SoL columnist Volkan Algan wrote on the consequences of the economic crisis in Turkey, affecting the working class people, while the bourgeois "acts as the owner of this system." Meanwhile, Algan reminds, the politicians try to keep the system as it is, in an absurd competition to find poorer families to sit on a floor table at Ramadan, aiming to give a more "people-friendly" picture.
Stories of workers' "pride": A class that reminds itself
A young worker burnt himself to death recently, and he lost his life after staying in the intensive care unit for four days. He felt degraded when the municipality rebuffed his claim for a job and turned him down. He was unemployed for quite a long time. He ended his story with a can of gasoline he bought with the money he lent from his brother.
Speaking of pride, we need to remember the worker Devrim from Gebze, who committed suicide following a depression because he couldn't buy a pair of pants to his son.
The pile of the stories of workers' "pride" is increasing.
What happened to his son did not come to the fore as the stories of beaten cats and dogs, the mother of this young worker burning himself from Antep cried out. During those days, a screenwriter of a popular TV series advised that the young people to "start immediately doing what you dream of. Put the rule of 10 thousand hours to practice and become an expert in your field." This statement received an immediate reaction. People who speak so arrogantly while the country is in such a mess deserve a couple of words, of course.
And yet, there is nothing surprising about this. People are free to love or hate whoever they want ever since the concept of class is forgotten in politics. Anybody can form a mental or political alliance with whoever they want. And then they get into a fit of rage when they are disappointed.
There is a reality of class, though. This reality appears at every turn of our lives, in every case. Everybody reacts according to their class.
There is not a single case of a bourgeois who burnt themselves or chose to end their lives, because of despair, not even in an utmost hopelessness. These acts are unique to the workers; it is their bitter language. The bourgeois acts as the owner of the social system, and knows that this is real, even in cases of utter despair; this is their class instinct. And the worker knows that they are nothing when they are not able to survive with their labor. Then, all that is left to them is either disappearing from the face of the earth or to struggle.
As the negative consequences of the economic crisis on the workers increase day by day, both the political power and the opposition inure the people to the situation. The issue of crisis is not on the agenda as it was before the March 31 elections. As getting at the wheels of the social order is their first priority, it is what that gets on the agenda, and all they discuss is the contradictions of the political power. The opposition also forgets discussing some issues. They don't talk about the economic condition, and they push the situation of the workers into the background. Everything is getting worse, though.
Eating on a floor table during the Ramadan became popular, much to the chance of the political atmosphere sliding increasingly to the rightwing politics. The politicians compete with one another to find a poorer family to eat on the floor. On top of that, they also give religion-based statements.
There is a reason behind all these. All of the bourgeois politicians are struggling to keep the social system as it is. They are after getting at the wheels of the social system, rather than being consistent or defending the rights of the workers. The means to this end was the economy before March 31 elections, and now it is eating on the floor at Ramadan.
Liberals and the opposition keep saying that the anti-democratic rule of political power is what ruined the economy. They say that the market has lost their trust in this country. Urgent structural reform is a must, they say, adding that the most important reform is the foundation of a democratic rule and getting rid of the one-man rule so as to ensure the functioning of the institutions. In a contradictory way, they say that the best example of this is the first years of the AKP rule.
They add that the AKP maintains construction-based and rentier economy. In fact, they themselves don't know what they are talking about, giving contradictory statements. If the AKP maintained a rentier economy, then how could the first years of its rule be an example for a reform? If the same model was in effect, what are you discussing?
There is a lot to discuss, of course. But it is not the issue. The issue is that there is a big manipulation to the benefit of the capitalist class.
The liberal economists consider capitalism as a coherent system, and thus, they do not perceive that the crises of capitalism generate from the system itself. Capitalism without a crisis was never seen within the history, so it cannot also be possible today.
The politicians become the scapegoats during the crises so as to justify capitalism itself. It is as if another way was possible but it failed because of the incompetence of the politicians. This is what more or less they say at the moment. The politicians are to be blamed, but the real problem is the swamp itself.
That is why they degrade the AKP at the moment even though they were praising its policies as the miracle of the economy just a couple of years ago. They are trying to justify the social system and maintain it with new political figures with the discourse on democratization, institutionalization and etc.
The political opposition also uses this discourse. Everybody talks about being inclusive, abstaining from polarisation and being more democratic. They are trying to welcome the new period with these arguments.
Turkey has entered one another crossroads. There are multiple scenarios. There is no alternative other than getting the concept of the class to the agenda in a strong way.
