Thursday, November 26, 2009

Turkey: Public servants were on strike for the right to strike

2 million public workers were on strike on 25th November. And tens of thousands of people took to the streets in major cities all over Turkey to take part in warning strike by the public workers who urge for the right to strike and for collective agreements. The public servants were supported by trade associations, workers' unions and some parties like our Party, EMEP. The strike was co-organised by Public Workers' Unions Federation (KESK) and Turkish Public Union (Turk Kamu-Sen). Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DISK), Turkey Labour Unions Confederation (Turk-IS), the Turkish Physicians Association (TTB) and the Turkish Pharmacists Association were among the supporting organisations.
Co-organiser of the strike KESK President Sami Evren warned the government, in his speech in front of thousands of people on Beyaz?t Square in the old town of Istanbul. “If you do not grant these rights to us, we will expand the strike” Evren warned the government.
KESK President Evren recalled that they proposed the government a collective labour agreement board as a solution for “collective bargaining” on 15 August: “The prime minister ran away from the board. He wanted to receive our decisions in a collective bargaining board. We refused that”. Evren emphasized the need for sitting down at a collective labour agreement table on equal terms in order to properly defend the workers' rights and interests.
According to Turkish labour law, public servants are not entitled for collective bargaining and public servants unions are not granted the right for strike. Even though Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan proclaimed the strike illegal, a large number of employees participated.
Kamu-Sen President Bircan Aky?ld?z, speaking at several places across Ankara, noted that this strike was not being formed “for fun” and that the strike was organized to obtain “political power.” Highlighting that this protest would bring justice and more rights to public workers, Aky?ld?z stated that “those who think that civil servants sit idle and aren't productive will see today our importance.”
“Threats by authorities and other unions will not distract us from our path. These threats are trying to silence us and tell us that these problems will be solved at the bargaining table. We’ve waited for the administration for seven years to sit with us at that table and told them to uphold their promises… All of the civil servants waiting for a serious answer from the powers that be now realize that there won’t be one, and this is why we are here today,” stated Aky?ld?z.
Turkish Transportation Union President Nazmi Guzel, who spoke to strikers at the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) 2nd General Directorate, stated that all trains would stop at midnight on Tuesday night, noting that trains would not be running throughout Wednesday. Except for four members of the union who were taken in for questioning, Guzel noted that the strikes had been mostly trouble-free.
Guzel noted that besides the strikes by railway workers, workers in ports had also stopped loading and unloading ships and that there weren’t enough workers at runways to continue operations. “We warned 200 airlines about the strike, and also warned passengers. There aren’t enough workers at runways to accept landing planes. This is incredibly risky if administrators decide to let planes land, and we will not accept any responsibility if anything happens,” he said. Speaking on railway workers, Guzel noted that “there aren’t enough conductors to run trains, and if they are run, then we will not be responsible for any accidents that may come about from this risky manoeuvre.”
Train passengers left stranded
In a strike starting on Tuesday at midnight, railroad workers refused to work, leaving thousands of passengers stranded with little alternatives. Train stations in Ankara, Istanbul, Gaziantep, Sakarya, Eskisehir and other provinces in Anatolia were frozen as trains waited at the stations, with conductors refusing to run trains. Some passengers were forced to use inner-city buses to travel within the cities, and others used coach busses after waiting for hours in stations without any word from the administration about when trains would start moving again.
Istanbul on strike
In Istanbul, railway services were partially out of service, as well as the mail delivery service and several hospitals that would only accept emergencies. Besides, some school and university students closed down for the day.
Approximately 10,000 people gathered in front of the Capa Faculty of Medicine on Istanbul's European side, shouting slogans like "We demand the right to collective agreements", "Forbid dismissals", "Work for the unemployed" and "free education and health service". "We don't want to be unemployed graduates" was heard from high school and university students. Another crowd had come together at Sirkeci station at the entrance of the Golden Horn. Both groups met on Beyazit Square later on.
Ankara: Police force against striking workers
In Ankara, the police stepped in against the workers on strike. The police violently intervened against a strike group that had gathered on Ankara's popular Ziya Gökalp Avenue.
Since the morning the rail service in Turkey's capital was down. The railroad workers had posted placards at their work places. 2 hospitals limited their service to running the emergency rooms only. Workers in the health sector gathered at the Hacettepe Faculty of Medicine Hospital.
Press conferences and demonstrations were held in more than 40 cities including big cities as well as Anatolia, which had not seen a demonstration for a long time. The placard “On strike!” was hung in many workplaces.

