Abdullah Öcalan actively led the Kurdish liberation struggle as the head of the PKK from its foundation in 1978 until his abduction on February 15, 1999. Now, writing from isolation in Turkey’s Imrali Island Prison, he has shaped a new political movement in the Middle East called Democratic Confederalism, which is rapidly developing and spreading across the Middle East because it combats powerful religious sectarianism while also providing the blueprints for a burgeoning democratic society. Bringing together Öcalan’s ideas in one slim volume for the first time, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan contains a selection of his most influential writings over his lifetime. These ideas can be read in light of Öcalan’s continuing legacy during the ongoing revolution and the battle against conservatism and religious extremism. As the political situation in Syria intensifies, this book offers a timely and essential introduction for anyone wanting to come to grips with his political ideas on the Kurdish question, gender, Democratic Confederalism, and nationalism.

The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

Politics & Social Sciences

Öcalan, Abdullah

Philosophy

Pluto Press

Abdullah Öcalan actively led the Kurdish liberation struggle as the head of the PKK from its foundation in 1978 until his abduction on February 15, 1999. Now, writing from isolation in Turkey’s Imrali Island Prison, he has shaped a new political movement in the Middle East called Democratic Confederalism, which is rapidly developing and spreading across the Middle East because it combats powerful religious sectarianism while also providing the blueprints for a burgeoning democratic society.   Bringing together Öcalan’s ideas in one slim volume for the first time, The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan contains a selection of his most influential writings over his lifetime. These ideas can be read in light of Öcalan’s continuing legacy during the ongoing revolution and the battle against conservatism and religious extremism. As the political situation in Syria intensifies, this book offers a timely and essential introduction for anyone wanting to come to grips with his political ideas on the Kurdish question, gender, Democratic Confederalism, and nationalism.  

The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Women's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

In his second book, Abdullah Öcalan applies the political and historical philosophy that was developed in the first volume of his Prison Writings to the Kurdish question. The book addresses the concrete political issues at the center of the Kurdish question. Öcalan calls for a "Renaissance of the Middle East" where the integration of democratic Western values and universal human rights with the deeply rooted cultural values of the Middle Eastern societies, especially the Kurdish, will form a new synthesis of civilizations. Abdullah Öcalan was the leader of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). He was eventually kidnapped while in Kenya in 1999, and has been in prison in Turkey ever since. Öcalan was the most wanted man in Turkey for almost two decades until his kidnapping. From 1984, under his leadership, the PKK fought for an independent Kurdish state in the southeast of Turkey. In a sustained popular uprising, tens of thousands of PKK guerrillas took on the second largest army in NATO. The book begins with Preliminary Notes by Cemil Bayik, military commander of the PKK.

Prison Writings: The PKK and the Kurdish Question in the 21st Century, Vol. 2

History

Middle East

In his second book, Abdullah Ocalan applies the political and historical philosophy that was developed in the first volume of his Prison Writings to the Kurdish question. The book addresses the concrete political issues at the centre of the Kurdish question. Ocalan calls for a 'Renaissance of the Middle East' where the integration of democratic Western values and universal human rights with the deeply rooted cultural values of the Middle Eastern societies, especially the Kurdish, will form a new synthesis of civilisations. Abdullah Ocalan was the leader of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). He was eventually kidnapped while in Kenya in 1999, and has been in prison in Turkey ever since. Ocalan was the most wanted man in Turkey for almost two decades until his kidnapping. From 1984, under his leadership, the PKK fought for an independent Kurdish state in the southeast of Turkey. In a sustained popular uprising, tens of thousands of PKK guerrillas took on the second largest army in NATO. The book begins with Preliminary Notes by Cemil Bayik, military commander of the PKK.

Prison Writings: The Pkk and the Kurdish Question in the 21st Century

Transmedia Publishing Ltd

The Kurdish question, the general term for the fact that the Kurds have no independent homeland of their own, is one of the most complex issues in the Middle East. This situation will inevitably continue to bring about other problems. Its geographical location in one of the most fragile and strategically important parts of the region should not be ignored. This situation needs to be resolved urgently to prevent it becoming even more complicated and severe. The Kurdish question is, in both form and content, more complex and bears wider regional ramifications than the Arab-Israeli conflict, which at present occupies a central position in the media throughout the world. In his second book Mr Ocalan applies the political and historical philosophy that was developed in the first volume of his Prison Writings to the Kurdish question. It is less philosophical and abstract and addresses the concrete political issues at the centre of the Kurdish question. The author calls for a “Renaissance of the Middle East” where the integration of democratic western values and universal human rights with the deeply rooted cultural values of the Middle Eastern societies, especially the Kurdish one, will form a new synthesis of civilisations.

Prison Writings II: The PKK and the Kurdish Question in the 21st Century

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Sociology of Freedom: Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization, Volume III (Kairos)

The third volume in Abdullah Ocalan's thesis on democratic civilisations.

