The Workers Movement in Turkey

Figures:

Turkey has 70 million citizens, of which 20 million are employed, of which 10 million are insured workers (including their relatives and the pensioned people), of which 1 million are organised in union, of which 300.000 are members of DISK (Revolutionary Workers Union Confederation)

Hindrances for union work:

• To participate in collective negotiations, a union must represent at least 10% nationally of the workers in a certain sector.
• In a factory, a union must represent at least 50% of the workers. To become member of a union, this has to be testified by a notary -which costs money-. The Department of Social Affairs must check these numbers and confirm them. When this is not done, the union needs to take legal action. In case of a confirmation by the department, a entrepreneur can appeal. This procedure can take 6 months. During this period, the entrepreneur can sack the union members, reducing the level below 50%.
• The State has the right, at any time, to prohibit a strike for “state interests”, as happened in 1995.
• Unionists are subjected to all kind of repression: “disappearances”, arrests and torture. Getting elected as union official is impossible after a jail sentence.
• The state does not pay, or only in part, the contributions to the unions, depending on the number of members.

What kind of unions are there?

Turk-Is: State union. The only union which was allowed after the military coup in 1980, therefore it has the largest number of members.

DISK: had 600.000 members before the coup. Banned in 1980, its officials were prosecuted.

HAK-Is: Close to the Refah Party. Relatively small and playing just a subordinate role in the workers struggle.

KESK: Civil servants union, founded in 1995. Since 1982, it was forbidden for civil servants to organise in unions. Despite this ban, revolutionaries founded Bem-Sen (Union of Communal Administrations), Saglik-Sen (Union for Health care workers), KAM-SEN (Union for public servants) in the form of associations in 1989. They did not limit their struggle to economical demands, and in 1992 they were banned again. Many were arrested, tortured, or “disappeared” like Aysenur Simsek in January 1995 (chairperson of Saglik-Sen in Ankara). However, the unions were always founded again, despite the repression, using similar names. One year ago, the ban to found unions was lifted after national and international pressure. However, means of pressure like strikes are forbidden and political items may not be addressed. Thus the civil servants unions, with the exception of the revolutionary unions, look more like social clubs.

What unions in what sectors can be called revolutionary?

After the military coup in 1980, all democratic organisations, therefore also the unions, were banned. Only Turk-Is, in reality an extension of the state, was allowed to continue. But because this was the only way to organise, in some sectors the progressive forces got the upper-hand. These were: Liman-Is (harbours), Hava-Is (airports), Deri-Is (leather), Basin-Is (print), Petrol-Is (oil), Tum-Is (Transport), and Harb-Is (weapon industry). However, these sectors were relatively small and therefore of limited strategic importance. The main sectors remained in the hands of the fascists: Turk-Metall-Is (metal), Dok-Gemi-Is (harbours), Seker-Is (sugar), Tes Is (energy), Orman-Is (wood), Koop-Is (retail), Turk-Haber-Is (press agencies), Teksif (textile)

Because of this situation, it sometimes happens that parts of Turk-Is are more revolutionary than there counterparts in the DISK. The most progressive unions are: Deri-Is in Tuzla (Turk-Is), Genel-Is (workers in communal administrations) and Nakliyat (transport), both of the DISK.

The best collective contracts exist in the sectors: Oil, plastics, metal and mining, communal administration. Civil servants usually earn less than workers because they did not have the opportunity to organise themselves (since 1980) and they could not a struggle for higher wages. This had of course its side-effects: a civil servant has to be corrupt in order to feed a family.

History.

The history of the workers movement is a long one and books could be filled with it. Here are just a few examples to give an impression of the reality in Turkey:

Because of the feudal structures, which in part prevail even today, capitalism starts to develop relatively late, therefore the organising of the workers and the workers struggle starts to develop quite late as well.

There are strong impulses because of the adjacent Soviet Union, but the first communist party, TKP (founded in 1920), still believes the revolution can be achieved by democratic means.

1923: An army, led by patriots, wages an anti-imperialist war of liberation. After their victory, they start to oppress the opposition, including all communist organisations. Unions and strikes are banned.

1950: The DP – Democratic Party -, supported by the USA, wins the elections, promising the right to strike, support of the agricultural sector, fighting inflation. However, the right to organise for workers and peasant organisations is abolished again as soon as the people really start to organise themselves. The opposition grows, left wing parties are founded and draw much support.

May 22, 1960: The coup of patriotic generals leads to a relatively democratic constitution. This constitution is approved in a plebiscite by 61%. During this time, many left wing parties emerge. Left wing and communist literature is translated into Turkish. The two largest movements are:

• YON – Bourgeois Nationalist Tendency: nationalist, anti-capitalist, intellectual, but not socialist. Accepts socialism, but rejects class struggle. This movement dissolves after the military coup in 1971.
• TIP – Turkish Workers Party: founded in 1961 by unionist. Did a lot of education among peasants and workers. In its program they plan the victory of the party by democratic elections, the demolition of imperialism and the transformation to socialism.

1965: After the murder of 2 miners by the police during the strike in Kozlu, a silent march is organised. Thousands of people participate. The student participate as well in a organised form.

– Since then there is a strong bond between the workers and the student organisations –

1967: DISK – Devrimci Isci Sendika Konfederation (Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Unions) is founded. In 1980 it had become a mass organisation with 600.000 members. However, its struggle was limited to economic demands.

1969: The youth movement “Devrimci Genclik” breaks through the parliamentary reformist policy of the Turkish left and it influences the workers movement. June 15-16, 1969: General strike. With 800.000 participants, this became the largest manifestation in the history of Turkey. The strike is aimed against a proposed law which would only allow unions to represent insured workers in a certain sector if they would organise at least 1/3 of these workers in the whole country. Thus all democratic and revolutionary unions would be eliminated. The demonstrations end in a massacre: the police opens fire against the crowd at random.

March 12, 1971: The new military junta describes the constitution of 1961 as “too liberal”, and it is abolished. The state of emergency is declared, all democratic organisations are banned, the freedom of organisation, press and information are abolished, many books are forbidden.

1973: A new civilian government is put in power. Many important positions are occupied by fascists who continue their terror against the population.

1974: Despite the ban on strikes, DISK is able to organise a strike with 100.000 workers.

April 24, 1975: The worker Abdi Omen gets wounded during confrontations. The police arrests him, but he is not brought to hospital and he bleeds to death. During the protests against this murder, the police uses armoured vehicles, guns and grenades. The people resist with bricks and Molotov-cocktails.

1977: The process of organising reaches it zenith.

May 1, 1977:In total 250-300 thousand people take part in the demonstration. The police opens fire against the crowd, killing 34 people. Streetfights emerge.

1978:The massacres by civic fascists against the people increase. “Devrimci Sol” (Revolutionary Left) emerges, connecting the workers and the student movement, waging the armed struggle, following the example of the THKP-C (Turkish People’s Liberation Party-Front).

September 12, 1980: MILITARY COUP.

With this military coup, the imperialist react against the growing organisation of the people. All democratic organisations are banned, hundreds of people are murdered, thousands are arrested, numerous people go into exile. Some 1.000 officials of DISK are arrested.

1984:Death Fast by the political prisoners, lasting for 73 days. 4 comrades die in this strike, but it gives the people outside the prison strength again to continue the fight.

