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Title: The Nation-State Author: Abdullah Ă–calan Date: 2011 Language: en Topics: democratic confederalism, kurdistan, history, communalism, Rojava, turkey Source: http://www.freedom-for-ocalan.com/english/download/Ocalan-Democratic-Confederalism.pdf
With the sedentarization of people they began to form an idea of the
area that they were living in, its extension and its boundaries, which
were mostly determined by nature and features of the landscape. Clans
and tribes that had settled in a certain area and lived there for a long
period of time developed the notions of a common identity and of the
homeland. The boundaries between what the tribes saw as their homelands
were not yet borders. Commerce, culture or language were not restricted
by the boundaries. Territorial borders remained flexible for a long
time. Feudal structures prevailed almost everywhere and now and then
dynastic monarchies or great multi-ethnic empires rose with continuously
changing borders and many different languages and religious communities
like the Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire
or the British Empire. They survived long periods of time and many
political changes because their feudal basis enabled them to distribute
power flexibly over a wide range of smaller secondary power centres.
With the appearance of the nation-state trade, commerce and finance
pushed for political participation and subsequently added their power to
the traditional state structures. The development of the nation-state at
the beginning of the Industrial Revolution more than two hundred years
ago went hand in hand with the unregulated accumulation of capital on
the one hand and the unhindered exploitation of the fast growing
population on the other hand. The new bourgeoisie which rose from this
revolution wanted to take part in the political decisions and state
structures. Capitalism, their new economic system, thus became an
inherent component of the new nation-state. The nation-state needed the
bourgeoisie and the power of the capital in order to replace the old
feudal order and its ideology which rested on tribal structures and
inherited rights by a new national ideology which united all tribes and
clans under the roof of the nation. In this way, capitalism and
nation-state became so closely linked to each other that neither could
be imagined to exist without the other. As a consequence of this,
exploitation was not only sanctioned by the state but even encouraged
and facilitated. But above all the nation-state must be thought as the
maximum form of power. None of the other types of state have such a
capacity of power. One of the main reasons for this is that the upper
part of the middle-class has been linked to the process of
monopolization in an ever-more increasing manner. The nationstate itself
is the most developed complete monopoly. It is the most developed unity
of monopolies such as trade, industrial, finance and power. One should
also think of ideological monopoly as an indivisible part of the power
monopoly.
The religious roots of the state have already been discussed in detail
(A. Ocalan, The Roots of Civilisation, London, 2007). Many contemporary
political concepts and notions have their origin in religious or
theological concepts or structures. In fact, a closer look reveals that
religion and divine imagination brought about the first social
identities in history. They formed the ideological glue of many tribes
and other pre-state communities and defined their existence as
communities.
Later, after state structures had already developed, the traditional
links between state, power and society began to weaken. The sacred and
divine ideas and practices which had been present at the origin of the
community increasingly lost their meaning for the common identity and
were, instead, transferred onto power structures like monarchs or
dictators. The state and its power were derived from divine will and law
and its ruler became king by the grace of God. They represented divine
power on earth.
Today, most modern states call themselves secular, claiming that the old
bonds between religion and state have been severed and that religion is
no longer a part of the state. This is arguably only half the truth.
Even if religious institutions or representatives of the clergy do no
longer participate in political and social decision-making they still do
influence these decisions to an extent just as they are influenced
themselves by political or social ideas and developments. Therefore,
secularism, or laicism as it is called in Turkey, still contains
religious elements. The separation of state and religion is the result
of a political decision. It did not come naturally. This is why even
today power and state seem to be something given, god-given we might
even say. Notions like secular state or secular power remain ambiguous.
The nation-state has also allocated a number of attributes which serve
to replace older religiously rooted attributes like: nation, fatherland,
national flag, national anthem, and many others. Particularly notions
like the unity of state and nation serve to transcend the material
political structures and are, as such, reminiscent of the pre-state
unity with God. They have been put in the place of the divine
When in former times a tribe subjugated another tribe its members had to
worship the gods of the victors. We may arguably call this process a
process of colonization, even assimilation. The nation-state is a
centralized state with quasi-divine attributes that has completely
disarmed the society and monopolizes the use of force.
