Voice of Revolution - Issue No: 7 (February 97)

The Statement of the Second General Conference of the TDKP

The Second General Conference of the TDKP consisted of various sessions. It was held in a certain period of time and was attended by the party organisations and forces. It ensured the broadest representation of the party circles within the workers, labourers and the youth. All the decisions of the conference were taken unanimously.

Our conference took place at a time, in accordance with many-sided developments both in Turkey and in the world, when our party has arrived at a turning point, when it has become an indispensable task for the party to renew and develop its work both in the ideological-political and organisational-practical fields and to overcome its shortcomings, when it orientated itself to renew and develop its tactical platform and its practical-organisational work, and when the dictatorship intensified its attacks on the party.

The agenda of the conference, which evaluated the developments after our party’s First General Conference which was held in February 1990, was as follows:

- International situation and trends 

- Developments in our country in accordance with international situation 

- Our party’s activities in the ideological-political and practical-organisational fields. 

Our conference arrived at the following conclusions:

On the international arena:

The First General Conference of our party was held in a transition period when the revolutionary movement of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples was still in the period of defeat that it entered in the second half of the 1950s, when the destructive consequences of this period was apparent, and when imperialism and the world reactionary forces were carrying out a many-sided offensive campaign, uniting all their forces and capabilities. However, this was also a period when all the factors which were weakening the imperialist-capitalist system and deepening its general crisis were developing.

The main characteristics of the period which have been experienced in the international arena since our first General Conference are the sharpening of the fundamental contradictions of the imperialist-capitalist system, the deepening of its general crisis, and the developments which show that this system has been going towards a new stage of its general crisis, towards a period of new wars and revolutions and of fundamental ups and downs.

In the period following our party’s First General Conference what happened was this:

a) The disintegration process of the capitalist-imperialist bloc led by the USSR has been completed. This was presented in bourgeois-imperialist propaganda, supported by revisionism, as the end of socialism and the ultimate defeat of the struggle for revolution and socialism. In the member states of this bloc, the most open forms and methods of capitalist exploitation and of the hegemony of the bourgeoisie, the forms and methods that are not hidden under deformed socialist forms, have become dominant in all fields of the social structure. 

b) In Albania, which was the only socialist country in the world after the 1960s, socialism was destroyed and capitalism was restored. All the destructive consequences of the blow suffered by the revolutionary movement of the world proletariat and the oppressed peoples in the second half of the 1950’s have become more apparent. Revolutionary positions and foundations in the international sphere have been lost. This has also been the weakest period for the revolutionary movement of the world proletariat and the oppressed peoples. 

The above developments paved the way for an ever greater demagogic campaign and for the many-sided offensive waged by imperialism and world reactionary forces against the working class and the oppressed peoples and against the struggle for revolution and socialism. The supremacy and ultimate victory of capitalism was proclaimed. This victory was sanctified by revisionism and bourgeois socialism which have been the internal basis for the defeat suffered by the world working class and the peoples.

The disintegration of the imperialist bloc headed by the USSR, the collapse of socialism in Albania, the loss of the last positions of the proletariat and the peoples, and the fall of the movement to its lowest point, could not be and was not the ultimate defeat of the struggle for revolution and socialism, or the end of the fundamental contradictions of the capitalist system, or the end of antagonistic class contradictions and of class struggle, or the beginning of a period of universal harmony, peace and welfare. Since the second half of the 1950s, when imperialism and world reaction struck the heaviest blow on the revolutionary movement of the proletariat and the peoples, and when this movement entered a period of defeat and retreat, the material basis for the victory of revolution and socialism was not weakened; on the contrary, it continued to develop and mature to such a greater extent that it cannot be compared with the previous period.

