The 9th Congress of the Labour Party of Turkey (EMEP) gathered in Ankara under the slogan “Unity, solidarity and struggle against exploitation, pandemic and war”. Ercüment Akdeniz was elected as party chair.
Reacting to the pandemic and crisis policies of those in power, Akdeniz said: “Our Congress is one that will demand accountability from capitalism for deeming this as what workers deserve.”
Drawing attention to how 5 million migrants made up a part of the working class of Turkey, he added: “Our party is internationalist. In order to free themselves from exploitation, we invite migrant workers to call for socialism and to be involved in politics.”
Gathered in Ankara the Congress elected Ercüment Akdeniz, the former Evrensel Newspaper news editor and writer, as the chair of the Labour Party.
Following the election, Akdeniz took to the stage, along with chants of “Work, bread and freedom.”
In his speech, Akdeniz said “Thank you to [former leader] Selma Gürkan, my party, the workers in all areas of our organisation, our youth members, our women comrades and the hundreds of branches within the party for giving me this role.”
Akdeniz called his appointment a handover of the baton, adding that collective leadership is the basic principle of the Labour Party.
Stating that they would be carrying out the role together, Akdeniz said “We are holding our 9th party Congress under the conditions of the economic crisis, the coronavirus pandemic and with despotic pressures [from government] as much as we can. We are in a period in which incentives are offered to the capital, whereas bitter prescriptions are offered to workers and labourers, and herd immunity to the poor is preferred.
“We see health workers, who lose their lives while battling Covid-19, as heroes of the people. We criticise the failures of those in power to take the necessary measures to prevent them from getting the virus.”
Drawing attention to the death of workers due to the pandemic spreading in the factories, Akdeniz said “Our Congress is one that will demand accountability from capitalism for deeming this as what workers deserve”.
Ercüment Akdeniz, exemplifying the struggle of the Soviet Union against the Spanish flu, said “The biggest misfortune of the 21st century is that the pandemic has hit a world without socialism, popular democracies or strong unions. The need for socialism has revealed itself in all its reality during this pandemic”.
Akdeniz criticised the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s targeting of the oppositional alliance and the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) for “debating the Constitution”, stating “Lynch campaigns are being carried out in the media, as if discussing the constitution is a terrorist activity. The bourgeois parties also cowardly state that there is ‘No such on-going debate.’
“The Constitution, of course, should be a topic open to discussion. What we need is a democratic, pro-people constitution in which the obstacles to the political and trade union organisation of the working class are removed. Our 9th Congress also calls for a discussion of a democratic and pro-people constitution.”
Akdeniz brought to attention that the young people of Turkey have lost hope in the country. "Turkey has become the army of qualified unemployed. Unable to find a job for 6-7 years, young people go door to door and feel depressed. Our call to youth is this: We cannot change this country without getting organized and coming together. This country is not a country whose hope is over, it is the country of those who raise their children with their sweat. Come stand by the working class and let's change this country together.”
"Doing politics on behalf of 83 million people in Turkey has ended" said Akdeniz, emphasizing that there are 5 million refugees in the country and the Labour Party is in favour of fraternity against racism. Stating that they are fighting against the exploitation of refugees as cheap labour force, Akdeniz announced that the party will establish a refugee and immigration bureau. Stating that they will organize nationwide campaigns on the 10th anniversary of the Syrian civil war and immigration, Akdeniz said, “Our party is an international party" and called on the migrant workers to socialism and to engage in politics to get rid of this exploitation mantle.
Akdeniz greeted the women who will go onto the streets on 25 November, the Day of Struggle Against Violence Against Women, and stated that they will heighten the struggle against violence against women, exploitation and oppression.
Akdeniz stated that there are bourgeois parties that have pledged allegiance to the monopolies could not deviate from their promises and could not establish a platform, whereas the Labour Party as the revolutionary party of the working class called the workers to organize in the party.
Selma Gürkan, the former chairperson of the Labour Party, drew attention to the pandemic conditions and the lives of the workers and laborers. Gürkan said that, with the pandemic, the working class has gone through a process in which the importance of the working class in production and economy is seen with all its nakedness and its transformative power has emerged. Gürkan also stated that the necessity of organizing the working class as an independent political power has emerged once again, and said that the capitalist imperialist order has nothing to give to peoples other than unemployment, poverty and wars.
