Challenging Capitalist Modernity
– Alternative Concepts and the Kurdish Quest –

Program of the Conference

• 3 February 2012 – Friday

  18.00 - 19.30 Opening
  Moderation: Dêrsim Dagdeviren
  Welcoming speeches:	Professor Norman Paech (Germany)
  	Havin Guneser on behalf of the organizing committee
  Messages:	Professor Antonio Negri
  	Professor Immanuel Wallerstein
  	Abdullah Ocalan
  19.30 - 21.00 Session 1: The quest for a new social science
  Moderation: Professor Kariane Westrheim
  1.1 No theory for the Kurds: The Kurds and theories of nationalism Ahmet Alış
  1.2 Alternatives to established social sciencesr Ann-Kristin Kowarsch The construction of social sciences upon positivism, rationalism and object-subject dichotomy deepened the cleavage between the sexes and further established the enslavement of women and thus men. Is there a need for a radical critique of the present social sciences and how is to be re-constructed if alternative way of life is to be achieved? What are the proposals for new approaches for the social sciences?
  Discussion

• 4 February 2012 – Saturday

  09.00 - 13.30 Session 2: Capitalism as the crisis of civilization

  Moderation: Jon Andoni Lekue

  2.1 Capitalism and commonwealth Professor Antonio Negri What the political is today. What is subversive politics? What partage of the social does it involve? How can capital be fought today? The first good paradigm of contemporaneity is that THE ONE HAS SPLIT IN TWO. Who produces? In contemporaneity, it is the machine of the multitude. Production is social; cognitive labour is the hegemonic form of productive labour. What does production of subjectivity mean?

  2.2 Sexism as a constant of state-based civilization Fadile Yıldırım The division and hierarchy between the sexes is older and arguably more fundamental than class-division or other repression mechanisms. Yet rarely this has been put into the focus of analysis or political. The glory days of the women's movement in the west are over, a progressive anti-sexist men's movement has not emerged. What is the reason for the existence and continuity of sexism in all ? new or old- systems of exploitation? Why is it such a 'universal' and profound notion?

  2.3 Capitalism's instruments of plunder: Industrialism and nation-state Professor Achin Vanaik The role in the geopolitics of evolving capitalism may well be sought to be played by a quintet of powers – US, Russia, China, EU and India in which the leadership will still be provided by the US. As a collective can they at all hope to successfully address the key problems of poverty and inequality, ecological imbalances, the rising politics of cultural exclusivisms of all kind, militarism and nuclearism? Don't we need now more than ever a clear vision of an anti-capitalism that is based on participatory forms of democracy beyond what contemporary capitalist democracies can offer?

  2.4. Capitalism as the arch-enemy of ecological societies Felix Padel The Kurds represent one of the oldest cultures of Western Asia, and their struggle for justice and peace – often just basic recognition! - represents one of the world's most significant and least understood movements. There are many other such peoples and movements, which we know little about due to media distortion, Manufacturing Consent. India's indigenous people, known as Adivasis, are one of them.

  2.5 Capitalism in the 21st century Solly Mapaila

  2.6 Capitalism and the Kurdish freedom movement Reimar Heider The Kurdish freedom movement has evolved and moved from anti-colonialism influenced by real-socialism to communalism and confederalism. One thing has remained constant though: its anti-capitalism. What are its views and critique of capitalism and the nation-state? What is meant with "capitalist modernity"? What contributions can current analyses and discussions from Kurdistan make to the worldwide efforts to overcome the capitalist system?

  Discussion

  13.30 - 15.30 Break

  15.30 - 19.00 Session 3: The Middle East beyond nation-states

  Moderation: Murat Çakır

  3.1 New opportunities for democracy in the Middle East Ayhan Bilgen The "Arab Spring" with the downfall of several authoritarian regimes has been hailed by many as a chance for democracy. At the same time governments like the Turkish and the Israeli one are becoming more authoritarian. The Middle Eastern societies however are all complex and a fixation on regimes changes cannot answer all questions about how democracy can be realized.

  3.2 The Kurds and new ideas for a changing Middle East Muzaffer Ayata The Middle East has undergone major changes in the past decades. These changes have reflected on the Kurdish democracy movement which has its roots in the unsolved contradictions of the Middle Eastern state system . Where do the Kurds stand today and what do they have to offer for the region?

