Taking advantage of the complex and composed title of the international meeting this year, I would like to focus on some problems that the communist movement all over the world is facing and share my party’s views about the possible actions and initiatives to challenge those problems. The perception of the problems and the outcomes might sound Turkish or regional but we think that they have a strong universal character.
Loosing the reference point
As you know, during the congress of the Communist Party this July, comrades from Venezuela organized an international seminar. There in my contribution, I tried the underline the urgency for a systematic Marxist approach related with the developments in Latin America. There are progressive and even revolutionary changes in the continent which are basically not fitting the traditional working class struggle pattern and the leading political forces of the changes are still not the communist or working class parties. There is no need to convince each other on the unique character of this process; it is obvious and exciting for all of us. New elements in political life are emerging and there are real opportunities not only for Latin American parties but for all of us.
However analysing, getting accurate information and even constructing concrete political positions on this dynamic process does not fulfil the needs of the communist parties. It is time to test our theoretical heritage; I mean the marxist-leninist thinking on the task to systematize the process without creating clumsy schemes or dogmas. The basis for this task can not be simply, understanding what is going on. It is very dangerous to stick on the pure reality without placing it into a clear-cut perspective which should always be our way to a socialist revolution. There is no other reference point for Marxism-leninism; the strength of our intellectual potential and its practical capability can only be realized by accepting the “socialist revolution” as a central element.
The problem here is the reality, not only in Latin America but also in the Middle East where the resistance against imperialism is at most taking a patriotic character rather than a progressive or revolutionary one. Generally and frankly speaking, the possibility of a socialist revolution in most cases is a little detail as long as the current developments are concerned. Thus, no one can propose a childish and pointless agenda and pretend as we are in the very eve of the socialist revolution.
However there is an urgent need for the communist forces to re-evaluate the meaning of being communist politically, to seek for re-establishing a strong and solid tie with the core of Marxism-leninism, that is the socialist revolution. Without such a tie, communism can only be an extension of the existing capitalist system. We should all think about getting rid of the excuses we create to legitimize the gap between our daily political work with the socialist perspective. This for sure decreases our credibility among the masses and pushes forward some other political forces like nationalists or fundamentalists.
I’m saying excuses because the so-called objective realities in each country are really used as excuses in many cases. If a country is underdeveloped we say that there is no room for a genuine working class strategy. That’s fine. But we go on with a developed capitalist country and than we suddenly realise how huge is the middle strata and try to find out how we can avoid frightening this strata. If there is no democracy our slogan is “fight for democracy” and if there is some democracy than we suddenly realize that masses are not ready for big leaps forward! What should we do? Try to apply the revolutionary theory on Moon or Mars?
Imperialism: Is not so important in imperialist countries?
Another important thing that I want to speak about is the struggle against imperialism. This is a key issue, a vital task for the communist movement. Yet, we are far beyond to fulfil the requirements of this task. I’m afraid if we continue to percept struggling against imperialism as a one-sided responsibility we will not be able to practice any achievement. To be more precise, I simply want to say that, anti-imperialist struggle needs more efforts coming from the imperialist countries. It is obvious that our movement has shortcomings from top to the toe and no one is in the position to put the blame on the other parties. However, we all have to accept that the experience of the working class movement within the imperialist countries has created a number of debates during the 20th century and unfortunately not all can be seen as a matter of the past.
We all know that Marx and Engels, although they tried a lot, could not eliminate the reformist tendencies within the social democrat movement in Germany which became the locomotive of the international working class movement just after the Paris Commune in 1871. We have to take into account the reality that the rise of the German social democracy coincides with the rise of German imperialism. What I’m telling has nothing to do with undermining the historical role of the German working class during the late 19th century but it is not at all surprising to see the social democrat leaders on the eve of the First World War to shake hands with their own bourgeoisie. There is clear evidence that the same happened with Lassalle and Bismarck years and years ago.
The ideological hegemony of the ruling classes exercised on the working class in the imperialist countries is one of the most important challenges that we communists are facing for over a century. The illusions about democracy; the missionary attitudes to transfer “civilization” or whatever so, to the backward east; anti-sovietism etc., these are all related to what I try to mention.
Social democrat tendencies within the working class are not so simple as giving away class struggles. Those tendencies have organic ties with imperialism that is to say they play a dominant role in imposing imperialist ideological and political initiatives not only to the working class in their country but to the oppressed people all around the world.
It is not by chance that during the First World War, the social democrat leaders were promoting liberty for the Serbs, for the Arabs, for the Armenians, for the Polish people and so on. This was an excuse for supporting one or the other imperialist alliance. Well, this does also fit to our times. The aggression against Yugoslavia got the support of some elements in the European working class because of this tradition. This is why there is still some confusion among progressive forces about what is happening in Iraq. This country has been ruined by the worst super power in the history and we are still discussing democratization of Iraq, we are still asking the question whether the people fighting against the occupying army are patriotic forces of resistance or terrorists!
To fight against imperialism cannot be the task for only the oppressed people or for the communist parties that are struggling in a dependent country. Comrades, we have to take the issue “imperialism” seriously and try to combine the work in the imperialist countries with the entire world.
And to start with, the communist forces should secure two points, that is never lose the class basis, never lose the anti-capitalist essence and never in an objective or subjective basis take part in imperialist projects.
Let us focus on few examples from my country and the region just to get an idea what in reality this problem means.
In Turkey starting from the beginning of the 80’s, the revolutionary spirit was mainly represented by the Kurdish movement when the working class was suffering from the blow that came from the military fascist junta. We were all enthusiastic about the fight of the Kurdish people for their freedom, for their democratic rights and so on… However comrades, we were also trying to influence this movement to have a close relation with the Turkish working class and take an anti-imperialist stand. What the leadership saying was that the freedom of the Kurds would create suitable conditions for solving other problems in Turkey and help the other oppressed people in the region. Many progressive parties in Europe also supported this idea, the freedom of Kurdish people was something transcendental, something that is beyond anything. Than came pragmatism, playing or flirting with big powers, to use any instrument for the ultimate goal. Where does this type of politics end? Last month there was an interview with the military leader of PKK who said that “with our 7,000 armed militants we are ready to help United States in the fight against terror” and he pointed Iran! Well we all know the same happened in Iraq and I don’t want to get into details.
We should all know that the terms freedom and democracy, are fatal for all of us without a class based socialist perspective and a clear cut anti-imperialist position.
Do we need any other proof? Than we can speak about Cyprus where trying to solve the problem or try to end the occupation with in the super diplomacy completely failed. We can also speak about the candidacy of Turkey to European Union. Some insist that the process will help Turkish working class to exercise more freedom. The realities show just the opposite. But comrades if there was concrete, empiric data that is supporting the idea that there are some positive elements among the so-called European Union reforms as long as freedom and democracy is concerned, we would still say that this is harming the working class in Turkey as it is strengthening the hegemony of imperialism, as it is strengthening the hegemony of capital.
The communist heritage, the Leninist tradition is rich enough to avoid falling to this trap, getting rid of two chronic problems that I mentioned would be a great start.
Kemal Okuyan (General Secretary of the Central Committee)
(A draft translation and abridged version)