Being the authorized spokesman of the capital class, Erdoğan’s reaction, in the form of “we will not allow hostility towards capital” is a directly conditional class attitude. It is a pure rich reaction. The fascist leader, who lives in the splendor and luxury of a thousand-room palace, has been the flag bearer of capital throughout all his years in power. Erdoğan has always been a lover of the rich. He has been the sworn enemy of the working class and the poor.
The Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek, who carried out the economic exploitation and robbery of the capital oligarchy and the fascist Erdoğan regime under the code name OVP (Orta Vadeli Program — Medium-term program), has declared the new wage regiment by stating that wage increases were causing inflation. By the order of the OVP, which programmed the capital oligarchy’s need to overcome the current financial bottleneck and the general interests of the capitalists, wage regulations/increases would henceforth be made based on the target inflation figure. This meant that the wage regime was determined entirely by the arbitrariness of the capital and regime.
The main parameter of this new wage regime will be to use the Central Bank’s year-end inflation forecast figures instead of the inflation figures of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), which is notorious for its inflation determinations. With this application of the OVP, which is envisaged for the 2024-26 period, it is aimed to suppress wages, restrict the purchasing power of the working classes that live on wage income, reduce consumption and reduce inflation due to the decrease in consumption demand.
In short, the fascist Erdoğan regime of capital is deepening the poverty crisis with the OVP. The working class and laborers are being pushed into a deeper poverty yoke under the pretext of reducing inflation. Mehmet Şimşek’s OVP sets the inflation target for the end of 2025 as 15.2 percent. In this case, when the annual inflation estimate is, say, 50-60 percent by the end of 2024, the wage increase will be 15.2 percent. Keeping wages below inflation means that the real wages of tens of millions of workers and laborers who make a living from wage incomes will fall by 35 percent.
The arguments of the capital oligarchy’s fascist palace regime’s attack on reducing inflation by impoverishing the working classes have no value whatsoever. These statements are statements of putting the burden of the OVP attack program, which aims to deepen capitalist exploitation and robbery, on the workers and the poor and making them pay. Because the phenomenon of consumption is connected to the economic situation of the classes. Each class and income group acts with a consumption demand from its own position. The decrease in real wages and the decrease in purchasing power do not automatically reduce consumption.
On the contrary, it increases the demand for different consumer products. For example, millions trying to make a living with a wage below the poverty line are deprived of the food-nourishment, clothing and shelter they want. Millions becoming even poorer rush to cheaper and lower quality consumer products. Millions facing mass starvation are forced to turn to the cheapest and least nutritious products such as dry bread, potatoes, pasta, onions, etc. While the poor try to continue their miserable lives under the conditions determined by food inflation, the rich live in luxury consumption and debauchery in these times. The class polarization and contradiction of the rich and the poor are revealed in all their simplicity and sharpness. As it is today.
The OVP, which is the political-economic program of the capital oligarchy and the fascist palace regime, primarily aims to overcome the financial crisis and bottleneck of capital. In order to obtain the financial power that capital needs, it makes the basic policy of reducing the wage incomes of the working class and laborers, in other words, impoverishing them. However, the real reduction of wages in the form of fixing them, keeping them below inflation, etc. is not the only source of exploitation and robbery in order to gather the financial capital that the OVP targets.
There are two more pillars of the OVP destruction program. Tax exploitation and wage increase robbery are the other two complementary basic financial sources of the OVP in forcibly plundering the incomes of the working classes and transferring them to the capital class. The OVP, which was designed and put into effect as an IMF program without the IMF, is the three wheels of exploitation and robbery that impoverish the working class and laborers through wages, taxes and wage increases. It is a new economic and political war waged by capital and fascism against laborers. The wage increase robbery, which is constantly repeated, has most recently materialized in transportation, electricity, water and natural gas price increases. The wage increase robbery will continue in the form of seasonal showers.
