It is impossible for the discussions on “”Who’s part of the boycott, why are they included, and who’s in and who’s out of its scope?” not to shift towards “where does the capital start, where it ends”.
Bourgeois politicians will scramble to seal things back up, but we won’t allow it.
There’s no such thing as good or bad capital. Period.
“We’re not in the business of picking out the cultured boss, the kind-hearted one, the smiling one, the one who reads books or acts nice to their workers. Yes, such characters exist among bosses. They are rich enough to choose their public persona, after all!
Rich enough to buy yachts, when that’s not enough, to buy marinas! Kids from the neighborhood collect bottle lids, the bosses: Sports cars! He can have his lunch in Paris and dine in London.
But all that richness wouldn’t just cut it. He also needs to have “social responsibility”! He organizes festivals, builds cultural centers, and establishes museums. He even writes op-eds, like Murat Ülker does.
Speaking of Murat Ülker, his writings piqued my attention, I’m reading to see where he’s going to take this. (Murat Ülker is a capitalist, whose name ranks first in the list of the richest people in Turkey. He is also known worldwide for his purchase of the Godiva brand.) He’s at the top of the list. You see, they’ve ranked the world’s richest people, and Murat Ülker appears to be the richest in Turkey .
His Ülker is the one capital group that has been boycotted the longest in Turkey. So, he either hasn’t been impacted at all, or has turned the boycott into a strategic advantage.
Anyway, we’ve said time and time again that it’s not a question of ‘good boss, bad boss.’ What needs to be eliminated is the current system of exploitation. For people, the good one serves their country and people without any privileges in a socialist system!
“Secular capital, pro-government capital, progressive capital, green capital, domestic and national capital, newly emerged capital, the Anatolian Tigers, capital of İstanbul, cosmopolitan capital, the interest lobbies…”
These ingredients would not yield liberation.
If you ever think to place your trust with some of them, believing instead of organizing festivals, they’ll bring democracy to the country; The truth will hit you in the face: There’s no democracy in the country and they are not here to help!
What matters most for capital is a sustainable and expanding environment for profit.
Let’s put other countries aside, capitalism in Turkey cannot function without an oppressed and unorganized working class. Therefore, democracy, even if it’s just symbolic, doesn’t exist! Look at it from the perspective of any of the categories of capital listed above.
But you also need to understand this: The country is also going downhill.
When the Republic of Turkey was founded, it suffered from the underdevelopment of capitalism. We’ve continuously explained why the transformations that opened the country’s capitalist path represented a historical progress, why the disruption of the imperialists’ game, who never accounted for such a country, had lasting positive outcomes, and why concepts like the Republic, secularism, and enlightenment gained both conceptual and political-social reality throughout this period in Anatolia, giving a significant energy to the present day.
It’s both saddening and unsurprising to see those who fail to understand this truth now “fight against the regime alongside the TÜSİAD capitalist club” in a country being utterly destroyed by capitalism.
The TKP’s growing involvement in the debates surrounding the National Struggle and the Republic reflects its resolve to bring the struggle against the dictatorship of capital to a new phase.
For the capitalist regime has put the very existence of this country, the ground for our fight, in question.
Some thought undermining the foundation of the Republic of Turkey would only direct today’s Turkey towards betterment, freedom and democracy!
Their praises for the Ottoman Empire, sanctifications of Sheikh Sait (a reactionary feudal lord), glorifications of Abdulhamid and Vahdettin (Ottoman sultans), and rituals of discarding official history, became the fuel for the AKP government’s years-long attacks on the working class with their Greater Middle East Project, privatizations, and religious sects.
The expansion of capital into the surrounding region—with the help of Gulenist ideology—under the guise of the “Turkic world”, the “Turkic Olympics”, and “Islamic brotherhood”, marked their hatching. This was followed by the rise of Neo-Ottomanism to the center of the government’s strategic vision, and now, the so-called ‘state wisdom’ openly acknowledging the Republic’s failure. This is not something that can be brushed off with a mere ‘so what?’.
“Be it the greed of the capitalist class, the fever dreams of conquest, fantasies of sultanate and caliphate, or open collaboration with an imperialist agenda—it makes no difference. Anyone who, in any form, suggests that the Republic of Turkey must break free from its current borders must confront the very foundations of the Republic. And make no mistake—they are already deep in that confrontation.
A certain ‘mindset’ now dominates Turkey—one that sees the Republic’s resolute secularism as having curbed the country’s influence in the Islamic world and rendered the Kurdish question unsolvable. This is how the logic of capital operates. This is how the so-called state mind works. No, not each of them had to become an Islamist, and most won’t.
But that’s beside the point.
No doubt, there are segments that feel uneasy about this process—those who believe unnecessary risks are being taken. But that seal, too, is already broken.
The question is: What do we do from here?
Are we going to accept the expansion (or contraction) of the Republic of Turkey’s borders, its reconciliation with the Ottoman legacy, and the replacement of citizenship with ‘Islamic brotherhood’ under a new set of ideological references?
Can any of this really give rise to any genuine revolutionary aspirations?
In an era where the legacy of the Republic is devalued into Ottomanism by rhetoric of “domestic and national”, where millions overwhelmed by poverty and a lack of future are being persuaded that “a good and beneficial capitalist class” can exist, and where the Kurdish people’s yearning for equality is being surrendered to a Barzani-style capitalist brotherhood, some can still choose to fight against a great founding moment from a century ago and get excited about today’s operation, desperately trying to grab a role today.
But today, we take the knee before the heroes of the founding and liberation a century ago, so as not to take the knee before imperialism, reactionism, and capitalism.
They now brought the country on the verge of collapse.
There’s no choice. If you oppose collapse of this country, you have to take up the struggle to dismantle the capitalist system.
If you are among those who say “This has never been my country”…
I can but suggest watching the documentary “the Raft of Medusa” (documentary about recent history of Turkey by soL TV YouTube channel) again.
tkp.org.tr
