The Political Developments in 2008
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Following the financial crisis that started as a housing credit crisis in the USA and that means the collapse of the financial system of the neoliberal period, an economical crisis has begun to affect the whole world, taking also the capitalist system in Turkey under its influence.

01 December 2008 / Red Dawn / Issue 13

During the period until November 2008, important developments took place in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan from the point of view of the ruling forces as well as of the working class and labourers. While the clashes within the fascist regime continued, with the generals front standing on one side aiming at defending its own posts of political power and the governing party AKP on the other side aiming at dispossessing the generals from positions of power in order to seize these posts, there have been some certain topics on which the regime has agreed on. These topics are the oppression of the Kurdish national movement, the communist and revolutionary movement, the application of unfettered state terror, the protection of the territorial integrity of Iraq in the Middle East as well as the protection of the status quo, which means the prevention of the formation of a Kurdish state.
On May 4, 2007, the prime minister Tayyip Erdogan and the chief of the general staff Yasar Buyukanit came together for a meeting at Dolmabahce, Istanbul and agreed on these topics. And with the meeting of Erdogan and Bush in November 2007, they came to some results in the context of the role given to the Turkish state within the plans of the USA in the Middle East. Not being able to find a solution for coming out of the quagmire it sunk into in the Middle East and failing to advance in applying its Greater Middle East project, the USA had made some changes in its Middle Eastern policy. In its policies on Iran, Syria and Lebanon, it tries now to use Turkey to go for a dialogue with these countries on which it had tried to establish its hegemony through military aggression before. In return for Turkey's role, the USA gave the Turkish state permission to carry out air raids and a limited land operation in Southern Kurdistan aiming at the liquidation of the PKK . The ruling forces, as they had already agreed on and got the support of the USA for, organised air raids on Southern Kurdistan, on Mount Quandil in December 2007. After that, they realised their 25th cross-border land operation in February 2008, accompanied by the warmonger activities of the media.
However, the Kurdish guerrilla defeated the Turkish army entering Southern Kurdistan and this created a psychological and moral superiority of the Kurdish national movement and cracked the ruling forces' front. Having suffered a defeat and demoralisation, the generals' front of the ruling forces, accusing each other and having a number of discussions, split into the generals on the one hand and the CHP and MHP on the other hand. Even TUSIAD felt the need to rush and help the generals.
Beginning from March 2008, as the carrot part of the "carrot and stick" policy, the state that did not achieve anything with the military operations in Southern and Northern Kurdistan applied its assimilation plan on the basis of "a single language, a single nation" that is called "Action Plan on Terrorist Acts" and consists of 62 articles. With this plan, the state tried to use elimination of poverty and unemployment, which had become chronic through the colonial policies in Kurdistan, against the Kurdish people as an assimilation weapon. Drivel-ling about economic investments and improvements in the region, Erdogan organised several trips to Kurdistan. However, the Kurdish peoples raised protests with the slogan "We don't want pasta but freedom" put this plan of the state in vain, too.
With its actions in the cities, serhildan s (Kurdish uprisings- translator's note), "march to the mountains" and mass demonstrations and rallies from March 8 to Newroz, without hesitation to pay a high price, the Kurdish national movement managed to add will and determination to its successes achieved through military strikes. The national movement exposed the falsehood of the statements "We overthrew the PKK; we disabled its leaders" made by the Turkish state that continuously hailed bombs on the guerrilla. The national movement defended Ocalan with its "Edi Bese" ("Enough is enough!") actions.
Supported through military intelligence of the USA, the Turkish army consistently carries out air raids on Southern Kurdistan; with these raids civilians' residential areas have totally been destroyed and besides the civilians, there has been an especially heavy loss of their animals. In Northern Kurdistan air raids and land operations have constantly been carried out. Never-theless, due to the resistance and counter-attacks of the guerrilla, the Turkish state became the one that, in fact, has lost. Throughout the country soldiers returned home in coffins. The counter-attacks of the guerrilla and lately, the attack on the police station at Aktutun leading to the death of 62 soldiers seriously shook the state. While it was said at the meeting of the cabinet joined by the chief of general staff[1] and the "security" meetings made at the top of the state that a part of the precautions taken would not be introduced to the public, it was said that the state put 350 million YTL on the side to build 162 new police stations. In addition, it was also declared that a more professional army and police forces will be trained to be sent to the war in Kurdistan. This shows that the colonialism is going to expand its military occupation in Kurdistan and the dirty war carried out against the Kurdish people.
