TURKEY Revolutionary socialists participate in elections SEVEN YEARS after the reactionary military coup of September 12, 1980, and four years after the first general elections held in October 1983 under the supervision of the generals, Turkey went to the polls once again to elect 450 representatives to the National Assembly at the end of November.
Overall, election results confirmed the continuing hegemony of conservative and reactionary parties in political life. The ruling Motherland Party of prime minister Turgut Özal gained a plurality of the votes (36%) and, thanks to the new election code specifically designed to create a "stable majority", a much higher proportion of seats (65%). Together, five right-wing parties polled 65% of total votes.1
Despite competition by a similar party led by former prime minister Bulent Ecevit, the Social Democratic Populist Party led by Erdal Inönü managed to keep its position of second biggest party by receiving 25% of the ballot. An important aspect of these elections was the participation of socialist candidates in elections for the first time since 1979. YAVUZ KARPAT
Foremost among these politicians were Sulyeman Demirel (now leader of the second largest right-wing party), Ecevit (now leading the weaker of the two so-called "social-democratic" parties), Erbakan (leader of Islamic fundamentalism) and Türkes (fascist leader). Due to this immediate political background, the elections were first and foremost a battle between this "old guard" of bourgeois politicians and their rivals of more recent vintage, primarily Özal and Inönü.
Battle between "old" and
"new" politicians
This battle ended with a clear victory for the "new" politicians, Özal and Inönü together polling 61%. The gravity of the defeat suffered by Demirel and Ecevit can be gauged by comparing their combined 28% in 1987 with their combined share of the votes throughout the whole of the 1970s, a share that fluctuated between 70%-80%. It would not be an exaggeration to conclude that this was the beginning of the end for these two. Already, immediately after the elections Ecevit (who received 9% of the vote but no seats due to the electoral system) declared his withdrawal from active political life — although this may well turn out to be a new addition to his list of endless tactical manoeuvrings. Demirel, whose party obtained 19%, is likely to remain in limbo for some time to come, but his prospects do not look particularly bright either.
The possible disappearance of these two politicians from political life will certainly be no loss to the working masses, since Demirel's right-wing populist demagogy thinly veils a political line essentially identical to that of Ozal, and Ecevit has recently combined adherence to so-called "free market" liberalism with a thoroughgoing anti-communism in the ideological sphere.
It seems, therefore, that with these elections Turkey has moved closer to the twoparty system long desired by the main forc es of the bourgeoisie. The two pillars of this system are likely to be Özal's Motherland Party (ANAP), embodying a type of "third world Thatcherism", and Inönü's Social Democratic People's Party (SHP) which, notwithstanding its name, is closer in structure, programme and political orientation to the North American Democratic Party or the Brazilian PMDB than to western European social democracy. The SHP, a renovated heir to the People's Republican Party (CHP), poses as a party of hope to the workers, peasants, youth, urban poor and intellectuals, all of whom suffer - in different ways — the combined consequences of three years of military dictatorship and the rule of reactionary capitalist politics under ANAP. 1. See also "Özal profits from election results and the opposition's weakness" by Fuat Orçun, /V 133, January 25, 1988. 2. See "Reconciliation between the generals and the politicians" by Fuat Orçun, /V 124, July 13, 1987.
S INCE 1980, Turkey has been go-
Wing through a phase of capitalist reaction coupled with a fierce program of economic austerity inspired by the neo-liberal monetarism of the
Friedman school. Two decades of powerful class struggles and a profound economic crisis that set in in 1977 culminated in the austerity programme of January 24, 1980, and the military coup in September the same year.
The junta that held the country under its sway for three years waged a powerful assault on the working class movement, disbanding the only class-struggle oriented workers' federation (DISK), driving underground all left-wing movements, jailing and torturing hundreds of thousands of socialist and working-class militants. This was accompanied by a radical restructuring of political and trade-union legislation, involving severe limitations on formerly existing rights and liberties. All of this, coupled with permanent austerity policies, 12 led to a drastic fall in the living standards of workers and poor peasants alike. International Viewpoint • February 8, 1988
The return to a regime with a civilian façade was initiated by the general elections of October 1983, a grotesque affair in which only three of the newly-established parties proving acceptable to the generals in power were allowed to run. Turgut Özal, former deputy prime minister under the military government, won the elections and ruled the country until November this year, when he was re-elected to office.
