THE 444 DAYS OF RESISTANCE OF NURIYE AND SEMIH WAS A POLITICAL DUTY AND A SYMBOL OF RESISTANCE TO FASCISM, BECOMING THE NAME OF HOPE – IT IS NECESSARY AND POSSIBLE TO RESIST FASCISM!
THE POLITICAL VICTORY OF NURIYE AND SEMIH IS THE DEFEAT OF FASCISM!
WE ARE CONTINUING TO BE A BARRICADE TO TYRANNY AND PHYSICAL, IDEOLOGICAL LIQUIDATIONISM, AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO BE SO!
Nuriye and Semih created historic resistance in 444 days, 324 of them on hunger strike, they wrote history showing it is possible to resist fascism…
The hunger strike part of the resistance voluntarily ended on its 324th day with a political victory. This resistance won a political victory, carried out by Nuriye and Semih, two educationalists consciously seeking their rights, expressing class anger, defending their honour and seeking justice. But matters went well beyond two people, the power of the resistance showed the way to the peoples of Turkey and gave hope to the peoples of the world.
There are two sides in the class war: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat!
There are two classes and the meaning of the class struggle is that the will of one class makes the other class submit. Here was a resistance on one side with Nuriye and Semih in the vanguard: on the other side was fascism, creating the conditions for resistance with its tyrannies and injustices. And in a war where both sides sought to make the other accept their will, the resistance of Nuriye and Semih won through.
Those who resisted won victory, we won. Because fascism sought to crush these 444 days of resistance with tyranny, wanted to silence them, arrested people, imprisoned them, threw them out of work or out of universities and prevented people from exercising their profession, yet we shook all sections of society. We showed all the people that it was possible to resist. We set up a barricade to their attacks, coercion and sanctions… AKP fascism has to reckon with this kind of resistance to all the attacks they will attempt in future. Because a consciousness of resistance has been created among the people. Nuriye and Semih attained their political aims with the resistance.
For revolutionaries and those who resist, victory is not just a physical gain. It is politics that is the determining factor. In 444 days there were dozens of clashes, both large and small, on Yuksel Avenue and in the resistance houses… Day by day, cell by cell, in the end these clashes concluded with a political victory.
To answer the question of how the resistance achieved political victory we must evaluate existing conditions. The AKP government has been in power for 16 years. In the last two years, after the coup attempt against the AKP on July 15, 2016, a state of emergency (OHAL) was declared. During OHAL 36 paragraphs of KHK (“legislative decisions”) have been promulgated.
AKP fascism has stepped up its attacks since the July 15, 2016 coup attempt as its fear of losing power deepened. 130,000 public sector workers have been fired on various pretexts. Newspapers, magazines and radios have been closed down. Under deep censorship, the range of channels delivering truthful news to the people has been sharply narrowed.
Nuriye and Semih fought an enemy hiding behind laws and KHK and covering its face with the mask of democracy but despite this it has been deprived of popular legitimacy. The name of this enemy is fascism… AKP fascism.
FASCISM IS THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, AS IT FINDS ITSELF IN PERMANENT NATIONAL CRISIS IT ATTACKS WORKING PEOPLE AND THEIR ORGANISED FORCES, USING VIOLENCE
Revolutionism means creating politics in opposition to the politics of the enemy. This was made concrete at every moment of the resistance. We were not without politics… The enemy never lost sight of the resistance, it continually had to produce politics of its own and there was a constant battle of wills in progress.
The resistance and victory of Nuriye and Semih developed under these conditions. The political quality of the victory lay in ideological superiority.
The resistance of Nuriye and Semih is not one to be evaluated based on whether or not they got their jobs back. The resistance began with such a demand but went beyond that. This was not the demand of two individuals, it was the demand of tens of thousands. Beyond the demand, they became a symbol of resistance to AKP fascism. Showing that they could resist under the conditions of OHAL brought hope and morale to all the people.
AKP fascism showed that it was powerless to get two individuals to give in when they were determined to resist. There was no method the AKP did not use in its efforts to break the resistance. Torture, arrests, imprisonment, threats, isolation, psychological warfare, plots… Yet the resistance carried on.
