Every Moment of the Oppressed is a Crisis! – Atakan Polat
Every moment of an oppressed person is a crisis. We are born into a crisis that has been going on for centuries, and this crisis rises at the age when we start to sell our labor; By hours and days, it continues by selling our lives. Even life itself turns into crisis, transformed. We always hear the words “the burden of the crisis”; living becomes a burden for us oppressed. Unpaid invoices, pocket money that cannot be paid, books that cannot be received, calluses sinking as they walk, waist twisted by working… Even the university diploma of the oppressed often turns into a crisis with unemployment. They are all crises and crises never subsided.
Every moment of an oppressed person is a crisis. The economic crises of the governments are added, but these crises do not develop involuntarily. The crisis that powers use to grow, gain and exploit more; the rich get rich, the poor get poor.
Today we are in a crisis again, this time in the corona crisis. Maybe many of us thought we were in a health crisis, but when the places we worked were closed, we all faced the fact that the issue was economic for the governments. We learned that with the new bans announced overnight, cafes, restaurants and bars were closed and we were unemployed. We learned, but we could not learn why the places where tens of thousands of us work were closed when everywhere was open.
In the corona crisis, many bans were imposed. And we were among the segments whose lives were most upset by these prohibitions, as workers working in cafes, restaurants and bars. It’s not just a joblessness. It was said that the money will be distributed under the name of short work allowance, but to those who have the appropriate conditions. If our conditions were suitable, that is, even if we were lucky, we did not know how to meet our needs with the short work allowance we received. But we knew that the short-time work allowance, which was shown as grace, was actually covered by the unemployment insurance fund that the state created by stealing from our salaries for every day we worked. So even when the state had to reluctantly give us back what it stole from us, it was trying to make our lives appear to be owed to it.
It was also said that it was forbidden to lay off workers in this crisis. Well, most of us were already working without insurance… The bosses fired us as they wanted whenever they wanted. We, the workers of cafes, restaurants and bars, who were employed without insurance during the corona crisis, were the first to be discarded. We were not prohibited from firing because we were not “officially” employed. The experiences of our insured ones were not much different. Because firing was forbidden, but it was not forbidden to sign a letter of resignation with the threat of “paying the salary”. Can you find any numbers regarding the workers who resigned from their jobs or were forced to do so? Can any institution of the state publish data on this? It does not explain because it does not suit those who exploit us, our labor, our future.
We are in a crisis right now and we don’t have five cents piled up in the corner. Because the money earned daily is spent daily and the money we earn in one day is not enough to accumulate. Way to go, the food goes, it goes to the phone bill … Accumulated five penny with us or the unemployed in a few days after Turkey’s standards of healthy and average budget should be allocated for a balanced diet 2 thousand 447 Liras 72 cents, the budget should be allocated for necessities average of 7 thousand 973 Liras that we learned As thousands of uninsured café, restaurant and bar workers, we wake up every day to keep up with the day, but the government’s “grant” to our insured ones with these bans is not enough to even pass near these standards.
When what we have is not enough to live, he spends the money that is not there; We borrow money from banks. Unless we can pay our debts, we will borrow even more. As we borrow money, the owners of the banks and the state that shakes hands with them will win. I don’t know who is a billionaire, who doubled his wealth in this period and the economy grew by 6.7 percent according to TURKSTAT data. This is the case not only in the land we live in, but in all geographies. At the end of July 2020, the wealth of approximately 2 thousand 189 richest people in the world reached a record 10.2 trillion dollars. Not only did billionaires’ billions increase, new billionaires were added to billionaires. The unemployed were added to the unemployed and the poor to the poor for the exploiters to exploit more easily.
