Massacre at the 'Labor, Democracy and Peace Meeting' in Ankara

Thanks for putting this up! In future tho, do you reckon you could put up an image with the articles? Makes it easier to share that way..

Also, Turkish govt clearly taking the piss:
Turkey bomb blasts: Islamic State and 'far-left militants' emerge as suspects

The young woman is already dead. The young man has a broken leg. "Is she your friend?" they ask, "My comrade" he replies. He had to be persuaded to leave her. The police see fit to fire tear gas on this scene.

[Warning: graphic image] link

Chris Stephenson

English speaking friends: I am just back from Ankara. Thanks to everyone who sent messages. Sorry I could not reply until now. We have suffered a terrible attack and lost many good and brave friends today.

Our contingent was very close to both explosions (maybe 30-40 metres away). We were lucky and were not injured. Seeing human body parts just lying on the ground was horrific.
The reports in the English speaking media seem to be informed by Turkish government spin. This was a *trade union* and associations of engineers architects and doctors organised peace march. The police completely disappeared before the explosions. The first police reaction after the explosions was to tear gas the injured. The police arrived before the ambulances. I saw with my own eyes ambulances kept waiting to let the police enter the area first.

There is no doubt in anyone's mind here about who is responsible for this attack. The PKK are about to announce a unilateral ceasefire in the runup to the general election, and it seems these bombs are designed as an attempt to prevent that cease-fire from happening. Turkey's deep state is in action in a big way and probably out of control. The HDP has repeated calls for peace.
What is happening in Turkey is obviously related to the war in Syria. Don't feel sorry for us. Do what you can to stop your "own" governments from fuelling this war. We do not need more bombs in the Middle East. People in Britain, stop Cameron's bombing plans.

I will write a proper account tomorrow.

https://www.facebook.com/chris.stephenson.1466/posts/10153720908766518

In the early September, crazed lunatic Erdogan was flying to the Belgian capital to meet the EU, Presidents of the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament (his political class/family members).
He wanted, among other things;

- The EU to provide military support to establish a "safe zone" in Syria, near the border with Turkey: There, large refugee camps be established.

- The Turkish people to be able to travel without visas in Europe.

The part of agenda for meeting was to reduce the flow of migrants, (which is in reality engineered) by the Turkish sate/AKP.

We do not know how much Erdogan has exactly strengthened his hand in negotiations with the EU and the US for his geopolitical plan for Syria in the context of confronting Russian-Assad network of destructive imperialist war in the region. We shall see soon, how much the EU and the NATO can deliver as open support for the AKP’s fascistic( democratic Islamism) dominance in Turkey.

In the context of the EU, US and Turkey ( US-NATO network) geopolitical re engineering of the Middle East, the mass media, ‘the fourth estate’, reflects what is interesting for the interest of ruling classes. Thus, bombing (suicide bomb) of proletarian masses(Turks, Kurds ...) in Ankara is news for the mass media that can be manipulated in any way.

Sunni fundamentalism is the elephant in the room. The AKP and IS are on the same general page when it comes to killing leftists, smashing attempts at Kurdish independence and establishing a Sunni fundamentalist oriented State.

I think the Turkish State turned a blind eye to IS suicide bombers in Ankara.

Another couple of statements by Turkish anarchist groups, just translated:

