It is their task to raise the unconscious or semi-conscious processes within the movement to the level of revolutionary consciousness and organisation, to turn the spontaneous struggle of the working class into an organised struggle for the overthrow of capitalism! And this can only be achieved through the creation of a revolutionary organisation capable of leading the working class on an international scale.

One should never be misled by the cheap heroism of the Turkish bourgeoisie - its government, official opposition, organisations of capital, General Staff - that gives a false impression of anti war attitude. There cannot be a common point between the genuine anti war attitude of the overwhelming majority of the working class and toiling masses and the attitude of bourgeoisie. Because their problem is not their conscience but wallets. What troubles them is not mutual massacring of sons of poor people but whether they will profit from the adventure of war they will set out. Now the Turkish bourgeoisie comparatively reckons the loss and profit in case of both giving and not giving support to war in Iraq. So the prospect of an imperialist war exposes the disgusting face of capitalism in a blatant way.

The No to war in Iraq demo that was called by a Co-ordinating Committee made up of about 150 different organisations, including trade-unions, political parties, democratic mass organisations and various political journals and papers, was held on December 1 in Istanbul. Around 20,000 people turned up. This turnout was low for a country that faces the threat of war right next door across the border. That this number was very low becomes evident when we take into consideration that an overwhelming majority of 80-90 percent of the population is against the war according to the opinion polls and that 100,000 turned up for the May Day demo.

Under conditions of deep economic crisis, mass unemployment and war, Turkey will be shaken to its foundations. Erdogan and the AKP have no answer to the problems faced by the masses. After an initial period of lull, as the masses digest their experience, there will be the beginnings of a mass movement, particularly on the industrial front, which will bring the working class into collision with this government. The stage will be set for an enormous upswing of the class struggle in Turkey.

Although the blow inflicted by the toiling masses against the rotten bourgeois parties is welcome, we understand that, unless they are organised, the masses cannot reform this system. Nor can they resist the attacks of the capitalist system, whatever bourgeois party they bring to power. The task of communists, contrary to the propaganda of the bourgeois liberal priests, is to transform the anger of the working class into a conscious opposition to the system. Their task is to organise the struggle effectively, and prepare the way for the underlying opposition to the system to express itself clearly and prove itself on the streets. Now the broad masses are expecting jobs, democracy etc., from the AKP government. ... The truth has to be explained and the advanced layers need to be organised. This task falls on our shoulders. In a bid to save its morale, the bourgeoisie is presenting the AKP government as opening up a new period where its own interests can be defended. A new period also opens up for us, in which we need to step up the struggle in the interests of our class, the working class.

Turkey is now engulfed in economic crises never seen before. There are aspects of recent crises peculiar to Turkey, but the source of problem is essentially the world capitalism. As a result of economic programs dictated by the imperialist organisations like World Bank and IMF, Turkish economy constantly resorts to devaluations and lives with loans. Turkey is now one of the eight most indebted countries of the world. The total amount of its debts is nearly $210 billion.

As membership of Cyprus to the EU draws closer, the pressure exerted by liberals in the Turkish press on Denktas (the president of the so-called, but unrecognised KKTC, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) has been increasing. All of a sudden they have started to complain about how many millions of dollars Cyprus has cost Turkey in these hard times of economic crisis, and what a huge fetter this is for Turkey’s entry into the EU. The debate has swiftly turned into a blunt choice of “whether to abandon Cyprus or annex it”.

It is very important to overcome the theoretical confusion reproduced at a more intellectual level by some “revolutionary Marxist” circles who adapted themselves tothe Third Worldism and hoodwinked by these movements. Here, we only touch briefly on the matters such as; why and how in backward countries had the petty-bourgeois leaderships entered a road which led to the liquidation of capitalism; what kind of problems arise in relation to the permanent revolution and where does the solution of these problems lie in our opinion. But first of all, it is necessary to take a glance at how in Trotskyist movement had this question been attempted to solve.

Before the working class, there is no choice other than utilizing from war for proletarian world revolution and pointing the weapons at the enemy at home by turning imperialist war into a civil war. It is also clear that, the proletariat cannot fulfil this task in an unorganized and spontaneous way. Unless there is not a powerful International capable of leading it on a world scale, it is impossible for proletariat to accomplish a victorious revolution that will prevent a likely imperialist partitioning war or to turn imperialist war into a civil war.

Capitalism makes the mankind suffer hell. The reign of a handful capitalists makes billions of people all over the planet suffer in the grip of hunger, poverty and deprivation, unemployment, incredible inequality and injustice, bloody wars, oppression and torture, endless decay and alienation. The only force that can save mankind from this swamp and lead it to socialism is the working class which is said to be “extinct”. The truth is that, the billions who strive to survive through selling their labour force in return for a wage, i.e. the working class, still have nothing to lose but their chains. But they have a world to win!