Contribution of TKP to the deliberations of Balkan Communist and Workers' Parties Meeting

On behalf of the Communist Party of Turkey, I wish to thank the Communist Party of Greece for holding this important meeting, and I salute all the delegates of communist and workers’ parties who participate in this meeting.

Before starting, I would also like to salute all the workers of Greece, who reacted against the attempts of PASOK government to shift the burden of the ongoing crisis over them by a general strike yesterday. I also wish to salute the tobacco workers of Turkey, who have been resisting against the reactionary government’s policy to shut down their factories in different towns since Tuesday in Ankara despite police aggression, the railroad workers, who support their friends that are suspended by the government after participating to the strike of public sector employees, and the firemen of Istanbul who try to protect their jobs against being subcontracted by Justice and Development Party municipality.

Comrades,

I will not try to elaborate on a theoretical discussion of the current crisis, neither on the nature of imperialism, which we know well since the publication of the groundbreaking work of Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. The communists and the peoples of the Balkans know this parasitic, reactionary and decadent system very well, as we all have been experiencing for decades now, and as many of us have experienced it bitterly especially after the demise of socialism in most of the peninsula.

I only would like to underline one aspect of imperialism, which I believe is crucial in the analysis of the current economic crisis: the fact that imperialism means parting and re-parting of the world among imperialist powers. The Balkans, or the broader region in which we live, including the Middle East and the Caucasus, has been subject to the parting and re-parting of the world among imperialist monopolies especially after the demise of the Soviet Union. Yet, the ongoing crisis marks that this is an endless process, as new monopoly groups are growing more stronger with the aid of their governments, the so-called bailout programs, which amount to trillions of dollars, while others are losing their strength and in some cases cease to exist. The gathering of new monopoly groups and the cessation of others point to the increasing intensity of the division of the world among imperialist powers. And the Balkans, which is once again devastated by the economic crisis, is one of the major subjects of such separation. In other words, this region is one of the weakest links in the chain, that it is one of the areas in the capitalist world economy, which is prone to revolutionary changes as well as historical tragedies.
Just to give an example, allow me to address in simple figures how my own country, Turkey, has been affected from the crisis. The world economic crisis has started to affect Turkey since October 2008. Between October 2008 and October 2009, Turkish economy shrank at a rate of 8.2 percent. Compared to the former two major crisis in Turkish economy, 1994 and 2001, this rate is utterly high, because in 1994, the economy shrank at a rate of 6.1 percent and in 2001 at a rate of 5.7 percent. Furthermore, we shall not ignore the fact the duration of the crises in these former periods were shorter. I mean, the economy had started to surge up nearly after one year of deep crisis. However, in the current case, as many economists estimate, the duration of the depression will be longer. In other words, we are comparing an unfinished crisis with the former ones, and even though it will continue for the months to come, it has already surpassed the effects of previous major crises.

Without elaborating on the causes of the crisis, one may address another simple figure, the rapid rise in unemployment. Although Turkish economy has grown at a rapid after 2001, employment generation has remained weak, even at negative rates, between 2001 and 2008. The official rate of unemployment remained stable at the range of 9.5 to 10 percent, although the economy was growing at a rate of 7 percent on average. As the effects of global economic crisis started to be felt, the unemployment rate has gone up to the range of 14 to 16 percent in official terms. In real terms, this implies an unemployment rate of 23 to 25 percent, and over 30 percent in large cities. In other words, almost one third of the workers in large cities are unemployed in Turkey, and if we take the jobless growth pattern of the pre-crisis period as a proxy, we may conclude that Turkish capitalism will endeavor to sustain this rate at around 20 to 25 percent even after the crisis. Hence, we can say that the largest section of the working class in Turkey, as in many other Balkan countries, is the unemployed.

Comrades,

There is no need to elaborate further on how the crisis devastated our countries. We may talk about the liquidation of industry and agriculture thanks to the policies of IMF, World Bank and the European Union; we may talk about the level of indebtedness due to the increasing dominance of finance capital; we may talk about the degradation of working conditions due to policies of flexibilization and privatization. We have been experiencing all of these phenomena in our countries, and we all know the common attacks of the capitalist class on the entire achievements of toiling masses.

But, we shall focus on some aspects of the strategy pursued by the capitalist class in waging these attacks on the working class. As we know it from the scientific core of Marxism and Leninism, class struggle is the motive power of entire history, and it never follows a simple, linear conjecture. The partitioning and the re-partitioning of the world among imperialist forces is a political process, which implies an everlasting political and economical transformation of the world. Therefore, we need to analyze the concrete historical patterns through which these attempts to transform the world in the interests of the dominant class take place.