Although the disintegration of the bloc headed by the USSR, which was the main target for the demagogic propaganda carried out by imperialism and world reaction, has created some opportunities for this or that imperialist state and monopolies, it did not create a breathing space, not even temporarily, for the imperialist system as a whole. On the contrary, it has been a factor paving the way to some many-sided developments that have deepened the general crisis of the imperialist-capitalist system. What happened with this disintegration was this: 

- It put an end to a period when the capitalist world was divided into two camps, both headed by a super-power fighting for world hegemony, and when inter-relations and alliances between the imperialist states and monopolies were being shaped by this division and struggle. The balance of power and the relations between them have been turned upside-down. Despite the fact that the US, whose hegemony has started to be shaken as a result of uneven development, is now the only super-power of the capitalist world, Japan in the East and Germany and France in West Europe have emerged as the main imperialist centres fighting for the redivision of the world. Facts show that Russia is recovering over the ruins of the USSR and advancing to be a part in this struggle, and that the fight between the imperialist countries and between the international monopolist corporations for the redivision of the world is intensifying and becoming more complex. 

- Contrary to the claims of the bourgeois-revisionist circles, "joining the Western bloc" has nothelped these countries to overcome their many-sided crisis and enter a process of stable development which could have been an element contributing to a new phase of progress in the world capitalist economy. On the contrary, the crisis in these countries has deepened. They have moved towards social disintegration and chaos, productive forces have been destroyed, and all of their resources and social wealth have been looted by Western imperialist countries and monopolies. 

The Gulf War broke out immediately after all this imperialist propaganda about capitalism entering a period of harmony, peace and progress where there is no wars or class struggles. A vast area from the Balkans to the Caucuses, from the Middle East to Africa, mainly the spheres of influence of the ex-USSR, has become an arena for reactionary, religious, and even tribal wars provoked by the imperialist states and monopolies.

Contrary to the claims of the bourgeois-imperialist circles, world capitalist economy has not entered a period of steady growth and progress. While the process of unstable and uneven development has deepened, the average rate of growth over a five year period has continued to fall, let alone increase. Despite the differences in each country, the periods between the cyclical crises has shortened, the periods of crisis and recession have become longer, and their destructive consequences have become heavier. Even the bourgeois-imperialist circles can no longer negate this fact.

The retreat of the struggle of the world proletariat and the oppressed peoples has encouraged imperialism to intensify its unbridled attacks. More frequent cyclical crises and recessions with more destructive impacts, coupled with more competition and struggle for the redivision of the world, have given some new characteristics to this offensive. The imperialist states and monopolies and their bases in other countries have widened their economic and political attacks on a world scale to the following extent in order to shift the burdens of these crises, recession and competition on to the working class and the mass of the people: 

a) Not only the backward countries but also small and weak advanced countries are becoming arenas for the unlimited exploitation and hegemony of the international financial capital; they are being put under the claws of new colonialist methods. 

b) In addition to the backward countries, all the economic, political and social rights and gains of the workers and labourers of the advanced countries are also being usurped.

The intensification of exploitation, absolute poverty and the usurpation of rights have become a part of the daily life of the workers and labourers of the most advanced capitalist countries. In addition to the backward countries, the increasing economic and political attacks of capital and the worsening living and working conditions in the most advanced capitalist countries which are presented as the societies of peace, harmony and welfare, have escalated anger, dissatisfaction and the tendency to struggle among the workers, youth and other oppressed and exploited strata. As is seen clearly in the examples of France, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Germany, the dullness and silence of the workers’ and labourers’ movement has been replaced by the biggest and most united mass resistance of the last 50 years and by a new mobilisation in the form of strikes and general strikes together with street demonstrations and marches. Facts show that a new period of mobilisation and awakening is developing in the ranks of the proletariat of the advanced countries, which, qualitatively and quantitatively, constitute the most advanced sections of the working class of the world.

