Yürüyüş magazine No. 72, June 24, 2018
RESISTANCE IS CONSTANT IN A COUNTRY WITH CONSTANT FASCISM BUT FRONT REVOLUTIONARIES CAN BRING IT TO LIFE
ONLY THE REVOLUTIONARIES HAVE THE HONOUR OF RESISTING IMPERIALISM AND FASCISM!
Every passing day, imperialism in the world and in Turkey, the collaborationist oligarchy and AKP fascism ruling the country in its name step up their attacks on the people and on different sections of the people. At first glance the increase in the attacks is founded on imperialism and fascism being powerful, but on the contrary it is based on them being helpless and lacking a way out. Because the crisis of the system has been deep in a way it had not been for a long time. Moreover every day its dimensions grow with every passing day.
Imperialism is a system in which a handful of imperialist-capitalist countries, by means of monopolies in the more backward countries of the world, engage in secret or open occupation of these countries, using many different methods to exploit them and hold them under imperialist domination. Exploitation is the essence of this system. There is no murder that cannot be committed in order to keep the wheel of exploitation turning.
Recent history is full of examples of this. In the first and second imperialist wars, millions were slaughtered for the sake of the interests of imperialism. From Korea to Vietnam, from Algeria to Latin America, in many places the peoples were slaughtered so that imperialism’s wheel of exploitation could continue to turn and to make the peoples accept imperialism’s ideological and physical domination. Certainly US imperialism was the chief force carrying out these attacks.
From the second imperialist war to today, a number of events taking place all over the world were characteristic of US imperialism which heads the imperialist camp and done for the sake of its interests, and this is proved by a number of concrete examples. In particular in 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, imperialism announced its “certain” victory and there were developments in line with a process called “a unipolar world”, for example in the Gulf War waged against Iraq, meant to show how “determined” the USA was to dominate the world.
According to a report in the economic magazine Forbes, just the 400 wealthiest US monopolies, headed by Bill Gates who has a fortune of 86 billion dollars, possess more wealth than the GDP of 140 countries of the world, countries like Costa Rica, El Salvador, Bolivia and Uruguay. A US citizen consumes 600 times more than an average Ethiopian… This exploitation is one of the real reasons for the USA’s attacks left and right which do not cease, and for the extraordinary development of its armed forces.
Imperialist plunder – in a world with a population of seven billion, over 70%, that is, more than five billion people, 1.5 billion live on the threshold of hunger and every five seconds a child does of hunger or of hunger-related illnesses.
Every day, 25,000 people die of hunger, 17,000 of them children. Every year 18 million people die of hunger directly, 70 million from causes connected to it According to the UN, this hunger could be eliminated totally by spending 50 billion dollars! That is, an amount not even the profit of one of the world’s monopolies!
In brief, this is what the world we live in looks like. And the most striking aspects of this tableau are imperialist occupation, exploitation, hunger, poverty, injustice, blood and tears. Imperialism can give the world’s peoples nothing more than that.
Imperialism’s Ideological And Physical Attacks Started Accompanied by Its Shouts That “Socialism Is Dead” And The Only M-L Organisation that Did Not Surrender Is The Front!
Imperialism wants the surrender of all who are an obstacle to its policies and when it cannot practise its economic policies as it desires it tries every path to get countries, organisations and peoples to surrender.
Countries, organisations and individuals that are seen as enemies are pressured to surrender; its aim is to delete thoughts like independence, democracy and socialism from minds, liquidate socialist beliefs and impose the definite supremacy of its own ideology and politics.
This ideological, psychological attack takes a parallel form to the military attack, from literature to cinema, from music to TV series and advertisements, to the big media companies, every means, every method is used…
The imperialist bloc, principally the USA, started to use the “socialism is finished” propaganda since the Soviet Union was torn down. This process ran at the same time as the “New World Order” establishment.
In this process countries had no interiors any more, it was said – “the world is a global village”, “no more borders”. This ideological propaganda was so powerful that it was said “national borders will no longer prevent humanitarian intervention” and this created an ideological basis for the occupation of countries, massacres, and every kind of military and political intervention. The impression was created that “imperialism defends peace and freedom”. Deception achieved through this propaganda and with the help of “independent international civil society foundations” succeeded in making them into reserve forces of other states and international institutions.
