Leo
23rd August 2006, 20:02
Here is an English copy of something that we didn't use, for various reasons, on the current situation. The leaflets that we have used can be seen in Turkish on our forum on Libcom (http://libcom.org/forums/eks) , and we should be able to post an English version soon. Anyway it reflects our thinking on the subject, and hopefully will put an end to the idea held by some that we are advocating nothing.
Originally posted by EKS
The situation in Palestine, and the Middle East
All workers are rightly horrified by the actions of the Israeli regime in Lebanon, and its daily actions in Palestine. The constant series of murders, house demolitions, and collective punishments, makes life nearly impossible for workers living there.
The mass murder of civilians in Lebanon if anything even dwarfs the horror of day to day existence in Palestine. *** dead in ** days of barbaric slaughter, and even the current ceasefire is no guarantee that the massacres can not start again at any moment.
Faced with this situation what can workers in this country do? All of the political parties in Turkey from the MHP to the far left seem to advocate support for Hizbullah. The first thing that the left should seriously consider is why they are lining up with the far right. The reason for this is that all of them have an nationalist agenda. It maybe hidden behind high sounding phrases such as ‘anti-imperialism’, and even ‘internationalism’, but in the end it is merely supporting one country fighting against another. There is a lot of talk about the Lebanese, and Palestinian people, but very little about the working class, and this is from people that call them selves socialists. We say that workers in both Lebanon, and Israel have no interest in dying on behalf of ‘their’ states, no interests in fighting beneath a ‘their’ national flags whatever ideology this slaughter is supported by.
The entire region is being pulled closer, and closer to war. Iraq is descending into civil war, and sectarian massacres. Lebanon is still picking up the bodies from the wreckage of a murderous war, which could start again at any moment. The horror in the West Bank continues in the same way as it has for nearly the last fifty years. And at the very moment the Turkish army is shelling villages in Northern Iraq.
The only answer to this deepening cycle of barbarism lies with the working class. A working class that is capable of fighting for its own interests is not one that will be led into war. The struggle against war starts at work. Israel workers have no interest in killing Lebanese, and Palestinian workers, and vice versa. Turkish workers have no interest in killing Turkish workers, and vice versa. We condemn the Israeli state, Hizbullah, the PLO, the Turkish state and the PKK equally.
The TKP’s(Turkish Communist Party) Yurtsever Cephe (Patriotic Front!) says ‘this country is ours’. This country does not belong to the the workers in this country, but to the Sabancis, and the Koçes. The left is always complaining about imperialism, and calling for an ‘independent Turkey’. We think that 83 years after Mustafa Kemal’s ‘revolution it should be obvious that ‘national independence’ is an impossibility. All countries are tied together in the imperialist system. Only workers’ struggle for their own interests provides an answer.
For internationalism, and workers struggle
Enternasyonalist Komünist Sol
Internationalist Communist Left
Originally posted by EKS
The situation in Palestine, and the Middle East
All workers are rightly horrified by the actions of the Israeli regime in Lebanon, and its daily actions in Palestine. The constant series of murders, house demolitions, and collective punishments, makes life nearly impossible for workers living there.
The mass murder of civilians in Lebanon if anything even dwarfs the horror of day to day existence in Palestine. *** dead in ** days of barbaric slaughter, and even the current ceasefire is no guarantee that the massacres can not start again at any moment.
Faced with this situation what can workers in this country do? All of the political parties in Turkey from the MHP to the far left seem to advocate support for Hizbullah. The first thing that the left should seriously consider is why they are lining up with the far right. The reason for this is that all of them have an nationalist agenda. It maybe hidden behind high sounding phrases such as ‘anti-imperialism’, and even ‘internationalism’, but in the end it is merely supporting one country fighting against another. There is a lot of talk about the Lebanese, and Palestinian people, but very little about the working class, and this is from people that call them selves socialists. We say that workers in both Lebanon, and Israel have no interest in dying on behalf of ‘their’ states, no interests in fighting beneath a ‘their’ national flags whatever ideology this slaughter is supported by.
The entire region is being pulled closer, and closer to war. Iraq is descending into civil war, and sectarian massacres. Lebanon is still picking up the bodies from the wreckage of a murderous war, which could start again at any moment. The horror in the West Bank continues in the same way as it has for nearly the last fifty years. And at the very moment the Turkish army is shelling villages in Northern Iraq.
The only answer to this deepening cycle of barbarism lies with the working class. A working class that is capable of fighting for its own interests is not one that will be led into war. The struggle against war starts at work. Israel workers have no interest in killing Lebanese, and Palestinian workers, and vice versa. Turkish workers have no interest in killing Turkish workers, and vice versa. We condemn the Israeli state, Hizbullah, the PLO, the Turkish state and the PKK equally.
The TKP’s(Turkish Communist Party) Yurtsever Cephe (Patriotic Front!) says ‘this country is ours’. This country does not belong to the the workers in this country, but to the Sabancis, and the Koçes. The left is always complaining about imperialism, and calling for an ‘independent Turkey’. We think that 83 years after Mustafa Kemal’s ‘revolution it should be obvious that ‘national independence’ is an impossibility. All countries are tied together in the imperialist system. Only workers’ struggle for their own interests provides an answer.
For internationalism, and workers struggle
Enternasyonalist Komünist Sol
Internationalist Communist Left