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This is the English translation, in somewhat abbreviated form, of an article published in Turkish on the web site of DIP on 11 August 2019 (https://gercekgazetesi.net/gundemdekiler/firatin-dogusunda-nato-koridoru...). An even more emphatic article along the same lines was published on the web site of DIP several days ago (https://gercekgazetesi.net/gundemdekiler/dun-de-bugun-de-yarin-da-plan-a...).According to the latest news, the analysis in the article you are about to read to the effect that, despite all appearances to the contrary, the United States is, in fact, more than happy to let the Turkish army control the north of Syria, west and now east of the Euphrates, since this would mean NATO control of the region against the twin targets of the US, Iran and Syria. The concept “NATO corridor”, it should be noted, is the answer given by DIP to the supposed “Kurdish corridor” that the US is alleged to be building with a view to create a “greater Kurdistan” extending all the...

On the 27th October 2019, general elections, including a presidential vote, will be held in Argentina, a key country of Latin America, rocked by the deepest economic crisis in the capitalist world at this moment and an ascendancy of workers’ struggles, be it the piquetero movement of the unemployed, the resistance of workers of factories that are closing down, the state workers of Chubut in Patagonia and still others. The major candidates for president are Mauricio Macri, the incumbent president, and Alberto Fernández, joint candidate of various Peronist tendencies with the definitive stamp of Cristina Fernández Kirchner, twice president between 2007-2015 and considered to be the nationalist left-wing of the Peronist movement. The result of the presidential election is almost certain: The primary elections (so-called PASO) of 11^th August have clearly given a quasi insurmountable lead to Alberto Fernández.

The great poet of the dawn of the bourgeois age, William Shakepeare, in what is probably his most renowned play, Hamlet, has one of his charaters say, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, words that have become engraved, like many a Shakespearean line, in the common memory of humanity. Had Mahmoud Darwish, the great poet of the Palestinian revolt, not passed away in 2008, he would possibly have written a verse today, in allusion to that of Shakespeare, depicting out times: “Something is bleeding and seething in the Arab world”.

11 Ağustos’ta gerçekleşen ön seçimler (PASO) Arjantin’de neredeyse eşi görülmemiş bir durum yarattı. Derin bir ekonomik krizin bir yıldan fazla süredir yıkıcı bir hal izlediği ülkede, iktidardaki Macri hükümeti krizin yükünü emekçi kitlelerin omuzuna yüklemek ve böylelikle burjuvaziye verdiği sözleri yerine getirmek için İMF ile olan iş birliğini devam ettirmek adına ikinci bir dönem daha iktidarda olmak istiyordu. En büyük rakibi tarihi Peronist hareketin Kirchnerci kanadıydı. Macri'nin 2015 yılında iktidarı devralmasına kadar iki kez cumhurbaşkanı olan Cristina Fernández Kirchner, sözüm ona sol yönelimi nedeniyle uluslararası burjuvazinin günah keçisi idi. Günün somut koşullarını değerlendiren bu burjuva siyasetçisi, kendisine ortak aday olarak uluslararası finans kapitalin adamı olan Alberto Fernández’i (sadece isim benzerliği, mevcut iki aday arasında akrabalık yok) seçti. Kirchner’in Frente de Todos’u (Herkesin Cephesi) Macri’nin Cambiemos’unun (Değişelim) ana rakibi oldu.

El sistema político-administrativo turco está históricamente moldeado según el sistema francés clásico (es decir, pre-UE) de centralismo unitario, de modo que los gobernadores de las 81 provincias de Turquía (la contraparte de los departamentos en Francia) son simplemente funcionarios del estado central, cuyas carreras pueden también incluir, y a menudo lo hacen, el puesto de jefe de policía, o los puestos de gobernante y superintendente de policía, ambos vinculados al ministerio del interior. Así, la nueva configuración implica que la administración de las tres ciudades de Diyarbakır, Van y Mardin será ejercida por la administración central, prácticamente aboliendo, para estas tres provincias principales, el así llamado sistema municipal o sistema de gobierno local, que ha sido un pilar histórico de la burguesía turca. De hecho, para encontrar una situación en la cual los cargos de gobernador provincial y de alcalde fueran ocupadas por una misma persona designada centralmente, ¡hay que remontarse al periodo anterior a 1960!

