(en) Turkey, yeryuzu postasi: Boycott Moycott exists! - ZApproved: 5Englnew,The first round of the Turkish General Elections, which took place on 14 May, resulted in an overwhelming majority of the right-wing parties that entered the elections from both the Nation Alliance and the People's Alliance lists, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan received approximately 5% more votes than Kemal Kiliçdaroglu. This situation created despair in the broad sections of the society, who thought that they would get rid of the 21-year AKP rule with elections. After the election results were announced, there was a heavy mood of depression mixed with anxiety and bewilderment. With the news of irregularities in the election, some of the opposition voters consolidated again. ---- On the other hand, after it was understood that the presidential elections would go to the second round, the candidate of the Nation Alliance, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, immediately pushed aside the so-called democratization rhetoric and started to highlight his promises to continue his anti-immigrant and anti-Kurdish rhetoric and war policies.,,Despite the recent mismanagement and crimes, especially after the deepening economic crisis and the 6 February earthquakes, the main reason why the People's Alliance and Erdogan achieved such a success in the first round is the inability of the ruling alternative to produce a new policy on social problems. While the "fear of Erdogan coming back to power" is enough for some to vote, it doesn't mean anything by itself in the eyes of large sections. This broad "front" against the AKP has never had any program or promise to leave the current government on fundamental issues such as exploitation, poverty, women's issue and Kurdish issue. On the other hand, the Kurdish movement and the socialist left supported Kiliçdaroglu for reasons such as "getting rid of the one-man regime", "turning into a parliamentary system", "breathing". However, after May 14, Kiliçdaroglu increased his rhetoric, emphasizing his anti-immigrant and anti-Kurdish war policies. This doesn't mean a policy change, it's just about putting emphasis on the foreground. Although the CHP and the Nation Alliance had sprinkled promises of democratization and freedom before May 14, they defended and expressed these policies back then. However, with these rhetoric put forward, he also declared that it would not be possible to "breathe" in case of a possible change in power.,,Today, the most fundamental problem of bringing these promises forward is that it contributes to the strengthening and normalization of racist reflexes in society, regardless of whether they will be realized or not. The increase in anti-immigration has led to the normalization of racism and Sinan Ogan, the candidate of the ATA Alliance, whose main body is the racist party Zafer Party, gaining 5.6 percent of the votes and gaining an influential position in the political arena. In the protocol signed by the fascist Victory Party led by Kemal Kiliçdaroglu and Ümit Özdag and announced yesterday (May 24), it is stated that war policies and trustee policies will continue and anti-refugee policies will be implemented. This right-wing populist hate policy threatens not only the targeted groups today, but also women, LGBTI+ individuals, Alevis and minorities. The racist hysteria, provoked by Ümit Özdag and the Zafer Party itself, serves to legitimize practices such as extrajudicial executions and torture, as happened after the 6 February earthquake.,,As we anarchist communists, we find it normal that millions of people, struggling with the deepening economic crisis and wanting to get rid of the authoritarian policies of the current government, have placed their hopes in the ballot box in conditions like today, where there is no strong social movement and no revolutionary alternative, and the balance of power is clearly in favor of the ruling class. We have always emphasized the importance of not trusting the political parties that are part of it and the so-called opposition politicians who keep us busy with false hopes. For this reason, before the 14 May elections, together with different anarchist circles, we stated that our problems could not be solved at the ballot box and that we needed to organize and struggle in every field for liberation, but we did not make a special call for not voting. Because we know that not voting is not an active form of struggle, and it is a waste of time to focus on elections instead of organizing ourselves and growing the struggle.,,However, at this point, it has been revealed that Kemal Kiliçdaroglu promises nothing but continuing the policies of the current government, let alone being a beacon of hope for liberation from the current government. Whatever the election results, we understand that we are entering a period where we have no choice but to organize and fight more. After this point, there is no plausible reason for supporting any of the current candidates for the revolutionary and internationalist forces. Of course, despite all this, there will be those who find various excuses to vote, but no one should expect us to choose one of these candidates who are competing to