EMEP

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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Proletarskaya gazeta: To all! To all! To all!

On October 26th the administration of the FSUE (Federal State Unitary Enterprise, State Corporation for Air Traffic Control, http://www.gkovd.ru/wwwX/. Our note) issued an order to forbid access to the building and offices belonging to the trade unions to the president of FUATC/R (Federal Union of Air Traffic Controllers of Russia, http://www.fatcurus.ru/. Our note) to the leadership of the local union of the FSUE and the officials of the elected trade union bodies.

The electronic passes needed by the union officials to access the company were revoked and security was instructed by the director general of FSUE to prevent them from accessing the premises of the trade union.

The premises held by the trade union, which were granted by virtue of the agreement adopted on May 25th 2007 between the general director of FSUE and FUATC/R, according to which the office located in the building of FSUE (Moscow, Leningradskii Prospect, dom 37, korpus 7, kom. 254) was allocated indefinitely and without charge to the Executive Committee of FUATC/R and to the local Union Committee of FSUE.

As long as the administration had no major disagreement with the representative of the amployes according to the conditions laid down by the collective bargaining with FSUE the administration respected the agreement adopted on May 25th 2007 with regards to the premises of the union.

At some point the local union committee of FSUE repeatedly appealed to various authorities about violations by the director general of FSUE, Gorbenko, V.M of the collective bargaining adopted for 2007-2010 and the conditions of the agreement of 19/05/2009 together with other instances of violation of labor legislation. Only in the last month Moscow’s prosecutor’s office to oversee implementation of laws on air and water sent three citations to the director general of FSUE, Gorbenko V.M. regarding the violation of labor laws and one warning against violations of the law. However, director general of FSUE, Gorbenko V.M. ignores these warnings.

Currently the director general of FSUE is not conforming to three main agreements signed by the employer:
·    The collective bargain of FSUE for 2007-2010;
·    Agreement of 25/05/2007 about the allocation of an office to the union representatives to develop their activities;
·    Agreement of 19/05/2009 about the increase of wages effective July 2009 in accordance with the collective bargain in force.

It is necessary to note that these three documents were signed by the head of the Federal air Navigation Service Neradko A.V.
The fact that the union representatives have repeatedly appealed to the prosecutor’s office has been used by the administration as an excuse to block the passes of the union representatives.

As a result, the employer has deprived the union representatives of the access to all the necessary documentation about the union organization, press, foundation documents, telephone and e-mail communication with the outside world, etc…

More detailed information about the labor conflict may be found in the following site:

http://www.fatcurus.ru/main.html

The executive committee of FUATC/R calls on everyone to express class solidarity and support by sending letters of protest, by fax or telegram to the following addresses and with the following text:
      Director General FSUE
      Gorbenko, V.M.
      Moscow, 125993, ГСП-3, А-167
      Leningradskii Prospekt dom 37, korpus 7.
      Fax +7 (495)601-0746.
      Tf:  +7(495)601-0899 
We are outraged by the class arbitrariness of the leadership of FSUE led by director general Gorbenko V.M. with regards to the members of the executive committee of FUATC/R and the representatives of the local union.
We demand that the union representatives be immediately allowed to the premises they are lawfully entitled to occupy in the building of the director general of FSUE (room 254).
Date
Signature
      Head of Rosaeronaviatsia
      Neradko A.V.
      Moscow 125993, GSP-3
      Leningradskii Prospekt, d. 37, korpus 1
We are outraged by the class arbitrariness of the leadership of FSUE led by director general Gorbenko V.M. with regards to the members of the executive committee of FUATC/R and the representatives of the local union.
We demand that the union representatives be immediately allowed to the premises they are lawfully entitled to occupy in the building of the director general of FSUE (room 254).
Date
Signature
      Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation
      Levitin I.E.
      Moscow 109012
      Ul. Rozhdestvenka, d. 1, str. 1.
We are outraged by the class arbitrariness of the leadership of FSUE led by director general Gorbenko V.M. with regards to the members of the executive committee of FUATC/R and the representatives of the local union.
We demand that the union representatives be immediately allowed to the premises they are lawfully entitled to occupy in the building of the director general of FSUE (room 254).
Date
Signature

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Monday, November 09, 2009

Programm of the KKE (Proposal, 1954) / RERELEASED!


