Revolutionary tasks of the Communist Party of Turkey

The Communist Party of Turkey
9th Congress, Conference of Turkey

Revolutionary tasks of the Communist Party of Turkey as the crisis of capitalism aggravates

1.1 In order to understand the political and social implications of the global crisis of capitalism and to make future estimations, narrow-minded analyses should be avoided. The recent developments in capitalist economies cannot be defined merely as a “financial crisis” only because they have been triggered with a collapse in financial markets of imperialist countries, particularly of the US. The crisis is an outcome of the unsettling obstruction of dynamics intrinsic to the capitalist relations of production, the decaying and parasitic structure of imperialism as the highest level of capitalism, the unbridled quest for profit by the greedy capitalist class who has benefited from the balances between labor and capital developing in favor of the latter since 1980s, the ongoing competition and contradictions within the imperialist system and the problems faced by imperialism in realizing global social transformations. This crisis has not emerged unexpectedly out of nowhere. What we experience today is the extension of a crisis that has been rising for the last 15 years from various locations of the capitalist world.

1.2 One should not attribute a special role to the current crisis regarding the demonstration of the “despair of capitalism in settling its own contradictions and problems". There is no need to analyze the crisis of 2008 to answer the question “Was Marx right?”, recently posed by bourgeois ideologues cunningly to shake the authority of Marx with different methods at this instance. Capitalism has always been drifted towards crises since its birth, particularly in the last 150-160 years, and has annulled all formulas to permanently stabilize the capitalist system.

1.3 The expectations that capitalism might go into new directions with this crisis are not valid in practice. Over-concentration of capital, the tendency of monopolies to choke everything in their way, the retreat from production and the focus of capital on making gains through speculation, the instability in the structure of production caused by movements of capital, overloading in the service sector, commoditization of all aspects of social life and the liquidation of the public space are the basic reasons of the capitalist crisis and these reflect the indispensable elements of the class reflexes of imperialism to find a way out of the crisis as well. Whatever the steps may be taken for social policies or market regulation, the crisis can never lead to a change in the historical tendencies of capitalism, some of which have been mentioned above. In summary, monopolization as a prevailing characteristic will accelerate with the crisis and affect the social and political structure of the near future.

1.4 In this context, the claim that the current crisis of global capitalism implies the end of a long wave that started with the end of Keynesian policies, stumbled with the oil crisis in 1973 and then sustained with the rise of pro-market / no-rule / pro-privatization “neoliberal” policies, and that capitalism will divert to “new quests” should be handled carefully. The fact that capital will tend to apply these “neoliberal” policies even more aggressively cannot be ignored in the attempts to find a name for a new period. Instead of “renewing itself”, capitalism will try to find its way out of the crisis by implementing the abovementioned “neoliberal” regime of accumulation more oppressively. This system of exploitation, which only imposes “regulatory wars” and more pro-market ideologies as a solution, looking for new sectors, such as real estate or information, to swell, then blow up; , and which does not possess any other point of view than financial speculation, will continue its aggression, while offering better opportunities for the gravediggers of this system to mark this “rise” and its loop of crises as the “last one”.

1.5 The news, commentaries and analyses on global crisis of capitalism and its effects on Turkey, published in various publications of the Party, already constitute a significant resource. Our Party, who has constantly emphasized the coming crisis since 2006 and offered hints on its characteristics which have been confirmed, now needs a comprehensive study on the "Crisis" that establishes the necessary scientific input to provide data on the rise of workers' movement in Turkey and to fine-tune the political objectives of the party. The 9th Congress of TKP assigns this duty to relevant committees of the party, particularly member and non-member economists to conclude this study until June 15, 2009 based on the sources offered by national and global Marxist accumulation. This task will also be a tribute to the efforts of various economists in Turkey who have behaved with scientific responsibility on the reasons and results of the crisis.

2.1 The concept of “imperialism” is key to comprehend the reasons of the crisis, to monitor the behavior of international capital in conditions of crisis and to foresee the possible forms of class struggles. Any assessment that ignores or oversees the concept of imperialism should be left aside. If we are living in the age of imperialism and socialist revolutions, the opportunities created by the crisis for socialist revolutions should be considered along with the reactionary and counterrevolutionary tendencies of imperialism.