In the ranks of the International Communist Movement, many-sided ideological, political and organisational chaos and disintegration - which increased under the circumstances when imperialism and world reaction, uniting all their forces, launched a massive offensive campaign - were replaced by the process of reorganising as an international movement and of overcoming weaknesses. The International Communist Movement has taken some practical steps in overcoming the disintegration in its ranks, with the gatherings in West Europe in 1993, in Quito in 1994 and in Paris in 1995. 

With the mobilisation in the movement of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples, bourgeois and petit-bourgeois socialism and the remnants of revisionism (all of which once openly declared the ultimate victory and supremacy of capitalism) intensified their attempts to organise as an international movement and to impose their bankrupt theoretical and organisational-practical platforms on the movement after having renewed them. Our conference draws attention to the importance of the struggle against these currents and to their intensified attempts, as they are the ones who were responsible and the internal bases for the heaviest defeat - which followed the greatest victories -  suffered by the world proletariat and the revolutionary movement of the oppressed peoples. 

Our conference adopted our party’s theses on the international situation and trends, and highlighted the following facts:

- The previous period has ended and a new one has started.

- The imperialist-capitalist system has not entered a period of stability and progress but one of chaos, conflicts and instability, and is advancing towards a break up of one or more of its weakest chains.

- This process will be uneven in terms of its economic, political and social aspects in general and of its reflections in each country in particular, and will develop in ups and downs.

Having discussed the multiple impacts of the changes in the international situation on our country, and the consequences and tasks brought forward by these changes with regards to the revolution in our country and the working class struggle, our conference draws particular attention to the following points:

The present dimension of the economic, political, military, etc. relations between the countries comprising the links of the imperialist chain on the basis of the high level reached by scientific and technological revolution and the internationalisation of capital, the international situation and its trends, are continuing to have an incomparably greater effect on the all economic, political and ideological processes in our country, compared with those in the first half of this century. This is particularly true if we bear in mind the increasing dependency of our country on imperialism in every field and its level of capitalist development.

Despite the fact that at the present time, all the economic, political and cultural links between countries (each one of which is a link in the imperialist chain) have developed to an unprecedented degree, the uneven development of these countries is continuing. The process experienced by the imperialist -capitalist system as a whole  has a different level of impact on each link in the chain. The processes undergone by each country have different features and are affected differently by the process experienced by the system as a whole.

Our country is one of the links of the imperialist-capitalist system whose general crisis is deepening and which is moving towards a new stage of its general crisis. As is the case in other links, not only the victory of the proletarian socialist revolution but also of an uninterrupted genuine popular revolution, of the struggle of the proletariat and the people of Turkey for their emancipation, would mean a defeat for imperialism and the break upof one of the links of the imperialist chain. Such a revolution must aim at uninterrupted transition to socialism and must be led by the proletariat. Together with the alliance of the monopolist bourgeoisie and the big land owners, which hold state power, imperialism is the main basis of the world reactionary forces and so constitutes the main barrier to revolution in our country and to the struggle of the working class and the other oppressed classes for their emancipation. For this reason, what the deepening of the general crisis of the imperialist-capitalist system and its move towards a new stage of its general crisis mean is this: 

- The barriers in front of the victory of  revolution in our country, of the struggle of the working class and the labourers for their emancipation, and of the anti-imperialist democratic revolution, which is the necessary first stage of this revolution, are weakening.

- The international allies of the proletariat and the revolution in our country are getting stronger.

- The international situation and international factors do not have a consolidating or stabilising impact on the present social system in Turkey but rather a weakening and destabilising one.

Despite the fact that the international basis for the proletarian world revolution has become more mature and more developed in the present time, a new rise of the revolution will begin through a break in the imperialist chain at its weakest links. Turkey is one of the links that feels most the impacts which cause the imperialist-capitalist system to move towards a new stage of its general crisis. Our conference highlights this fact which has a particular importance because of the geopolitical situation of our country and draws attention to the dangerous consequences of the narrow-mindedness of nationalist perspectives.

