Abdullah Öcalan's Sociology of Freedom out in Spanish

Sociology of Freedom by Abdullah Öcalan has been published in Spanish.

Abdullah Öcalan's Sociología de la libertad (Sociology of Freedom: Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization - Volume III) has been published in Spanish by Descontrol.

In the presentation of the book, the publisher said: "After analyzing the intricacies of power and capitalist modernity in the previous two volumes, in this third, Abdullah Öcalan presents his original thesis on democratic civilization as a critical counterpoint to capitalist modernity. Sociology of Freedom is an exploration of different themes such as existence, freedom, nature, philosophy, socialism or ecology.

Öcalan goes back to the origins of human culture to reinterpret the basic problems facing the 21st century, presenting an examination of their solutions. He asserts that a democratic civilization, as an alternative system to capitalist civilization, already exists and has always existed in opposition to it."

The profits derived from the publication of the book are destined to solidarity with Kurdistan.

The book can be bought online here. It will also soon be available for ordering via Meyman Publishing House's websites meyman.org and pirtukxane.net.

In just over three years (2007-2010), Öcalan wrote the 'Manifesto of the Democratic Civilisation', a magnum opus in which he distilled his experiences and insights from 35 years of radical theory and revolutionary practice. After reinterpreting the history of civilisation from its beginnings to capitalist modernity in the first two volumes, the co-founder of the Kurdish liberation movement presents a method for solving the most pressing problems of the 21st century in the third volume: the 'Sociology of Freedom'.

Öcalan recognises the need for a critique of so-called 'scientific socialism', which he, the Kurdish movement and the PKK have always referred to in the past. Industrialism, capitalism and the nation state cannot be transformed through an orthodox socialist concept. This is why Öcalan turns to the most original thinkers of the left and discusses topics such as existence, freedom, philosophy, anarchism, nature and ecology in a remarkably wide range. In doing so, he develops a radical and far-reaching definition of democracy, based on his central thesis that there is always and everywhere a 'democratic civilisation' parallel to every ruling civilisation, which is in conflict with hegemony, capitalism, patriarchy and the nation state.

In Sociology of Freedom, Öcalan devotes 520 pages to the question of what concrete form democratic modernity must take in order to represent an alternative to capitalist modernity. Philosophical reflections on truth and freedom and an awareness of the millennia-old struggles between state and society form the basis of Öcalan's concrete proposals for the construction of democratic modernity. In the book, he identifies twelve fundamental social problems that have developed throughout history and today constitute the crisis of capitalist modernity: Power and State, morality and politics, consciousness, economy, industrialism, ecology, the sexism-family-women-population development complex, urbanisation, class and bureaucracy, education and health, militarism and finally the problem of peace and democracy. All the while pointing out the importance of understanding that all these problems are interrelated and have the same source, namely the state and power and their destruction of society - societycide.

Abdullah Öcalan

Abdullah Öcalan is the founder of the PKK and was arrested in 1999 as part of an international conspiracy. Since then he has been held in solitary confinement on the prison island of Imrali. He is the leading thinker and most important political representative of the Kurdish freedom movement and Kurdish society. His 'Prison Writings', in which he initiated the PKK's paradigm shift and founded the political philosophy of democratic confederalism and democratic autonomy, have attracted worldwide attention since 1999.