The Kurdish national movement tries to renew its political will that was broken after Ocalan had been taken hostage on the basis of defending Ocalan and imposing its legitimacy. With its struggle led under the slogan "Mr. Ocalan"[2] as the second part of the "Edi Bese" action, it ensured consistency in the political struggle.
The Kurdish people's determination to defend the funerals of the guerrilla as a mass and to turn these into political actions is recently among the important developments of the Kurdish national movement. After the lawyers announced that Ocalan held in solitary confinement at Imrali prison had been physically attacked and threatened to be killed, broad and militant protests followed in many Kurdish cities and first of all in Amed (Diyarbakir). Through these actions that also spread to some cities of Turkey although to a lesser degree, the Kudish people showed that they defend Ocalan despite the state's terror, attacks and massacres. The sit-in in Amed on November 1-3 with the demand "A democratic solution to the Kurdish question", besides thousands of people, also joined by Kurdish MPs and mayors affiliated to the DTP , was an action reflecting the commitment to Ocalan and to the guerrilla.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayip Erdogan who organised a trip to Kurdistan in November under the pretext to participate in some inaugurations was received with big protests of the Kurdish people in Amed, Dersim, Van, Yuksekova, Semdinli and Hakkari closing their shops, shutting the engines of the vehicles, not collecting any litter, making actions on the streets and fighting with Molotov cocktails and stones against the police attacks.
With the developing guerrilla actions in the countryside and the serhildans in the cities, the Kurdish people show more and more that they are not going to accept anymore the status quo, and they also show that the Turkish state is currently in a deadlock. As a result of this deadlock, the state, that so far rejected any dialogue with the representatives of the formation process of the Kurdish state in the South, is now striving to have talks with the administration of Southern Kurdistan on the struggle against the PKK.
While this is what happens in terms of the Kurdish question, important clashes of the workers' and labourers' front with the fascist dictatorship took place, too. The determination that had been created through the clash of wills on Mayday 2007 made the workers' and labourers' movement experience a new period of action. The struggle rising with the fight of the workers of airways, Telekom, Novamed and TEKEL, the resistances of the shipyard and textile sectors, and many other strikes and resistances reached a new level with the wave of actions developing against the SSGSS[3] attacks and the strike de facto realised on February 27-28 at Tuzla shipyards. Both the clash on Mayday 2008 that was the peak of action days of the period from March to May as well as the second Tuzla shipyard strike on June 16 created determination and consistency in the working class' struggle. The insistence of the working class to celebrate Mayday on Taksim Square, the place that was drenched with their blood on Mayday 1977[4], and its fighting against the state's police forces defying the bans and terror of the state was noted down as a crucial political achievement in the struggle of the working class.
The impact of the struggle continuing during this period with the resistance against work-related accidents resulting in the death of workers at Tuzla shipyards' zone and the de facto legitimated strikes led by the union Limter-Is was not limited only to this zone. The de facto strikes realised at Tuzla were broadly supported by the society, from unions to student youth organisations, from intellectuals to revolutionary and progressive organisations. First of all, workers from different sectors and many unions affiliated to DISK (Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions), KESK (Confederation of Public Employees' Trade Unions) and Turk-Is (Confederation of the Workers' Unions of Turkey) supported the Tuzla strike. The Tuzla strikes distinguished the militant fighting line of the class from the reformist line and put the reformist line on discussion. It exposed to a large extent the reformist and bureaucratic understanding of a union not believing in the working class and showed which way the working class must follow. It ensured the youth turning its face to the working class. It showed how to win by appearing with a new understanding and line of struggle against the attacks of the bourgeoisie, such as privatisation, sub-contracting system, dividing the working class and hindering its unionisation. The Tuzla strikes did not only achieve some ameliorations in terms of work safety and working hours, but managed to gain acceptance for Limter-Is as the representative of the workers by GISBIR , the bosses' organisation of the zone, and the government.
Another progress concerning the workers' and labourers' front is the struggle for the right to housing raised against the demolition of houses of the poor in the labourers' quarters. Mainly under the leadership of the communists, many resistances arose against the state's attacks of demolition in labourers' quarters.
