Different forms of centralization occur in united struggle. Permanent and relatively long-range forms should be aimed for. In conditions where this cannot be achieved, united struggle forms periodic and concrete agenda-oriented projects can be created. This period is a period of progress and development within united struggle.
At a time when conversations about bourgeois politics were dominated by talks of normalization and appeasement, the Kobanê conspiracy case was closed with the fascist judiciaries imposing heavy penalties. This decision emphasized that the war of subversion will continue, even under new conditions.
The outcome of the Kobanê trials are a new threshold in the collapse policies of the AKP regime. Erdoğans purported attempts at political détente (the easing of strained relations) will inevitably develop into unbridled fascist terror against the Kurdish people and all the oppressed.
The agreement reached between CHP Chairman Özgür Özel and Erdoğan is an establishment agreement. This bargaining deal between Turkey’s oligarchic political elites serves as a contract to exploit the working class and the oppressed under the most brutal and slavish conditions and to further impose an oppressive rule. At the same time, it is an attempt to appease the CHP, which is bound to become the next ruling power of the regime, by making certain concessions
This is not the first time this has happened within the fascist state order. The policy of protecting and securing the survival of the establishment under all circumstances and conditions– a classic of the AKP–
has been repeated frequently throughout the history of the republic. The political parties of the collaborative Turkish ruling classes have gained their historical right to exist with the philosophy of state rescue. As a matter of fact, the main reason for the very existence of these bourgeois order parties, is the survival and preservation of state.
CHP, which established the new Turkish bourgeois state, is emblematic of this. Therefore, it is not surprising that the CHP, as the social conciliatory and calming force of the bourgeois opposition, has switched to a policy of soft competition and cooperation with the fascist leader Erdoğan. Additionally, it is in line with the periodic political-economical program and general interests of the ruling classes.
It is necessary to look at the recent history of the cooperation of the bourgeois left with the power centers and parties of the fascist government in order to organize our revolutionary stance from an ideo-political perspective. Let’s recall the DYP-SHP détente/coalition period in the early 90s and its aftermath, for instance. We know how the all-out war concept of 1993 escalated the colonial and asymmetrical war and birthed a period of terrible brutality. Village evacuations, the July 2 Madımak massacre, 17 thousand unidentified perpetrators, missing persons, all of Çiller’s bitter prescription decisions of April ’94 and many other destructive attacks describe the period of fascist terror that existed on this bourgeois right-left basis.
The launch of a new war with the DSP-ANAP Anasol government in the late 90s remains in our memory with all its brutality and destruction. The imprisonment of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan by an international conspiracy, Ecevit’s embrace of the December 19 prison massacre to implement the IMF program, and our people being made to pay the price of the 2001 economic crisis are other examples of right-left unity and normalization. Its social consequences are severe and devastating in every respect.
By keeping in mind the historical background of the bourgeois normalization policies, one can practically the role that CHP will play in the coming period. As it prepares for its rise to power, it will serve as the main social mediating force for the survival of the order. One of the most critical goals of the détente policy with the CHP is to prevent the labor left movement form developing and forming a separate pole. For Turkish racism, the question of parties such as the HDP is a matter of survival. Therefore, any possibility of the labor left movement becoming an option for the working class and the oppressed must be nullified; absorbing and refuting all social opposition in the CHP stands as the common strategy of the collaborative ruling classes.
The political anger accumulated in the ranks of the working class and the oppressed surged forward in the Van serhildan. The attempts to break through Taksim on May 1 were another indicator of the same antifascist political energy and social anger. The serhildan of Van, the Taksim will of May 1, proved that the most fundamental character of the mass tendency and desire for struggle revealed by the Palestine solidarity actions is the basis of united struggle. In the Kobanê case, our labor left movement demonstrated a united stance. It increased the struggle for justice against the judicial outcome, just as it did against the revenge sentences in the Gezi trials. Undoubtedly, united stance must be maintained uninterruptedly for the prisoners of Gezi, the elected representative Can Atalay, our Kobanê prisoners, and those who were arrested because they showed the will to march to Taksim on May 1.
