The actions, activities and campaign surrounding the 30th year are proof of the vanguard meeting first with “its own mass” and filling in its ranks in a way that will be an active response to the call of history. The success and progress to be achieved here will nourish the efforts to meet with millions of workers and laborers and to become leaders.
“History is made by people,” says Lenin; “But, the Chartists, the Valins, the Liebknechts put their minds and hearts into that history…”
Those who “put their minds and hearts” into history leave a rich heritage for the generations to come and the future of humanity. Every person who has been following Atilim is aware of this, looking back at a 30-year old history of great and fruitful struggle. This knowledge was acquired from continual achievements under the most severe fascist oppression and terror conditions, with limited power and means but with great resistance, patience and fortitude, as well as from the successes and gains achieved; amidst partially favorable conditions, more influence and means were created. In both cases, the truth in Lenin’s words to “put their minds and hearts” and revolutionary devotion are at the center of history-making.
In all the breakthrough periods of the 30-year history, Atilim has always waved like a flag in the hands of those who walked at the forefront and has successfully achieved this as a result of political work, of the vanguard reaching out to the working class and the laboring masses, of establishing lively connections, and has become a revolutionary lever for every leap forward of the communist vanguard, just as it does with the light of socialism and revolution.
The revolutionaries walk under fire, as they expand their revolutionary claims like a red ribbon. The fire of the bourgeoisie and fascist regimes always targets the vanguards. It is because of this law that the vanguards have to learn and succeed in walking under fire, in organizing the revolution under fire. The 30-year history of the communist vanguard, determined by the deepening continuity of line, accumulation of quality and organizational continuity, and the ability to adapt to changing conditions, has been shaped in a way by living through this reality, understanding the secret of this truth, and of course, by becoming a master in breaking stone.
The collective subejct is undoubtedly at center of making history, the individual subjects, who are the constructors of the collective subject are the active actors of the processes to one degree or another. History develops unequally. Unequal development is perhaps the deepest social law of history. The relationship that people, especially revolutionaries, establish with history and the collective tools of making history are also unequal. There is no contradiction here, and there is no logic or benefit in seeking “equality”. Even if participation is unequal, even if it is interrupted at one stage or another of the process, it cannot be denied that all participants who have contributed to this 30-year revolutionary history have brought us to the present.
In this historical process, which connects the 20th century with the 21st century, where a period of the history of socialist struggle has ended and a new period is taking shape, the value of the labor and effort spent to build the revolutionary vanguard is great. There is a revolutionary work that no one can deny that this 30-year history of struggle has created and revealed, right before everyone’s eyes. And history undoubtedly imposes responsibility on those who make history, those who work, and those who contribute.
Its call to the collective subject, the responsibility it imposes on supporters, sympathizers, friends who feel a political and ideological proximity and emotional ties with the collective subject, and the expectations it imposes on them, of course, differ in quality and quantity.
It is undoubtedly the responsibility of the central institutions to see the 30th year of struggle as a revolutionary opportunity, to develop comprehensive goals and tasks that will seize all the direct, indirect, ready or potential capacities of this opportunity, and to develop the perspectives, plans and working style that this requires. The basic lesson to be learned here is to avoid “instant”, “superficial”, “narrow”, “limited” and especially “unambitious” approaches, to develop an approach that is as deep and comprehensive as possible, to learn and be inspired by all the major campaigns and confrntations of the 30-year history.