from Kara Kizil Istanbul

Murderer State will Account For This!
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One of the biggest political massacres of the Republic of Turkey took place at the Peace Rally which was participated by the workers that came from all parts of Turkey. The rally was organised with the call of DISK (Confederation of Revolutionary  Workers Unions), KESK (Confederation of Public Workers Union) and TMMOB Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects in Ankara on the 10th of October. Our sisters and brothers, friends and comrades demanding peace have been murdered, hundreds of them are injured. Although it has been orchestrated by the hands of ISIS gang, we know that, just like the Suruç Massacre, state and AKP who is holding state power in their hands are those who are in fact responsible for this massacre. We have seen once again that AKP is capable of doing everything not to lose the power and weaker it gets, more brutal it will get.
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Suruç massacre, dirty war tactics in operation in Kurdish cities, political raids, fascist attacks and lastly this massacre in Ankara shows us that those in power are capable of doing everything to protect their power and to drag us to a to a national and sectarian civil war. And we are late for everyday we do not express a strong reaction.
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If they are doing everything to fuel the war and turn peaceful actions into bloodbaths, we have no other chance but to use the greatest power we have, the power that comes from production, to halt life in order to damn the massacre, to stop the war and to get rid of the murderers. Therefore, call of DISK, KESK, Turkish Doctors' Union and TMMOB for a general strike on the 12th and 13th of October is meaningful. However, members and non members of the calling unions and professional organisations should act in unity in order for this call not to become a symbolic call.
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We see every day we live that we have no other solution but to accelerate the class based struggle and establish a revolutionary alternative against this system of violence and murder. The more we bow to the daily concerns and fears more unbearable , our lives become as days go for all of us. We are all mourning, filled with rage and have funerals to attend to at the aftermath of the murder of at least 102 people from all corners of Turkey. Let us not forget that bosses cannot prevent us from attending the funerals of our murdered sisters and brothers who were killed in Ankara. It is our legal and human right to say "No work if there is war and massacre", to say "No work! We have funerals". We have that power and we have no other solution, we the hundreds and thousands of people who took to the streets despite of all kinds of oppression and threats, who are able to demand peace against all odds
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Class War Against War
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No Work If There Is War
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No Work! We Have Funerals.
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Red and Black Istanbul

and from Taçanka, Ankara

We have witnessed the heaviest attack of Turkish history. We have attended the rally on the 10th of October to say " No to the International War, No to Interclass Peace" which was called by the unions and participated by the revolutionary and democrat organisations . We lost hundreds of our people and our comrade Ali Kitapçı in the attack of those in power. They painted our red and black flags and banners with blood and flesh of our comrades. Those who steal our lives everyday have taken our lives away.
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Those responsible for the massacre are out there. We know them from Haymarket, Bloody Sunday, Mayday 1977 Istanbul Massacre, Reyhanli, Gezi Uprising, Roboski Massacre, Diyarbakir Dungeons and Suruç. We know them from the daily exploitation of a thousand year. They stand before us merciless, smirking. Those who are responsible are the ones who sent the fire brigades to the scene, they are the ones who attacked us with tear gas, batons and the ones who have been looking at us with that smirk on their faces. We know them very well. 10th of October Ankara massacre is an attack targeting revolutionaries and was organised by the state. It is a massacre of the state and the pain is the pain of the oppressed. We know this pain from our work places, neighbours, schools and all areas of our lives. We know this pain from every area of our lives where the state impacts.
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Our word is straight up and our attitude is clear against those in powers. State is the murderer, we will not compromise. We will never forget, we will never forgive, we will never give up our struggle. Every bomb they drop on us will be retorted. We will never, ever make peace with those who blow us up to pieces, those who took the lives of our comrades, bury us under the flesh of dead people. We will have the palaces of those who turned our streets to hell destroyed. Those in power who took up microphones in their mansions with a smirk on their faces will regret for all their laughter when they come to our streets. They watched our pain laughing yesterday. They know well that we are in pain. Where they are mistaken and not aware is that we do not mourn for death. Every pain we have, every bullet we are hit with, every life they take away is the fuel for our rage, revolt and fire of struggle. We are burning with pain, we are buried in pain but we are not, ever, mourning, we won't be silenced and we will not hide and we will not give up. Let them be afraid of our resistance, rage, pain, revolt and the world in our heart.
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Day of reckoning will be terrible.
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STATE IS THE MURDERER, NO PEACE WITH THE STATE!

Any report backs on the general strike?

I was mostly attending the funeral stuff and away from job (and my city) so practically "in strike". However I was not be able to observe a lot about it. However friends say it was strong relative to the weakness of labor movement in general. I do not think it could amount to a real "general strike" but this was the most realised strike of many unions as their members truly did not went to work (which does not happen always with this much of success) Also a note: my observations mostly depend on the university I work in and about general services in Ankara city.

