The biggest reactionary obstacle hindering the development of the working class movement today is a new form of fascist collaborator-unionism. Every advance of the movement is met with interference by the yellow unionists. The antifascist and revolutionary divisions of the proletariat can only succeed against the ideo-political hegemony and organization of fascism once they tear down the barriers build by these unions.
One of the most characteristic features of fascist regimes is their objective to form society in the image of their own political being. Creating and governing a monolithic society is the utopic vision of all fascist dictators. We know that the Nazi- and Mussolini-Regimes of Germany and Italy, two examples of twentieth-century fascism, used all kinds of political tools and methods to fascistize the entire “society”. The Kemalist bourgeoisie is on the same path of creating a fascist homogeneous nation-state and society with under the pretense of a “classless unified mass”. The political Islamist fascist regime, which is at the helm of the collaborative Turkish bourgeois state, on the other hand, relies on religion and chauvinism to facilitate fascistization.
In order to render society homogenous, fascism primarily aims to win over social classes, especially that of the workers and the oppressed, to the fascist program and ideology. It subjugates the masses, whom it cannot win by will, by way of force and domination. Fascist homogenization goes hand in hand with a policy of ideo-political hegemony that includes constitutive force and violence. Homogenization occurs as a process of division, fragmentation, separation and re-integration of the masses in a religious, chauvinist, patriarchal political framework.
The process of spreading fascist ideology among the masses is part of the construction of political hegemony. Part of this strategy are political purification and social polarization, meaning the implementation of a black-and-white-dichotomy under the phrase “you are either with us or with the enemy”. This phenomenon becomes increasingly prominent on the brink of fascistization, both in current and historical politics.
From Erdoğan to Trump, Modi, Órban and so on; this new generation of fascist dictators shares many common denominators, last but not least strategies to secure their respective hegemony, based on similar same fascist components and themes. Tools and methods of classical, mid 20th-century fascism are being reintroduced in order to socialize fascism. Ridding societal opposition, leaving no political alternatives for the oppressed and eliminating revolutionary-communist programs and organizations are existential steps of autocratic fascist systems, with anti-communism being the basic notion they are grounded in.
Since the Gezi uprising, the fascist regime has been remarkably afraid of the potential of another developing mass movement. Instilled with the fear that it will be overthrown by revolutionary rebellion of the oppressed and exploited classes, the fascist regime attacks all developing mass movements by implementing and fastening state of emergency regulations. The fascist palace regime, however, using de facto martial law measures, still fails to reach the level of political-cultural and social hegemony it desires. Thus, it resorts to new forms of attacks, in various forms.
Today, the Political Islamist fascist regime uses every means it can access to transform its accumulated power into social-cultural hegemony. In this context, it is pursuing a dual policy, systematically targeting associations, professional organizations, unions and chambers that oppose it in order to consolidate its position. By differentiating between “friends” and “foes”, it brands anti-fascists or as well as those who oppose the dictator as enemies and traitors. Mass organizations are being subjected to repression, in an effort to render them dysfunctional. The policy that was recently applied to bar associations exemplifies this. Where the regime fails to intimidate by way of threats, pressure or force, it will try to divide and disintegrate. It disperses opposition centers and organizations and tries neutralize and weaken unions and professional organizations. As in the case of the Turkish Medical Association, for example, it appoints trustees from above, destroys its wings and prevents them from acting as organizations of social opposition, creating a rose garden without thorns for the fascist government.
As part of this strategy, the regime tries to expand fascist unions that will encompass a wide range of social classes and establish popular support. It already controls the largest labor confederations. Existing organizations are being turned into reactionary-fascist cooperative structures by exerting pressure, as well as bribes and agitating with religious and chauvinist ideas. By doing so it provides and organizes the conditions under which Political Islamist sects, foundations, communities, associations and other fascist organizations can grow.
The Political Islamist fascist regime counts on intimidation and forcible rule by suppressing all mass movements that oppose the dictatorshis in two ways; on the one hand, it orders the state’s fascist police and gendarmerie forces to attack mass protests, with the purpose of systematically preventing the development of mass movements, both on a de facto basis and legally. But this is not enough for the dictatorship, which undermines propaganda and agitation, freedom of action and organization with unofficial bans. And so it pulls fascist and reactionary unions and mass organizations under its control and transforms them into paramilitary forces. In recent years, actions of fascist backlash have been directly organized by the palace regime to suppress, intimidate and push back the women’s movement and the LGBTI+ movement. Under the leadership of these fascist mass organizations, campaigns based on hostility towards the women’s movement and LGBTI+-hatred have taken on a new scale. The area of fascist hegemony has been enlarged and with it the strategy of using fascist mass organizations to pacify the masses.
The attempt to suppress the resistance of Özak Tekstil workers with physical attacks by gangs affiliated linked to the yellow union Öz İplik-İş, affioiated with the pro-government Political Islamist Hak-İş confederation is yet another example of violent fascist activity. Even the most ordinary actions of the labor movement are targeted by collaborative unions that have become akin to mafia organizations.
The struggle of the working class against capital and the wage policies of the fascist regime has developed in a fragmented though widespread manner within the last two years. Despite being revived by pioneering workers’ actions it could not be turned into a movement and continued its existence as a mosaic of various forms of resistance, attacked over and over by the fascist government. The Erdogan prevented workers’ protests from developing into a workers’ movement by all means. He kept the labor movement under control through Hak-İş, Türk-İş, Memur-Sen and other reactionary-fascist worker and public worker confederations and unions under the control of the palace regime. In a process where the living conditions of the working class are gradually deteriorating and worker groups are raising their voices by striking, occupying and resisting, the fascist regime is once again taking the lead and attempting to strangle the workers’ movement. It drives the mafia-like unions of the capitalist order into political class struggle, acting as a breakwater against the developing vanguard groups and actions of the labor movement.
The biggest reactionary obstacle hindering the development of the working class movement today is a new form of fascist collaborator-unionism. Every advance of the movement is met with interference by the yellow unionists. The antifascist and revolutionary divisions of the proletariat can only succeed against the ideo-political hegemony and organization of fascism once they tear down the barriers build by these unions. Meaning: the forces within the working class must establish a strategy of counter-struggle, openly targeting the collaborative yellow unionism and fascist unions. Breaking the hegemony of fascist unions is of priority and vital to the cause.
The fight against the state’s yellow unionism is an ineligible task for all forces considered part of the revolutionary vanguard and struggling for class unionism. The labor left movement must act with the mission of anti-fascist struggle ahead and take responsibility against the practices of yellow unionism, which has turned rogue and is now weaponized by the fascist palace regime. The practice of exposing, isolating and neutralizing yellow unionism, which has become a means of mass control, must be put into action sustainably. Progressive confederations must confront their fascist-reactionary counterparts in a united anti-fascist struggle.
Divisions and organizations of revolutionary socialists within the working class movement should focus specifically on the current antifascist problems and needs of their class. Revolutionary socialist workers, who are positioned as part of the political struggle against the Political Islamist fascist regime, are obliged to organize the self-defense of antifascist forces within the class and to respond actively to the attacks of strikebreakers, occupation attackers, mafia bandits and yellow union gangs. Revolutionary socialists can withstand the attacks and break through the fascist blockade tby waging a struggle that will also include forms of self-defense and workers’ militia, which are among the basic tools and organizations of the antifascist struggle.
*Editorial of the 147th issue of ATILIM newspaper, Voice of the Working Class and the Oppressed, dated December 22.