At the start of the 1990s the imperialists like a chorus proclaimed the end of the class war, the definite victory of capitalism, that imperialism had changed and was no longer the old aggressive imperialism, and it had brought democracy and human rights to the world. However actual developments were not like that, and the words saying imperialism had changed were one by one composed of lies and deceit, it was clear and continues to be clear that imperialism is the same parasitical, exploitative, blood-sucking and aggressive that it ever was.
Statements that imperialism had changed and capitalism had won definite victory, that imperialism had won definite hegemony over the world and the world’s peoples contained a major attempt to intimidate Marxist-Leninist organisations and organisations waging the national liberation war.
Together with announcing the “new world order”, the USA started the process wrapping itself in phrases like “national security”, “the fight against international terrorism”, “protecting democracy and freedoms” and “defending peace”. A product of this period was that imperialist attacks came on the agenda. Occupations and neo-colonialism continued and even became more intense. At the same time from Latin America to the Middle East to our country, everywhere the peoples had “peace” foisted on them but in fact it was surrender they were continuing to encourage.
A lot of ostensibly left-wing petty bourgeois intellectuals joined in imperialism’s lying chorus, bringing left-wing grist to imperialism’s mill. The aim was clear: peoples and organisations waging the national liberation struggle against imperialism were to be made to believe the lie that imperialism had changed and so they would be brought to surrender ideologically as well as physically. Because imperialism knew very well that physical defat was inevitable after minds had first been made to surrender.
Imperialism scored important successes with such policies, it succeeded in getting many organisations to surrender and liquidate themselves. Imperialism launched ideological attacks in th past and continues them today but especially since the start of the 1990sit has got organisations with thousands of fighters like the FARC, ETA and PKK, some Marxist-Leninist, some petit bourgeois national liberation movements, to seek negotiation with imperialism and its collaborators and abandon weapons.
Previously ETA announced a cease-fire, afterwards it announced it had abandoned weapons and buried them in concrete. Finally last May it announced that it had liquidated itself in a letter distributed on the Internet. The Spanish government stated that this did not mean that ETA had liquidated itself, and declared that “a reckoning would be demanded of all ETA members for their crimes”.
FARC sat down at the negotiating table with the collaborationist oligarchy of Colombia and signed an agreement, shaking hands with the murderers of thousands of its comrades and hundreds of thousands of Colombians. It took a decision to have its weapons melted down and turned into monuments. In return for what? For nothing, other than saving their own lives… This is called surrender, for liberation it is not.
In our country the PKK has experienced a parallel process to that of ETA and FARC, and it is continuing to do so. The PKK gives ground every day in the face of imperialism’s ideological attacks, it gave up the aim of an independent Kurdistan a long time ago and it has got to the point of having the USA establish 11 bases and becoming the paid soldiers of collaboration.
As Imperialism’s Crisis Deepens, It Steps Up Its Attacks
Today, from Yemen to Nicaragua, from North Korea to Iran, this is the sole reason for its attacks and threats. As under the name of the “Arab spring”, starting in 2011 attempts have been made to bring countries of the Middle East and North Africa into line, Yemen did not surrender to policies aimed at creating collaborationist governments, and is one of several countries that rendered these politics ineffective.
It is possible to add to the list. And this shows how imperialism’s crisis deepens. It fears that the “21st century will be the century of uprisings”. This is the basic reason for the attacks and threats by imperialism, large and small, direct and indirect. Because of this fear it makes attacks and threats.
US imperialism’s economic and political crisis is based on being bogged down in the swamp of the Middle East, it gets weaker as it steps up its attacks, most importantly it tries to continue its ideological domination. On the one hand it tries to draw forces like the PKK/PYD-YPG that are becoming collaborationist into its swamp, on the other it attacks countries like Iran, North Korea and Palestine as well as peoples that the potential to resist US domination, or else it openly threatens them.