The saying of Tayyip Erdogan that “they stirred up the world” was not a randomly chosen concept. The representatives of fascism do not exaggerate the creation or the success of a revolutionary action. On the contrary, they seek to belittle it. Despite this, the statement of Erdogan shows how deeply they were worried.
Resistance was right and just.
They carried out an attack on the two resisters by publishing a pamphlet. But (Interior Minister) Soylu was unable to make this attack convincing for any section. Even reactionary sections started asking the government why they had to come up with such a thing.
The government was unjust and powerless.
It was known that KHK did not even allow people thrown out of work to seek their rights. It was very clear that Nuriye and Semih were in the right. This was why a lot of the time, instead of attacking the resistance and resisters openly, they preferred to disrespect the resisters and censor any news about them.
Determination to continue broke through the censorship.
“One person went, there were hundreds of thousands.”
This has been seen many times in history, and it was seen yet again.
The image of Nuriye standing alone in front of the monument, together with the images of thousands marching and hundreds of thousands possessing resistance in various forms, entered history.
The resistance of Nuriye and Semih undermined theories that under OHAL nothing could be done. It showed that resistance was possible and that a resistance that fought from day to day was feasible. It opened the way for the democratic struggle. Tens of thousands joined actions in solidarity with Nuriye and Semih. Even those who said, “Nothing can be done under OHAL” were forced to reach a decision on doing something. Even if limited, they found the courage to do something.
The friends and relatives of the resisters and the environment of KEC (Public Sector Workers’ Front) were the first to take action. Until that day there were no struggles, people did not take part in organisation, those who performed the most militant actions did so “for their loved ones”. The first time they were detained, they showed the same determination as revolutionary militants who had decades of experience. In this resistance again and again the educational nature of the struggle, the way it made the people into heroes and heroism was made one with the people – all this was brought to life.
The resistance also achieved serious resonance abroad. The resistance in Turkey to AKP fascism became identified with Nuriye and Semih. The anti-democratic faces of imperialist institutions and their falseness were revealed yet again. The sided with AKP fascism and not with Nuriye and Semih. But the world’s revolutionaries, progressives, democrats were on the side of the resistance of Nuriye and Semih.
Heroism was once again made one with the people while the people were made into heroes. The resistance of Nuriye and Semih added a new link to the chain of the struggle of Turkey’s peoples in this direction.
There are much greater acts of heroism that the people will create and that are expected of us. Everyone can be certain of that. Look at the Death Fast of the year 2000: the struggle has strengthened a little more with each passing day.
This resistance, with the volunteers of Nuriye and Semih, went forward in the awareness of being in the right. Their own resistance became an educator for themselves. In the OHAL process of fascism, with its laws directed at besieging public sector workers, there were two barricades standing in the way of the process – Nuriye and Semih!
The hunger strike resistance of Nuriye and Semih was a source of hope to all the peoples of Turkey and the world. It put on display the helplessness of AKP fascism when the two hunger strike resisters were arrested and put in jail. They were so helpless that they ended up imprisoning the Human Rights Monument, putting up barriers around it.
Yuksel Avenue witnessed the creation of a human rights legend day by day, as Nuriye and Semih prepared to build up the resistance yet further. The position of the Human Rights Monument was won and this position saw thousands of people dancing the halay shoulder to shoulder in resistance to fascism.
EXPERIENCE OF THE HONOUR OF RESISTING FASCISM
The resistance boosted the faith of the people that “fascism can be resisted”. The hunger of Nuriye and Semih became the hope of the peoples of Turkey. They continued the resistance tradition among public sector workers.
Politically this resistance won victory.
Because an academic like Nuriye and a teacher like Semih became the agenda of Turkey. Two educationalists became one resister. They taught resistance to the 130,000 or so public sector workers who have been thrown out of work. They exposed what AKP fascism is. They showed that imprisonment, isolation and torture cannot crush the revolutionary personality. This was so great a resistance that mothers, spouses and siblings created the basis for more resisters. Our people have borne witness to how love can strengthen the fight. Held in separate cells, Nuriye and Semih remained part of the same action, showing the strength of comradeship.