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On Turkey:

Contrary to the claims of the spokespersons of the ruling classes who are the extensions of imperialism in our country, the changes that led to many-sided developments in the international arena since our First General Conference, have not created new opportunities for Turkey in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia or the Middle East. Nor have they strengthened Turkey’s international relations and its international position. On the contrary, they played have promoted the elements of instability. The following facts clearly demonstrate the correctness of this perspective:

- Under the conditions when the world was divided into two imperialist blocs headed by the US and the USSR, and when the relations between the imperialist states and between monopolies were shaped according to the struggle of these blocs for world hegemony - despite the rivalry between them -  Turkey was a forward station for the Western imperialist bloc and got its support. However, this situation has changed after the disintegration of the bloc headed by the USSR, the upset of the inter-imperialist balance of power and the emergence of new centres fighting for world hegemony. Turkey has become one of the countries over which the struggle for hegemony between the imperialist states and international monopolies has aggravated, since none of them has been able to secure ultimate hegemony. Turkey is dependent on the US and on the international institutions under US control in terms of military and finance, and on Western Europe in terms of foreign trade and indirect capital investments. Also, the fact that Russia is recovering adds to the impasse of the ruling classes of Turkey with regards to which imperialist focus they should serve and to what extent.

- For the imperialist states and the international monopolies fighting for world hegemony, Turkey is important not only because of its resources, market and economic potential, but also because of its geopolitical situation, being a junction for the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East, thus being an important country for the hegemony over these regions and for expanding their sphere of influence. Furthermore, these regions continue to be of a great importance for the imperialist states and the international monopolies because of their natural resources, mainly oil, as well as their markets and great economic potential. They also continue to be the regions which are most effected by the changes in the inter-imperialist balance of power and where the inter-imperialist struggle for redivision has escalated.

- In terms of its economic and military potential as well as its geopolitical situation Turkey is one of the largest and strongest countries in these regions. 

- Another characteristic of these regions is the existence of different nationalities and religions and the fact that the problems among them remain unresolved. These problems get more complex as a result of conflicting interests of local bourgeois-feudal groups and of the struggle for hegemony among them. Turkey is one of these countries, with mainly the Kurdish national question. The imperialist states and international monopolies continue to use these conflicts and contradictions in order to expand and strengthen their sphere of influence and to weaken their rivals.

The 1990s have been years of unstability for the countries and regions surrounding Turkey. The Middle East, the Balkans and the Caucasus have become the most unstable regions in the world where the inter-imperialist struggle for the redivision of the world has grown more acute, where the contradictions between the local bourgeois groups have been manipulated and provoked by imperialist states and monopolies, and where reactionary national wars and the wars between bourgeois groups for hegemony have followed each other. Facts show that the inter-imperialist struggle for the redivision of these regions is continuing, that this struggle will have new features and will become more complex with the recovery of Russia, and that instability will continue. And Turkey is one of the countries which is at the centre of this ongoing chaos and of the whirlpool of these conflicts. The outcome of the so-called imperialist plans and attempts of the ruling classes of Turkey, to reach new opportunities and possibilities by being the regional middleman and subcontractor of the main imperialist countries, international finance capital groups and monopolies, basing everything on some historical and cultural ties, has been a complete disappointment. Far from providing new opportunities, these plans and attempts have aggravated the problems and the impasse that the ruling classes were faced with, and has led to losses (the fall in trade with Arab countries after the Gulf War) and new burdens (increased military expenditure), as was seen in the Gulf War, Yugoslavia and the Caucasus.

Turkey’s economic, military, political, etc. dependence on imperialism is increasing day after day. As is suggested by the strategy experts of some "left" circles, especially by those who act as advisers to the dictatorship, Turkey has not been able to play an independent role in this region in the new conditions that arose after the disintegration of the USSR and the Soviet bloc. It could only play a certain role as a cat’s-paw of this or that imperialist centre fighting for world hegemony. While on the one hand, the imperialist countries, above all the US, which are fighting to expand their sphere of influence in the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East, are striving to be more influential on Turkey, they are, on the other hand, increasing the pressure on it to play a role in line with their interests and their policies determined by these interests. The following have been the consequences of Turkey playing such a role and following a foreign policy in corresponding especially to US imperialism’s aggressive policies and its preferences.

