Yeni Demokrasi: Let us be part of the resistance and not part of the solidarity

We hereby share a translation we have received of an article by Yeni Demokrasi.

We are in a process in which we are forced to win against imperialism and Zionism. The Palestinian National Resistance Front, which has destroyed the theories of the revisionists and reformists in the name of peace, democracy, disarmament, reconciliation and normalisation with the Al-Aqsa flood, is marking a new stage in its long struggle against occupation, colonialism and imperialism, which began with the British occupation and lasted more than 100 years. The Palestinian people have died for their national liberation and continue this struggle at great sacrifice. After a year, it is clear that the Zionists and imperialists have not succeeded in dividing the national front: children, the elderly, women, young people and men continue to fight shoulder to shoulder for national liberation and a free Palestine. Their struggle is now a revolutionary reality that strengthens the anti-imperialist struggle. The unjust war waged by Zionism against the Palestinian people is no exception. In class societies, states resort to tyranny to supress the masses, maintain the production of surplus value and increase their share of the cake. While the states are pouring oil, valuable minerals, cheap labour, geographical and political superiority into their own coffers, they are bringing death, destruction and exploitation to the peoples. The rights of the oppressed nations, classes and genders do not matter. This practice, which reveals the true face of imperialism and world reaction in the Middle East, has massacred more than 40,000 people in Palestine alone. The number of journalists, doctors, academics, teachers and humanitarian aid workers massacred in Palestine is higher than the number of people killed in 20 years of the Vietnam War or in 8 years of the Iraq War. A promising front against this unjust war is the united struggle of the peoples of the world, which is rising up on all continents of the earth and exposing the reactionary character of imperialism. Dozens of practices show that when it comes to the class interests of the bourgeoisie, all war crimes, including genocide, are legitimate. All treaties and conventions on human rights are instruments that can be set aside by the institutions that claim to be the ‘guarantors’ of these treaties for the interests of the imperialists. The right to freedom of expression, assembly and organisation, which the Western imperialist states pride themselves on, is dismissed as a series of democratic rights that can easily be violated when it comes to showing solidarity with the Palestinian people in resistance.

The current situation and the increasingly loud voices show that the crisis of capitalism is deepening; the bourgeoisie’s manipulation and propaganda against the peoples are losing their effects day by day. Although the imperialists and their collaborators are supporting the Zionist reaction of Israel with all the means at their disposal, the honourable resistance of the Palestinian people and the united struggle of the peoples who are joining this resistance show that a new revolutionary wave is brewing. We are at a historic turning point, and historic turning points require historic interventions. We have no time to lose; we need systematic and broad coalitions of forces that can lead this rising progressive wave. History has shown time and again that if we as communists are unable to develop the means and methods to recognise our subjective role and make the right interventions at this moment of historical rupture, it will be the imperialists and their lackeys who will benefit from this rupture.

In this sense, it is important to look back at the practices of the day and of the past year, to evaluate them and to remember the links that have been created in the international struggle. To remember is to rescue the past, and to rescue the past is to rebuild the present.

In the face of the occupiers’ unjust war, many ideologically and politically fragmented discussions, organisations, unification efforts and unification practices against this war have emerged in our country. In the face of this brutal aggression, which is massacring the peoples of the region, various discussions were held, which were inadequate in the midst of quickly organised actions, assemblies and solidarity calls. Today, however, we consider it a revolutionary duty to take stock of the past year.

A consciousness that does not unite in the face of the attacks that have massacred the Palestinian and Lebanese people, that does not try to unite, that does not reflect on common ground and alliances, cannot constitute revolutionary consciousness. At the same time, our practices must not be limited to the words ‘side by side’, ‘solidarity’ and ‘common ground’. We can clearly state that the Palestinian cause is no longer an object of nostalgia and melancholy that we want to keep alive at all costs, but a direct part and front of the anti-imperialist class struggle. For us, Palestine is not a matter of conscience, but a historical responsibility that the class struggle has placed on our shoulders.

In the past year, many communities, platforms and democratic mass organisations have carried out actions in support of the Palestinian cause. It is clear that the Turkish state is a strategic ally of Israel and that this alliance is exacerbating the Palestinian problem by strengthening the occupying state. The Palestinian question is not only a foreign policy issue for Turkey, but also a direct element of domestic policy. While the action of the Islamic movements, whose existence is also conditioned by the ruling classes, aims to conceal this alliance and to reproduce the discourses about it over and over again, while the criminals are hidden by reducing the call for a boycott to a consumer boycott and individualising it, in which main areas have the left socialist forces carried out which actions?