The resistance of Mehmet Guvel and Feridun Osmanagaoglu when they announced that they would join in the hunger of Nuriye and Semih, have entered our history as a shining example of comradeship.
Nuriye and Semih became the name of resistance. They became hope.
We have won. Nuriye and Semih have won.
Our resistance won politically. The resistance of Nuriye and Semih is our honour.
OHAL IS NOT AN ATTACK AIMED AT FETHULLAH GULEN, IT IS AIMED AT LIQUIDATING THE REVOLUTIONARIES
OHAL was claimed to be aimed at FETO (translator’s note: name given to Fethullah Gulen organisation blamed for 2016 coup attempt). In reality the target is not FETO, it is the elimination of revolutionism. This started to be obvious from the first with the action by Nuriye and those like her. They imprisoned educationalists for going on hunger strike. The AKP’s attack was aimed at liquidating the revolutionaries, and this was proved once again when the trial dossier of Nuriye and Semih was made public.
The AKP’s trial dossier for Nuriye Gulmen and those like her said the following in a secret file: “In a situation where the organisation members Semih and Nuriye lose their lives, certain sections finding the widespread attention to be positive will seek to use it to maintain they died because of the state and were not allowed to seek legal remedies, statements would be made calling for revenge and sympathetic masses of people would be politicised by street actions, there might be actions in duty areas concerned with judicial functions… “ and “Nu-Se actions have collected together quite of a lot of people and left-wing circles in a legal way. If Nu-Se were to die, organisation members might attempt armed actions. People around Nu-Se would say, ‘Look, they just wanted their jobs back, they killed Nu-Se for this’, presenting targets and in this way it would ensure a sympathetic environment for an armed action.” (Translator’s note: A ban was placed on mentioning their names, so the abbreviation Nu-Se is used.)
With this document the AKP confessed to the legitimacy of the revolutionary struggle and the armed struggle. On the other hand, it admitted to its own lack of legitimacy.
The AKP was aware of the effect revolutionaries were having upon the people, and so wanted to eliminate this effect by liquidating the revolutionaries. Of course this is not something the AKP came up with through its own thought processes. It is imperialism that is ultimately behind the politics of liquidation, surrender and negotiation.
The resistance of Nuriye and Semih is not simply the resistance of two personalities. It is a very powerful reply to imperialism’s ideological siege operations, its attacks aimed at bringing about ideological liquidation, negotiation and surrender.
The supporters of the Front (Cephe) are the greatest barricade in the path of imperialist liquidation. This is the reason why we are paying the greatest price. We know very well that we will not be able to achieve victory without paying a price. The problem is not a matter of two KHKs being issued. The problem is the ideology they seek to enforce. The repression by fascism is aimed at making people feel resigned to it. So in this way resistance is resistance to liquidation.
We, the Front supporters, will fight. Until liberation, we will not cease the fight. We will create new Kizilderes, new Ciftehavuzlars. All of us will be like Safak, Elif and Bahtiyar and make the fears of imperialism and the oligarchy into a reality. We will fight, turning war into an art form, like a song, a picture, like filling a beehive with honey.
WHAT DOES THE BOURGEOISIE WANT FROM LIQUIDATION?
• They want to eliminate our resistance dynamics.
• They want to eliminate our class and historical consciousness.
• They want to eliminate our fighting will.
• They want to eliminate our ideological clarity.
• They want to eliminate our comradely ties.
• They want to eliminate armed struggle.
• They want to eliminate socialism.
• They want to eliminate Marxism-Leninism.
• They want to eliminate our values.
• They want to eliminate our language and our thoughts.
• They want to remove revolutionaries from the face of the earth.
• They want to destroy reality.
• They want to liquidate those who do not give in to the physical force of the enemy.
• They want to eliminate our side for refusing to seek conciliation with those who are in the wrong.
• They want to eliminate our determination that “it is not possible to live in peace and harmony with imperialism”
• They want to eliminate our irreconcilable character.
• They want to eliminate our refusal to quit.
• They want to eliminate our connection to our martyrs.
• They want to eliminate our sacrificial culture and traditions.
• They want to eliminate our Free Prisoner tradition.
