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Turkey: Socialist Platform of the Oppressed (ESP) runs for elections

26. June 2007

In the East support for the Kurdish Party of for a Democratic Society (DTP)

We are the socialist alternative of the oppressed
against the putschists, bosses, imperialism, fascism and chauvinism!

Look at the bourgeois system parties! How they gorge each other, how they strangle each other… On one hand, the military fascist front, on the other hand the neoliberal reactionary front… They are competing with their lies against each other. One side has been waving fake flags of “secularism” and “independence” in its hand. The other side waves the flag of “democracy” with the same fakeness…

But how do they all unite towards the oppressed! How they all compete in adopting the IMF’s laws of exploitation and plundering! How they made the united ballot pass quickly with a “holly” alliance to hinder the candidates of the DTP (Party for a Democratic Society) entering parliament! How they agree with each other when launching the Anti-Society Law (i.e. Anti-Terror Law, tn.) and approving the New Police Law…

Both fronts of the system are completely reactionary. Both are US-collaborators, enemies of the labourers and of our oppressed Kurdish people. All among them follow the NATO and IMF.

We reveal the fake slogans for independence of the pro-NATO generals who following the order of the USA realized the coups on March 12 (1971) and September 12 (1980). We will show everyone that they carry the USA’s Order of Merit medal in their chest.

We cry out that the generals of September 12 are not defending, but hindering securalism. We will tell our people that those who introduced religion as a compulsory lesson in schools, develop social reaction with all its force to oppress the left, built mosques in Alevi villages by force and stand behind the Department of Religious Affairs do not defend secularism but state religion. We will show that real secularism can only be achieved with political freedom.

We will reveal and show that the AKP (Party for Justice and Development), who shows itself as an oppressed sector, is democratic to itself, but brutal to the people. We have not forgotten and will not let it be forgotten the brutality applied in Istanbul to hinder workers marching on Taksim Square on Mayday, the fact that the isolation in the F-type prisons continue, the ouster of democratic rights by force on the basis of the new anti-terror law, the defence of the murderers of Ugur Kaymaz, the fact that the demand for education in mother tongue is regarded a crime, and how the Prime Minister Erdogan degraded the unemployed people who wanted to tell him their troubles.

We call upon the labouring women to stand up against the patriarchal capitalist system that oppresses the women and that oppresses the labouring women twice. We will reveal that the bourgeois parties which consider the women only as a decoration on their “display window” are the watchmen of the patriarchy. We will increase the struggle against the secondary status of women in all aspects of social life and against the discriminative laws; against the double exploitation among the labouring women; against the chastity murders and all kinds of violence against women. By choosing most of our candidates among women, we are putting forward our will to involve the labouring women in politics and to liberate them.

We are founding the third front on the streets
The elections on July 22 will be realized in the shadow of the military warning and the fomentation of war. In this election, revolutionary and socialist candidates are the need of the labourers as they have never been before.

We are standing against the military fascist interference process which began with the general’s memorandum of April 27. The aim of this interference is to defend the semi-military fascist regime and its insurance, Presidency and to hinder the representation of the Kurdish people in the parliament and any solution in the Kurdish question.

Those behind the memorandum of April 27 now drag Turkey into the swamp of Iraq by cross-border operation plans. We are in favour of a just, democratic solution in the Kurdish question and support the brotherhood of the peoples. We are against a regional war.

We, as the Socialist Platform of the Oppressed, stand up with independent revolutionary socialist candidates against all the system parties. We are struggling for forming a third front against the two fronts of the ruling classes. We take place in the elections to form the third front of the labourers and people on the streets and chase the military putschists with the masses’ struggle.

Neither the CHP, spokesman of the oppressors, nor the AKP, the party of the monopolies
Neither the CHP (Republican People’s Party), the applauser of the military coup, the spokesman of the oppressors… Nor the AKP, practiser of the IMF’s programs, the fake democratic party of the monopolies… Or the DP (Democratic Party), the liar party of the fascist murderer ex-police chief Mehmet Agar… None of them can be the option of the labourers and oppressed. Against the bourgeois parties’ circus of clowns, we are raising the slogan “Vote for the independent socialist candidates”!

These parties claim the vote of our people, whom they had been lying to for years, yet another time without being ashamed and using lies and boodle. The ESP lets the socialist candidates emerge as the representatives of the labourer people against all bourgeois parties. It is the socialist candidates who are deserving our people’s votes, because they want these votes not for representing the interests of the bourgeoisie, but of the labourer people.

We call upon our labourer people to unite themselves around the socialist independent candidates in the main centres of West Turkey, in Istanbul, Bursa, Izmir, Ankara, Adana, Mersin and Eskisehir. Through an election campaign, today and here, whose slogans for freedom, justice, equality for the people and socialism will be waved as flags in the suburbs and work places and will reach millions of labourers, we are growing the struggle and the hope of the labourers.

We as the ESP consider the right of the Kurdish nation to make politics as a basic democratic right in this territory. We support the DTP entering parliament with a sufficient rate to form a group. For this reason, we will not nominate candidates in the Kurdish cities in contrast to the previous elections and proclaim that we support the candidates of the DTP. We will run the election campaign in these cities supporting the DTP candidates.

