May 1 was observed thrice in Istanbul this year. With the aim of celebrating May 1 in Taksim, the broad bourgeois left, labor left, worker and public worker union confederations, aligned against the state, divided among themselves and organized May 1. Revolutionary May 1 crystallized in the resistance of the labor left forces that headed for Taksim.
May 1, the day of unity, struggle and solidarity of the working class, was celebrated in form of militant and widespread mass demonstrations in Turkey and North Kurdistan. This year, Türk–İş and Hak–İş confederations organized regional rallies in Bursa and Kocaeli. The economic and political demands of Kurdish workers and laborers rose to the surface in Van and Batman, North Kurdistan. Workers, laborers, women and young people flocked to the May Day observations. Tens of thousands of people joined the May 1 demonstrations and expressed their anger against deepening poverty, unbridled exploitation, fascist terror, patriarchal violence, colonialist war and isolation, as well as the Zionist genocide. They raised the demand for political freedom, for a decent life.
Under the severe, tyrannical conditions of the political fascist chiefdom regime, the May 1 celebrations took the form of political tension and conflict, as predicted. The Taksim clash characterized the whole of May 1 as a political event. Erdogan declared a de facto state of emergency in Istanbul. Seeing the growing and developing anger in the ranks of the working class and the oppressed, he put all his resources into action against the will to reach Taksim on May 1. Erdoğan, acting under a neurotic fear, remebering the power of the Gezi uprising, brought the bourgeois left CHP, the crutch and political fireman of fascism, into the field, alongside police violence.
The May 1 battle of Taksim gained character as a moment of political confrontation and struggle between the fascist regime and the working class, the oppressed and the laboring left. Istanbul once again became the heart of political class struggle and the stage of resistance against the political Islamist fascist regime.
May 1 was observed thrice in Istanbul this year. With the aim of celebrating May 1 in Taksim, the broad bourgeois left, labor left, worker and public worker union confederations, aligned against the state, divided among themselves and organized May 1. Revolutionary May 1 crystallized in the resistance of the laboring left forces that headed towards Taksim. ESP, SKM, SGDF, BİH, Altınteri, Struggle Union, Revolutionary Party, Partisan, Youth Committees, Katas-Sen, Umut-Sen, BDSP, SODAP, İnşaat-İş made Taksim their practical goal. These different branches marched to Taksim, each in small units. They held their word by putting it into action. They carried the hope and energy of struggle to ignition in the hearts of our people.
Revolutionary socialists demonstrated a strong, militant and clear determination for Taksim. Despite the plans for a united and strong block, which was disrupted by KESK, DEM and other forces, which disengaged from the Beşiktaş position one day before May 1 and went straight to Saraçhane, ESP led two separate branches to go to Taksim in three groups. Especially in Okmeydanı, the revolutionary organizations that meet at the same positions of struggle and wanted to march to Taksim in joint revolutionary determination flagged the will for the historic square with their actions.
Some of the laboring left movement that went to Saraçhane was unable to confidently assert a complete and definitive break from CHP and DİSK. There were some organizations that went both to Saraçhane and also expressed their commitment to Taksim through group actions.
The resolution of Taksim was refined asymmetrically on two different levels. In total, the broad and common will for Taksim was politically victorious. The Taksim resistance of the revolutionary sections of the working left movement won. The will of the reformists for Taksim was caught in the fences of DISK and CHP. We can determine that two separate ambitions for May 1 were formed in Saraçhane. In this sense, we should especially emphasize that the Saraçhane agreement, which divided the commitment to Taksim, also diverged within itself in the field and the moment. DİSK and CHP wanted to organize a rally under their leadership in Saraçhane. By making an agreement with the state, Saraçhane Park and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality front were allocated for the May 1 demonstration. The CHP and DİSK–alliance planned and implemented the authorized May 1 celebration, together with TMMOB, TTB, TDB and KESK. CHP settled in front of the municipality and tried to lure the working left there. They did not attempt to break through the police barricade in Saraçhane in any way. CHP, with its forces from all districts of Istanbul, held its own May Day rally in front of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. At the same time, it dragged most of the laboring left forces along. It tried to reconcile the working left and the working masses with the fascist regime. When the Saraçhane agreement was implemented by certain structures of the working left, not only the conciliatoryness of the CHP, but also the falseness of DİSK and the lack of will of KESK were revealed. DİSK, which took the lead of the working class and the oppressed with its mission of celebrating May 1 in Taksim, turned into garbage, so to speak, in Saraçhane. While some labor left groups and militant workers clashed with the police in front of the barricades set up on the Bozdoğan belt, DİSK and the organizing committee hurriedly ended the protest. They left the area with CHP without looking back. DİSK’s Taksim adventure with lots of show and little substance remain engraved in history with a disgraceful ending.
The Saraçhane memorandum was split in two in the field of action. Therefore, two different May 1 ambitions emerged and became clear in Saraçhane. The laboring left movement, which repeatedly forced the impenetrable barricade in front of the Bozdoğan arch and had the courage to clash with the police, kept its promise, “We will move beyond the barricade in Saraçhane.” But more importantly, at their own free will, they went further than DİSK and CHP and clashed with the police. Left Party, SMF, Community Centers, EHP, TİP, TKP, SMI, Kaldıraç and SODAP stood firm in the conflicts here. EMEP, on the other hand, continued its ambivalence as always, its practice of taking to the barricades and staying away from conflict. The Taksim will of a significant segment of the working left in Saraçhane, which has repeatedly pushed the barricades, shows an authenticity and a determined tendency against fascism. It is clear that the arrival of the Beşiktaş block, fully embraced by the goal of reaching Taksim, to Saraçhane and the concentration of certain revolutionary forces there played a decisive role. CHP’s role and mission as a crutch for Erdogan’s fascism was once again emphasized in Saraçhane. They tried to implement the strategy of appeasing and controlling the developing mass tendency and demands for the interests of the established order by the CHP–DISK clique, which has been pursuing a large part of the working left movement with manipulative methods and demagoguery such as ‘We will march to Taksim on May 1!’ and ‘We will celebrate May 1 in Taksim!’, on this May 1 as well. However, the Saraçhane consensus fell apart and created a new equation and dynamic of struggle. The strategy of reconciling fascism with the working class and the oppressed has suffered a significant blow. The political hegemony of the bourgeois left CHP, which emerged victorious in the local elections, has been shaken. The sanctioned and hollow May Day celebrations in Maltepe have been discarded. The will of Taksim has unquestionably won. The working class and our peoples have won against the political Islamist fascist regime. As a whole, the political self-confidence, morale, determination and courage of our working left movement to fight against fascism has increased. May Day 2024 has been won and has become a new stepping stone of struggle for all the oppressed.
The new period of struggle that started with the serhildan in Wan finds a meaningful echo and response in the West (Turkey) on May 1, 2024. The developing dynamics of the mass movements reflected in the mirror of May 1 point to new opportunities of struggle for revolutionary socialists. It calls on us to understand and properly evaluate revolutionary opportunities. So now is the time to focus on the revolutionary possibilities of the will to struggle that has been accumulating and growing in the ranks of the working class and oppressed millions for years, to focus on the revolutionary possibilities that are emerging day by day and to hold on to them tightly; it is the right time to grow the struggle with the spirit and lessons of the May Day resistance.
*Editorial of the 165th issue of ATILIM newspaper, Voice of the Working Class and the Oppressed, dated 03 May.