The first term of the civilian government was politically dominated by the debate over the hides of former bourgeois politicians who were banned from politics for ten years by the military via an article written into the new constitution of 1982.2 This internal struggle of bourgeois political forces culminated in a referendum held in September this year over returning the right to these bourgeois politicians to participate fully in politics. The votes were split almost equally between "yes" and "no", but by an extremely slight margin (50.2% to 49.8%), those who voted in favour of the restitution of the political rights of former politicians obtained the majority.
IMAYIS
DISK
Despite its rhetoric, however, it is clear that the SHP is simply another bourgeois party that offers the ruling classes a different form of class domination based on a political project closely linked to Turkey's integration into imperialist Europe. Worse still is its adaptation to the repressive political regime that is the legacy of the military dictatorship. In spite of these characteristics, a majority of the Turkish left, primarily but not exclusively Stalinist groups, has insisted on tail-ending this party. The most recent move in this direction was the wholesale support extended to the SHP by a majority of the left during the November elections. It is in this context that the exact significance of the independent electoral campaign of a section of the left can be correctly understood.
It has now become a well-established tradition for broad sectors of the Turkish left to give full electoral support to the reformist and modernizing wing of the Turkish bourgeois political forces. Since 1973, in election after election, very diverse tendencies and groups within the left, which otherwise differed tremendously over almost every other issue, concurred in supporting first the CHP and later the SHP. (The major exception were those groups that persisted in the tactics of boycotting the elections no matter what concrete conditions pertained.)
A socialist electoral platform
It was only during the partial elections in 1979 that several groups departed from this practice, each of them putting forward their own candidates. It was thus a major step forward when six different socialist periodicals (Gelenek, ilk Adim, Isçiler ve Toplum, Yeni Asama, Yeni Öncü and Zemin) and their supporters joined forces in an electoral platform. They presented candidates on an independent slate in four districts in Istanbul and one in Ankara. Given the extremely adverse political climate of the period, this was a considerable achievement from the point of view of raising the
TURKEY independent class banner of socialism.
The platform brought together several wings of the well-established family of centrist organizations within the Turkish left and Trotskyists of different tendencies. (There was also a small group of Stalinist origin, which at present defends extremely contradictory positions with respect to questions of history and theory.) Moreover, two of the five candidates were Trotskyists.
This composition has a two-fold significance. On the one hand, it confirms a more and more palpable tendency, that of the rapid increase of the prestige of Trotskyism within the Turkish left — gone are the days when an overwhelming majority of organizations still characterized Trotskyism as "counter revolutionary" and so on. On the other hand, it is a further indication of the profound process of recomposition and possible regroupment on the Turkish left, opening up the possibility of the formation of a mass revolutionary workers' party in the medium term.
### Common election manifesto
The electoral campaign was built on a common electoral manifesto (which the authorities hastened to seize), a joint electoral bulletin of which several issues were published and distributed, several panels in Istanbul and Ankara and numerous meetings organized in working-class neighbourhoods. Its major axes were the defence of class independence from bourgeois political forces and the propagation of socialist ideas. The election manifesto heavily attacked the repressive political regime, denounced the policies of the government, exposed the demagogy of the so-called "social-democratic" parties and put forward a list of transitional demands.
It included, in a carefully couched legal form, unequivocal support for the right to self-determination for the oppressed Kurdish people. A major innovation for the Turkish left was the manifesto's advocacy of an independent women's liberation movement. Although the independent socialist candidates did not receive a large number of votes, the campaign was lively and received much attention and considerable support within working-class neighbourhoods.
Both the general situation in the country and recent developments within the left point to the opening up of a new period after the elections. At the general level, the most important factor will be the evolution of the economy. Within the last two years, Özal had considerably relaxed his policy of monetarist austerity, primarily for the purpose of gaining electoral support (first in the partial elections of 1986 and later for the November elections this year). He is now certain to tighten the screws once again and to impose a new round of capitalist discipline on the economy, further at- 13 tacking the standard of living of the February 8, 1988 • International Viewpoint
TURKEY working masses.
