TKP International

Official International Account of Communist Party of Turkey
(@tkpninsesi)

[TKP International @tkpinter]

📢Issue no.17 of Voice of TKP has been released under the headline “AKP’s 24 year in power: Crisis, poverty, and decay” 

https://t.co/hZJv1HIBAO

This issue includes the following topics:

🔴 24 years of AKP rule: What lies behind the growing repression?
🔴 Is the spectre of communism haunting Europe once again?
🔴 The crisis of capitalism and the youth’s struggle for the future
🔴 An ordinary, unrestrained politician of our times: Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya
🔴 Highlights from Turkish Foreign Policy
🔴 News from TKP

[TKP International @tkpinter]

On 9 November, an explosion at the HABAŞ Iron and Steel plant in Aliağa, İzmir, killed 17 workers and injured many others. The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) condemned the disaster as a workers’ massacre, holding the company’s owners and the capitalist system responsible for the loss of workers’ lives.
Immediately after the explosion, TKP members went to the site and met with the workers’ families. The Party has also been closely monitoring the condition of the injured workers through doctors who are Party members. On 9 November, TKP organised a protest in Aliağa, where the factory is located, followed by another protest on 10 November outside HABAŞ’s headquarters in Istanbul.

In the following statement, TKP calls for the immediate nationalisation, without compensation, of all HABAŞ enterprises and all other large enterprises in Turkey. The Party demands an end to the exploitation of workers and the sacrifice of their lives for the profits of capitalists.

This Brutality Must End!

A massacre took place on Monday, November 9, at the HABAŞ Iron and Steel plant in Aliağa. Part of the factory was reduced to rubble, leaving many workers dead or injured. Throughout the day, the factory management and state authorities could not even manage to identify the dead and injured workers or provide their families with reliable information. Government officials who made statements appeared so oblivious to the massacre that they described it as an accident. Just last month, we lost another fellow worker to a workplace murder at the same plant. Less than a month has passed, and now we have lost seventeen more fellow workers. We are concerned that the death toll will rise further.

In addition to iron and steel production, HABAŞ is a holding company with major investments and operations in various sectors, particularly industrial gas production. The company itself boasts that it ranks first in Turkey’s iron and steel exports. Thousands of workers are employed in the company’s enterprises, whose annual turnover runs into billions of dollars. At issue here is a company that controls enormous wealth. The Aliağa Iron and Steel Plant is one of its largest enterprises. It is a plant where workers earn wages below the poverty line and work under harsh conditions. Workplace murders and injuries are a constant occurrence at HABAŞ.

The owner of this plant and the company to which it belongs is Mehmet Rüştü Başaran. His fortune is said to be around $1 billion. His name appears on lists of the world’s richest people.

Reports will now be prepared on the technical causes of the massacre, and an investigation will be conducted. In all likelihood, neither the reports nor the investigation will address the real causes of the massacre. Not a single word will be said about the greed and insatiable hunger for profit of the company and its owner. How, driven by that greed, they have turned Turkey into a dumping ground for scrap steel, poisoned the air and water of Bakırçay (a river basin in western Turkey, where Aliağa is located), exploited our fellow workers to the bone and taken their lives will most likely find no place in those reports. In all likelihood, workers and certain managers singled out as responsible will be found at fault.

Yet everything is plain to see. This system of monopolies places the exploitation of labour, the plunder of the country and the endless accumulation of wealth above everything else. In pursuit of this, it has no hesitation in sacrificing the country, the people and workers’ lives.

What must be done is clear. All the wealth held by these monopolies, which threaten the country and human life, must be seized immediately. As must be done with all large enterprises in Turkey, every enterprise belonging to HABAŞ must be nationalised immediately and without compensation. Iron and steel production must be carried out in the interests of the country’s development and the people, with workers’ health and safety guaranteed under all circumstances. Workers must be guaranteed dignified working conditions and should receive what their labour is worth.

The massacre at the HABAŞ Iron and Steel Plant in Aliağa is nothing other than the brutality of the system of monopolies. And yes, this brutality must now come to an end.