The communists arrested during operations carried out against our party on September 8-12, 2006 in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan convicted fascism with their defence speeches made on June 5-6, 2008 in front of the court. Each of these communists attacked and exposed the fascist dictatorship and the capitalist system from a different point of view and determinedly defended the revolution and socialism; by doing this they became the voice of hope, labour and freedom. As an example of a political defence, the defence speech of our comrade Seyfi Polat, who spoke in the name of our party and discussed the development line and struggle of our party from its foundation until today, was an international answer given to the attacks of the bourgeoisie on the revolutionary and communist movement in many countries with its "anti-terror" laws. While 3 prisoners were released at this hearing, the decision for the other 20 communists was to continue keeping them behind the bars. At the hearing on October 24, the communist prisoners continued to expose the system.
We must add the actions that were realised by the labourers' front and, first of all, by the youth in the 40th year of the ‘68 movement and the 37th year of the revolutionary breakthrough of 1971[5] to defend and commemorate the revolutionary leaders of that period.
On the government's side, we must note the regime crisis which continued on the basis of the discussion on the headscarf, the change of the constitution, the election of the president and the general elections. The state has concentrated for a long time on the developments around the juridical case to ban the AKP, as well as the Ergenekon operation and the trial[6]. The opposition to the AKP that was led directly by the generals in 2007 this year is led by the government focusing on juridical institutions, such as the Constitutional Court and the Court of Appeal, and by this it tries to give the impression that the army has stepped back and the "juridical" struggle has taken its place instead. With the Ergenekon operations the regime arrested those parts of the counter-guerrilla within the state which went out of their control. The government wanted to give the impression that it had found the offenders of some of the massacres (realised by the state through these gangs) as they could not be hidden anymore and to convict those responsible for the coup plans that were exposed, and by all this it wants to acquit itself. Likewise, the organisation called Ergenekon is not only restricted to the retired generals detained, and some of the military and civil bureaucracy, media, capital circles and racist fascist parties, but also many of its crimes were not reflected in the indictment. Although the number of pages is quite high, the scope of the indictment of the case Ergenekon that was started on October 20 in a hall specially built in a new prison at Silivri is quite limited. While some of the accused, among them also retired generals, were released under the pretext of health problems, the communists try to strengthen the mass initiative of the workers and labourers to demand an account on the streets from the counter-guerrilla state responsible for thousands of forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings.
The trial started against the AKP to ban the party was quickly finalised by the Constitutional Court with a fine and a cut in the treasury help. Under the current socio-political conditions, it was not considered appropriate to ban the AKP, that got "a serious warning" with the pretext to have become "the focus of the actions against secularism". It is clear that the pressure from outside the country, by the EU and the USA "not to ban" the party, as well as TUSIAD's (Turkish Industrialist's and Businessmen's Association -the organisation of the big bourgeoisie) view not advocating such a ban had an impact on this decision. The result of this trial has the characteristics of a temporary reconciliation between the ruling classes. However, this temporary reconciliation between the ruling classes cannot hide the truth that the regime crisis continues in full activity.
The financial crisis that appeared in form of a housing credit crisis in the USA in the housing sector and that continued worldwide as an influential bank and speculation crisis is tending towards influencing the production all over the world and turning into an economical crisis. While first of all the US and the EU imperialists, all imperialist forces try to rescue their collapsing banks and companies with billions of dollars and to overcome the crisis, in Turkey a contradictive stance was displayed at first between the government and the capital. While the capital institutions said from the beginning that the crisis is coming and that precautions must be taken, the government declared that this crisis would not affect Turkey. Shortly after this, the government mentioned to have taken precautions against the crisis, too. The bosses took the crisis as a pretext and started to dismiss the workers at many workplaces or to make them take unpaid holiday, and the government applies rises in prices one after another to make the workers and labourers pay for the crisis. While the workers, labourers and unions are discussing their struggle against these policies that want to make the labourers pay for this crisis, the communists are stressing the revolutionary opportunities created by the crisis period and the importance to use these opportunities to the greatest advantage.
Following the financial crisis that started as a housing credit crisis in the USA and that means the collapse of the financial system of the neoliberal period, an economical crisis has begun to affect the whole world, taking also the capitalist system in Turkey under its influence. While the Turkish colonialist fascism is occupied with the developments in the sphere of the Kurdish national question, it has also started to invoice the bill of the economic crisis to the workers and labourers through high increases in the prices of basic necessities, such as electricity, potable water and natural gas. The actions and demonstrations that have started to be organised around this issue carry a potential of development that will put the Turkish ruling classes in trouble in this sense as well. The best evaluation and utilisation of the opportunities that are created by both political and economic conditions of crisis falls upon the shoulders of the revolutionary and communist movement as a very important task.


