Chill Out in

The Road Map to Negotiations

Prison Writings III

ABDULLAH OCALAN

The Road Map to Negotiations is an extraordinary document.

It was the centerpiece of the secret dialogue process between Abdullah Öcalan and the Turkish state that started in 2009 and was broken off in mid-2011.

Beyond State, Power and Violence

ABDULLAH OCALAN

After the dissolution of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) in 2002, 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.

His vision of a democratic-ecological society 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.

Building Free Life

Dialogues With Ocalan

ABDULLAH OCALAN

From Socrates to Antonio Gramsci, imprisoned philosophers have marked the history of thought and changed how we view power and politics.

From his solitary jail cell, Abdullah Öcalan has penned daringly innovative works that give profuse evidence of his position as one of the most significant thinkers of our day.

His prison writings have mobilized tens of thousands of people and inspired a revolution in the making in Rojava, northern Syria, while also penetrating the insular walls of academia and triggering debate and reflection among countless scholars.

So how do you engage in a meaningful dialogue with Abdullah Öcalan when he has been held in total isolation since April 2015?

You compile a book of essays written by a globally diverse cast of the most imaginative luminaries of our time, send it to Öcalan’s jailers, and hope that they deliver it to him.

The Sociology Of Freedom

ABDULLAH OCALAN

The Sociology of Freedom is the fascinating third volume of a five-volume work titled The Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization.

The general aim of the two earlier volumes was to clarify what power and capitalist modernity entailed.

Here, Öcalan presents his stunningly original thesis of the democratic civilization, based on his criticism of capitalist modernity.

Prison Writings

The Roots of Civilisation

ABDULLAH OCALAN

Abdullah Öcalan was the most wanted man in Turkey for almost two decades until his kidnapping and arrest in Nairobi in 1999.

He has been in Prison ever since. He is the founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

From 1984, under his leadership, the PKK fought for an independent Kurdish state in the south east of Turkey.

In a sustained popular uprising, thousands of Kurdish fighters took on the Turkish army to protect their Kurdish identity, culture and language from annihilation and assimilation.

Since his imprisonment, Öcalan has written a number of books on Kurdish history, Kurdish politics, and perspectives for a sustainable peace process and a democratic Turkey.

His Prison Writings provide a broad Marxist perspective on ancient Middle Eastern history, incorporating the rise of the major religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), and defining the Kurdish position within this, from the ancient Sumerian civilisation through the feudal age, the birth of capitalism and beyond.