 - In addition to the problems - even in the form of embargo - with the US, to which it is politically and militarily dependent and for which it is acting as a servant, Turkey could not escape from the problems and threats of other imperialist centres. 

 - It had to be pulled into the whirlpool of the increasingly acute struggle for redivision waged by the main imperialist countries and monopolies. 

 - It was unable to avoid the deterioration of and instability in its relations with its neighbours and with other regional countries. Nor could it avoid isolation.

 - The anti-national and pro-imperialist nature of its foreign policy has intensified and become more evident.

Our conference draws attention to the fight against the foreign policy of the ruling classes and of their fascist dictatorship which is shaped according to the interests and preferences of US imperialism in the region and which is pushing our country into the whirlpool of inter-imperialist conflict in the region.

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On the economic situation:

While being the most faithful base for imperialism, mainly the US imperialism, and pursuing a foreign policy accordingly, the ruling classes had a policy at home of destroying the final remnants of the gains of the National Liberation War -which was a weak anti-imperialist revolution- and of transferring the country into an area of exploitation for imperialist states and monopolies where they have an unlimited hegemony in every field.

Customs and other protectionist measures have been lifted and the subsidies for agriculture and for the state owned enterprises have been pulled down. All the barriers in front of  the imperialist monopolies' transfers of profit and their direct/indirect investments have been eliminated. Under the directives of the IMF and the World Bank the economy continued to develop in the 1990s in the direction of a typical colonial economy. The distraction in agriculture has deepened; industrial enterprises, which are limited in numbers and which constitute the basis of an independent economy, have been handed over to imperialist monopolies; the leftovers have been left to die with no renewal of technology and no investment; the control and hegemony of imperialist monopolies have become stronger in the commercial sector too. 

Although the 1990s were announced to be the years of a stable growth, of catching up with the most advanced countries, and of breaking the chains of backwardness, since our First General Conference the economy could not get out of the process of a short-term recovery and growth followed by a stagnation and shrinking. Moreover, in the last five years the average rate of growth fell below the averages of the first and second halves of the 1980s, and its unstableness has deepened. The country has entered in the heaviest economic crisis of the second half of the century, which started in the financial sector in 1994 and spread immediately into commercial and industrial sectors. Although a period of recovery began in 1995, partly as a result of the shifting of all the burdens of the crisis on to the working class and all other exploited and oppressed masses, all the available data indicate that the economy is moving towards a new crisis.

The main economic indicators such as the rate of inflation, internal and external debt, the level of total investments, foreign trade and the balance of current account have shown a negative trend compared to those of the 80s. The economy is on the verge of a financial bankruptcy as the payments of internal and external debt and the interests on it can only be made through new loans and through the selling of state enterprises for nothing to imperialist monopolies and their local collaborators. While the proportion of productive investments decreases unearned incomes continue to grow rapidly.

In addition to the poor of urban and rural areas, in all sectors of the economy the situation of middle and small enterprises continue to deteriorate rapidly. While some of them are dragged into bankruptcy, the suffocating yoke of finance capital and monopolies on those which manage to survive has intensified further. The peasants’ movements in Adiyaman, Bursa, Malatya and Muœla, though developing under the influence of big landowners and agricultural bourgeoisie, show that dissatisfaction and anger is rising among the small and middle property owners, that their orientation towards struggle, though not wide-spread and permanent yet, is developing, and that the social basis of the dictatorship, imperialism and the ruling classes among these strata has weakened. This is one of the characteristics of the period we are going through. The Customs Union with the EU, the negative  consequences of which have not yet fully appeared, and the implementation of the IMF and the World Bank programmes will worsen the destruction of small and middle property owners and increase the suffocating oppression of imperialism and monopolies.

