AROUND THE WORLD not been acted upon by the authorities. a separate party outside Solidarity
POLITICAL
PRISONERS
IN TURKEY
The Komal Yayinevi publishing house in
Turkey became known since 1974 for offences under the same articles of the Turkish penal code, which forbid the publishing of any propaganda deemed to be seeking to bring about the 'domination of a social class over other social classes'.
He was the editor of a short-lived political weekly Kivilcim (The Spark) first published in 1974 with the aim of establishing a 'proletarian party' in Turkey.
Kucukaydin was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment, reduced on appeal to years and nine months. Further sentences have been imposed for trying to escape, insulting a judge, and sending a telegram to the military authorities protesting against executions.
for publishing works on Kurdish culture, the history of Kurdistan, and social questions.
On January 18, the No 1 Military BALUKA MUST BE FREED Court in Istanbul issued its verdict on the case of Recep Marasli, managing editor of this publishing house.
In 1978 Komal published the study 'The Kurds and the law' in the book Kurdistan 1914-1946. For this he was sentenced to twelve years in total. Also in 1978 he published 'An Open Letter to His Excellency Pasha Mustafa Kemal, President of the Turkish Republic and Victor in the Holy War'. For this he was sentenced last July to another four years in prison.
Marasli was charged under various sections of the Turkish penal code for offences including propaganda designed to reduce partially or completely destroy civic rights or national feelings or undermine them by racist considerations. That is--by raising the question of a separate national identity of the Kurdish people. Further he was charged with insulting and belittling the Turkish nation, the parlia ment, and the armed forces; inciting the public to commit crimes; and blackening the name of Mustafa Kemal.
Marasli stated in his defence, 'this case is an argument that there is no freedom of thought....By wanting to impose harsh penalties for mentioning the existence of the Kurdish people in Turkey and for defending the right of this people to a life worthy of human beings and to self-determination, the military prosecutor and the expert in this case show themselves to be the instruments of a racist, colonialist policy?
Marasli explained that he had wanted to publish these books 'with the aim of countering the distortion of information, the obscuring of scientific facts, and the silencing of political debates, all of which are tyrannical abuses; and with the aim of enlightening public opinion and stimulating discussion.'
He also raised a protest against the prison conditions in which he had been held, the tortures which he had witnessed.
His testimony ended with a damning indictment of the denial of human rights in Turkey.
Demir Kucukaydin has been in prison 26
This article by Oliver MacDonald, editor of Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, appeared in Socialist Challenge February 25, 1983. Over the last week news has arrived from Poland that Edmund Baluka is gravely ill in prison after four weeks on hunger strike. His case demands urgent action from the entire left.
He 1970-71 that brought down the Gomulka regime and laid the foundations for the tradition of independent working class action that re-emerged in August 1980 in the strike movement that gave birth to Solidarity.
Forced into exile in the early 1970s, Baluka lived for a number of years in Britain, working in a Manchester fac на не на tory. In the late 1970s he moved to Paris and, with the help of Marxists there, he produced a bulletin champ. ioning workers' rights and socialist ideas.
In the Spring of 1981 he returned illegally to Poland - the demand of 1980 that he be allowed to return had
He regained his job in the Warski shipyard, his old work-place, and was very active in the working class movement there until the military coup of 13 December. - He was then interned for many months.
While all the other internees in Wierzchowo camp were eventually released, Baluka was not. Instead he was arrested in the camp and held in the notorious Szczecin Kaszubska prison in complete isolation. He remains there to this day.
Baluka is one of the very few orig. inal internees to be held in jail under arrest. The other two groups are the seven top leaders of Solidarity and the five prominent KOR activists who played an influential role in Solidarity.
Baluka himself was not a leader of Solidarity, but the police have a special reason for singling him out. He formed a socialist party in Szczecin and proclaimed the need for the workers to organise their struggles around a socialist programme. The great majority of the workers did not see the value of creating
and
Solidarity itself did not formally adnere to a socialist programme.
But the regime saw the long-term threat that Baluka posed and also noted
RELEASE NICKY KELLY enormous personal the authority he still commanded amongst the Szczecin workers. This universal respect was enhanced by his courageous and intransigent leadership amongst the internees. Nicky Kelly is in Portlaoise prison in the fellow accused, in order to clear his name. Baluka also is the only one of the top leaders of the 1970-71 movement to remain prominent in the working class movement. For all these reasons, the police want to break him and smear him with lies and slanders in the media through a show-trial.