1987: Strike at Migros. This strike, led by the 3. district of Teskoop-Is (of which Aynur Karaaslan is chairperson) was the first workers struggle after the military coup which would be successful. This is an indication for the developments in later years in which women emancipate and increasingly start to take over their responsibility in the revolutionary struggle.

– Aynur Karaaslan started her union activities in 1977. Until 1980, she worked in the independent union PAKSAT-IS. The trial against her, started by the military junta, ended in 1983. Together with her friends, she organised in Turk-Is. After a tip by the Political Police, she was expelled in 1989. Now she works for DISK-Genel Is in Istanbul –

May 1, 1987: Despite a ban, the people take to the streets again and demand their rights. Salih Kul and Ozturk Acar are shot.

1988: Spanish print workers are on strike. Therefore the money is going to be printed in Turkey. In solidarity with the comrades in Spain, the workers refuse this work. May 1, 1988: Despite the repression and the massacres in the previous years, 5.000 students and workers march to Taksim square. The police intervenes. Barricades are put up, streetfights emerge.

May 1, 1989: Again thousands of workers, students and inhabitants of the Gecekondus gather to demand their rights. The student M. Akif Dalci is shot by the police.

1991: The ban against the DISK is lifted.

January 3, 1991: The whole people shows its opposition against the Ozal regime. With a general strike they protest against the imperialist war, and show their support for the miners. Workers and civil servants put down their work. Shops remain closed, busses and mini-busses strike. Housewives symbolically show their empty pots, the garbage is not collected, even the merchants in the Bazaar are keeping their shops closed. Some universities remain totally empty. August 1991: The strike and the factory occupation by 12.000 glass workers in Pasabahce/Istanbul against the sackings is successful. The workers of the glass factory are supported by the civil servant unions (Bem-Sen, Saglik-Sen), also financially. Their is broad support among the population.

– This is just one example of the solidarity between the workers in several sectors, the toilers, civil servants, students and artists. (Frequently, there are solidarity meetings for the relatives of sacked workers where artist perform for free.) –

March on Ankara: 100.000 miners from Zonguldak march to Ankara for days. Everywhere they are welcomed and provided with food and drinks. They demand higher wages and social security.

Statistics 1995: In the statistics world-wide of deadly accidents in the mining industry, Turkey leads with 119 deaths for every 1 million ton of coal. Second on this sad statistics comes Pakistan with 30 deaths. This imbalance, compared to countries with a relatively high grade of education and modern technology, such as in Europe, can be explained like this: the imperialists (in this case from England), who own a large part of the mines, haven’t invested for years in modernisation and security measures. Fascism makes sure the workers can not organise themselves. –

May 1, 1992: The MayDay demonstration is allowed this time. The authorities gibe in to the pressure of the people who, despite the repression and the massacres, take to the streets on MayDay each year in ever increasing numbers.

1993: Proclaimed as Year of the Strikes by the DISK.

Because of the conditions of the IMF though, it becomes a year of mass sackings. Successes: – The 341 sackings of city workers in Kagtithanse are withdrawn after a march to Ankara and a hunger strike. – The administration of Kucuk Cekmece/Istanbul has to pay the withheld wages after 80 days of resistance and demonstrations of the workers. – Turbo Filter in Mersin sacks 80 unionists who demand better working conditions. After a strike by the workers, they are employed again. – 600.000 workers make “doctors visits”, meaning that workers go to their doctors collectively to get a declaration of illness in order not to go to work.

May 1, 1993: More and more people participate in the demonstration each year. In the ranks of Devrimci Sol, 6.000 people march.

January 10, 1994: 300.000 civil servants in the whole country protest for their right to organise themselves in unions. In Ankara, armed policemen attack the demonstration, several people are wounded.

January 13, 1994: The protests of the civil servants continue in all major cities. In total 10.000 civil servants strike on this day.

April 5, 1994: Ciller signs a new contract with the IMF, which would lead to new privatisations, price increases, and thousands of factories closed down.

April 11, 1994: 70.000 miners demonstrate in Zonguldak against the closing of the pits and the privatisation.

April 12, 1994: In Gebze, 7.000 workers from the steel- and glass factories demonstrate in solidarity with the miners in Zonguldak.

April 24, 1994: 15.000 workers from the steelworks in Karabak protest against the closure of their plant.

July, 1994: 50.000 civil servants from all major cities march in Ankara, demanding the right to organise themselves in unions.

July 20, 1994: General strike against the April 5 package, 4 million people participate. This general strike was practically organised by the grass root organisations in the unions and the neighbourhoods, associations and students because the leadership of several unions do call for a general strike, but do not organise it factually.

January 24, 1995: 200.000 workers march in Ankara against the consequences of the April 5 package.

May 1, 1995: From the 100.000 participants in the demonstration, 15.000 march under the banners of the DHKP-C (formerly known as Devrimci Sol).

May 16, 1995: After the Refah Party wins the elections in Eminonu, it appoints its own followers, sacking 260 workers. For 258 of them, protective measures apply (for instance: people who are just 5 years from their pension may not be sacked). The workers start their resistance, supported by their families, colleagues and the population. 3 members from Genel Is start a death fast. This measure is necessary because the city administration, controlled by the Refah Party, is sacking more and more workers. On the 101. day of the resistance and the 34. day of the Death Fast, the city has to give in, and the 180 workers who had not taken another job till then, are re-employed.

October, 1995: Despite the inflation of 139%, the government only grants small wage increases in the negotiations with Turk Is for the workers in the food industry. Because of the pressure by the workers, Turk Is is forced to call a strike. When the government tries to import food from abroad, the harbour workers join the strike. The transport workers, car factory workers, metal workers and workers from all unions follow. At the height of the strike, 600.000 workers participate. This causes a major crisis for the government. In the end it bans the strike “for national interests”. Turk Is does not resist, accepts the small wage increase, and orders the workers to go back to work. An official who openly calls the link between the state and Turks Is “collaboration” is arrested. Turk Is refuses him any kind of help.

October 21, 1996: The textile worker Duzgun Tekin, an active DISK-Textil Is member “disappears”. After he was followed by plainclothes police for already one week, he was never seen again after he left his house at 7 o’clock.

March 12, 1996: At the anniversary of the uprising in Gazi/Istanbul, in which 40.000 people participated, and more than 40 people were killed, there are strikes at all universities in the country. The population takes to the street. In Gazi alone, 30.000 people march.

May 1, 1996: 100.000 people take to the street. Workers, students, and the population from the Gecekondus. At the start of the demonstration, Dursun Odabasi and Hasan Albayrak are shot by the police because they refused to get searched. Despite this provocation, the people keep calm. They carry out their demonstration in an orderly and disciplined fashion. This prevented a massacre and it gave the people in Turkey self-confidence. After the final rally, when the families had already left the square, the massacre receives it answer. The streetfights continue for hours. Banks and enterprises owned by fascists are destroyed, police care are wrecked. A plainclothes policeman, who tried to mingle among the demonstrators, gets beaten up. In this hours, Levent Yalcin is executed by a marksmen of the police.