2.2 In the imperialist world, the crisis will lead to a rise in more reactionary, authoritarian and militarist policies. These policies will be reflected differently on imperialist centers and dependent countries; however, it would be an illusion to expect that it will lead to a balance in the grave aggression of the last three decades and imply a partial improvement in the conditions of working classes in leading capitalist countries, such as the US, Germany, France and the UK. The focus of the search of capitalist countries for precautions and escape from the crisis is to "bail out the bankrupt or stranded large companies". The expected increase in public expenditures, the attempts to reverse the decrease in demand that shrinks production and the interventions and nationalization to regulate the financial system can never lead to a relief among the working masses. Nevertheless, it is clear that the aggression of imperialism against labor and against dependent countries will be deepened.

2.3 In the absence of resistance and counterattacks of the labor front, the idea that the crisis may force imperialism to a more peaceful and moderate period has the potential to lead the leftist movement around the world to a fatal mistake, particularly when combined with the dangerous optimism with the election of Barack Obama as the US president. It should be known that imperialism will never forsake from a fascist design for the future due to objective and subjective reasons, unless the working class movement and hundreds of millions of poor people oppose it.

2.4 The competition between the imperialist centers, which limits the movement range of imperialist countries, does not eliminate the threat of reaction, fascism or war. On the contrary, it has been observed throughout history that contradictions between imperialists trigger regional or global conflicts. The increasing influence of Russia or People’s Republic of China on the international arena cannot be the guarantee of peace on its own. The ability of capitalist Russia or China, which has been making efforts to integrate with capitalist global markets, to create alternatives to the imperialist world order with the support of Latin American countries or Iran should not be exaggerated. These international actors can only earn some time for the working class in the struggle against imperialism, but they cannot earn a victory.

3.1 The outstanding result of the crisis in the recent period in Turkey has been the dramatic increase in the unemployment rate. Besides, this rapid rise in unemployment, which has reached above 20% in real figures, has been accompanied by a sudden fall in average wages. The mechanisms that aggravate unemployment work in three directions. The first one is the shutdown of or deceleration of production among small and medium scale enterprises that cannot survive due to fall of demand. The second one is withdrawal of some companies from sectors that they do not find profitable. Pro-market regulations adopted in the recent past have led to a fall of profits in many industrial sectors producing for domestic markets. It shall be expected that in the forthcoming period industrial goods will be substituted by imported goods, the problems associated with shrinking markets will be aggravated in export-oriented industries; hence the relative prevalence of manufacturing industry will be further undermined. Thirdly, we can mention the lay offs by bosses who want to replace their workers with new ones to work for lower wages and without insurance. In sum, we encounter an inevitable rise in unemployment rate as well as a dramatic fall in real wages and a strong tendency towards monopolization. It is important here to organize and systematize the social reaction against this process and politicize the momentary rage against lay offs. The crisis constitutes a drive to radicalize self-mobilization among the working class. Also taking this drive into consideration, the Communist Party of Turkey shall trace these reactions of the working class, which is yet only at a low level of tension and resistance, and become a part, and if possible, the vanguard of these reactions. Aggravation of the crisis will make it possible for these reactions to become unpredictably significant social explosions. Our Party therefore should consider all tendencies of mobilization among the working class, whether major or minor.

3.2 It is difficult to estimate which sectors will be affected by monopolization as the limits and severity of the crisis is still unclear. The shifts in the internal balances of the capitalist class as well as the transformation in economic structure will lead to changes in the number of actors in every field of business, with devastation of some sectors and expansion in others. However, assuming that “weaker” capitalists will fade from the scene in favor of stronger ones, we can consider that, in the medium term the crisis will reinforce the monopolistic character of capitalism in Turkey. Considering the fact that as the bosses of small and medium scale enterprises feel the effects of the crisis, they tend to act more aggressively against workers, it can be expected that the struggle in this area, where the contradiction of labor and capital is more obvious, will be highlighted. It is known that the tendency towards reconciliation with the “boss in trouble” is very common among trade unionists and workers of such enterprises. The Communist Party of Turkey should struggle to gain further fronts for workers everywhere that involves exploitation of wage labor, and strive to organize the working class, to stand up for their rights and to realize the aim of creating a brand new class movement that is even more realistic today. The relatively weaker sectors of the capitalist class cannot be tolerated for the sake of "anti-monopolist struggle". The struggle against monopolies is a political, ideological and cultural struggle against monopolistic capitalism, and under no circumstances it includes the demand to “bail out troubled capitalists by public resources.”