The projected trial of the 7 Solidarity leaders and 5 KOR activists must be a key focus of protests by the labour movement in Britain. Baluka must be given equal prominence on the left, all the more so because he will gain little publicity in the mass media here in comparison with the other two cases.
Edmund Baluka was a founding sponsor of Labour Focus Europe and educated those of us who knew him on the real conditions of the working in the late 1970s, to bring together the different strands of socialist opinion here in a common effort to defend workers' rights in Eastern Europe. That unity is needed now in his defence. Protest letters and telegrams calling for his release should be sent to: The Governor, Areszt Sledczy, U1. Kaszubska,
South of Ireland serving a twelve-year sentence for his alleged involvement in the Sallins Mail Train Robbery in 1976.
Kelly has always claimed that he is innocent. He was convicted on the basis of a confession, and no other evidence. When he was brought to court medical evidence was given of extensive bruising and swelling on his body. One of the two doctors that gave this evidence was the medical officer at Mountjoy gaol. Kelly stated that he had signed his statement to stop the beatings he received while in
The police claimed that his statement was voluntary, and been 'friendly and co-operative' during
Kelly's two co-defendants were acquitted on appeal when the Appeal Court threw out their statements as inadmiss-
When Kelly made his final appeal in
Dr. Rona Fields of Belle Vue Hospital New York, and Dr. Robert Daly gave evidence that he was from anxiety neurosis. had gone to the United States while on bail awaiting sentencing after his first
He returned to Ireland voluntarily in June 1980 after the acquittal of his
He was immediately arrested and sent to Portlaoise gaol. There he spent two years waiting, in the midst of legal wrangles, until his appeal was heard. It was disallowed on a legal technicality, despite the fact that the Provisional IRA in 1979 publicly stated that they had carried out the robbery, and Nicky Kelly and his co-defendants were in-
Nicky Kelly is now very ill, continuing to suffer the after effects of the brutal treatment he received before his trial.
At the time of his trial the main Irish newspaper, the Irish Times, published evidence that there was a 'heavy gang' of detectives within the Gardai. and other allegations pressured the
However, its implications have never been fully implemented.
Nicky Kelly's case has been taken up by a number of human rights and political organisations. Amnesty International have expressed great concern at his treatment while in custody, to the present and previous Irish governments. Council for Civil Liberties and the Prisoners Rights Organisation have called on the Minister for Justice to release him. Minister has the power to do this and this
Szczecin, Poland.
DANISH FOURTH INTERNATIONALISTS SEEK BALLOT STATUS The Danish section of the Fourth International - the Socialistisk Arbeiderparti (SAP) - has collected about 20,000 sig natures for ballot status in the next legislative elections.
It takes 18,000 certified signatures to be on the ballot, and therefore to be accorded the same rights as the recognized parties, including radio and TV time. On turning in the petitions to the Ministry of the Interior, the SAP issued a state-
"Since the last election the problems of the Danish working people have gotten worse. extent because the biggest workers party, the Social Democracy, deliberately tured the government over to the parties of
The SP allowed the bourgeois parties to form a government so they press the austerity program rejected by the ranks of the Social Democratic Party and the workers movement.
tails see IV, No. 25, March 7, 1983 These bourgeois parties have moved quickly to use this power to attack large sections of the population.
"It is more necessary than ever to build a workers front against the bourgeois government. The big demonstrations and strikes in October, the dockers strike (mid-December to mid-February), and the fight against the proposed national two-year labor contract now indicate the ways to force this government
Therefore, the SAP has made building this struggle its main priority.
"For this struggle to develop, political initiatives are needed for unity among the workers parties and to offer an alternative to Schlueter (the premier).
The SAP is going to use the coming elections to build support for the fighting workers and to press the other workers around a program of struggle against the crisis."
is now Kelly's only recourse as he has exhausted the legal appeals Members of the Irish parliament and other prominent individuals have taken an active interest in the case.
This case is of great concern to the Irish anti-imperialist and leftwing organisations. Nicky Kelly is a member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, who were the target of considerable police harassment at the time of his arrest-his fellow accused were also members of the IRSP-the party headquarters were raided and some 40 members and supporters arrested. It is undoubtedly Kelly's politics that have made him the target for this continuing brutal treatment.
The Release Nicky Kelly Committee, a broad-based group, is working to build up pressure on the government from Ireland and abroad. They ask for messages of protest at his treatment, and demands for his release to be sent to : Dr Michael Noonan, Minister of Justice, Government Buildings, Dublin 2, Ireland Please send copies to the committee at: 11 Grange Terrace, Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland.
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