Every moment of an oppressed person is a crisis. So who wants to live with crisis? Nobody wants. It is necessary to take to the streets with the oppressed like us to know that the rulers are unjust and to create a just world in order to eliminate crises. Emma Goldman said years ago: “Ask for work. If they don’t give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.” It is obvious that those who take our work, our bread and our future will not give what they want. We know that we cannot meet our needs unless we come together, shoulder to shoulder. And yet, today, as throughout history: They will not give, we will take! ■
Atakan Polat Genç İşçi Derneği (Young Workers Association)
Originally Posted: http://gencisci.org/ezilenin-her-ani-kriz-atakan-polat/
Shared without permission. Automatically Translated.
May 1st is the day of struggle and solidarity. For centuries, workers have been rebelling against the persecution of bosses and the injustice of capitalism in their workplaces; they bring their struggles together in the streets and squares. This year, we enter May 1st on days that are extraordinary for us every day, but this time for the rich. The corona crisis has become a new one of the ongoing crises of the system for young workers who are in crisis every day. We had to grapple with difficulties as hundreds of thousands and millions, both desperate and unconcerned, as well as those who stayed in their homes with their accumulated, paid leave or who did not need a salary to close home already. The struggle for us is every day in our lives, where we have to choose between working disease and staying hungry.
We speak as young workers, those who serve their homes closed under the name of corona virus outbreak measures. It is now time to raise our voices, which we maintain between cashiers, we deliver from one cargo engine to another, and we whisper between parcels on our back, and orders in the kitchens.
Who are we? We are young workers, we are forced to work even under the most inoperable conditions.
We are cargo workers, in our workplaces where measures are regarded as expense or delayed, we are forced to keep up with an increased workload. The simplest mask, as if we had to touch what hundreds and thousands of people touched from home to home, from warehouse to home every day, are the ones who eat little by little in our disinfectant demand. In these days when walking around the street is prohibited, we are the ones carrying shoes from warehouses to houses.
We are warehouse workers. Among the boxes we have to raise for cargoes, we measure the limits of the product that a person can carry by forcing them with his body. We are paying the increase in the workload due to the epidemic by decreasing our salaries despite the increase in working hours.
We are market workers. We are seen as snoring as a source of virus in workplaces where the human tail is not missing at the door. On days when people are afraid to spend even 1 hour outside, we have no employees working for less than 13 hours. Precautionary preparations are not even included in working hours. We are the ones who take care of the departments that they are not interested in before and who are forced to do things that are not responsible.
We are fast food workers. We are those who are not paid or delayed while working in the world’s largest chains. As a reason for this, we are billed for less incoming orders. We are forced to be even faster in the industry where we work fast.
We are waiters, komis, dishwashers who are fired; In this system of injustices, where we do not have the luxury to close home, we are the ones who are taken away from work. We are workers who are forced to use their annual leave and sometimes even use it as luxury.
FOR SOME FREE LEAVE FOR SOME
We, the young workers, have been the most exploited and the most oppressed since the beginning of the process. This violence continued to increase to our friends working in different service sectors, where precarious, flexible working conditions are used as a weapon. While only a few of the workers working in secure jobs were on paid leave, none of the service workers had paid leave. Those who can take leave are either used their annual leave or leave for free leave and are sentenced to starvation at 39 lira per day.
EMPLOYEE EXPLOITATION ALWAYS MORE
For those of us who have to work to live and whose sector is not directly affected, precautions were presented as a reason for our struggle with increasing workload. Our working hours participated in the preparatory phase of the mandatory measures. We have worked more in the workplaces where we have always worked more, this time with our salaries reduced by half. The government said that layoffs were prohibited, but many of us were already laid off until the whole process was over. Legal cases were created for unpaid leaves, with the excuse of banning layoffs.
In the epidemic, capitalism continued to exploit child labor without slowing down. For other young workers, double standard practices… After the declaration of curfew under the age of 20, young workers who could work with a permit were granted “privilege”. A small amount of assistance for basic foodstuffs and other needs could not be accessed, we were forced to take care of our families trying to get along.
