The Network for an Alternative Quest is organising the second conference with the title “Challenging Capitalist Modernity II: Dissecting Capitalist Modernity–Building Democratic Confederalism”, as a follow-up of the first one in the German city of Hamburg in 2012.

For three days as of today, academics, scientists and activists from over 20 countries around the world will come together and discuss perspectives to overcome the current, crisis-struck system of capitalist modernity and the ideas of the Kurdish freedom movement and others on this topic.

The conference which will take place on the Easter weekend, 3-5 April 2015, in Hamburg University, Audimax shall also focus on the critique of the capitalist modernity but most importantly it will in detail talk about how to build its alternative. Thus economy and women’s freedom shall be two main themes in the 2015 conference.

The headlines of the 5 topic blocks are:

• Dissecting Capitalist Modernity

• Capitalist Modernity vs Democratic Modernity

• Industrialism vs Ecological Industry and Communal Economy

• Overcoming the Stumbling Blocks of Revolutionary Theory

• Lessons to be Learned from Alternative Practises

Prof. John Holloway, Prof. David Harvey, Prof. David Graeber, PYD co-chair Asya Abdullah, Prof. Elmar Altvater, Janet Biehl, David Graeber, Dr. Radha D'Souza, Dr. Muriel Gonzales Athenas and Dr. Sabine Rollberg are among some of the participants of the conference. The Rojava experience will be discussed in a special panel, while the whole congress will be broadcasted live in several languages, including Turkish, Kurdish, English and German. A stand for the books of Öcalan translated in various languages will also be opened at the entrance of the hall at the conference.

Songül Karabulut, a member of the organising committee told ANF that the aim of the conference is to introduce the thoughts of the Kurdish Leader Abdullah Öcalan to the international community, adding that the conference will discuss viable alternatives at the age of the crisis that hit the whole world in the last decades.

Karabulut said that different life forms, ecology, industry, self-defence are among the topics to be discussed at the conference, while women’s liberation shall be on the foreground of the conference. Karabulut pointed out that all the national liberation movements attach certain importance to the role of women, however Abdullah Öcalan puts the issue from the perspective of total liberation of women.

For this year’s conference, the preparatory committee gave students, scholars and everybody else the opportunity to present their research to the audience of the conference, and called on everyone to submit a paper on one or several of the following topics:

"Cultural Hegemony Gramsci and Öcalan 75 years later

Power and Truth, the notion of power for Öcalan and Foucaut

Feminism and the Kurds

After Marx: Braudel, Wallerstein and Öcalan on Economy and Capitalism

Democratic Confederalism – the Practice of Social Ecology?"

The “Network for an Alternative Quest” is composed of various Kurdish and German organisations, including International Initiative “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan–Peace in Kurdistan, KURD-AKAD Network of Kurdish Academics, YXK – Association of Students from Kurdistan, Kur ­ distan Report, ISKU - Informationsstelle Kurdistan e.V., Cenî – Kurdish Women's Office for Peace, Civaka Azad – Kurdish Center for Public Relations, SAMER-Political and Social Research Center (Amed) and Mesopotamia Social Sciences Academy (Qamishlo).

The Program for Conference is;

CHALLENGING CAPITALIST MODERNITY II DISSECTING CAPITALIST MODERNITY

BUILDING DEMOCRATIC CONFEDERALISM

3 April 2015 – Friday

12:00-13:00 Welcoming Speeches and Messages

Welcoming Speech | Prof. Norman Paech

Introduction | Prof. Elmar Altvater Opening Speech | Reimar Heider

Messages of Greeting | Prof. Silvia Federici, Abdullah Öcalan and others

13:00-15:00 Session 1

Dissecting Capitalist Modernity

Moderation: N. N.

1. Scientism—Re-colonization of the Mind | Dr. Muriel Gonzales Athenas

2. Capitalism—Accumulation of Value or Power? | Kenan Ayaz

3. Nation State—God on Earth? | Prof. David Harvey

4. Industrialism—Law, Science and Imperialism | Dr. Radha D'Souza

5. Religionism and Secularism—Religion and the State | N. N.

6. Cultural Hegemony—Gramsci and Öcalan | Call for Papers*

15:00-16:30 Discussion

16:30-18:00 Dinner Break

18:00-20:00 Session 2

Democratic Modernity

Moderation: Eirik Eiglad

1. New Concepts—Democratic Confederalism  Democratic Autonomy | Havin Guneser

2. Liberating Life: Political and Moral Society | Emine Ayna

3. Democratic Nation—A Cure for Nationalism | Asya Abdullah

4. Power and Truth—Foucault and Öcalan | Call for Papers*

5. Democratic Confederalism—The Practice of Social Ecology? | Call for Papers*

20:00-21:30 Discussion

4 April 2015 – Saturday

10:00-12:00 Session 3

Ecological Industry and Communal Economy

Moderation: Thomas Konicz

1. Communal Economy: The Case for the Commons | Silke Helfrich

2. Cooperatives in Catalonia and the Basque Country | N. N.

3. Human Economies | Prof. David Graeber 4. Braudel, Wallerstein and Öcalan on Economy and Capitalism | Call for Papers*

12:00-13:30 Discussion

13:30-15:00 Lunch Break

15:00-16:30 Session 4

Overcoming the Stumbling Blocks of Revolutionary Theory

Moderation: N. N.

1. Reproducing Capitalism: Consumption and Habits | Ahmet Pelda

2. New Concepts of Self-defense | Fidan Yıldırım

3. The Centrality of Women’s Freedom | Sara Aktaş

4. Aesthetics, Culture, Arts and Beauty | N. N.

5. Power Relations: State and Family | Dr. Nazan Üstündağ

6. Feminism and the Kurds | Call for Papers*

16:30-18:00 Discussion

18:00-19:00 Evening Break

19:00-21:00 Concert Rotînda, Zelal Gökçe, Meral Tekçi, Mehmet Akbas

5 April 2015, Sunday

10:00-12:30 Session 5a

Lessons to be Learned from Alternative Practices

Moderation: Anja Flach

1. Internationalism—an Evolving Concept | N. N. (YXK)

2. Montreal: Assemblies and the State | Dimitrios Roussopoulos

3. South Africa: Progressive Politics in a Capitalist Country? | Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo

4. Brazil: The Landless Workers’ Movement | N. N. Democratic Confederalism in Kurdistan—Work in Progress

5. Rojava: The Cantons—Resistance and Construction | Dr. Ahmad Yousef

6. Başûr: Stuck between Freedom and the State | Şîlan Şakir

12:30-14:00 Discussion

14:00-15:00 Lunch Break

15:00-17:00 Session 5b

Lessons to be Learned from Alternative Practices

Moderation: Prof. Sabine Rollberg

7. Rojhilat: The KODAR Model | Shirzad Kamangar

8. Bakur: From State to Democracy | Selma Irmak

9. The Fourth World War and How to Win it—A Tribute to Kurds and Zapatistas | Prof. John Holloway

10. Bolivia: The Plurinational State | Marcelo Elío Chávez

11. New England & Rojava: Assembly Democracies | Janet Biehl

12. Philippines: Building NGOs and Involving Communities | N. N.

17:00-18:00 Discussion

18:00-18:25 Closing speech

New Horizons: Reconstructing Liberation | Gönül Kaya