The tax package of the OVP, which was brought to the TBMM by the palace regime with the motto of “justice in taxation” and became law in the TBMM on July 28, follows the usual pattern of taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Under the name of justice in taxation, millions of workers are being manipulated with the argument of “less from those who earn less, more from those who earn more” and an attempt is being made to produce social consent. The OVP’s tax justice policy, which imposes new tax burdens on workers, imposes a minimum corporate tax payment obligation of 10 percent on capitalist companies for urgent financial needs. A 15 percent effective tax payment condition is imposed on companies with sales revenues of more than 740 million euros. All multinational companies with a turnover of more than 750 million euros are included in the scope of the Global Minimum Corporate Tax. The corporate tax rate is being reduced with tax deferrals. Only some of the discounts and exemptions granted to companies are being removed.
However, it is certain that these regulations targeting companies will have a very short life span and that after a certain period, the partial policy of taxing capital with tax exemptions and tax amnesties will be shelved. The facts that came to light when the tax regulation was enacted prove this. The fact that 735 major monopolies and companies did not pay taxes for years is not a story of tax evasion, but a direct result of the policies of the fascist palace regime that protect and support capital and are hostile to workers.
Just by looking at the ISO 500 data, it is possible to see how banks, construction companies, etc. have been relieved of their tax debts. While it is pretended that taxes are being imposed on companies, the real burden of taxes is once again being placed on the backs of workers. For example, in the first six months of 2024, indirect tax revenues such as VAT and SCT deducted from the poor are 66 percent, while direct tax revenues are 34 percent. Currently, the tax burden of minimum wage earners is 35 percent. With the new tax regulation, the indirect and direct tax burden of workers and laborers will increase by a few more points.
The fascist leader of the capital and the state, Erdoğan, continues to increase the dimensions of his reckless economic and political terror attacks against the working class and the oppressed in every way. He is implementing the economic exploitation and robbery program called OVP step by step.
The fascist leader of the capital, Erdoğan, gave a speech at the “HIT-30 High Technology Incentive Program” introduction meeting organized by the Ministry of Industry and Technology in Istanbul, and announced the good news of the new 30 billion dollar incentive package of the OVP for the capitalists. The rich man of the palace thanked the capitalists in the same speech. Emphasizing that “With God’s permission, no one will ever be able to separate us from you”, the fascist leader threatened that “We will never give an opportunity to those who are hostile to capital”. He announced that the unlimited exploitation of nature and people by capital will be implemented by all means of state force. He once again revealed that the OVP is also a political terror and oppression program.
The reaction of T. Erdoğan, an organic part and authorized spokesman of the capital class, in the form of “we will not give an opportunity to hostility towards capital” is a directly conditional class attitude. It is a pure rich reaction. The fascist leader, who lives in the splendor and luxury of a thousand-room palace, has been the absolute and unwavering flag bearer of capital throughout all his years in power. Erdoğan has always been a lover of the rich. He has been the sworn enemy of the working class and the poor. As a bourgeois politician who has dedicated his existence to the capital class, he has integrated with the capital class. He has benefited from the blessings of political power. He has transferred public resources to his family and collaborative capital groups. He has voraciously accumulated worldly goods. He has siphoned off 128 billion dollars of the treasury together with the capital oligarchy. He has grown and risen as a capitalist. He has formed his own capital bloc.
The fascist leader who ruled that we would not allow an opportunity for hostility towards capital is responsible for all the crimes of the brutal and bloody capital order. And he is our class enemy. He is the fascist leader of the capitalist order and state that organizes bloody capital accumulation with the massacres of nature and workers. Erdoğan is a member of the capitalist class, the enemy of workers, laborers, the poor, women, our people, animals and nature. He is a dictator whose hostility towards the people is registered in every aspect. For example, he is the enemy and political perpetrator of the 695 child workers who were murdered between 2013 and June 2024. He is also politically responsible for the 41 child workers who were murdered in MESEMs and OSBs in the first 7 months of 2024 alone, among the bloody wheels of brutal capitalism.
Class struggle is the struggle of enemy classes. Hostility towards capital is historically necessary, justified and legitimate for the working class and laborers. The fascist palace regime and its capital order are the enemies of workers and laborers. The abolition of the exploitation and oppression system of capital is essential for the social liberation of workers and laborers. Therefore, the working class and all the oppressed must grow the struggle by embracing the consciousness of class hostility against capital and its fascist palace regime and raising its banner.
Editorial article of the 178th issue of the Voice of the Working Class and the Oppressed, ATILIM newspaper, dated 02 August.