  3.3 Understanding political Islam Dr. Sadik Hassan Itaimish Several 'secular' governments have been replaced by 'moderate Islamists' in several countries over the past decade. Islam as a source of legislation has been introduced into constitutions as a source of law. But what is the "moderate Islam"? What are its basic concepts and inner contradictions? How can it be criticized and its dangers be overcome?

  3.4 Moderate Islam – the new disguise? Ferda Çetin Why are some radical religious movements acceptable for the West whereas others are not? Are AKP and Fethullah Gülen really moderate Islam? Can capitalism internalize or assimilate Islam?

  Discussion

• 5 February 2012 – Sunday

  09.00 - 12.00 Session 4: Towards a new paradigm – Democratic Modernity

  Moderation: Mark Campbell

  4.1 A new democracy is possible: Communalism! Eirik Eiglad What is communalism? What is its historical basis as a political movement? What are its strategic arguments? Is it an alternative model as it stands? What are its main weaknesses and handicaps? Has a balance been attained between theoretical approaches and practical experiences?

  4.2 Founders of radical democracy: Experiences of women liberation movements Gönül Kaya The women's freedom movement is seen to be an alternative to the capitalist modernity. What kind of a development process have such an experience gone through? How can the reciprocal influence between the Kurdish women's struggle and Kurdish society's freedom struggle be described? Where can we place the women's freedom struggle within the Paradigm of Democratic Modernity?

  4.3 From Marxism to communalism and confederalism: Bookchin and Öcalan Janet Biehl For all their differences, Öcalan and Bookchin shared a political trajectory that took them from Marxism to communalism. How did it evolve? What are some of the the theoretical similarities and differences between Öcalan's democratic confederalism and Bookchin's communalism. How are Kurds in Turkish Kurdistan are implementing assembly democracy, and what is their view of Bookchin?

  4.4 A new democracy is possible: Envisioning a participatory economy John Cronan Jr. A short overview of participatory economy as an alternative economic model. Can this model considered to be an alternative at a time of globalization phase of capitalist hegemony? What is the influence of non-economic factors in the mystification of the main thesis of capitalist economy? Ideologically and politically what can be done to overcome this? How can the search for an economic model within the alternative quests be viewed? Where do we stand when it comes to such a search?

  4.5 Women's cooperatives as an alternative model Gülistan Örmek

  4.6 Building up democracy in the Basque Country: Experiences and challenges Ana Mezo Lack of democracy is at the foundation of the last armed conflict in Europe. The unilateral decision of the Abertzale Left to opt for an exclusively political strategy has opened the path for its resolution and the opportunity to achieve a situation of real democracy. Building upon traditional mechanisms, innovative structures and broad participation, democracy in the Basque Country is built up in a permanent process of struggle.

  12.00 - 13.30 Break

  13.30 - 16.30 Session 4 continues

  4.7 Ideology and praxis of the Zapatista movement Tom Waibel Through its special intertwinement of ideology and praxis, the Zapatism in the southwest of Mexico has deeply influenced numerous civil societal organisation forms (like the World Social Forums). Concepts like "stepping forward, asking" and "ordering obeying" guaranteed a permanent feedback between the armed wing of the movement and its civilian basis. Since a few years the liberation army has handed over administrative duties fully to civilian council governments: The attempt of a balance in a praxeological regard.

  4.8 Democratic politics as an alternative in Turkey Gültan Kışanak Politics in Turkey are changing. The BDP is a party which is in opposition to the official ideology of Turkey. It has established a different style of politics through the inclusion of civil society. On the other hand there are structures like grass roots movements and the Democratic Society Congress and concepts like Democratic Autonomy. All these are alternatives to traditional ways of policy-making—which are confronted with massive repression.

  Discussion

Speakers

• Dêrsim Dağdeviren

  Dêrsim Dağdeviren is a paediatrist and chairwoman of the Network of Kurdish Academics (KURD-AKAD).

• Norman Paech

  Norman Paech is professor emeritus for constitutional and international right and a former member of the German parliament for the left group.

• Havin Guneser

  Havin Guneser is an engineer, journalist and women's rights activist. She is one of the spokespersons of the International Initiative »Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan–Peace in Kurdistan«.

• Antonio Negri

  Antonio Negri is a sociologist and political philosopher. He is co-author of Empire with Michael Hardt.