BECAUSE THE TRUTH IS THAT WHERE THERE IS REPRESSION AND EXPLOITATION THERE IS ALSO RESISTANCE!
The only Marxist-Leninist organisation resisting conciliation with imperialism and the liquidationist attacks is the Front. Just one front resisting on the surface of the earth, in which USA imperialism wants to establish its empire.
FARC, ETA, PKK… giving up weapons, having them melted down to be turned into monuments, or having them buried in concrete and signing surrender documents to that effect; whereas we have commanders like Leyla who dug up buried weapons after a bombardment in which many of our friends were incinerated, and used those weapons to demand a reckoning. And this is the great ideological and moral strength we have.
With this strength we are building up our resistance, in the countryside, cities, prisons and both in our country and in Europe.
We Are The Only Ones Resisting Fascism, There Is The Front!
The political, economic and social picture of our country we have described is not different in general from the world as a whole. On the one hand an economy designed so collaborationist monopolies can grow, on the other hand greater hunger, poverty and misery for the poor…
This is the barest statement of the situation in our country. Hunger, poverty, exploitation and unemployment in our country, growing worse with every passing day, ours is a country in which the imperialists confiscate its natural wealth. The result of this is that every day a parasitical collaborationist bourgeoisie grows wealthier and builds up its profits, while on the other we confront the reality of Turkey in which millions are submerged by hunger and poverty.
In our country 16 MILLION people go to bed hungry. Naturally this image goes together with constant fascism. Because Turkey is a neo-colonial country. There is to be no possibility of transmitting the crisis to the imperialist-capitalist countries responsible, so for this reason Turkey is ruled by permanent fascism.
On July 15, 2016, the oligarchy’s internal dogfight came to a head with a failed coup attempt. The AKP continued in government and took the opportunity to declare OHAL (state of emergency) targeting our peoples and revolutionaries, above all the Front supporters. In this period they have even trampled on their own laws, adopted from the September 12 (1980) junta. The AKP has used all possibilities institutionalised by the September 12 pro-American junta, and has caused state terror to proliferate. This terror continues today without any let-up.
AKP fascism behind the mask of OHAL has carried out attacks on every section of the people, from public workers and peasants to intellectuals and artists, from the Kurdish people to revolutionaries and socialists, and it continues to carry out these attacks. The focal point of these attacks is the PEOPLE’S FRONT which does not give in to any repression or massacres.
Almost every month our democratic associations are raided. Our magazine offices, culture centres, associations and neighbourhoods are blockaded. Our associations are sealed but we break them open. We do not recognise bans, nor will we ever!
Without even stopping for breath our people are abducted and subjected to severe torture, even greeting someone is almost enough to be imprisoned. Our events and concerts are banned, our holiday events and iftars are held under police blockade.
They want our people’s artists, people’s lawyers, people’s engineers and architects to be rendered unable to function.
The justice schools for people’s lawyers are among the institutions that have been closed. In Ankara twice, in Istanbul three times they raided justice schools and put seals on the doors. The lawyers and students resisted and put up barricades.
This is what it is to be a revolutionary lawyer, revolutionary artist, revolutionary engineer or architect, which they want to erode and destroy.
We Will Erode OHAL Bans And AKP Fascism And Pass Over Them!
In its 16 years in power, the AKP has banned dozens of strikes. A high proportion of them have been under OHAL. OHAL has been the main excuse for the bans. That is, while the AKP is claiming to oppose “FETO”, it has used OHAL to favour the interests of bosses and as a weapon against the resistance of the workers.
And this is only natural because the AKP is the representative of the oligarchy, in particular the interests of the bosses. They have used OHAL as an excuse to ban strikes and have not drawn back from defending it and stating that they will do everything to defend the interests of bosses. Tayyip Erdogan has given voice to this reality on several occasions. It was Erdogan himself who told (employers’ federation) TUSIAD, “You say we did not give what you wanted. We declared OHAL for you, we banned strikes. Without OHAL could we have done this?”
Certainly they did not limit themselves to strike bans. A great many workers’ actions were not carried out, banned or attacked by police using the same excuse, that “there is OHAL”.
