Intervention of the Labor Party of Turkey by Mustafa Yalginef

Dear Friends and Comrades,

I have brought you the greetings of the working class and working people of Turkey. Please allow me to share with you the determination of the working class in our country, which is part of the world working class, to struggle against the international bourgeoisie and imperialism.

I will talk about the circumstances which is the current base of all democracy and independence problems as well as socialism.

International bourgeoisie and imperialism, have been waging a serious and many sided attack against the world working class and working people for the last few decades.

Globalization is praised as an ideological position of the world capital and also it is being evaluated as a practical phenomenon. The world capital is completely re-organizing all countries as its «backyards» without any barriers for the realization of its maximum profit.

In this capital organization called «New World Order» international capital is trying to create the conditions in every country for it to feel at home. For example, according to the MAI and MIGA Treaties imposed on people, the losses of international monopolies will be compensated by the concerning states if these monopolies’ investments and plunders are restricted by any laws or strike actions in these countries.

Also, with the imposition of «international consolidation» as far as the interests of international capital are concerned, the «distribution of justice» will be realized not by the courts of concerning states but by the international courts which monopolies judicial power in its hands.

The US is at the center of this attack which is designed to turn the world into an open market and a field for plunder. These attacks are carried out in similar ways in every country. The aim is to eliminate all the barriers in from of the world capital by lifting customs and through free trade. This leads to the plundering of resources in the world and the destruction of national industry and agriculture.

Dependence to imperialism is consolidated in every country.

Among these attacks are privatization, casual work, the axing of social rights, the liquidation of social security systems and job security, the intensification of exploitation and promotion of competition between the workers through the imposition of new production techniques, subcontracting, do unionization, reduction of real wages, e.t.c. The aim is to secure maximum profit for the world capital in every country without any restrictions.

Attacks, attached with the formulation of globalization defines the overall interests of the world capital. However, in spite of the unity and solidarity propaganda, the world capital is a «divided whole» and the polarization among various focuses are being intensified. Right along with the regional unities like EU,NAFTHA and APEC, new rapproachments are being witnessed as in the example of the latest Moscow Summit where Russia, Germany and France demonstrated their worries and attitudes over the United States’ interests in Europe. The Middle East, the Balkans, Middle Asia, along with the Caucasus and Africa are the unignorable controntation regions between the imperialists. It is impossible to reach an agreement for the formation of the New World Order where all the «big» powers are satisfied. The «small», workers, oppressed peoples and countries are building up their opposition.

The expansion of NATO along with the concept changing should be considered in this framework. Instead of bringing together the largest possible region under the political-strategic umbrella of globalizing or encircling communism with a green-belt, now the strategic tendency of the New World Order is to introduce order to suppress regional uprisings.

The globalization attacks of the world capital aimed at the re-adjustment of all countries’ economic, political and judicial areas directly affect the crisis of capitalism, its untreatable sickness, and make them destructive. The policies imposed by international capital and imperialist institutions like the IMF and the World Bank, on the countries to re-order their economies, are playing an important and accelerating role in the collapse, for example, of the miracles of South East Asian Tigers. The difficult situation miracular Japan is faced with is also known. In the case of Indonesia, poor working and living conditions resulting from these impositions have prepared the conditions for a popular uprising.

It can be easily observed that the imposition of globalisationist «New World Order» provokes polarization, deepen the gap between the laborers and big capital in every country. It can also be observed that class struggle is intensifying.

There is a progress in the oppressed and exploited peoples’ movement. Strikes and protests are increasing.

The polarization takes place in political field too; radicalism is becoming stronger whereas central parties are weakening.

In the world scale, it is true that the working class, as far as their political organizations are concerned, faces organizational weaknesses which have to be overcome. Nevertheless, dynamics of a restoration are accumulating fast.

Even though social democracy still has a degenerating effect, it is losing position because of their defense of privatization and praised of globalization in almost every country. The British Labor Party has begun to lose its bases short after their coming power. Also the social democrat coalition partner in Turkey has lost strength. These are the proofs.

Fascist and radical religious organizations have become stronger over the last few years and almost all countries have become more reactionary in their politics.

Almost in every country the working class parties and organizations are standing against these reactionaries uniting to gain strength. The responsibility of dedication to emancipation of the working class makes it obligatory to concentrate on the problems and requirements of developments in this direction. Because the unity and organizations in the ranks of the working class party is the only guarantee of repealing the attacks on the working class and the working people.

International capital does not recognize any of the rights that labor has gained historically. It has declared null and void all «social agreements» that have been made. What it imposes now is the expansion of unemployment, low wages, unorganized individuals, hunger and poverty.

The fact that the bourgeoisie has abandoned the principle of the «welfare state» completely and that it attacks the workers and working people through its state organizations has led to working people’s uprisings and to a fundamental change in the field of trade unions. The period of state-protected trade unionism based on class collaboration with the bourgeoisie has ended.