Death Fast: To support the resistance of the Death Fast, and to show that the repression of the fascist state concerns all people, 4 unionists from the DISK Genel-Is go on Death Fast as well. The leather workers in Tuzla lay down their work, thousands of them take to the streets. The workers from Genel-Is lay down their work for 2 hours. Workers from Genel-Is and Belediye-Is (Turk-Is) in Izmit go on hunger strike.

THE STUDENT MOVEMENT IN TURKEY

There are several democratic and revolutionary student organisations in Turkey. We want to tell the history of the history of the student movement, using Devrimci Genclik, the largest and most progressive movement at present, as an example. (The list of events isn’t complete, but it’s sufficient to get a picture of the students’ reality in Turkey.)

We have taken up arms for independence, democracy and socialism

Date: June 16, 2003 Statement: 307

We have taken up arms for independence, democracy and socialism
Those who murder us do so in the name of America

At about 12 noon on June 14, an armed clash took place between one of
our guerrilla units under the Black Sea area command and enemy forces, not far from Yuvacik village in Tokat province’s Resadiye district. Our fighters came under intense fire and we gave two martyrs in the clash.
Our martyred fighters were named Ipek YUCEL and Metin KESKIN.

When people in our country take up arms and go to the mountains, it is not a problem of «terrorism » or «security» as is claimed by the oligarchy, it is a problem of the country’s system.
Our country is a neo-colonial country dependent on imperialism.
Fascism is in charge in our country.
And in such countries, the only solution which makes it possible to drive imperialism from our country, to destroy the oligarchic dictatorship and establish people’s power is to take up arms.
If there are forces which seek to bar the peaceful road to independence, democracy and socialism, these forces are imperialism and the oligarchy.
While our fighters put their lives on the line to put an end to exploitation, repression, injustice and social inequality, while they fight so that we are no longer a colony, all the governments and
armies of this country have murdered revolutionaries in order to continue the exploitative policies of imperialism and the oligarchy.
Today, the AKP (Justice and Development Party) government and the General Staff kill our fighters who struggle for independence, democracy and socialism, and kill them in the name of America.
Issuing a statement, the Gendarmerie Command boasted of having «struck a blow to terrorist organisations» in the Black Sea region.
Why are you boasting? Isn’t it America in whose name you fire your bullets? Don’t the bullets you fire serve to impose IMF programmes?
Don’t the bullets you fire serve to maintain the system of exploitation, poverty, hunger and arbitrary abuses?
You fire on our people’s liberation fighters because we use the mountains of our country as bases in our war of liberation. Will a day come when you aim your weapons at those who use every nook and cranny of our country, our airspace and our coastline for their
imperialist aims? No!
Because you are an army of occupation in the pay of America. The truth of this is not altered by the fact that you call yourselves the «Turkish Armed Forces».
The bullets fired at our fighters have “USA” stamped on them.
And it is the AKP government and the General Staff which shoot at our comrades in the name of the “USA”.
Whatever happens, our war against America and its collaborators will continue. Nobody has managed to wipe out our sacrificial fighters in the people’s liberation war, whether in the cities or the mountains, nor will they be able to. Our war on imperialism and the oligarchy will go on in the same manner since we fired our first shot, that is
to say: Until liberation!

They were of the people and they became immortal as fighters for the liberation of the people!
Our martyred fighter Ipek Yucel was 38 while our comrade Metin Keskin was 34. Ipek Yucel joined the guerrillas when she was living in the shantytown district of Armutlu, while Metin Keskin lived in the poor neighbourhood of Nurtepe (Translator’s note: both Armutlu and Nurtepe are Istanbul districts). Ipek had been fighting the oligarchy for nine years in our mountains while Metin had done so for five years.
They knew the enemy from its demolition of the houses of the poor in the shantytowns. They knew the enemy from the times they were detained and savagely tortured for exercising their most democratic
rights. Finally, they concluded that the only road was to fight for revolution. So they joined the ranks of the Front.
Ipek Yucel had a child. One child among the poor children of Anatolia, for whom she was fighting. Senay (Hanoglu), who died in the course of the Death Fast, had two children. So, in our country,
mothers take up arms for their emancipation. What demagogy about terrorism can cover up the popular character of our liberation war?

Ipek YUCEL (code name Ozlem): She was born in the village of Camdali, in the Almus district of Tokat province, on January 6, 1965. She was of Turkish nationality and an Alevi. She went to the primary school in the village. Like many village girls, she married at the age of 17. At the age of 18, she had a child. When she was 20, she separated from her husband. She faced all the difficulties that most women in our society face when they separate from their husbands. In 1990, she settled in the Istanbul district of Armutlu. Armutlu literally became her birthplace as a revolutionary. She got to know the system there, but she also got to know the revolutionaries. “I got to know everything about life. I learned how to live. I got to know the system…” she said at the time. Confronted by a choice between the system’s attitude to women and the revolutionary and socialist view of women, she opted for the second. «Because» – she said – «in the established order, women who are separated from their husbands are treated like used dishcloths… But I could not accept that. In becoming involved in the struggle I could see the road to liberation.”
She became a revolutionary in the Armutlu resistance. «After leaving primary school, I forgot how to read because of lack of practice» up
until the 1990s, she said. (Translator’s note: in Turkey, education is only free at primary school level and fees have to be paid to go to secondary school and university. Education past primary school
level is beyond the reach of many of Turkey’s poor, and so many remain illiterate or semi-literate.) But by 1993 she was a member of the committee for Armutlu district.
She became a revolutionary to “create a world without classes and without exploitation”. In 1994, she joined the guerrillas. She fought in the provinces of Sivas and Tokat. In our liberation war, Ipek Yucel became immortal as a heroine of Armutlu and of the mountains.

Metin Keskin (code name: Cafer): Originally his family came from Topardic, in Kangal district, Sivas province. His family migrated to Istanbul in 1960. Metin was born on January 6, 1969 in Okmeydani
(Istanbul). Throughout his life, he was a worker. He did his military service with the artillery in Iskenderun. Then there was a great emptiness in his life, a life marked by poverty and exploitation. But he filled the void with the struggle. In his biographical note, here is what he wrote: “I thought that in such a world, everybody would have to fight. I thought I would have to join the fighters and henceforth I could not live as though nothing was going on. And that is how I became involved in the organised struggle.” Later, he added: “For me, the movement gives value to the most unquestionable human qualities and conducts its own fight in the most honourable manner.
Inside the movement we feel pride in the identity of being supporters of the Party-Front.”
Those were his reasons for joing the fight in the ranks of the Front.
He got in touch with our organisation in 1998. He was briefly in prison after that. After leaving prison in 1998, he joined the guerrillas. He became immortal as a people’s liberation fighter.

Our rural and urban war will continue!
War until liberation!

DEVRIMCI HALK KURTULUS CEPHESI

Either complete independence or complete dependence; there is no middle way!

Statement: 308
Date: July 5, 2003

We are the ones who represent the way to independence.
The government’s way is one of collaboration and humiliation.