Not one more worker must die so that capitalists can grow even richer.

TKP Central Committee

[International Communist Press @IntCommunist]

🇹🇷 "A factory that grinds people up": TKP protests following the deadly blast at the HABAŞ steel plant

🔸17 dead, 15 injured as of November 10
🔸 Not an accident but a workers’ massacre
🔸 Demanding the bosses be held fully accountable

🔗 https://t.co/LaHd0r278b

@tkpinter @pensendeyiz @IzmirTkp

[TKP International @tkpinter]

This year, we mark the anniversary of the October Revolution with the first signs that “the great humanity” will rise once again, even amid a darkness that seems as though it will never end.

From east to west, peoples across the world have already begun to take action against the poverty and uncertainty, exploitation and political repression imposed upon them. In Europe, Asia and the Americas, millions of young people and workers from different social backgrounds are joining hands, taking to the streets for their rights and resisting the darkness of capitalism. The mounting anger finds expression sometimes at the ballot box, sometimes in protests against politicians mired in corruption.

There is no doubt that this anger and resistance of the peoples will encounter the traps laid by the ruling classes, face many hardships and undergo serious tests. Above all, in each country, they will need to find their own political leadership and programmes and organise around them. No, we have not yet reached the moment when capitalism can be consigned to the dustbin of history. But we know that history advances in leaps. This knowledge tells us that humanity may find itself on the threshold of great developments at any moment.

The dark years of the First World War were no easier for humanity. Yet within that darkness, a new revolutionary period was taking shape. Even then, amid exploitation, misery and the smell of gunpowder, capitalism was digging its own grave, preparing the conditions for the moment when people would refuse to accept their fate and stand up for themselves.

Today, everyone can feel that we are going through a similar process.

As we have recently seen in Turkey, politicians up to their necks in corruption, shamelessly attempting to seize the modest savings of ordinary people, and bosses who subjected the people they exploited to every kind of insult and cruelty, for whom not a single tear was shed after their deaths, are no exceptions to this system. Capitalism has reached the final stage of rotting and spreading its rot. A period lies ahead in which millions of people will come to recognise this truth.

Amid war, hunger and incurable wounds, the days are approaching when we will once again celebrate the festival of the oppressed. Drawing on the unparalleled experience of the October Revolution, we are ready to take on the tasks that the accelerating class struggles of the new period place before us, with great enthusiasm and a cool head.

Salute to the makers of the October Revolution, to the revolutionaries who set a new threshold for humanity, one below which it would never again fall!

[European Communist Action @eurcomact]

On the Anniversary of the October Revolution

We continue on the road it opened!

More than 100 years ago, a new chapter was opened in the history of mankind, marking the beginning of the era of the transition from capitalism to socialism. The door was opened, and for the first time, it was possible to see a future of hope and progress for the working people of the world,  in stark contrast to previous exploitative structures.The October Revolution was a turning point in the history of humanity, a decisive and transformative break with the old order, creating a new social system which abolished private ownership of the means of production, rejected the barbarism of capital and created the conditions for the establishment of a new type of society, socialism-communism.

Neither the revolution, nor the following construction of socialism were easy tasks, but they were accomplished, despite the attempts of the bourgeoisie of the world to stop themit, manifesting the strength of workers’ power and socialism, and inspiring struggles all over the world.

From this process, we have immense amounts to learn.

We learn how to conduct the struggles of our day, how to build and strengthen our communist parties and our revolutionary movement. In the political struggle against the bourgeoisie and its political representatives, as well as their imperialist alliances, we develop our parties and organization to take root in the large factories and workplaces, better mobilize the working people and to expose the capitalist  system.

