Turkey: Strikers Fight State Terror

ANKARA, October 10 — “Workers will revenge the murderers!” Autoworkers declared from their factory in Izmir. Students and workers across Turkey have called for a two-day general strike and boycott to protest the bombing deaths of over 100 workers and students at an anti-war rally in Ankara on October 10, 2015.  The protestors are denouncing the government for the murders of the protestors. Students and faculty shut down major universities, both public and private. The streets of almost all cities are filled with marches and protests.
On the day of the attack, thousands came to Ankara from throughout Turkey in response to a call to “Stand Up to War; Demand Peace Now!” The rally was called by a variety of unions, including, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DISK), the Confederation of Public Sector Workers (KESK), the national Chamber of Architects and Engineers, and the Medical Association.  
As people assembled, two bombs went off, killing over 100 people of all ages. Those killed included teachers, students, nurses, lawyers, construction workers, and at least fourteen railroad workers, members of the United Transportation Workers (BTS), who had come to protest with their children.  
The slaughtered include students in the liberal Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (the acronym in Turkish is HDP), and Kurdish workers. Racism in Turkey has meant that many low-wage construction jobs go to the Kurdish men. This rally was a multi-ethnic gathering of workers and students from around Turkey protesting President Erdogan’s decision to join with the U.S. imperialist’s attack on Syria’s workers and to return to war against the Kurdish regions of Turkey itself.
Workers Reject Imperialist Blame Game
After the blasts, Ankara police attacked protestors with clubs and tear gas. Ambulances could not initially get through, leading many more to die. The government laid blame on the protesters themselves and on the small capitalist-terrorist Islamic State (ISIS). But most of the working class in Turkey this insult to injury and instead expose the long history of violent attacks by the Turkish government against protesters. They realize both ISIS and the Turkish government operate to terrorize the working class.
In addition, the U.S. press repeatedly misrepresents the Ankara protest and those who were killed.  This is just part of the traditional racist effort to divide and conquer. The New York Times described the rally as a rally of Kurdish people, and has only interviewed the leaders of the HDP. The HDP has significant political clout, and garnered enough votes in the last election to prevent president Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP in Turkish) party from achieving a majority in parliament.  
Turkey is an important NATO member for the U.S. imperialists. According to Chuck Hagel, the past U.S. Secretary of “Defense” (read: war), Turkey, like Israel (see page 3) is one of the Middle East’s military counterweights to Russia and China in the coming age of global war. The mass demonstrations across Turkey today show how workers have no stake in either side of any imperialist rivalry!
Strike Builds Workers’ Unity vs. Imperialism
Municipal workers in Kadiköy (the Asian section of Istanbul) have joined the strike. Doctors and hospital workers are protesting, with a large group rallying outside an Istanbul hospital and then walking in the funeral procession for a worker killed in the Ankara terrorist attack.  Lawyers vowed not to appear in court during the general strike.  In Izmir, lawyers protested in front of a courthouse with a banner calling on all to prevent fascism from passing through the doors; lawyers staged a sit-in at Istanbul’s Çağlayan courthouse, the largest courthouse in Europe.
Others are protesting in their factories, including those in other auto parts plants; in an Istanbul factory making cooling units for buses and trucks; in an a Epla refrigerator factory in the Corlu European Free Trade Zone; in a machine parts plant in Mersin; and at Istanbul’s airport.
Working Class Revenge Means Building PLP
As the general strike ends, workers and students will need to decide what to do next.  The anti-Erdogan politicians call on workers to seek justice by voting against Erdogan in the upcoming November 1 election. Many protesters call for “peace.” But the autoworkers in Izmir have a better idea. They said, only the working class could revenge the murderers of our brothers and sisters. Capitalism can never be peaceful because it’s an inherently violent system.
The working class worldwide is suffering from the death and destruction brought by capitalism in its imperialist stage.  Inter-imperialist rivalries are behind the aerial bombings of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.  These same rivalries fuel terrorist attacks such as that in Ankara. We will end these attacks by smashing the capitalism with communist revolution. PLP will replace the dictatorship of the international capitalists—whether Turkish, U.S., Russian, or Chinese—with the dictatorship of a united international working class, and we invite our working class sisters and brothers fighting in Turkey to join us!