Athens, November 2009
Pages: 60
Size: Α5
3 euros

The Movement for the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-55 released the proposal for the programm of the KKE that was released in 1954 and was rejected after the interference of the Khrushchevit leadership CPSU to KKE.
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Sunday, November 08, 2009

ICMLPO: To the working class, the working people and the oppressed peoples around the world!


November is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the bourgeoisie is carrying on its umpteenth attack on communism and the working class, peppered with the stalest historical falsifications.
It has been 20 years in which the ruling class has tried to divert the aspirations for change of the working class and peoples with demagogic promises of a “new world order” and lies about the “end of socialism,” to prevent any attempt at resistance, revolt, discussion of or doubt in the capitalist system.
As a result of the events of 1989, the imperialist propagandists announced the end of history, that ideologies were finished, obsolete (except obviously those of the bourgeoisie), that the revolution is a thing of the past, and that therefore there is only one direction for humanity: the one based on private property of the means of social production.
Since then, together with presenting the developments in Eastern Europe as the "defeat of communism," they have imposed the neoliberal policy, the "right to interference," "preventive wars" for the reconquest of the world by the U.S. imperialists. The bourgeoisie has strengthened its offensive against the working class and popular masses to increase their exploitation and the looting of the peoples by imperialism.
The revisionists and social-democrats are currently divided between those who cover themselves with ashes and those who alter and distort the facts that led to the fall of the Wall. In recent years many of them have shifted further to the right, showing their ideological and political weakness, and others have gone directly over to the enemy camp. Others advocate that it is no longer time for revolution, that one must go along with the rules imposed by the bourgeoisie, or must limit oneself to reforms, and they condemn the communist and revolutionary forces who oppose the situation that has been created and are reorganizing and retaking the road of struggle.
The communists know that the fall of the Berlin Wall has not meant the collapse of proletarian socialism; it has been the final stage of a process of destruction of the dictatorship of the proletariat and of capitalist restoration by the revisionism that began in the 1950s and 1960s in the USSR and in most countries of the East. The collapse of the so-called "real socialism" has meant the collapse of a superstructure which did not correspond to the existing relations of production, but because of its external features in "socialist" theory it has helped to sow confusion, leading to an ebb and the loss of positions of the working class.
The fall of the Wall does not overturn the validity of Marxism-Leninism as a revolutionary theory, but has completed the parabola of the revisionist ideology in Eastern Europe. It has not resolved the principal contradictions of our time but has led to their worsening, as evidenced by today's reality.
What have we actually seen in the last 20 years?
Instead of overcoming the economic, social and political obstacles that hold back the emancipation of mankind, we have seen even higher walls raised against the exploited and oppressed.
Walls that separate the financial oligarchy, which lives in luxury and wastefulness, from the great masses of men and women who create all wealth with their labour, without benefitting from it because they are forced to suffer the yoke of intense exploitation, unemployment, precariousness and poverty, only receiving charity from the bourgeois governments.
Walls between a handful of imperialist powers and the dependent countries subjected to brutal looting of their resources, forced into underdevelopment and condemned to hunger.
Walls represented by obscurantism, ignorance, religious oppression and bourgeois cosmopolitanism, which serve to keep the workers submissive and ignorant.
Walls such as the one raised against migrants between the U.S. and Mexico, in Europe, in the Mediterranean, or the one built by Zionism in Palestine, the one maintained by imperialism in the Korean peninsula and many others.
What has been the result after two decades of promises thrown to the four winds by the ruling class?
They promised "economic growth," but we have seen the unprecedented extension of parasitism and speculation, economic and financial crises that are more and more frequent and deeper, up to the present one, the most serious and destructive crisis of the last 80 years, which is the manifestation of all the problems accumulated previously.
They guaranteed "freedom and democracy", but these hypocritical words were soon transformed into the enhanced dictatorship of a group of imperialist countries and financial monopolies, into an even fiercer neo-colonial domination to which hundreds of dependent countries and nations are subjected, into coups d'état such as the ones that took place recently in Honduras and in Africa, into the suppression of the rights of the workers and of democratic liberties in many countries, into police States that are increasingly authoritarian and fascist.
They promised a "world of peace," but the imperialist powers, headed by the U.S., have re-enforced their arsenals and military apparatus, they have unleashed a succession of wars of aggression and acts of real terrorism that have cut down hundreds of thousands of victims, and they have intensified the rivalries between the imperialist countries and monopoly groups for a new division of raw materials, of markets and spheres of influence, thus increasing the risk of a new world conflict.
They spoke of "protection of the environment," but we see that the search for maximum profit has devastated the ecosystem and made evident that capitalism, with its desire for pillage, is incompatible with the very existence of humankind.
