Kenan Batu
Braving the rain – and despite all of the travel restrictions imposed in Istanbul – the May Day demonstration in Kadikoy, organised by trade union confederations DISK and KESK and professional associations, brought together tens of thousands.
Unionised workers from all sectors – construction, health, teachers, metal workers and many more – formed their own contingents and raised their own demands.
Thousands of university and school students, who have been the driving force behind the mass protests in Turkey, organised their own contingents in support of workers’ struggle.
There were also two separate protests in Istanbul. One of them was organised by the biggest trade union confederation, Türk-is, which has a right-wing leadership.
Another one was organised by students and some trade unions who wanted to reclaim the out-of-bounds Taksim Square.
These students believed that, given its historical importance, it would be far better to march towards Taksim Square, and that it was a capitulation to accept the government’s undemocratic ban on protesting in and around it.
Outrageously, the police have resorted to very violent methods, including one officer putting their knee on a protester’s neck, and detained over 400 students and trade unionists who wanted to march to Taksim Square.
All of those who have been detained by the police must be released immediately. The workers’ movement must campaign to defend all democratic rights. Release all political prisoners now!
Mass action of workers and youth needed
Unfortunately, no agreement was reached to organise a single demonstration in Istanbul that could bring together all trade union confederations and students, on a concrete set of class demands.
Such a united demonstration would have sent a powerful message to the government that the workers’ movement, together with students who are fighting for their future, will fight the government’s attacks on workers and young people.
Nevertheless, the May Day demonstrations across the country gave a glimpse of the power of the workers’ movement and its ability to potentially mobilise hundreds of thousands of workers.
Anti-democratic attacks
Despite the government’s vicious anti-democratic attacks on the right to protest and organise, including the right to join a union and to go on strike, and the attempts of the rotten trade union bureaucracy trying to stifle workers’ action, mass pressure can be exerted for the trade unions to organise another mass demonstration.
Such a demonstration should raise concrete demands, such as defending trade union rights and calling for inflation-busting pay rises, as well as raising the need for nationalisation with no compensation to fat cats. If successful, it could also boost the confidence of the working class.
Such demands on trade union leaderships, together with rank-and-file pressure, would serve to expose the current rotten bureaucratic leadership of unions, and help the struggle needed to transform unions into democratic and combative trade unions.
If trade unions fail to organise a mass demonstration, then a coalition of willing trade unions, left groups and students could organise a demonstration around a fighting programme and offer a socialist way out of the crisis. An appeal should also be made to all organised and unorganised workers.
A coalition of the willing would also pose the vital question of what the workers’ movement should do in future elections and open up democratic debates about what steps are needed to increase the cohesion and confidence of the working class.
On the basis of the daily struggles of the working class and young people in the fight for better living standards, socialist ideas can become even more popular. We need to build the socialist opposition to Erdogan’s anti-democratic and anti-working class regime. In the stormy period we are heading in to, therefore, socialists cannot hide or water down a Marxist programme and strategy that is needed not only to defeat Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian, repressive regime but also to build a future free from oppression and poverty