Gürkan said “We are witnessing strikes, resistances, popular movements, women's and youth struggles from the USA to Europe, from Asia to Africa. In these struggles, sometimes the administrations changed, sometimes the neoliberal aggression was taken aback and sometimes the dictatorships were overthrown. The path followed by the AKP as part of the capitalist system has been the same. All of the packages prepared in the pandemic have been offers that protect the interests of capital and monopolies. These packages were issued to put a smile on the face of the capital."
Speaking on behalf of the Labour Youth, Sinancem Alikoç said that the tendency to fight against the policies of the one-man regime has increased especially in universities. Expressing that they have seen this in the fight against police attack and ban on festivals in the Middle East Technical University, Alikoç stated that with the pandemic the importance of free, scientific and democratic education has become more obvious.
Referring to President Erdogan's words "we could not win the youth," Alikoç said that the discourses of religious youth are actually the policies of winning the youth to the one-man regime. Stating that in this process, the Labour Youth expanded the struggle in universities and high schools and carried out educational studies on socialism, Alikoç said, “We are confident that we will establish a classless world without exploitation, with the power we receive from Deniz, Erdal and İmran (the fallen leaders of the youth struggle). Youth are the future, the future is socialism”.
EMEP Kocaeli Provincial Chairperson Arzu Erkan pointed out that pandemic and crisis conditions increase discontent and anger among laborers. Erkan said that they have witnessed large and small resistance against worsening working and living conditions in the last three years. Stating that these resistances generally include the right to unionize and the struggle against loss of rights, Erkan stated that the Labour Party is in solidarity for the success of these resistances, as well as making efforts at the point of unifying demands and organizing unity.
HDP co-leader Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar: We are going through a period when we need to grow the joint struggle both within and outside Parliament in favour of democracy, justice, peace and freedom against the political, economic and societal crises caused by one-man authoritarianism.
CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu: I wish for your congress to bring good luck to your party. I send my respects to you, your party management and members, and hope that these difficult days that our country and the world are going through end as soon as possible.
TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan: We welcome with revolutionary spirit your 9th Congress, held during a period of arbitrary policies by the political government and under “extraordinary” circumstances.
DİSK Chair Arzu Çerkezoğlu: We welcome the 9th Congress of Labour Party of Turkey, with whom we have always stood shoulder to shoulder against policies that protect bosses’ profits instead of protecting workers livelihoods during the pandemic and economic crisis.
KESK Executive Board: We wish our friends who stand shoulder to shoulder with us in our struggle for better working conditions, democracy, peace, rights and freedom all the success at their 9th general congress.
Serbia Revolutionary Labour Alliance - Strike Committee: Marxist-Leninists of Turkey are an example of how one should fight in the interest of wokring class against dictatorship and imperialism.
Communist Party of Spain (ML): The path to socialism is full of difficulties but you and us and parties of The International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organisations will walk on this road until the final victory.
Organization for the Building of a Communist Workers Party of Germany: We send to you our revolutionary greetings for your work. Your congress takes place in a time, where there is unrest around the world. The capitalism makes war in many regions of the world, destroys the
environment, increases poverty and misery for billions of workers and their families. Far away from seriously combating the Covid-19-pandemia, the capitalist governments misuse this pandemia for more attacks on the working class and the people. So we can see worldwide that the struggle of the working class and the people is developing. It is a dangerous time, but as well a time of many opportunities for the genuine revolutionary forces.
You are fighting for a real democratic and social Turkey according to the wishes and necessities of the working class and the people – against all tendencies to autocratic governing and all attacks on the working class and the peoples. Your party as a genuine Marxist-Leninist Party is at the head of this struggle and shows the way to an united front oft the workers and the peoples. Your Party shows the way to real independence, democracy and social Turkey. We wish you a lot of success in your struggle.
We are united in CIPOML in our fight against imperialism and the capitalist system, for the socialist revolution. We are convinced that we will succeed in this way. We wish you that your 9th congress will help your party to gain new advances in your struggle.
Co-leaders of DBP Saliha Aydeniz and Keskin Bayindir, Leader of TIP and member of parliament Erkan Bas and ESP also sent messages of support to the congress. (EVRENSEL DAILY)
Bülent Falakaoğlu
Hakkı Özdal
