Tens of thousands join May 1 celebrations in Turkey

Working class of Turkey took to the streets across the country on International Workers’ Day of May 1, including Istanbul, the capital Ankara, and Izmir
Wednesday, 01 May 2019 21:29

Tens of thousands of workers and activists poured into streets across Turkey to mark the Labor Day on May 1, 2019. Thousands participated in the rallies in different cities with the Communist Party of Turkey.

As the people joined the massive gatherings for May 1 events in Turkey’s Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, similar events took place across the country, including Turkey’s eastern province of Dersim, the first communist provincial municipality of the country.

LABOR DAY IN ISTANBUL

Tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul for the May 1 rally on Wednesday. People who attended the rally with TKP, shouting slogans, "The people united will never be defeated!" and "If there is the reign of money, people have the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP)!"

The concerts in the rally area were canceled due to the loss of five workers as a result of a traffic accident on the road to May 1 meeting in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şanlıurfa.

The rally ended with the anthems of May 1 and the International.

TKP CALLS ON PEOPLE TO BE ORGANIZED

Speaking at the rally, Zehra Güner Karaoğlu read the message prepared by the Central Committee of the TKP, and stated: "While the capitalist order is running into debt, more and more workers began to incline their ears to those saying ‘This social order must change!’"

"Workers, young people and women who are volunteer for socialism! We are calling on you to organize in the Communist Party of Turkey. Long live 1st of May! Long live the workers’ day of unity, struggle and solidarity!", the TKP stated in its message.

"THIS COUNTRY DOES NOT BELONG TO FASCISTS AND BIGOTS"

Speaking at the rally in Istanbul, Aydemir Güler said: "This country is not a country to escape; this country does not belong to fascists and bigots. This country is the land of laborers. We will change this country, we will make it worth living in."

Stating that the TKP has doubled its votes in the recent local elections but it is not enough because the votes of the communists must spread all over the country, Güler noted: "TKP is not proud of the votes taken in the elections; it is proud of people organized under the TKP. We arise! Let everyone know what this march is. There will be no such social reconciliation. We will not compromise with those who kill women, and those who sell the assets of the country. This march is the march of the revolution!"

 

LABOR DAY IN THE CAPITAL CITY OF ANKARA

Thousands of workers and activists came together in Tandoğan Square in Ankara for May 1 celebrations.

As the primary demands of the workers focused on the current economic crisis and the neoliberal attacks of the Turkish government to severance pay, the TKP, which participated in the meeting with a massive cortege, called on the laborers to join the party.

Speaking on behalf of the TKP, Erhan Nalçacı underlined that the TKP will be the home of Turkey’s working class against the economic crisis and anti-labor attacks of the ruling AKP. Nalçacı stated: "We salute the workers and laborers of Venezuela who stopped another imperialist attack on the day of the international solidarity of the working class."

Reminding that rhetoric of "reconciliation" has come to the agenda of the bourgeois order immediately after the local elections held on March 31, Nalçacı said: "Before the elections, we said we are not in the same boat with the capitalists. Now, those who want to burden the results of the elections to the workers’ shoulders call for social reconciliation. Their sky is completely different than ours. Laborers will not pay the price for this crisis."

"The Communist Party of Turkey will fight against all bourgeois political parties and capitalists. TKP shows that the party is the pioneer and the voice of the working class by being in solidarity with all workers’ movement in every factory across the country. We are going to further expand the TKP, and thus, we invite all the members of Turkey’s working class to join the pioneer political party of the workers and laborers. Long live the TKP! Long live socialism and revolution!" he added.

LABOR DAY IN TURKEY’S WESTERN CITY IZMIR

Workers and activists in Turkey’s western province of Izmir gathered in Gündoğdu Square for the International Workers’ Day.

With its mass participation in the May 1 events in Turkey’s third most populated city, the communists called on laborers to be organized under the roof of the TKP.

"TKP is the hope of this country, and it continues to raise the struggle for socialism by fighting for the revolutionary transformation of this social order," Senem Doruk İnam said in her speech in the rally.

Stating that the TKP continues its struggle for an independent, secular, and socialist Turkey without capitalist exploitation of working classes, İnam called on people to carry out this struggle together with TKP.

Apart from Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, the International Workers’ Day of May 1 was celebrated across Turkey with the massive participation of thousands of workers such as Turkey’s first communist provincial municipality Dersim, Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir, the southern province of Antalya, the western province of Çanakkale, the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.