Hayat* can not be silenced

TURKEY

The broadcasting of Hayat TV was cut off by Turkish government. Hayat TV, which started its life last year with the slogan “Life’s all colours”, found itself unable to broadcast suddenly on Wednesday.

Hayat TV did not receive any legal warning about the interruption. But, the letter to the company from which Hayat TV rent the frequency band was clearly threatening. Turksat general manager’s letter to Turkovizyon, from which Hayat TV rents its frequency band, states that the demand to cut Hayat TV’s broadcasting came from the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK): “In order that Turkovizyon’s broadcasting activities are not shut down completely by our company, we request that you interrupt Hayat TV’s broadcasting immediately and be more sensitive about the channels you will include in your digital platform.”

But we know that, this is an indication of the impatience of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). However, since we experienced similar experiences in the past, Hayat is still on its job. They cannot shut Hayat up, we will not shut up.”

We trust the viewers of Hayat, who are the real force behind it.

We call all of our class brothers and sisters, intellectuals and artists struggling for a better world around the globe to claim Hayat as their own channel and support it.

For support

You can send protesting letters to the Internal Affairs Ministry of the Turkish Republic (Fax: 0090 312 418 795), Radio and Television Supreme Council (Fax: 0090 312 499 5115) and Türk-Sat (Fax: 0090 312 499 5115)

Also, we wait for your solidarity messages.

What is Hayat TV?

Hayat TV, the pro-people and pro-workers television is, as an alternative to the existing mass media, broadcasting on Turksat 2A Satellite. In addition to Turkey, it can also be viewed all over Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the Caucasus.

Hayat TV is also a different alternative in terms of its organisational formation within the field of television broadcasting where monopolies dominate. Announced to the public with a declaration signed by hundreds of people, among whom were trade unionists, representatives of the mass organisations and many workers and labourers; Hayat TV aims to carry the ignored sections of the society to the screen with its participatory organisational model.

Hayat TV follows an increasingly enhanced broadcasting line with various documentaries, news programmes, street interviews as well as music and entertainment.

Hayat TV, setting out with the principle of “revealing the genuine colours of life”, claims to be a television channel through which life, truth, objective broadcasting and everything non-alien to people will be reflected. It is stated in the organisation manifesto of the channel that; “There are a lot of voices and images but when all of these come together, they do not constitute multi-vocality and they appear to be mono-vocal. We, the millions of workers and labourers, are obliged to watch whatever is presented on the television that we put in the key place of our homes. We are either alienated to ourselves, our problems and culture or identified with a different world which by no means resembles us. Let us be neither alienated nor identified with phenomena outside of ourselves. Let us be ourselves, protect our own existence.”

Hayat TV is a channel in which all sections whose existence has been ignored until now will not only find themselves but also call themselves into being. Hayat TV is the channel of the Kurds, the Laz people, the Arabs, the Circassians, the Armenians and the Surianis as well as of the workers, labourers and the impoverished masses.

Hayat TV had set up its cameras just in the midst of life and catch its visual richness in the rhythm of life flowing. Hayat TV calls itself into being as the channel of women whose lives have been caught between the kitchen and the bedroom, children targeted in advertisements as future “consumers”, the handicapped people, the environmentalists, the defenders of human rights and of course the art and artists.

Hayat TV is the voice of all sections struggling for a more liberated and more democratic world around the world. It conveys all lives and struggles from all corners of the world via broadcast to be viewed in the Middle East, the Caucasians and North Africa besides all Europe.

* “Hayat” means “Life” in Turkish

Lift the sanctions on Freedom of Thought and Press! Oppose Hayat TV being silenced!

