A Working Class Alternative in Turkey

With the Turkish elections fast approaching on June 7, Dave Nellist, the national Chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) sends the following message in solidarity with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi – HDP):

Across the world the political representatives of the rich multinational companies and bankers have attempted to force working class and poor people  to pay the price for an economic crisis they did not cause. Workers and poor have also faced the brunt of war and brutal repression.

There have been mass demonstrations and strikes against austerity and against oppressive regimes, including the inspiring Gezi Park movement in Turkey in 2013.

These struggles have also started to find a political expression in many countries. In Greece masses of working class people voted for a Syriza government, a mass vote against austerity. In Spain, Podemos has grown rapidly in support.

In Britain, TUSC has stood 130 candidates in the general election on 7th May, as well as hundreds of council candidates, offering a working-class based anti-austerity alternative to all the main capitalist parties.

To see a new coalition developing in Turkey which speaks up for working class people against capitalism is extremely encouraging. It is another step towards working class people, across many countries, starting to build their own political parties, that can not only give a voice to struggles against the effects of this brutal capitalist system, but can also challenge the system itself.