You are dependent on me. You are my colony. Every step you take must
be taken with my consent and approval. You will treat all my policies
as though they were your own. If you don’t then I will do just as I
did in Iraq! I will show you where the borders are, I will humiliate
you, oppress you and not even take you seriously!
The arrest of dozens (the exact number is unknown) of special
unit members of the Turkish Armed Forces by America in the
Iraqi city of Suleymaniya was in every respect a historic lesson
showing what collaboration leads to.
Collaboration leads to disgrace and loss of dignity in the end.
It is already visible what situation the pro-American generals and
the AKP*, who have turned our country into a colony of America, have
been brought to;
As pathetic collaborators whose bayonets have fallen off, all they
can do is lament. They have become so careless that they cannot even
utter a harsh word about it.

We are right!
We have said for exactly 33 years that our country is only
pseudo-independent and in fact is secretly occupied by imperialism.
For this is the reality of Turkey. There was only one thing that
patriots could do in a land which is dependent on imperialism: that
is to fight for independence.
Over decades we have given thousands of martyrs for an
independent and democratic Turkey!
We stated that in this country everything, from the economy to
politics, from the army to culture was determined by America, and
that the oligarchy’s nationalism and its chatter about domestic
policy was pure demagogy. We said, put an end to collaboration.
For doing this we have been subjected to torture, executions,
disappearances, imprisonment and death.
We are still continuing to die.
Apart from that, let us cast another glance at the events in Iraq; in
relation to this country you can see who has spoken the truth for 50
years and who has lied, who is right and who is wrong.
We are the only force that sacrifices itself for independence, in the
full awareness that we must drive imperialism out of our country in
order not to have to put up with this disgrace and humiliation; from
Kizildere** to today, we have fought for independence.
In the face of every attack by America and the pro-Americans, we have
shouted the slogan of independent Turkey. If another force besides
ourselves has said, We have also defended independence, we have
also fought against imperialism!, that is not possible. For
besides us there is no force.
We are the only force that gone into the struggle for independence
and given martyrs; from our point of view there is nothing
extraordinary about that; we have only done what any people would do
that loves its country and is devoted to its national dignity. We
have only done what patriots and revolutionaries ought to do. We are
still doing this and will continue to do it.
Our aim, to stress it again, is to make it clear who is right and who
is wrong!
It must be made clear that the front of the pro-Americans is
collapsing and the front of independence is growing.

The helplessness of the Turkish Armed Forces
The methods they have used against the people for decades have now
been turned on them!
It is quite clear what America is doing; it is upbraiding the Turkish
army. It is humiliating the government. Look at the plight the
generals of the Turkish Armed Forces are in; they trailed after the
Pentagon for years and carried out its orders and instructions to
perfection and now cannot find anyone there to talk to in relation to
the arrests. The Pentagon does not take seriously the generals who it
called our children on September 12 ***, the American
government does not take its strategic partners seriously and
humiliates them. The oligarchy cannot even find out where its
soldiers are. The American officials in Iraq say, we don’t know
anything, we have no information. The oligarchy in Turkey knows this
reply very well. How often have the generals, officers and ministers
of this county given just such an answer. Now the same methods are
being turned on them.
Plots and provocations are all about the character of the oligarchy.
What they did to the people previously is now happening to them. The
methods they employed against the people are now used against them.
The irony of fate; the army attacks the people on the pretext of
terrorism, the USA arrests its NCOs under the same pretext!
That is the army that slaughters us when we fight for independence
and shout out in the city squares, Down With America! and
Long Live a Completely Independent Turkey! They got their
training and weapons from America. And they used these weapons to
kill us.

Who did what?
We are fighting to raise the national dignity. We are fighting to
drive out imperialism. The collaborationist oligarchy does the
opposite. It has been like that for 50 years. They thought of their
own interests, not those of the people, the nation or the country.
Their only concern is to be able to increase their profits.
So they signed dozens of unequal treaties. They sent soldiers to
Korea, Somalia and Afghanistan to serve American interests. Until
recently they discussed whether to send 5,000 Turkish soldiers to
serve American generals in Iraq!
Yes, from Korea to the present: up to now, the Great General Staff
and all governments in power have been in the service of America. On
the international stage, they supported American interests, while
domestic policy served exploitation by the monopolies. Most recently
the AKP has taken on this task.
They felt no shame about saying that we are selling
everything, they felt no shame about submission to America. For
months they were preoccupied with how to serve America even better,
so that they could be forgiven for the faux pas about the permission
for stationing US soldiers.
Here is the result of the subordination:
Now you are wallowing in the undignified swamp that collaborating
with America has brought you to.

Either subservience or dignity!
The only alternative to submission to imperialism is the struggle for
independence. Those who slaughter us in the name of America are
imperialism’s watchdogs!
In the neo-colonial ties that the USA developed after the second
imperialist war to divide up the world (World War II), neo-colonial
countries appear to have autonomy. When the socialist system existed
it was possible for them to extend this autonomy. But since the
beginning of the 1990s, after the collapse of the socialist system,
the politics of empire developed by America no longer allowed room
for that. America now says that there is no longer room even for
formal independence. It insists on others behaving like its own
states do. The US authorities have expressed very clearly what they
want from Turkey: Turkey must say that the interests of America are
its own interests!
That is the form America’s imperial policy takes currently.
The arrests are a call to Turkey to leave Iraq for good and are in
general a way of imposing the empire on others. America’s ties to its
neo-colonies will from now on develop within this framework under all
circumstances.
If the arrest of members of the Turkish Armed Forces is viewed in the
framework of imposing an empire, then it is a normal matter. The army
and the government should prepare themselves for even bigger
disasters and humiliations.
EITHER the country will go further down this road OR it will go down
the road of an independent Turkey.
We stand for the road to an independent, democratic Turkey.
The government stands for dependence, collaboration and humiliation.
This road means treason to one’s own country. We will not forgive
those who have brought our country to this disgrace.
Tens of thousands of soldiers are in the mountains and cities of our
country hunting for the revolutionaries. Could you use these soldier
against America? No! For you would not be able to obtain ammunition
or even underwear for these soldiers. In this country the army is
dependent on America even in matters such as the underwear it uses.
And regrettably it is still possible for this army to deceive certain
circles with its demagogy about national feeling.
Don’t forget: look at the reality of Turkey: the rulers with their
government and the Great General Staff are still massacring the
freedom fighters in the mountains in order to implement the policies
of the IMF to perfection. They are still murdering those in the
F-Type prisons who still fight for an independent Turkey.
Nobody should think it is really the revolutionaries the are shooting
at.
They are shooting at independence, an independent Turkey and the
national dignity.

Servitude or independence!
With regard to this humiliation, will we share the lack of dignity
shown by the AKP and the Great General Staff, or will w raise the
banner of national dignity and independence?
There actually is a way of replying to this humiliation: but this
reply cannot come from the Great General Staff, the AK or the other
system parties, or TUSIAD (the employers’ confederation) or the
Turkish parliament. It comes from the people, th patriots.
* All ties with America must be broken off immediately!
* All economic, political and military treaties concluded up to now
must be cancelled!
* US bases must be closed and our American planes denied access to
our airspace!
* Membership of NATO, the IMF and the World Bank must be ended
immediately!

The bourgeois system parties have suddenly presented themselves as
being nationalistic. Give up this demagogy. Everyone knows what you
will do if you come to power tomorrow; you will fall at America’s
feet and beg for mercy.
National feeling is about taking the national honour as your own and
conducting a struggle against the imperialists. The national interest
means not allowing the people who live in this country to be
exploited and allowing this country to become imperialism’s backyard.
A party or army that does not do that is not national.

