Uniting the masses of women with women revolution

No matter which kind of organizational model there is, without merging with the masses of laboring, working and young women, it is impossible that women revolution turns into a material force and takes the form of a concrete political movement. In this sense, the first Communist Women's Conference “calls upon struggle against any kind of hidden distrust and alienation from the masses of women in our ranks and underlines in this context, the need to develop politics on local level and to enrich the means of agitation, propaganda and organizing of the women masses6”. Doubtlessly, different forms of self-defense play an important role for the political activities.

Self-Defense and organizing of communist women in Kurdistan

The first action of the KKÖ right after the announcement of the foundation to the public took place in Rojava as a retaliatory strike for our comrade Ivana Hoffman (Avasin Tekosin Günes), who lost her life on March 7, 2015 when she was fighting at the front of Til Temir, Rojava against the IS. MLKP/KKÖ-Rojava said in the statement about the action which took place in Cizire: “We will continue to resist against the reactionary of the Islamic State, enemy of humanity and women just like our comrade Avasin Tekosin Günes by making our bodies a barricade.”7 They also stated that they will follow the way of Ivana, that the weapons will not be quiet and that they will continue to be the nightmare of the woman murderer and raper Islamic State.
Commander of the MLKP Battalion Martyr Serkan, Hêvî Sarya greeted, in the name of the woman fighters of the MLKP/KKÖ, the YPS-Jin as self-defense forces in Northern Kurdistan saying that it is an important answer to the AKP fascism. YPS-Jin (Civil Defense Units - Woman) is a civil force of Kurdish women defending the resistance of self-governance of Kurdish people going on despite the barbaric massacres of the colonialist fascist state.

From 4-12 January, the Sarya Özgür Training Cycle was organized by the Communist Women's Organization in Rojava. The training cycle was dedicated to Berçem Renas and Ekin Su, who were martyred on December 22 in a heroic resistance in Istanbul and to the other martyrs of Northern Kurdistan.

The immortal woman fighters are the heart of KKÖ

Countless woman fighters, known and unknown, bravely opened our way. During different periods, they assumed important responsibilities and today KKÖ is rising on the shoulders of all these immortal woman comrades. The spirit of sacrifice of comrades Şengül Boran, Yasemin Çiftçi, Sibel Bulut, Ivana Hoffmann, Yeliz Erbay and Şirin Öter, and the ideological leadership of Kutsiye Bozoklar show us the way and inspire us. The memory of the KGÖ members Büşra Mete, Polen Ünlü, Hatice Ezgi Sadet and the 7 other socialist women massacred by the AKP-IS murderers in Suruç will always keep our revolutionary spirit alive. The unified women's struggle develops also with all the contributions of the communist women who were and are in prison.

Today, we live in times of war and revolution in the Middle East, in Turkey and in Kurdistan. On one hand, the reactionary states, first of which the fascist Turkish AKP regime, and their collaborators like the IS are committing one massacre after another beyond any humane understanding. However, on the other hand, there is an uprising of the peoples which cannot be stopped by anything, and it is the women who are in the first lines. Not only in Kurdistan, also in Turkey, this struggle goes on, reaches new levels and is led in many cases by revolutionary and communist women.

“On December 22nd, 2015, two commander comrades, comrades Berçem and Şirin, answered the counter-revolutionary police's annihilation attack and violence with their revolutionary will and revolutionary violence. They defended the party’s base they stayed at with their lives. By that, they joined the immortal comrades dying in the struggle for the revolution and socialism. Two of them didn’t only support the Kurdish freedom fighters’ and Kurdish peoples’ self-defense and armed resistance against the colonial occupation that has lasted for months from the West, meaning from Turkey, but also showed the way for strengthening the united revolutionary struggle and abolishing the colonial fascist dictatorship. They also gave us the message that the women’s will and liberation could be won through revolutionary war practice and women's becoming commanders. (…) The MLKP has used any means and form of struggle needed in the political struggle for the class struggle. Within its 20 years of struggle history, the party has used illegal and legal means, armed and disarmed means, the parliamentary and peaceful way as well as barricades and street resistances, unions and democratic organizations, cultural and sportive activities, strikes and boycotts, group and mass violence throughout its foundation and development. The members of the MLKP are trained as revolutionary fighters and militants foreseen by the statute and programme. They fulfill actions and take over duties needed by the party and class struggle. Comrades Yeliz and Şirin organized their lives and actions as wanted by the MLKP.”8

Şirin Öter (party name Ekin Su) came from the revolutionary mass work in the laboring districts of Istanbul and joined the military work. Since 2011, she was one of the commanders of FESK (Armed Forces of the Poor and Oppressed).

