The Co-Presidency of the KCK Executive Council released a statement marking May 1st, International Workers’ Day.

The KCK statement on Wednesday reads as follows:

“On the occasion of May 1, the day of unity, struggle, and solidarity, we congratulate all oppressed classes, laborers, peoples, women, and all those who struggle for equality, freedom, and democracy, especially the working class. At the same time, we respectfully and gratefully commemorate all the martyrs of May 1 and all the martyrs of the struggle for democracy and freedom on their behalf. They have a special place in the struggle of the working class against the capitalist system of exploitation.

The struggle of the working class has an important place in the struggle against capitalist modernity, which exploits society, exploits its labor, confiscates its values, plunders nature with the greed for maximum profit, and makes it uninhabitable. Today, the struggle for socialism, which is associated with May 1 and the struggle of the working class, has gained a universal character and has become a struggle embraced by all those who struggle for equality, freedom, and democracy against capitalist modernity. Socialism and the socialist struggle, which expresses the utopia of a classless, exploitation-free life against the exploitative, male-dominated life of capitalist modernity, continue to maintain their importance for the individual, society, and humanity. Today, as it was yesterday, socialism is the most fundamental value and way of salvation for humanity. The ideals put forward by socialism against the colonialist-imperialist world of capitalist modernity, which is increasing day by day and threatens human life as well as nature, are our most fundamental values that we absolutely cannot give up.

Realizing the inherent values of socialism constitutes the essence of our struggle. Rêber Apo [Leader Abdullah Öcalan] revealed this fact by stating, “Being human means insisting on socialism” and realizing it. The Kurdish freedom movement developed on the basis of these values and continues to develop on the basis of these values today. On the realization of socialism, Rêber Apo is extremely insistent, ambitious, and strives for it. In his ‘Call for Peace and Democratic Society’, Rêber Apo has once again demonstrated this attitude. His call is a historic step towards the realization of socialism today. Because democratic society historically refers to the realization of the struggle of the working class and the struggle of the peoples, women, and all oppressed groups against the exploitative life of capitalist modernity. From this point of view, it is very important for the development of the struggle for socialism to make an effort to understand this historical call developed by Rêber Apo and to work for the development of the democratic society. As a movement, we state that we are in this attitude and that we are experiencing the change and transformation that this requires.

Once again, we celebrate the meaningful May 1, which is a day of unity, struggle, and solidarity, and we call for the development of unity and solidarity and to raise the struggle on this basis. We call on our patriotic people to embrace and celebrate May 1 in solidarity with workers, laborers, women, and the oppressed on the basis of the ‘Call for Peace and Democratic Society’. Their struggle will set an end to the exploitative world of capitalist modernity and realize a classless and exploitation-free life based on women’s liberation, social ecology, and radical democracy."