We learn from the heroic attempts of the working class to take  power,  an experience that millions of people had never had before. In the process of constructing socialism, many successes were achieved: unparalleled advances for the people in terms of health, education, social protection, and workers’ and people’s rights. Despite any mistakes made back then,  the gains secured by socialism remain unresolved and still a goal to be achieved today, even 109 years later and despite the enormous progress of science and technology. Besides, the October Revolution took place under conditions which made its successes all the more impressive. Factors such as mass illiteracy in the Russian Empire, underdeveloped industry and inefficient agriculture were difficult challenges that the Bolsheviks, along with the peasants and workers of Soviet Russia, overcame at a speed never witnessed before.

We stand in awe of and we learn from the solidarity that was shown to the oppressed people all over the world. Amid the escalation of imperialist war and military preparation, the timely “first Decree on Peace,” issued by  the Soviets' new revolutionary power, is of particular significance; it constitutes a response to the capitalist barbarity of war, competition, and displacement. We strengthen our ties with the ongoing struggles all over the world, recognizing that proletarian internationalism is to us a necessity of life.

It is difficult to underestimate the importance and impact of the October Revolution, not only on the lives of the working people of the time, but for the coming generations as well. The fear of the bourgeoisie, governments, and their mechanisms of new revolutions has helped the struggle to better the conditions of the workers to this day, and it shows us that another world; socialism is timely and necessary. The victory of the October Revolution in 1917 demonstrated the power of revolutionary class struggle and paved the way for a society free from exploitation, insecurity, poverty, unemployment and war.

From this standpoint, we reject any form of bourgeois management of the exploitative system and participation in bourgeois governments, and we devote all our energy to concentrating forces for the revolutionary overthrow of the decayed capitalist system.

In a capitalist world currently set ablaze,  workers, the people, and the youth—through their mass mobilizations across Europe—are making it clear that they are not willing to sacrifice their lives and their future for the profits and wars of the capitalists.

Furthermore the October Revolution shows that the anger and indignation of a people at exploitation, repression, and the ravages of war can promote their organized struggle by developing class consciousness - with the leading role of the Communist Party and the promotion of its revolutionary program being decisive-  as well as the understanding of the need to overthrow the exploitative system, for the only real way out of it: socialism and communism. Through this, the October Revolution paved the way for every other struggle and victory, or in Lenin’s own words: “The ice has been broken; the road is open, the way has been shown.”

Now, it is up to us, the Communist Parties with a revolutionary strategy, to carry its legacy forward.

Long live the October Revolution!
https://t.co/UfYo0iAJ3R

[International Communist Press @IntCommunist]

🇹🇷 “We Will Not Be Soldiers of the US and Israel!”

🔴 Ahead of a parliamentary vote on the Mecca Agreement, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) unfurled a massive banner in the heart of Ankara

Full story 👉 https://t.co/QFSolpXpFt

@tkpinter @tkpninsesi

[TKP International @tkpinter]

Ahead of parliamentary vote on the Mecca Agreement, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) unfurled a massive banner in the heart of Ankara, the Turkish capital, declaring: “We Will Not Be Soldiers for the US and Israel!”

TKP also issued a statement titled “No to the Mecca Agreement!”, which read:
“The votes cast today will determine whether Turkey stands with the Palestinian resistance or with genocidal Israel, which provides intelligence support to the Saudis in Riyadh.
There is only one way to avoid going down in history for a shameful decision and to prevent our country from becoming complicit in this dishonour in pursuit of neo-Ottoman ambitions: to vote NO to the Mecca Agreement.”

[TKP International @tkpinter]

The full recording of the book launch event in Madrid for Revolution by TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan, published in Spanish by Tinta Roja, has been released by the publishing house.

#PCTE #TKP #TINTAROJA

[Ediciones Tinta Roja @EdTintaRoja]

«El derecho a la revolución es el único derecho realmente histórico»

F. Engels, 1895.

Ya tenéis disponible la presentación del libro «Revolución» de Kemal Okuyan en @AteneoMaliciosa: https://t.co/lEuWnTUndT

[TKP International @tkpinter]

Breath Down the Neck of the Bosses (PE) Maritime, Port and Shipyard Workers' Solidarity Network issued a statement in support of the international day of action by dockworkers on October 30 against imperialism, war and exploitation, including protests at the ports of Mersin, İstanbul and Gemlik in Turkey:

On October 30, we will raise our voices from the ports:
We oppose the transformation of our ports into military bases for NATO and imperialism!