We are entering May 1st when we are most aware of the increasing pressure, exploitation, and our lives trying to be devalued. We call on our fight against bosses who steal our lives with or without viruses. We call on all young workers to participate in the program we have prepared for May 1st and to raise the sounds we make amongst us. ■
Declaration of May 1st from the Young Workers Association (Genç İşçi Derneği) of Turkey. You can find them on Twitter
Originally posted (and in the original Turkish) on Meydan.org
The Kurds’ reward for defeating ISIS is being sold out to a psychotic dictator. “World’s Greatest Dealmaker” indeed.
Red n Black Salamander has had their work has shown up in
Occupy Wall Street zines, South Korean anti-government pamphlets, Rojava
fundraisers, more anarchist meme pages than they care to count, the
wall of a small hippie diner deep in the Colorado Rockies, and even a
few of the more mainstream liberal publications like Huffington Post and
Paste Magazine.
In September, one of our members got a message from a contact in DAF (revolutionary anarchist action) group, based in Anatolia (I used to refer to DAF as being in Turkey, but I was however corrected when I got there; they see Turkey as the oppressive state, which they want nothing to do with!). I quickly piped up and said how interested I would be in going along, mostly as I had met someone from DAF three years earlier, and had been very impressed by them. Luckily I did not have to fight for the chance to go, and on 11 October, I found myself on a flight from Birmingham to Istanbul.
When I got there, I had
to find my way to one of DAF’s 26A cafés,
based in Taksim (the main district of the European side of Istanbul).
I was going to be picked up, but as the Turkish state had invaded
Northern Syria a few days before, everyone in DAF was at an emergency
meeting. When I got to the 26A café,
I was met by several comrades, who gave me food, tea and a long
explanation of who they were. I was happy that one of them asked
which pronouns I preferred (they/them), and I explained my
appreciation of this; they were shocked to hear how some people who
call themselves feminists are transphobic in the UK, and started to
talk about how this could be possible, also noting how ridiculous
this was! Luckily someone noticed how tired I was, and I was shown
the commune. This was a two-bed flat, with a living room, bathroom
and no kitchen – but as it was based above the 26A café,
they did not need one. I found out that seven people lived here, and
that they had strict rules around cleanliness, and a no-drug policy
because a lot of the local gangs involved with the drugs trade were
in the pockets of the state, and would happily beat up anarchists. I
was given the living room to sleep in, which had a fold-out sofa bed.
That night, I heard the police shouting and probably beating someone
up outside; a regular occurrence, I later found out!
Next morning I was
woken at 8.30am for a shared breakfast (and more tea), where no one
is allowed to start until everyone who is sharing is there. I was
told that there was a Saturday Mother’s protest a few streets over
at 12pm and they wondered if I would come? I replied that I would,
and just before 12, we were off. I was advised to only bring my ID.
On the way there, we were patted down by armed police which held a
line across the narrow street, and just round the corner there were
police in full riot gear lining the side of the street and across it
at both ends. We had to squeeze past them to get into the kettled
demo, which was outside the human rights association, down a back
street. We were handed out pictures of the people who went missing
during the 1980’s and 90’s, these were people who were captured
by the state, tortured and then murdered. The mothers want justice
for their loved ones, and to bring about recognition of
militarisation of the Turkish state, and state violence. I was told
that they had had over 750 protests, and that they used to have their
protests in a square, from which they were banned last year. Each
week they talk about a different person who has been disappeared by
the state. I was also warned that this is the first protest since the
invasion of Northern Syria, and if anyone was to mention it, then the
police would be violent. Most of the people there were elderly, and
many of the mothers have died, never being able to properly say
farewell to their missing love ones, as they were never given their
remains to bury.