The AKP did not just use OHAL as a weapon against workers but also against public employees, and sought to use it to legitimise their attacks. In the period immediately after July 15, and continuing to today, 150,000 public workers have been suspended.
In the OHAL period from July 15 to today;
- Thousands of people have been detained, tortured and imprisoned, prisons and police stations have been turned into torture centres;
- Hundreds of associations, foundations, culture centres and democratic institutions have been closed and their doors sealed up;
- Hundreds of newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, television and radio stations and agencies have had to cease functioning;
- Nearly 150,000 civil servants have been suspended, thousands fired and they are attempting to use hunger as a means of discipline. Two public workers they have tried to disciple through hunger are Nuriye GULMEN and Semih OZAKCA. They resisted on hunger strike for 326 DAYS and turned this weapon on the AKP.
- Journalists, lawyers, mayors, trade unionists, intellectuals and artists included, every section of the people has had some share in being attacked as they try to silence all opposition, be it revolutionary or reformist.
- In Kurdistan, curfews continue to be turned into massacres.
- In the four corners of Turkey, dozens of people have been deliberately murdered at home or on the street on the pretext that “they did not heed the call to stop” or there was a “clash”, and “people run over by armoured cars” are presented as road accidents.
In short, AKP fascism tramples on its own laws and since July 15 it has ruled the country through KHK (legal decrees under the state of emergency). In this process all masks of fascism have fallen, together with the open fascism institutionalised by September 12 this is what we confront in the most basic and deeply-embedded fashion.
Constant Resistance To Constant Fascism
Everywhere It Is Only The Front That Resists
- Alev Sahin for 317 Days In Duzce,
- Yuksel resistance For 593 Days,
- We Continue To Resist For Two Years Without Interruption As The Free Prisoners, 400 People Have Been Sent To Prisons To Be Tortured, We Have Set Fire To 30 Prison Cells!
The ideological and physical attacks of imperialism have affected a good many sections in our country, quite a few organisations that defended armed struggle in the past have drifted into the swamp of legalism and have gradually taken their place inside the system, losing their claims to revolution and socialism. Leave aside claims to revolution and socialism, we confront a left that cannot defend the most ordinary democratic demands and its own institutions against fascist attacks.
In our country there is a conciliatory and obedient left reality that cannot even call imperialism imperialism, or fascism fascism. During the election it has been seen that they did not simply tail the Kurdish nationalists, since in the name of being against the AKP they even presented Muharrem Ince and Meral Aksener as legitimate. From trade unions to democratic mass organisations, from legal and illegal parties and organisations to petit bourgeois intellectuals, all sections distanced themselves from a line of struggle in favour of obedience and conciliation.
And certainly despite all the ideological and physical attacks by imperialism and the collaborationist oligarchy, there is a Front reality which at great cost continues to hold with pride the red flag of Marxism-Leninism and socialism. And we say with pride: the only Marxist-Leninist organisation that resists imperialism, continues armed warfare and lays claim to revolution is the Front.
There are supporters of the Front, we are also alone in resisting fascist attacks. At the start of July 2016 (immediately before July 15) Front prisoners in the jails began General Resistance to rights being taken away and attacks.
Prison uniforms, exile transports, restrictions on books, bans on visits, roll call while having to stand, bans on using telephones, cameras, visits to the doctor while handcuffed, obstruction of treatment for ill prisoners, denial of communication as a punishment, sponge rooms, wires pulling into exercise areas… Every kind of dishonour and attack has been resisted by Free Prisoners.
- In two years of the General Resistance, no less than 30 cells have been set on fire!
- To try and make our prisoners surrender, there have been no less than 400 times people were sent on exile transports, involving the use of torture. They still did not get revolutionary willpower to surrender. Resistance continues with all its warmth and enthusiasm. These are FREE PRISONERS…
While the prisoners resist inside the jails, their families resist outside and are their breath and voice. Despite attacks and arrests involving the use of torture, the TAYAD Families continue to campaign against prison uniform attacks, denial of treatment to ill prisoners and isolation, and they continue to resist.
