Philosopher Spivak writes to Ocalan: ‘You have proposed a path to democratic existence’

Indian literary theorist and philosopher Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has written a letter addressed to Abdullah Ocalan, expressing her support for the Peace and Democratic Society Process. Spivak’s letter was delivered to the İmralı Delegation of the DEM Party.

Gayatri Spivak stated that she was impressed by Ocalan’s resilience despite the conditions of his decades-long imprisonment and emphasized the importance of his call for gender equality. Noting that the Framework Law strengthens the prospect of Ocalan securing his freedom, Spivak stressed that the fundamental question is how to build a democratic society.

The letter reads as follows:

“Dear Brother Abdullah Ocalan,

I have long been impressed by the resilience you have shown throughout your prolonged imprisonment, much of it spent in isolation. I have also been particularly moved by your call for gender equality. Now there is the Framework Law, which further strengthens the possibility of your release.

Your real challenges, however, are only now beginning. Because you have proposed the more complex and more productive path of democratic existence rather than a form of proto-nationalist self-preservation. This requires an education system aimed at developing a sustained epistemological approach that will enable children, when they eventually become voters, to grasp the paradox of democracy: freedom for ourselves, and a powerful desire for equality for those who are different from us, as well as for a just world.

For nearly 60 years, I have been trying to do precisely this: working with the elite by teaching European literature at Columbia University, while also working with the most marginalized sections of society by running primary schools for the children of landless, illiterate, and so-called ‘untouchable’ and Indigenous communities. Others teach how to produce knowledge, but some of us must also teach how to learn.

It is particularly important today that children learn to desire a just society, as the world is undergoing a profound transformation due to climate change and artificial intelligence.

I wish you all the best, my brother.

Respectfully.”