On October 30, the international day of action, dockworkers around the world are mobilizing against imperialism, war and exploitation. The call for action, also signed by Liman-İş from Turkey, opposes the transformation of ports into military bases for NATO, the US and the EU, and demands an immediate end to the genocide against the Palestinian people. The statement calls for an end to “US and Israeli attacks in West Asia and against Iran” and urges solidarity with the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela and Sudan.
In Turkey, workers at the ports of Mersin, İstanbul and Gemlik will also take action on October 30 against imperialist wars and genocide.

As the Maritime, Port and Shipyard Workers' Solidarity Network of Breath Down the Neck of the Bosses (PE), we salute the dockworkers who, on October 30, will stand for the dignity, conscience and bright future of humanity and our country.

We call on seafarers working without safety or security in the Black Sea, which has become the world's most dangerous trade route, and in other war zones, shipyard workers who toil in shipyards where workplace deaths and injuries are treated as commonplace, all anti-imperialists and those who stand with working people in our country, to join forces with dockworkers and take part in the actions.

Breath Down the Neck of the Bosses (PE)
Maritime, Port and Shipyard Workers' Solidarity Network

@pensendeyiz

[TKP International @tkpinter]

On the 103rd anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey, mass marches were held in Ankara, İstanbul, and İzmir following the call by the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP). Marchers took to the streets under the slogan “We reclaim the republic stolen from us,” emphasizing the need for rebuilding it in the hands of its true guardians: the working people.

Under the slogan "This country is ours! Long live the Socialist Republic!", workers, retirees and young people marched side by side for equality, secularism and independence, against the exploitation of labour and the rule of capital.

In the speeches delivered during the demonstrations, the question “Who stole the Republic, built on the blood and sweat of the working people?” was answered. The role of the capitalist class in seizing the country’s wealth and resources was emphasized, along with the need for class struggle and a decisive break with the rule of capital to defend republican values.

[Emilio Lozada García @EmilioLozadaG]

Nuestro sincero agradecimiento al Partido Comunista de Turquía por su permanente apoyo y solidaridad con #Cuba luego de contundente victoria ayer en @UN durante votación de nuestra resolución contra bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero impuesto por EEUU #CubaNoEsUnaAmenaza

[TKP International @tkpinter]

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey has issued a statement on the 103rd anniversary of founding of the Republic, arguing that republic has been stolen by monopolies and that its future is inseparable from the struggle against capitalism. The party called for rebuilding the Republic under the power of working people, stressing that defending republican values requires class struggle and a decisive break with the rule of capital.

To read the full statement:

https://t.co/8e4CIwQ8K7

[TKP International @tkpinter]

Message of congratulations and solidarity from the Central Committee of TKP to the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba following the UN General Assembly vote on the blockade.

Mensaje de felicitación y solidaridad del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Turquía (TKP) a la dirección del Partido Comunista de Cuba tras la votación de la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas sobre el bloqueo.

https://t.co/AAkmWRYF5T

@PartidoPCC

[TKP International @tkpinter]

TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan and journalist Barış Terkoğlu met with readers in İzmir for another event in the series introducing their recently published interview-book, “What’s the Point of Being a Communist?”, based on Terkoğlu’s questions and Okuyan’s answers.

The event attracted an exceptionally large crowd and generated great interest. Workers from the media, textile and municipal sectors, currently engaged in struggles for their rights, were also among the participants.

During the discussion, Okuyan emphasized the importance of organized collective struggle, arguing that political change cannot be left to individual leaders or political saviors. He also stressed that communism is a system of human and moral values, criticizing the recent wave of opposition-party mayors switching to the ruling AKP in Turkey, with İzmir Metropolitan Mayor Cemil Tugay being the latest example. Okuyan described such moves as a violation of the voters' will.

