Turkey: Stop the State Repression!

For the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners!

Joint Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and Sınıf Savaşı (Turkey), 8 May 2018, www.thecommunists.net and http://sinif-savasi.blogspot.com

1.             In the last days, Turkey has been hit once more by a wave of state repression. 84 people from progressive organizations were arrested ahead of the May Day demonstration. Among them is Kadir Çınar, a socialist worker in Bursa.

2.             This wave of state repression shows once more the reactionary and Bonapartist character of the Erdoğan regime. Despite Erdoğan’s claim to represent the “ordinary Muslim people”, his regime serves only the interests of a small clique of capitalists and generals. The regime wastes millions of Dollars for wars of aggression abroad and state repression at home. At the same time, the workers and poor in Turkey see no improvement at all of their living conditions. While Erdoğan pretends to be a “strong leader” he offers himself, alternating, as a servant of U.S. and Russian imperialism (NATO, Astana process, etc.).

3.             Naturally, our total opposition against Erdoğan regime does not mean that we lend any support to the equally capitalist opposition parties like Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s CHP or Meral Aksener Iyi Party. We also denounce the extremely opportunistic policy of the Kurdish-based HDP which looks for an electoral alliance with the right-wing opposition parties.

4.             It is urgent that socialists fight for the political independence of the working class and the oppressed from all capitalist parties. This means that they should work towards the creation of an independent workers party based on a revolutionary program. (See on this our programmatic proposals in the appendix.) A crucial component of this struggle is to fight against the current state repression.

5.             The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency and Sınıf Savaşı, together with many socialists inside and outside of Turkey, demand the immediate and unconditional release of Kadir Çınar and all other political prisoners.

Appendix

TEK YOL DEVRIM! Action Program for Turkey, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/program-turkey/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/home/t%C3%BCrk/turkiye-programi/

Joint Statement: May Day 2018: Greetings to All Revolutionaries, https://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/may-day-2018-joint-statement/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/home/t%C3%BCrk/bir-mayis-2018/