic: how to reach a historic reconciliation from a revolt under the leadership of the PKK and increase the possibility of a solution to the Kurdish issue. I have created an opportunity for peace to these [armed] activities that could very well be called a law-intensity war.
Actually, I voiced these views for the first time as a response to President Turgut Ozal's call [for a ceasefire?]. At the historic press conference on 15 March, 1993 [where I declared the ceasefire], this is exactly what I said: "We are not... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Inhalt
I. Preface 7
II. The Nation-State 9
A. Basics 9
1. Nation-state and Power 9
2. The State and its Religious Roots 10
3. Bureaucracy and the Nation-State 12
4. Nation-State and Homogeneity 12
5. Nation-State and Society 13
B. Ideological Foundations of the Nation-State 15
1. Nationalism 15
2. Positivist Science 15
3. Sexism 16
4. Religiousness 17
C. The Kurds and the Nation-State 19
III. Democratic Confederalism 21
A. Participation and the Diversity of the Political Landscape 22
B. The Heritage of the Society and the Accumulation of Historical Knowledge 23
C. Ethics and Political Awareness 24
D. Democrati... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) FOREWORD
The International Initiative “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan -
Peace in Kurdistan” strives not only to publish Abdullah Öcalan’s works in different languages but also to prepare brochures
compiled from different books by him on specific topics. This
is useful and necessary not only because it brings together
the chain of argument on a specific topic spread over several
books, but also because some of his works are still untranslated. Therefore, this brochure should only be regarded as a
framework and cannot replace the perusal of the actual books.
Öcalan has been highly critical not only of capitalism but
also of real socialist practices from very early on, since the
1980s. He has... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Abdullah (Apo) Öcalan is the founder and leader of the Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan (PKK) or Kurdistan Workers Party, an organization the U.S. government deems to be terrorist. Born around 1948 in southeastern Turkey, Öcalan was a sometime student in political science at Ankara University in 19678, where he began to form his ideas on Kurdish nationalism. Öcalan created the PKK in November 1978, moved to Syria in May 1979, and began the current war against Turkey in August 1984. By the spring of 1998, the PKK's activities had led to more than 3,000 villages partially or totally destroyed, 27,000 deaths, and up to 3 million people displaced. Michael M. Gunter, professor of political science at Tennessee Technological University a... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Liberating life is impossible without a radical
woman’s revolution which would change man’s
mentality and life. If we are unable to make peace
between man and life and life and woman, happiness is but a vain hope. Gender revolution is not just about woman. It is about the five thousand
years old civilization of classed society which has
left man worse off than woman. Thus, this gender revolution would simultaneously mean man’s liberation.
I have often written about “total divorce”, i.e. the
ability to divorce from the five thousand years
old culture of male domination. The female and
male gender identities that we know ŧoday are
constructs that were formed much later than the
biological fe... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) We must always be on a quest for the new, for the potentialities that ripen with the development of the world and the new visions that unfold with them. An outlook that ceases to look for what is new and potential in the name of “realism” has already lost contact with the present, for the present is always conditioned by the future. True development is cumulative, not sequential; it is growth, not succession. The new always embodies the present and past, but it does so in new ways and more adequately as the parts of a greater whole.
Murray Bookchin, “On Spontaneity and Organization,” 1971
Acknowledgments
The idea for this reader initially came from David Goodway, who, one
sunny afternoon in May ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Capitalist modernity is history’s deadliest and most continuous crisis of civilization. In particular, the general destruction of the last two hundred years has disrupted thousands of evolutionary links in the natural environment. We are probably not yet fully aware of the devastation this has caused the plant and animal worlds. It is, however, clear that, like the atmosphere, both these worlds are steadily emitting SOS signals.
How long can humanity go on enduring this modernity, which has inflicted far-reaching environmental devastation and caused the disintegration of society? How will humanity soothe the pain and agony of war, unemployment, hunger, and poverty?
The claim that the nation-state protects society is a va... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Thinking and writing about the issue of women, means calling into question all of history and society. The reason for this is the unprecedented scale of the systematic exploitation of women.
From this viewpoint, the history of civilization can be defined as the history of women’s losses. During the course of this history – the history of God and his servants, of Lords and serfs, of Industry, Science and Art – man’s patriarchal personality established itself. This was a loss to society as a whole; the outcome was a sexist society.
Sexism is both an instrument of power and at the same time a weapon, that throughout history came to be employed permanently in all systems of civilization. Actually no social ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Foreword
Everyday life in the Middle East is dominated by numerous conflicts, which often appear strange to western eyes as they seem to elude the western understanding of ratio and logos. This is also true for the Kurdish question, one of the most complex and bloody fields of conflict in the Middle East still awaiting a solution. However, as long as we do not discuss all dimensions of this conflict equally, it will be continued and even further aggravated, thus creating new and far-reaching problems. The historical, economic and political dimensions of the Kurdish question exceed by far the Arab-Israeli conflict, which, in contrast with the Kurdish question, enjoys the attention of the international public. Knowledge about this conf... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)