ON THE 19th ANNIVERSARY OF OUR PARTY AND ITS EXPERIENCES
Our party, the TDKP (Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey),
was founded 19 years ago, in February 1980. In this anniversary
year it is very important that we tell the upcoming generations
the main elements and the significant stages of development of
the party. This is because these 19 years have been years of
great conflicts nationally and internationally rather than
stability and order. The development of our party and its present
position within the working class make it especially important
that our young people fully understand our history.
We must know and understand those main elements of the party's
struggle which opened the path for future developments in every
period and the gains which have brought our party to the present
day. This is necessary when we explain through the materialist
interpretation of history and class struggle the way in which the
party has made itself the hope of the people, and become the
vanguard of the working class. The party has emerged in this way
after having proved its difference from innumerable
"left" organisations which have claimed to represent
the vanguard leadership. One must know that if our party had not
made gains and had not based itself on these, then it would not
have been possible for today's generations who represent our
party to have obtained their present position among the workers.
The history of the party is, in a way, the history of
re-constructions which have been caused both by the requirements
of each period and by the necessities posed by the party itself.
Our party has been pushed to the stage of liquidation twice,
first by the brute force of counter-revolution (the defeat of our
predecessor organisation, THKO (People's Liberation Army of
Turkey), in 1971 -military coup, and the defeat of September 1980
military coup), and then by the liquidators within the party from
1985-87. However, after every reactionary and liquidationary
period, our party has been able to overcome its shortcomings,
re-gather its forces, renew its organisation and path, and bind
itself to the class with belief, determination and commitment.
The working class, the grave-diggers of capital, continued to
develop and struggle; it was not possible to prevent the
determined communists who were loyal to the working class,
revolution and socialism from recovering and dedicating
themselves to their historical tasks. That is how it happened. At
every moment, when reactionaries and liquidators announced
"the end of our political life", our party succeeded in
fulfilling the tasks required by the mass movement and
maintaining its position at the centre of the class with
determination and talent.
The THKO (People's Liberation Army of Turkey), and the path that led to the party
The re-construction of the organisation and the decision to establish the party
The formation of the Party and its struggle
The September 1980 defeat and the struggle against liquidationism
The struggle for re-construction, and a new general conference
The position reached at in the movement and the question of re-construction
Conclusion: experience in the struggle and success in the tasks
The THKO (People's Liberation Army of Turkey), and the path that led to the party
The re-construction of the organisation and the decision to establish the party
The formation of the Party and its struggle
The September 1980 defeat and the struggle against liquidationism
The struggle for re-construction, and a new general conference
The position reached at in the movement and the question of re-construction
Conclusion: experience in the struggle and success in the tasks