Since the nation-state transcends its material basis, the citizens, it
assumes an existence beyond its political institutions. It needs
additional institutions of its own to protect its ideological basis as
well as legal, economic and religious structures. The resulting
ever-expanding civil and military bureaucracy is expensive and serves
only the preservation of the transcendent state itself, which in turn
elevates the bureaucracy above the people. During the European modernity
the state had all means at its disposal to expand its bureaucracy into
all strata of the society. There it grew like cancer infecting all
lifelines of the society. Bureaucracy and nation-state cannot exist
without each other. If the nation-state is the backbone of the
capitalist modernity it certainly is the cage of the natural society.
Its bureaucracy secures the smooth functioning of the system, secures
the basis of the production of goods, and secures the profits for the
relevant economic actors in both the real-socialist and the
business-friendly nation-state. The nation-state domesticates the
society in the name of capitalism and alienates the community from its
natural foundations. Any analysis meant to localize and solve social
problems needs to take a close look at these links
The nation-state in its original form aimed at the monopolization of all
social processes. Diversity and plurality had to be fought, an approach
that led into assimilation and genocide. It does not only exploit the
ideas and the labour potential of the society and colonize the heads of
the people in the name of capitalism. It also assimilates all kinds of
spiritual and intellectual ideas and cultures in order to preserve its
own existence. It aims at creating a single national culture, a single
national identity, and a single unified religious community. Thus it
also enforces a homogeneous citizenship. The notion of citizen has been
created as a result of the quest for such a homogeneity. The citizenship
of modernity defines nothing but the transition made from private
slavery to state slavery. Capitalism can not attain profit in the
absence of such modern slave armies. The homogenic national society is
the most artificial society to have ever been created and is the result
of the “social engineering project”. These goals are generally
accomplished by the use of force or by financial incentives and have
often resulted in the physical annihilation of minorities, cultures, or
languages or in forced assimilation. The history of the last two
centuries is full of examples illustrating the violent attempts at
creating a nation that corresponds to the imaginary reality of a true
nation-state.
It is often said that the nation-state is concerned with the fate of the
common people. This is not true. Rather, it is the national governor of
the worldwide capitalist system, a vassal of the capitalist modernity
which is more deeply entangled in the dominant structures of the capital
than we usually tend to assume: It is a colony of the capital.
Regardless how nationalist the nationstate may present itself, it serves
to the same extent the capitalist processes of exploitation. There is no
other explanation for the horrible redistribution wars of the capitalist
modernity. Thus the nation-state is not with the common people – it is
an enemy of the peoples. Relations between other nation-states and
international monopolies are coordinated by the diplomats of the
nation-state. Without the recognition by other nation-states none of
them could survive. The reason can be found in the logic of the
worldwide capitalist system. Nation-states which leave the phalanx of
the capitalist system will be overtaken by the same fate that the Saddam
regime in Iraq experienced or it will be brought to its knees by means
of economic embargoes. Let us now derive some characteristics of the
nation-state from the example of the Republic of Turkey.
In the past the history of states was often equated with the history of
their rulers, which lent them almost divine qualities. This practice
changed with the rise of the nation-state. Now the entire state was
idealized and elevated to a divine level.
Assuming that we would compare the nation-state to a living god then
nationalism would be the correspondent religion. In spite of some
seemingly positive elements, nation-state and nationalism show
metaphysical characteristics. In this context, capitalist profit and the
accumulation of capital appear as categories shrouded in mystery. There
is a network of contradictory relations behind these terms that is based
on force and exploitation. Their hegemonic strive for power serves the
maximization of profits. In this sense, nationalism appears as a
quasi-religious justification. Its true mission, however, is its service
to the virtually divine nation-state and its ideological vision which
pervades all areas of the society. Arts, science, and social awareness:
none of them is independent. A true intellectual enlightenment therefore
needs a fundamental analysis of these elements of modernity.
The paradigm of a positivist or descriptive science forms another
ideological pillar of the nation-state. It fuels nationalist ideology
but also laicism which has taken the form of a new religion. On the
other hand it is one of the ideological foundations of modernity and its
dogmata have influenced the social sciences sustainably. Positivism can
be circumscribed as a philosophical approach that is strictly confined
to the appearance of things, which it equates with reality itself. Since
in positivism appearance is reality, nothing that has no appearance can
be part of reality. We know from quantum physics, astronomy, some fields
of biology and even the gist of thought itself that reality occurs in
worlds that are beyond observable events. The truth, in the relationship
between the observed and the observer, has mystified itself to the
extent that it no longer fits any physical scale or definition.
