Renewed Election, Non-Renewable Stalemates
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International Bulletin / Issue 199 / June 2019

In terms of reducing the vulnerability of this cruel regime through social legitimacy by popular vote, local elections held on 31 March in Turkey and North Kurdistan meant an important turning point for the fascist dictatorship which evolved into a one-man chief regime under Erdogan's leadership, yet has been passing through a deep multi-faceted and long-term crisis. Turkey passed through 8 elections in the last 5 years. However, none of them solved the structural crises of the regime, and what is more, this resulted in an even more severe economic crisis, which was constantly postponed with these election periods and the expectations of shortcut solutions depending on the international relations and foreign investments, and eventually crystallized step by step since the current capital accumulation model was stuck since 2013.
So that, TUSIAD (Association of Industrial Businessman of Turkey) has not had any problems with the AKP government on the topics such as relations with international capital and the choice of capital investment areas within the country so far. However, since this group of collaborative monopolist bourgeoisie can satisfy its interest via the policies of AKP especially with the precarization of labor, the unrestricted exploitation of nature and the suppression of opposing voices through social legitimacy while all this happening, it was not making high-pitched protests against the AKP. But as of today, the revelation of TUSİAD which was displayed as an outcry for "democracy" in their recent statements was actually explanatory for the position of capital in the economic crisis in terms of laying out the negotiation process going on between the government and the capital by giving the fascist AKP- MHP alliance the message that either straightforwardly implement the policies of imperialist globalization which is embodied as IMF policies, or at least prevent the social unrest while exploiting.
The 31 March election process took place with all kinds of electoral frauds, like the previous ones, where violence was used as an electoral tool, the law was completely suspended and the revolutionary-democratic forces were criminalized. The president of the bourgeois opposition CHP was tried to be lynched in a district of Ankara, and journalists who criticized the government were beaten on the street even though they were on the nationalist line, and peace academicians who had been dismissed before are now being arrested one by one. Eventually, after all these fuss, the AKP-MHP alliance lost municipalities in big cities, while in Turkey the general trend of melting of their vote continued. The economic crisis became the direct determinant of this melting. And the loss of the Istanbul municipality which comprises 25 percent of Turkey‘s economy alone was not accepted by the AKP-MHP bloc both because it means the loss of big economic rent which has been an overt theft run by a seemingly criminal network of AKP's political-islamist circles and it was seen that it would be an important threshold in the process of overthrowing the fascist dictator. The legitimate election results were invalidated after one month of an unlawful "theater play" and the decision to re-election was taken by YSK (the High Board for Elections).
The cancellation of elections for these reasons is a necessity rather than a choice for the political power. As the 31 March election results show, the dictator is losing and needs a new election victory to survive. However, neither the discourse of "future survival" of the state which was used before the elections nor the expectations of "normalization" in politics after the elections were not solutions for the regime, and this cancellation decision further deepened the regime crisis by adding new dynamics to it. The cancellation of the Istanbul elections is the introduction of the politics of designated trustees which was applied in the municipalities of Northern Kurdistan to Istanbul and it has abolished the legitimacy of "ballot democracy". Surely now, there is no guarantee of any rights that cannot be assured by the struggle on the street and which are not defended by the organized will of the people. This cancellation decision of 6 May showed once again that the Erdogan's palace regime could not be permanently defeated by the ballot boxes.
This is the case for the masses who fill the streets in Istanbul on the night of May 6 to protest. At this point, the laboring left movement has the responsibility of organizing a line that focuses on building the democratic forces accumulated the social tension around a reelection agenda as a revolutionary alternative. This requires a political strategy and tactics, including the organizational strategy embodied in the construction of the third front which will be the revolutionary alternative for the people, neither the political-islamist agenda nor the bourgeois democratic restoration program. No other plan will create a real solution for the working class and the oppressed.
Now, on 23 June, the ballots will be set up once again in Istanbul. If the aim of the revolutionaries is to put down fascism as the first thing, this will only be through the mobilization of the democratic forces against the aggression of Erdogan and the social force that will grow from here. Under the conditions lack of minimum bourgeois democratic rules, the electoral activity can only be functional if it is combined with the actions of democratic forces, if it is subordinated to the actual confrontation of people with the palace regime. As long as the 23 June election result is not assured by a sustained street movement, it will be usurped by the tricks of the AKP-MHP fascist bloc, new lynching, war and occupation policies, and the Istanbul municipality remains in the hands of them.
The resistance line should be remembered again in these days, the anniversary days of the Gezi uprising. The lack of self-reliance in the laboring left forces and the feeling that there is no other choice but to back up the bourgeois opposition must be defeated. The best example of the resistance line was given with the hunger strike resistance which resulted in victory and the scarf-wearing mother's movement which is among the vanguard subject of this resistance. This movement on the street combined with the self-sacrificing 8 immortal activists and thousands of prisoners, has brought fascism and the state to step back. Abdullah Ocalan's message reached out after 4 years. And this development took place in a time when the state would never want it, thus it is a real victory, not a compromise. It is therefore essential to make an assessment taking into consideration of the whole of Kurdistan‘s liberation struggle against the evaluation of the reformist reflections in Ocalan's message by some social chauvinist sections by taking the words out of this context. As HDP does not nominate for mayor in Istanbul, the voter base of HDP, majority of which is Kurdish, will take a step further over this hunger strike victory by defending their anti-AKP choice after this undemocratic step of the government.
The struggle for freedom of women against the never-ending femicides and child abuses, and the most severe effects of the economic crisis, the labor struggle aggravated by the record-breaking unemployment rates, high inflation and harsh living conditions, the resistance vessels with the demand of justice such as the cases of Suruç and Ankara massacres, people who were dismissed by the statutory decrees (KHK) of Erdogan due to so-called terrorism ties and people who retired at young age but are unable to get their pensions (EYT) will be able to re-develop not only in Istanbul but also in the whole country during this reelection period. The fact that the candidates do not only perform in Istanbul but also in other provinces so far is the most important indicator of this. This reflects the potential for the 23 June Istanbul election clash to turn into a springboard for the defeat of fascism.
Instead of channeling our peoples' accumulated anger into ballots and leaving the tense social dynamics to the consequences of polarization between the ruling classes, meeting on the streets of these resistance vessels, getting distinctive as a separate political line and handling the period on the line to build the third front anew and more powerful will be the tactic of the revolutionaries of Turkey and Kurdistan.
The communists and the revolutionaries will have an active relationship with each movement in this process, and they will take responsibility for the purpose of expanding the united public will on all grounds where we come side by side. They will struggle on the street, which is the only way for democratic rights such as a democratic and fair election environment and the right to vote. They will call on all progressive, left and socialist forces to fight together against the fascist block.