3.3 The ability of trade unions, whose class character, organization and belligerence have been thoroughly undermined, to embrace the self-radicalization of the working class against the crisis is rather weak. The Communist Party of Turkey, besides fulfilling its duty to unveil the company unions that collaborate with employers to act as a breakwater against the working class movement, will support the struggle of progressive unions and contribute to render these organizations to become a union of the working class. On the other hand, it is clear that our objective and decision to “create a new working class movement” will encounter a series of new opportunities in the current conditions.

3.4 The crisis will also have other consequences such as even more increase in the weight of the service sector, which has already been inflated, and new dimensions acquired by the devastation on some industries. The automotive sector, which is one of the basic reasons of the rise in industrial production in Turkey in the last decade, will shrink, and lead to structural problems in the economy. Although it is unclear what changes these issues will bring in the internal balances of the capitalist class, the government obviously intends to force such changes and use it to strengthen the Islamist capital. The ruling AKP avails new sectors to the Islamist capital and tries every method to allocate larger shares to them from the public expenditure, while still being the only resort for the conventional capitalist classes with their anti-labor and pro-market policies. Nevertheless, the strong conglomerates of Turkey can never remain totally indifferent to the interventions of AKP to the capitalist hierarchy. The biggest conglomerates, which have lost certain tools of intervention or saw them become weaker with the “Ergenekon” Operation will look for frauds of AKP or create an alternative for a more controllable government. It is obvious that the operation has nullified some mechanisms to easily control AKP and created new balances in the internal organization of the state.

3.5 Another phenomenon that leads the traditional capitalists to a dead-end is the possibility that any intervention on AKP may offer chances to the left and that the political dynamics created by such interventions may exceed acceptable limits. It is impossible for the coward and reactionary bourgeoisie of Turkey to take such a risk. Therefore, the traditional conglomerates leading the capitalist class by far make attempts, on the hand, to undermine AKP with the support of imperialist powers, which are indeed the real sources behind the power of AKP, and on the hand, to prevent radical changes in the internal balances of capital by keeping the chances of reconciliation with AKP at bay. In such conditions the Communist Party of Turkey should be resolute to offer policies against both the system and the capitalist class and benefit from the opportunities created by this tension to focus on certain objectives. In this sense, in terms of addressing and supporting social sensitivity, our “anti-AKP efforts” has been the most successful campaign we have ever run in our struggle against capitalist hegemony. This style of campaigning should be maintained with more effective tools in the upcoming period.

3.6 It is the ability of AKP to use political and economic dynamics concomitantly that gives the courage to that party to use objective phenomena such as the crisis for the sake of a certain project. The social base, ideology, complicated international relations and organizational structure of AKP make it possible for this party to directly mobilize economical power for political objectives. As a matter of fact, this is one of the reasons for the excitement and concerns among the bourgeoisie for AKP. This party overlaps political and economic life to avail the capitalist class with great velocity and noncompliance, while causing concerns by using its "power" outside the hierarchical order that the capitalist class is used to. However, what should be highlighted here is the social consequences of this overlap of politics and economy. The reason for a new phase of social corruption, which has long been asserted by Communist Party of Turkey, is the fact the politics in general sense has been made a subject of economic activity, which will be aggravated with the crisis. Therefore, invasion of politics by “business people” should be underlined in the ideological and cultural struggle against social corruption. The problem cannot merely defined as isolation of working masses from the political space. The greatest danger here is transformation of the relationship for social sectors to politics into an exchange. The social corruption, which we defined as selfishness, hitting the goldmine and loss of sense of justice, has now entered a new phase: millions of poor people regard politics and global and national problems as a “commercial transaction” defined by bourgeois ideology, rather than with a perspective of class benefits and public interests. Considering that the crisis will generalize this point of view, Communist Party of Turkey should launch an effective struggle against commercialization of politics on national and international level.