We were terrified and shocked to learn on 16th July that Hayat TV, a TV station found on 3rd December 2007 as a result of the support provided by hundreds of intellectuals, trade unionists and democracy and human right campaigners in Turkey and Europe, has been put off air as a result of a letter sent by the TURKSAT authorities to the enterprising company. 
According to the information that we have received thus far, no material evidence or factual information has been provided by Turksat as to why Hayat TV should be put off air. Without a legal process taking place or, in other words, with a court decision Hayat TV has been put off air based on the accusation of `broadcasting divisive footage`.   
We have never promoted hatred amongst people. On the contrary, as it is evident with the way in which we have been promoting cohesion and integration vis-à-vis the migrants from Turkey living in Europe, we have opposed nationalism and have been advocates of cohesion and fraternity. Thus we strongly oppose the interruption of Hayat TV, which since the day it has started broadcasting it has opposed war and aimed to be a voice of democracy, peace and freedom. We will like to contend that to silence a TV station based on it not thinking alike or having an alternative viewpoint does not only injure the freedom of thought and press but it also goes against International laws and treaties.   
We the undersigned call the authorities of Turksat and AKP government to renege on an unlawful decision that injures freedom of thought and press and urgently lift the decision to put Hayat TV off air.
We also call upon all individuals, organisations and institutions that are sensitive on the issue of freedom on thought and press to act in solidarity with us and oppose Hayat TV being silenced.

Communiqué from the Marxist-Leninists Parties and Organizations from Europe’s meeting

In June 2008, delegates from the Marxist-Leninists Organizations and Parties from Europe have met in Madrid in order to discuss some questions related to communist’s work in the trade union movement.

Discussion has focused on the politic and economic context, which is characterized by a raise of the aggressive politics of the imperialism. With “neoliberalism” we do mean imperialism’s politic of nowadays, a politic that only serves to the oligarchy and are destined to guarantee the highest benefit for the monopoles, in detriment of the workers and their rights and in detriment of the peoples. A politic that can be resumed like this: “Less state to protect and more state to attack workers and peoples.”

In front of the illusions propagated by the social-democrats and the reformists, we declare that a « protective » capitalism is impossible. The actual politic is the true face of imperialism which redoubles its aggressions due to the intensification of the crisis and the contradictions between imperialists foreign powers, in their struggle for the markets and the influence zones.

In Europe, the consequences of this politic are: the questioning of social conquests of the working class and labor legislation: the degradation and privatization of public services; the reinforcement of repressive state, the militarization and the armed aggression against countries. The European Union is working on reinforcing its nature of imperialist foreign power in the international context of the politic of aggression of the USA.

In this new juncture, the working class movement is getting reactivated, social mobilization is growing and the trade union fight is getting more and more important. The discussion has also focused on the question of communist’s work into trade union movement.

Trade union movement has to fight for its demands in an offensive way, having into account the specific situation and developing the fight for class-conscious trade union’s unity.

We communists insist on the necessity of working into the big masses’ trade unions which organizes the essential part of the organized sectors of the proletariat and of making more politic the trade union fights in order to give them a revolutionary way.

We call for defending the right of workers to be in trade unions, in particular for the immigrants and we call for going forward in the coordination of the fights in Europe, to develop the solidarity and the support to the specific fights and to support the united initiatives and the callings for meetings for coordination gathering together the class-conscious trade unionists.

Madrid, June 2008

Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE (ML) ;
Workers Communist Party of France – PCOF ;
Workers Communist Party of Denmark – APK ;
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey– TDKP ;
Communist Platform (Italy);
Marxist-Leninist Organization Revolution of Norway

Note: Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 cosigns this communique.

Irish people said NO to the Lisbon’s treaty !

With great happiness we welcome the victory of the « No » in Ireland. This is a victory for the Irish people and for all the peoples from the UE who have massively opposed to a text that takes the essential content and objectives of the constitutional European treaty.

We welcome the forces that have leaded the campaign to give to this « No » a progressive content and that have played a decisive role in this victory.

Peasants, workers and the people have defeated the great coalition of political and social forces, the employers, the Medias, which have mobilized in favor of the « Yes ». They have tried to make the Irish people guilty and menaced it with « taking reprisals ». Merkel, Sarkozy, Barroso and company have multiplied the pressures and the intimidations. This is a serious political defeat for them.

Just like the French and Dutch people did in 2005, the Irish people has put its bit into this « hideous » neoliberal machine, synonym of social dumping, of competition between everyone, of the priority for the agro business in spite of the little peasants. It has said « No » to the militarized Europe, at NATO’s rear.