***


1- The meeting of the cabinet on October 27, 2008 was joined by the chief of general staff as a very unabashed example of fascism in the country. He gave orders to the ministers in relation with the Kurdish question in the name of "informing them".
2- Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK who is kept in Imrali Prison is announced as a "terrorist leader" and it is almost banned to speak of him without a humiliating voice. Many intellectuals and writers received sentences and fines for calling him "Mr. Ocalan". Regarding this situation, the Kurdish people started a campaign of writing solicitudes to the courts demanding to be judged because of the same accusation accepting that they name Ocalan as "Mr. Ocalan". Hundreds of people were arrested during this campaign.
3- Law on Social Insurances and General Health Insurance (SSGSS) is the neoliberal law adopted in 2008 opening the way for the privatisation of the health service.
4- On Mayday 1977, 500 thousand labourers who gathered at Taksim Square in Istanbul were attacked by the counter-guerrilla forces opening fire on them. 36 workers lost their lives as a result of the gunfire and stampede. In 1979, Taksim Square was banned for demonstrations of workers and labourers. This ban still continues.
5- "Revolutionary breakthrough of 1971" is the term used to express the foundation of three revolutionary organisations, THKO (Popular Liberation Army of Turkey), THKP-C (Popular Liberation Front-Party of Turkey) and TKP-ML (Communist Party of Turkey - Marxist Leninist) by Deniz Gezmis, Mahir Cayan and Ibrahim Kaypakkaya who had broken off with the revisionist, pro-kemalist and reformist traditions of the leftist movement in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan. Almost all revolutionary organisations of today come from these three organisations.
6 -Ergenekon is claimed to be the name of a counter-guerrilla gang consisting of several elements that were arrested within the last two years. The government presents this as if the counter-guerrilla was brought into justice. In fact, the state, which is the counter-guerrilla itself, has conducted a partial and limited operation of purge and reconstruction within the counter-guerrilla and has arrested some elements that had diverged from the actual line.
 

 

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The Political Developments in 2008
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Following the financial crisis that started as a housing credit crisis in the USA and that means the collapse of the financial system of the neoliberal period, an economical crisis has begun to affect the whole world, taking also the capitalist system in Turkey under its influence.

01 December 2008 / Red Dawn / Issue 13

During the period until November 2008, important developments took place in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan from the point of view of the ruling forces as well as of the working class and labourers. While the clashes within the fascist regime continued, with the generals front standing on one side aiming at defending its own posts of political power and the governing party AKP on the other side aiming at dispossessing the generals from positions of power in order to seize these posts, there have been some certain topics on which the regime has agreed on. These topics are the oppression of the Kurdish national movement, the communist and revolutionary movement, the application of unfettered state terror, the protection of the territorial integrity of Iraq in the Middle East as well as the protection of the status quo, which means the prevention of the formation of a Kurdish state.
On May 4, 2007, the prime minister Tayyip Erdogan and the chief of the general staff Yasar Buyukanit came together for a meeting at Dolmabahce, Istanbul and agreed on these topics. And with the meeting of Erdogan and Bush in November 2007, they came to some results in the context of the role given to the Turkish state within the plans of the USA in the Middle East. Not being able to find a solution for coming out of the quagmire it sunk into in the Middle East and failing to advance in applying its Greater Middle East project, the USA had made some changes in its Middle Eastern policy. In its policies on Iran, Syria and Lebanon, it tries now to use Turkey to go for a dialogue with these countries on which it had tried to establish its hegemony through military aggression before. In return for Turkey's role, the USA gave the Turkish state permission to carry out air raids and a limited land operation in Southern Kurdistan aiming at the liquidation of the PKK . The ruling forces, as they had already agreed on and got the support of the USA for, organised air raids on Southern Kurdistan, on Mount Quandil in December 2007. After that, they realised their 25th cross-border land operation in February 2008, accompanied by the warmonger activities of the media.
However, the Kurdish guerrilla defeated the Turkish army entering Southern Kurdistan and this created a psychological and moral superiority of the Kurdish national movement and cracked the ruling forces' front. Having suffered a defeat and demoralisation, the generals' front of the ruling forces, accusing each other and having a number of discussions, split into the generals on the one hand and the CHP and MHP on the other hand. Even TUSIAD felt the need to rush and help the generals.
