May Day 2025: “No Liberation Alone - Either All Together or None of Us!”

May Day is an internationalist tradition that began 136 years ago, gradually becoming celebrated across all nations through the efforts of the socialist workers’ movement. As Engels once stated, it is the day when the working class of modern countries mobilises “as a single army, under one banner, for one common aim”. Since its inception, it has been observed as the international day of working-class unity, struggle and solidarity – a living expression of the fraternity and unity of the global proletariat. For this reason, its commemoration has mirrored the development of class struggle in various countries: sometimes through massive demonstrations, at other times through more modest gatherings, while consistently bearing the imprint of the most pressing workers’ demands of each era.

May Day celebrations in this country date back to the Ottoman era (1909), when they began being observed in major cities. Even during the years of imperialist occupation, these commemorations persisted undeterred. Subsequently, under the CHP’s single-party dictatorship, nearly fifty years of bans and repression attempted to erase this tradition – until 1976, when DİSK’s efforts restored May Day observances. Since then, every May Day has revealed the class anxieties of Turkey’s utterly cowardly bourgeoisie and successive governments. Though the decade-long ban imposed by the September 12 regime was overcome through actual struggles, restrictions on public gatherings –particularly in Taksim Square– along with police blockades have continued relentlessly.

The broad masses of the working class, owing to disorganisation and the consequent regression in consciousness, largely fail to grasp the historical and class significance of May Day, their collective memory having been significantly eroded. Yet the same cannot be said for the bourgeoisie – the ruling class remains thoroughly organised at every level, particularly through the bourgeois state, suffering no such amnesia; their fears persist undiminished, their historical experience remains vivid. This year again, driven by these very fears, the rulers have not refrained from employing pressure and prohibitions to restrict, curb and confine May Day celebrations to isolated areas. However, Turkey’s fascist regime finds itself in the most precarious situation of its history. While certain international developments have reignited its survival anxieties, its miscalculations in political manoeuvres against establishment opposition have backfired. The accumulated discontent and anger among working masses has consequently erupted onto the streets, with this wave of protest continuing unabated – a profound source of alarm for the fascist regime’s masters. Determined to demonstrate its refusal to back down, the regime blocked Istanbul’s European side on May Day: metro stations were shuttered, maritime and road transport disabled, main roads closed to traffic, while Taksim Square was fortified with police barricades and tens of thousands of policemen. Moreover, dozens of socialists –including trade union officials– were detained in major cities like Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir since several days before May 1. On May Day itself, over 400 were arrested amid police brutality targeting those attempting to reach Taksim.

Despite all these measures, May Day was celebrated across dozens of cities, most prominently in Istanbul. The rallies, organised more extensively than in previous years, stood out through their mass participation. Hundreds of thousands of workers flooded the squares in Istanbul, İzmir, Ankara and numerous other cities, voicing not only economic and social demands but political ones as well. While anti-regime protests marked the gatherings, calls for freeing political prisoners and demands for justice resounded from every platform.

Istanbul –the beating heart of Turkey’s working class and socialist movement– once again hosted the largest May Day celebrations this year. In Istanbul (and similarly in Ankara), where the divisive stance of Türk-İş’s leadership –now effectively an apparatus of the regime– prevented unified May Day observances, two separate rallies were held in Kartal and Kadıköy. While Türk-İş-affiliated unions gathered in Kartal, DISK, KESK, TMMOB and TTB organised the Kadıköy rally, joined by socialist organisations. The Kadıköy demonstration, attended by tens of thousands, was marked by prominent anti-regime sentiment, evident both in the platform speeches and throughout the gathering. Significantly, despite Türk-İş leadership’s deliberate decision to keep their member unions’ workers away from squares where anti-regime protests were concentrated, Kartal too witnessed tens of thousands of workers chanting: “No liberation alone – either all together or none of us!” and “We shall win through unity!”. Moreover, with public sector workers in collective bargaining processes –many ending in deadlock– the contingents of Türk-İş-affiliated unions appeared more numerous and spirited not just in Istanbul but across other cities.

Yet while Turkey witnessed an unprecedented wave of militancy following the regime’s 19 March assault –beginning in Istanbul and spreading nationwide, mobilising millions, with popular resistance still vigorous–the May Day rallies could have drawn even greater mass participation from unionised workers. Unfortunately, the weakness of the working class as an organised force persists as a formidable barrier, compounded by how its organised segments remain encircled by the heavy repression of capital and the regime through trade union bureaucracies. The ruling class understands perfectly well that nothing could contain the working class should it erupt under capitalism’s multi-frontal assaults. Precisely for this reason, the fascist regime –now in serious straits– along with all factions of capital, dreads nothing more than the working class rising as an organised force. Consequently, the AKP government has spent two decades crafting labour and trade union laws into veritable straitjackets to thwart worker organisation and prevent unions adopting militant positions. Union cadres attempting to break this stranglehold face purges, while militant workers are punished with unemployment – that is, with starvation.

Yet after nine years of rule, the fascist regime has pushed society to the brink of explosion. Workers and toilers –strangled by both economic strangulation and fascist repression– are now unleashing their fury through every available channel, with all layers from industrial labourers to students, from peasants to pensioners joining this rising tide of resistance.

The significant presence and dynamism of youth at this year’s May Day rallies stands as another indicator of society’s transformation. Young people –predominantly university students– participated in large contingents, carrying banners identifying their universities. Beyond their numbers, their energetic presence demonstrated the continuing radicalisation that began after the regime’s 19 March crackdown. As during the 19 March resistance, May Day revealed youth moving beyond sectoral demands to embrace broader political struggles. Their frequent chants of “No liberation alone – either all together or none of us!” and “Shoulder to shoulder against fascism!” in student contingents, alongside slogans affirming solidarity with the working class, manifested this political awakening. After decades of depoliticisation through multiple factors, university youth now acutely feel how capital’s assaults and the fascist regime’s suffocating repression have stolen their future. This dynamic will undoubtedly persist in the coming period.

In the struggle against the regime and the capitalist order, the decisive factor remains the working class entering the arena as an organised force. This constitutes the urgent task demanding concentrated efforts from all socialists, advanced workers, and militant trade unionists.