Again, in the 3rd election zone of Istanbul, we support Sabahat Tuncel, a prisoner women who is a member of the Party Council of DTP. Our aim with this support is to express our solidarity with the Kurdish women and with the prisoners from DTP and to increase the demand of “freedom for the political prisoners”.

In Hatay and Denizli, however, we are a part of the common initiatives of independent left-wing candidates which were developed in these towns.

The ESP is the voice and the power of the labourer people
The ESP is the tribune of the oppressed. Since 2002, ESP has been there wherever labourers and oppressed stood up for their rights. The ESP has always struggled actively from the point of view of the oppressed at workers’ strikes, against the demolition of shanty houses, in the struggle against violence against women and whenever the Kurdish people have been attacked. The ESP became the fear of the imperialists in the fight against the NATO summit which gathered in Istanbul. The ESP has also been one of the major forces of the struggle against the occupation of Iraq, the draft decree to send troops there and the draft decree to send troops to Lebanon. In the elections of 2002 and 2004, we joined the elections with independent socialist candidates as the socialist alternative of the oppressed.

The ESP takes place in the elections on July 22 as a determined defender of the labourer people’s demands.

The ESP calls on all workers, labourers, young people, women and the Kurdish people to take part in the struggle for;

* the equality and brotherhood of the people against racism and nationalism,
* the labourers’ and oppressed people’s freedom to speak, act and organise,
* the conviction of the military putschists and annulment of all laws which legalizes the coups,
* for democratic rights, against fascist laws,
* the development of the united people’s resistance against the neoliberal attacks which make the labourers face hunger, unemployment and poverty,
* the ending of the dependency on imperialism, the cancelling of relations with all imperialist organisations such as the IMF, WB, NATO and EU, the cancelling of foreign debts,
* the termination of violence and negative discrimination against women of any form and the gender equality of rights in the social, politic and economic life,
* a just and democratic solution in the Kurdish question,
* the cancellation of all debts of the labourer peasants, the termination of the policy of the destruction of agriculture forced on the labourers,
* a health system which is free and where the people are treated as humans,
* the annulment of YOK (Higher Education Council, a fascist state institution, tn.), the creation of autonomous-democratic gratis universities,
* the cancellation of OSS (Student Election Examination, for enterance to the universities), for the creation of free and qualified education instead of sifting education.

A dignified and human life is only possible with socialism
Socialism is the dignified and human life longed by millions of labourers which say “Enough is enough”. Socialism is the future hope of the youth drowning in the swamp of unemployment, drugs and gangs in the suburbs. It is the social system which leads the way for the liberation of the women, the oppressed gender, which achieves the full equal rights for them and which terminates their home-slavery. It means the abatement of national oppression and inequalities. Socialism is a world without borders, classes and exploitation.

The only solution against unemployment, hunger and poverty is the overturn of capitalism and the launching of socialism. As long as capitalism exists, the safe of the monopolies will continue to fatten up… The bread in the throat of the labourers will shrink. All bourgeois parties are in the duty of the exploiters who can not solve but deepen neither unemployment nor poverty.

We struggle for forming the paradise on earth. We are going forward by enlighthening the darkness. We are the death bell of this system of lies! We are the successors of Seyh Bedrettin, Celalis, Cakıcı Mehmet Efe, Atcalı Kel Mehmet, the blacksmith Kawa, Seyit Riza, Nazım Hikmet, Deniz Gezmis, Mahir Cayan and Ibrahim Kaypakkaya. Behind us are not media monopolies but the oppressed! We, the oppressed, are millions, we are right and we will win.

Your vote should not be for nothing! Vote for the socialist candidates!
Every vote for the system’s parties will be for the putschists of September 12, for the despoilers, the gangs and exploiters. Every vote for the bourgeois parties is for nothing! Every vote for these parties will return to the labourers in form of exploitation, despoliation and cruelty.

We call on all workers, labourers, peasants, shopkeepers and all oppressed to use their vote for their own class interest and their demand for freedom. Every vote for the socialist candidates will be a protest against this unjust, unequal and oppressor system. It will be a brick for exceeding the unjust 10% threshold with the independent candidates. It will send the real representatives of the labourers to parliament.

WITH THIS AIM;
We support…

Kamber Saygili, General Secretary of the trade union Limter-Is affiliated to the DISK, in the 1st election zone of Istanbul,
Fusun bandir, president of the Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian People and trade unionist, in the 2nd election zone of Istanbul,
Sabahat Tuncel, prisoner women and member of the Party Council of DTP, in the 3rd election zone of Istanbul,
Serpil Aslan, health worker and representative of the Bursa ESP, in Bursa,
Necati Abay, journalist-writer, publisher and spokesperson of the Solidarity Platform with the Imprisoned Journalists, in the 1st election zone of Izmir,
Muharrem Demircioglu, artist and journalist, in the 1st election zone of Ankara,
Havali Mengi, sociologist and the regional representative of the trade union Tekstil-Sen, in Adana,
Sevim Kaptan Olcmez, trade unionists and member of the leadership of Tekstil-Sen, in Mersin,
Berkat Kar, journalist, in Hatay,
Nebi Ebci, bookkeeper and a member of the initiative 78’liler, in Denizli,
Filiz Ulucelebi, ex-president of the Labouring Women’s Association of Ankara, in Eskisehir.

Do not get deceived, raise fight flag!
Freedom, justice and equality for the peoples!
Against capitalism; the only way is revolution; the only solution is socialism!

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