June 24th Gone, The Struggle Goes on
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In Turkey, it was the sixth times in 3 years on June 24th that people went to the voting ballots. The unmanageability crisis of the regime is not only felt in the separate system-state parties, it was felt at all corners of the whole system. The elections gave rise to various results for the working class and the oppressed. On the one hand, the HDP succeeded in taking place in the parliament by getting 11.7 percent of the votes and 67 seats, 25 of which are women, despite direct physical attacks, terrorizing through custody, arrest and not letting be present in the street, which continued both before and during the elections. On the other, Erdoğan got elected in the first round as the first president of the new system granted in the referendum last year. Yet, AKP didn't get enough seats in the parliament to be able to change the constitution on its own (360 seats needed, but AKP got 295 seats out of 600), so they are forced to continue their alliance with the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party). AKP's vote demonstrated a 7 percent decrease compared to the November 1st, 2015 elections. There is no mass rupture from AKP, but they couldn't manage to keep their rates despite all the election cheats, keeping all the opposition's voice both in the media and by the authority which OHAL provided and growing nationalist winds after Afrin occupation. Other wing of the bourgeois opposition led by the CHP , after all, took a heavy defeat in the elections and now had internal crisis about the leadership of the party.

Although it was known that the election period would occur like this, should it still be necessary to participate in the elections regarding the the revolutionary tactics? Although HDP crossed over the 10 percent election threshold, should it be taken as a risk to legitimize the elections under OHAL by participating? Answers to these questions would be yes; because elections, at this point, played a recovering role for the mass movement whose most combatant and most progressive sections have been left breathless for a while now. Tens of thousands took to the streets for the HDP meetings, shouted out their anger to the dictator. And even though they knew that the dictator will not go away through elections, they proved themselves that there is still a withstand in the society, thus there is no surrendering, and the hope was refreshed. Of course, some sections of the laboring left experienced a disappointment after Erdoğan's getting elected in the first round, but the masses smelled the streets once again. The stronger side of the result is that the elections played its role partially to be a lever for the social struggle. We witnessed that in the crowded protests on the election night and recently in the actions carried out against the sexual assault incidents to the children. The widespread and massive reaction was aiming actually at the sexist and patriarchal policies of the AKP. The dictator is now trying to get out from this pressure by bringing up the death penalty agenda. But in vain, if he takes such a step, mass reaction will rise even higher. Because, it is clear that this death penalty will be used firstly against the revolutionaries and opposition, not against the rapists. And the women's movement also emphasizes that this is just a distraction against the government's own guilts.

The lowest income earning sections in Turkey still vote for AKP and HDP. They are the base for these parties. While the dictatorship seeks for ways to increase its pressure due to the economy rolling into a heavy crisis step by step, the growing rupture of the poor from the AKP, which was seen in this election, seems to continue. However, against the AKP which still manages to hold on these poor people through their religious, national and sectarian identities, the primary task for the democratic struggle and the laboring left agglomerated around the HDP is to show them there is an alternative in the streets, to disclose that AKP is a party of the 1 percent at the top. While people crave under hunger, unemployment and lack of freedom, how a handful of bourgeoisie around the AKP got richer and richer must be shown this cracking base through seeking ways to infiltrate and finding them. On the other side of the picture, HDP's crossing the election threshold shows that starting from the Kurdish people, the oppressed and the antifascist sections maintain their wills and struggle desires. HDP's carrying this hope to the parliament, will again be an important tool to enlarge the antifascist front and to reach the progressive democratic masses in the struggle against Erdoğan's fascism.

Let us say once again: there is no legitimacy of Erdoğan's being elected in the first round in this new system which give him a legal basis for his dictatorship. And he also knows it, there is no way left to govern the country under normal conditions. For this reason, he will immediately take steps to further spread the colonialist war on Kurdistan, already, the army sent ammunition and staff to the region for preparation of a possible invasion of Manbij. The state still lives under the fear of removal its basis from Kurdistan. It is declared that the state of emergency will be removed on the July 18th, but the new system already gives all the authority of OHAL to the president and OHAL will go on de-facto. The threats of the minister of internal affairs against the HDP co-chairperson, the arrest of Eren Erdem, who is a deputy of CHP were the first signs that all opposition will be targeted to dissolve. Often discussed about the Kurdish question as a method to follow by the state, the Sri Lanka model, which means a total liquidation of Kurdish freedom movement through destruction and extermination is the plan in the dictator's head. Moreover, the growing economical crisis will aggravate the unmanageability crisis. Thus, assaults on th working class are also on the agenda. Deepening economical crisis will only be lightened through an austerity program, so other than legitimate de-facto struggle of the class, KESK and DISK as the big trade union confederations will be targeted by the dictatorship.

In the struggle for social freedom, all the antifascist sections and communists have the duty to open a new pat ahead. HDP played its role to turn the elections into a lever in the antifascist struggle. The hope of the oppressed in the widest antifascist front against the dictatorship is now materialized in the vote rates of the HDP, that should be base for a start. We are not starting from ground. Trying to push forward the grassroots and street organizations, which raise a strong class movement out of the economical crisis, which turns the withdraw of the government into big break from it, through undertaking heavy costs with a determined will, and making sure of this break-outburst will not occur spontaneously... appear as a few path-opening ideas in front of us during these days when the dust and clouds settle down after the elections.