To the peoples of Turkey!
We were right. The army and the parties which for decades ruled this
country using demagogy about national feeling were telling lies. We
told the truth. While they have been selling our country for years,
we defended it.
Collaboration’s final outcome is the loss of dignity.
The people of Turkey should choose not the side of the collaborators
but the revolutionaries, in order to free themselves from this
disgrace. Those who despite this disgrace still support and defend
the system parties and the Great General Staff also bear the load of
this indignity and humiliation.
Our people; we are waving the flag of independence which we have
waved since 1970, and will continue to wave it in the face of all
oppression by the imperialists and their collaborators. Let us gather
behind it and continue to hold aloft the banner of independence.

We are right. We will bring about an independent Turkey!

DEVRIMCI HALK KURTULUS CEPHESI
(Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front)

* AKP: the current governing party in Turkey
** Kizildere: a place in the Black Sea region where on March 30, 1972
11 revolutionaries from the THKP-C, forerunner of the DHKP-C and
THKO, another revolutionary organisation were martyred in a clash
with the regime’s forces. This resistance has gone down as a
manifesto in the history of Turkey’s revolution.
*** The September 12, 1980 military coup in Turkey.

This Front is another Front

The news magazine in turkish language “Nokta” released an article about Halk Cephesi, dated 2006.

Here´s the translation in English:

From the Turkish “Nokta” magazine, November 2-8, 2006

News – photographs: Ahmet SIK

---

“There were perhaps 100-150 people. Before we realised what happened they were pointing guns at our heads. We could not make a move.

Others who had clubs in their hands were swinging them right and left, breaking things, pouring them on the ground, turning tables over and leaving a mess. Then without saying a word they went away. They fired in the air. This lasted maybe 20 minutes and the police never came. We do not know who they are. We have had nothing to do with these people or with any others.”

In Ikitelli, the owners, from Diyarbakir-Kulp, of two music halls, one of which has a cafe on the ground floor, described what happened that night at the hands of armed people whose identities are unknown, adding: “No my friends, there was no gambling, no prostitution, nothing like that.” The owner of the other music hall who was attacked was adamant: he said not a word and would not allow photographs to be taken. He did not allow any of his workers to say anything. A youth from the area with his hands in his pockets did approach a little later and describe what happened. “He said, “Sir, two days ago they made a telephone call and gave a warning. He said, “They said that here ‘You are engaging in gambling and prostitution, if you do not stop it you will be punished.’ To this threat they added another threat. In two days they would come and turn the place over. Later they left a banner and went, the banner had the words ‘We will disperse the nests of filth – the Front.’ I learned this from the workers there.”

The days of Ramadan were not far off and in certain areas actions directed at places of entertainment selling alcohol had been given the same signature on numerous occasions: The Islamic Great Eastern Raiders-Front (IBDA-C). But this time weapons were involved, as was a different colour. And one or two days later in a “song bar” in Umraniye-Sarigazi there was also a similar event and any doubts about it were dispelled by a statement from the security services which mentioned a banner left behind: This Front was a Front of the “left”.

Moreover this Front used an abbreviation that is no stranger to many:

DHKC – Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Cephesi – Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front. It is especially remembered in connection with the Death Fast against isolation practices in the F-Type prisons, which have been continuing since 2001.

In the past few years it has been maintained that the organisation has been carrying out a systematic struggle against drugs, gambling and prostitution in suburbs of Istanbul. It is even understood that that from these three elements, a politically left organisation has by its very presence gained a certain burning ascendency. In the above mentioned neighbourhoods political slogans and threats are written in red. “Gambling is a crime”, “Prostitution hand having others engage in it is a crime”, and these slogans are seen more and more frequently. And they all have the same signature: the Front.

In the above mentioned poor neighbourhoods of Istanbul, Ikitelli and Sarigazi, it is possible to say that in the past two years there have been dozens of different actions involving the throwing of Molotov cocktails. Nor is that the end of it.

In “problem” neighbourhoods “patrols” have been ensuring the security of neighbourhoods and streets. “Those who commit crimes” are made to leave the neighbourhood, otherwise they will be “punished”.These actions, referred to as “security” are one of the new activities of left organisations and are efforts to “expose” people, with various left groups setting up “public order teams” that are “looking after the honour” of neighbourhoods. Criticism of them does not change them, because “the people love them and support them”.

The Association for Basic Rights opposed to corruption

Alongside the DHKC’s illegal actions declared to be against “corruption” are the regular work of another institution, associations set up under the umbrella of the Federation for Basic Rights.

The Basic Rights Association is organised in the Istanbul districts of Sultanbeyli, Alibeykoy, Gazi, Kucukarmutlu, Sarigazi, Umraniye-First of May neighbourhood, Ikitelli, Bagcilar and Kartal-GUlsuyu as well as in various parts of Adana, Elazig, Zonguldak, Tunceli, Samsun, Izmit, Gebze, Iskenderun, Adiyaman and Ankara. The association in its campaign named “Struggle Against Corruption” has been working like a serious civil society organisation over the past few years. It puts up posters in the streets against drugs, prostitution and gambling as well as organising panel discussions, street theatre and film showings. In the places where it is organised, it goes from house to house and workplace to workplace talking to local inhabitants to raise their awareness and involve them in its struggle.

The work in Ikitelli is run from a centre in a narrow street by the chair of the Basic Rights Association, Erkan Sonmez, who draws attention to the widespread addiction to drugs. After three years of working in the area they have been able to get dozens of young people off drugs. Touching on deeper questions, he said “Think of what lies behind the spread of drug addiction. To find money for drugs, these people sell drugs or engage in theft and prostitution. In doing this they are bringing down the neighbourhood for those who live in it. We have seen this problem and to find a solution we have started action together with the people. We have organised meetings in houses and workplaces, listened to people’s demands, listed their suggestions for solutions and put all into practice.

We have spoken to drug addicts on a one-to-one basis and have managed to persuade some of them. Now some of them work in our association, and we have found work for some of them.”

“Allah is pleased with the revolutionaries”

During our talk in a central part of the association building an elderly inhabitant of the neihbourhood came in and at the end of the conversation suddenly said: “He is telling the truth. My son was one of them saved from drug addiction. We did what we could but could not succeed. But these young people were turned around in only a few days. Allah is pleased with the revolutionaries. It is not a lie, at the first opening of the association we wondered, ‘Could they be terrorists?’ but now we know.”

Hamza Pas said in the cafe in Ikitelli Atatürk neighbourhood where he has worked for two years that it was a case of “the associaton – before and after”. “In the first period this place was an unbelievable swamp. The young were addicted in one way or another. Later the people developed unity and unanimously cleaned it up. When I first came here pills were even being sold in this cafe. Both in my workplace and in the neighbourhood the children have been purified. Previously people were afraid to go home and would take detours that lengthened their journey.But now there is quiet and security.”

If the quiet in the neighbourhood was the result of association members and the cooperation of the people, the fear caused by “punishment” methods of the DHKC was even greater. Because in the streets at night, “patrols” by organisation members have achieved supremacy. To determine where there is prostitution and the drugs trade and then beforehand issue verbal warnings which, if not heeded, result in beatings, large groups raiding places and “punishing” them seizing theives and making them return the items they stole to their owners. And if these do not work there is one thing left – making exposing “criminals” and forcing them to leave the neighbourhood.

