Now is the time to mobilise, meet and mingle with the masses to unleash all the power and will to struggle that has accumulated within the working class and the oppressed. For widespread, militant and mass May Day demonstrations and celebrations in Turkey and Bakurê Kurdistan, socialists must put forth their total strength in all areas where they are present. With a full mass mobilisation, intensified political agitation following the new level of mass consciousness, they must organise all labourers and oppressed people for the May Day struggle and the fields of political alignment.
When we review the 31st March local elections, we can see that the depth and sharpness of political and social cleavages directly determine the election results. The demands and reactions of workers, the poor, Kurds, Alevis, women, youth, LGBTI+s, secularists, oppressed national communities and oppressed faith communities prepared the electoral and ideo-political defeat of the AKP-MHP fascist bloc. The discontent that has accumulated and intensified in the poor and oppressed millions has emerged as a desire and search for change. It was re-purified on the plane of given political options.
Bourgeois elections are one of the main indicators of mass consciousness and social-political psychology in every period. The results of the local elections, with their total political picture, point to the opening of a new period of struggle for our peoples. Which formation and direction of mass consciousness do the 31st March local election results mirror? Because the change of political mass consciousness is formed by numerous visible and invisible vectors. The mass consciousness that accumulates and ferments in the field of ongoing class struggles emerges in different forms and levels. The local elections were an explicit test and indicator of this new mass consciousness and social psychology.
The results of the 31st March local elections, which found their concrete political reflection in the scale and reality of the two countries (Turkey and Kurdistan), show that we are facing a new level of mass consciousness. For now, it is more important to leave aside a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the election period and focus on the development of the mass movement first-hand. It is an urgent political need to identify the dynamics and tendencies of change and development in the labouring and oppressed masses.
In this context, it must be strongly emphasised that with the local elections and the Van Serhildan (uprising), the social-political psychology has changed fundamentally. A threshold in the mass movement has been crossed. A boundary of political movement has been broken. Undoubtedly, the concretisation of this phenomenon on the scale of Turkey and Bakurê Kurdistan was different. The unequal level of consciousness of our peoples once again revealed itself strikingly. For a reliable analysis in the context of the dynamic development of the working class and oppressed people’s movement; we must look at the following solid evidence.
The first basic element is the level and form of mass consciousness shown in the election results. The desire of the working class and the oppressed for change and the expectation and longing for improvement in their living conditions was one of the forms of political reflection that determined the results of the local elections. The election results gathered the mass of voters who want to rid of the fascist palace regime through the bourgeois parliamentary route in the bourgeois opposition party CHP (Republican People’s Party).
The political tendency gathered in the bourgeois left CHP shows a level of mass consciousness and search. This mass tendency and consciousness, which appears in the form of a mass of voters, represents a bourgeois establishmentist quest. However, it is not monolithic and static, but dynamic. The vast labouring and oppressed millions, who have not yet moved from the position of voters to the position of mass and rights struggles, embody their desire to get rid of the economic destruction and political oppression of the fascist palace regime with their support for the CHP. This is why they are hopeful and uplifted by the election results. This mass stands in a place that determines the social-political psychology in the West. This is a mass profile that will challenge and perhaps surpass the CHP in the new period and break with this party of order.
The second basic element of the new period is the Serhildan (uprising) by the people of Van against the trustee coup of colonialist fascist palace regime forces. The mass consciousness in Bakurê Kurdistan took flesh and bones with a tremendous and victorious resistance in Van. This political urban resistance, which is the motor and flare of the new period of struggle, shows the direction revolutionary development is going. When we come to the West, the solidarity with the Van Serhildan and the attitude of blocking the reckless trustee coup of the fascist palace regime again embody the direction and dynamics of the mass struggle opening to revolutionary development.
As the third element of this new period, the tendency of DISK, KESK and certain other trade unions to celebrate May Day in Taksim Square has come about. This development of mass struggle clearly and indisputably shows that new conditions of political struggle have been formed. More importantly, it embodies the will and tendency of the oppressed and exploited millions to struggle by means of practical action. Political alignment and positioning according to these new conditions is another indication that the new period has begun. The organisation of regional May Day rallies by the labour confederations indicates taking a position according to this new period.
Finally, the harassment attack on a woman by a specialised sergeant in Şırnak clearly shows another level and form of change in mass consciousness. The fact that our people took the action of punishing the colonialist abusive soldier with self-defence and mass violence against the harassment, rape and female genocide implemented as a colonialist special war policy against Kurdish women depicts the political consciousness and the level of courage of the period.
It is a critical task for us to see that the working class, the oppressed and the poor peoples have stepped into a new period of political struggle and thereby make this the subject of practical politics. Today’s conditions are more favourable and possibilities more abundant than yesterday’s. Thus it is our task to raise the struggle of the working class and the oppressed against the fascist palace regime and evolve it into a process of a revolutionary rise. For example, the positions regained in Bakurê Kurdistan are the new stepping stones of the struggle. When properly evaluated, the perspective of populist municipalism can and should be the means of political cohesion of our Kurdish people and the new levers of mass organisation.
We are approaching May Day with the positive political psychology created by the election results and the energy of revolutionary struggle created by the Van Serhildan. Winning the March to May period with May Day and raising the struggle to the next level stands before us as a task waiting to be accomplished. On 8th March, the rebellious spring struggle ignited by women grew with the militant and mass demonstrations of the glorious Newroz celebrations. The struggle of the oppressed was crowned with the electoral victory in Bakur, which uprooted the trustees from the positions of our peoples. It opened to a new period of struggle by repelling the trustee coup of the colonialist AKP-MHP fascist power bloc. Each step of this process progressed with victories and rising mass struggle. The pulse of the working class and the oppressed today beats in favour of more struggle and gains. The desire of our peoples to rid of the fascist palace regime and its chief is growing stronger every day. Millions of poor labouring millions, who grasp the defeat and weakness of AKP-MHP with intuition or consciousness, gain self-confidence and hope in the struggle. They are setting out on the path of winning through their own struggle.
Now is the time to mobilise, meet and mingle with the masses to unleash all the power and will to struggle accumulated in the working class and the oppressed. For widespread, militant and massive May Day demonstrations and celebrations in Turkey and Bakurê Kurdistan, socialists must put forth all their strength everywhere they are present. With full mass mobilisation, intensified political agitation following the new level of mass consciousness, they must organise all the labourers and the oppressed to the battle of May Day and the fields of political alignment. With the slogan “Rebel against poverty, organise and take to the streets on May Day”, socialists must aim for the widest, most effective and efficient political mass work and put it into flesh and blood. All forms of mass work must be used.
The poverty crisis is the link of the period to be grasped. The living conditions of the working class are deepening in socially more overwhelming and destructive dimensions. Misery and hunger are making the lives of millions of labourers unbearable. The crisis of impoverishment is pulling the workers, labourers, women and the youth into its vortex more and more every day. The fascist chief and the palace regime say that they will continue this policy of impoverishment and deprivation imposed on the labourers as a policy of economic terror. May Day work must be expanded on an axis and ground that grasps this reality. All May Day areas, including the Istanbul Taksim battle and will, must be made a stepping stone of struggle where a new power and consciousness of struggle is grasped. Forward to win May Day and take the struggle one step further!
*The editorial of the 163rd issue of the newspaper ATILIM, the Voice of the Working Class and the Oppressed, dated 19th April.