AKP fascism does not limit its attacks to the prisons. We have described attacks on all the people’s forces, on workers, labourers, revolutionaries. Look at all these attacks – has there been consistent resistance other than from us?
For example, what have KESK, with 250,000 members, done? A section of the 150,000 public workers suspended have been KESK members. What has been the behaviour of KESK? Did it organise a single act of resistance? Apart from a few written statements, what did it do?
Among hundreds of thousands of public workers, only the KEC (Public Workers’ Front) took a decision to resist. In the middle of Ankara Nuriye Gulmen wrote resistance into history, Semih Ozakca took part in the resistance and every day arrests under torture took place with ever greater attacks. The response by the resistance was to escalate into an Indefinite Hunger Strike.
Despite being in prison and subjected to isolation, the threat of force-feeding and even though their needs were not met, they continued their resistance for 324 days even after being released. During this period, the resistance in Ankara Yuksel also continued. The KEC’s Nazife Onay, Akman Simsek and Celal Akgun were imprisoned.
With the new resisters, the Yuksel resistance continuing in new forms is not only present in our country, but worldwide it has created solidarity and sympathy. Never mind KESK organising the resistance, it actually took a hostile attitude to the resistance of Nuriye and Semih that had set the world aflame. They ignored the resistance and they closed the gates of union buildings to it. KESK actually threatened to call the police when the KEC organised a sit-down action in their building.
What did DISK do in relation to OHAL, and in relation to the increasing attacks against workers by means of OHAL? The attitude of DISK was not different from KESK. They organised attacks on resisting workers, and the DISK gang even organised lynching attacks but the president Kani Beko did not organise any resistance against fascism.
“We will use our power from production” he said in a masterful way and and finally “I will carry the voice of the workers into parliament,” he said, announcing his candidacy. Of course this not only the situation with Kani Beko. We are up against trade unionism without any content, a race to get into parliament, a corrupt trade unionism, a boss trade unionism.
Arzu Cerkezoglu, who is replacing Kani Beko as DISK chair made a visit to the Flormar workers in struggle and she said, “No power can stand in the way of a woman who is resisting,” she says.
Naturally, you would expect someone who said that to resist or be on the side of resistance but this is not the case.
Arzu Cerkezoglu was one of those DISK managers who organised an attack on Oya Baydak, a woman who actually resists. Yes, the truth is that there is no power that can stop a woman who resists. Resistance that they started on their own – Turkan Albayrak, Cansel Malatyali, Oya Baydak. And from Nuriye Gulmen we know this is the case.
Where are Arzu Cerkezoglu and DISK managers during these acts of resistance? The answer is clear… Arzu Cerkezoglu and the DISK leadership are against them. Nuriye Gulmen went to Izmir to support the worker Mahir Kilic and one of DISK’s central managers was shameless enough to say to Nuriye Gulmen, “What happened to your resistance?”
Has there been a single resistance that results in victory? The answer to the question is also clear: No, there is none.
Of course this conciliationist attitude is not limited to DISK and KESK. The most “communist” in the OHAL process and the most reformist all adopted a “wait-and-see” policy against attacks by fascism. They calculated on how to survive with minimal damage. There were no programmes or goals for the future.
As if they were waiting for someone with a magic wand expecting everything to change, they put their hopes in the ballot box.
Hundreds of associations, cultural centres, publications and publishing houses were closed, seals
put on their doors.
We are the only one that resist the arbitrariness. We dismantled the seals, set up barricades when they came to re-install them. We resisted. Outside the institutions where the Front is present, there was no resistance anywhere. Fascist attacks grow every day. Who else has resisted them?
The situation of TMMOB is no different. 550,000 engineers and architects are registered, only the people’s architect Alev Sahin resists. Not only to get back work and bread but so people are not killed by new earthquakes or suspended.
Just look at the weekly resistance calendar of Alev Sahin! Both in the square of resistance in Duzce
And in front of Duzce AKP’s Office and in a sit-down action at TMMOB.
Yes, she resists against the victimisation of members of your own professional organisation, and the TMMOB management is against her.
Nuriye, Semih, Alev, Mehmet, Acun, Nazife, Nazan, Engin … they persist for months, they resist.
