by IWU-FI
On the morning of 19 March, the opposition mayor of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB), Ekrem İmamoğl, and the mayors of the municipalities of Şişli and Beylikdüzü, along with over 100 others, were arrested in a clear demonstration of the repressive policy that destroys the most democratic rights, such as the right to elect and be elected. Following the electoral defeat of the autocrat and repressor Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his People’s Alliance in the recent elections, the government is preparing a political attack against its main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and against all political organisations, including those of the working class. They use their addicted judicial system to imprison their opponents and, as has happened, thousands of people who mobilise against persecution, for their rights, and against the government. The Erdoğan regime seeks to eliminate freedom of assembly and demonstration, also restricting the right of working people to information. In this context, many journalists have been arrested.
Since 19 March, massive mobilisations have swept the streets of Turkey. Erdoğan’s policies face widespread rejection in city squares across the country. The mobilisations challenge the regime and demand democratic freedoms. They also express the enormous frustrations caused by the worsening economic crisis and the loss of quality of life for most of the population. Despite the harsh repression, which includes police, clubs, rubber bullets, tear gas, and the use of accusations of terrorism to persecute and imprison activists, protesters return day after day to new and massive street actions where hundreds of thousands of people confront Erdoğan.
The International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI), stands in solidarity with the struggles of workers, youth, women, LGBTI+ people, the Kurdish people, and oppressed groups, and denounce the government’s escalating repression. We demand the immediate release of all those detained, the dismissal of all judicial charges, and their acquittal. Together with our section in Turkey, the Workers’ Democracy Party (IDP), we demand that the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türk-İş), the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers of Turkey (DISK), and the Confederation of Public Employees’ Unions (KESK) go beyond formal declarations and call for a general strike. To do so, we must follow and multiply by a thousand the example of the Education Union, Eğitim-Sen, which held a one-day strike to the academic boycott promoted by university students, along with the emergence of Boycott Committees, which are the basis for sustaining the struggle and mobilisation.
This regime does not guarantee our democratic rights! The mobilisations must grow with the general strike until an actual break with Erdoğan’s autocratic and repressive regime is achieved.
No to the usurpation of the right to elect and be elected, nor to the attack on freedom of assembly and demonstration!
Enough of the repression, violence, arrests, and imprisonment! Immediate end to the arrests! Immediate release of political prisoners!
Immediate end to the interventions in municipalities, universities, and throughout the country!
International solidarity with the struggle and mobilisation of democratic, economic, and social rights against Erdoğan’s repression!
International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI)
