Dear guests, dear friends.
I greet you warmly as co-host on behalf of the Women's Council Rojbîn, and the Democratic
Society Center Hamburg.
It is an honor for us to welcome guests from many parts of the world today. This gathering is
very valuable and of great importance for us.
Welcome to the IV Conference "Challenging Capitalist Modernity."
The motto of this year's conference is, "We want our world back, Resistance, Reclaiming and
Rebuilding", the main topics are Autonomous Education and Organizing.
Actually, this conference was supposed to take place in the rooms of the University of
Hamburg. However, the director of the University of Hamburg, under pressure from the
Office for the Protection of the Constitution, cancelled the contract at short notice, citing
extremism, proximity to the Kurdish Freedom Movement and Abdullah Öcalan.
Although the last three conferences, 2012, 2015 and 2017 took place in the rooms of the
university, it probably occurred to you only now that there is a connection to the Kurdish
Freedom Movement and to Abdullah Öcalan.
It is a scandal and a shame that a university that stands for science, education and progress
allows itself to be guided by the domestic intelligence service.
But isn't that what capitalist modernity stands for? To destroy everything that represents a
real alternative? But wherever there is a struggle for a real democracy, there is always a
way, an alternative. So, with the help of many people in solidarity, we have found an
alternative place and way and we are happy to be here with you today.
We as Kurdish women and Kurdish people want to walk this path together with all those
who long for an alternative, dignified life. Because we know and see, from the example of
Rojava, that another life, an alternative system is possible. Rojava is not only an example for
the four parts of Kurdistan, but also an example for the whole humanity. An alternative
system that overcomes patriarchy, injustice, division and destruction.
We owe this paradigm, which is based on a women-liberating, ecological grassroots
democratic ideology, to the leader of the Kurdish people Abdullah Öcalan. Without his
ideas, courage and determination, we would not be standing here today. Through his ideas
and his incomparable struggle under the most severe isolation torture, he has helped the
cultures threatened by extinction, the woman declared to nothing and the poisoned nature
to a new life and a new dawn.
The resistance of Kurdish women today, through the strength and morality given to them by
Abdullah Ocalan, is the biggest threat to the capitalist system of rape - and the magic
formula "Jin Jiyan Azadî" is known through the Kurdish Women's Liberation Movement.
The resistance of Kurdish women today, through the strength and morality given to them by
Abdullah Ocalan, represents the hardest slap in the face of the capitalist rape system and his
magic formula "Jin Jiyan Azadî" has become a worldwide common philosophy through the
Kurdish Women's Liberation Movement.
As Kurdish women and Kurdish people, we have had to make and are still making many
sacrifices through the years of justice struggle. However, we know well that peace and
freedom are costly. Cost what it may, it is worth it. Because this world, with its diversity,
humanity and nature definitely deserves better.
This is exactly why we have come together today, to discuss together, to learn from each
other, and most importantly to find ideas and ways to organize together and fight together,
fight against the destructive system of capitalist modernity. Abdullah Ocalan has paved the
way to freedom and justice for us with his paradigm, now it is up to us to continue on this
path with determination and win back our world.
In this sense, we welcome you once again and wish you a successful and beautiful time.