The speaker started her
speech, mentioned that this week’s son’s mother had died, so she
would talk on her behalf. Shortly into her speech she mentioned the
invasion, and instantly there was a shout from the police, and they
started pushing forward. At the same time, the police line behind us
moved to block off the street leading towards the big square, leaving
us one escape route. I was grabbed by the arm by one of the comrades
and taken away. They told me that it would be bad for me if my face
was recorded as being there, as a foreigner. We waited round the
corner and saw an older women come round the corner and collapse,
where she was caught and carried into a nearby building by several
protesters. The people I was with walked me away, and we went a long
route back to the café.
I have to admit I was crying at this point as to let out my emotions;
in the UK when we see police violence, as anarchists we usually run
to it, and are able to let out our anger, unless we are massively
outnumbered! But on the mainland UK, the police never use tear gas or
rubber bullets on protesters, as of yet! Anyway, back at the café,
the anarchists sat down and did a write up of the protest and put it
up on social media, sharing the video and pictures that had been
taken. Having the café
enabled them to have a place to meet and write together.
A little while later
that day, we went for a walk down to the harbour and got a boat over
to another district, called Kadiköy,
on the Asian side of Istanbul. After a disorientating walk through
the little crowded streets, we got to the café,
to find that a line of riot vans and cops were filling the street. I
was told this was unusual, and that there must be a game on in the
sports centre on the other side of the street. We sat down at a
table, and more tea was ordered and pasta. We were only a couple of
meters away from a cop armed with a machine gun. Everyone ignored
him, so I tried to as well, though I was very anxious. At this point
I will explain the economics of DAF. The cafés
are volunteer-run, but all the money that they make is communal; it
is for everyone in DAF to pay for what they need to survive, and this
includes rent, bills, clothes, and travel money, etc. If you turn up
to the café as a an
anarchist, the food and drink and free. The rest of the money goes to
paying for their publications and activism. A lot of the members
lived in shared flats which they call communes, but they didn’t
seem crowded, as most of the time everyone hangs out in either of the
two cafés or at their
workshop space. Whenever DAF are running low on money, then they all
go and get work elsewhere for a bit, to help raise the collective
fund. It is rather impressive, especially as they have such a range
of people involved, from young children and those in high school to
workers and older members.
After having our lunch we went to their workshop, a few streets over, passing a few friendly street doggos on the way. People seem to really love the street cats and dogs in Istanbul and leave food and water out for them. In the workshop, I talked to the translator for my talk and explained a few phrases like “cat herding”, in that trying to organise anarchists in the UK is a bit like trying to herd cats; very difficult, this being due to everyone being in separate groups, and the remains of the individualist anarchist ideology. I gave my talk about the AF and anarchism in the UK later that day, but it didn’t seem enough time. There is so much that goes on here, and so many things that have come up that we have had to deal with and learn from. The usual current questions came up (Brexit and Extinction Rebellion), and I went into details on these topics and the problems with them. They seemed to enjoy the talk and we had a picture taken before I ended up in another long talk with my friend Hüsseyin.
This is when I found
out that they do not refer to themselves as Turkish! Oops. We talked
till late and I learnt more about their anarchist theory; in that
they are revolutionary anarchists, holistic (intersectional), and
have long discussions so that everyone is on the same page when it
comes to theory, so that things can be decided by full consensus.
This may seem a long way to do it, but considering we have so many
fallings out and splits in the AF, I am starting to wonder if full
consensus is a better way to do it.
The next day we went to
a memorial back at the workshop. It was in memory of two of their
comrades, Tayfun
Benol and
Ali Kitapci, who
died in a union anti-war meeting in Ankara on 10th
October 2015. The MIT (Turkish state special intelligence), had given
the information about the meeting to ISIS, who suicide-bombed the
meeting. It killed 103 people, and while everyone was trying to help
one another from the building, the police came in and gassed
everyone. It took the first ambulance 30 minutes to arrive. Mercan,
another anarchist told me how Tayfun was like a father to a lot of
them in DAF, he kept trying to tell her to go back to university, as
he never got the chance! Tayfun was father to two of the members of
DAF, both of whom came to the memorial. At the memorial we watched a
short documentary about Tayfun, and they plan on doing documentaries
of all the 103 that were killed. They ended on singing a song about
fallen comrades, and how we must continue fighting.