Thanks Kurrem. If you come across any report-backs in English, let us know. Solidarity!

No problem.

Also I copied this news to forums:
http://libcom.org/forums/middle-east/ali-kitapci-turkish-anarcho-syndicalist-killed-ankara-masaccre-14102015

Any report backs on the general strike?

I am in Istanbul. There were practically no strike actions. Only a couple of small workshops that were already in some of form strike action recently showed solidarity. Beyond that nothing visible. In some cases police even attacked the funerals. Demos disbanded. In an international football game in konya (extremely conservative islamist town in central turkey which is practically a shit hole) crowds even booed during one minute long minute of silence to show respect for the fallen in Ankara. Total apathy.

So practically mourning is not possible in Turkey. Only anger and organization for the total abolution of this f.cking murderous state are.

Fucking hell, that sounds terrible Mikail, but thanks for the report back anyway.

If you get a minute, btw, I'd love for you or someone else to describe how strikes work in Turkey. I was living there during Gezi and unions seemed to call "general strikes" at a pretty short notice. Is there a balloting process? Are political strikes legal? Outside of big strike calls, how do unions typically organize strikes?

Chilli;

Political strikes, solidarity strikes, occupations, general strikes etc are all illegal according to the Turkish constitution. Workers are only allowed to strike in the process of collective bargaining and only if there emerges a conflict between unions and bosses. These collective bargainings take place between union federations and state & bosses on three yearly cycles. Even then strikes can only happen through a very complicated legal process and mostly top down. But make no mistake. Strikes are almost totally illegal but the union confederations are cherished and carefully protected under the state law. In fact after the last referendum in 2010 three main union confederations (Turk-IS (statist, centre), HAK-IS (islamist), DISK (leftist)) are granted constitutional status and carefully calculated legal adjustments are made so that their declining membership would not bar their legal standing as the official reps of workers.

However, of course class struggle in Turkey (as everywhere else) does not follow the constraints of legal barriers. Practically there are three types of strike actions, which are in conflict with each other, serving different class interests.

1 - Wildcat strikes. In the fashion Luxemburg described in mass strikes, wildcat strikes mostly emerge as the surfacing of a subterranean struggle that is always underway between the bosses and the workers in workplaces. In almost all wildcat strikes you see workers organizing themselves on the shop floor ingeniously calculating all the odds, and only in a couple of days pushing the bosses into a corner and wresting major gains. So most wildcat strikes -even though they are legally banned- win major victories with rarely (if ever) little losses. Recently not only their numbers rose but also their goals tended to be more sharply formulated. In metal sector in Bursa and Marmara region there were strike after strike and every factory took over the same list of demands which included the expulsion of the unions from the factory.

2- "Leftist" strikes. What I mean by a leftist strike is typically a strike caused by the miserable failure of leftists' attempt at unionizing workplaces. In those cases, a bunch of leftists -mostly radical- enter a non-union factory, they organize some workers to join a legal union, and when they are uncovered the bosses sack them. Than they usually open a lawsuit for being illegally sacked while at the same time building a tent in front of the factory until the legal case is over. Usually the sacked unionized workers wait there day and night. These kind of "struggles" not only demoralize other workers and exhaust those in the "tent occupation" but also feed into a false belief in legalism and courts as the last resorts in struggle. They are actually not even strikes because they mainly break solidarity ties between the militant sacked workers and those who continue to work inside the shop. That way an image of struggle as a heroic act of martyrdom is sustained and the cause of collective class solidarity in action is undermined.

3- Unions' (not so) "general strikes". As it happened after the Ankara bombing, unions sometimes call fake general strikes. After the Gezi revolt and the Ankara bombing there were small strikes. However, only radical left "participate" in them and they are practically A to B marches, totally depressing and under constant police harassment. We can say basically the function of Turkish unions is not organize strikes but to suppress them and if possible limit political actions to leftist demos in central squares where the leftist Kurdish and Turkish youth is beaten by the police. So basically unions are total state functionaries channeling the combative spirit in a safe way to the hands of police...