The text below is a statement that puts forth the position of DIP with respect to the dismissal, by administrative fiat, of three metropolitan mayors of Turkish Kurdistan by the Minister of the Interior and their replacement by the governors of the provinces in question as administrators. It was published (in Turkish) on 19th August, immediately after the government made public its decision. The Turkish political-administrative system has historically been modelled after the classsical (i.e. pre-EU) French centralist unitary system, so that the governors of the 81 provinces of Turkey (the counterpart of the départements in France) are simply civil servants of the central state, whose career can and often does also include the post of police chief, the posts of governor and police superintendent both being tied to the ministry of the interior. Thus, the new setup implies the administration of the three cities of Diyarbakır, Van and Mardin by the central administration, practically abolishing, for these three major provinces, the municipal system or the system of local government, which has been a mainstay of the Turkish bourgeois state in living memory. Indeed, one has to go...

Two weeks ago the outbreak of youth of Ethiopian origin in Israel was felt in the streets of several cities, including Kirya Haim, the northern city where an Israeli policeman killed Salomon Teka, a young man of 18 years of Ethiopian origin, with a bullet in the back at the night of June 30th.
The demonstrations took place violently in several parts of Israel, but a week of demonstrations continued in 14 places, including Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Beersheva and Jerusalem, where thousands of demonstrators of non-Ethiopian origin also expressed their solidarity with the members of the Jewish black community. As we wrote in Prensa Obrera (paper of the Partido Obrero of Argentina) in May 2015 on the occasion of a similar uprising because of the police beating of a young Ethiopian soldier at that time, the revolt shows the class character of the most exploited and segregated Jewish community within the Jewish state.

After a sit-in that lasted close to two months (from 6 April to 3 June), which brought down the 30-year rule of the hated dictator Omar al-Bashir on 11 April, after the massacre of more than a hundred people on 3 June by the Rapid Support Forces (the militia formed by the fallen dictator, which had played a sinister role in the events in Darfour under the name of Janjaweed), after the revolution raised its head once again, with hundreds of thousands, even millions coming out on 30 June, the ruling Transitional Military Council and the opposition Forces for Freedom and Change (formerly Alliance for Freedom and Change) declared on 5 July that they have finally come to an agreement. The previous negotiations, before they were interrupted by the massacre of 3 June, had led to the shared resolution of forming a so-called Sovereign Council that would appoint the government and oversee the transition to a civilian democratic rule, but had faltered over the question of which side would have a majority on the said council. The two sides have now come to an agreement that is based on five seats for each side plus one member being appointed by consensus.

A month has gone by since the European elections. In this while RedMed brought light and insight for its readers on the national results of 11 countries in 8 articles. Of the six largest countries, five were covered: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland. Two more central and eastern European countries were taken up in addition to Poland, Hungary and Romania. The three Nordic countries members of the European Union (EU), i.e. Sweden, Denmark, and Finland were taken up together. And finally, Greece, the enfant terrible of the EU, was given special attention, through a party document of our sister organiser of RedMed, the EEK.

Solo ha transcurrido un año en la presidencia de Erdoğan, elegido el 24 de junio de 2018, pero el pueblo de Estambul ya les ha dado la espalda a él y a sus aliados. La gente castigó al AKP y sus aliados por la decisión ilegítima del Consejo Supremo Electoral de revocar y repetir las elecciones locales en Estambul. En esta elección que se repite bajo las condiciones prevalecientes de una de las crisis económicas más duras en Turquía, junto con las graves crisis políticas, el partido gobernante que codiciaba el pan y los votos de la gente perdió. A pesar de los gritos de “fraude electoral” por parte de la coalición AKP-MHP, el margen de votación aumentó aún más y el candidato del CHP-IYI, Ekrem Imamoglu, ahora es declarado alcalde de Estambul. ¡El margen inicial de 20 mil aumentó 40 veces hasta 800 mil votos!

A conference on the historical legacy of Lev Davidovitch Trotsky took place in the capital of Cuba, Havana, in May. The Juan Marinello Cultural Research Centre, the Franz Hinkelammert Critical Social Thought Desk and the Philosophy Department of University of Havana organised this event. In addition to Cubans, many participants from Latin America, North America as well as Europe and Asia were present. The historical importance of this conference lay in the fact that this was the first event taking place in this land of revolution, after the construction of a workers’ state in Cuba and 60 years after the revolution. This call made to revolutionary Marxists of the entire world, at a moment where the conquests of the Cuban revolution as well as the very existence of the workers’ state is under the threat of imperialist aggression and bureaucratic oscillations, this international conference was of extraordinary importance from the standpoint of the struggle against capitalist restoration.

We continue our series on the European Elections of 2019 with an article on Germany written by Kurtar Tanyılmaz after eight articles about the results in Hungary, Romania, Greece, Italy, France, Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark and Finland, Poland and Spain.

When compared to previous elections, the recent European Parliament (EP) elections, which have been held in the 28 European Union (EU) member countries between the dates May 23^rd -26^th, had a remarkably high voter turnout rate (51%), out of a total electorate of 400 million voters. Influence of the pre-election call for “no vote for the nationationalist and racist parties” on the voters seems to have played an important role in boosting that high turnout. However, it neither helped the center-right (conservative Christian democratic parties mostly) and center–left (traditional social democratic parties) recover from their long-lasting decline nor impeded the rise of liberal, green, and racist-national parties.   

