The "Operation"

The Turkish army launched an operation to eradicate the PKK, or in other words launched the war again. We see that this bloody cycle is being repeated once again since Turkey went into Iraq for the first time in 1983.

On 2nd February 126,515 people gathered at the Anitkabir to demonstrate against the government's attempts to revoke the ban on headscarves in universities. Although it is not on the same scale as last spring's secular demonstrations, it still shows the extent of popular feeling on this issue.

The army constantly exploits the threat of Shariat. It is little wonder that many workers feel the need to rally in defence of the state when that they are constantly told that "they are going to make this country the same as Iran". In fact they have gone on about it so much that when he was recently asked for his opinion by the press, Yaşar Büyükkanit refused to comment stating that everyone knew what the army's views were.

On the other side of the divide, and it is a huge divide, there are those who are shouting loudest about ‘freedom', and ‘democracy'. It is quite ironic in one way that the same Islamicists who after the Murderous 12th September coup were promoted by the army are now the ones screaming about a lack of democracy, and human rights.

Of course it will come as no surprise to workers to see the hypocrisy surrounding the whole affair. There is no way in which this conflict has anything at all to do with ‘democracy', or ‘human rights', or any other ‘fine' ideals. At the base of this argument is nothing more than a naked struggle for power, a struggle for power in which last November neither side showed any hesitation in risking plunging not only Turkey, but also the entire region headlong into war in Northern Iraq just in order to prove that they were more patriotic than the other.

So where do workers stand amidst all this? Which side should we support, the Army, and its defence of ‘secularism or the government and its defence of individual freedom, and human rights.

Comment on the recent Telekom Strike from Gece Notları:

The massive strike by over 26,000 Türk Telekom workers is over. After 44 days the strikers went back to work. At 1,100,000 working days lost it makes it the biggest strike in Turkish history after the 1991 miners strike. It is time to draw up a balance sheet of the events.

The first and most important lesson to be learned from this is that workers can protect their living conditions by struggling. Türk Telekom's original offer of 4% was well below the forecasted end of year inflation figure of 7.7%. In effect Türk Telekom was offering a pay cut to its workers.

The settlement of 10% for this year, and 6.5% plus inflation next year is certainly a massive victory. Following shortly after THY workers winning a 10% increase by only threatening to strike, it gives a clear message to all workers in Turkey today. The only way to protect salaries against inflation is by unity, and collective action.

It shows a clear way forward for all other workers and especially public employees who have been offered an insulting 2%+2% by the government. All pay rises that are less than inflation are pay cuts. In many ways the public sector is the most important sector in Turkey. Many working class families have at least one member who works for the state. A victory in that sector would be a victory for every worker in the country.

The second lesson concerns those who have been accused of committing acts of sabotage. It is positive that all employees who were dismissed in the strike have been reinstated. However, those workers who are facing charges of sabotage can only return to their jobs if they are found innocent of the charges. Unlike the management, the bosses media, and the unions we refuse to condemn workers fighting to defend their living conditions. It is important that these workers are not forgotten. How to react if workers are convicted of sabotage, and dismissed is a key question that all Telekom workers need to discuss.

The Real Political Issue in Turkey Today

The current strike of 26.000 telecommunication workers at Türk Telecom demonstrates clearly what the real political issues are in Turkey for the working class today. While the Government tries to raise interest in the referendum, and its continual wars in the South East, the working class has posed the question very clearly. For us the real issue in Turkey today is workers' salaries.

The representatives of the bourgeoisie are very clear on this point. If anybody has missed it, Paul Doany, CEO of Türk Telekom spells it out ‘No employee can expect an increase above inflation'. What they mean by this is that they would like every employee to receive an increase below inflation, and this means that every employee receives a pay cut.

The real issue today is whether workers organised together can try to stop the continual attacks on living conditions that have taken place over the last ten years. For the communists, and for all workers this is the most important issue today.