Beginning from March 2008, as the carrot part of the "carrot and stick" policy, the state that did not achieve anything with the military operations in Southern and Northern Kurdistan applied its assimilation plan on the basis of "a single language, a single nation" that is called "Action Plan on Terrorist Acts" and consists of 62 articles. With this plan, the state tried to use elimination of poverty and unemployment, which had become chronic through the colonial policies in Kurdistan, against the Kurdish people as an assimilation weapon. Drivel-ling about economic investments and improvements in the region, Erdogan organised several trips to Kurdistan. However, the Kurdish peoples raised protests with the slogan "We don't want pasta but freedom" put this plan of the state in vain, too.
With its actions in the cities, serhildan s (Kurdish uprisings- translator's note), "march to the mountains" and mass demonstrations and rallies from March 8 to Newroz, without hesitation to pay a high price, the Kurdish national movement managed to add will and determination to its successes achieved through military strikes. The national movement exposed the falsehood of the statements "We overthrew the PKK; we disabled its leaders" made by the Turkish state that continuously hailed bombs on the guerrilla. The national movement defended Ocalan with its "Edi Bese" ("Enough is enough!") actions.
Supported through military intelligence of the USA, the Turkish army consistently carries out air raids on Southern Kurdistan; with these raids civilians' residential areas have totally been destroyed and besides the civilians, there has been an especially heavy loss of their animals. In Northern Kurdistan air raids and land operations have constantly been carried out. Never-theless, due to the resistance and counter-attacks of the guerrilla, the Turkish state became the one that, in fact, has lost. Throughout the country soldiers returned home in coffins. The counter-attacks of the guerrilla and lately, the attack on the police station at Aktutun leading to the death of 62 soldiers seriously shook the state. While it was said at the meeting of the cabinet joined by the chief of general staff[1] and the "security" meetings made at the top of the state that a part of the precautions taken would not be introduced to the public, it was said that the state put 350 million YTL on the side to build 162 new police stations. In addition, it was also declared that a more professional army and police forces will be trained to be sent to the war in Kurdistan. This shows that the colonialism is going to expand its military occupation in Kurdistan and the dirty war carried out against the Kurdish people.
The Kurdish national movement tries to renew its political will that was broken after Ocalan had been taken hostage on the basis of defending Ocalan and imposing its legitimacy. With its struggle led under the slogan "Mr. Ocalan"[2] as the second part of the "Edi Bese" action, it ensured consistency in the political struggle.
The Kurdish people's determination to defend the funerals of the guerrilla as a mass and to turn these into political actions is recently among the important developments of the Kurdish national movement. After the lawyers announced that Ocalan held in solitary confinement at Imrali prison had been physically attacked and threatened to be killed, broad and militant protests followed in many Kurdish cities and first of all in Amed (Diyarbakir). Through these actions that also spread to some cities of Turkey although to a lesser degree, the Kudish people showed that they defend Ocalan despite the state's terror, attacks and massacres. The sit-in in Amed on November 1-3 with the demand "A democratic solution to the Kurdish question", besides thousands of people, also joined by Kurdish MPs and mayors affiliated to the DTP , was an action reflecting the commitment to Ocalan and to the guerrilla.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayip Erdogan who organised a trip to Kurdistan in November under the pretext to participate in some inaugurations was received with big protests of the Kurdish people in Amed, Dersim, Van, Yuksekova, Semdinli and Hakkari closing their shops, shutting the engines of the vehicles, not collecting any litter, making actions on the streets and fighting with Molotov cocktails and stones against the police attacks.
With the developing guerrilla actions in the countryside and the serhildans in the cities, the Kurdish people show more and more that they are not going to accept anymore the status quo, and they also show that the Turkish state is currently in a deadlock. As a result of this deadlock, the state, that so far rejected any dialogue with the representatives of the formation process of the Kurdish state in the South, is now striving to have talks with the administration of Southern Kurdistan on the struggle against the PKK.
