Turkish Workers Must Fight Right Wing Threat

Scan page 2

RA WAR:

The leader of Turkey's right wing Justice Party, Suleyman Demirel, has been called upon to form a new government following the resignation of Prime Minister Ecevit.

Ecevit's buourgeois liberal Republican People's Party suffered a massive defeat at the October 14 elections, in which there was a 20% swing to the right wing parties and the RPP share of the vote fell from 47% to 29%.

The fascist party, the NAP, increased its share of the vote to a menacing 10%.

The Justice Party won all five parliamentary seats and 33 out of 50 seats in the Senate, giving Demirel control of that body.

But he still does not have a clear parliamentary majority. An early election seems likely to consolidate the latest electoral successes.

In the meantime a minority Justice Party government seems The "reformist" colonels who two weeks ago overthrew the Romero dictatorship in El Salvador have, so likely to be backed by the religious National Salvation Party and the fascists as well as by some independents, in what will effectively be a re-run of the previous National Front coalition.

Within the RPP camp Ecevit has faced mounting criticism from opposition factions.

While conceding that he is responsible for the electoral setbacks, Ecevit remains unrepentant for his anti-working class policies, and the RPP has endorsed the extension of martial law restrictions on 19 Turkish cities for another two months.

The fascists have in the last week stepped up their campaign of violent provocations to force the imposition and extension of these restrictions, under which the full weight of repression falls upon the labour movement and left wing papers are made legal while fascist bands function freely.

in the face of continual terrorist attacks and aggressive policies from the fascists, the the capital, San Salvador, nor in shooting down those who offered resistance to their junta. Forty people have died so far and deaths are reported passivity of the leaderships of the working class parties and the trade union confederations who all gave electoral support to Ecevit, have offered no lead whatever to the oppressed petty bourgeois and peasant masses. There was no independent political alternative for whom they could vote.

In this sense the political bankruptcy and class collaboration of workers' leaders can be seen to drive confused and economically ruined sections of the petty bourgeoisie into voting for the extreme right wing.

Socialist Press has consistently warned of the dangers posed by the growth of fascism and the shift towards military rule in Today the threat of a military takeover, backed up by a massive fascist onslaught on the organised labour movement, is much greater than ever before.

In discussing the way forward for the new right wing government Demirel, the NSP and fascist leaders are not discussing simply the juggling of parliamentary majorities, but the question of ensuring the stability necessary for a frontal offensive against the Turkish working class.

As Demirel has stated:

"The problem is not to get the parliamentary arithmetic right, but to have the forces to allow us to rule."

But, while the bourgeoisie debates tactics, it is still not too late for the working class to mobilise and defeat the enormous dangers it faces.

A new wage agreement is shortly due for millions of workers: an offensive struggle in defence of living standards could form the focus around which workers could gain confidence in their independent class strength, and begin to organise united defence squads to repel mounting fascist attacks.

The demand must be raised on the Turkish Communist Party, the other workers' parties and the trade union leaders that they:

*Break from Ecevit bourgeoisie!

workers against fascist As the Polisario Front continues to win military victories over the Moroccan army, the imperialist powers have moved to play a more direct part in the war of the Western Sahara.

Two weeks ago, a large force of the Polisario took the town of Mahbes, and routed a column of Moroccan reinforcements sent to the garrison.

Last outpost Mahbes was the only position surviving in Moroccan hands in the north-east of the Western Sahara, by the border with Algeria.

For two years, the garrison town had been an isolated stronghold, from which the Moroccan army was completely unable to control the surrounding territory.

The occupying army had been mostly engaged in fending off attacks from the Polisario More recently, Mahbes has gained a new importance. Since the Polisario Front extended its military operations into the south of Morocco earlier this State repression in Turkey *Defeat fascist-military repression!

*Fight for a workers and peasants government in Turkey! year, King Hassan has s en the obvious need to strengt en his base at Mahbes in order to halt the northern advances of the Polisario and disrupt its supply lines into Algeria.

Major blow

The fall of the town has been a major blow to Hassan's strategy, and a major victory in the war for the liberation of the Western Sahara from colonial oppression.

The Polisario claims to have killed 767 Moroccan troops and to have driven the occupying forces back to Zag inside Morocco.

This news must have given President Carter the final spur to announce his increased support for Hassan's dictatorial monarchy.

Carter's latest proposal is that the US imperialists should provide Hassan with more sophisticated military equipment, including ground support aircraft and Cobra helicopter gunships-or, in the words of State Department officials, 'not enough to allow Morocco to impose a military solution' King Hassan, like his model, the Shah of Iran, has been a faithful friend to US interests in the Middle East. But the US