In the following days of the 15th July coup attempt in Turkey, the Communist Party, Turkey released numerous statements and analysis regarding the situation in the country and the immediate agenda of the class struggle in Turkey. The following is a commentary by the First Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party, Turkey, Kemal Okuyan which composes KP's recent line of politics.
Source: International Communist Press.
Kemal Okuyan.
The
Gulenists had seized the state. This is what they say. But, the
picture shows that the Gulenists are in some extent the state itself.
‘Seizing’ does not, and cannot, correspond to reality. The truth
is totally the opposite.
I
shall not repeat how and why the Gulenist movement had increased its
influence, as we have talked and written a lot about this issue.
But
I shall reverse the above question and thus focus on the answer of
the following one: What and who is the state?
Marxists
have long debated on topics like, which mechanisms attribute class
character to the state; how the state serves the interests of the
ruling class; in this process to what extent the state is capable of
creating an autonomous area and how the apparatus of the state, in
the existing context, will fade with the annihilation of all classes.
There is a whole and very valuable sum of writings to comprehend and
analyse the complicated structure of the state.
The
state is complicated but in another perspective, very simple.
Beginning from the current social reality, the state serves the
interests of the bourgeoisie. The reason for all the effort done to
convince us for the ‘sacredness of the state’, is to conceal
the above fact; to make the wide social masses believe that the state
represents not only one class or group but all the citizens.
Well
then, is ‘sacredness’ not related with the will of the state for
self-continuity? Is there not some truth in attributing ‘political
wisdom’ to the state to emphasise this continuity?
The
concepts are important. The ‘wise state’ has a positive meaning,
while the ‘deep state’ negative! This is what people do, swearing
at NATO and CIA, while praising the American democracy. If the ‘deep
state’ is a corrupted institution so must be the ‘the wisdom of
the state’. Detesting the CIA but worshiping the government of
Obama is an unconceivable and foolish attitude.
Let
us get deeper into the concept of ‘political wisdom’ and try to
find the meaning wanted to be attributed on. Let us focus on the case
of the Republic of Turkey. In this country since 1923, ‘political
wisdom’ has been attributed to the cadres who, whatever the
situation, were keeping their consistency and linking again and again
the changing circumstances to the founding philosophy of the
republic. For some people these cadres consisted of a small clique,
while others pointed at an unsurpassable operational system, which
also included the superior officials of the state. In a certain
period, ‘political wisdom’ was personified by the Turkish Armed
Force (TAF), but after the 15thof July this myth ended.
Actually
the ’political wisdom’ is not other than the mechanism, which
ensures capitalism in total and its continuance in the existing world
system. We may come to this same conclusion beginning from the
issue of continuity. Throughout the history of the Turkish Republic
many governments have changed, military coups had occurred, social
mobilizations and uprisings had taken place and the political arena
in general has been unstable and full of surprises. But in each
case and example the interests of the big capital, the power of the
monopolies, the capital owners have been protected. Capitalism, by
nature, cannot be recovered, cannot be purified from its own
self-contradictions, both in national and international scale.
Throughout our history the capital owners have been ruling.
This
is what ‘political wisdom’ suggests. The ‘deep state’,
on the other hand, consists of the extraordinary mechanisms, which
are activated for the maintenance of the capitalist system when the
entirely unjust juridical plane is not enough.
In
other words…
There
is no meaning in mystifying ‘political wisdom’ and ‘deep
state’. The real picture, with all its nakedness, is there: the
capital!
The
Gulenists, the nationalists, the Kemalists or the neo-liberals, it
doesn’t matter, civil or military bureaucrats of different
ideological orientation have been thinking themselves as possessors
of ‘political wisdom’. This is an inevitable but on the other
hand, insignificant fact. There are limits into what extent the
different orientations of the bureaucracy can change the course of
things, except in the case of a revolution that intervenes to the
class character of the sovereignty. And looking at the general
picture we can clearly say that the capital is ruling.
