First of all, the colonialist fascist regime’s policy of governing with trustees cannot be broken without taking the current struggle to the next level. In Kurdistan the fascist trustee regime cannot be neutralized unless the resistance against the trusteeship progresses towards a national general strike, towards a national mass resistance.
The fascist junta regime, in line with its policy of seizing local governments, which it has turned into a method of governing, has established trustees in the municipalities of Esenyurt in the West and Mardin, Batman and Halfeti in Northern Kurdistan. For the third time, the elected municipal administrations in Kurdistan and the will of the people are being disregarded by the fascist law. Abdülkadir Selvi, the favorite writer of the violent media of the junta regime, announced that this fascist trustee regime will be continued by increasing the size of the municipalities and that 32 more municipal administrations will be seized by trustees. Political Islamist fascist Erdoğan also announced in his parliamentary group meeting that the same reckless attacks will continue.
The colonialist fascist Turkish bourgeois state, through the AKP-MHP (fascist parties) ruling bloc, uses a new method or instrument of governance that we will categorize as the trustee regime. The trustee instrument embodies a fundamental characteristic of the fascist regime. The trustee regime shows that the apparatus of the colonial fascist dictatorship reorganizes and re-equips itself against the political power and will of our peoples. As can be seen, from parliament to municipalities, from TTB (Turkish Medical Association) to universities, the will of our peoples to elect and be elected is completely made powerless, formalized and therefore eliminated. This is precisely the liquidation of the administrative positions and political achievements of our peoples under the fascist dictatorship.
There are elections, but those elected have no right to govern. There is no right to political-administrative existence for anyone other than the parties of the fascist order. The fascist junta regime tramples on the will of the people and breaks into municipal positions whenever it wants. It imprisons the elected representatives of the people under the pretext of terrorism. This is why the fascist junta and Erdoğan regime rely on the decrees with the force of law and the extraordinary administration mechanisms. It uses the unlimited power of fascism in the direction it wants by calling it justice, law or KHK (Kanun hükmünde kararname;an emergency decree law). It takes away the powers of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. It takes over municipalities, universities, trade unions and associations with trustees and turns them into the limbs of the fascist regime. It reinforces the corporatist structure of fascism.
Against this picture of reality, liberals and parts of the working-class leftist movement are still walking on the path of deceiving themselves and our people. With the absurdity of ‘there are elections, fascism has not been institutionalized’, it prevents our people from uniting and fighting against fascism. What is governing with trustees if not the practice of a raging and reckless colonial fascist dictatorship?
It is clear that the fascist palace junta will invade new municipalities in the coming period. Therefore, the struggle against trustees will continue to be at the centre of the political freedom struggle for a period. The struggle against trustees and the struggle against fascism cannot be separated from each other. Political struggle must be developed with a clarity of vision that sees this reality in all its simplicity, foreseeing and taking into account the new trustee coups of the AKP-MHP fascist bloc. It is the current political task awaiting our working-class leftist movement to prepare a stronger, result-oriented resistance against the trustee coup of colonial fascism and the liquidation of the positions of our people.
The total picture of the past three weeks of resistance and struggle against the trustees was not enough to fend off the attack of the political Islamist fascist regime or to maintain a position like in Van. Of course, a large, mass, militant and widespread political resistance with a national character has emerged. New forms of mass struggle emerged. Conditions have developed that prepare the movement politically for further and higher level battles. The dynamic of the struggle against the trustees targeting the junta regime has accumulated new possibilities of struggle with many political gains. The mass struggles that emerged in Turkey and Kurdistan against the trustee coup presented a striking picture of an unequal development. In this context, what does the precise state of development of the mass movement emerged by the resistance against the trustees tell us?
First of all, the colonial fascist regime’s policy of governing with trustees cannot be broken without raising the struggle to a higher level. In Kurdistan the fascist trustee regime cannot be neutralized without advancing the resistance against the trusteeship towards a national general strike, towards a national mass resistance. The level of resistance in Colemêrg, Batman, Mardin and Halfeti, which emerged after the Van resistance, shows that it is difficult to achieve a decisive defeat of the trustee order by resisting and fighting city by city. All conditions point out that the fascist trustee attack wave can only be reversed and won by united national political resistance. To achieve this is to lean on the emerging power and possibilities of struggle. We can foresee that the fascist regime will act by taking into account the power of the emerging mass resistances and by testing the power of the working-class leftist movement and the Kurdish democratic movement.
The trustee coup can take shape as a wave of attacks or as one offensive overthrow. Against both forms, it is necessary to organize a new level of struggle by learning from the entire resistance experiences from the past. It is critical to organize a people’s resistance that will defend the municipalities won by the will of the people day and night, starting from their premises. The trustee coup is always applied in the same way. When we wake up one morning, municipalities are occupied by the colonial fascist police and military force. In order to defeat this occupation and siege, a new resistance plan that starts with barricades from inside the municipalities and ignites the great political national general resistance should be considered. Organizing a united political national resistance against the trustees requires a comprehensive political-tactical plan and preparation. Barricade and blockade actions, widespread street battles from city centres to neighbourhoods are a basic condition for achieving a level of national political Serhildan (Kurdish for Uprising) that will spread throughout Kurdistan. Only with a unique pressure and form of the 6-8 October Kobanê Serhildan (Uprising during the battle between ISIS and the Kurdish liberation forces) can the fascist trustee attacks be stopped. This means organizing and practicing all forms of practical-legitimate struggle.
Kurdistan will rise up with Serhildans and as the engine of the struggle against the fascist regime, it can ensure that the people and workers of Turkey also step forward in the struggle for political freedom and bring it to a new level.
In the West, it should be aimed to develop the struggle for political freedom as political clashes with practical-legitimate forms of struggle around the axis of trustees. The working-class leftist movement can stop the raging attacks of the fascist regime on our peoples with a united general resistance of the people. By bringing the resistance to a new level achievements for the political freedom can be made. It must step forward with a revolutionary initiative to organize this level of struggle. Committees of struggle against the trustees must be established in every city, in every neighbourhood, in every place in order to unite with the resistance of Kurdistans Serhildans. Unlike in Kurdistan, in the West, realizing the possibilities of resistance city by city and neighbourhood by neighbourhood seems favourable in terms of today’s conditions. In order that the practical-legitimate struggle does not flare up as a protest movement and fizzle out, the united struggle against fascism must be embodied in committees and forms of resistance against the trustees.
The resistance power of our people, which emerged against the trustee coup, imposes on our working-class leftist movement the leading tasks of shouldering the struggle against the fascist junta by boldly stepping forward, and politically activating revolutionary leadership.
The scale and willingness to develop practical-legitimate actions against the trustees embodies the anger accumulated in our workers against the fascist junta. It expresses that the antifascist militancy of the mass movement has clearly developed and is moving on the threshold of transition to a new level. Our working-class leftist movement must, relying precisely on this developing antifascist dynamic, draw and organize the struggle for political freedom towards active defense and united general popular resistance. It must prepare the next great resistances by relying on all the achievements created by mass struggles.
*The editorial published in the 194th issue of the newspaper ATILIM, the Voice of the Working Class and the Oppressed, dated 22 November.