Abdullah Ocalan – författare

Capitalism: The Age of Unmasked Gods and Naked Kings is the second volume of Abdullah Ocalan's definitive five-volume work The Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization. For years he has unraveled the sources of hierarchical relations, power, and the formation of nation-states that has led to capitalism's emergence and global domination. He makes the convincing argument that capitalism is not a product of the last four hundred years but a continuation of classical civilisation. Unlike Marx, Ocalan sides with Braudel by giving less importance to the mode of production than to the accumulation of surplus value and power, thus centering his criticisms on the capitalist nation-state as the most powerful monopoly of economic, military, and ideological power. He argues that the fundamental strength of capitalist hegemony, however, is the competition in voluntary servitude that a market economy has given rise to - not a single worker would reject higher wages - resulting in an unprecedented ability to convince people to surrender their individual power and autonomy. Ocalan further contends that the capitalist phase of city-class-state-based civilisation is not the last phase of human intelligence; rather, the traditional morals upon which it is based are being exhausted and the intelligence of freedom is rising in all its richness. That is why he prefers to interpret capitalist modernity as the era of hope but only insofar as we are able to develop a sustainable defense against it.

An essential first translation of Ocalan's monumental work, Beyond State, Power, and Violence proposes a leftist society based on feminist and ecological principles.

Capitalism: The Age of Unmasked Gods and Naked Kings is the second volume of Abdullah Ocalan's definitive five-volume work The Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization. For years he has unraveled the sources of hierarchical relations, power, and the formation of nation-states that has led to capitalism's emergence and global domination. He makes the convincing argument that capitalism is not a product of the last four hundred years but a continuation of classical civilisation. Unlike Marx, Ocalan sides with Braudel by giving less importance to the mode of production than to the accumulation of surplus value and power, thus centering his criticisms on the capitalist nation-state as the most powerful monopoly of economic, military, and ideological power. He argues that the fundamental strength of capitalist hegemony, however, is the competition in voluntary servitude that a market economy has given rise to - not a single worker would reject higher wages - resulting in an unprecedented ability to convince people to surrender their individual power and autonomy. Ocalan further contends that the capitalist phase of city-class-state-based civilisation is not the last phase of human intelligence; rather, the traditional morals upon which it is based are being exhausted and the intelligence of freedom is rising in all its richness. That is why he prefers to interpret capitalist modernity as the era of hope but only insofar as we are able to develop a sustainable defense against it.

These are the essential writings of a man who inspired a new, egalitarian socialist regime in the Middle East, which is currently fighting for survival against religious extremism and state violence. Abdullah Ocalan led the struggle for Kurdish liberation for more than 20 years until his capture in 1999. Now, writing from prison in Turkey, he has inspired a new political movement. Called Democratic Confederalism, this revolutionary model is developing on the ground in parts of Syria and Turkey; it represents an alternative to religious sectarianism, patriarchy, capitalism and chauvinistic nationalism, providing the blueprint for a burgeoning radical democratic society.This selection of Ocalan''s writings is an indispensable introduction for anyone wanting to engage with his political ideas. His central concepts address the Kurdish question, gender, Democratic Confederalism and the future of the nation. With The Political Thought of Abdullah Ocalan, his most influential ideas can now be considered and debated in the light of his continuing legacy, most notably in the ongoing revolution in Rojava.

The global crisis of civilisation is nowhere more visible than in the Middle East. Wars, authoritarian regimes, social fragmentation, and ecological collapse converge into a single, devastating picture. Abdullah Ocalan argues that the solution to this crisis must be found in the same place where centralised civilisation first emerged 5,000 years ago. The fourth volume of Ocalan's Manifesto of Democratic Civilization traces the region's deep historical crises while highlighting the many traditions of resistance-religious, cultural, communal, and antiauthoritarian-that have survived despite millennia of state domination. These traditions, he argues, provide the building blocks for a future beyond capitalist modernity. Drawing on the theoretical framework laid out in earlier volumes, Ocalan offers a bold rereading of Middle Eastern history, revealing how patriarchy, hierarchy, and empire became entrenched, and how they can be dismantled. He presents democratic confederalism, a moral and political society, and an ecological, women-centred economic order as the essential pillars of a new civilisational model. In this volume, Ocalan emerges not only as a strategist for resolving the Kurdish question but as a visionary for democratising the entire region. He closes with urgent questions that speak directly to our global moment: How should we live? What must we do? And where do we begin?