How will all the fundamental structures of the collective subject, as an organic sum of organizations and fronts, greet the 30th year? What will they take from history, what will they learn, how will they update it and how will they carry history to the future? How will every participants, every supporter and sympathizer who has contributed to this history with their labor and effort, love and sympathy, and solidarity, meet the 30th year with its truth and what will be the response? In the name of the revolutionary claim accumulated by the past thirty great years of struggle, in the name of the frustrations and victories of our marching towards eternity, in the name of the unyielding resistance of our veterans and captive comrades, what kind of a practical existence will be developed and how will the responses become concrete? No, this history will not tolerate lack of pretension, mediocrity, insincerity, and superficiality! This history will not allow the narrowing down of the activity of the vanguard in terms of politics and organization, the continuation of limited relations with the masses, and the emergence of alienation from the masses! This is a history that has produced the unity–revolution, the reality of “assaulting the masses”, the “red ants” of mass work. It has walked at the forefront of the revolutionary uprising that has made Istanbul a stumbling block for NATO; it has left its mark with its unforgettable practice in the tenth year by approaching the masses and organizing, demonstrating legitimacy and stance. The magnificent tenth year celebration campaign and commemoration, have made the struggle against work-related murders the agenda of Turkey, forcing the government to sit at the table; it has shaken the great youth masses with its struggle for fees, it has put one the map the struggle against disappearances, managing to enhance the issue’s international relevance and discourse surrounding it. It has made pioneering moves in the struggle for women’s freedom with the Congress Against Harassment and Rape, it engaged with the ranks of the youth of Turkey and Northern Kurdistan with the Kobanê campaign of the socialist youth; it has given morale to all resisters with the 20th year commemoration titled “Meeting those who resist” at the Bostancı Performance Center, etc. This is a history and tradition shaped by its realities! It is necessary to take strength from this history as much as to be proud of it, to follow its footsteps as well as to take steps and make moves that surpass it and carry it forward, into the future, and bring it closer to the revolution. This history will never accept the isolation from the masses, the confinement in its own trap, the political and organizational narrowing, the limitation, the liquidation and suffocation imposed by the fascist Erdoğan regime on the revolutionary vanguards.
What history says is that the political and organizational constriction imposed by the enemy can be reversed; revolutionary intelligence, revolutionary passion and will must overcome this. This is the path to becoming a leader. The leading quality of the vanguards who cannot progress on their path will be eroded first because they will be narrowed and limited. The problem of becoming a leader is first and foremost the problem of meeting with the working class and the oppressed, the masses, in other words, concretely, it means defeating the policy of narrowing down, separating from the masses and isolating the revolutionary structures imposed by the fascist regime in terms of political and organizational aspects. The revolutionary intelligence, revolutionary action and revolutionary will that create the resisting and fighting revolutionary vanguard will solve this problem. The events and campaign surrounding the 30th year offer the opportunity to make a great move on this path. The most complete evaluation of the great revolutionary opportunity offered by the 30th year of struggle underlines that all collectives and field structures are responsible, serious, comprehensive, and are obliged to develop a revolutionary approach that stretches their own forces in a revolutionary way, is ambitious, and directs them towards political and organizational goals. All collectives and constructors are obliged to calculate the most possible in their own fields seriously, very systematically, and repeatedly, and to do what is necessary both politically and organizationally. Here, it is not a formal, legal obligation, but a responsibility to history and the future. What is essential is to embrace the spirit of revolutionary progress and to be free in revolutionary action that knows no bounds. To respond to the call of the name “Progress” in the 30th year is to succeed in raising the slogan “Now is the Time for Progress”.
The 30th year actions and activities, campaign undoubtedly mean that the vanguard meets with “his own mass” first of all, and closes ranks in a way that will be an active response to the call of history. The success and progress to be achieved here will nourish the efforts to meet with millions of workers and laborers, and to become leaders in a striking way. Reaching all supporters and sympathizers, establishing an organization in every area where there is more than one supporter and sympathizer and organizing their participation in the campaign on their own scale, organizing a relationship system that will walk with and contribute to every supporter and sympathizer as a network, and developing a plan from the perspective of political and organizational goals are among the requirements of the campaign.
The actions, activities and campaign surrounding the 30th year are proof of the vanguard meeting first with “its own mass” and filling in its ranks in a way that will be an active response to the call of history. The success and progress to be achieved here will nourish the efforts to meet with millions of workers and laborers and to become leaders.
The 30th year is a revolutionary challenge. It derives its strength from the successes of its past as well as its ability to learn from its defeats and inadequacies, to overcome itself by renewing itself, to be updated by expanding its revolutionary claims. It derives its strength from the revolutionary passion of its founders, their dedication to the struggle for freedom and socialism, the great self-sacrificing devotion of their sympathizers and supporters, their love and trust for the working class and laborers. It derives its strength from Marxism, Leninism, and revolutionary internationalism.
*Editorial article of the 183rd issue of the Voice of the Working Class and the Oppressed, ATILIM newspaper, dated 06 September.