As regards Turkey, one aspect of this transformation is to increase its influence in the region ranging from the Middle East to the Balkans and the Caucasus for the interests of imperialism. To put it differently, Turkish capitalism is trying to enlarge its scope of operation by making itself more congruent to the needs of imperialism, especially those of the United States in the region. Such a broad attempt involves many complex issues, among which the utilization of Islam as a politico-ideological framework within the country and the region is one aspect. Such a broad transformation includes internal struggles within the capitalist itself, as it requires a shift in the balance of power within the dominant class also. But as a whole, the capitalist class of Turkey agrees on the political and economic transformation of the country in line with the interests of imperialism, as they see this process as an enlargement of the opportunities to intensify their exploitation.

By which means? For example, by articulating themselves to the subcontracting networks of imperialist monopolies in the invaded territories by U.S. imperialism in Iraq and in Afghanistan. For example, by shifting their operations to Balkan countries such as Bosnia, Romania etc. in order to benefit from the cheaper labor force and the devastation initiated by the EU in these countries.

However, Turkish bourgeoisie is playing a dangerous game as they consent to the utilization of religious reactionism and ethnic divides as a tool to sustain their exploitation. We said that Turkey is trying to increase the scope of its operations in the region by making use of Islam, which also implies the liquidation of the main pillars of secularism within the country. Turkey is trying to intervene in ethnic clashes in the region, but it also suffers from the ethnic issues, which is now widely open to the manipulations of imperialist forces. In other words, the process of reinforcing Turkish capitalism in the region to play broader roles for the sake of imperialism might lead to another process in which the very existence of Turkey as a political entity is put on the discussion table. The social bases for such a devastation has been matured at a great extent since AKP government has come to power in 2002.

In view of these threats, the capitalist class trusts on the liquidation of workers’ right and the resulting process of surplus value extraction. Because, the upsurge of religious reactionism helps the capitalist government to liquidate social security system further by substituting the notion of “public interest” with the communal connections of religious sects, as they manage to suppress the resistance of the toiling masses against the capitalist crisis by boosting ethnic divides among the peoples of Turkey.

Comrades,

The effects of economic crisis on class struggle is not always immediate and direct. The communists are responsible to defend the historical rights of the working class against all the phenomena that would push back the interests of toiling masses. We have to counter the liquidation of the gains of working people, we have to fight against the exploitation of labor through dismissals, flexibilization and degradation of work, privatizations etc. However, we cannot oversee the fact that the capitalists are also dividing working people by other means. We need to defend the historical interests of our class against religious reactionism, against the introduction of ethnic divides among our peoples.

The Communist Party of Turkey endeavors to establish a new working class movement in order to tackle the fragmentation of the working class into different sections. The Patriotic Front and the Patriotic Front of Workers’ Union are attempts to reinforce progressive trade union movement and to introduce new means to class struggle in our country so as to organize broader sections of the working class and to raise class consciousness among their ranks.

Furthermore, the Communist Party of Turkey endeavors to tackle the dangerous political transformation of Turkey in the interests of imperialism. We emphasize that the only response that would keep our country together is the joint struggle of Kurdish and Turkish workers against capitalist-imperialist system. This was exemplified by the recent resistance of Kurdish and Turkish tobacco workers against the decision of the government to shut down their factories. We need to publicize this fact and we need to develop more examples in these lines. We have to stress the fact that the establishment of a socialist Republic of Turkey by the joint struggle of all ethnic origins is the only solution to the impasse within which our country is dragged into.

Comrades,

Intensification of the struggle against imperialism, ongoing occupations and the threats of war of imperialism in our region is crucial in terms of the response of communist and workers’ parties against capitalist crisis.

In this context, as addressed by our comrades from KKE, the reconstruction of Balkan Anti-NATO Center and raising the demand of return of troops from occupied territories is of crucial importance. Similary, it is a necessity to build further coordination and cooperation amongst the struggles of our parties so as to defend the rights of the working class, to tackle the divide and rule policies of capitalists, and to achieve new fronts for the sake of toiling masses. We need to act together and we need to do this as quickly and as effectively as possible, since, unfortunately, the balance of forces in class politics is not changing in our benefit.

I would like to thank you once again comrades for organizing this important meeting.

Alper Birdal
Responsible for the International Relations Section at the CC of TKP
December 19, 2009