Can struggle for democracy be sacrificed to romanticism of ballot box?

No, contrary to the supposition, the government and ruling block are not in “madness” due to their loss of control or their desperation. Just the opposite, the government wants to establish a new control mechanism based on aggravated oppression, violence and threats over the masses demanding bread and freedom. It is for this reason that an artist is threatened of having her tongue snapped or Kilicdaroglu is declared “traitor” through a child’s tongue.

Stipulated as it will go through a fascist fortification in case it gets some credit from people in elections, the AKP government (and of course the reactionary forces and classes supporting it) has actually started the fascist fortification. “National and spiritual values” communique, censorship decrees, threats to the laborers rebelling against poverty, changes in elections act, siege of Municipality of Metropolitan İstanbul, expediting the lawsuit to close down HDP, armed attacks on HDP buildings, arrest of journalists, inquiries for the dismissal of MPs (any many more) complete this fortification picture.

All of these attempts with Goebbels-ish propaganda methods are on daily agenda to cloud the consciousness of workers and laborers as well. As the class gap between rich and poor gets deepened, the ruling politics needs artificial polarizations to turn people to each other. The aim is for the destruction of the movement of the poor, and then making them comply with the rulers once again. Contrary to those spreading ballot romanticism by destroying the struggle, and to those selling dreams of “they will be defeated in the first elections;” it is necessary to take the attempts and preparations of the single man government seriously.

The bourgeois faction in power seems to be decisive to stand firm on its feet by making use of the state power to its fullest extent. For this reason, the class struggle and the struggle for democracy are to proceed hand in hand. Democratic rights and gains are important in this respect. Therefore, the means, for the unity against the single party and single man government, has to be the struggle for bread, on one hand, and the struggle for democracy and freedom, on the other.

Nation Alliance and its main party CHP  are pacifying the masses by putting off their demands for jobs and bread until after the elections. On democracy front, it does not have a viable approach either. For example, it continues to be in the same convoy as IYI Party which demands the closing down of HDP as soon as possible. So does it in collaboration with SP which demands the annulment of Istanbul Convention. There is no serious issue with Davutoglu who has not yet told about what he knows about the dark and bloody events happened during the period between June 7 and November 1 elections. It is of course not possible for a viable struggle for democracy to emerge from such line. This situation strengthens the hand of AKP-MHP block. Indifferent attacks do continue increasingly because of this reason.

Will the so-called People's Alliance win the upcoming elections or will the bourgeois state restorators which appear in the Nation Alliance do? Out of such oppositional approach locked in with this question, there can emerge no democratic transformation, but ballot pragmatism. Consequently  today’s need is a different option to form a focal organization basing itself also on a viable struggle for democracy against the bourgeois fascist fortification. Nation Alliance cannot do it. Because neither the demands it puts forward nor its content is appropriate for it. The People’s Alliance, the third that is based on the union of the forces of democracy and freedom (or the second that is against the two ruling blocks) is essential. Such a focal organization is required to meet around a viable alternative for both those distancing themselves from AKP and MHP, and those labouring masses who do not see the revolutionary-democratic transformation power in Nation Alliance parties. The third option is also necessary for the masses to gain self-confidence.

In such a conjuncture, it would be a big mistake for the left and socialism to look for the future only in the economic struggle and in spontaneity, and to ignore the struggle for democracy and the unity of forces of democracy. If it had been so, for example, fascism would not grapple Europe right after the 1914-18 imperialist war and after the 1929 economic depression. “United front against fascism” would not take place in Marxist literature. Moreover, it is not realistic to expect socialism to get stronger in current conditions, outside the struggle of the forces of democracy and labour, by ignoring the unity of the forces of democracy. Thinking the other way around, it is not possible for the struggle for democracy to converge to a viable ground without the affecting power of socialists. Socialists cannot ignore the working class and laborers to get trained in the realm of struggle for democracy.

The single man government is making use of chauvinist nationalism together with politico-religious to its fullest extent in order to manipulate the masses and to reinforce its oppressive regime. Nation Alliance is at default in these two realms as well. It shows no serious difference at all because of their politics which help AKP from time to time. Partnership with AKP-MHP in case of the resolution on war, the split in case of Istanbul Convention, the opposition of DEVA in the case of closures of private jamaat dormitories are examples of these. Looking into recent developments, it is not expected of Nation Alliance to take up, on the right basis, the imperialist tension politics enforced on Ukraine, to develop a position that is in favour of peoples and anti-imperialist.

Therefore, the forces forming the dynamics of the third option have to unite the struggle of labour, democracy and freedom with real laicism and anti-imperialist struggle too.

Last word: These arguments do not weaken the third option, they do strengthen it.