The possibilities and chances for united struggle are developing, more so than yesterday. The serhildan of Van showed that the need for a united struggle against the trustee coup of the fascist junta was and could only be met by the united stance of the working left. There are hundreds of thousands and millions of people who have accumulated anger against the fascist regime and are ready to engage in struggle. This desire for united struggle was reflected strongly in the streets and squares after the Kobanê trials were finalized, and the movement continues. The DEM Party’s initiative to continue the movement with a perspective of united struggle is also an important point of this new period.
When these political developments are examined from a revolutionary perspective, it can be seen that tendencies and practice of unity and joint struggle have risen in our labor left movement. The necessities of the period brought together the labor left movement in a semi-spontaneous and improvised manner. This is an important situation. The most critical task of the period is to see that our labor left movement is being confronted with a historical possibility and opportunity in the fight against the fascist state, to intervene with a pioneering will. What our labor left, the working class and the oppressed need today is to align and elevate the united struggle in one centre.
It is a top priority for all partaking organizations to take a leading position in evaluating these new conditions. The Labor and Freedom Alliance, which was established as an electoral alliance and lost its right to exist after the elections, cannot meet today’s need for a unity. HDK (Halkların Demokratik Kongresi; People’s Democratic Congress) cannot make meaningful and significant progress without creating flexibility, agility and new grounds in line with the new political needs of the period. Likewise, the BMG (Birleşik Mücadele Güçleri; United Fighting Forces) cannot play its revolutionary role without creating forms of unification through strong practical engagement with organizations and grounds of united struggle. There is a need for a united structure that targets street-based mass struggles of those organizations and platforms. It is possible for our labor left movement to come together in a united struggle axis and program based on the current demands and needs of the working class and the oppressed against the fascist regime. Today, the task of a united antifascist front that captures and organizes the political axes of labor, justice and freedom as rings of struggle stands before the entire labor left movement.
Different forms of centralization occur in united struggle. Permanent and relatively long-range forms should be aimed for. In conditions where this cannot be achieved, united struggle forms periodic and concrete agenda-oriented projects can be created. This period is a period of progress and development within united struggle.
However, a real confrontation with the fascist junta and creating a center and pole of struggle for the oppressed depends on one fundamental condition: it requires the practice and organization of a labor left that breaks out of the CHP hegemony and forms a third front. The movement is faced with the task of centralizing a united struggle that clearly differs from the bourgeois left CHP. This step must not be skipped.
Erdoğan is in a position equipped with the lessons and experiences of the Gezi and Kobanê uprisings. He is mortally afraid of the development of major popular revolts. In today’s conditions, where political and social legitimacy has declined and weakened, the outbreak of major uprisings such as Gezi and Kobanê could completely wear out and weaken this regime and destroy its power. Erdoğan is also aware of the power of the united struggle that prepared the Gezi uprising and the Kobanê serhildan. For this reason, he points the tip of the spear towards the united components and attacks. It is necessary to read and understand the Kobanê conspiracy case from the perspective of united struggle. Just like former HDP Co-Chairman Figen Yüksekdağ, who defended Kobanê in all its aspects, everywhere. Figen calls out the duty of the day to her comrades and friends stand shoulder to shoulder against the fascist regime: “The decision made in the Kobanê case is not an end in our rightful democratic struggle and political freedom movement, but a new beginning.”
Now is the time to organize a new beginning and expand the struggle, relying on the opportunities accumulated in the moment and the ongoing united struggle. More Gezi, more Kobanê, more general political resistance! One step further in the united struggle! Let’s unite in all areas and positions of struggle, fight and destroy the fascist regime!
*Editorial of the 168th issue of ATILIM newspaper, Voice of the Working Class and the Oppressed, dated May 24.