Slanders Against Workers From All Sides

Of course everyone expects that the capitalist papers will attack the workers. There will continue to be stories in the press like the one about the sad death of Aysel Tosun[1]. One of the things that we do find strange though is how political commentators can get so upset about one death when enthusiastically supporting the preparations for war in the South East.

What many will not be expecting is the language coming from ‘their' union leaders. Ali Akçan, President of Haber-İs[2] was quick to join the owners in condemnation of workers' acts of sabotage "This is slander. Our union has nothing to do with any of these incidents. Let them find those responsible, and we will punish them together". The strike is but a few days old, and already the unions are offering to act alongside the police in attacking militant workers. For us the issue is clear, we support the struggles of the working class to defend its living conditions, and if that means cutting a few telephone cables that means cutting a few telephone cables. Those who run to join the management in condemning workers are showing whose side they are on.

The Agenda of the Turkish Bourgeoisie: War, Terror, Chaos and Barbarism

Once again, the upsetting news of more workers' children being sacrifices for the  brutal war in the South East came. The bourgeoisie and their media started screaming for more blood and chaos as always. As a result, people are now looking for "terrorists" in the street. But why did this happen?

Because the bourgeois state is in a state of crisis which hasn't been openly apparent for a long time. The economic reason at the bottom if this is the fact that the workers in Turkey have no more blood for the bourgeoisie to suck and if that isn't enough, as in the Turkish Airlines yesterday and more strongly in Türk Telekom and Novamed strikes today, they are beginning to resist. Increasing international debts and capital which is becoming more and more fictitious is getting more fragile on the "money market" as it is loaded on workers' backs. The bourgeoisie is pumping racism to continue this situation, thus Kurdish workers are exploited for a cheaper price and Turkish workers are left to miserably degenerate in the streets. The political consequence of this situation is the battle cries we always hear which aren't a solution to anything. The ideological walls of the bourgeois state are cracking every day. The more the outrage workers live in becomes questionable, the more capital will push society into degeneration, decay and decomposition and loses it's social validity which gave it it's meaning in the first place. The response of the bourgeois politicians to the latest massacre is the following.

For the nationalist wing of the bourgeoisie, the issue is, as always, the "conspiracy" organized by the United States. According to them, if the Turkish Armed Forces invade Iraq, "terror will be eradicated". In reality, only three years has passed since the United States itself wanted working class boys from Turkey to go fight other workers in Iraq, however the Turkish bourgeoisie was unable to do this because of their inability to convince workers to go to war and because of their incapability and weakness. The truth is that the Turkish bourgeoisie has always aligned itself with the United States and the Turkish Armed Forces are standing ready to kill workers in Lebanon and Afghanistan if necessary. Thus, contrary to the lie the nationalist wing of the bourgeoisie is trying to make workers believe, there is no conflicting interests between them and American imperialism, quite the contrary there is common interests and the Turkish Armed forces are armed executioners of this alliance. What is more is that not only will any massacre to be done in Northern Iraq will cause more soldiers to die and more "civilians" to be forced into concentration camps and massacred in battlefields, but also it will be countered with more bombs exploding in major cities.

The recent elections in Turkey resulted in the ruling liberal-Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP – Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi) gaining 46% of the votes, the main opposition, secular nationalist Republican People’s Party (CHP — Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) getting just over 20% of the votes, the fascist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP — Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi) getting 14% of the votes and, finally, the Kurdish nationalist and leftist “independents” (because of the electoral system, no party getting less than 10% can enter parliament except if they run as independent candidates) getting a little more than 3% of the votes.

The AKP clearly won a major victory in this election. The AKP, a party supported by the majority of the industrial, trade and agricultural bourgeoisie, was approached with caution by the bureaucratic elites of the army and the state because of its political past. Although politically along the lines of the Christian Democratic Parties in Europe, the AKP has managed to run a “welfare” program through its power in the municipalities. Having won lots of the municipalities including Istanbul and Ankara, the party has managed to use the resources of those municipalities to give out food, clothes and coal.