• They want to eliminate our call to get the people to wage war.
• They want to eliminate our hope.
• They want to eliminate our belief.
• They want to eliminate our claim to government.
• They want to eliminate our determination to do the opposite of what the enemy says.
• They want to eliminate our principles and our rules.
• They want to eliminate our struggle in the democratic arena.
• They want to eliminate our illegal struggle.
• They want to eliminate our ideology.
• They want to eliminate our traditions of resistance.
• They want to eliminate our understanding of organisation.
• They want to eliminate our morality and culture.
• They want to eliminate revolution and revolutionaries.
• They want to eliminate our conception of justice.
• They want to eliminate our tradition of one for all and all for one.
• They want to eliminate our internationalist consciousness of responding to every attack on the world’s peoples with actions.
• They want to eliminate our history, which with our Marxist-Leninist ideology is a model for progressive democrats in the four corners of the world.
• They want to eliminate our duty and devotion to our graves, to not letting the grass grow on them, even when our dead consist of only 165 bone fragments.
• They want to eliminate our class anger which does not forget, forgive or give up.
• They want to eliminate our love for the homeland which is nourished by our national honour and belief in the socialist future.
Why?
The problem is not one of resisting a couple of KHKs. The aim is one of confining matters within the lines drawn by imperialism. TO CREATE A LEFT THAT IS REFORMED, TAMED: TO CREATE A LEFT FED BY IMPERIALISM.
THE DUTY; TO BUILD UP REVOLUTIONISM THAT BLAZES A PATH AND SHOWS THE WAY.
IMPERIALISM’S EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE REVOLUTIONARIES ARE NOT NEW
American imperialism’s first agreement with the Republic of Turkey aimed at making it dependent was concluded on February 23, 1945. This is also the date that Turkey’s neo-colonialist relations began.
The second paragraph of the agreement dealt with Turkey’s obligations: “The government of the Republic of Turkey, in the paragraphs on its duties, obligations and means, would assure the USA its services, facilities and information… Apart from defence, services, information, facilities and means would be guaranteed to the USA by Turkey.
Moreover, in this paragraph the word ‘facilities’ amounted to Turkey’s airspace, harbours and roads for the use of the Americans, and had a lot of very varied meanings as far as the establishment of American bases and facilities in Turkey. With this paragraph the Turkish government took on very wide obligations that did not specify where they began or ended.” (Haydar Tunckanat, ‘The True Story Of Bilateral Agreements’)
What was signed was not a simple concession or agreement on leasing, it was an agreement to make Turkey into a neo-colony. The Kemalists who did not trust in their own strength, did not depend on the people and lacked an ideology sought a solution for their problems through cooperation with imperialism. They reached agreement at the table with the imperialists they had fought in the Liberation War.
From the first agreement, the various agreements that were reached developed ties of dependency. Neo-colonialism made imperialism an internal factor. The imperialists saw that open occupation was the cause of national awakening and the development of national liberation wars, while concealed occupation could invade minds and the real occupation was an occupation of the mind.
To do this education and the culture and social fields were used. The occupation of the mind was sought with the goal for imperialists of making the peoples in neo-colonial countries think as the imperialists did.
On February 27, 1946, through a credit agreement with America, Turkey received a credit of 10 million dollars. It would be America that determined where this money needed to be used. The money “would be spent on culture, education and humanitarian aims…”
The imperialist culture and way of life entered our dining rooms, houses, workplaces, schools and every area of life. The paragraphs in agreements on culture, education and humanitarian aims were not innocent. “There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is with the sword, the other is through debt.” (John Adams)
In the period of neo-colonialism, colonialism is achieved through debt rather than through the sword. To cover up the colonialism, imperialism infects our daily lives and thoughts.
“We are economic hitmen… First of all, we find countries with resources suitable for out companies and we cast an eye over them, petrol for example. Then we arrange large credits for that country through the World Bank or one of its fraternal organisations. But the money never really goes to that country. Instead of to that country, the money goes to our own companies managing projects in that country… In addition, for our companies we ensure profit for some rich people in that country. These are not for the majority of society. Again… the entire country is pushed into debt.