 
 

 

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Renewed Election, Non-Renewable Stalemates
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International Bulletin / Issue 199 / June 2019

In terms of reducing the vulnerability of this cruel regime through social legitimacy by popular vote, local elections held on 31 March in Turkey and North Kurdistan meant an important turning point for the fascist dictatorship which evolved into a one-man chief regime under Erdogan's leadership, yet has been passing through a deep multi-faceted and long-term crisis. Turkey passed through 8 elections in the last 5 years. However, none of them solved the structural crises of the regime, and what is more, this resulted in an even more severe economic crisis, which was constantly postponed with these election periods and the expectations of shortcut solutions depending on the international relations and foreign investments, and eventually crystallized step by step since the current capital accumulation model was stuck since 2013.
So that, TUSIAD (Association of Industrial Businessman of Turkey) has not had any problems with the AKP government on the topics such as relations with international capital and the choice of capital investment areas within the country so far. However, since this group of collaborative monopolist bourgeoisie can satisfy its interest via the policies of AKP especially with the precarization of labor, the unrestricted exploitation of nature and the suppression of opposing voices through social legitimacy while all this happening, it was not making high-pitched protests against the AKP. But as of today, the revelation of TUSİAD which was displayed as an outcry for "democracy" in their recent statements was actually explanatory for the position of capital in the economic crisis in terms of laying out the negotiation process going on between the government and the capital by giving the fascist AKP- MHP alliance the message that either straightforwardly implement the policies of imperialist globalization which is embodied as IMF policies, or at least prevent the social unrest while exploiting.
The 31 March election process took place with all kinds of electoral frauds, like the previous ones, where violence was used as an electoral tool, the law was completely suspended and the revolutionary-democratic forces were criminalized. The president of the bourgeois opposition CHP was tried to be lynched in a district of Ankara, and journalists who criticized the government were beaten on the street even though they were on the nationalist line, and peace academicians who had been dismissed before are now being arrested one by one. Eventually, after all these fuss, the AKP-MHP alliance lost municipalities in big cities, while in Turkey the general trend of melting of their vote continued. The economic crisis became the direct determinant of this melting. And the loss of the Istanbul municipality which comprises 25 percent of Turkey‘s economy alone was not accepted by the AKP-MHP bloc both because it means the loss of big economic rent which has been an overt theft run by a seemingly criminal network of AKP's political-islamist circles and it was seen that it would be an important threshold in the process of overthrowing the fascist dictator. The legitimate election results were invalidated after one month of an unlawful "theater play" and the decision to re-election was taken by YSK (the High Board for Elections).
The cancellation of elections for these reasons is a necessity rather than a choice for the political power. As the 31 March election results show, the dictator is losing and needs a new election victory to survive. However, neither the discourse of "future survival" of the state which was used before the elections nor the expectations of "normalization" in politics after the elections were not solutions for the regime, and this cancellation decision further deepened the regime crisis by adding new dynamics to it. The cancellation of the Istanbul elections is the introduction of the politics of designated trustees which was applied in the municipalities of Northern Kurdistan to Istanbul and it has abolished the legitimacy of "ballot democracy". Surely now, there is no guarantee of any rights that cannot be assured by the struggle on the street and which are not defended by the organized will of the people. This cancellation decision of 6 May showed once again that the Erdogan's palace regime could not be permanently defeated by the ballot boxes.