With international recession looming on the horizon, there will be increasing tension between the government and the working class in the years ahead. Already, the extensive price rises of the products of state enterprises immediately after the elections have provoked widespread discontent among the working population. The two opposition parties with seats in the parliament (those of Inönü and Demirel) will certainly try to capitalize on the discontent of the masses, but will in all probability fail to dominate the mass movement totally. A major factor will be the overwhelming majority captured by Ozal in parliament thanks to the new electoral system. This system has certainly been able to cope with the endemic "problem" of coalition governments (a nightmare for the bourgeoisie after the experience of the 1970s), but only to replace it by a tension between the parliamentary majority and social forces outside the parliament. We can thus predict a definite rise in extra-parliamentary forms of struggle in the near future.
New developments on the left
On the left scene, the major development has been the return to Turkey in the pre-election period of two Stalinist leaders formerly in exile, with the stated purpose of forming a new CP on a legal basis, to be christened the Unified Communist Party of Turkey ("unified", since it will be the product of a fusion of two different Stalinist parties).3
Although the two leaders are now in jail (and have reportedly been subjected to extensive torture by the political police), the possibility that the Ozal government will give them the green light in the not so distant future is not ruled out, the main reason being Western European pressure on the Turkish government in the wake of Turkey's application for full membership in the European Community. Should this happen, it will mean a tremendous change for the Turkish political scene. A renovated unified and legalized CP(faithfully aping the ideas and manners of Gorbachev) is likely to become a major pole of attraction for left-leaning workers, many confused socialist cadres and complacent leftish intellectuals.
Both the struggles ahead and the probable formation of a legal CP impose formidable tasks on revolutionary Marxists. The process of recomposition unfolding within the ranks of the Turkish left opens up the possibility of the eventual formation of a mass revolutionary workers' party. The role of Trotskyists will be decisive in the formation of such a revolutionary pole in the Turkish workers' movement. 14 3. In its 65 years of existence the Turkish Communist Party has never been legalized. International Viewpoint• February 8, 1988
Central demands raised by the independent socialist candidates • On political and democratic rights:
Abolish all political prohibitions. Shut down the state security courts. Unconditional general amnesty. Abolish the death penalty, used as a means of taking revenge. Stop torture - call all torturers to account. All political police files to be opened. Abolish and destroy the Illegal police files. End the practice of security investigations. • On workers rights:
For all laws relating to working life to be changed. For workers representatives to participate in actual fact during the process of preparation of these new laws. Abolish all obstacles restricting contract and strike rights. Ban lockouts. For the right of the unemployed and apprenticed to organize in unions. Abolish state control over trade unions. Workers control of trade unions. Trade unions must be held accountable only to their members. End the practice of discrimination preventing women and young workers from becoming leaders and representatives in workplaces and trade unions. For contract negotiations to be held in open meetings which can be followed by all workers. Remove all trade union officials, trainers and advisors who are collaborationist and supporters of the capitalists. • Against the high cost of living, unemployment and inequality:
All wages to be automatically adjusted for inflation every three months. Authority for determining the official rate of inflation to be given to workers' representatives. Freeze prices - stop inflation-tanning payments of the foreign debt and military spending. End sackings Workers control of the state-owned economic enterprises (KITS). For existing jobs to be shared by reducing working hours without a cut in wages. End mass firings. Job security and unemployment insurance. End the intensive labour trick aimed at closing the deficit in SSK funds, which are being handed over the capitalists behind workers' backs. Workers' control of the SSK. For the right of workers to inspect production and halt it when necessary. Open the account books. Freeze the prices of building sites, housing and rents. For empty land and houses to be made available to those who need them. No separate minimum wage tor agricultural workers. End the application of wage differentials for apprentices, young and women workers. For the right to leave of absence after giving birth, not only for women but for fathers as well. Men have children too — for day-care in all workplaces, even where there is not a single woman worker. • An end to every type of discrimination:
An end to all official, unofficial and customary practice of discrimination resulting from differences of sex, sexual preference, language, religious faith, race, national identity and age, Children, apprentices and young people must have the right to resistance, shelter and protection against beating and patriarchal oppression. Every type of official or unofficial practice of approaching homosexuals as if they were "lil" must be stopped. • Sexist oppression of women exists simply on account of their being women. End sexual harassment of women in the workplace. Abolish the requirements for husband's approval on the issues of working, travel and abortion. Precedence to be given to women in education, job-finding and fields of work. The right to safe, free and easily obtainable birth control and abortion. The right to immediate divorce in cases of battering - battering must become an issue for public trial. • For the right of nations to self-determination: End national oppression, chauvinism and assimilation policies. A nation oppressing others cannot be free! *