Afterwards, and with
much more tea, I was told about how DAF have seen the PKK over the
years, from a Marxist organisation, similar to Maoism with Abdullah
Öcalan as their leader,
a nationalist group they could never support, move towards the
democratic confederalism that it practices now. How, after their
leader was imprisoned and the headquarters bombed, the Kurdish people
within the group started to self-organise, have massive protests, and
burn cars. It is now a people’s liberation movement; it’s still not
anarchist, but it’s something that anarchists could get involved with
and help to change. Anarchists in 2009, who founded DAF later in the
same year, were the first to raise an anarchist flag at Newros
(Kurdish new year). They were welcomed, although everyone kept on
asking them who had died, as black is the colour of mourning. Every
year DAF hold Newros celebrations, something that is banned in
Turkey, along with a lot of other cultural things, and many Kurdish
people attend. I should point out at this point that DAF is made up
of people from many different cultures, including a lot of oppressed
ones, and they celebrate these cultures by putting on events for
them.
When war first broke
out in Syria, a lot of refugees fled into Turkey. The Turkish state
responded by going to the border, putting people into camps, bombing
local settlements so people couldn’t stay in them, and by arming
ISIS members. DAF members went to the border and helped people across
the border in both directions; getting those who fled from the war
across the border and deeper into Turkey to avoid the camps, and
those who wanted to go fight for Rojava and other free regions in
Syria. It was difficult, as they had to avoid both the Turkish army
and ISIS, and they also had to find mine-free areas so that they
could help people through.
DAF had the idea to
start up a route for anarchists across Europe to get into Northern
Syria to help rebuild the area and support people there, as well as
push the whole revolution in a more anarchist direction. However in
July 2015, a media declaration of some young anarchists and
socialists, who planned to go and take toys for the children stuck in
Kobanî, and to stay and
help out, was attacked by ISIS, killing 33 people. Not long after
this, the border became more difficult to cross, and is now closed
for people going either direction. Again it is believed that the
Turkish state gave this information to ISIS so that it would be
attacked.
I also learnt about other campaigns DAF are involved in, like the conscientious objectors. In Turkey if you’re male and in your 20s, you have to do one year of military service. In the years before, a million people might object each year, and would have to go to court to defend themselves. DAF try and find these people and call events to invite them along to, so that they can organise them. DAF have a solicitor member who can help them with these cases. For example, it helps them to say they are a member of a conscientious objectors’ association. If the military court thinks you’re not a conscientious objector, then they may try and make you join the army, or you can go to prison. It is illegal for them to do this, as Turkey signed a European agreement which says that it is a right to conscientiously object, but a lot of people don’t know this, so DAF try to raise awareness. If you’re gay, then you will given a pink paper, which says you’re gay and not a proper man, and that you are sick. One man that they helped refused to take the pink paper, and got six months in prison for it. At the end, he got a different piece of paper that told him he was mentally unwell. These papers mean that is impossible for you to get a state job, such as a nurse or teacher. There is a lot of pressure on young men to join the army, and family have ceremonies, like weddings, for when the young men go off to do their service. Those who are from oppressed cultures, like Kurdish, Armenian and Allavi, are usually sent straight to the front, as the state wants them to die. It has become more difficult for DAF to organise conscientious objectors as Erdoğan (the fascist president of Turkey) changed the law on military service to one month if you pay £30,000 Turkish Lira (about £5,000), which is a lot of money for people, or you can do only eight months if you graduate from university. Despite the expense of this, it seems like many have taken it, and there are only around 200,000 objectors each year now.
DAF also do a lot of
prison support. From the 60s to the 80s, the left were big in Turkey.
