Turkey's Sept. 12 Junta: a bonapartist stopgap

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Statement by the Turkish organisation in sympathy with the Trotskyist Turkish organisation in sympathy with International Liaison Committee on the situation in Turkey. Committee on the situation in Turkey.

Either a civil war or a military dictatorship: these were the two alternatives that imperialism and the big bourgeoisie of Turkey faced if it was to resolve its crisis of authority and destroy the obstacles in front of it. They decided on military dictatorship on September 12.

Under the influence of the deepening world economic and political crisis of imperialism, Turkish capitalism was at a stage of total bankruptcy.

The bourgeoisie had for a long period of time preserved its social dominance and its class hegemony over the oppressed classes by relying on forces outside of Parliament.

The 'democratic' parliament had long been unable to fulfill any of its constitutional functions.

The economic and political crisis of the bourgeoisie was so acute that not only was there no room for concessions to the workers, but even those already granted had to be taken away.

This could easily be seen in the conditions attached by the IMF to loans sought by the Turkish government. They demanded the freezing of wages for five years as the most decisive in a package of austerity measures aimed to foist the crisis onto the shoulders of the working class.

From the very first day of the military coup, all strikes and lock-outs have been banned, trade unions closed down and all rights to organise have been taken away.

The new junta's decree granting a 70% wage rise was followed up by a rise in the prices of basic commodities the next day, which absorbed the whole of the pay increase.

IMF happy

The new vice-premier has emphasised that this austerity programme must be in force for 4-5 years.

He says that the IMF and other financial instutitions are happy with the developments Indeed it appears that the ruling class are now united in trying to resolve their political and economic crisis through the present regime of military dictatorship.

So the question will be asked What about fascism? What role will Turkey's mass fascist party play in the next period?

These questions can only be answered scientifically by correct analysis of the nature of the present regime.

Fascism is the reaction of bourgeois society to the threat of proletarian revolution. The big capitalists arm the petty bourgeoisie and sections of lumpen thugs for action against the organised proletariat seeing their hopes of secure exploitation in the atomisation of the working class and its organisations by the mass base of But this method has some dangers: it brings the threat of civil war, and major social convulsions. In that sense, Trotsky describes the bourgeoisie turning to the fascists as "a man with aching molars going to the dentist"

Last alternative The bourgeoisie does not really like the fascists' methods -but they see them as their last alternative.

When the bourgeoisie is in decline, can no longer rule on the basis of reforms and class collaboration, and is forced to take back the existing reforms, the capitalists are also obliged to create the forces to carry out this task.

This is why the big bourgeoisie feeds and organises sections of the petty bourgeoisie around the ideology of fascism and sends them to attack the proletariat.

Increasingly the parliamentary forms of rule appropriate to peaceful, prosperous periods lose their function as the power reverts to the streets.

This process divides society into the irreconcilable camps and places civil war on the agenda.

The big bourgeoisie can only establish its absolute dictatorsanti.

power in the Middle East unfavourably for imperialism.

These are the main reasons why the big bourgeoisie has decided on the present solution.

In that sense the present regime came to power when the struggle between the two camps of revolution and counter-revolution was reaching a climax.

Bonapartist

This regime cannot therefore be seen as independent from this struggle.

Its programme is the programme of the IMF which in turn bases its demands on the interests of imperialism. Previous governments tried to implement these demands and failed.

The social base of the new junta includes the existence of Turkish troops in action the Demirel government was no longer able to hold back the hundreds of thousands of workers from striking.

Unstable

Particularly the mass Adana strikes were the indication of a new rise in struggle.

The junta was forced to accept some of the demands of the striking workers in Adana.

Because of these reasons, the regime of 12 September is unstable and weak.

Its appearance of strength flows from the complete crisis of leadership in the working class that has diverted and held back its revolutionary struggles against fascism and counterrevolutionary camp.

The responsibility lies mainly with the Turkish Communist Party (TKP), Turkish Labour Party (TLP), and the Turkish Socialist Labour Party (TSIP) along with the leadership of the 'left' union confederation DISK and other democratic 'left' leaderships.

Trotsky on Germany explains this life and death "With a correct leadership of the proletariat fascism would be exterminated without difficulty and not a chink could remain open for Bonapartism. Unfortunately that is not the situation. The paralysed strength of the proletariat has assumed the deceptive form of a 'strength' of the Bonapartist clique"

Deceiving

Holding back the working class at every step in the struggle against fascism and refusing to organise it as a class in united action in the struggles at Taris, Karaman Korum Fatsa, deceiving it with the nonsense of defence of 'democracy' behind Ecevit's bourgeois Republican Peoples Party, the Stalinist, reformist and 'democratic left' leaderships are now striving to persuade the proletariat of the 'justness' of the generals' Kemalist principles and their empty words of return to democracy.

The ultra-left wing of the Stalinists will now say with shameless irresponsibility that nothing has changed in Turkey. "Fascism" exists as it was existing before, they declare.

As a result they will continue their petty bourgeois adventurist actions in isolation from the working class.

In this way they actually help to politically disarm the working class in the face of even more catastrophic dangers.

The working class has not yet been defeated.

The junta cannot hope to survive simply through issuing decrees.

The class struggle is the decisive factor and it will be decisive in the coming period.

The September 12 coup balances itself on this struggle. The failure of the programme which the junta is implementing will necessitate a new alternative. For the bourgeoisie this must mean fascist rule.

The opposite alternative to it is for the working class to organise itself in its own trenches to fight against this regime with correct dictatorship and build a workers' and farmers' government in Turkey.

We, the Trotskyists, propose to the proletariat this alternative.

We call for united action to overthrow this military dictatorship and destroy fascism in this fight.

The working class has the power and the will to win such a fight.

The question once again reduces itself to the question of revolutionary leadership of the proletariat.

And this leadership can only be given by building a Trotskyist party in Turkey based on the Transitional Programme in this

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programme, create the organs of dual power, overthrow this