Turkey in revolt

From the Turkish revolutionary socialist group Marksist Tutum

Resistance against the planned destruction of Gezi Park — whose trees are to be felled to make way for a shopping centre — has become a mass movement.

Park workers, labourers, students, artists and intellectuals have been opposing the construction machines and resisting the police. On 1 May, workers and socialists were also victims of furious police attacks when they demonstrated in Taksim Square.

Construction machines stood ready to cut down the park’s trees, but demonstrators, joined by [pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party] deputy Sirri Sureyya Onder, assembled to oppose them. Overnight, the protesters set up tents in the park, under police attack. But on the order of the Governor they were doused with tear gas, blasted with water cannons and their tents were destroyed.

This struggle carried on for 24 hours after the taking of Gezi Park, and the protest camp was re-established. Members of the community of all ages and from different social backgrounds came to oppose the plundering of the camp. The AKP government ordered the police to go on the offensive from 5am on 31 May: an order which the police obeyed with great enthusiasm, showing no regard for human life.

In this attack, three people suffered broken bones and 100 were hospitalised by gas. From this point on, every street gathering was met with brutality from the police. Gezi Park was forcibly cleared and a planned press conference was postponed.

Health workers organised in the left-wing union federation DISK came to make a great display of solidarity for the Gezi Park protestors. They were welcomed with applause, and the general secretary of DISK addressed the crowd.

Despite the AKP’s boasts about their “respect for democracy”, the police continued to attack, with teargas-laced water and shooting gas canisters directly into the crowd. An activist, Suresh, was hit on the shoulder and hospitalised as a result. An Egyptian protester, Lavna Allani, was shot in the head with a teargas canister and was taken to hospital in a critical condition with a broken skull.

Many people took shelter from the gas attacks in places like the metro. Their eyes red with tears, children fled the fighting into the underground system. Gas canisters were fired down after them, to punish protesters and commuters alike for their rebellion against the AKP.

Mass demonstrations took place at lunchtimes, as people went to Gezi Park in defiance of the police. Meanwhile, Istanbul Sixth Administrative Court declared a temporary suspension of the construction of the proposed shopping centre. However, the government has not given up on the redevelopment project — and the police have not given up on repression.

After 19 hours of actions on the streets, thousands of people came together to take the demonstration to Taksim Square, where they were met by the police. In spite of continuing repression, the demonstrations continued to grow by the minute.

While tens of thousands converged on Taksim, thousands more demonstrated in other towns around the country: Antep Izmir, Adana, Ankara, Hopa, Zonguldak and elsewhere, marching against the despoliation of the park.
The bourgeoisie, under the political leadership of the AKP government and the various municipal administrations, wants to lay waste to Istanbul with shopping centre and skyscraper redevelopments, destroying woodlands, parks and green spaces. Many cities have seen remorseless pillage going under the euphemistic name of “urban renewal”.

The philistine greed of capital values neither culture nor nature. But there is something that the capitalists and their AKP servants have forgotten: the power of the working masses!

Sooner or later, the AKP will have to reckon with the workers’ movement, and capitalism will come up against the gravediggers it has created for itself. There is no escape!

• The KESK and DISK union federations have called general strikes in solidarity with the protests.
• LabourStart is running a solidarity appeal in coordination with DISK.
• Marksist Tutum