For years Abdullah Öcalan has unraveled the sources of hierarchical relations, power, and the formation of nation-states that has led to capitalism’s emergence and global domination. Capitalism: The Age of Unmasked Gods and Naked Kings is the second volume of his definitive five-volume work The Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization. He makes the convincing argument that capitalism is not a product of the last four hundred years but a continuation of classical civilization.

Unlike Marx, Öcalan sides with Braudel by giving less importance to the mode of production than to the accumulation of surplus value and power, thus centering his criticisms on the capitalist nation-state as the most powerful monopoly of economic, military, and ideological power. He argues that the fundamental strength of capitalist hegemony, however, is the competition in voluntary servitude that a market economy has given rise to—not a single worker would reject higher wages—resulting in an unprecedented ability to convince people to surrender their individual power and autonomy. Öcalan further contends that the capitalist phase of city-class-state-based civilization is not the last phase of human intelligence; rather, the traditional morals upon which it is based are being exhausted and the intelligence of freedom is rising in all its richness. That is why he prefers to interpret capitalist modernity as the era of hope—but only insofar as we are able to develop a sustainable defense against it.

Editorial Note by International Initiative
Preface by Radha D’Souza
Reading Öcalan As a South Asian Woman

Introduction
Section 1: Factors That Gave Rise to Capitalism—The Thief in the House

• A—Rationalism
  
  • 1. Mentality and the Human
  • 2. Reason and Society
• B—Economism
• C—Capitalism, Political Power and Law
• D—The Location of Capitalism
• E—Historical-Societal Civilizations and Capitalism

Section 2: The Mortal Enemy of Economy—The Unmasked God, Naked King and Commander Money in His Own Palace

• A—Capitalism is Not Economy but Power
• B—Evidence That Capitalism is Not Economy
• C—Relationship of Capitalism in Relation to Space and Time of the Societal and Civilizational Reality
• D—The Situation in Europe at the Birth of Capitalism

Section 3: The Nation-State, the Modern Leviathan—the Descent of God on Earth

• A—The Phenomenon of Nation and its Development
• B—Defining the State
• C—The Ideology of the Capitalist Civilization and Its Elevation to Religion
• D—The History of the Hebrew Tribe—In Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust
• E—Power in Capitalist Modernity
• F—Capitalist Modernity and Nation-State

Section 4: The Time of Capitalist Modernity

• A—Monopolist Merchant Capitalism
• B—Industrial Revolution and the Age of Industrialism
• C—The Financial Age—Commander Money

Conclusion— Is a Compromise between State Civilization and Democratic Civilization Possible?

Illustrations


Editorial Note by International Initiative
Preface by Radha D’Souza
Reading Öcalan As a South Asian Woman
Introduction
Section 1: Factors That Gave Rise to Capitalism— The Thief in the House
A—Rationalism
1. Mentality and the Human
2. Reason and Society
B—Economism
C-Capitalism, Political Power and Law
D-The Location of Capitalism
E-Historical-Societal Civilizations and Capitalism
Section 2: The Mortal Enemy of Economy— The Unmasked God, Naked King and Commander Money in his own Palace
A—Capitalism is not Economy but Power
B—Evidence that Capitalism is not Economy
C—Relationship of Capitalism in Relation to Space and Time of the Societal and Civilizational Reality
D—The Situation in Europe at the Birth of Capitalism
Section 3: The Nation-State, The Modern Leviathan—The Descent of God on Earth
A—The Phenomenon of Nation and its Development
B—Defining the State
C—The Ideology of the Capitalist Civilization and its elevation to Religion
D-The History of the Hebrew Tribe—In Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust
E- Power in Capitalist Modernity
F- Capitalist Modernity and Nation-State
Section 4: The Time of Capitalist Modernity
A-Monopolist Merchant Capitalism
B—Industrial Revolution and the Age of Industrialism
C—The Financial Age – Commander Money
5. Conclusion— Is a Compromise between State Civilization and Democratic Civilization Possible?
Illustrations

Abdullah Öcalan actively led the Kurdish liberation struggle as the head of the PKK from its foundation in 1978 until his abduction on February 15, 1999. He is still regarded as a leading strategist and the most important political representative of the Kurdish freedom movement. Under isolation conditions at Imralı Island Prison, Öcalan authored more than ten books that revolutionized Kurdish politics. Several times he initiated unilateral cease-fires of the guerrilla and presented constructive proposals for a political solution to the Kurdish issue. For several years, Turkish state authorities led a “dialogue” with Öcalan. Ever since the government broke off the talks in April 2015, he has been held in total isolation at Imralı Island Prison, with no contact whatsoever with the outside world.