Resolutions of the 9th Congress

The Communist Party of Turkey Ninth Congress, Conference of Turkey has taken the following decisions regarding the developments in Turkey and the world.

1.Considering the crisis and the working class

a. The Communist Party of Turkey is charged with the task of organizing a powerful resistance that gradually seizes the initiative foremost within the working class and the entire society against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which seeks to condemn laboring masses to poverty and unemployment and turn the crisis of capitalism into an opportunity on behalf of the capitalist class.
b. In order to canalize the dispersed reactions of laboring classes and forces in favor of labor into the channels of organized struggle, orientate the endeavors of different foci to common goals as far as possible and ensure coordination among forces in favor of labor, the Communist Party of Turkey will summon certain political parties, trade unions and mass organizations.
c. The Communist Party of Turkey will summon all political forces in favor of labor for launching an effort to unite all laborers around the demand of concrete legal arrangements against layoffs, leaves without pay, arbitrary designation of working hours and the decline in real wages; and for warning the bourgeois government with a “general strike” that will be supported actively by all sections of the society.
d. Under the conditions of the ongoing crisis, as it is even more essential to celebrate the May Day in Istanbul with a single and massive demonstration, the Communist Party of Turkey summons all unions and mass organizations, leftist political parties and organizations to take a stand accordingly. The Party will carry out an active attempt so as to have the May Day declared as an official holiday under the name of “Labor Day”.
e. Recognizing the fact that the crisis loads the Patriotic Front and the Patriotic Front Workers’ Unions with special charges, the Communist Party of Turkey will take rapid and radical steps to transform the Patriotic Front into an effective and revolutionary mass organization.
f. The Communist Party of Turkey will carry on its endeavors more comprehensively against the reactionary, collaborationist and pro-market government, which have been carried out under the name of “We do not want AKP” and “We are smashing the bulb”* so far, until the AKP government is overthrown by the organized struggle of laboring classes.
g. The Communist Party of Turkey will intensify its scientific and political efforts to expose the political power and the capitalist class, which use the crisis as an apology to attack on the working class. The Party will especially assist the preparations of the Patriotic Front Workers’ Unions to this end.
h. The Party is not only contemplating on the disastrous effects of the crisis on laboring classes, but also on the structure of the crisis which abates the capitalist hegemony and provides opportunities for revolutionary politics. The Party shall not hesitate to make use of such revolutionary opportunities.
i. Due to the fact that conditions have become more ripened to present socialism as a concrete choice to broad sections of the society and the country is approaching to the junction of “socialism or barbarism”, the Communist Party of Turkey shall mobilize its forces more for the propaganda of socialism in the upcoming term.

2. Considering the local elections

a. The Communist Party of Turkey will participate in the local elections, which will be held on March 29, 2009, everywhere in Turkey.
b. In the elections for Provincial Councils, the Communist Party of Turkey, which possesses a socialist power program, will ask for votes in each and every province for this program and the current political implications of it; and the Party will make much of the votes it receives in these elections throughout Turkey.
c. The Communist Party of Turkey will not allow unscrupulous associations that are far from representing the left or candidates that have no relation with the left to cast a damper over the constructive attitude of the left, which has been carried on so far, to nominate common candidates against imperialism, reactionism and pro-market orientations. While TKP will not hesitate to support the candidates of other political parties or independent candidates, who possess the character of representing the values and policies of the left, it will neither abstain from nominating its own candidates where there is no common candidate of the left as such.
d. The Communist Party of Turkey has withdrawn from the central works of the “Count Us In” platform, which was established together with some political parties and groups. TKP will actively take part in the work in localities, where the participants adhere to the principles of the platform.
e. Regarding the previous decisions taken by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey, a major objective of the Party in the elections is to drive off AKP, the leading actor of collaborationism, reactionism and pro-market orientations, from all fronts it has achieved.
f. The Communist Party of Turkey assumes the responsibility of representing socialism in the upcoming elections and will point to the requirement of Turkey to a revolutionary transformation. No task shall hamper the necessity of organizing laborers against imperialism and capitalism; no problems shall lead to postpone the task of introducing the socialist choice to the society of Turkey!
g. The Communist Party of Turkey has taken a series of decisions in order to prevent the abandoning of the youth to liberalism, nationalism and religious cults. The political and ideological preferences of the youth will be decisive within this critical phase through which our country, that has a young population, passes. The Youth Council, which will meet on March 1 and get institutionalized afterwards, will present the will and the competence of the youth to take a stand against imperialism and reactionism, and to establish an independent and enlightened Turkey. During the election process, the Communist Party of Turkey will pursue the responsibility of being the organization of young workers and students, and call the “youth to take charge”.
h. Nowhere and under no circumstances, the Communist Party of Turkey shall lend credence to attitudes in favor of the Republican People’s Party (CHP*), which is indeed one of the main reasons of the current inertness of the Turkish left. The Party will not allow CHP, which greatly contributed to the transformation of local governments into instruments of rent distribution and an appendage of market mechanisms, to exploit our people’s despair once again by presenting people like Karayalçın* and Kılıçdaroğlu** as heroes. No one shall expect the Communist Party of Turkey to betray its name, principles and missions.
i. All Party organizations shall immediately give start to efforts for the large demonstration we will hold in Istanbul on March 15 under the title of “Either Turning Back to the Ottoman Empire or Socialist Republic”, and this demonstration shall be made a feast of socialism against imperialism and the order of exploitation.

