[fse-esf] 1st of May; victory of the working class in Turkey

[Dave Stockton]

Warmest congratulations to the courageous revolutionary workers of Turkey in
their battle to take Taksim Square.  We should also remember the the Iranian
May Day demonstrations in Tehran and Sanandaj, which were also subjected to
repression arrests etc. Also we should solidarise with  workers and
immigrants rights protesters in the USA who have revived May Day as a focus
for mass struggles. It is noteworthy that in the "home of democracy" police
fired tear gas at May Day demonstraters Los Angeles.

Such struggles need more than an "open space" but a coordinating centre for
solidarity and action. They point the way to a new  workers International to
fight global capitalism and imperialism.

Dave Stockton, 
League for the Fifth International










> 1st of May; victory of the working class in Turkey
> www.atilim.org
> 
> ENGLISH (01.05.2007)- The heart of the 1st of May Worker's Day celebrations
> in Turkey was the Taksim Square of Istanbul.
> 
> After the massacre of the 1977 1st of May, Taksim Square had been a
> prohibited area for worker and popular demonstrations. Although it is open
> to all sorts of celebrations (including Police Week, national fests, New
> Year celebrations, reactionary meetings etc.) the square remained closed to
> labourer's demonstrations. The square is located in the centre of the city.
> 
> This year the proggressive labour unions, chambers and mass organizations,
> revolutionary, socialist and proggressive political organizations and
> parties; totally 60 social and political organizations got the decision to
> celebrate the Mayday at Taksim. Taksim had been a symbol of 1st of May since
> the 1977 celebrations, in which more thar 500 thousand labourers gathered,
> and a state-organized massacre took 34 martyrs. This year, is the 30th
> anniversary of this massacre, and the killers had not been found and tried
> yet. It is named as „1st of May Square‰ among the labourers.
> 
> The Governorate of Istanbul, as a part of the state policy of prohibiting
> Taksim Square, applied harsh measures against the gathering. Nearly all the
> public transportation was prohibited with Governor's decision, and this
> created a total traffic chaos in Istanbul. Millions of people could not go
> to their works or schools, spent hours on the highways. This meant a general
> stopping of work and education life in the city. The people cursed on the
> Governer Muammer Guler for turning Istanbul into an open air prison.
> 
> All the people who came to the gathering place (Dolmabahce) were severely
> beaten and detained, in the first place the members of the Organizing
> Committee. Despite the open state terror, the people showed the courage to
> gather again and again after being dispersed. Totally 580 people were
> detained.
> 
> At the end, the waves of labourer masses, with their steadfastness and
> determined will, managed to gather at Taksim Square, and made the
> commemoration of the martyrs of 1977. Thousands of people, breaking the
> blockade of the police, managed to free Taksim Square from the chains of
> state terror. Groups of demonstrators, numbering thousands, entered the
> square again and again, despite the attacks of the police with battons and
> teargas.
> 
> All around Istanbul turned into a resistance field, because the busses
> carrying the people to the meeting were stopped by the police. Thousands of
> workers cut the main highway of Istanbul (at three points) and began
> walking. In labourer districts Okmeydani, Gulsuyu and 1st of May, thousands
> of people clashed with the police. 1st of May turned into a Istanbul-wide
> general resistance.
> 
> In the end of the day, it was the workers who won, and the state was the
> loser of the day. The public opinion turned furious against the Governor
> because of his crazy prohibition of public transport. The demand for his
> resign gained large public support.
> 
> 1st of May was also celebrated in many towns such as Izmır, Ankara,
> Adana, Bursa, Eskisehir. In all the 1st of May events, the attack in
> Istanbul was protested and the Governor was called to resign.
> 
> The conquest of Taksim had been tried three times in 1989, 1990, 1991 and
> for the first time it is managed. Regarding the heavy repression conditions
> under which Turkey is living, and especially the hard conditions that arose
> with the memorandum of the military, the importance of this success becomes
> greater. Also the 1st of May had been a third channel of political stand,
> against the two bourgeois sectors; the government and the army. The
> labourers have opened their way with their will.
> 
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