A lot of people were unionised and the syndicalist unions were
strong. Because of this, a coup happened, and one of the first things
the coup wanted to do was to separate the political prisoners from
the normal prisoners. As you can expect, there was a lot of protest
about this inside and outside the prisons, as they were good places
to organise people. Prisoners went on hunger strike, took over the
prisons and threatened to kills the guards. The state responded by
knocking down the walls and ceilings of the prisons, and throwing in
chemical weapons; many were killed or lost limbs in the attacks. The
two types of prisons were installed, and that system remains today. I
was assured that, despite losing the ability to organise prisoners,
it makes it not so bad to go to prison, as you end up in ones which
you’re politically aligned to. So, as an anarchist you go to
anarchist prison, a great way to meet each other and develop
anarchist theory and write articles. It is still a prison though, and
since Erdoğan got into
power (and the coup against him, and following state of emergency),
the prisons have become overcrowded, and prisoners’ rights seem to
have been neglected. Prison rooms built for three people now house
15. Letters never get to prisoners, and visitors are denied. DAF try
and support those prisoners who protest these conditions. Recently a
Kurdish anarchist comrade went on death strike due to being kept in
an overcrowded cell, in the wrong prison (he wasn’t in an anarchist
one), and not being allowed to see his family. Due to the publicity
given to him by DAF and his death strike, his demands were met and he
is now with comrades and allowed to see people. Umat told DAF of a
trans-woman prisoner who is being kept in a male prison and they are
helping her try to get re-located into a women’s prison. The
comrade that told me all of this can no longer go into the prison to
visit people, as he is worried that he will get grabbed and sent into
the military.
I learnt a little bit
about the other groups within DAF, the high school group who fight
against exams, the women’s group who fight for so many things as
patriarchy is worse there than in the UK. It seems very common for
women to get beaten by fathers and by husbands. No-one will rent to
you if you’re an unmarried couple, or if you’re sharing a house with
friends. They also have an ecology group; a subject very close to
their hearts. And they have a kids’ group; they do workshops for
kids, including one on how to make films! Their newspaper collective,
which publishes every month, spends a week writing and editing, and
then another week going to different places to hand them out. They
also have several others I didn’t have much time to find out about.
Each group it seems has their own magazine and website. I later found
out that DAF came together in 2009, forming out of several of these
groups. Each group meets weekly, and once a week they have a 9am to
11pm meeting where everyone in DAF comes along, and discusses ideas
and plans for the week and upcoming events. They have several talks a
month, including talks by internationals like the one I did. They
have even invited famous scholars like Dennis Fox, a critical
psychologist who I myself have been influenced by.
On my last day, I got a tour of Gezi park and other places of interest to an anarchist. I saw the main streets with their tall buildings, built by Amenians who were then killed or deported by the Turkish state. I also saw the square where the Saturday Mothers used to protest, where now a new building stands, and the rest is cut up by a road, or fenced off with a armoured vehicles filled with armed police inside. They showed me the Ottoman Bank, which was occupied and bombed by Armenian anarchists in 1986. Then there is Gezi park, where massive protests of up to one million people took place, due to Erdoğan wanting to build on it; thought it was saved, it is now cornered off at one end by armoured vehicles. That end, I was told, is where a lot of the main clashes happened with the police. I was shown the cafés which doubled as medical stations; all the doctors and nurses that helped the protesters there lost their jobs, following the 15 day protests. I was shown the patch of grass which was dug up so people could plant pepper and tomato seeds; though none of them took, as it wasn’t long enough! The site where the cultural building used to stand, formerly occupied by the protesters has since been knocked down, due its history of having banners hung from it. And finally, my guide
showed me the new big mosque being built on Taksim Square, intended
mostly as a bit of a fuck you to the protesters!
