As part of the global Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Days, a promotion meeting was held in London presenting the graphic novel ‘Freedom Shall Prevail: The Struggle of Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish People’.

The promotion meeting organised by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Kurdish People's Assembly in Britain and the Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Movement Committee at the Kurdish Community Centre (KCC) building was well attended. Scottish writer Sean Michael Wilson, the award-winning author of the graphic novel, and Reimar Heider from the International Initiative for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan attended the launch meeting.

Seyit Suruç, Co-Chair of the Kurdish People's Assembly in Britain, made the opening speech of the event, which started with a minute of silence in memory of the martyrs of the Kurdistan revolution. Drawing attention to the importance of the global campaign ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’, Suruç said: “The captivity of Leader Öcalan is the captivity of the Kurdish people. The freedom of the leader means the freedom of the Kurdish and Middle Eastern peoples.”

The graphic novel brings the new generation together with the Leader

The project editor of the book, Reimar Heider from the International Initiative for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan, pointed out that the new generation especially has difficulty with reading books and said, “We have tried to develop a more practical solution. We have created this graphic novel book which develops an easy and understandable reading.”

Noting that Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan's influence on the Rojava revolution had a positive effect, Reimer said, “Unfortunately, Leader Öcalan did not have a direct connection with the new generation. In the ’90s, the Leader could address Kurds and the world directly on television. This graphic novel especially brings the new generation together with the Leader.”

Sean Michael Wilson, the author of the book, made a presentation on the process of the book. Wilson stated that the Democratic Confederalism paradigm is important for him and said: “I spent my childhood in Belfast. My interest in Kurdistan and Rojava is related to my childhood experiences. I can empathise between the times when the police-military pointed a gun at my face and what is happening in Kurdistan today. And Democratic Confederalism is a good example for society to get rid of this disease of capitalism and to heal.”

An important tool in terms of reaching the new generation

Remarking that he has written 45 graphic novels to date, including names such as Noam Chomsky and Jeremy Corbyn, Wilson said that the formation process of the book began when he met his Kurdish friend Estella Schmid at an event in Britain. Explaining the process of the book's formation and the techniques they used, Wilson said he was happy that there was great interest in the book, especially in Kurdistan. He stated that the book consists of two parts. The first part is about Abdullah Öcalan's childhood, and the second part is about Rojava and the Democratic Confederalism paradigm: “The new generation does not read many books. Comic books are used more. And this is an important tool in terms of reaching this new generation... This book was important in terms of showing the struggle in written and graphic novel form. In this book you can visually go back to Öcalan's childhood. The life experience of the leader during his childhood, his childhood among different peoples and his experience here turns into a paradigm and philosophy, and this is how the paradigm of Democratic Confederalism is shaped. And you will see that this experience has become vital in the paradigm of democratic confederalism.”

 Stating that they could not include all the stages of Democratic Confederalism in the book, Wilson said, “Estella, one of the living main characters of the book, makes a simple sentence at the end of the book. She says ‘democratic organisation’ for all of us. This means that in Kurdistan, in Ireland, wherever we are, developing democracy locally and from below is the essence of Democratic Confederalism.”

Wilson's speech was followed by a question-and-answer session. The participants thanked Michael Wilson.

‘I am a student of this book’

Stating that the process of the book's creation was a studentship for him, Wilson said: “With this book, I got to know and read Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdish people. I learnt about Abdullah Öcalan's enormous ideas. A graphic novel means being a student to learn about some struggles. I learnt many things from the leader of the Kurdish people. Being a writer is being a student. I am a student of this book.” Citing Noam Chomsky's remark ‘We need leaders with good ideas’, Wilson said: “Abdullah Öcalan is not just a good leader. Abdullah Öcalan is a good leader with good ideas.”

Signing the book, Wilson said that the Kurdish people and their leader taught him a lot and said, “Thank you for teaching me so much.”

The meeting continued with a cultural programme entitled ‘Let's unite around the ideas of Leader Öcalan’.

Participants of the event then danced to songs written for Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish freedom struggle.

Background

Freedom Shall Prevail is the first graphic novel exploring the life and struggle of Abdullah Öcalan, affectionately known as “Apo.”

Highly regarded around the world, Öcalan led the Kurdish freedom struggle as the head of the PKK from its foundation in 1978 until his abduction by the Turkish state in 1999. He has, so far, spent twenty-five years in captivity. In this graphic novel we learn, in his own words, what Öcalan’s childhood was like in the partially Kurdish areas of Eastern Turkey and how his political awareness and commitment grew as a student in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Through the personal struggle of Öcalan we also see the terrible devastation that Kurdish people have suffered and learn about the tumultuous and dramatic history of the relationship between the Kurds and the Turkish state.

The book also dives into the theories developed by Öcalan that continue to influence the ongoing struggle today. Expanding on these, the second part of the book gives us a wider consideration of the issues and policies around women's freedom, democratic confederalism and paints an inspiring picture of one of the most impressive attempts to build a genuinely grassroots democratic system anywhere in the world. The struggle going on in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, also known as Rojava, is one that is directly combatting gender and racial discrimination and the abuses of the capitalist economic system—in truly interconnected ways.

The wonderfully illustrated graphic novel is a collaboration between award-winning Scottish writer Sean Michael Wilson and Kurdish artist Keko, with backing and research help from the Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and the International Initiative “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan—Peace in Kurdistan,” groups with long-term and impassioned commitment to the cause of Öcalan and the Kurdish people’s freedom.