In a statement to celebrate International Workers’ Day, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign said: “Let us remember that when workers in Chicago peacefully assembled in Chicago in May 1886 to demand an eight-hour working day they were attacked by police and there ensued the Haymarket massacre. May Day symbolises and demonstrates the importance of struggle by the working masses for social advance. What has been won everywhere has had to be fought for and defended.”

Peace in Kurdistan added: “Capitalist Modernity and the rule of private monopolies is proving to be unsustainable for humanity and the environment we live in. It is sustained by attacking nature, with disastrous consequences for humanity and the other species. Its lifeblood is sectarianism and ethnic division, it thrives on patriarchy and authoritarian reaction. May Day announces the coming end of subjugation. Generations follow each other and pledge to build a better tomorrow. There is no other choice.”

Peace in Kurdistan continued: “Today, in Turkey we see the grotesque form of reaction taken by the AKP-MHP government led by President Erdogan. It promotes war on the Kurds, wherever they may be; it terrorises its opponents, tries to silence any critics and fills its prisons with any who display the slightest nobility of spirit. It is the opposite of democracy and unity – it is the rule of fascism and it casts its shadow across the Middle East. Whatever desperate measures the rulers of Turkey take, they cannot defeat the risen Kurdish people, who are set on their destiny to democracy and freedom. Four decades of unbroken struggle is testimony to the determination which will win in Kurdistan and the Middle East.  Long live the struggle for freedom! Long live international solidarity! Long live May Day!”