The struggle against fascism in Turkey needs economic, political and social answers, as well as the solidarity of all revolutionary-democratic forces, says the new alliance "United Struggle Forces".
Under the name "United Struggle Forces" (tr. Birleşik Mücadele Güçleri), several left-wing and socialist movements in Kurdistan and Turkey have joined together to form a new alliance to oppose the Islamofascist regime in Ankara in an organized way.
The declaration of the alliance, which includes the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Revolutionary Party (DP), Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), United Forces Platform (MBP), Federation of Socialist Councils (SMF) and Partizan, was made in Istanbul on Thursday. An HDP rally originally planned to announce the merger had been violently dispersed by police, with 65 people arrested. A group of deputies, including Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, Nuran Imir, Dilan Dirayet Taşdemir, Kemal Bülbül, Dilşat Canbaz Kaya, Musa Piroğlu and Saliha Aydemir, as well as members of various groups under the umbrella of the new movement then evaded to the SMF headquarters. Nuran Imir read out the declaration in Kurdish, while her faction colleague Dilşat Canbaz Kaya read it out in Turkish.
"We are at a point in Kurdistan and Turkey that offers us significant political and social developments. While the economic, political and social crisis of imperialist capitalism deepens with each passing day, the attacks of the fascist alliance of AKP, MHP and Ergenekon continue to rage. The conditions show that neither an understanding limited to the borders drawn by fascism, nor corresponding proposals for solutions can be a recipe for liberation. At this threshold, history calls the left, socialist, revolutionary, democratic and patriotic forces to duty. We hereby declare that we will answer this call and extend the struggle side by side.
The working people and other members of the proletariat, the women, the youth and the peoples of Kurdistan and Turkey have been persistently continuing their march along the line of resistance for a long time. Almost all groups of society, from members of the legal profession and engineering to health workers and intellectuals to the urban poor and village laborers, have become part of this militant tradition and are raising their objections to the fascist government.
From all corners of the country, the people of the villages are raising their voices against the exploitation of nature through mines, road construction and thermal power plants. People are taking to the barricades to protect habitats against all kinds of capitalist plunder. Women are forming a powerful rampart against the misogynistic, patriarchal, reactionary and fascist practices of the regime, leading a path-breaking resistance that inspires all the oppressed. Youth are igniting the spark of resistance in the universities and in the streets.
Whether working, unemployed or studying, the youth are rebelling against the current order and the futurelessness it offers. The trusteeship regime has deprived the Kurdish people of their active and passive right to vote and is reaching a new level today with the trustee at Boğaziçi University. The resistance led by the students is developing into a great social explosion with its slogans 'We will not bow down' and 'We will not look down'.
In factories and in the streets, in fields and on campuses, in short, in all areas of life, pioneers resist and organize their struggles. It is not possible to move from this fragmented reality of struggle, whose basis is the mass of society's anger, to powerful collaboration. The revolutionary-democratic potential of the resistance and the anger of the people do not merge smoothly.
As revolutionary, left, socialist, democratic and patriotic forces of Turkey and Kurdistan, we have to meet the responsibility that the current developments offer us. For this reason, we see it as our duty to let all objections and resistances flow in a common stream.
Building on this responsibility, we will lead our resistance shoulder to shoulder in all areas of life. Our slogan is: 'Let's unite against fascism, let's organize, let's strengthen the struggle'. By determining the forms of struggle and responding creatively to priority goals and demands, we want to take common steps for a march against fascism that encompasses our lives and work, and expand the struggle. We are determined to strengthen the basis of common resistance together with all revolutionary democratic forces in Turkey, especially the HDK and HDP, side by side in solidarity."