To be honest I am rather amazed by DAF. They are very well-organised, and have done so many great and inspiring actions. I feel that they have something that we lack in anarchism in the UK; they are co-ordinated and have political cohesion. I feel that the economy that they have, where everything is shared and being able to be together, enables them to have long discussions and respond quickly to things that happen. This may be out of necessity, as things in the Middle East (their words) are a lot more difficult for them than they are here in the western world. Seeing what they are achieving makes me want to replicate what they do, and makes me adamant that we must be more organised. If we were as organised as them, and with the amount of anarchists we have here, I feel that we would have a very strong movement. ■ Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet – Revolutionary Anarchist Action -DAF
Oh wait, sorry, I guess this one’s already dated since it’s called “demographic correction” now.
There’s an even bigger box outside Trump Towers Istanbul.
Red n Black Salamander has had their work has shown up in Occupy Wall Street zines, South Korean anti-government pamphlets, Rojava fundraisers, more anarchist meme pages than they care to count, the wall of a small hippie diner deep in the Colorado Rockies, and even a few of the more mainstream liberal publications like Huffington Post and Paste Magazine.
In July 2015, 33 revolutionaries who set out to rebuild Kobanê, a city that was destroyed and plundered by ISIS gangs, were massacred by the murderous State and ISIS. In order to commemorate the massacred revolutionaries and to keep their struggles alive, commemorations were made for the 4th anniversary of the Suruç Massacre in Istanbul and Ankara upon the call of the Youth Organizations including Anarchist Youth.
At the very hour of the massacre 4 years ago, commemorations took place at the graves of our comrades, who were massacred by the murderous State and ISIS gangs. The 33 Martyrs were remembered and it was promised that unfinished dreams would be completed and that we would call the responsible to account for what was done to them.
All the revolutionaries and the families of those who lost their lives in Suruç Massacre were gathered at 18.00 in Kadıköy, Halitağa Street for the sit-in protest to commemorate 33 revolutionaries. It was shouted that the people who were massacred by murderous State and ISIS gangs, still live in the struggle. Throughout the sit-in, the families of those living on that day and the families of our murdered comrades gave speeches.
The ongoing injustice, oppression and violence since the massacre continued in Istanbul and Ankara against those gathered to commemorate them.
Following the sit-in in Istanbul, as the march towards Süreyya Opera House, the meeting point for the memorial event in Mehmet Ayvalıtaş Park, the murderous police (of the murderous State) began their unceasing attacks. Similarly, in Ankara, on the call of Youth Organizations, including Anarchist Karala, those who came together for the action on Sakarya Street were subjected to police attacks. 8 revolutionary were detained. With the ongoing gatherings in the Kızılay after the attack, it was once again shown that it would not step back against the killer State. The revolutionaries who did not leave the streets showed that the struggle for Justice for Suruç could not be ended with theseattacks.
KADIKOY IS BARRICADED
Those who forced the revolutionaries to step back after being subjected to their attacks, detention and intimidation policies once again saw that Kadikoy was the barricade of the revolutionaries. 33 comrades, our friends, were fighting in the streets of Kadikoy. The violent police tried tosuppress the anger of the revolutionaries was inturn responded by narrowing the streets of Kadıköy with barricades to stymie the determined police attacks, Kadikoy was once again shown to be a field of resistance and struggle.
Continuing their unceasing attacks , the police detained 20 revolutionaries, including 3 of our comrades from Anarchist Youth. From the Kalkedon to Bahariye Street, barricades were built on all the streets of Kadıköy. The fight of the 33 anarchist and socialist revolutionaries massacred in Suruç is our fight. The journey of martyrs cannot be ended with bombs, attacks, detentions and intimidation.
Their fight is ours. Our fight will continue! ■
Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet DAF (Revolutionist Anarchist Action )
This infographic was created by the Shoal Collective who you can find on twitter via @shoalcollective. They are a cooperative of independent writers and researchers, writing for social justice and a world beyond capitalism. This graphic was created the highlight thesheer scale to which the British arms industry is involved with supplying Erdoğan’s fascistic regime in Turkey with the arms which are used to suppress Turkish citizens and attack Kurdish communities and the Internationalists fighting alongside them in Rojava.
