Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Capitalism and Women

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Capitalism and Women

Click here to access article by Abdullah Ocalan from the official website of the PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan)

Because Ocalan is a major intellectual in this fascinating Kurdkish movement and political party, I thought I would post a sample of his writing. From Wikipedia we learn the following:

Abdullah Öcalan (...; born 4 April 1948), ... is one of the founding members of the militant organization the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 1978 in Turkey, which is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by some states and organizations, including NATO, the United States and the European Union.

Öcalan was arrested in 1999 by the CIA and Turkish security forces in Nairobi and taken to Turkey, where he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs. The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey abolished the death penalty in support of its bid to be admitted to membership in the European Union. From 1999 until 2009, he was the sole prisoner on the İmralı island, in the Sea of Marmara. Öcalan has acknowledged the violent nature of the PKK, but says that the period of armed warfare was defunct and a political solution to the Kurdish question should be developed. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has resulted in over 40,000 deaths, including PKK members, the Turkish military, and civilians, both Kurdish and Turkish.

From prison, Öcalan has published several books, the most recent in 2012.

I don't know if he writes in another language and such articles are translations or if he wrote this in English, in any case I find the language a bit awkward in several places. Still, I think this article offers us a good introduction to his thinking about capitalism, women's key place in society, and his political understanding of history and present day political issues. I don't know much about the influences that have shaped his political philosophy, but we learned yesterday from my posting of an article from Reflections of a Revolution that Murray Bookchin has shaped some of his ideas.

Here is how he begins this essay:

A realistic definition of capitalism should not present it as a constant created and characterised by unicentral thought and action. It is, in essence, the actions of opportunist individuals and groups who established themselves into openings and cracks within society as the potential for surplus product developed; these actions became systematised as they nibbled away the social surplus.