• Kariane Westrheim

  Kariane Westrheim is professor at the Department of Education, University of Bergen where she teaches at the Bachelor and Master programmes in education. Her research interests focus on education in areas of war and political conflict, democracy and multiculturalism. A recent research field is prison education. In much of her work Westrheim's theoretical framework has been inspired by the tradition following the Brazilian thinker and educator Paulo Freire. Westrheim has been engaged in the Kurdish issue for many years and chair the Brussels based EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC) which organises the annual International Conference on EU Turkey and the Kurds in the European Parliament.

• Ann-Kristin Kowarsch

  Ann-Kristin Kowarsch has worked for more than 20 years in several antifascist, feminist and internationalist groups. She is co-founder of the Free Women's Foundation (Netherlands) and the Women's Meeting Centre UTAMARA e. V. (Kasbach, Germany). She coordinated a research project on the psychological consequences of traumatic experiences on Kurdish female migrants. She occasionally writes as a freelance journalist for junge Welt, SoZ, Özgür Politika, Newaya Jin, Krampfader and Frauensolidarität.

• Jon Andoni Lekue

  Jon Andoni Lekue is a lawyer and representative of the Abertzale Left. He was active in the Basque youth movement and the struggle for the respect of Basque speakers' linguistic rights. Since almost ten years he has been part of the international department of the Abertzale Left and has been working for a peaceful resolution of the Basque conflict all over Europe.

• Fadile Yıldırım

  Fadile Yıldırım is a woman activist who was imprisoned for 10 years because of her political views. She is active in the Kurdish people's and women's struggle for freedom. She presently works at the Women's Meeting Centre UTAMARA.

• Reimar Heider

  Reimar Heider is a physician by training and human rights activist. He is one of the spokespersons of the International Initiative »Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan–Peace in Kurdistan« and has translated several books by Öcalan.

• Achin Vanaik

  Achin Vanaik is professor (retd) of International Relations and Global Politics, University of Delhi and a founding member of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India.

• Felix Padel

  Felix Padel is born in London, went to Oxford & Delhi universities studying ancient literature & history, anthropology, sociology; with a doctorate in Social Anthropology. Presently mostly lives & works in India. Has written two major books - "Sacrificing People: Invasions of a Tribal Landscape' (1995/2010) and 'Out of This Earth: East Indian Adivasi and the Aluminium Cartel' (2010, with Indian activist Samarendra Das), which is a major questioning/expose of capitalism, especially the patterns of rampant exploitation through mining and the arms industry, involving mass dispossession of the land's original inhabitants who have safeguarded ancient ecosystems intact, along with Cultural Genocide and Ecocide. This book has had quite an impact in helping to open up debates on mining & resource-use in India.

• Solly Mapaila

  Solly Mapaila is a Central Committee Member of the South African Communist Party.

• Murat Çakır

  Murat Çakır is one of the founders of the party WASG in Germany and until 2006 was one of its board members. He is a columnist for the daily newspapers Yeni Özgür Politika and Özgür Gündem. Since 2006 he works for the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, today as the managing director of its Hessen chapter. He is a member of the Left Party (Die Linke).

• Ahmet Alış

  Ahmet Alış has studied Local Governments and Political Science at Kocaeli University. He received his M.A. in the Modern Turkish History at Bogazici University and is currently studying his PhD at the same university. His master thesis is titled "The Process of the Politicization of the Kurdish Identity in Turkey: The Kurds and the Turkish Labor Party 1961-1971" and his ongoing dissertation is titled "The Kurdish Ethnoregional Movement in Turkey, 1959-1984". He has written and presented several papers on Kurdish history with an emphasis on the 1960s and 1970s. After being affiliated with the Danish Institute for International Studies for one year, he is currently affiliated with University of Copenhagen conducting fieldwork, including interviews with Kurdish intellectuals residing in Europe, who were politically active in Turkey and had to flee the country after the 1980 military coup.

• Muzaffer Ayata

  Muzaffer Ayata is a Kurdish politician and author. He was arrested during the 12 September 1980 military coup and tried. He was sentenced to death in the main trial of the PKK back then. After 20 years of imprisonment he was released. He later took part in legal democratic activities. Due to continuous political oppression he took refuge in Germany. Here too he worked in the political and social institutions of the Kurds. He was also tried by the German state and imprisoned for three years and two months. Upon his release he was forced to reside in a certain city and to give his signature every day. His two volume book called The Diyarbakır Dungeon is seen as an essential work in this area. He is a columnist in newspapers Yeni Özgür Politika and Özgür Gündem.