“Are the left guardians of public order?”

There are those who do not think it right that these kinds of organisations use these methods in struggling against gambling, prostitution, drugs and other crimes. It is undoubtedly clear who should be ensuring order and security in an area.

Security circle see events as a new danger from the DHKC, an illegal organisation that has been tending to decline, saying it is using these actions to broaden its base.

If not very strongly, there is real criticism from left circles. The criticisms are of how an organisation counting itself as left-wing is setting up “public order teams” as “guardians of honour”, preoccupied with conservatism and morality and taking over police duties.

(Side paragraph with one individual’s account)

Struggle against drug dependency

A 24-year-old named N.S. describes how he was “liberated” from drug addiction:

“Before I came to this association I had been a drug addict for seven years. I have been clean for the past six months. I was liberated from this illness and I take part in the work of Ikitelli Basic Rights Association. When I left school I starting taking drugs and pills. A lot of my young friends in my environment did the same. I had a friend with whom I would take drugs. One evening we were invited to the association. We ate a meal and had a chat. Previously we had held back from coming. That night they told us why we needed to give up drugs. Actually nothing was said that had not already been said by our families or older brothers. But I was very much affected. What influenced me was that they told me how political activities influenced the lives of the people who carried them out. I thought about the difficulties we are in and what they are giving their lives to. My conscious was troubled and the two of us gave up drugs. There were certainly threats made to us but I was not afraid. What made me give up was not fear but a bad conscience. Now I am calmer and happier.

Instead of using drugs I have started to show that IO am sensitive to the problems of our country. I have broken ties with my old friendship group. And now I am going to make speeches persuading our friends to give up these dirty practices.”

For example, Internet sites have argued about how a house where prostitution was going on was raided in Gazi neighbourhood in a “punishment action”. Those who were engaging in prostitution and persuading others to it were beaten, and a particularly criticised aspect of it was that a woman’s head was shaved.In the criticisms the “punished” woman was seen as unjustly treated, the DHKC’s methods resemble those of the Sharia supporters in Chechnya and in a number of ways resemble those of the mafia.

Selda Yesiltepe, the chair of the Association for Basic Rights and Freedoms in Gazi neighbourhood, says those who make the criticisms are overlooking the strugle as a whole. She also has a different approach to the hair-shaving incident. “This subject has been confirmed and it cannot be disputed. It is correct that women who engage in prostitution are also victims. But in Gazi neighbourhood our culture is one of solidarity and embraces everyone who is in difficulties. If someone is hungry they are fed, if they have no house or home a place to stay will be found for them. It is not the case that people in Gazi can say they are compelled to engage in prostitution for those reasons.”

The new problem of Gazi neighbourhood

It is in Turska’s memory that in 1995 there was a mysterious attack in Gazi neighbourhood that opened the way to more than 20 other people being killed, and the Basic Rights and Freedoms Association is one of those active in the area. At the time it was presented in the media as a “liberated zone of the left” but today the biggest problem is drugs and prostitution. Selda Yesiltepe says that even 12 or 13 year old girls have escaped from home or engaged in prostitution. Yesiltepe says some girls who gave up prostitution and returned home have returned to it. She says the association’s struggle in its three years of existence is against a “culture of corruption”.

She finds it odd that the actions cannot be reconciled with “left” politics.”Nevertheless revolutionaries have engaged in struggle in this area for years, and are correct to do so. Yes, in the past it was not as comprehensive but then again the problems were not as great. There is corruption almost everywhere being forced on society. We are in Gazi and naturally we have shaped our duties according to what people complain about to us. The problem of prostitution, drugs and gambling in Gazi is very extensive. The public authorities that need to struggle aainst corruption also make money out of this szamp, a fact covered in the news already. While it is like this some people will need to struggle with this problem.” Yesiltepe says this proves critics ignore the “political dimension” of the problem. “In Gazi, even legal associations can be closed down from one day to the next, people, killed, detained and tortured, imprisoned. By the sowing of fear, the idea is forced on people to “abandon political activity”. To put this into effect, a systematic culture of corruption is encouraged among those seen as “potential terrorists”. Bars are opened under the name of night clubs, gambling dens are opened under the cover of cafes. The sale and use of drugs is being normalised. All this is in areas where working people live, shantytown neighbourhoods.

So the idea is spread that ‘being politicised is trouble for the state, being apolitical is only a trouble for those around you.’

Because if human beings become politicised, they will engage with imperialism, the oligarchy and the struggle against injustice. There is no concern with people who get bogged down in corruption. So we can say that the struggle against corruption is also a struggle against imperialist culture.”

Imam part of the struggle

“The struggle against corruption” in Okmeydani was first announced some years back and it has said to have been largely largely successful. Okmeydani Basic Rights and Freedoms Association chair Musa Aykanat said that despite it being close to Taksim, the centre of every kind of entertainment in Istanbul, the struggle against night clubs, bars and music halls was started about 10 years ago. Aykanat says that “we took steps according to the pattern set out by the People’s Council in Okmeydani.” “Here there are not just left-wingers and revolutionaries. Conservative people also live here. People with headscarves and head coverings also attend our meetings. The former imam of our area’s mosque also takes part in the struggle and at every Friday sermon says he is ready to take part in the people’s council’s struggle against corruption. Yes, revolutionaries are the leadership but everyone living in our area is part of the movement so it is successful.”

In the end, of ten night clubs opened in Okmeydani, only three are still open. At the moment the biggest problem in the area is gambling, drugs and theft. Of course our situation is better than some other areas. Some gambling dens existed but were closed. There is one gambling den and it has been announced that it will close. There was a lot of gambling in cafes. Now there is considerably less.It is reported that some will close soon. All the local people held meetings on this subject and prepared leaflets. In the leaflets it stated that people younger than 18 were not allowed into cafes, there could be no gambling and they were to close at midnight. All these things are already legal requirements.”

Yes, in the poor areas of istanbul and the suburbs, there is a different kind of activity going on at night as compared to the day. It is certain that in the years to come this “new form of struggle” defended by inhabitants will continue to be one of items on the agenda.

Fascism in Turkey

The following is a DHKC document on fascism in Turkey, aimed at contributing to discussions on this subject. It was presented at the PTB (Workers’ Party of Belgium) International Communist Seminar this year (1998).

THE PEOPLE IN OKMEYDANI ARE DEFENDING THEIR DIGNITY

“WE WILL NOT TOLERATE SCUM AND THE MAFIA”

Kurtulus November 30, 1996

After the Susurluk accident, one can see the fascist mafia’s true complexion much more easily. All this led to an explosion of anger among the people. Now it is known that the government in Turkey consists of the mafia. The mafia chiefs are parliament deputies, senators and civil fascists known for their torture methods. Through these people, domination of our country’s fate is given into the hands of imperialism. Our people are robbed of their honour. The population of Okmeydani which knows state terror very well, is now founding its own People’s Council, following the model of Gazi and Zübeyde Hanim. The solution of problems and the creation of order and security in Okmeydani are achieved through cooperation and collective thinking. The aim of the People’s Council founded in Okmeydani is that everyone, irrespective of religion or nationality, is able to find a solution to his or her problems under its auspices.