The bureaucratic elites of the army and the state were hardly happy with the AKP, however. These elites had challenged the AKP before the elections, and had denied the AKP-dominated parliament the chance to elect a president and the buraucratic elites of the army had sent an ultimatum to the government over this. What’s more, huge secular-nationalist demonstrations were held in favor of the secular elites, something which they had obviously played some role in. With the political extentsion of the bureaucratic elites of the army and the state, the CHP and the MHP were hoping to create a coalition government and had announced that they were planning to attack Northern Iraq. Although the MHP managed to increase its vote, the CHP failed to do so.

Problems of Decadent Capitalism in Turkey

In the last five months, many troubling events occurred in Turkey. Following the assassination of Hrant Dink in January, there has been extremely brutal attacks on foreigners, there has been several massive nationalist demonstrations, there has been bombs in major cities and of course the bloody war between armed Kurdish nationalists and the Turkish army kept going on. The situation seems to be getting worse and worse. The last bomb of the bourgeoisie exploded in Ankara several days ago, killing about six people and wounding more than a hundred. The prime minister, in turn, called for national unity against terrorism, and even the most left wing organizations of the bourgeoisie soon joined the calls of the prime minister.

Turkey has been drawn into an artificial polarization between the secularist bureaucratic opposition and the supporters of the liberal islamist government recently, especially in major cities. The press organs of the secularist bureaucratic opposition, taking themselves too seriously, started claiming that "the regime was in danger" and started organizing mass demonstrations against their political opponents. Although the secularist-nationalist bourgeois media claimed that this was a "grassroots" movement, it was obvious that those who went to demonstrations went there comfortably, as they had the support of a strong faction of the bourgeoisie behind them. Perhaps the most significant aspect of these demonstrations were, however, the left-nationalist slogans raised. What those slogans showed was the misery of the ossified state bourgeoisie caused by the decomposition of the old Kemalist state ideology. The problems of the ideology are not limited to such slogans; tiny fascist sects, founded by retired generals, swear to kill and die in order to save the country, old leftist groups which seem to have turned to the extreme right write slogans in the walls, calling for the invasion of Northern Iraq and middle, and sometimes even high ranking cadres of the army are calling for the "liberation" of Iraqi Turkmens. The army bureaucracy is still one of the strongest powers in Turkey, however not everything is as it used to be; the propaganda against the current government is a proof of this. Never before, has this faction of the bourgeois had to make such a massive propaganda to make it appear as if they gained massive support. Despite the fact that they managed to get hundreds of thousands marching in the streets, this is a sign of desperation. The more desperate the bourgeoisie is, the more vicious it will be.

The country has been shaken by the heroic civil service workers who are struggling for their own needs. Civil servants are fighting against a system which doesn’t even allow them to go on strike for their own needs. The state is offering them a wage rise of 4%, considering that inflation is about 8%, this rise is actually a decrease of 4%. Civil servants did not accept this, and they conducted a true class struggle against the state.Of course, other events were happening while civil servants were struggling. The PKK bombs which made one think that the timing couldn’t have been better for the Turkish state and of course the intense situation in Lebanon. Finally, the Turkish state decided to send troops to Lebanon.Soldiers sent to Lebanon will participate in an imperialist war, and of course this will be in the interests of the Turkish state. As nationalism is against the working class and class struggle by its nature, the state will attempt to destroy the class struggle for “national interests” by showing the children of workers whom it sent to Lebanon. This is why workers in Turkey should not only keep struggling, but also give the strongest reaction against sending troops to Lebanon.

On July 12, right after the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by the Hizbollah, Israeli president Ehud Olmert promised Lebanon a “very painful and far-reaching response”. During the early hours of July 13, the State of Israel started an invasion and pushed its working class into another nationalist and imperialist war. The Israeli state started this invasion for its own interests and without caring about the blood that would be shed. In fifteen days, about four hundred Lebanese civilians lost their lives. Not even the current ceasefire guarantees that the massacres won’t start again as the Israeli state showed that it would destroy anything threatening its own interests, not only with the last conflict but with the ongoing torture of the Palestinians.