I hope this could clarify some of your questions... Shoot any further questions if you have any.

Thanks Mikhail. And thanks Kurrem, too.

My only follow-up question would be if there's typically repercussions for the workers who participate in the "general strikes"?. And I guess the state doesn't come after the unions who call these strikes despite their ostensible illegal status? Not even any saber-rattling?

No to all three. These are not real strikes. These genera strikes are merely demonstrations only a couple of thousand people, mostly students and leftists participate. So unions (and it is mostly DIsk that calls for such "general strikes") never organize these strikes inside the shop floor.

So people just don't stay off from work when these general strikes are called?

I mean, I'm not trying to defend the unions here and I get that most union "actions" are pretty much symbolic in every country I've lived in, but surely some people must stay out of work when these strikes are called?

I don't know, I think I'm asking because I recall hearing that when the first Gezi "General Strike" was called like half-a-million people came out or something? Perhaps that's just the unions claiming demo figures were strike figures, but that takes some serious balls to misrepresent yourself like that...

This is the truth Chilli Sauce. Ask anyone. I doubt if DISK or KESK (leftist unions) actually informed their members about this so called "general strike".

Well not to stat an argument and I hate my union (KESK) but they informed their members. They made two demonstrations one in the workplace and one in the city center and this is actually usual. However most of the members(which is very tiny part of all workforce) are afraid of even participating in press releases let alone the strike. So though the strike was better participated than most other strikes in the past (most of which also took medical report in case of administrative harassment) it definitely did not even felt by hardly anyone who is a consumer as mikail predicted.

mikail firtinaci

This is the truth Chilli Sauce. Ask anyone. I doubt if DISK or KESK (leftist unions) actually informed their members about this so called "general strike".

Mikhail, I definitely share your fundamental critique about the role of the unions, I just have trouble believing the unions are so tactless in their actions. I mean, they succeed in getting these "general strikes" covered in the international media and then claim hundreds of thousands came out. If it's all just total bullshit, what's the point in going through the charade at all?

For me, the role of the unions is to keep struggles within a clearly delineated framework that can never fundamentally challenge class society. And it seems that in Turkey, a country with a much higher level of class activity than the US or UK, that this function would be all-the-more-important.

If it's all just purely and clearly hot air, it seems that unions couldn't fill that role. I mean there needs to be the perception that the unions offer some degree of benefit to workers, right?

Chilli Sauce

Mikhail, I definitely share your fundamental critique about the role of the unions, I just have trouble believing the unions are so tactless in their actions. I mean, they succeed in getting these "general strikes" covered in the international media and then claim hundreds of thousands came out. If it's all just total bullshit, what's the point in going through the charade at all?

For me, the role of the unions is to keep struggles within a clearly delineated framework that can never fundamentally challenge class society. And it seems that in Turkey, a country with a much higher level of class activity than the US or UK, that this function would be all-the-more-important.

If it's all just purely and clearly hot air, it seems that unions couldn't fill that role. I mean there needs to be the perception that the unions offer some degree of benefit to workers, right?

Chilli, there was not even a real demo in Istanbul - where I live - with "hundreds of thousands" coming out in the last general strike.

On the role of the unions;

Turk-Is is a police union; pure and simple. In a recent wave of wildcat strike workers wanted to resign from Turk-Is en masse in several factories. The bosses, police and the union fought against them.

DISK (the leftist union confederation) does not even try to organize workers. It acts more like an NGO declaring support for this or that political action.

Whenever non unionized workers call on unions to help them in struggle, it is either because (a) the leftists advise them to do join a union or (b) that they need legal advice. In both cases the workers don't really need the unions but then again they feel themselves weak to rely on their own strength.

short info (in English) about all of the pople killed in the attack (The anarcho-syndicalist Ali is at 8th in list)
http://sendika6.org/2015/10/ankara-massacre-100-stories-for-100-martyrs/

Wow, his partner sounds like quite a firecracker as well. What a speech!

Yeah Emel is also another comrade of anarchists of Turkey just like Ali. I am looking forward to see her again in Ankara in near future.