Democratic confederalism

Flag of the KCK, often used by Democratic Confederalists

Democratic confederalism[1][2] (Kurdish: Konfederalîzma demokratîk), also known as Kurdish communalism or Apoism,[nb 1] is a political concept theorized by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan about a system of democratic self-organization[4] with the features of a confederation based on the principles of autonomy, direct democracy, political ecology, feminism, multiculturalism, self-defense, self-governance and elements of a cooperative economy.[5][6][7] Influenced by social ecology, libertarian municipalism, Middle Eastern history and general state theory [de], Öcalan presents the concept as a political solution to Kurdish national aspirations, as well as other fundamental problems in countries in the region deeply rooted in class society, and as a route to freedom and democratization for people around the world.[8][9][10][11]

Although the liberation struggle of the PKK was originally guided by the prospect of creating a Kurdish nation state on a Marxist–Leninist basis,[7][12] Öcalan became disillusioned with the nation-state model and state socialism.[13] Influenced by ideas from Western thinkers such as the libertarian municipalist and former anarchist Murray Bookchin,[14][15][16][17] Öcalan reformulated the political objectives of the Kurdish liberation movement, abandoning the old statist and centralizing socialist project for a radical and renewed proposal for a form of libertarian socialism[18][19][20] that no longer aims at building an independent state separate from Turkey, but at establishing an autonomous, democratic and decentralized entity based on the ideas of democratic confederalism.[21][22]

  1. ^ Öcalan 2011, p. 21.
  2. ^ Öcalan 2005.
  3. ^ Mango 2005, p. 32.
  4. ^ Öcalan 2008, p. 32.
  5. ^ Öcalan 2011, pp. 21–32.
  6. ^ Öcalan 2008, pp. 31–36.
  7. ^ a b Dirik 2016, chpt. 2.
  8. ^ Öcalan 2011, pp. 35–44.
  9. ^ Öcalan 2008, pp. 7–8, 34–35.
  10. ^ Dockstader, Jason; Mûkrîyan, Rojîn (2022). "Kurdish liberty". Philosophy & Social Criticism. 48 (8): 1174–1196. doi:10.1177/01914537211040250.
  11. ^ Fadaee, Simin; Brancolini, Camilla (2019). "From national liberation to radical democracy: Exploring the shift in the Kurdish liberation movement in Turkey". Ethnicities. 19 (5): 858–875. doi:10.1177/1468796819826146.
  12. ^ Öcalan 2011, pp. 7–14.
  13. ^ Öcalan 2008, pp. 28–30.
  14. ^ Bookchin 2018.
  15. ^ Shilton 2019.
  16. ^ Enzinna 2015.
  17. ^ Gerber, Damian; Brincat, Shannon (2021). "When Öcalan met Bookchin: The Kurdish Freedom Movement and the Political Theory of Democratic Confederalism". Geopolitics. 26 (4): 973–997. doi:10.1080/14650045.2018.1508016.
  18. ^ Błaszczyk, Cezary (June 27, 2022). "Jineology: Kurdish "feminism" in the doctrine of democratic confederalism and the political system of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (Rojava)". Studia Iuridica (90): 77. doi:10.31338/2544-3135.si.2022-90.4. S2CID 253829748. Thus, the doctrine of democratic confederalism presents itself as a libertarian socialism based on the neo-Marxism, ecologism and, finally, feminism.
  19. ^ De Jong, Alex (March 18, 2016). "The New-Old PKK". Jacobin. Retrieved July 24, 2023. It was compelling enough to win over Öcalan, who, in the popular narrative, made a balance sheet of the PKK's failures and decided to reorient his goals to a similar kind of libertarian socialism called "democratic confederalism."
  20. ^ Fitzherbert, Yvo (August 26, 2014). "A new kind of freedom born in terror". openDemocracy. Retrieved July 24, 2023. The ideology behind this progressive autonomous structure, which has a secular constitution, is that of the PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan. His vision of 'Democratic Confederalism' builds on a concept espoused by the American anarchist Murray Bookchin. Since Öcalan's arrest in 1999, the PKK's ideology has changed considerably, so much so that they have all but denounced nationalism in favour of a form of libertarian socialism.
  21. ^ Öcalan 2011, pp. 21, 33–34.
  22. ^ Öcalan 2008, pp. 31–32.


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