• Ferda Çetin

  Ferda Çetin is a graduate from the Faculty of Law at Istanbul University. He worked in the weekly newspaper Yeni Ülke and later in the newspapers Özgür Gündem and Özgür Ülke which were all published in Turkey. Continued to work as a journalist in the newspaper Özgür Politika, published in Europe, as well as television channels Med TV, Medya TV and Roj TV. At present he continues to work in Roj TV.

• Sadik Hassan Itaimish

  Sadik Hassan Itaimish was assistant professor at the University of Mosul/Ninive, Iraq. He fled to Germany in 1982 where he studied Islamic Sciences. He is associate professor for Islamic Sciences at the Protestant University for Applied Sciences in Freiburg.

• Mark Campbell

  Mark Campbell is a Pro Kurdish Rights Campaigner. He maintains a blog called "Hevallo. Turkey and the Kurdish Question." and is the founder of #TwitterKurds on Twitter. He recently, was part of a team who organised a Kurdish Social Media Gathering in London highlighting the critical role that Kurdish social media can play in challenging Turkey's psychological warfare of misinformation in regards the Kurdish issue in Turkey. As a photographer, Mark, went to Kurdistan in 1993 and spent 11 days in the emergency region taking testimony of Turkey's systematic human rights abuses against the Kurds. It was 11 days that was to change his life for ever!

• Janet Biehl

  Janet Biehl was the companion and collaborator of Murray Bookchin in the last twenty years of his life. She is the author of "The Politics of Social Ecology: Libertarian Municipalism" (1998) and the editor of "The Murray Bookchin Reader" (1997). She has just finished five years of work on a biography of Bookchin and hopes to find a publisher soon. A freelance editor, she lives in Burlington, Vermont.

• Eirik Eiglad

  Eirik Eiglad lives in Porsgrunn, Telemark. In the early 1990s Eiglad joined the anti-militarist, environmentalist and anti-racist movement and was radicalized as a social ecologist. As a movement activist, writer, translator and editor he has been involved in a range of left-libertarian projects in Scandinavia, and is currently engaged with the New Compass Collective.

• Gönül Kaya

  Gönül Kaya has taken an active place within the Kurdish women's freedom and political struggle since 1991. She is on the board of International Free Women's Foundation. She was a columnist at newspaper Özgür Politika published in Europe and at present is a columnist in the women's newspaper Newaya Jin.

• Tom Waibel

  Tom Waibel lives in Vienna as a philosopher and translator. For several years he ran a travelling cinema in the Lacadonian rainforest in Chiapas, Mexico. The infrastructure of the communal media projects that was developed through it has now completely been made available to the autonomous education initiative of the Zapatistas. www.kinoki.at

• Gültan Kışanak

  Gültan Kışanak is a graduate of the Faculty of Communication in Journalism and Public Relations at the University of Ege. She began her active journalism career at the Yeni Ülke newspaper in 1991. She is a co-founder of the Özgür Gündem newspaper in 1992 and was the editor in chief. She later became the editorial coordinator in the newspaper Özgür Ülke. In 2004 she became the advisor for social projects at Bağlar Municipality. Presently she is the Co-Chair of BDP and MP for Diyarbakır.

• Ana Mezo

  Ana Mezo is a Basque teacher who lives in the small village of Larrabetzu. She has been involved in local politics since the 80's. She was a member of Larrabetzu Town Council between 1987 and 1991 and she has been also one of the elected members of Bizkaia Provincial Government since 2007, but through the application of the Political Parties Law, the candidature she was representing was outlawed and the thousands of votes given by electors were deemed void. Since 2009 she represents the Abertzale Left at the international level and was leading the Basque delegations visiting Ireland and Kurdistan.

• John Cronan Jr.

  John Cronan Jr. is a long-time restaurant worker, organizer, and writer, based in New York City. He is a veteran of the US student, environmental, and labor movements, and holds a Masters degree in Labor Studies. Currently, he is an organizer for the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY), a membership based workers center committed to building power among restaurant workers and changing conditions in the industry. Cronan is also a member and co-founder of the Organization for a Free Society (OFS), a participatory socialist group in the United States.

• Gülistan Örmek

  Gülistan Örmek is an agricultural engineer and the Deputy Mayor of Diyarbakır Sur Municipality. She also works in the area of Women's Cooperatives.