lunes, 16 de noviembre de 2015

The revolutionary situation in the Middle East. By Juan Carlos Beica

After the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy in 2008, the worker and popular struggles gave a leap due to the general strikes in Europe and the USA and the insurrections that knocked down several dictatorships during the Arab Spring.

This context and the great international solidarity enabled Palestinians of the String of Gaza defeat the poweful Zionist army, situation that gave a lift on the struggle against the national, racial and sexual oppression worldwide.

For that reason, it is not by chance that after the Palestinian victory, the Mexican assemblies and militias from the north of Syria and Turkey have spread and popularised. These are concrete expressions of the advance of consciousness among wide sectors of the mass.

The effects of the destruction of the Stalinist apparatus and the deep divisions that are taking place in the imperial heights, have strengthened this reality, promoting new revolutions, as the one that it is taken place in Yemen and the one that it is coming by the hand of the Third Palestinian Intifada.

Counter-revolutionary pacts and the law of the mad firefighter

As the imperialist's head, Obama is aware that he does not have this great tool to control the revolutions that was the Stalinism, as his parties have fallen from grace after the revolutionary events of the 90's.

Because of this, since he assumed, he has been  encouraging  the signing of agreements with the counter-revolutionary managements that still remained and have a kind of prestige to deceive  the masses, as the "bolivarianos"from Venezuela, the Castro brothers o the Iranian ayatollahs.

In that way, Obama's closest civil servants have been working during a long time to materialize the so-called "5+1" Pact with Germany, England, Russia, China, France and Iran.

The imperialists reached an agreement with the Shiite authorities to make them "stabilize" the Middle East, as the Zionist army's defeat left the traditional Yankee officer badly wounded and the other sepoy government, Saudi Arabia, has come out badly after having invaded Yemen.

As a consecuence of these agreements, war against ISIS within Iraq's territory is practically in the Iranian general's hands that apart from this, have the control of Lebanon and a big part of the Syrian territory, where they are supporting the dictator Bashar Al Assad together with Putin's airplanes.

Far from "stabilizing ", this pact has created more and deeper clashes between the bourgeois factions and the imperialism itself. As a revolutionary leader said in the past: "it is the mad firefighter law", because instead of throwing water to the fire, they are throwing petrol to it.

Obama, the european, yanquee and russian imperialism, the zionists,  the Arab bourgeoisie, the turkish government, Iran, the ISIS and Al Qaeda bands agree in smashing the insurrectionary process in thecMiddle East.

However, instead of working in "teams", they are killing and betraying each other, throwing corpses from one side to the other.  The absence of an "only and strong command"gives the revolution an advantage, because people of the region are confronting an enemy that,in spite of throwing them tons of bombs, is becoming every
time weaker.

This mega crisis in the heights enabled very important triumphs, as the one of the YPG and YPJ militias against the fascist troops of the Islamic State in Kobani.

After this victory and in spite of the conciliatory policy of the PKK and other Kurdish parties, the revolution has entered in Turkey, the country that owns some of the NATO's most important headquarters. There the mass movement has gone out to face the repression and the attacks of Erdogan and his Islamic State agents.

This general dynamic has arrived to remain in the Kurdish Irak and Iran, where worker strikes and democratic demonstrations burst; also in Yemen and Bahrein, whose people is heroically confronting the allies of Saudi Arabia.

All these events put in evidence that the main conflict between Revolution and Counterrevolution today has its epicentre in the Middle East, and that whatever happens there, it will have its effects, positive or negative,  worldwide, therefore the task of the revolutionaries cannot be other than to support the most progressive forces of the region.

From this location, whoever raises the flags of proletarian internationalism must risk to join with the most radical sectors, in order to build a management able to confront the Revolution's enemies and consequently fight for the Socialist Federation of Middle Eastern States.

We receive a Turkish Trotskyist leader: Volcan Gümüs, from Ankara.

Volcan, in the middle, with our comrades.
On October 27 we had the honour of interviewing the leader of the Movement for the Permanent Revolution in Turkey, Volcan Gumus, who also takes part in the management of the Ankara Transport Union, twelve of whose members died in the bloody attack that took place in that city.

Volcan had been in the demostration against Turkish Airlines, in the closing ceremony of the FIT, and taking part in different interviews and activities with PO, Izquierda Socialista and TPR.

After the interview, which we made together with the TPR and Resumen  Latinoamericano comrades, we agreed to continue getting closer to know more about the political situation of Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries.

How could you define Erdogan's government?
Erdogan's government is conservative, anti-worker, anti-left, anti-youth, and anti-women. This is part of a policy that wants to make a transformation of the current regime to a religious one.

At the same time he has his own imperialist policy, as Erdogan sees himself as a Ottoman Empire' s sultan. For this, he has an interventionist policy in the region, for example in Yemen. Erdogan gets into all matters because he has an imperialist and interventionist vocation.

In this context of elections and repression, what does the attack in Ankara mean?
This is the fourth attack in two years. The first one was in the border between Syria and Turkey, earlier this year it was one in Diyarbakir (historic capital of Kurdistan), the other attack was in Suruc, and now it is in Ankara.

In Diyarbakir's attack it was seen the presence of ISIS  and Erdogan's government complicity that allows this situation within the turkish borders.

Turkey is turning into Pakistan, that is to say a country serving military operations against other countries.  In that way, Turkey is the support base of ISIS against Syria, that it could be as Afghanistan, because whoever invade, it loses.

There are three elements that demonstrate the complicity of Erdogan's government with the attack. On the one hand, it is documented on video and photographs the bond between Erdogan and ISIS, as it is seen in the border with Syria, where they transfer lorries with weapons and terrorists, and nobody says anything.

There is no doubt that the government, at least, allows ISIS  free movement within Turkey. Before the attack, there was a public list of about 19 names of possible attackers and those who perpetate the attack were in that list.

The Turkish Intelligence Services throroughly knew this situation. What is more, one of the suicide attacker's mother denounced that her son was conected to ISIS and that he would take part of the attack, therefore she demanded his imprisonment.

The mother surely said this to save his son's life, but the government do nothing. To this it must be added that the demonstration was publicly threatened, but there was not a deployment to guarantee the security of it.

What is the economic situation in Turkey and the country's workers?
The economic situation is getting worse together with the global economic situation, as one thing cannot be separated from the other. This can be seen in the movement of the capitals and in the currency 's war.

Regarding the worker's movement, the workday and the days of work per week have increased. It is normal to work between 10 or 12 hours and 6 days a week. In Turkey the unionization is low and the few existing unions are in the mafia's hands.

From the legal proceedings' point of view the worker's rights are being trampled and justice acts with an anti-worker guideline. In spite of this situation, the labour movement is active, fighting and goes forward.


This could be seen in May with a very important strike of the metallurgical workers that raised against the government. The elections will have an influence on the later development of the labour movement, because a weaker Erdogan's government will cause better conditions for the worker's intervention.