 

 

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June 24th Gone, The Struggle Goes on
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In Turkey, it was the sixth times in 3 years on June 24th that people went to the voting ballots. The unmanageability crisis of the regime is not only felt in the separate system-state parties, it was felt at all corners of the whole system. The elections gave rise to various results for the working class and the oppressed. On the one hand, the HDP succeeded in taking place in the parliament by getting 11.7 percent of the votes and 67 seats, 25 of which are women, despite direct physical attacks, terrorizing through custody, arrest and not letting be present in the street, which continued both before and during the elections. On the other, Erdoğan got elected in the first round as the first president of the new system granted in the referendum last year. Yet, AKP didn't get enough seats in the parliament to be able to change the constitution on its own (360 seats needed, but AKP got 295 seats out of 600), so they are forced to continue their alliance with the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party). AKP's vote demonstrated a 7 percent decrease compared to the November 1st, 2015 elections. There is no mass rupture from AKP, but they couldn't manage to keep their rates despite all the election cheats, keeping all the opposition's voice both in the media and by the authority which OHAL provided and growing nationalist winds after Afrin occupation. Other wing of the bourgeois opposition led by the CHP , after all, took a heavy defeat in the elections and now had internal crisis about the leadership of the party.

Although it was known that the election period would occur like this, should it still be necessary to participate in the elections regarding the the revolutionary tactics? Although HDP crossed over the 10 percent election threshold, should it be taken as a risk to legitimize the elections under OHAL by participating? Answers to these questions would be yes; because elections, at this point, played a recovering role for the mass movement whose most combatant and most progressive sections have been left breathless for a while now. Tens of thousands took to the streets for the HDP meetings, shouted out their anger to the dictator. And even though they knew that the dictator will not go away through elections, they proved themselves that there is still a withstand in the society, thus there is no surrendering, and the hope was refreshed. Of course, some sections of the laboring left experienced a disappointment after Erdoğan's getting elected in the first round, but the masses smelled the streets once again. The stronger side of the result is that the elections played its role partially to be a lever for the social struggle. We witnessed that in the crowded protests on the election night and recently in the actions carried out against the sexual assault incidents to the children. The widespread and massive reaction was aiming actually at the sexist and patriarchal policies of the AKP. The dictator is now trying to get out from this pressure by bringing up the death penalty agenda. But in vain, if he takes such a step, mass reaction will rise even higher. Because, it is clear that this death penalty will be used firstly against the revolutionaries and opposition, not against the rapists. And the women's movement also emphasizes that this is just a distraction against the government's own guilts.

The lowest income earning sections in Turkey still vote for AKP and HDP. They are the base for these parties. While the dictatorship seeks for ways to increase its pressure due to the economy rolling into a heavy crisis step by step, the growing rupture of the poor from the AKP, which was seen in this election, seems to continue. However, against the AKP which still manages to hold on these poor people through their religious, national and sectarian identities, the primary task for the democratic struggle and the laboring left agglomerated around the HDP is to show them there is an alternative in the streets, to disclose that AKP is a party of the 1 percent at the top. While people crave under hunger, unemployment and lack of freedom, how a handful of bourgeoisie around the AKP got richer and richer must be shown this cracking base through seeking ways to infiltrate and finding them. On the other side of the picture, HDP's crossing the election threshold shows that starting from the Kurdish people, the oppressed and the antifascist sections maintain their wills and struggle desires. HDP's carrying this hope to the parliament, will again be an important tool to enlarge the antifascist front and to reach the progressive democratic masses in the struggle against Erdoğan's fascism.

Let us say once again: there is no legitimacy of Erdoğan's being elected in the first round in this new system which give him a legal basis for his dictatorship. And he also knows it, there is no way left to govern the country under normal conditions. For this reason, he will immediately take steps to further spread the colonialist war on Kurdistan, already, the army sent ammunition and staff to the region for preparation of a possible invasion of Manbij. The state still lives under the fear of removal its basis from Kurdistan. It is declared that the state of emergency will be removed on the July 18th, but the new system already gives all the authority of OHAL to the president and OHAL will go on de-facto. The threats of the minister of internal affairs against the HDP co-chairperson, the arrest of Eren Erdem, who is a deputy of CHP were the first signs that all opposition will be targeted to dissolve. Often discussed about the Kurdish question as a method to follow by the state, the Sri Lanka model, which means a total liquidation of Kurdish freedom movement through destruction and extermination is the plan in the dictator's head. Moreover, the growing economical crisis will aggravate the unmanageability crisis. Thus, assaults on th working class are also on the agenda. Deepening economical crisis will only be lightened through an austerity program, so other than legitimate de-facto struggle of the class, KESK and DISK as the big trade union confederations will be targeted by the dictatorship.

In the struggle for social freedom, all the antifascist sections and communists have the duty to open a new pat ahead. HDP played its role to turn the elections into a lever in the antifascist struggle. The hope of the oppressed in the widest antifascist front against the dictatorship is now materialized in the vote rates of the HDP, that should be base for a start. We are not starting from ground. Trying to push forward the grassroots and street organizations, which raise a strong class movement out of the economical crisis, which turns the withdraw of the government into big break from it, through undertaking heavy costs with a determined will, and making sure of this break-outburst will not occur spontaneously... appear as a few path-opening ideas in front of us during these days when the dust and clouds settle down after the elections.