"The working class, its role and
its mission today.
The tasks and concrete experiences of the Communist Party in the working class
and the trade union."
Brussels, 16-18 May 2008
www.icsbrussels.org , ics@icsbrussels.org
Communist movement and the unity of working class
Communist Party of Turkey (TKP)
Dear comrades,
Whenever we decide to talk about class struggle, we need to consider two main dimensions of the subject; one of them is related with theoretical concepts, where the other is about more practical issues. In the climax of my speech, I will try to keep the proper equilibrium of these two dimensions.
First of all, I would like to mention that, in line with Marx’s 160 years old evaluation, working class has a universal position by means of class struggle, as a result of its critical role in the production. This evaluation still keeps its validity.
On the other hand, while dealing with the position of working class in today’s world, we should also consider the present situation of capitalism. It is true that, the capitalist restoration process in the socialist countries and anti-revolutionary attacks resulted with a rollback in the class struggle.
The weakening of the class struggle had similar symptoms, all around the world. First indication was the destruction of the organized structure of the class. The economical attack was another dimension and along with the increased unemployment rates, it became a real threat for the class. Finally, the working class faced with a political-ideological-cultural surround that implemented by bourgeois. All these can be mentioned as the common characteristics of the rollback in working class movement.
However, in this scene, the political actors, which had responsibility on making policies in the name of working class, had also an important role that we can not exclude. This is why we should focus on and discuss the attitude of the communist movement and its impact on the working class movement. The withdrawal in the socialist-communist movement in the world had a deep impact on the working class movement. Thus, we have to accept the fact that, the left forces in general lost its initiative, in "labor-capital opposition" to the end of the 80s. The wave of anti-communism after the collapse of socialism resulted with liberal tendencies in the left. It was a pressure from the capitalist centers on the communist movement for many years. Liberal ideologies generating the themas like "civil society", "liberties", "anti-globalisation" are used to wipe out the organized structure of class organizations and movements.
On the other hand, the problem became simpler. What we have to do is to reestablish the relation between the working class and communist movement in a revolutionary perspective/manner. At this point, we have to find solutions for some concrete problems, very rapidly.
The first step is reconsolidating the class. During the last decades, capitalist power’s main strategy is to split the class and create sections within the working class. A class divided into pieces, is more vulnerable to the attacks of the capitalist class. The communist movement has to manage to organize and activate the class as a whole, for the unity of the class movement.
Secondly, worker organizations need to be reconsidered. It is clear that trade unions played significant roles in the creation of the class movement during the history. However, it is also true that trade unions had impact on the rollback of the class movement. When the political and economical pressure by the bourgeois class increased, trade unions had worked in a cooperation with capitalist class that impairs the class struggle. Although its incapabilities may exist, one can say that trade unions are still the strongest organization in the world holding 164 millions of members. However we again have to accept that trade unions with few exceptions in the world are not leading their members for struggle, but immobilize them.
The role of communists to change the situation in the trade unions is a matter of struggle and it is also clear that the way to revert the conditions in the trade unions is not as simple as we defined by words. We shouldn't underestimate the power of capitalist hegemony that can very easily manipulate the balances in the trade unions. We can very easily extend the list of difficulties in the present situation in the case of trade unions. It is clear that those difficulties make our task more and more important. As we are communist parties, we can think about trade unions as a suitable media for political struggle. However, it is more realistic and true that trade unions themselves turned to be an area of a political fight rather than a easy and suitable tool for communists.
Based on that fact, communists may introduce a necessity to develop a basis and a strategy to revert the current conditions of the class. To create an effective class movement with its reflections and impact on society, the struggle must have a revolutionary character and should keep its class orientation.
Now, all mentioned here, are the urgent necessities of the working class to obtain a firm and strong position in the social struggle. It is clear that fulfilling this aim depends on us: how concrete and explicit description we can make.
The initiative of the Communist Party of Turkey in the recent years to establish the Patriotic Front can be evaluated as a new and critical step for the working class movement.
Patriotic Front, has an aim to organize the people, who are suffering from imperialist-capitalist policies in Turkey. Patriotic Front was founded with the principles of anti-imperialism and patriotism which has crucial importance in the political fight against bourgeois class in Turkey.
Patriotic Front was organized in different levels of the people. Students, workers, intellectuals, academicians and etc. Worker organizations in different sectors under this body has a crucial importance for our current discussion. Worker organizations of the Patriotic Front, have members politically and ideologically motivated against the current policies of the power. Militants of the worker organizations also take part in the trade unions where there exist a strong fight against liberal ideologies.
Based on the recent experiences,
Creating a mass opposition against imperialist-capitalist policies of the capitalist class,
Establishing a permanent base for a class movement in that opposition. is indispensable.
Communist Party of Turkey, by considering these necessities, evaluated its organization in the working class under the body of Patriotic Front.
Our evaluation is based on strengthening and intensifying the role of Patriotic Front worker organizations which are organized in different sectors of the class and also different levels of the trade unions.
In that sense, there is a necessity to create a center that has the mission to generate political and organizational strategies based on the current conditions of the working class and coordinate the worker organizations of the Patriotic Front.
Upon the decision taken last year, for the establishment of a structure named with Patriotic Front-Worker Union will work as a center of coordination of the sectoral worker organizations of the Patriotic Front.
Our aim is to reinforce the class organization in the body of Patriotic Front and to establish a base for the necessities of the class movement. It is also crucial to establish a struggle in the different levels of the class, in order to fulfill the aim of the unity of the class movement.
Reinforcement of our own strategies in the working class, would enable us how we can struggle against the liberal ideologies in trade unions.
Based on the experiences of the class movement in our territory, we should reemphasize some critical points which are crucial for political clarity of the action.
Prior condition for the working class to gain a power against imperialism and capitalism and to be an actor of the social movement at the international level, is the existence and domination of a revolutionary working class parties at the national level.
Indispensability and urgency of socialism and the actuality of revolution is the essence of our analytical and political approach towards international trends in class movements.
All the tools in the hands of the capitalist class which are used to counteract and to encompass the class movement like ETUC and similar trade union structures, are the direct targets of our fight.
It is necessary to reveal the class identity of European Union, and create a revolutionary and patriotic opposition by working class against EU.
Coordination among movements in between the countries which have clear opposition against imperialist and capitalist policies in the countries is an obvious necessity of the class movement.
Comrades,
During 1st of May of this year, most of you may have witnessed from the media, the events took place in Istanbul, the capital city of labor of Turkey. Government was in a very aggressive behavior not to let workers to be united. Police forces used extreme amount of chemical bombs to disunite the workers and put out of the Taksim square. You may also witnessed the resolution of the workers and the Patriotic Front and the Communist Party of Turkey, with thousands of its members managed to get into the Taksim square under very harsh conditions. This is the aggression of the bourgeois showed against the working class. This is the proof of the historical conflict still exists. Capitalist class showed that they can be in a brutal fight to wipe out the working class, even interrupting its own decisions based on so called democracy. But as you know, from now on, we can not stand on the point of discussing such anti-democratic measures and how to struggle against them. We should go beyond and very carefully thinking to aim at gathering hundred thousands of workers together.
When we look from our side, side of the communists, there is a clear picture. 1st of May 2008 showed that the unity of the working class is missing. This is the reality that we have to face. We shouldn't escape from the reality, on the contrary we should face it and very quickly deal with it.
Now, we should take the advantage of being true, confident and quick.
Communist Party of Turkey, now has to develop and strengthen the organizational power which will unite the workers against capitalist hegemony.
Comradely greetings
Özgür Genç