While this is what happens in terms of the Kurdish question, important clashes of the workers' and labourers' front with the fascist dictatorship took place, too. The determination that had been created through the clash of wills on Mayday 2007 made the workers' and labourers' movement experience a new period of action. The struggle rising with the fight of the workers of airways, Telekom, Novamed and TEKEL, the resistances of the shipyard and textile sectors, and many other strikes and resistances reached a new level with the wave of actions developing against the SSGSS[3] attacks and the strike de facto realised on February 27-28 at Tuzla shipyards. Both the clash on Mayday 2008 that was the peak of action days of the period from March to May as well as the second Tuzla shipyard strike on June 16 created determination and consistency in the working class' struggle. The insistence of the working class to celebrate Mayday on Taksim Square, the place that was drenched with their blood on Mayday 1977[4], and its fighting against the state's police forces defying the bans and terror of the state was noted down as a crucial political achievement in the struggle of the working class.
The impact of the struggle continuing during this period with the resistance against work-related accidents resulting in the death of workers at Tuzla shipyards' zone and the de facto legitimated strikes led by the union Limter-Is was not limited only to this zone. The de facto strikes realised at Tuzla were broadly supported by the society, from unions to student youth organisations, from intellectuals to revolutionary and progressive organisations. First of all, workers from different sectors and many unions affiliated to DISK (Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions), KESK (Confederation of Public Employees' Trade Unions) and Turk-Is (Confederation of the Workers' Unions of Turkey) supported the Tuzla strike. The Tuzla strikes distinguished the militant fighting line of the class from the reformist line and put the reformist line on discussion. It exposed to a large extent the reformist and bureaucratic understanding of a union not believing in the working class and showed which way the working class must follow. It ensured the youth turning its face to the working class. It showed how to win by appearing with a new understanding and line of struggle against the attacks of the bourgeoisie, such as privatisation, sub-contracting system, dividing the working class and hindering its unionisation. The Tuzla strikes did not only achieve some ameliorations in terms of work safety and working hours, but managed to gain acceptance for Limter-Is as the representative of the workers by GISBIR , the bosses' organisation of the zone, and the government.
Another progress concerning the workers' and labourers' front is the struggle for the right to housing raised against the demolition of houses of the poor in the labourers' quarters. Mainly under the leadership of the communists, many resistances arose against the state's attacks of demolition in labourers' quarters.
The communists arrested during operations carried out against our party on September 8-12, 2006 in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan convicted fascism with their defence speeches made on June 5-6, 2008 in front of the court. Each of these communists attacked and exposed the fascist dictatorship and the capitalist system from a different point of view and determinedly defended the revolution and socialism; by doing this they became the voice of hope, labour and freedom. As an example of a political defence, the defence speech of our comrade Seyfi Polat, who spoke in the name of our party and discussed the development line and struggle of our party from its foundation until today, was an international answer given to the attacks of the bourgeoisie on the revolutionary and communist movement in many countries with its "anti-terror" laws. While 3 prisoners were released at this hearing, the decision for the other 20 communists was to continue keeping them behind the bars. At the hearing on October 24, the communist prisoners continued to expose the system.
We must add the actions that were realised by the labourers' front and, first of all, by the youth in the 40th year of the ‘68 movement and the 37th year of the revolutionary breakthrough of 1971[5] to defend and commemorate the revolutionary leaders of that period.
On the government's side, we must note the regime crisis which continued on the basis of the discussion on the headscarf, the change of the constitution, the election of the president and the general elections. The state has concentrated for a long time on the developments around the juridical case to ban the AKP, as well as the Ergenekon operation and the trial[6]. The opposition to the AKP that was led directly by the generals in 2007 this year is led by the government focusing on juridical institutions, such as the Constitutional Court and the Court of Appeal, and by this it tries to give the impression that the army has stepped back and the "juridical" struggle has taken its place instead. With the Ergenekon operations the regime arrested those parts of the counter-guerrilla within the state which went out of their control. The government wanted to give the impression that it had found the offenders of some of the massacres (realised by the state through these gangs) as they could not be hidden anymore and to convict those responsible for the coup plans that were exposed, and by all this it wants to acquit itself. Likewise, the organisation called Ergenekon is not only restricted to the retired generals detained, and some of the military and civil bureaucracy, media, capital circles and racist fascist parties, but also many of its crimes were not reflected in the indictment. Although the number of pages is quite high, the scope of the indictment of the case Ergenekon that was started on October 20 in a hall specially built in a new prison at Silivri is quite limited. While some of the accused, among them also retired generals, were released under the pretext of health problems, the communists try to strengthen the mass initiative of the workers and labourers to demand an account on the streets from the counter-guerrilla state responsible for thousands of forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings.