This debt is sufficiently large that it cannot be paid back and this is part of the plan, it is not to be paid back. Then we economic hitmen go and say, ‘Listen, you are indebted to us. You are not paying it. So sell us your petrol for our petrol companies at a cheap price. Give permission for us to set up military bases in your country or support our troops by sending your soldiers somewhere in the world…’
We privatise water and drainage systems and sell them to US or other multinational companies… (Privatisation) includes social services, technological companies, sometimes education systems. We sell their legal and insurance systems to foreign companies. This is a coup, two, three or four times over.” (John Perkins, “Confessions Of An Economic Hitman”)
The confession by Perkins of how they go about things is a revelation of how dependency ties are developed in neo-colonial countries. Like how in the 2nd Imperialist War (World War II) Turkey was turned into a neo-colony through debt and agreements.
“As we recall about Grew, the first American ambassador after the Liberation War, his chief diplomatic activity was to re-open American schools that had been closed, and he put major pressure on the government to do that.” (Dogan Avcioglu, “The System In Turkey”)
This aid in the educational sphere was not innocently motivated. American imperialism’s stress on education was about creating its own cadres, educating local collaborators and transmitting its own ways of thinking to local people. On February 27, 1946 there was agreement between America and Turkey on creating an Education Commission. Here is an important paragraph in the agreement:
“… In the agreement with the USA (in the educational sphere there will be contacts on by the owners of knowledge and professional endowments on a broader scale, on an exchange basis), with this purpose a new body will be established in Turkey, called the United States Educational Commission. This commission will consist of eight members, four American and four Turks… The Commission will be responsible in all its dealings to the US State Department, its budget will be determined there and if necessary any decisions will be reviewed and changed… All powers are party to the agreement… In any case outside Turkish control…. (for) research on Turkish education the collection of information the necessary American officials will be brought as experts and researchers and be established in schools, universities and Ministries with the aim of ensuring that similar activities are facilitated.”
In these agreements, the education system of Turkey was surrendered to American imperialism. That is, the minds of our children were formed by those who were brought to our country to exploit it and steal our labour and natural resources.
The oligarchic dictatorship that has ruled our country are cadres “cultivated like seeds” in this manner. “CIA-cultivated” personnel at the end of the 1980s came together with a new generation of traitors in society, and those who got out of line from time to time were eliminated.
The 1950s in particular were a time of turmoil. In this period there would be at least one US delegation carrying out an “inspection” of the economy, transport, health or education, there would be a report prepared and these areas would be arranged in the ways imperialists wanted. Later on there was no end to what the imperialists wanted and there were dozens of changes to systems and neo-colonialism was solidified.
Richard Podol came to our country as an “expert” with a US aid delegation and worked in the State Planning Organisation in the 1970s, and in a report for the White House he said, “The US aid programme has been at work for over 10 years in Turkey and it is now starting to bear fruit. In important areas there is hardly a ministry or public economic enterprise that has not received American training.”
And Podol adds: “Here at the level of middle management in particular we need to concentrate. The aim is to achieve new behaviour. If it is considered that in the near future this group will rise to positions of considerable responsibility, all the effort expended on these people will be correct from a logical viewpoint.”
Achieve new behaviour: this is the key concept underlying this entire process.
America, founding private schools, universities, colleges, setting up foundations, got people in our country to show new behaviour patterns through secret occupation. That is, the aim was to create a spirit of collaboration and servility.
The concept of “secret occupation” is not purely one in the political sphere, as might be thought; for its own existence imperialism has established an oligarchic mechanism at a top and middle level, integrated itself into the state mechanism and has become an “internal factor”.
There is a continual national crisis in countries that are neo-colonies under imperialist hegemony. So there is a constant revolutionary situation, meaning that stages of evolution and revolution continually intermesh. Fascism wants to destroy and conditions that might make the people pull down the existing system, and to stay alive it has to practise repression and exploitation against the people.
