Hari Kumar says it's inaccurate to link Ocalan with Stalinism/Maoism. I think he is mistaken. A review of his history reveals that Ocalan started out his political career as a student at a time when Stalinism was overwhelmingly dominant in the left student movement throughout the colonial and former colonial world. Actually, it was the Maoist variant of Stalinism. There were a couple of things that distinguished this political approach: First of all was the "two stage theory" - the view that national liberation struggles were separate and apart from the struggle against capitalism itself. This was (and is) inextricably linked with a failure to see the working class as the leading force, as an independent force, in the struggle. Because this is such a reformist approach, it had to be cloaked with apparently revolutionary strategy, which was guerrallism and its fraternal twin - individual terrorism. All of this describes the approach of Ocalan and the PKK to a "t". And, in fact, the early PKK arose out of dissatisfaction with the Turkish Communist Party Marxist/Leninist which was explicitly Maoist. So I think that it is accurate to link the origins of the PKK to Maoism.
I never wrote that Ocalan and the PKK were Marxists nor Leninists. I simply reported the name of the party from which the PKK developed. At this point in developing my series there was and is no need to get into a long discussion of what Marxism is and how Lenin contributed to Marxism. That will come in the conclusion of my series. What is necessary is to just explain what groups like that Communist Party stood for and what the alternative was and is. As far as the rest of Ocalan's career: The main point is that the entire PKK strategy could not succeed and as a result Ocalan had to accommodate himself to Turkish capitalism. That is not so rare. We saw the exact same thing happen with Fatah/the PLO and with the South African Communist Party (which also had a guerrallist strategy in the 1980s and linked that with the two stage theory). There is also another thing to consider in the approach of my article (and the ones that are coming): As I understand it, there is a lot of discussion and debate underway among Kurdish revolutionaries. My hope is that my articles will contribute to that discussion. The main contribution is an explanation of the political mistakes groups like the PKK have made and what the alternative is. John Reimann -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#41274): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/41274 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/118551936/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