3.7 In this context, the mechanisms of "social aid", which has been offered by AKP to the poor and desperate working class to replace their will, should be closely monitored. Distribution of coal and food, public kitchens, aids in cash or goods cannot be overlooked simply as "bribery" or "investment for elections". The mechanisms developed by the political power, who has exploited public resources for the sake of capitalist class and who has seized all prosperity, and alleviate the social outcomes of this exploitation for its own political and ideological objectives through social aids, mean reintroduction of practices that resemble pre-capitalist patronage forms instead of social right that the working class has gained through years of struggle. It is meaningless to call people to stay away from these patronage forms and question them with ethic norms as people are in need of these aids. Instead of supporting the theme of “my vote is not for sale”, frequently used by certain bourgeois parties against the government, we have to reproduce in a public framework the expectations raised by this alms system run by public resources, and to transform this expectation into demands for social rights. This is the basic perspective that will lead the left into the poor quarters of cities which have already become caves of Islamist ideologies.

3.8 Rising unemployment rate, worsening working conditions, work accidents, instability of economy of Turkey, threat of domestic and foreign debts, “consumer borrowing” that increasingly covers more workers and the "alms system" mentioned above indicate both corruption and fundamentalism. This socio-economic picture cannot be sustained by the capitalist class without increasing the social influence of religion. This obvious need of the capitalist class is one of the many reasons for relatively “less depreciation” of AKP after years of government. It might as well be said that Islamization of the society has rendered AKP more resistant. Acceptance of reactionism as a sociologic fact by some sectors in the left means an abdication from the target of seizing power. The attempts by those who regard the social and political role of religions without principles and ignorantly to be “accepted by working class that is mostly comprised of people with faith” are not realistic. Communist Party of Turkey does not have any concerns about the freedom of worshipping; however, the origin of the danger is formation for political and social space by the laws of religion. There can not be any egalitarian struggle in Turkey without rejecting this Islamization. As our country witnesses elimination of the principle of secularism by the bourgeois order almost a century after the bourgeois revolution, the flag of illumination shall be raised by the working class from now on.

3.9 In this context, “winning the youth/winning youth” which has been one of the basic themes of the 9th Congress of the Communist Party of Turkey is very important. If there shall rise a resistance against social corruption and religious reactionism, the basic element of this resistance will be the working youth and students, most of whom are future workers. Communist Party of Turkey has the resolution to develop political and ideological tools to lead the working youth, who are in search for a solution after the crisis, claim rights on their country with an enlightened and patriotic approach. The “Assembly of Youth” is the expression of this resolution. Creation of a new class movement requires focus on the problems, expectations, demands and behavior of the young workers and their transformation with a revolutionary perspective.

3.10 There are detailed evaluations in the documentation of the Party on the crisis of Turkey to find a mission and direction with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as it had been an important yet unprincipled actor in the explicit and implicit war of imperialist system against socialism after the World War II. These documents clearly state that Turkey, located on the conjunction of the Balkans, Caucasus and the Middle East as the main intervention areas of imperialism, is both the tool and target of these interventions. Turkey is very difficult to liquidate or transform through direct and explicit interventions, and it can only be used for an imperialist operation by being integrated to other regional practices. In this context, the eagerness of Turkey to participate in the disintegrating wars of the US and NATO in Yugoslavia, Iraq and the Caucasus as well as its insistence on making the Kurdish question an international agenda subject to regional dynamics is related to the blindness of the capitalist class and its servant spirit due to over-dependence to imperialist projects. Republic of Turkey has recently been faced with an attempt for liquidation. This process of devastation, which will take a long time and can only be stopped with the attempts of communists and patriots, will cause strengthening of militarist tendencies in the near future of Turkey. In this period, as imperialism seeks for opportunities to benefit from the military power of Turkey and to weaken its power by drifting the country into regional conflicts and as the CHP (Republican People’s Party) which is indicated as an alternative to AKP, along with the Turkish Armed Forces are eager to get a role in this project, the Communist Party of Turkey has to intensify its efforts to create practical implications of the principles it has supported scrupulously so far, and should not lose time in give greater weight to its struggle against militarism. It should be noted that the crisis will provide additional motivation to militarist tendencies of imperialists and Turkish bourgeoisie in “economic” and “political” terms. The capitalist power in Turkey is destined to militarism both historically and currently.