We Are Right, We Will Win!

We are bringing you translated chapters of the book “We are right, we will win!” (Haklıyız Kazanacağız). The book is a collective work of Devrimci Sol (Revolutionary Left) prisoners in the 80s in preparation for their trial. The defense was read by Dursun Karataş and later on published in the the printed form.

8th International Symposium of People’s Unity Against the Imperialist Aggression “Eyup Baş”

Let us Establish a Revolutionary Internationale Against The Imperialist Aggression!

Here we present the transcript of the 8th International Symposium of People’s Unity Against the Imperialist Aggression “Eyup Baş” held in Istanbul in 2017.

For the PDF please click here.

THE MOST BASIC NEED OF THE PEOPLES IS TO ORGANISE AND FIGHT AGAINST IMPERIALISM! LET US UNITE AGAINST IMPERIALISM IN THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST FRONT

LET US FIGHT AND WIN, AGAINST IMPERIALISM AND ITS COLLABORATORS!

Yuruyus 70, June 10, 2018

On June 1-2, 2018, a meeting was held in the Greek capital city Athens on the theme “Let us build up the Anti-Imperialist Front”.

During the two-day meeting representatives from Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Ireland and Greece took part. In the meeting, which was organised by the Anti-Imperialist Front in Greece, in which supporters of the People’s Front take part, there was discussion of methods of struggle against imperialism over the two days.

The decision was taken to found the Anti-Imperialist Front (AIF) in 2014, following on from the Eyup Bas International Symposium For Unity Of The Peoples Against Imperialist Aggression, which has come together every year since 2009 and announced opposition to imperialist aggressiveness. From that day it has been a persistent and joint work and basis for work by the People’s Front, with meetings being started every year on the theme of “Let us build up the Anti-Imperialist Front”. The first meeting happened in Turkey, the second in Lebanon and the third in Greece.

Despite representatives coming from different traditions of struggle and organisations, as well as ideological and cultural differences, the AIF is a position from which shoulder-to-shoulder struggle against imperialism is waged.

At the most recent meeting in Greece, it was discussed what can be done against imperialism, the common enemy of the peoples.

Over the two days, imperialism’s attacks and aims were discussed, as were the attacks of imperialism and Zionism in the Middle East and Palestine directed at the resisting peoples, and what the AIF is able to do. How there has to be an anti-imperialist struggle, how solidarity with political prisoners can be ensured, what can be done in the case of revolutionaries like Musa Asoglu, targeted by imperialism and put on terror lists, and how the AIF can be built up in the individual countries – all these subjects were dealt with.

Every organisation gave details of how the struggle is in practice in their individual countries. Concrete decisions were reached. There was discussion of what could be done to hold the Eyup Bas Symposium in Turkey.

There was also time at the meeting devoted to Grup Yorum and the attacks on it by imperialism and its collaborators. Why imperialism was attacking Grup Yorum and what can be done about it were also discussed.

Every step that brings the peoples to greater unity against imperialism and furthers joint struggle is of great importance. From the political point of view meetings of the Anti-Imperialist Front in this process that enable us to build a common barricade against imperialism are of great importance.

Imperialism pressures the whole world towards liquidation, surrender and destruction and has brought the FARC, ETA and the PKK into its orbit, while we are boosting, spreading and uniting anti-imperialist consciousness. For this reason, the discussions of the Anti-Imperialist Front held every year, and its decisions on imperialism which tries to isolate the peoples that resist and which attacks in order to liquidate the left constitute a victory.

The AIF announced its establishment in Turkey in 2014 in opposition to imperialism’s aggressiveness, and now it does not just act in Turkey but in the four corners of the earth.

At the meeting held in Greece by the AIF, three political structures within it carried out work. For the meeting they had come together over days, determined common themes, determined what needs there were and created solidarity.

On the first day of the meeting, the Anti-Imperialist Front in Greece organised a concert of Grup Yorum in solidarity with it in the face of all imperialist attacks on it, despite limited means the concert was attended by about 4,000 people.

Speeches were made at the concert in the name of the AIF. They stressed that the greatest strength of peoples comes from unity against imperialism and a call for such unity was made.

During the concert coming to it out of solidarity gave the most beautiful examples of this. They made several speeches calling for solidarity with Grup Yorum. Messages of greetings from the nine People’s Front supporters imprisoned in Greece were read out.

The AIF Represents Internationalism!

Internationalism is not only support and aid. It is thinking together, struggling against common problems and common enemies together, and organising together. By adding our strength to that of class brothers and sisters, we approach closer to victory over tyranny and oppression.

In particular after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, imperialism has increased its tyranny against all the people of the world. Using local collaborators, imperialism’s capitalists hold international capital in their hands, while the people are counselled to accept hunger, poverty and massacres.

Documents prepared by the UN clearly show that imperialism is responsible for the hunger and poverty of the peoples. According to these reports, every day 25,000 people die of hunger, 17,000 of them children.

Every year 18 million people die of hunger and 70 million of causes related to hunger. It would only cost 50 billion dollars to remove this hunger! That is not even the annual profit of one of the world monopolies!

While 50 billion dollars would completely eliminate world hunger, American imperialism alone spent 596 billion dollars on the military in 2015.

Today American imperialism alone has 10,000 nuclear warheads according to official figures and these suffice to destroy the world many times over.

That is, the existence of the monopolies is the reason for the hunger of the peoples. Imperialism is armed from top to toe to protect the existence of the monopolies.

Today imperialist aggression shows itself in every continent and country in different forms. The only source of imperialism’s strength today is the lack of organisation and hope among the peoples.

We are explaining once again the meaning of anti-imperialism and internationalism to left-wingers who even flee from the very name of imperialism and use worlds like neo-liberalism, colonialism etc. We place M-L concepts in consciousness and in the language.

“World conditions have changed!” “Nobody can stand up to imperialism” – such sophistry has undermined the resistance of the peoples. They want them to accept these thoughts, that impose US imperialism in particular on the world’s peoples, with theories produced in the name of the “left”, seeking to get the peoples to bow down to hunger, poverty and humiliation. The duty of revolutionaries is not to come up with theories of surrender but to organise the peoples for joint resistance and to organise unity.

Imperialism is a system doomed to destruction. But this will not come of its own accord. The basic element that will bring about its “end” is the unity, resistance and fight of the peoples.

Today there is no socialist bloc confronting imperialism; but the creative force for one is always in the hands of the oppressed peoples.

In the first and second imperialist wars, imperialism’s weakness against socialism was shown. After the first, Tsarism was torn down and the Soviet Union established.

In the second, legends of resistance were created and it was the socialists who resisted fascism. At the end of the war a third of the globe was under socialism, and imperialism was stopped. Together with the second war, institutions that sought to “ensure world peace” are now fully located in the imperialist countries – because today within these institutions there is not one country that will say it is on the side of the peoples.

The UN, NATO, the EU, IMF, CENTO and suchlike institutions were founded entirely to counter the threat of socialism. The imperialists founded dozens of organisations to ensure their security from the political, military and economic viewpoint, and despite the USSR’s dissolution these organisations continue to see the peoples of the world as a threat to themselves and they continue their pressure on the peoples.