Positivism denies this and thus, to an extent, resembles the idol
worshipping of ancient times, where the idol constitutes the image of
reality.
Another ideological pillar of the nation-state is the sexism that
pervades the entire society. Many civilized systems have employed sexism
in order to preserve their own power. They enforced women’s exploitation
and used them as a valuable reservoir of cheap labour. Women are also
regarded as a valuable resource in so far as they produce offspring and
provide the reproduction of men. Thus, woman is both a sexual object and
a commodity. She is a tool for the preservation of male power and can at
best advance to become an accessory of the patriarchal male society. On
the one hand, the sexism of the society of the nation-state strengthens
the power of the men; on the other hand the nationstate turns its
society into a colony by the exploitation of women. In this respect
women can also be regarded as an exploited nation. In the course of the
history of civilization the patriarchy consolidated the traditional
framework of hierarchies, which in the nation-state is fuelled by
sexism. Socially rooted sexism is just like nationalism an ideological
product of the nation-state and of power. Socially rooted sexism is not
less dangerous than capitalism. The patriarchy, however, tries to hide
these facts at any rate. This is understandable with a view to the fact
that all power relations and state ideologies are fuelled by sexist
concepts and behaviour. Without the repression of the women the
repression of the entire society is not conceivable. The sexism within
the nation-state society while on the one hand gives the male the
maximum power on the other hand turns the society through the woman into
the worst colony of all. Hence woman is the historical-society’s colony
nation which has reached its worst position within the nation-state. All
the power and state ideologies stem from sexist attitudes and behaviour.
Woman’s slavery is the most profound and disguised social area where all
types of slavery, oppression and colonization are realized. Capitalism
and nation-state act in full awareness of this. Without woman’s slavery
none of the other types of slavery can exist let alone develop.
Capitalism and nation-state denote the most institutionalized dominant
male. More boldly and openly spoken: capitalism and nation-state are the
monopolism of the despotic and exploitative male.
Even if it acts seemingly like a secular state, the nation-state does
not shy away from using a mélange of nationalism and religion for its
purposes. The reason is simple: religion still plays an important part
in some societies or parts of them. In particular Islam is very agile in
this respect. However, religion in the age of modernity does no longer
play its traditional role. Whether it is a radical of a moderate belief,
religion in the nation-state does no longer have a mission in the
society. It can only do what it is permitted by the nation-state. Its
still existing influence and its functionality, which can be mis-used
for the promotion of nationalism, are interesting aspects for the
nation-state. In some cases religion even takes on the part of
nationalism. The Shi’ah of Iran is one of the most powerful ideological
weapons of the Iranian state. In Turkey the Sunni ideology plays a
similar but more limited part.
After the preceding short introduction into the nation-state and its
ideological basics we will now see why the foundation of a separate
Kurdish nation-state does not make sense for the Kurds. Over the last
decades the Kurds have not only struggled against repression by the
dominant powers and for the recognition of their existence but also for
the liberation of their society from the grip of feudalism. Hence it
does not make sense to replace the old chains by new ones or even
enhance the repression. This is what the foundation of a nation-state
would mean in the context of the capitalist modernity. Without
opposition against the capitalist modernity there will be no place for
the liberation of the peoples. This is why the founding of a Kurdish
nation-state is not an option for me. The call for a separate
nation-state results from the interests of the ruling class or the
interests of the bourgeoisie but does not reflect the interests of the
people since another state would only be the creation of additional
injustice and would curtail the right to freedom even more. The solution
to the Kurdish question, therefore, needs to be found in an approach
that weakens the capitalist modernity or pushes it back. There are
historical reasons, social peculiarities and actual developments as well
as the fact that the settlement area of the Kurds extends over the
territories of four different countries which make a democratic solution
indispensable. Furthermore, there is also the important fact that the
entire Middle East suffers from a democracy deficit. Thanks to the
geostrategic situation of the Kurdish settlement area successful Kurdish
democratic projects promise to advance the democratization of the Middle
East in general. Let us call this democratic project democratic
confederalism.