[TKP International @tkpinter]

🔴No a la complicidad con el bloqueo

El próximo 28 de octubre, la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas votará el proyecto de resolución presentado por Cuba para exigir el levantamiento del bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero que Estados Unidos mantiene contra Cuba desde hace más de 60 años.

Esta votación reviste una especial importancia en un momento en el que Estados Unidos está privando al pueblo cubano de recursos energéticos vitales.

A estas alturas, la política de bloqueo, que pone en peligro la vida del pueblo cubano, le impide satisfacer sus necesidades más básicas y pretende arrebatarle el derecho a vivir libremente, constituye un crimen de genocidio. Mientras mantiene esta política, rechazada durante años por la inmensa mayoría de los pueblos del mundo, el Gobierno estadounidense presiona a otros gobiernos y recurre a las amenazas y al chantaje para conseguir apoyos a este crimen y hacer cómplices del mismo a otros países.

Turquía ha sido hasta ahora uno de los países que han apoyado en las Naciones Unidas el levantamiento del bloqueo contra Cuba. En un momento en el que Estados Unidos intensifica sus presiones y amenazas, Turquía debe mantener esta posición de manera clara y sin vacilaciones. Negarse a respaldar la justa reivindicación de Cuba sería completamente incompatible con los lazos de fraternidad y solidaridad que unen a nuestro pueblo con el pueblo cubano. Cuba, que ha tendido la mano a los pueblos de todo el mundo, incluido el nuestro, en sus momentos más difíciles, merece que Turquía se posicione del lado de la solidaridad. Se trata tanto de una responsabilidad histórica como de un imperativo de la conciencia de nuestro pueblo.

¡Viva Cuba!

¡Abajo el bloqueo!
@PartidoPCC

[TKP International @tkpinter]

TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan met with Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), at the KKE headquarters in Athens.

The meeting addressed political developments in Turkey and Greece, the international situation, and relations between the two countries. The two parties emphasized the importance of continuing their internationalist solidarity and cooperation, strengthening friendship between the peoples of Turkey and Greece, and their common struggle against wars, poverty, and exploitation.

We thank our comrades from the KKE for their hospitality and solidarity.
@intern_kke

[TKP International @tkpinter]

No complicity in the blockade!

On 28 October, the United Nations General Assembly will vote on a Cuban draft resolution calling for an end to more than six decades of US economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba.

This vote takes on particular significance as the United States deprives the Cuban people of vital energy supplies. The blockade threatens the lives of the Cuban people, leaves them unable to meet their most basic needs and seeks to deprive them of their right to live freely. This policy constitutes the crime of genocide.

For years, the US administration has pursued this policy despite its rejection by the overwhelming majority of the world's peoples. It pressures governments and resorts to threats and blackmail to secure support for this crime of genocide and drag other countries into complicity.

Turkey has so far supported the call to lift the blockade against Cuba at the United Nations. As the United States steps up its pressure and threats, Turkey must uphold this position openly and unequivocally. Refusing to support Cuba's just demand would be wholly incompatible with the bonds of brotherhood and solidarity between our people and the Cuban people.

The Cuban people have extended a helping hand to our country in its most difficult times, just as they have done for peoples around the world. Turkey must stand in solidarity with the Cuban people. This is both a historical responsibility and a matter of conscience for our people.

Long live Cuba! Down with the blockade!
@PartidoPCC

[International Communist Press @IntCommunist]

TKP protests Mecca Agreement in Ankara

https://t.co/8hi6s3cClP

@tkpinter

[TKP International @tkpinter]

We will not be soldiers for Israel!
We will not be soldiers for the United States!

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) staged a protest in Ankara against the Mecca Agreement, which it says will drag the country into war.

Speaking at the protest, Ali Ufuk Arikan, member of the TKP Central Committee, recalled the letter the Party had sent to members of parliament and called on them to take a stand:

“Go to the parliamentary rostrum and declare: ‘This country does not have a single young person to spare for the occupiers and the killers!’ This is a test of honour. You may fail that test of honour, but you will see: the people of this country will pass it with their heads held high!”