In spite of this popular rebuff, the UE and the spokesmen from the anti-democratic government and the European commission… have proclaimed that they will « continue ». For them, a vote is only democratic if it ratifies their decisions. This is like the whole process of construction of the European Union, a process made against the peoples, behind their back, and who never accept their sanctions. A process that is built against the peoples of Europe and Africa, to put in place a European Union, a big imperialist foreign power that compete with the other foreign powers for the markets and the control of resources. A European Union that has just legalized the 65 hours a week of labor and replaced collectives negotiations by the « one-to-one » relation between the employer and the worker and finish with all the social conquest, the right to the work. A European Union that is making a hunt with the paperless workers, that puts them in retention camps, expulses them and at the same time want to « choose » the brains and arms that it needs. A European Union that promotes the reactionary « values » of the church and wants to question the right to abort.

In front of the antisocial and reactionary attacks from the UE, the mobilizations of the workers haven’t stopped developing.

This political victory for the peoples encourages us to develop even more the links of fight and solidarity for fighting together against the politic that exclusively serves to the monopolies and the financial oligarchy.

The vote of the Irish people has to be respected and the process of ratification of the Lisbon’s treaty.

Madrid, June 2008

Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE (ML) Workers Communist Party of France – PCOF
Workers Communist Party of Denmark – APK
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey– TDKP
Communist Platform (Italy)
Marxist-Leninist Organization Revolution of Norway

Note: Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 cosigns this declaration.

Solidarity with the paperless workers on strike for their regularization

Since the 15 of April 2008, hundreds of « paperless » immigrant workers are on strike in Paris region after the CGT and associations’ calling, to obtain a title of stay in a good and proper way.

Since many years these workers are engaged in sectors like catering, building, cleaning… The great majority of them have salary leaves and pay to the different social security boxes and a big number of them pay taxes.

Because they have no papers, they are real « modern slaves » in the hands of the employers who in many cases have engaged them with complete knowledge of their situation.

After two months of strike, French government has been forced to begin the regularization’s process for 400 of them.

A vast movement of solidarity has developed around these strikes. The withdrawal of the government is a gap that must be enlarged.

We support this courageous fight for the regularization of all paperless workers.

We make the slogan that sounds in every mobilization our slogan:

« ils bossent ici,
ils vivent ici,
ils restent ici »

« Lavorano qui
Vivono qui
Restano qui ! »

« Trabajan aqui
Viven aquí !
Se quedan aquí ! »

“They work here
They live here
They stay here !”

“Burada, çalisiyorlar
Burada yasiyorlar
Burada kalacaklar”

Madrid, June 2008

Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE (ML)Workers Communist Party of France – PCOF
Workers Communist Party of Denmark – APK
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey– TDKP
Communist Platform (Italy)
Marxist-Leninist Organization Revolution of Norway

Note: Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 cosigns this declaration.

We condemn the “shameful” immigration guideline

The guideline adopted by the Parliament of the European Union, last 18^th of June, is a clear demonstration of the imperialist and repressive nature of the EU, herald of neoliberal and anti people policy.

This guideline which permits to jail for 6 to 18 months any “illegal” immigrant, that’s to say an undocumented immigrant, is in contradiction with all the international agreements about human rights ; it’s a measure of discrimination, a racist one, marked by xenophobia against the people, especially the people of Latin America, Africa and Asia.

They show a total lack of any historical memory, those European governments, like Berlusconi, Merkel, Sarkozy, Zapatero, etc. who forget that the Europeans cruelly colonized the American continent, India and a great part of Asia; that during the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th centuries millions of Spanish, Italians, Germen, English, French, Swedish, Portuguese, in other words, people all over Europe were forced to emigrate to America, seeking a better life, a workplace, some security that were denied to them in their own country because of the local and civil wars (remind the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939).

They have been welcomed and accepted everywhere. Their integration in these countries is a plain reality. Europe denies the same right to the people of America that these had generously granted to the European immigrants.

The African people have been plundered, slaughtered, their native economy has been destroyed, they have been submitted to slavery by the European capitalists (of Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain) and today, after having plunged them in poverty and endemic famine, they impeach them to work in Europe. The immigrants risk their lives in fragile canoes or wrecked ships in trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, the Detroit of Gibraltar or the Atlantic Ocean.

Today, neo-colonialism and the penetration of military and economic powers continue the plunder and the ruin of the African continent, they maintain in power the reactionary and bloody governments and support them against their own people, as does the Tunisian autocrat Ben Ali, or the autocrat of Morocco who subdues his own people and the Sahraouian people.

In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been signed, in which it is said (article 13) : “everybody has the right to circulate freely and to choose his residence in the territory of a State”. The immigrants, because they are without protection, must have the right to this article. Unless the human rights are only for rich countries, for colonialists or imperialists ?

Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, immediately after having been informed about the content of this infamous decree of the EU, wrote a courageous and accurate text which has been rapidly supported by many prominent leaders of Latin America, as Corréa, Chavez, and others. Morales states with accurate reason “the immigrants are not responsible for the problems of social cohesion which affect Europe ; they are the results of the model of development imposed by the North which destroys the whole planet and which dismantle the societies of the human beings.”

Even if we doubt of their capability to do it, because of their capitalist interests and because of their neoliberal policy, we ask claim for the UE to elaborate a policy which respects the immigrants, their rights, does not stigmatize them; which does not segregate them. As president Morales says that its time for the European governments repair “ once for all, all the tremendous historical, economical and ecological debt that the European countries towards the Third World (…) You cannot fail today with your “policies of integration” as you failed with their so-called “mission of civilization” in the times of the colonies…”.

The workers of Europe and all over the world must unite in order to stop with this criminal policy of discrimination of the European Union, similar to the policy of the US imperialism and of the other imperialisms all over the world. The slogan shouted in those days in the streets of Paris by French workers and their immigrant brothers, must sound with force in all the countries where workers of other countries and continents are living; it’s a slogan of solidarity, of fraternity, of resistance to the mechanism of exploitation of capitalism.

“They work here, they live here, they remain here!”

June 2008

Signatures

Latin America and Caribbean countries
Revolutionary Communist Party of Brazil – PCR
Communist Marxist Leninist Party of Ecuador – PCMLE
Communist Party of Mexico (Marxist Leninist) – PCM(ML)
Communist Party of Labour of Dominican Republic – PCT
Communist Marxist Leninist Party of Venezuela – PCMLV
Chilean Communist Party – PC(AP)
Avanzar Group of Argentina
Communist Current Gustavo Machado of Venezuela – CCGM

Europe
Workers’ Communist Party of Denmark – APK
Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE(ML)
Communist Youth of Spain (Marxist-Leninist)
Proletarian Union (Spain)
Platform of Citizens for the Republic (Spain)
October 17 Publications (Spain)
Republican Associations of Coslada (Spain)
SODEPAZ (Spain)
Workers’ Communist Party of France – PCOF
Group Che Guevara (France)
Collective of the Communist Circles: Circle Henri Barbusse, Communist Coordination 59/62, Communist Circle of Alsace, Communist Circle of the Region of Paris
Union of Communist Revolutionaries of France
Editions Democrite
Movement of the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-55
Communist Platform of Italy
Editorial Board of Land and Liberation (Italy)
Marxist-Leninist Organization Revolution of Norway
Communist Platform (Marxist Leninist) of Norway – KPml
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey – TDKP
Organisation for the Construction of a Workers’ Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany – KPD)
Communist Party of Germany (Roter Morgen) – KPD
Communist Party of Germany Marxist-Leninist) (Roter Stern) – KPD(ML)
Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany – MLPD
Association of the Worker Trade Unions of Russia “Defence of Labour” (Russia)
Working Youth Organization "Red Kommuna" (Ukraine, Kharkov)
Marxist organization of the workers "Orion" (Latvia)
“Proletarskaya Gazeta” (Russia, Leningrad)
The Communists (Switzerland, Geneva)

Africa
Revolutionary Communist Party of Upper Volta – PCRV
Revolutionary Communist Party of Ivory Coast – PCRCI
Workers’ Communist Party of Tunisia – PCOT
Democratic Party of Labor (Tunisia) – PDT
Communist Party of Benin – PCB
Cultural Committee for Democracy in Benin – CCDB
Collective of Militants of Morocco, of Immigration, Action and Struggle
Fernent – Movement of Pan African Workers of Senegal – Fernent/MTP-S
Sanfin, the Cloud, of Mali
Democratic Front of the Comoros
Collective of Associations and Friends of the Comoros – CAAC

Asia and Middle East
Party of Labour of Iran – PTI Toufan
Revolutionary Democracy (India)
New Trade Union Initiative (India)
Workers’ Front of Pakistan (Pakistan Mazdur Mahaaz)
Communist Party of Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party
Socialist Party of Malaysia – PSM

International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations

This text exists in French, English, Spanish, German, Danish, Farsi and Greek.