continue their nationalism and war policies. It should be emphasized that beyond the fact that only a group of anarchists boycotted the elections, there was a serious discomfort in many segments, including the HDP base, regarding the attitude of the nation alliance after May 14, and that there were many people who tended not to go to the polls. At a time when hostility to immigrants and racism is getting stronger all over the world, as in Turkey, the legitimacy of people boycotting the elections, albeit not in an organized way, cannot be questioned, who think that supporting Kiliçdaroglu, who accepts the policies of the fascist Victory Party, will contribute to this bad course. On the contrary, ignoring the reactions from the grassroots, assuming that everything has disappeared, it tells a lot about describing the boycott attitude as "spoiledness", slurring "no boycott moicott", and the deadlocks of social opposition in the most general sense in Turkey. However, whatever the organization centers say, it is a fact that; boycott moicott.,,There is no salvation in this order,,We, as migrant workers who vote for any of the existing parties and candidates or do not even have the right to vote, work in the same workplaces, live in the same neighborhoods, and share the same problems. While the bosses exploit us, they do not look at which party we belong to, male violence does not change according to which party they belong to, as we experienced on February 6, the destructions that the system is responsible for do not bypass any of us, the ecological crisis affects all of us. And when we decide to fight, we always stand together against them, because we know that there is no other choice.,,The fact that the candidates compete with each other in racism shows that the bourgeois politicians are no different from each other in the face of the multidimensional crises of capitalism, and this order promises us nothing but destruction at this point. Therefore, we have no choice but to fight with the goal of a social revolution that will destroy this order, and a revolutionary alternative can be formed not by the order leftists, but by revolutionaries with a principled political line, even as a small minority. However, election-oriented politics only allows us to lose time in the wheels of this order, in an area where the conditions are determined by the ruling class. In this respect, the revolutionary struggle differs sharply from parliamentarism. Although the revolutionary processes are carried out by the large masses, there is no voting for them, the majority of the society remains neutral. In the words of Murray Bookchin, "It has never been the case that the vast majority, let alone all, of the people in a given place participated in the revolution. When an uprising breaks out in a revolutionary situation, the majority of the population is content to watch what happens, while militants (whose name is unknown) with the help of a small number of supporters rise up and overthrow the established order." (one),,Of course, revolution is not something that we will realize from today to tomorrow. However, it requires a long-term struggle of revolutionaries who have common principles and line of struggle acting with this goal. Today, our primary goal should be to strengthen the balance of power in favor of the ruling class in favor of the working class. It is not possible to do this through elections, on the contrary, as we have seen in the last ten years, every election shifts this balance in favor of more dominant classes. The way to reverse this trend is to build independent, stable social organizations in workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, that is, in every area we are in, and to raise the struggle. However, in this way and with a long-term study, it may be possible to turn the balance of power in our favor.,,We will win freedom through struggle...,,Our stance on elections is not based on common moral reasons or a matter of stubbornness. What we have learned from historical experience, and what we see again today, is that no real change is possible through elections. Because the politics of order is always shaped by manipulation, deceit and intrigue, because what they offer us as options usually does not differ much from each other, because politicians always do whatever their interests require and lie. We should not rely on elections, because they promise us nothing but disappointment. We cannot let them poison us with choices and destroy our dreams. We must not forget that no matter what the result is, we will not be the winner, and no matter what the result, we will not be considered a loser. The important thing is that despite all the pressures, lies and disappointments they have caused us, the struggle does not give up fighting and organizing for our daily problems with the hope of a free world. Where there is struggle, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, there will be struggle.,,(1) Murray Bookchin, The Future Revolution, footnote publications, p. 90,,https://www.yeryuzupostasi.org/2023/05/25/boykot-moykot-var-zafer-onat/afer Onat (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

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