The most basic unity established by socialists was the 1^st International established by Marx and Engels in 1864, and the Paris Commune which raised its banner. The 2^nd International was later established as part of the struggle for socialism of the world’s working class, but this was dissolved as a result of reformist politics.

The 3^rd International became an important force ensuring that socialism spread throughout the world and in the 2^nd Imperialist War it struck significant blows at imperialism and fascism. The 3^rd International also created important traditions for the oppressed peoples of the world in the struggle of the working class. The solidarity by all the world’s socialists in the Spanish Civil War expressed with their blood, and the trial of Dimitrov in which he put fascism in the dock were important examples showing the strength of the world working class, militarily and politically.

The campaigns to build up the freedom struggles of the peoples of Vietnam and Cuba politically put the ruling classes in a corner, and gave important support to the resisters. However, as a result of the ideological instability created by Soviet revisionism, the socialist countries lost a good deal of their mutual unity, and both the impoverished peoples of the world and the socialist countries became isolated by the ideological, economic and military attacks conducted by imperialism.

If there were efforts to create unity based on various approaches and needs, none were successful and today, despite imperialism being much more aggressive, there is no International that can give direction to resistance. The world working class has been deprived of the compass that can give it direction in overcoming the bourgeoisie.

AS ITS CRISIS GROWS, IMPERIALISM, WHICH GETS ITS STRENGTH FROM THE FRAGMENTATION AND POWERLESSNESS OF POPULAR FORCES, IS STEPPING UP ITS AGGRESSION

Imperialism’s fear is so great that it does not just want to eliminate revolutionary organisations based on Marxism-Leninism, nor just the socialists, it even wants to eliminate bourgeois states that resist it, especially in the Middle East.

The peoples living in the Middle East, in Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Kurds, Arabs, Sunnis, Alevis, Shia, etc… for the sake of imperialism’s interests they are all continually embroiled in war aimed at dividing them! Events in Iraq and Libya are the most concrete results of imperialist policy in the Middle East. These countries have totally lost independence and have been partitioned, the peoples made enemies to one another. Finally the same policy was used in Syria but in a war that has lasted seven years, imperialism’s plans have been frustrated and it powerlessness in the face of resistance has been shown clearly.

Imperialism is in the midst of a very organised attack on the peoples on every continent, militarily, economically and politically. But its most basic attack is ideological, directed at getting minds to surrender, getting the left to attack the left, corrupting them with narcotics. For this reason the peoples of the world have to unite and fight against imperialism, now more than ever.

Because imperialism has not changed, from yesterday to today and its exploitation is only increasing. Ideological deviation by socialists and those in the peoples’ front, organisations fighting for socialism, are surrendering all their weapons under the name of “peace” to the UN which is steered by the imperialists, while organisations which struggle for their own peoples have reached the point where in return for money and weapons they become ground forces for imperialism. Today the peoples of the world are being left defenceless against imperialism, ideologically and organisationally.

WHAT IS THE DUTY AND MISSION OF THE AIF?

The Anti-Imperialist Front was established to oppose imperialism… A front created from uniting organisations of those struggling in different countries of the world, revolutionary, socialist, democratic… The aim is to unite all peoples’ forces against imperialism around certain principles, creating a barricade to imperialism.

“This war of life and death knows no limits. We cannot remain indifferent to events elsewhere in the world. Because wherever there is a victory over imperialism in the world, it is our victory too; in the same way, wherever there is a defeat in the world it is our defeat too. It is not just a duty to practise proletarian internationalism for the peoples fighting for a better future, it is also an inescapable necessity.” (Che)

The imperialists easily unite for their own interests to slaughter the peoples, in spite of all their mutual contradictions. It gets revolutionary organisations to sit down at the negotiating table in order to get them to surrender, the organisations it cannot liquidate are put on terrorism lists, it tries to get them to surrender by putting prices on the heads of their leaders.

That is, in opposing the risk that at any moment the peoples might rebel against imperialism’s exploitation, it steps up its attacks ideologically, economically and militarily. Imperialism uses dozens of tools to get the peoples to become pacifist, disorganised and to destroy their hopes.

As we have described above, imperialist aggression shows the power of revolutionaries, democrats and patriots uniting against imperialism and resisting. The responsibility for this duty is now on the shoulders of the AIF.

For years, imperialism has been working to liquidate the left in order to obtain its surrender and come under its control. Besides physical attacks, ideological ones are also used to bring the left under its control. So the police of getting the left to attack the left was used.

Depoliticisation in the 1980s, corruption in the 1990s and narcotics in the 2000s, these were policies they used to numb the left. And to a large degree they succeeded with the left.

But what looks like the successes of imperialism are not essentially its successes; it is more due to the inadequacies of socialists and revolutionaries. It is the failures of reformism and opportunism. The solution is to build up the revolutionary struggle and to repeatedly form new people’s organisations.

WE ARE THE ONLY ONES RESISTING IN THE WORLD!

We alone have not surrendered in the world. We have protected our ideological independence. Our agenda, our road is set by the peoples, not by the system. We alone have not deviated from the Marxist-Leninist route.

We alone are fighting in the world and the duty of the anti-imperialist flag is ours.

Today, the leadership of the world revolutionary movement, organising internationalism, will go to those who can re-organise the 3^rd International. In this way the vanguard of the world revolutionary movement will be turned into a material force.

Today we are the ideological vanguard of the world revolutionary movement. To be anti-imperialist requires very great ideological strength, ideological independence. It requires great patriotism and love of the people.

To be internationalist is to be revolutionary. Only the revolutionaries can sacrifice themselves for the world’s peoples without thinking of their own interests.

To be internationalist means revolutionary politics. Only revolutionary organisations, expecting nothing in return, for the freedom of the peoples of the world, wherever in the world, support slogans of independence.

Today the most basic need of the peoples is ORGANISING AND FIGHTING AGAINST IMPERIALISM!

NOT GREAT WEAPONS, TONNES OF EXPLOSIVES, PROFESSIONAL ARMIES, BUT THOSE WHO HAVE ROCKS AND MOLOTOVS IN THEIR HANDS… BUT IT IS THOSE WHO FIGHT WITH THEIR OWN FORCES WHO WILL BRING THE PEOPLES TO VICTORY…

WE WILL NOT ALLOW IMPERIALISM TO BE THE EXECUTIONER OF THE PEOPLES!

WE ARE RIGHT, WE WILL WIN!

Some decisions taken after the meeting organised in Greece:

• We are on the side of the peoples resisting imperialist attacks.
• We must organise joint actions to build up our forces against imperialism.
• We must organise protests targeting imperialism and NATO.
• We must carry out joint actions in every country in support of the resistance of the Palestinian people.
• Work in connection with political prisoners must be continued and we must organise solidarity with prisoners under torture whose trials are at present in progress.
• We must continue to show solidarity with the music group Grup Yorum, targeted by imperialism and its collaborators, whose methods include putting a price on their heads.
• We must come up with an action programme against the terror lists and the anti-terror laws, and be in solidarity with the revolutionary prisoner Musa Asoglu, who has had a price put on his head.
• We must build up the Anti-Imperialist Front, opposing surrender to imperialism and liquidationist attacks.