With the attempt of the international bourgeoisie to liquidate the «welfare state» the European-centered reformist currents of trade unionism have become bankrupt. Trade union bureaucrats who are linked to these currents have lost credibility and strength under the pressure, on the one hand, of the workers’ demands and, on the other, of their close links with capital and its states. They have entered a process where they have become almost useless not only in the eyes of the workers but also of the bourgeoisie.

The impasses of the reformist trade union movement have nourished the orientation of the workers struggle against capital and at the same time led the union bureaucracy to start discussing «whether they should submit to the existing situation or pass onto a platform based on struggle». Although the reformist and collaborationist wings constitute the majority in these discussions, the very fact that such discussion has begun is a phenomenon which must be watched carefully, and in which we must intervene appropriately in order to deepen the contradictions.

In the last 6-7 years, in most countries of the world especially in Europe, a struggle for rights is rising, which sometimes drags along the existing trade-union administrations. These different countries at different times are experiencing struggles that draw the main body of the class together in a way which has not been observed in Europe for the last 50 years. Although being limited to a struggle for workers’ rights, in an objective respect, the main character of this movement is in contradiction with the objectives of international capital.

One of the aspects of the trade-union movement which is rising all around the world should be attached great importance. That is the fact that in almost all countries, from Switzerland to Indonesia, from Sweden to South Africa, the movement is being shaped on the basis of very similar demands.

This new trade union movement possesses a determining importance in respect of the international unity of the working class and in respect of demolishing the international plans of capital.

Trade unions all around the world, which are the mass struggle organizations of the working class, are now facing a crucial responsibility and they are at the turning point.

International capital is attacking the working class with all possible instruments in order to usurp their rights which were gained after a century long struggle, and to submit them.

Our trade-unions are continuously losing membership. For example in Turkey, in accordance with the accelerating privatization, numerous trade unions have lost an important part of their membership. We know that this situation is also true in relation to the trade-unions in Europe. Furthermore both in Turkey and in numerous other countries, the trade-union bureaucracy that is the agent of capital amongst the working class is not turning a hair over these losses; and they maintain their treacherous attitude by collaborating with the employers and governments.

The widespread lack of unionization and the attitude of the union bureaucracy is running the unions and destroying the tendency to unionization among the workers.

However, that is only one face of the coin. On the other side of the coin, especially in the imperialist countries and in other countries, there is a well started militant trade unionism movement. In spite of the treacherous attitude of the union bureaucracy, an effective workers movement has been developing over the last decade. In spite of the obstacles presented by the union bureaucracy, hundreds of thousands of workers have marched in France, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland. Strikes and resistance have been going on in many countries of the world. Also, in recent years a fighting mass trade union movement has been developing in our country.

The determination of international capital necessitates the unification of the fight of the unions against individuals bosses with a political struggle, a struggle of coming to power, against international monopolies and their collaborators in every country.

For this reason every worker and trade unionist on the side of the working class must understand that defeat will be inevitable if trade union struggle is based only on economic demands.

Today it is an urgent necessity to become a single first and to unite in a political line against the attacks of international capital. This line is realized in the ranks of genuine working class parties.

In every country, the working class parties must do their best for the development of a fighting trade union movement and help the workers to defeat their unions.

Meanwhile, not only do the attacks of capital aim at the working class, but at all the acquired rights of the working people. The privatization in education, health, energy, transport, make life much barder for all working people whose expenses for electricity, telephone, health, education, etc have already increased. The plundering of natural resources of countries is affecting the peoples and their living and working conditions. The lifting of customs and restriction of agriculture areas lead to the destruction of agriculture and animal husbandry in many countries, thus destroy the peasantry. In the name of personnel reforms, public employees are under the threat of redundancy in great numbers.

Globalization forces the workers and all working strata to unite against these attacks to repeal them.

There is a necessity for the workers’ movement in every country to overcome being local, to become a united movement and to be characterized with political demands. What is also vital is the unification of workers’ movement and the movement of other working strata. The realization of these two depends on the position and work of the political party of the working class.

The political parties of the working class are to play a similar role in uniting the workers and laborers’ movement internationally and organizing international solidarity of this movement. What needs to be done in these areas is not less important than the tasks in individual countries. Class struggle and revolution formally has a national character, but they are international in essence. The working class in each country is part of the working class of the world; they have common demands. The revolutions of different ranks of the international working class in different countries can only be the components of a single world revolution process.

It is not acceptable for the class conscious workers to have an average conciliation and to get to the sidelines and watch the imperialist-capitalist attacks designed to establish the «New World Order» with the formulation of globalization.

As a result, it is the truth that not only the main force but the single which win democracy and independence as well as socialism is the working class and the working people, and certainly nobody else.

And working class needs rights, democracy, independence and socialism.

Long Live International Unity of the World Working Class!