The 10th Congress of the Labour Party was marked by the struggle experiences shared by the workers in resistance, the demand for peace against the war policies in the world and the region and the call for a united struggle against the one-man rule. Özak workers in resistance said, "We saw how strong we are in the resistance."
Labour Party (EMEP) convened its 10th Congress with the slogan "Barbarism will be defeated, the working class will win, the peoples will win". The congress was held at the Kocatepe Cultural Centre in Ankara and the hall was packed.
While the Labour Youth marched to the hall with the slogans "Youth will come, socialism will come", the march of Özak Workers, who are in resistance in Antep, to the hall was greeted with the slogans "Victory will be for the resisting labourer". Throughout the congress, slogans such as "Work, bread, freedom", "Yusuf, Hüseyin, Deniz, our struggle will continue", "The working class is strong with its party" were frequently chanted.
Delivering the opening speech of the congress, EMEP Chairperson Selma Gürkan said that the world is going through a period in which peoples are drowning in wars and tears. Gürkan stated that there are wars of division among the imperialists, especially for the possession of energy resources and controlling the energy routes, and emphasised that the barbarity and hypocrisy of imperialism were once again seen in Russia's attacks on Ukraine and Israel's attacks on Palestine. Gürkan said, "We will continue our struggle for the end of imperialist interventions and the end of the presence of foreign powers in the region."
Stating that 12 soldiers lost their lives in two days as part of the operation organised by the Turkish Armed Forces in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Gürkan said, "We know what is being targeted with these policies. We reject these policies that send the sons of the people to death across or inside the border."
Explaining that the economic programme of the government aims at intensive labour exploitation and disorganisation, Gürkan said, "This is the programme of putting the entire burden of taxation on the working people, looting the country's underground and above-ground resources to a handful of monopolies, and opening the historical and cultural assets of the cities to plunder."
EMEP Istanbul MP İskender Bayhan said, "The speech made by our fellow workers gave us much more courage. We are completing 7 months in the Parliament. If the working class does not raise its head for struggle, we cannot do what we say. If we have been so effective, it is thanks to you. If we carry the excitement in this hall and this unity to the factories and labourer neighbourhoods, if we organise and come together there, we will be close to our goal."
Speaking on behalf of the Labour Youth, Zehra Özöcal said, "The one-man administration condemns the youth to be included in its own youth plan and to swear allegiance to religious reaction. Turkey's youth is looking for ways to come together. Özak workers illuminate our path. We learn from them to believe in their own power, to grow solidarity, the power and will of organised struggle from the working class."
In the elections held, the new chair of the Labour Party became Seyit Aslan. He was the former chair of the DİSK-affiliated Gıda-İş Trade Union.
Stating that they are continuing their journey with the responsibility of wage struggles all over Turkey, Aslan made the following statements in his speech. "We are in a period of deepening contradictions between imperialists and aggravating conditions of exploitation. The planned attacks of the one-man period are increasing against all social segments, especially the working class. The OVP and the 12th development plan and the 2024 budget continue as part of the attacks on workers and labourers. The one man, who became president again with pressure and fraud in the elections, continues to re-establish his reactionary policies. The only power that will repel the attacks on all social forces is the working class. Our party calls on all workers and labourers to struggle together in the ranks of our party against capital and its one-man rule, against imperialist aggression. Our party will benefit from the experience of the international labour movement and the accumulation of the communist movement. Long live the revolution, long live socialism."
Yıldız Bağcı spoke on behalf of Özak Tekstil workers who took the stage together: "We work for minimum wage, while there is a union, we work 20-hour shifts. They don't show us the contract and stall us. When we joined BİRTEK-SEN, we were threatened. One of our fellow workers was dismissed. The governor, the mufti, the gendarmerie were against us. They saw us as criminals. We realised how strong we were during the resistance. Protests were organised for us all over the world. Sevda Karaca supported us from the first day, she was always with us. İskender Bayhan was sprayed with water with us. Those who are not with us today should not knock on our door at election time tomorrow."
Ali Zorkuşçu, Akınal Synthetic Worker Ali Zorkuşçu, who lost his limbs in a work accident, stated that the bosses did not keep their promises of treatment and said that they are fighting not only for themselves but for all workers who have had work accidents. Zorkuşçu said, "We will not allow the bosses to disregard the lives of workers for more profit. When everyone closed their eyes to what we were going through, the Labour Party raised our voice. I am now a member of the Labour Party."