After six articles on the results of the European elections in Hungary, Romania, Greece, Italy, and France and the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, and Finland) we continue our series with an article on Poland by our friend Ewa Grosewska. 

The European elections in Poland were running in the context of not much substantive fight between the ruling party Law and Justice ( Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS)) and the opposition – Citizens’ Platform ( Platforma Obywatelska (PO)).

After a general survey and four articles on the elections to the European Parliament in Hungary, Romania, Greece and Italy we continue our series with France with an article in French by our comrade Guy Hesser from ROR (Renaissance Ouvrière Révolutionnaire). Inquiets, les représentants des parti bourgeois et leur presse ont commencé par saluer un bond de participation de nature à re-légitimer les institutions européennes. Cependant, la divine surprise ne résiste pas aux statistiques données par le ministère de l’Intérieur. Sur 47 344 860 inscrits les votants n’ont été que 50,12 % et les abstentionnistes 49,88 %, à quoi il faut ajouter les votes blancs et nuls, plus tous ceux qui ne sont même plus inscrits sur les listes électorales, en particulier dans les quartiers populaires, tant ils constatent l’inutilité d’élections qui ne changent rien à leur vie (quand l’électorat n’est pas purement spolié du résultat des élections comme ce fut le cas lors de la consultation sur le prétendu traité constitutionnel en 2005). L’électorat populaire, dans toutes ses composantes, le monde du travail, est donc largement resté à l’écart des européennes.

After a general survey and two country studies on Hungary and Romania, we continue with an article by the Central Comitte of EEK (Workers Revolutionary Party) of Greece.

1.   The political Waterloo of Syriza gave the electoral victory to the right-wing “|New Democracy”. The people did not forget the miserable Tsipras’ capitulation in front of the Troika in 2015, the savage “austerity” measures of the third and worst “Memorandum of Understanding” which followed, his servile attachment to the chariot of EU and NATO, even to the war drive adventures of Trump’s America in the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans.

The head of the European parliamentary group of Syriza Papadimoulis from Brussels or any other apologists of Syriza dare now to attack the Greek people saying that “they forgot what is the Right”. Who, though, forgot the people itself? Who are guilty for the defamation of the name, the history, and the sacrifices of the Left in Greece?

We will be publishing articles on the results of the elections to the European Parliament of 2019 written by our comrades and friends from the different countries. After a general overview by our comrade Sungur Savran, we are beginning the country surveys with Hungary, with an article by our friend Matyas Benyik.

One last grace period. The elections to the European Parliament have provided one last chance to the organised working class movement of Europe and the left before the storm. The proto-fascist movement, which the whole world persistently and blindly names “populist”, attained great success in these elections, but nonetheless this was not the kind of victory that will create havoc immediately tomorrow. Moreover, the movement ran on two different slates for the European Parliament. It is, in other words, divided. Hence, in the short term, in the aftermath of the election, it would be incorrect to say that proto-fascism will create an immediate danger for the people on the scale of Europe as a whole. In certain countries taken singly the question may arise. Striking develoments may unfold in some of the bigger countries (starting with Italy, France, and Britain, in each of which the proto-fascist parties came first), with the proto-fascist movement becoming an important element in the day to day life of the country (in Italy this had already commenced since the Lega of Salvini joined a power-sharing scheme and became a ruling party). So in the short term the danger is distant for...

1.    Europe is being transformed rapidly into a crucial battlefield of an international class warfare.

        The persistent, six months long, struggle of the Gillets Jaunes in France, the workers revolt in Hungary against the “slavery law” introduced by the far right nationalist Orban’s regime, the mass unrest and demonstrations in Serbia, Albania, Romania, and all over the Balkans, are the prelude to a new tide of social confrontations and political upheavals in the European Continent.

This is English translation of the statement of the Revolutionary Workers Party (DIP), amply adapted for the international reader and slightly abbreviated, on the decision of the Supreme Electoral Board (YSK) of the country for a rerun of the elections for the Istanbul Mayor.

The repeal of the elections for the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality by the Supreme Electoral Board (YSK in its Turkish acronym) upon the request of the AKP and the MHP [respectively the party of Erdoğan and the traditional fascist party of Turkey which has been an Erdoğan ally lately] is the latest and most striking instance of the chaining of the people’s will by the despotic regime of Erdoğan. The decision made by the YSK is a breach of electoral law, as well as of its own jurisprudence and even of the precedents that it set itself for the 31st March local elections.