The process shows that a Palestinian activism that only orients itself to the agenda and political tendencies of the respective institutions is not enough, but that we need a constant mobility that brings the Palestinian national liberation struggle to the current agenda of the masses. This mobility and perspective is the way to effective support that goes beyond the needs of the day. We must take a stand, in accordance with the principle of proletarian internationalism, against the wars of occupation and division waged by the imperialist powers among themselves and by their collaborators, and we must express why the Palestinian struggle is directly linked to the struggle of billions of poor and oppressed workers and labourers who long for a world worth living in. As the Anti-Imperialist League emphasises, we must take on the indispensable task of building an anti-imperialist world front that unites the broad masses of the people under the leadership of the proletariat against imperialism and all forms of reaction, strongly supports people’s wars and national liberation struggles, and serves the struggles of the peoples around the world.

First, a brief review of last year’s actions: Following the intensification of the attacks, BDS Turkey called for a boycott of products and companies originating from or associated with Israel, and actions were carried out with various specific aims in mind, to break off all commercial, diplomatic, military, academic and cultural relations with the occupying state. Zorlu Holding, which produces energy and spare parts for military ammunition for Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories; Socar, which is a de facto partner in the genocide through its oil production; MÜSİAD member companies that export oil, iron and steel, food, military clothing, ammunition and products for the war industry; Marmara University, which is directly linked to the academy of occupation and produces information for Zionist Israel; the Kürecik base, the US consulate, the port of Ambarlı, the municipal authorities of Adana, Izmir and Antalya, and the municipal authorities of Edirne, Marmaris and Kadıköy, which have signed partnership protocols directly with the occupying state.

The calls for mass participation, the leaflet and stand actions and the announcements continue. Although the joint actions of the Palestine Action Committee, which was founded after the call of BDS Turkey to the central organisation of actions, have made an important contribution to the current Palestinian activism, we consider it important to discuss the shortcomings of this work in order to develop it further and go a step further. The activities carried out to put the Palestinian national liberation struggle on the agenda of the masses remained mainly in the urban centres and could only be taken to the neighbourhoods where the working masses live to a very limited extent. The fact that the discussions about Hamas, which intensified after the Al-Aqsa flood, were along the same lines as the propaganda of the bourgeois Western media and the occupiers, and that the legitimacy of the Palestinian national liberation struggle and the resistance during that struggle was called into question, made it difficult to engage with the resistance as a whole. This went so far that it was felt in these discourses/slogans throughout the entire process. At the point we have reached today, it can be said that this struggle has been won to a large extent. Although slogans such as ‘Freedom for Palestine, Boycott Israel’, ‘Murderer Israel, collaborator AKP’ and slogans directed against the corporations and the political power are still being used, it can be said that the concentration of protest sites on the city centres, the consulate of the occupying Israel, the Zorlu and Socar companies, but we can say that is insufficient. It is clear that the expansion of the protests to the working-class neighbourhoods and the organisation of actions that directly harm capital will expand the masses’ participation in the Palestinian struggle.

We see the tasks that the urgency of the process we are going through imposes on us: the Palestinian national liberation struggle must be popularised, its boundaries broadened and the continuity of its activities ensured. The course of the actions organised during this process shows that after a year the Palestinian resistance is still on the agenda of the masses, no matter how strong the propaganda of the occupation and the bourgeois media is. Those who thought that people’s commitment to the struggle would fade over time and that they could deceive people with false claims have been mistaken. The growing mass of protests and the timeliness of the discussions prove this fallacy. It can be said that an important point is the practice of committee work in Focus Palestine, and our task now is to develop this practice. It is obvious that the mass mobilisations so far have become a routine for the masses, gathering to make a press statement and then dispersing. This is also shown by the actions with other agendas, which have been limited to this for several years. It is high time to continue this practice. Today, the attacks are still intense and the resistance is strong and current. The intifada is highly topical. While the intensified attacks in Palestine and Lebanon continue at this rate, we must wage the national liberation struggles against imperialism and its collaborators in a revolutionary way, we must organise a genuine and consistent anti-imperialist struggle against the imperialist system, which is the source of the problem, and the collaborating political power in our country, by addressing all social problems and contradictions in the context of the class struggle.

Solidarity in principle and action is not possible without putting an end to the economic, social, political, ideological, cultural and military domination of the Zionists in the Turkish state and breaking the means of domination and power of this reaction. It is not enough to say that we stand by the Palestinian people, it is not enough to take part in solidarity actions, we must attack, expose and destroy the entire presence of the occupying state in our country. Palestine is not far away for us and never has been, but the enemy is not far away either. The enemy is in the Ministry of Trade, the enemy is in the NATO bases, the enemy is in Marmara University, the enemy is at a Beşiktaş football match, the enemy is giving concerts at the Zorlu Performing Arts Centre. The way to advance the Palestinian struggle is to expel the occupier from the areas where we live, to isolate it and to shout its crimes from the rooftops. We must wage an active and open struggle in our countries against all regional and international propagandists and collaborators of Israeli Zionism. We must attack the sources that feed the occupation, massacres and genocide and give them credibility and legitimacy.

As communists and Marxist-Leninists-Maoists, we reiterate the call of the Anti-Imperialist League: All revolutionary, anti-imperialist and anti-occupation forces must support the Palestinian national liberation struggle and be part of the resistance, whatever the cost.