3. Considering the Kurdish question

a. TKP is in the opinion that, in order to resolve the Kurdish question on the basis of equality of all nations in Turkey, by-passing the inclusion of imperialist countries in the question is an absolute necessity. The brotherhood of the people can be achieved only through a struggle against imperialism, and the game of those who would like to set our people at odds can be given away only through such struggle. The Communist Party of Turkey summons all progressive forces, Turkish or Kurdish, and intellectuals to develop policies that take the role of imperialist countries on the Kurdish question seriously.
b. The United States and the AKP government have come to terms on a pro-Barzani solution to the Kurdish question. The Communist Party of Turkey will not allow those who present these reactionary Kurdish leaders in Northern Iraq, that are nothing but the pawns of the US, as a hope to the people of Turkey; and TKP will not allow Turkey to be dragged into the regional plans of the US imperialism by means of this plan that is presented as a “solution”.
c. The Communist Party of Turkey declares once again that the interests of the Kurdish poor cannot be defended unless a struggle is waged against imperialism, reactionism and pro-market orientations; and any political effort that does not rely on the united struggle of all laborers in Turkey would play into the hands of reactionism and imperialism.
d. The Communist Party of Turkey shall point out the real solution to Kurds, who perceive the US and the European Union as liberators, and the real enemy to Turks, who perceive the Kurdish question as an invention of the US and EU.
e. The Communist Party of Turkey will bring the efforts it has been carrying out for the last couple of months into completion to reflect the desires and demands of a large section of the society who are disturbed with the fact that the Kurdish question is used as a blackmail against our people and a mean of interference to our country, with the denial and destruction touts of nationalists and with the deliria of the liberal-reactionary coalition that conforms with the imperialist plans of purging the Republic of Turkey, and who want that Turks, Kurds and all other nations in this country to live together freely and equally.

4. Considering the Ergenekon operation

a. The Communist Party of Turkey emphasizes once again that the claims, which support the view that Ergenekon operation is being carried out to purge the counter-guerilla and the illegal organizations within the state in general organized by NATO, do not reflect the reality at all.
b. Ergenekon operation is a part of the comprehensive intervention of the US to charge Turkey with new regional missions and, what is more to the point, to recast Turkey.
c. As to this date, The Communist Party of Turkey will continue its struggle without any concessions against the campaigns run by liberals and Islamists to slander the Turkish left, to discredit the values of socialist past, and to associate revolutionary organizations with the criminal organizations of the state.
d. The exposition of illegal organizations of the state, which were established to “fight against communism” and then killed many communists, revolutionaries, progressive intellectuals and Kurdish politicians, implies the exposition of the capitalist hegemony in Turkey. In this context, the Communist Party of Turkey demands that all Presidents, Commander-in-Chiefs of Turkish Armed Forces, Prime Ministers, Ministers of Interior and Chiefs of Police who were in charge since the fascist coup of September 12, 1980 should be investigated; all citizens who suffered from the unlawful practices of the state and their relatives to take part in these investigations; the intervention of political parties in these investigations; the disclosure of all confidential agreements made with NATO; and holding a referendum about NATO membership.
e. The Communist Party of Turkey will carry on its trenchant ideological struggle against all liberals who support Ergenekon operation, and disclose their common interests with the AKP government, the European Union and, in some cases, with the US.

5. Considering the Youth Council

a. The Communist Party of Turkey 9th Congress hails the youth, whom we observe to take part more everyday in the social struggles in workshops, factories, high schools and universities, as the future of our country. Our Congress declares to all party organizations that the task of organizing and incorporating the youth in political struggle is among the most important revolutionary duties of the day.
b. Our Congress emphasizes the importance of the Youth Council that has been brought into the agenda as a result of the proposals and endeavors of our youth leaders in the Party and the Patriotic Front as an effort to unite and mobilize the youth throughout the country for their own future; and summons all party organizations to pursue the task of organizing this effort effectively.

6. Considering the Patriotic Front

a. The Patriotic Front, which was established upon the achievements of the Committees Against Occupation, that were organized in the period when the US aggression against Iraq had started, and our organizations against the European Union, assumed an important role in the anti-imperialist struggle in Turkey, and helped to spread patriotism among laboring masses and students. There are new opportunities available for the popularization of the Patriotic Front in the upcoming period, which will eventually enlarge the popularization channels of the Communist Party of Turkey. The Party shall not lose any time to make use of these opportunities.
b. Patriotic Front Workers’ Unions and Patriotic Front Students’ Unions are two important components of the Patriotic Front. The functions and structure of these organizations should be re-defined under the conditions of the crisis, and all subjective obstacles before the horizontal and widespread organization of the Patriotic Front should be eliminated rapidly. The restructuring of the Patriotic Front shall be completed before May 1.