Furthermore, the Party should not let the reactions against the “pro-Barzani solution” that has been effectively put into practice by the US and the AKP government to be deemed unimportant because of the fascist-racist fractions, who are hostile towards everything about Kurds, and the Party should not also let Kurdish actors, who are eager to “have a role” in the imperialist design due to fears of being excluded, to cast doubt on these reactions. The “pro-Barzani solution” is an important component of intermingled imperialist ambitions such as the restructuring of the Middle East and the transformation of Turkey. The most important means utilized by the US and the AKP government in realizing these ambitions are privatization, localization, incentives to foreign and domestic capital, and the promotion of religious reactionism. Efforts to baffle these policies, which interest all laborers of the country also constitute the only way of an anti-imperialist and unionist attitude in the Kurdish question.

3.11 The crisis provides opportunities to reinforce the social bases of the Patriotic Front, and to transform it into a mass movement in certain spheres of interest. In particular, the creation of mass organization channels for the working class by the Patriotic Front Workers’ Union, and seizing all opportunities to build a new working class identity will help us to overcome the obstructions before the working class movement.

4.1 The grounds for the threats against the gains of the Republic have been explained in the booklet titled “On the Verge of a Disaster” that has been accepted at the Party Conference i 2008. The fact that the bourgeoisie turns to reactionism the moment it seizes power does not necessarily mean that the republican gains lose all their values for the working class under the capitalist hegemony. It is a fact that the Republic of Turkey is an objective resistance factor against the disintegrating/dividing and reactionary dynamics of the present world. Socialism can be an alternative in Turkey only by basing itself on this resistance. In our time, when capitalism and the capitalist class do not contribute to this objective resistance, and even making attempts to break it, claiming rights over the gains of Republic is in the monopoly of the communists and their allies on behalf of the working class of Turkey. The only factor that will prevent transformation of Turkey into an Islamist country and its liquidation to support regional projects is a socialist revolution.

4.2 The process of Islamization and administrational liquidation is occasionally named as “New Ottomanism” in the publications of the Party. It has been evident with the rising Ottomanist campaign in the liberal and Islamist media that this name is not arbitrary. The late period of the Ottoman Empire governed by the Party for Progress and Union, and the constitutional year of the young republic have been the targets of such campaigns. The aim is to undermine the historical legitimacy of the most radical transformation in Anatolia, rather than revealing the cowardice, inconsistencies and crimes against the working class and people by the bourgeoisie of Turkey in their "revolutionary" years.

4.3 New Ottomanism also overlaps with the Middle Eastern policy of the US. Turkey, incapable to offer egalitarian and free living conditions to Kurdish people, has pinned its hopes upon the policy of alliance with the Kurdish rulers in Iraq. This alliance will support liquidation of Turkey after its economic and military entrance to Iraq, which has already been liquidated with the US invasion. The cement of this alliance is the market and religion. This alliance does not recognize the concepts of secularism, nation-state or sovereignty.

4.4 In Turkey, which has become even more fragile with the crisis, certain shocks that will help to overcome certain thresholds in the process of liquidation of republic should be expected. The society, under the pressure of unemployment and poverty, cannot remain utterly indifferent to this process. Therefore, the axis of the political and ideological confrontations in the near future is of great importance. The reason for the actors in Turkey to provoke nationalist-liberal confrontation, with direct support of the EU, is the fact that the result will be the same regardless of who the winner of this confrontation may be. This polarization between the nationalists and liberals will only determine whether the liquidation will be bloody or not and will paralyze the resisting factors in the society; therefore, it will accelerate the process of liquidation. The recent highlight on the Armenian question, in addition to the Kurdish question, demonstrates that imperialism will not give up the opportunities offered by this polarization. The attempts of those who do not have any noble intentions such as raising consciousness on the tragedy suffered by the Armenians and supporting fraternity among peoples, as well as the attempts of their leftist supporters do nothing but bring more tension to a crack that will destroy Turkey. However, there are two main axes that may yield positive results: The tension between enlightenment and reactionism, and between collaboration and patriotism has a revolutionary potential. The eagerness to participate in the polarization between nationalists and liberal instead of abovementioned revolutionary polarization, paralyzes the left. The polarization of nationalists and liberals has obviously devastating aspects and destabilizes the grounds on which the contradiction of labor and capital shall be reproduced. The confrontation of enlightenment with reactionism and of patriotism with collaboration can and must overlap with the confrontation of labor with capital. Communist Party of Turkey should base its political insight and alliance policy on this as the Turkish society becomes more dynamic during the crisis. These two axes of tension have the potential to achieve a socialist revolution in Turkey and Communist Party of Turkey will base its policies on this potential during the crisis.