Şireci Textile Worker Ahmet Genç said: "We stopped work to protest against the low wages and the raise. We saw the gendarmerie, riot police and TOMAs in front of us. AKP, CHP, Good Party MPs gave us a negative voice. Mayor Fatma Şahin praised Ahmet Şireci's actions. The Good Party deputy labelled us terrorists. How can you be a terrorist by demanding more wages? BİRTEK-SEN General President Mehmet Türkmen was with us. If 6 enterprises gathered for the first time, we owe it to him. Labour Party MP Sevda Karaca was with us. DEM Party MPs supported us on social media. We won in Şireci, and I am sure they will achieve their goal in Özak."
PEKİNTAŞ WORKER: TELLING IS NOT ENOUGH, LET'S UNITE
Pekintaş Worker Tansel Aydın said, "I am speaking as a resister in the 410-day struggle who retired after 28 years of work. The oppressed and exploited cannot unite. We were able to resist 15 people. It's not enough to talk about it, let's unite. A spider web for the boss against injustices, a double chain for the worker. Thanks to our two deputies, we broke the double chain."
Citrus Producer Nejdet Sökmen said that exporters won despite their efforts and said, "We could not remove citrus fruits, they are rotting. The trader has also given up and the labourers do not collect them. Cotton, beet, cherry, apple, sugar beet producers are all in a difficult situation. There is no agricultural policy. We are not organised, so we are at the mercy of the merchants."
KESK Co-President Şükran Kablan Yeşil reacted to the policies aimed at usurping trade union rights and freedoms and said, "We will continue our struggle against the budget of capital, the Palace and the war in the fields and workplaces. We promise to fight for the unity of labour and freedom of peoples against the one-man regime."
"In the midst of the current crisis of capitalism and the struggles of workers and peoples, we rely, as always, on the active participation of the Labour Party to advance the development of the tasks of the CIPOML," said the message sent by the Coordinating Committee of the International Conference of Marxist Leninist Parties and Organisations (CIPOML). On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the CIPOML, we have decided to organise an international event in Europe for 2024, for which we expect a special mobilisation of all our member parties and organisations". The message stated that CIPOML calls on the workers of all countries to unite and organise to fight against capitalism and overthrow the rule of capital, without pinning their hopes on any bourgeois or imperialist party or party, "We call on the oppressed peoples and nations of the world to raise their struggle for social and national liberation. Long live the 10th Congress of EMEP! Long live the internationalism of the proletariat!" Hamma Hammami, General Secretary of the Tunisian Workers' Party, Pablo Miranda, General Secretary of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador (PCMLE), Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Labour of the Dominican Republic (PCT), Communist Party of Mexico (Marxist-Leninist), The Building Organisation of the Communist Workers' Party of Germany, Gjon Bruchi, International Relations Officer of the Communist Party of Albania, Central Committee of the Workers' Communist Party of France, Communist Platform/Italy, Revolusjon/Norway and the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile also greeted the congress with their messages.
DEM Party Deputy Group Deputy Chairperson Meral Danış Beştaş, who attended the congress, said: "Those who close the roads to the democratic solution of the Kurdish question, which is one of the most fundamental pillars of democracy, pave the way for deaths. Turkish-Kurdish youth continue to die. We will continue to shout our slogans of peace with the slogan 'No to war'."
CHP Deputy Chairperson Gamze Taşçıer said, "We are political parties that see life from the left but have different ideologies. At this point, it is necessary to be together and to enlarge this struggle. There is a local election to be held. We could not make gains in the general election, but we must unite in the struggle so that this darkness does not grow."
İsmail Hakkı Tombul, Member of the Board of Presidents of the LEFT Party, said: "The political power is dragging us into darkness day by day. Revolutionaries, labourers and the oppressed will not surrender to political Islamist fascism. We can defeat this darkness together."
Revolutionary Party President Elif Torun Öneren said, "We believe in revolution and socialism. We are the people who defend the united front spirit in the fields and streets. We promise that we will resist until victory."
ESP Co-Chair Özlem Gümüştaş said "We all know how to resist and it is our united struggle that brings us together" and emphasised the need for an independent united politics of the working class and peoples that cannot be condemned to the rulers.
EHP Spokesperson Özge Akman said, "The basis of these problems is the capitalist exploitation system and we will need more workers' resistances and struggles until we eliminate it."
SYKP Co-Chair Cavit Uğur said, "You never lose in any struggle. Even if you fail to realise your goals, you gain something to the spirit of this society. For this reason, Özak workers have already won."
Green Left Party Lütfü Körpınar said, "It is time to unite our forces against AKP and MHP fascism." Drawing attention to the increasing scale of ecological destruction, Körpınar called for increasing the struggle against the massacre of nature.
Fatih Polat
İsmail Gökhan Bayram
Nuray Sancar
Yusuf Karadaş