The trial started against the AKP to ban the party was quickly finalised by the Constitutional Court with a fine and a cut in the treasury help. Under the current socio-political conditions, it was not considered appropriate to ban the AKP, that got "a serious warning" with the pretext to have become "the focus of the actions against secularism". It is clear that the pressure from outside the country, by the EU and the USA "not to ban" the party, as well as TUSIAD's (Turkish Industrialist's and Businessmen's Association -the organisation of the big bourgeoisie) view not advocating such a ban had an impact on this decision. The result of this trial has the characteristics of a temporary reconciliation between the ruling classes. However, this temporary reconciliation between the ruling classes cannot hide the truth that the regime crisis continues in full activity.
The financial crisis that appeared in form of a housing credit crisis in the USA in the housing sector and that continued worldwide as an influential bank and speculation crisis is tending towards influencing the production all over the world and turning into an economical crisis. While first of all the US and the EU imperialists, all imperialist forces try to rescue their collapsing banks and companies with billions of dollars and to overcome the crisis, in Turkey a contradictive stance was displayed at first between the government and the capital. While the capital institutions said from the beginning that the crisis is coming and that precautions must be taken, the government declared that this crisis would not affect Turkey. Shortly after this, the government mentioned to have taken precautions against the crisis, too. The bosses took the crisis as a pretext and started to dismiss the workers at many workplaces or to make them take unpaid holiday, and the government applies rises in prices one after another to make the workers and labourers pay for the crisis. While the workers, labourers and unions are discussing their struggle against these policies that want to make the labourers pay for this crisis, the communists are stressing the revolutionary opportunities created by the crisis period and the importance to use these opportunities to the greatest advantage.
Following the financial crisis that started as a housing credit crisis in the USA and that means the collapse of the financial system of the neoliberal period, an economical crisis has begun to affect the whole world, taking also the capitalist system in Turkey under its influence. While the Turkish colonialist fascism is occupied with the developments in the sphere of the Kurdish national question, it has also started to invoice the bill of the economic crisis to the workers and labourers through high increases in the prices of basic necessities, such as electricity, potable water and natural gas. The actions and demonstrations that have started to be organised around this issue carry a potential of development that will put the Turkish ruling classes in trouble in this sense as well. The best evaluation and utilisation of the opportunities that are created by both political and economic conditions of crisis falls upon the shoulders of the revolutionary and communist movement as a very important task.


***


1- The meeting of the cabinet on October 27, 2008 was joined by the chief of general staff as a very unabashed example of fascism in the country. He gave orders to the ministers in relation with the Kurdish question in the name of "informing them".
2- Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK who is kept in Imrali Prison is announced as a "terrorist leader" and it is almost banned to speak of him without a humiliating voice. Many intellectuals and writers received sentences and fines for calling him "Mr. Ocalan". Regarding this situation, the Kurdish people started a campaign of writing solicitudes to the courts demanding to be judged because of the same accusation accepting that they name Ocalan as "Mr. Ocalan". Hundreds of people were arrested during this campaign.
3- Law on Social Insurances and General Health Insurance (SSGSS) is the neoliberal law adopted in 2008 opening the way for the privatisation of the health service.
4- On Mayday 1977, 500 thousand labourers who gathered at Taksim Square in Istanbul were attacked by the counter-guerrilla forces opening fire on them. 36 workers lost their lives as a result of the gunfire and stampede. In 1979, Taksim Square was banned for demonstrations of workers and labourers. This ban still continues.
5- "Revolutionary breakthrough of 1971" is the term used to express the foundation of three revolutionary organisations, THKO (Popular Liberation Army of Turkey), THKP-C (Popular Liberation Front-Party of Turkey) and TKP-ML (Communist Party of Turkey - Marxist Leninist) by Deniz Gezmis, Mahir Cayan and Ibrahim Kaypakkaya who had broken off with the revisionist, pro-kemalist and reformist traditions of the leftist movement in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan. Almost all revolutionary organisations of today come from these three organisations.
6 -Ergenekon is claimed to be the name of a counter-guerrilla gang consisting of several elements that were arrested within the last two years. The government presents this as if the counter-guerrilla was brought into justice. In fact, the state, which is the counter-guerrilla itself, has conducted a partial and limited operation of purge and reconstruction within the counter-guerrilla and has arrested some elements that had diverged from the actual line.