Turkish Junta Chooses Generalas Pm
Socialist Press1980 1980-10-01Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 3 →
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Solidarity Campaign The twin bourgeois form- Democratic Party, whether its ations of the Democratic nominee is Carter or Kennedy. and Republican parties It is interesting to note that the one issue which both Carter continue to dommate the and Kennedy did publicly agree US politica. scene despite upon amid the pre-convention their unanimous contempt "hostilities" was the need to and hostility to the organ- pass the bill deregulating the trucking industry. ised working class.
Even the renomination of Teamsters Jimmy Carter by the Democratic Convention failed to produce any explosion of anger This bill has been devised among trade unionists who had specifically to attack the previously attacked him. Teamsters Union, under the In partiçular William Wimp- pretext of making the transporstrong, Mackeniot this, lold. 950.000- tation of goods more economicBai under present high gas prices. to walk out as promised after Also, neither Wimpisinger Carter secured the candidacy. nor anyone else at. the conAs Labor News, paper of vention saw fit to attack the American Socialist League Senator Kennedy for his pro(DC) reports: moting the right-wing and anti"Wimpisinger declared that labour Senate Bill 1722. he would remain a supporter of Nor' was there a syllable the Democratic Party, although uttered to criticize Carter for he would form a committee of supporting the Shah of Iran or "Democrats for Commoner" for ordering a helicopter (the Citizens Party candidate). invasion of that land earlier this Wimpisinger, of course, has year.
business staying in Or for sending troops to El THe POLLS 10% 2 Ex-general and former navy chief Bulent Ulusu, appointed Prime Minister by Turkey's new military rulers; last week announced his cabinet.
In his inaugural speech he made it clear that his intention was to continue the economic and international policies of the recently deposed Demirel administration. Predictably, Ulusu followed the line of the junta's leader Kenan Evren in declaring opposition to 'extremism' both left and right.
If he carries out his intention to 'eradicate all seeds of terrorism' and purge the state sector of militants of both sides then he will have achieved the impossible.
There is scarcely a workshop or an office which is neutral. The September 12 coup itself was the culmination of the military's response to the deepening polarisation of Turkish society driven forward by the country's economic crisis.
That crisis remains as an obstacle the ruling class have still to surmount.
Salvador.
Or for busting the strike of the United Mine Workers.
Or for admitting into his party's ranks a congressional candidate from California who is a member of the Ku Klux Klan!
Immediately following their two conventions both the Republican and Democratic Party candidates began in earnest the themes of their 1980 campaigns: to prepare the population for another war.
Reagan, speaking at a conference of Veterans of Foreign Wars in Chicago, declared that he thought the Vietnam war was "noble cause" and that the only thing wrong with it was that the government didn't really want to win it.
Carter, as chief executive, went about this theme less openly, for his task will be to get the United States into a war by November in such a way as to make it appear that it was not his doing.
In mid-August the highly credible Washington-based Wright-Providence Journal Bulietin The striving of the Furkish ruling class to maintain the illusion of the present regime as classless and based only on national unity is confirmed by the two key figures in Ulusu's cabinet.
Employers Turgut Ozal, deputy prime minister, is a former leader of MESS, the employers federation comprising major industrial capitalists, which at its latest conference spelt out the need for the factory owners to use the new conditions to raise the level of exploitation.
They stressed the need to "lead workers towards moderate unions' ie. away from the left wing DISK union confederation.
Ozal has established his credentials within the ruling class by leading the bosses in their marathon lockout of the metal workers union in 1977 and more recently by acting as negotiator with Western governments and the IMF on credits and conditions as a major figure in the Demirel government.
Sadik Side, secretary of the yellow union confederation columnist Jack Anderson reported the existenc : of topsecret plans of Carter to invade Iran in mid-October, with the optimistic ("Born Again") hopes that it would be "popular with the electorate".
Acceptable
Taking his cue, Secretary of Defence Brown behind the back announced of the Secretary of State, the new military policy of the US would be that a limited nuclear war against selected non civilian targets would be "containable" and therefore acceptable!
The Socialist 'League points out that, although we cannot support either Carter, Anderson or Reagan, there are limited political steps that can be taken this autumn, in addition to fighting for working class power on a daily basis.
First, nationally we call for a critical vote for Andrew Pulley, the Socialist Workers. Party candidate for President of the United States.
We do so primarily because the SWP stands for the building of a Labour Party in their stated Voting for the SWP is of course hardly enough, and we urge workers to campaign in their unions for withdrawal of financial support for either Democrat or Republican candidates, and to utilize their union organisations toward forging a working. class party to stop plant closings, create full employment at a living wage, and to oppose the plans for war.
We have supported recent motions for a Labour Party at the UAW convention in California, and will call for a Labour Party at the upcoming Teamsters for a Democratic Union meeting this autumn.
Also we call upon supporters of the Citizens Party to demand that it' become a Citizens/ Labour Party with a socialist Turk-ls has been named as minister of Social Security as an apparent 'counterweight' to Ozal.
Meanwhile the political killings, briefly suspended, have inevitably begun to re-emerge.
In only the second week of the dictatorship, many cities are again the scene of assassinations and clashes between the army and left-wingers with many dead on both sides.
Kurds killed
The worst incident has been in Turkey-Kurdistan last Friday when 8 were killed by the military.
Noticeably, the targets in the soldiers' sights are not the right wingers and fascists who are well aware that it is they who will eventually benefit from the army takeover.
In Britain the Turkey Solidarity Campaign is pressing at this week's Labour Party conference for support to a labour movement petition that states:
We declare our total opposition to the military coup in Turkey and its suppression of all democratic rights including the abolition of independent trade unions and the right to strike.
We deplore the British government's refusal *to condemn the military dictatorship and its complicity in NATO's war preparations.
We call for:
1) the immediate release of all political prisoners in Turkey and a halt to threatened War between Turkey's bordering states Iraq and Iran confirms the volatility of the Middle Eastern region and gives added urgency to imperialism's determination to patch up the tattered relationship between Turkey and Greece.
Plans are well in hand for Greece to return to full participation in NATO.
'That means agreement must be reached quickly on the vexed questions of both Cyprus and the Aegean seabed and airspace, both being sources of sharp disagreements and national rivalry.
So far the junta's cautious approach has meant that it has yet to be fully tested by either the bourgeoisie or the masses. Discontent is already growing.
urkey executions • 2) an end to all economic and military aid to the junta from the British government 3) solidarity with the Turkish workers and peasants and Kurdish people including Labour Party support for action organised by the trade union movement."
We urge Socialist Press readers to raise these demands in their union branches, along with a call for trade. union action to black all arms and supplies • destined for the Turkish juntà.
The next meeting of the Turkey Solidarity Campaign is to be held on Monday October 6 at the Roebuck Pub, Tottenham Court Road, 7.30 p.m.