Last year's minimum wage in Turkey fell below the hunger limit in the second month of the year. This year the situation is even worse. Even before the end of January, minimum wage earning labourers, half of the working population, were crushed under the hunger wage. The hunger limit announced by Türk-İş trade union confederation reached 8,864 TL. The poverty line for a family of four climbed to 28,875 TL. In other words, millions of workers, their families and children are hungry. They cannot get enough food and heat. Access to health and education has become more difficult for them. They cannot pay the rent and are trying to survive by working harder but constantly borrowing.

The Turkish lira is constantly depreciating and the fever of high inflation does not subside. The announced economic growth figures should not mislead anyone because it is a one-sided growth. While the labouring classes are getting poorer and poorer, the factory owners and financial monopolies are breaking profit records.

It will be recalled that in the first 6 months of last year, workers protested in about 120 factories and workplaces, demanding additional wage increases. As a result of these protests, which erupted mainly in non-unionised and precarious workplaces where couriers and textile workers work, bosses were forced to update wages.

As we entered 2023, large factories and basic enterprises also started to appear in the course of the labour movement. TUPRAS workers joined the workers at Ford Otosan, who were protesting for an additional raise, by slowing down work. Economic data compiled by Evrensel clearly shows why Ford Otosan and TÜPRAŞ workers are revolting. As a matter of fact, Ford Otosan increased its net profit by 119 per cent in the first 9 months of 2022 compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 10 billion 332 million 171 thousand liras. While Ford Otosan made a net profit of 504 thousand 697 liras per worker in 9 months, it has become a profit of 56 thousand 77 liras per worker on a monthly basis. The profit rates of TÜPRAŞ, owned by Koç Holding, are similar. In the first 9 months of 2022, TÜPRAŞ increased its net profit 10 times compared to the same period of the previous year. While TÜPRAŞ made a net profit of 23 billion 500 million liras, it made a net profit of 3 million 900 thousand liras per worker in 9 months. On a monthly basis, the profit per worker reached 433 thousand 163 liras! In other words, while the monopolies multiply their profits by 10 times, they avoid sharing even 1 of them with the workers. In addition, in the face of high inflation, workers' wages are not standing still, they are constantly losing value. What should workers do if not revolt against this system of exploitation?

In the same period, the strikes of Bekaert and Schneider Energy workers were banned. The aim was again to suppress wage increases and possible gains and to intimidate the working class. But this time the workers did not recognise the strike ban and returned to their workplaces with wage increases thanks to the actual struggle. In this process, non-unionised workers working in informal areas also took action. In Adana, the workers of the shoe upper industry, in Antep the foundry workers, and in Diyarbakır the construction and bakery workers rose up demanding an additional wage increase. As the class gap and absolute impoverishment deepen, new ones will join today's workers' actions. Unrest is growing in the metal, petrochemical and many other industries. The Collective Labour Agreement’s that have been concluded have already been crushed and those that will be concluded are under great threat. All signs point to a wave coming from the bottom and the growth of the class struggle.

In the face of this wave, the AKP-MHP Alliance, which implements the capitalist programme, is trying to take gas by claiming 'election economy'. On the other hand, it is preparing for the construction of a fascist regime based on strike bans, pressure, threats and force. The Nation Alliance, which acts with the bourgeois opposition programme, wants to turn this into an electoral success by taking the anger accumulated in the masses behind its back. What they put forward as a solution consists of "international investment" to be brought to Turkey and new liberal policies. The "Common Policies Consensus Text" published on monday sings the same song to the labourers. However, international capital will not come to Turkey unless there is cheaper labour and more exploitation. The history of bourgeois liberalism in packaging is quite old. 

The working class and labourers of Turkey have to both get rid of the one-man rule and come out on the stage of history with their own independent programme of struggle against the new bitter prescriptions. The forces in the Labour and Freedom Alliance must lean on this wave and challenge the rule of capital by making the demands of workers and labourers the motor force of their own platform of struggle. The programme of the Labour and Freedom Alliance, which puts forward the slogan "Economy for the people", is a strong basis in this respect.

The antidote to capitalism cannot be right or "left" populist bourgeois liberal programmes. The course of world capitalism also shows this. The following data clearly show that the contradiction is inherent in capitalism as a whole, not just in Turkey or in one-man rule:

According to Oxfam International, $63 of every $100 earned globally goes to the richest 1 per cent of the world population. The remaining $37 is shared among the bottom 99 per cent of the poor!

In addition to the Oxfam report, the Foundation for the Evaluation of Women's Labour (KEDV) also points to another striking fact. According to this report, the wealth of 13 billionaires in Turkey is more than the total wealth of 44 million people. The wealth of the richest 1 per cent in Turkey is 1.5 times more than the wealth of 90 per cent of the poorest people!

This hell of exploitation, which they present as "efficiency", is no longer "sustainable" for workers and labourers. Hence the roar of protests, work stoppages, strikes and revolts. Both in our country and in other countries. The wave coming from the bottom is the wave that will beat the walls of capitalism. Turkey's exit from the current situation depends, among other things, on the growth and success of this wave.