They resist despite systematic and heavy torture.
Mehmet’s foot, Acun Hoca’s heart, the hair of Gulnaz, the bruised face of Perihan who is in her 70s, Nazan’s broken cheekbone, twice in a day the police drag them along the ground… in Duzce there are lynch attempts, AKP provocations, detention, torture … None of them had their resistance broken…
The police often do not allow a statement to be read for even a minute before attacking. The resistance, as of 24 June 2018, has continued for 593 days, organising itself even in the midst of torture.
REVOLUTIONISM IS NOT A CRIME IT IS A DUTY
Europe Too Will Not Get Revolutionaries To Surrender!
Oue tradition of resistance in Europe is not new, it is rooted in tradition. Wherever in the world there is a Front prisoner, there is absolutely resistance. No imposition, for Free Prisoners do not submit to dishonour.
Free Prisoners in Greece, Erdal in Poland, Musa Asoglu in Germany, Erdogan Cakir in France – all won victories by hunger strikes.
Not many years ago, in German prisons the Free Prisoner Sadi OZPOLAT many times resisted the isolation by the German state, the imposition of prison uniform, going on hunger strike for months, and every time German imperialism gave in.
Musa Asoglu, in the courtrooms of German imperialism, is turning it into an arena of ideological struggle. The legitimacy of revolution is shouted out in courtrooms, the two ideologies clash there.
Yusuf Tas, Ozgur Aslan, Ozkan Guzel, Erdal Gokoglu are continuing the Free Prisoner tradition in Europe’s isolation cells, including hunger strikes. Finally last week, the prisoner of French imperialism, Erdogan CAKIR, won a victory with a hunger strike against the attempts to extradite him to Turkey.
Not only in prisons but in European city squares there have been many acts of resistance. From England to Greece, from Austria to the Netherlands, from Germany to Belgium; long marchs to support freedom for prisoners, sit-down actions, tent resistance, bicycle rides in supporting Grup Yorum against bans, and various forms of action and resistance are carried out by the People’s Front.
Erdem VARAN, father of Grup Yorum member Betul and also Bergun Varan’s father. He lives in Holland and has two daughters unlawfully imprisoned by fascism in Turkey. For months he has resisted in a square in the Netherlands demanding “Freedom For Grup Yorum”.
Despite living in Belgium for 17 years, Cahit ZOREL has had his right to remain taken away because of his beliefs, and has been protesting in front of the court building since April 17.
On the 50th day of the resistance, he was subjected to a fascist knife attack but Cahit stressed that he would not give up.
Gulaferit had all her rights taken away after being released from prison, and she resists for her rights in Berlin.
Ozgur Aslan was released and did not accept the impositions of German imperialism, he said revolutionism is not a crime, it’s a mission.
In Turkey or in Europe, inside or outside jail… Imperialism and fascist raids, arrests, heavy
torture, exile transport, prison isolation, fascist attacks, nothing succeeds. Revolutionary will cannot be made to surrender.
No Attack Is Enough To Make Revolutionaries Surrender Because;
Only we are building up the claim to socialism, we resist and win in all conditions… What resistance is and what victory is are not a matter of chance, the issue is ideological independence, ideological determination and clarity.
Fascism in the face of Marxist-Leninist ideology is helpless.
Prison, prices on our heads, artists of the people resist death threats…
People’s lawyers are inside and outside prison, resisting…
People’s engineers-architects resist…
This is the key to victory.
Gulaferit Unsal has been in prison for years in Germany and now she continues to resist for her rights outside.
Ozkan Guzel resists so as not to accept any pressure put on him.
Resistance is a responsibility on the shoulders of every People’s Front member. Resistance and victory to be a link in our chain of victory. Hundreds of kilometres separate them but we can find the road to resistance. We can put pressure on courts and prisons with our phones and faxes.
You can carry out actions, participate in them, make a phone call in support, spread the news. They have won political victory already by deciding to resist, it is our responsibility to turn it into material gains.
History is onot just about bearing witness, it is in our hands to be a part of it. We will win; because we resist.
VICTORY GOES TO THOSE WHO RESIST!