As crisis deepens, fascism fears losing power and as popular displeasure with the system grows it resorts to armed force. So there is impoverishment, corruption, isolation, intimidation, fascist terror etc. Imperialism’s general recession is magnified in neo-colonial countries and reflected in continual economic crisis. The imperialist crisis is transmitted to neo-colonial Turkey by imperialism making it accept its economic programmes, and it bears the weight of the economic crisis on its shoulders. Of course it is the people who bear the weight.
With every passing day the economic crisis gets worse and class contradictions deepen. Under double exploitation the living conditions of the mass of working people worsen from day to day, hunger, poverty, unemployment etc. develop into a social crisis.
The continual national crisis means continual repression of the people. Because the rulers do not want the peoples to rebel against exploitation. A corrupt, decayed, selfish people cut off from popular values, forgetting its own history, cut off from its own struggles is certainly not going to unite against fascism. This is the aim of fascism.
This is the basis for attacks on education workers. They want the educationalists who educate the children of the people to surrender their minds to local collaborationists in the belly of the imperialist beast. Under OHAL a large number of educationalists are among the 130,000 public sector workers who have been fired, 4,100 members of the KESK trade union among them.
Imperialists and their collaborators under every junta, every period of martial law, every state of emergency have boosted neo-colonialism and the secret occupation, institutionalised them and hardened them. Since the 1980s serious steps have been taken, universities, national education, all the areas of workers and civil servants, there has been a lot of liquidation going on but it did not end. Now there is total liquidation going on. The question is not simply one of FETO. They want to bury revolutionary hopes, revolutionary thoughts, our future. They say, “Either change how you think, or die!” They could not finish us by killing us, so they attack our beliefs. The army and the education system – these are two points imperialism strikes at. Again this is a matter of shaping the culture and re-organising the army along neo-colonial lines.
The supporters of the Front set up a barricade to imperialism’s efforts to reshape itself, paying a price in doing so. Those who won’t face up to a price cannot practise revolutionism. Those who surrender and seek to negotiate can make no claims to revolutionism. They have no chance of making revolution.
1972: In Kizildere we did not surrender, we paid the price.
1978: The official and civilian fascist terror sought to get the people to surrender, we frustrated this with our policy of retaliation.
1984: We did not surrender in the prisons, we paid a price in the Death Fasts.
1991-92: We did not seek conciliation with imperialism, we did not surrender and on July 12 and April 17 and in hundreds of other operations we paid a price with our comrades who were executed.
1996: We continue to reject conciliation. We paid a price in the Death Fasts and were a barricade to the oligarchy’s attacks on the people, we achieved victory against bourgeois ideology.
2000: Imperialism’s attack “either change your beliefs or die” was one that entailed paying the heaviest price, with 122 martyrs we defeated it.
The 1984 Death Fast was a political victory. The Great Resistance of 2000-2007 was a victory. From the TKP-ML to the MKP, to the MLKP, all the reformist and opportunist groups who stayed out of the resistance said the resistance was “political defeat”.
They were the ones who were defeated. Reformism was pulled entirely within the system and unable to see that it was. The TKP-ML, MKP, MLKP today have become a reserve for the PKK and a part of imperialism’s plans.
During the Great Resistance we wrote into history that “those who do not resist will rot!” After the resistance, the proofs of this were legion.
THE RESISTANCE OF NURIYE AND SEMIH PASSED HONOURABLY INTO HISTORY AS ANOTHER EXAMPLE THAT SIEGES CAN BE BROKEN!
A resistance that started with resistance all on their own in Yuksel, hunger striking for 324 days, body cells eroding, mobilising thousands and tens of thousands, making our country and the world stand up: the political results are not just relevant to the 444 days but to the years to come.
1 – WITH THIS RESISTANCE, THE PEOPLE WERE MADE HEROES AND HEROISM WAS POPULARISED;
• The people’s hope in resistance grew.
• Fascism’s fear of the resistance increased.
• The political pressure on the government increased, the AKP was exposed.
• The legitimacy of the AKP was undermined. The KHK and laws lost legitimacy among the people.
• Nuriye and Semih interpreted the anger of millions.
• The enemy’s physical superiority was shown to be that of “paper tigers”. Two people against hundreds of police. This is how it looked but in fact it was a clash between fascism and those resisting fascism. The winners were Nuriye and Semih. Fascism has an army of 800,000, 450,000 police, MIT, gendarmerie and they could not break two resisters. The strength of the two resisters was that they were in the right.