And what about the situation of the countries of East European who have “returned to freedom”? Starvation wages, mass unemployment, the elimination of social gains, economic catastrophe, increased mortality, crime, prostitution, most servile subordination to the interests of Western imperialism or, in the case of Russia, affirmation of the most reactionary chauvinism in order to assert the same imperialist interests. Is it to be wondered if in these countries today there is a growing "nostalgia for socialism," that is for a social system superior to capitalism, which made great achievements in spite of the continuous imperialist aggression, until revisionism undermined it from within and then caused it to collapse?
In these 20 years the working class, the working people and the majority of the peoples have not surrendered in spite of the blows they have suffered, they have not accepted wage slavery and imperialist oppression in silence. The ebb in the class struggle has gradually given way to a greater resistance and a new rise in the political and social struggle, which is expressed in different ways in different countries. In particular in the last decade we have seen an important process of renewal of the struggles, significant advances of the workers and peoples, despite the increasing aggressiveness of the bourgeoisie.
History did not end with the fall of the Berlin Wall; on the contrary there has been an evident acceleration. The struggle of the social classes, which is the motive force for the achievement of communism, is advancing together with the communist and international workers movement. The protagonists of the struggle for social transformation are arising and are prepared for battle! This also concerns the bourgeoisie which, twenty years after the proclaimed “death of communism," has to exorcise it continuously, to denigrate and criminalize its ghost, in order to prevent the proletariat from recovering its revolutionary theory.
All this shows that the alleged superiority and invincibility of capitalism is a lie, that the reasons for the revolution and socialism continue to be as present and valid as ever.
Today we are in an international situation that is very different from that of 1989. The bourgeoisie is in a disastrous economic crisis as a result of the laws of capitalism, and it does not have answers for the needs and aspirations of the workers and peoples. It is more vulnerable than before, and there are many weak links in the chain of its rule.
The current crisis of relative overproduction, interrelated with the general crisis of the imperialist-capitalist system, will last for a long time, revealing to the masses the true face of the bourgeoisie: a class which has long ago exhausted its historic role, but which is still calling on the workers and peoples to make the "necessary sacrifices" to ensure its survival and privileges.
While the governments are taking huge sums of money from the public treasury to serve the capitalist monopolies and the banks, unemployment is constantly growing, wages, pensions and social services are being dismantled, and therefore the workers are falling into misery and hunger. The offensive of the capitalists is taking ever sharper forms, the bourgeoisie and their governments are launching their attack against the political and economic gains achieved at the cost of hard struggles. Fascism is advancing in many countries, promoted by the most reactionary groups of financial capital. New robbers’ wars are being prepared.
This situation shows the incompatibility of interests between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and places before the working class and the working masses the urgent need to form a united front of struggle against the capitalist offensive, political reaction and imperialist aggression.
The main obstacle that today is hindering the formation of the united front is the policy of class collaboration followed by the social democratic parties and the yellow unions, the real social props of the bourgeoisie. They promise the masses a "reformism" already put out of use by the inexorable laws of capitalism, they put a break on and divide the workers’ and trade union movement, they divert it towards parliamentary cretinism and they open the doors to the reactionary forces.
To remove this obstacle, to fight effectively, the workers need to unite in order to intransigently defend their economic and political interests, advancing a concrete program of action against the bourgeoisie: against layoffs, the decline in wages, cuts in social spending, so that the consequences of the crisis fall on the bosses, the rich, the parasites. They must intensify the fight against the capitalist offensive in the factories, the countryside and the streets, organizing a broad international counter-offensive, so that the proletariat and peoples will not be sacrificed for the economic interests of the capitalists!
At the same time, the communists and revolutionaries must unite all the genuinely democratic, progressive and left-wing forces, to give impetus to the anti-imperialist and anti-fascist struggle, to encourage the trend towards change that is developing in the world, particularly in Latin America and Asia, to develop solidarity between the peoples.
The parties and organizations of the ICMLPO, together with the political and social forces that support the present call, put forward to the masses the problem of the revolutionary solution to the crisis of capitalism. Faced with the measures taken by the bourgeois governments, with the illusions sown by those who propose to "regulate" a social order in decomposition, the communists state that the evils of imperialism have no cure, that the only solution to the general crisis of capitalism is proletarian socialism, a planned society of the producers.
Therefore, while we take part and in and support the increasingly acute forms of struggle under the blows of the crisis, while we cooperate in their organization, pointing out that the workers must refuse to bear the consequences of the crisis, we say that the situation will get worse if the proletariat and peoples fail to accumulate forces to respond to the attack and to fight to overturn the dictatorship of the exploiting classes, for a new and higher social order.
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the socialist revolution has once again become a problem that must be solved by the consolidation and the formation of strong communist parties that raise the banner of Marxism-Leninism, the flag of the October Soviet Revolution, the flag of the world proletarian revolution!