Today,
one month after the military coup attempt these statements are
especially very important. The ‘political wisdom’ suggests that
the Gulenists have been manipulated by global forces. In other words,
they want us to believe the association of ‘political wisdom’
with this suggestion. In an aspect this is right, in another totally
wrong.
These
forces are defined as ‘global’ because they want us to believe
that the domestic forces of the Said Nursi sect and their modern
derivatives, the Gulenists, are foreign elements of the internal
dynamics of the country. Whereas in Turkey Fethullah Gulen is
‘global’ to the same extent with the so-called ‘national
forces’ of capitalism.
They
tell us that the Gulenists are directly an operational apparatus of
CIA. That may be true and has become more obvious in the recent
years. But what CIA has been doing all this time?
Just
to give an example, it has been doing the same as CNN! Its main
mission is to supress and even extinguish the labour and its
political agent, socialism, from the international arena.
This
time it will be alleged that CIA serves the interests not only of the
international monopolies but also of the American imperialism; that
is hundred per cent right.
But
at this point we have to ask this question: How the military,
economic, political and cultural institutions and mechanisms that
clearly defend the interests of the American imperialism have
influence on Turkey? Was the network of Fethullah Gulen, expanding
from TAF to the police force, from jurisdiction to diplomacy, from
education to health system and from industry to trade, created by
American agents or by the bog of capitalism itself?
Fethullah
Gulen and similar networks tried to penetrate to Cuba. What prevented
them? Of course, the social system of Cuba!
Let
us not deceive each other, the Gulenists are pro-americans, the
operational apparatus of CIA but their power come from the greed of
the bourgeoisie for profit and the effort to sustain its power.
On
July 15, the state was shaken, dashed and in some institutions
totally canceled out. But since July 16, the state of emergency
declared to restructure the state or to ‘cleanse’ the Gulenists,
is not marked by the purge in TAF or the jurisdiction, but it was
marked by the opportunities offered to the bourgeoisie.
The
President of the Republic saved his life at the last minute, the
parliament was bombed, thousands of government officials were
arrested, ten thousands were laid off but looking at the regulations
we see the capital owners possessing a central position. The
number of the regulations which were passed this last month for the
interest of the bourgeoisie, are equal to the regulations passed this
last decade! Under each decree, each law, which comes in the
name of ‘national consensus’, we can see the barbaric assault of
the market forces.
Dreadful. Even more damaging than the
military coup attempt of the Gulenists!
There
is clear opportunism in the disseise, in the suspension of the law
through arrests and detentions and in the meanwhile no one is
interested with the economic ‘measures’ which are enforced one
after the other. I say enforced because if you take a look to the
busy traffic in the triangle among the presidential palace,
parliament and the “business world”, you will see that I am
right.
The
government wing after the big plot, is providing its unconditional
loyalty to the bourgeoisie as the best way to assure itself.
In
the process of the restructure of the state, the perspective of the
‘privatized state’ is dominating. Therefore the belief that the
authority of Erdogan has been strengthened will encourage him to take
big risks, but this will make Erdogan more controllable and even
create mechanisms that degrade him to a simple agent.
When
a crime organization is caught up in the act and crucified, the real
collective crime organization is pushing with all its power in the
interest of the bourgeoisie against the public interest and labour
rights.
I
have to immediately tell that this is a transitional period. Turkey
may, in short time, be shocked by new assaults. But the bourgeoisie
is protecting its interests in every condition.
The
real threat of Turkey is the bourgeoisie. The big monopolies are the
biggest crime organizations, the most dangerous network.
What
we cannot watch in the TV’s are the confessions of this
organization. The repentant Gulenists, the ‘deep’ and ‘shallow’
agents, the military officials who have been trialed unjustly in the
past (‘Balyoz trials’), the exorcist sect leaders, all talk, but,
no one talks about the mean class which possesses the key positions
in the country.
On
4th September, we will be meeting in Kartal, Istanbul to
demonstrate also against this class."