• Belief that it was possible to resist the injustice of the system was boosted.
• Nuriye and Semih became a resistance banner against conciliation with imperialism, liquidation and surrender.
THE SOURCE OF VICTORY IS IDEOLOGICAL SUPERIORITY
The source of our determination to achieve victory and political victory is our ideological superiority.
There are three important results of the resistance by Nuriye and Semih;
1. The first is the rightfulness and legitimacy of our line.
2. The second – our persistence and determination in the democratic struggle.
3. The third – our ability to unite.
First of all, in this struggle from the point of view of ideology we created a framework for rejecting the approval of the oligarchy. At interval stages of the resistance, we frustrated every kind of “wait and see” politics emanating from the AKP front and its attempts at a “pause to bring about a solution”. In the ideological sense of a line based on being right and legitimate, we dominated again and in a very clear way. Ideologically and practically, there were sections that did not trust in themselves and did not have faith in socialism, and one of the first reflections of this was that they did not lean on their rightness and legitimacy and did not believe in determination to win the struggle for what is right, so they were dominated by the idea of seeking the system’s permission. This was shown in language that was far from demanding a reckoning or sitting in judgment on the system, in a language that “could accept” the system. We rejected “tactics” and also rejected the language of tactics. What won through was our line of rightfulness and legitimacy.
Secondly, the resistance presented a new model to the left in Turkey from many aspects.
This resistance is an active criticism of accepting bans in the struggle for rights and freedoms, engaging in token violation of state bans, an idea of the struggle as purely representative, limited only to “protest”, only addressing ruling class institutions, and devoid of any attempt to get a result. It lasted for months. It might have lasted much longer. Certainly we could have continued it at the same intensity. During this struggle the “bourgeois media”, the bourgeois press could find no place to cover it.
Our persistence and resolve, actions in numerous cities of our country started to take place every week, and continually took place in certain locations in this struggle, becoming concrete in that way. The participation of the left in this kind of long-term struggle was generally neither ready not something they were accustomed to, they showed increasing instability, while our persistence and resolve was something that we used to ensure the struggle continued.
Can a result be gained from all persistence and determination in the democratic struggle? Can we always achieve a definite gain? There is no guarantee of this is a country ruled by fascism. But this much is certain: it is persistence in the democratic struggle that is one of the determining factors of this struggle and the basis for uniting the left. This unity, even if not on the scale of the entire country and present in all actions, came out in political understanding as a strong means toward unity and solidarity. This struggle was like a lesson at the same time showing that unity of the left was not such a difficult thing; a factor we have spoken about for years, standing behind a single banner, marching without slogans, flags or pennants together, was achieved in this struggle. Unity is labour, self-sacrifice, concessions and sincerity; we made this clear from our own front. Our desire is that this unity from the point of view of the left in Turkey can form the grounds for a broader and more lasting unity for yet greater struggles.
No result can be achieved if you do not show determination.
Thirdly; this resistance united the left. The revolutionary movement of Turkey achieved a modest victory. This modest victory IS CONFIDENCE… CONFIDENCE IN YOURSELF, IN IDEOLOGY AND IN RESISTANCE…
THIS RESISTANCE IS A VICTORY OVER LIQUIDATIONISM.
THIS VICTORY CAN BE TURNED INTO A COMMON VICTORY OF THE LEFT;
THIS UNITY,
Is able to march on the road of INDEPENDENCE AGAINST IMPERIALISM,
DEMOCRACY AGAINST FASCISM
SOCIALISM AGAINST CAPITALISM.
The revolutionary movement presented a new model to the left of Turkey as regards the democratic struggle… In the struggle for rights and freedoms, token violation of state bans, a representative understanding of struggle, an idea limited to “protest” addressed towards ruling class institutions is a type of behaviour that can achieve no results and is invalid.