October 2009

International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO)

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Monday, November 02, 2009

Message of Solidarity to actions against the demolition of the Thaelmann Memorial

Stature of Ernest Telman has induced fever to bourgeoisie, especially today in the time of global crises of capitalist system.

This solidarity is in the honor of antifascist people and proletarians.

Dr. Laver Stroka

Secretary of CC of PLAR for foreign affairs.
On November 1,2009
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Sunday, November 01, 2009

Police force against IMF protestors

Tuesday, 13 October

Thousands of people wanted to participate in a demonstration against IMF and World Bank starting on Taksim Square in Istanbul yesterday. But, the police intervened with tear gas, tinted water and water cannons. Clashes occurred in a number of neighbouring districts.
The police intervened with tear gas and the use of water cannons in the demonstration against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) in Istanbul's central district of Taksim.
The annual meeting of IMF and World Bank started yesterday morning (6 October) in the Istanbul district of Harbiye within walking distance to Taksim Square. Our party (EMEP), other leftist parties, trade unions, professional chambers and various organisations met in Taksim to walk to the meeting's place in Harbiye as a demonstration against IMF and World Bank.
Contemporary Lawyers Associations (ÇHD) told that according to information form different police stations a total of about 200 people were arrested.
The police went in hard against a crowd of about 2,000 people. In the neighbouring districts of Pangalt?, ?stiklal Caddesi, Çukurcuma and Cihangir close to Taksim people are still in custody. The Taksim First Aid and the German Hospital were also affected by the tear gas. One person in the crowed died of a heart attack. Further clashes occurred in the districts of Ni?anta?? and Dolmabahçe (by the Bosporus).
Police intervened as soon as the demonstration started
Before the walk started, the participants shouted slogans such as "Imperialists and collaborators, don't forget the 6th fleet", "The day will come, the fate will return, murders will give their account to the people", "This country, this people are not for sale" and "IMF get out".
The walk started at 11.40 am. The police intervened 5 times with tear gas on Taksim Square. People escaped to neighbouring districts. Also for chasing the protestors the police used tinted water and made use of their firearms. Furthermore, warning shots were fired into the air.
Protest against police intervention
Labour Party (EMEP), Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP) organized a protest today at 18.30 pm at Taksim square against the police interference at the demonstration.

Labour Party (EMEP) - Tarlabasi Bulvari Kamerhatun Mh. Alhatun Sk. No:25/1 Beyoglu - ISTANBUL - TURKEY
Tel: +90 505 9373757 (Mobile) Fax: +90 212 361 25

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