Print­ing is under­way for the book “La Révo­lu­tion com­mu­nal­iste. Écrits de prison” (Com­mu­nal­ist Rev­o­lu­tion. Prison Writ­ings). This will be the very first col­lec­tion of revised French trans­la­tions of Abdul­lah Öcalan’s writ­ings. Views to dis­cov­er and discuss.

The book will be in book­stores on Feb­ru­ary 6. It is pub­lished by Lib­er­talia, in a pock­et­book edi­tion under “Human Sciences”.


Français | English

This book is an invi­ta­tion to go beyond the imagery bandied about con­cern­ing Abdul­lah Öcalan. Giv­en the essen­tial his­tor­i­cal role he still plays despite being cut off from the world, it also behooves us to under­stand an intel­lec­tu­al who is still a liv­ing mem­ber of the pan­theon of “polit­i­cal per­son­al­i­ties” that led so-called “nation­al lib­er­a­tion” strug­gles dur­ing the sec­ond half of the 20th century.

Con­trary to the great major­i­ty of those who were not assas­si­nat­ed, Abdul­lah Öcalan is unques­tion­ably the one who start­ed build­ing a new project of eman­ci­pa­tion based on analy­ses of the fail­ure of the Cold War blocks, of the gueril­las, of the fall of the Stal­in­ist block with its inter­na­tion­al con­se­quences, as well as the crises in the Nation-States at the heart of cap­i­tal­ism. When one glimpses a tan­gi­ble real­iza­tion in the “Roja­va” polit­i­cal project, now sub­ject­ed to war, one must go beyond the car­toon of a polit­i­cal though reduced to slo­gans in order to exam­ine the tough ker­nel at the core of these analyses.

The appear­ance in the Mid­dle East of a polit­i­cal thought one can describe as “social, eco­log­i­cal and lib­er­tar­i­an” in its out­look, and the man­ner in which it guides a demo­c­ra­t­ic process in Roja­va (North­ern Syr­ia) did not fall out of the heav­ens or spring full-blown out of the brain of a prov­i­den­tial individual.

This polit­i­cal thought has moved across more than a cen­tu­ry and fed his­tor­i­cal exper­i­ments among which the bet­ter known are the Paris Com­mune, the Kro­n­stadt Rebel­lion, the attempts at a social rev­o­lu­tion by Span­ish anar­chists, and clos­er to us, the “social and polit­i­cal process­es” of the Mex­i­can enti­ty in Chiapas.

Nowa­days, this reflec­tion should be at the core of any French activism, be it in France or in French-speak­ing com­mu­ni­ties abroad. It is well known that in France, the Left­ist stream’s think­ing about the State con­sid­ers the Repub­li­ca­tion Nation its alpha and omega, call­ing for the estab­lish­ment of a 6th Repub­lic. In a con­tra­dic­to­ry man­ner, this stream of though also sup­ports Roja­va, with­out draw­ing con­se­quences applic­a­ble to the fun­da­men­tal debate con­cern­ing the Nation-State. It is no acci­dent if this book car­ries a pref­ace by Olivi­er Besan­cenot (French Far-Left polit­i­cal fig­ure and trade unionist).

Presentation of the work by the publishing house, Libertalia

The Nation-Sate has been the fun­da­men­tal tool that has made cap­i­tal­ist hege­mo­ny pos­si­ble. I have thus attempt­ed to prove that social­ism and ant­i­cap­i­tal­ism (…) can­not be estab­lished on the basis of the State model.”

Abdul­lah Öcalan

Since 2013, Roja­va has mobi­lized the atten­tion of a part of the Left inter­est­ed in social trans­for­ma­tion. Trapped between region­al dic­ta­tor­ships and inter­na­tion­al impe­ri­al­is­tic pow­ers, this mod­est ter­ri­to­ry with a Kur­dish major­i­ty locat­ed in North­ern Syr­ia, attempts to pro­pose a new rev­o­lu­tion­ary mod­el: con­fed­er­al, com­mu­nal, mul­ti-cul­tur­al, sec­u­lar, eco­log­i­cal and con­cerned with equal­i­ty of the sex­es. If the bat­tle of Kobanê against ISIS famil­iar­ized us with Kur­dish fight­ers, the polit­i­cal doc­trine ani­mat­ing them is too often ignored.

Öcalan kurde

From his Turk­ish prison, Abdul­lah Öcalan, co-founder of the Kur­dis­tan Work­ers Par­ty (PKK), is its main arti­san. This book, the first in French, allows for the dis­cov­ery – and thus, the dis­cus­sion – of the Kur­dish rev­o­lu­tion­ary move­men­t’s the­o­ry as pro­pound­ed in Turkey, in Syr­ia, in Irak and in Iran. And seeks to pro­pose a res­o­lu­tion to the his­tor­i­cal “Kur­dish question”.

Born in 1949 in South­east­ern Turkey, Abdul­lah Öcalan is one of the old­est polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in the world. Arrest­ed in 1999, he is serv­ing a life sen­tence. Key actor in the con­flict, he is the author of some ten works.

Ocalan livre revolutionLa Révo­lu­tion com­mu­nal­iste. Ecrits de prison”
Abdul­lah Öcalan

Pré­face d’O­livi­er Besancenot
256 pages – 10€
ISBN 9782377291205

This book will be avail­able Feb­ru­ary 6 2020.
In order to sup­port the Lib­er­talia pub­lish­ing house, you may order now on the book­store’s web page, it will then be sent to you upon publication.


Illus­tra­tion fea­tur­ing Maman

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