Comrade Yeliz Erbay (party name Berçem Renas) was a delegate of 5th Party Congress and the first Communist Women's Conference. During 18 years of struggle, she was underground for 14 years. “Comrade Yeliz took part in the foundation of the Communist Women's Organization. By being good prepared, giving intensive intellectual labor, making proposals and presenting draft resolutions and actively discussing, she made important contributions. Believing strongly in the need of growing woman comradeship, gender consciousness and love, she struggled everywhere for the special organizing of the action and type of relation of the communist women. She internalized woman comradeship in her daily life, in her revolutionary work. (…) Comrades Yeliz and Şirin walked to immortality resisting side by side against the enemy in their surrounded base; this is the new level of woman comradeship. “9

In times, where we receive again and again news of democratic, revolutionary and communist women being assassinated by the male-dominated spirit, by the fascist and reactionary regimes in the Middle East, the words of comrade Berçem may help us to understand, why women are so bravely fighting: “For my happiness, my womanhood, my gender, my freedom I am taking the risk of death. (…) In a country, where every day 5 of my kind are confronted with death due to reactionary violence of men, is that really so much, to embrace death in order to present a world, where women can freely fly? No, not at all. I am chock full with women understanding, women comradeship and militancy. Especially, after the communist women brought into being their own organization, these feelings are on the top. Now, I am looking more confidently to our struggle. I feel stronger, more organized. And more responsible at the same time. I am walking, feeling the alliance of the KKÖ, the united force of the communist women, deep inside in every single cell of my body. We created another position in the ideological, organizational, political struggle. To accept the programme of women revolution, the KKÖ or not is something we have to deal with as an ideological question. Developing the science of Marxism-Leninism with a woman understanding, will and initiative means strengthening Marxism-Leninism. In the era of revolutions of the 21st century, women revolution is clear half of these revolutions. In Rojava, the programme of women revolution came to power. Inevitably, the search of the oppressed women of the world will organize and give life to it everywhere. Equal, free, humane life will start after this is achieved.”10

“The fact, that comrades Berçem and Ekin placed a cluster bomb of 40 kg material perfectly camouflaged, which exploded by remote control, in other words the technique they used and the fact that they targeted a bus full of policemen drove the enemy mad. It was not difficult for the enemy to guess that they will overcome the mistake of being 2 seconds late in future actions. Just like in the case of comrade Hasan, comrade Süleyman, the 33 comrades in Suruç, this time, the enemy gave its message by assassinating comrades Berçem and Ekin. They say: stop, do not go on on this line, with this tempo, do not raise the war to this level otherwise you will see nothing but death and tyranny!

Our attitude is clear. We remind again those who still did not hear it; our Red Detachments in the Black sea neighborhood in Istanbul shouted out our answer once again. We are ready to give everything we have in order to organize revolution. These are our last words.”11

1 Taken from the defence speech at the court by MLKP-KKÖ member and communist prisoner Zeynep Yeter Gercek, published on September 18, 2015 in the weekly newspaper Atılım no. 191. She has been detained on September 25, 2014 and sentenced to 10 years of prison one year later. Send her a letter: Zeynep Yeter Gercek, Bakırköy Kadın Kapalı Hapishanesi, 34147, Bakırköy / İstanbul, Turkey

2 Taken from the article “Let us raise the KKÖ with the spirit of the first Communist Women's Conference” published in Partinin Sesi (Voice of the Party), central organ of the MLCP, no. 85, August-September 2015, on this article is mainly based on.

3 Taken from the documents of the first Communist Women's Conference, quoted in PS no 85

4PS no 85 ibid

5PS no 85 ibid

6From the documents of the First Women Conference

7Taken from: anfturkce.net, March 11, 2015, „Hoffmann icin suikast eylemi“

8Taken from: International Bulletin of the MLKP no. 159, January 2016, see www.mlkp.info

9Taken from: Statement of the MLKP-KKÖ, Women Leadership, December 22, 2015

10 From a letter by MLKP-FESK Commander Yeliz Erbay, posted in the newspaper Atilim, February, 5, 2016, no 210.

11 Taken from: Voice of the Party 87 January-February 2016, We will never bow our head to the women massacres of the colonialist fascism