Social Sciences

PM Press

Beyond State, Power, and Violence (Kairos)

Review\n“Öcalan’s works make many intellectuals uncomfortable because they represent a form of thought that is not only inextricable from action, but also directly grapples with the knowledge that it is.” 
—David Graeber author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years 
“Öcalan’s writings written in captivity are thus in the tradition of the ideology of the PKK as a left national liberation movement, which also includes the claim to change their own society. However, Öcalan is apparently also one of those whose political thinking was sharpened by the forced abstinence from daily politics and who succeed in further developing their political thinking in captivity.” 
—Thomas Schmidinger, author of The Battle for the Mountain of the Kurds: Self-Determination and Ethnic Cleansing in the Afrin Region of Rojava 
“Öcalan’s plea to build a strong and complex self-organized civil society without taking direct action against the state is similar to Zapatismo in Chiapas.… Finally, Karl Marx’s realization should be remembered: ‘An idea becomes material violence when it seizes the masses.’ And Abdullah Öcalan’s message has seized the masses in Kurdistan.” 
—Nikolaus Brauns, historian and journalist, author of Partisanen einer neuen Welt: Eine Geschichte der Linken und Arbeiterbewegung der Türkei“Öcalan is the Gramsci of our time.”\n—Tamir Bar-On, author of The World through Soccer and Beyond Soccer\nAfter the dissolution of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) in 2002, internal discussions ran high, and fear and uncertainty about the future of the Kurdish freedom movement threatened to unravel the gains of decades of organizing and armed struggle. From his prison cell, Abdullah Öcalan intervened by penning his most influential work to date: Beyond State, Power, and Violence. With a stunning vision of a freedom movement centered on women’s liberation, democracy, and ecology, Öcalan helped reinvigorate the Kurdish freedom movement by providing a revolutionary path forward with what is undoubtedly the furthest-reaching definition of democracy the world has ever seen. Here, for the first time, is the highly anticipated English translation of this monumental work. 
Beyond State, Power, and Violence is a breathtaking reconnaissance into life without the state, an essential portrait of the PKK and the Kurdish freedom movement, and an open blueprint for leftist organizing in the twenty-first century, written by one of the most vitally important political luminaries of today. 
By carefully analyzing the past and present of the Middle East, Öcalan evaluates concrete prospects for the Kurdish people and arrives with his central proposal: recreate the Kurdish freedom movement along the lines of a new paradigm based on the principles of democratic confederalism and democratic autonomy. In the vast scope of this book, Öcalan examines the emergence of hierarchies and eventually classes in human societies and sketches his alternative, the democratic-ecological society. This vision, with a theoretical foundation of a nonviolent means of taking power, has ushered in a new era for the Kurdish freedom movement while also offering a fresh and indispensable perspective on the global debate about a new socialism. Öcalan’s calls for nonhierarchical forms of democratic social organization deserve the careful attention of anyone interested in constructive social thought or rebuilding society along feminist and ecological lines.

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

For years Abdullah Öcalan has unraveled the sources ofhierarchical relations, power, and the formation of nation-states thathas led to capitalism's emergence and global domination. Capitalism: The Age of Unmasked Gods and Naked Kings is the second volume of his definitive five-volume work The Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization.He makes the convincing argument that capitalism is not a product of thelast four hundred years but a continuation of classical civilization. Unlike Marx, Öcalan sides with Braudel by giving less importance tothe mode of production than to the accumulation of surplus value andpower, thus centering his criticisms on the capitalist nation-state asthe 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 economyhas given rise to--not a single worker would reject higherwages--resulting in an unprecedented ability to convince people tosurrender their individual power and autonomy. Öcalan further contendsthat the capitalist phase of city-class-state-based civilization is notthe last phase of human intelligence; rather, the traditional moralsupon which it is based are being exhausted and the intelligence offreedom is rising in all its richness. That is why he prefers tointerpret capitalist modernity as the era of hope--but only insofar as weare able to develop a sustainable defense against it.

Capitalism: The Age of Unmasked Gods and Naked Kings (Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization, Volume II) (Kairos)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Öcalan, Abdullah. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Öcalan, Abdullah

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Öcalan, Abdullah. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Women's Revolution and Democratic Confederalism

Prison Writings: The PKK and the Kurdish Question in the 21st Century, Vol. 2

Prison Writings: The Pkk and the Kurdish Question in the 21st Century

Prison Writings II: The PKK and the Kurdish Question in the 21st Century

Sociology of Freedom: Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization, Volume III (Kairos)

Beyond State, Power, and Violence (Kairos)

Beyond State, Power, and Violence (Kairos)

Sociology of Freedom: Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization, Volume III (Kairos)

Capitalism: The Age of Unmasked Gods and Naked Kings (Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization, Volume II) (Kairos)