The left in Turkey, with the accumulation of history, is today stronger than it looks, and it has the condition to become stronger. But the left has to believe in itself. For nearly the last 40 years it has to get rid of the stamp of making no claims. The left in Turkey and all revolutionaries in general must see their own strengths…
The secret occupation by imperialism is not something that is invisible, on the contrary it is an encirclement that is present in every area of life. Economic, political, social, cultural encirclement, depriving the left of breath.
The wish is to suffocate the left with surrender and liquidation.
Against this, our resistance gives the peoples a chance to recover their breath.
LIQUIDATION IS DEATH BY INCHES.
WE WILL RESIST LIQUIDATION BREATH BY BREATH, STEP BY STEP, AT ANY COST. AS SUPPORTERS OF THE FRONT, WE WILL RESIST BREATH BY BREATH.
CONCILIATION IS BETRAYAL.
SURRENDER IS BETRAYAL.
REMAINING APOLITICAL IS BETRAYAL.
WE WILL NEVER ALLOW THE SOIL OF ANATOLIA TO BE GIVEN OVER TO COLLABORATION AND SERVILITY.
WE WILL FIGHT AND NEVER SEEK CONCILIATION WITH ATTEMPTS TO IMPOSE SURRENDER AND LIQUIDATION!
WE WILL RESIST WITH THE STRINGS ON OUR SAZ (*), THE SOUND OF OUR BREATH, THE LAST CARTRIDGE IN OUR WEAPONS, OUR LAST STONE, OUR LAST TREE, OUR LAST MOUNTAIN, OUR LAST HOUSE!
THE QUESTION WAS NEVER SIMPLY ONE OF THE KHKs OR OF GOING BACK TO WORK!
A BARRICADE WAS PLACED AGAINST IMPERIALISM’S ATTEMPTS TO LIQUIDATE PROLETARIAN IDEOLOGYAND THEY COULD NOT TEAR DOWN THIS BARRICADE.
TWO EDUCATIONALISTS RESISTED WITH THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HONOUR AND BROKE THROUGH THE OHAL ENCIRCLEMENT…
550,000 MEMBERS OF TMMOB, 141,000 MEMBERS OF DISK, 236,000 MEMBERS OF KESK, BAR ASSOCIATIONS WITH 96,000 LAWYERS COULD PRODUCE NOT A SINGLE ACT OF RESISTANCE, NOR DID THEY SUPPORT THE RESISTANCE OF NURIYE AND SEMIH; BUT TWO EDUCATIONALISTS, NURIYE AND SEMIH, RESISTED USING HUNGER AND WON. WE WON.
Intelligent leftism, nurtured leftism, take a different form. In the democratic mass organisations, in the reformist parties, there are no masses, the people are absent, there is a sort of left aristocracy; a dry salt sort of left, insubstantial, taking no risks, intelligent leftism used by the rulers in the places they are present.
They do not have one foot in revolution and one on the system, both feet, their minds and their hearts dwell within the system.
European and American imperialism have turned obvious sections of the left into their own reserve forces, while nurturing them politically, materially and militarily, and want to liquidate the left. THIS IS LEFTISM THAT IS NURTURED BY IMPERIALISM.
The ideological struggle against liquidationism and nurtured leftism cannot be thought of as separate from the struggle for revolution and power and against imperialism and the oligarchy.
WE WILL NOT ALLOW THE NURTURED LEFT OF IMPERIALISM.
In this resistance, we presented a positive experience not just for the revolutionaries of our country but for all revolutionary movements, on the subject of the struggle of the peoples of the world against liquidationism.
In the struggle between liquidation and REVOLUTIONISM, revolutionism will triumph.
THE ORGANISED FORM OF LIQUIDATIONISM IS REFORMISM.
WE WILL BURY REFORMISM AND THE INTELLIGENT TEACHERS ALONG WITH IMPERIALISM IN THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY.
The question is not about resisting a couple of KHKs…
The aim is of CREATING A LEFT THAT IS REFORM AND TAME and stay within the limits drawn by imperialism.
Such a left will not dominate in our country.
THOSE WHO RESIST HAVE WON. FINAL VICTORY WILL BE OURS.
RESISTANCE WILL CONTINUE IN MANY AND VARIED FORMS…
(*) Saz – stringed musical instrument popular in Turkey.