7. Considering solidarity with Palestine

a. The Communist Party of Turkey hails our Palestinian brothers, comrades and fellows, who resisted against Israeli aggression in Gaza. The Communist Party of Turkey has made great efforts all along so as to prevent the reactions in Turkey against Israeli aggression and those who encouraged this act to be surrendered to religious reactionism and to strengthen the solidarity with the Palestinian revolutionary movement, which is the historical bearer of Palestinian people’s struggle, but has temporarily lost its vanguard role to Islamist movements. Hereby, the Communist Party of Turkey celebrates all party members and fellows, who stood “guard for humanity” in Turkey for weeks.
b. The Communist Party of Turkey respects and supports the struggles of Islamist organizations against the aggressions of imperialism and Zionism in Palestine as well as those in other countries of the Middle East. However, it is clear that such movements suffer from severe contradictions, and in many examples their anti-imperialist position has unstable and temporary features. TKP will continue to pursue policies which take the contradictory nature of Islamist movements in the Middle East into account, and principally contact with secular, progressive and anti-imperialist movements.
c. The last assault on Gaza proved that the enemies of the Palestinian cause within the Arab world, especially the collaborationist Palestinian organizations, are at least as dangerous as Israel. Particularly the stance of the PLO leader Abbas regarding the Israeli aggression is unacceptable. It is utterly clear for the Communist Party of Turkey that this stance is not just a coincidence.
d. The Communist Party of Turkey is absolutely against sending Turkish troops to Gaza under the banner of Peace Force. This force will certainly act in line with the US plans. Hereby, the Communist Party of Turkey demands Turkey to withdraw her troops immediately from Lebanon, Afghanistan, Cyprus and other countries.
e. The Communist Party of Turkey points to the fact that the AKP government, which had continued its hypocritical attitude in terms of relations with Israel during aggressions in Gaza and expressed criticisms to Israel that have no perceptible implications, has assumed roles in accordance with the US plans in the Middle East. The latest act of Prime Minister Erdoğan in the Davos summit should, in the last resort, be seen as a show staged to increase the influence of Turkey over the Arab world. All strategic alliance agreements, civil and military trade between Turkey and Israel are enduring. TKP considers as her duty to warn not only our people, but also all fellow and brother parties in the world about the grand game in which the AKP government plays a role.
f. The Communist Party of Turkey will begin attempts to establish an institutionalized organization to ensure a permanent solidarity with Palestine.
g. The Communist Party of Turkey will send a team of medical staff accompanied by a political delegation for solidarity with Palestine.

8. Considering international solidarity

a. While virulently protesting the aggressive and interventionist policies and the ongoing blockade of the United States of America against socialist Cuba, who celebrates the 50th anniversary of the revolution, the Communist Party of Turkey would like to express its feelings of solidarity with revolutionary Cuba once again. The 9th Congress of TKP repeats its call to have 5 Cuban patriots, who have been kept captive by the US government, released immediately.
b. The Communist Party of Turkey hails cordially the populist powers in Latin America, especially Venezuela and Bolivia, that are making endeavors for a revolutionary transformation. TKP underlines the historical significance of the resistance expressed by these countries against the US imperialism. Considering the roles played by the communist parties in these countries as utterly significant, TKP declares that it will continue to act in solidarity with these parties.
c. The Communist Party of Turkey hails the Vietnamese people, who have defended their revolutionary stance, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea that has been resisting against the US aggression for years.
d. The Communist Party of Turkey will intensify its efforts to reinforce revolutionary communist principles and values within the world progressive movement. Humanity is going through a difficult process, which requires greater responsibility to be pursued by the communist movement. In order to ensure laboring masses take a position against capitalism and imperialism once again, it is absolutely necessary to vitiate the influence of the “left” that does not place sufficient emphasis on the struggle against the US and the European imperialism, even becomes part of imperialist projects regarding particular issues, claims independence and national sovereignty has become obsolete, negates revolutionary opportunities and tries to smother the idea of revolution with the concept of “democracy”. In order to have Marxism-Leninism and the real communist movement to achieve new front in the international arena, TKP will continue to act together with fellow and brother parties.

9. Considering “On the Verge of Disaster” pamphlet

a. The Communist Party of Turkey 9th Congress decides to make more effective use of the pamphlet titled “On the Verge of Disaster”, which was adopted unanimously in the 2008 Party Conference, as a fundamental document that points to the revolutionary tasks of the upcoming period.
b. The pamphlet will be republished and distributed largely under title of “On the Verge of Disaster: The Historical Legitimacy of Socialism in Turkey”.
c. "On the Verge of Disaster: The Historical Legitimacy of Socialism in Turkey” pamphlet will be discussed again in all party cells and organizations, and will be adopted as a fundamental text for the education of candidate members.

10.Considering the task of organization

The Communist Party of Turkey 9th Congress charges all party members and party organizations primarily with the task of ORGANIZATION. The Party can accomplish the revolutionary tasks it pursues only by getting larger and increasing its social support.