This is the case for the masses who fill the streets in Istanbul on the night of May 6 to protest. At this point, the laboring left movement has the responsibility of organizing a line that focuses on building the democratic forces accumulated the social tension around a reelection agenda as a revolutionary alternative. This requires a political strategy and tactics, including the organizational strategy embodied in the construction of the third front which will be the revolutionary alternative for the people, neither the political-islamist agenda nor the bourgeois democratic restoration program. No other plan will create a real solution for the working class and the oppressed.
Now, on 23 June, the ballots will be set up once again in Istanbul. If the aim of the revolutionaries is to put down fascism as the first thing, this will only be through the mobilization of the democratic forces against the aggression of Erdogan and the social force that will grow from here. Under the conditions lack of minimum bourgeois democratic rules, the electoral activity can only be functional if it is combined with the actions of democratic forces, if it is subordinated to the actual confrontation of people with the palace regime. As long as the 23 June election result is not assured by a sustained street movement, it will be usurped by the tricks of the AKP-MHP fascist bloc, new lynching, war and occupation policies, and the Istanbul municipality remains in the hands of them.
The resistance line should be remembered again in these days, the anniversary days of the Gezi uprising. The lack of self-reliance in the laboring left forces and the feeling that there is no other choice but to back up the bourgeois opposition must be defeated. The best example of the resistance line was given with the hunger strike resistance which resulted in victory and the scarf-wearing mother's movement which is among the vanguard subject of this resistance. This movement on the street combined with the self-sacrificing 8 immortal activists and thousands of prisoners, has brought fascism and the state to step back. Abdullah Ocalan's message reached out after 4 years. And this development took place in a time when the state would never want it, thus it is a real victory, not a compromise. It is therefore essential to make an assessment taking into consideration of the whole of Kurdistan‘s liberation struggle against the evaluation of the reformist reflections in Ocalan's message by some social chauvinist sections by taking the words out of this context. As HDP does not nominate for mayor in Istanbul, the voter base of HDP, majority of which is Kurdish, will take a step further over this hunger strike victory by defending their anti-AKP choice after this undemocratic step of the government.
The struggle for freedom of women against the never-ending femicides and child abuses, and the most severe effects of the economic crisis, the labor struggle aggravated by the record-breaking unemployment rates, high inflation and harsh living conditions, the resistance vessels with the demand of justice such as the cases of Suruç and Ankara massacres, people who were dismissed by the statutory decrees (KHK) of Erdogan due to so-called terrorism ties and people who retired at young age but are unable to get their pensions (EYT) will be able to re-develop not only in Istanbul but also in the whole country during this reelection period. The fact that the candidates do not only perform in Istanbul but also in other provinces so far is the most important indicator of this. This reflects the potential for the 23 June Istanbul election clash to turn into a springboard for the defeat of fascism.
Instead of channeling our peoples' accumulated anger into ballots and leaving the tense social dynamics to the consequences of polarization between the ruling classes, meeting on the streets of these resistance vessels, getting distinctive as a separate political line and handling the period on the line to build the third front anew and more powerful will be the tactic of the revolutionaries of Turkey and Kurdistan.
The communists and the revolutionaries will have an active relationship with each movement in this process, and they will take responsibility for the purpose of expanding the united public will on all grounds where we come side by side. They will struggle on the street, which is the only way for democratic rights such as a democratic and fair election environment and the right to vote. They will call on all progressive, left and socialist forces to fight together against the fascist block.