The burning down and depopulation of the villages in Kurdistan have deepened the destruction of agriculture and cattle-dealing, deteriorated the situation of the peasantry and escalated migration to the towns. Millions of labourers, mainly Kurdish peasants, had to migrate to big cities where there is a high rate of unemployment and poverty and where they have no security for their future. The army of unemployed and semi-proletarian masses is growing to an unprecedented degree.

The pay rises implemented after the rise of the workers’ movement with the 1989 strikes and demonstrations have been eroded through high inflation. This caused the decline of real wages. Despite temporary fluctuations, the real wages of the workers and all other labourers dropped throughout 1990s. The year 1994 was a turning point as it marked the beginning of a period of the sharpest decreases and deterioration of real wages and of the living and working conditions of the oppressed and exploited classes.

Turkey is entering a new period of an inevitable economic crisis and new offensives, following a period of  the most rapid rise in absolute poverty of the last fifty years. This is one of the most significant characteristic of the period we are passing through.

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On the political situation:

The 1990s have been the years when the mass and social basis of the ruling classes and of the fascist dictatorship weakened, when the impasses and problems they were faced with in the country deepened and their international relations deteriorated. The following facts demonstrate this situation clearly: 

Despite the demagogy about democratisation and liberalisation, no steps were taken in the 1990s towards the recognition and constitutional guarantee of democratic rights and freedom (nor towards the solution of Kurdish national question which is an element of this). On the contrary, oppression and terror intensified and became wide-spread. The dictatorship’s apparatus for attacks and repression have constantly been strengthened with ever increasing power. It has also become clear that with all its establishments the parliament was not an instrument of the realisation of bourgeois democracy, but on the contrary, it was a puppet functioning to deceive people and to give a democratic appearance to the fascist dictatorship. While the friction between the parties of the bourgeois system are escalating, the "representative" establishments, with their political parties, government and parliament are now more discredited than at any other time in their history.

Although the aggravating friction between the bourgeois parties is being used to divert the masses’ attention from real problems, they also help expose, even if only partially, their corruption and rottenness.

In the 1990s, the balance of power between the parties of the bourgeois system changed such that it kept governmental crises and snap-elections constantly on the agenda, which made even the Grand National Assembly non-functional. Despite all the restrictions and anti-democratic election regulations, none of the bourgeois parties was able to come out of the latest general elections with a level of mass support big enough to enable them to establish the strong and stable government which imperialism and the ruling classes wanted. None of these parties, including the Welfare Party - one of the coalition partners - which increased its votes by using anti-system rhetoric and religious motifs, have the mass support and strength that could calm down the anger and dissatisfaction of the masses, and that could unify all the reactionary forces around imperialism’s and the ruling classes’ policy of attacking the people.

No matter how restricted the power and role of the parliament is in the political life of the country, the developments mentioned above weaken the ruling classes and the dictatorship, and aggravate their impasse. However, these developments on their own do not paralyse or shake the instruments of political hegemony of imperialism, monopolist bourgeoisie and big land owners. This is because with its political parties, governments and other institutions, the existing parliament is not the power that rules the country, even in appearance. The real power that is ruling the country not only in practice but also in appearance is the oligarchy consisting of imperialism, the monopolist big bourgeoisie, the big land owners, generals, police chiefs and other administrative institutions of the militarist-bureaucratic apparatus, all of which are interlinked and combined. Our conference highlights this fact and defines it as foolishness to consider the friction between the parties of the bourgeois system and the change in the balance of power between them as an indication of a political crisis and of a revolutionary situation.

Widespread corruption, decay and conflicts between different cliques are growing, although this does not paralyse the state and its main instruments like the army and the police organisation, which are the main instrument of the hegemony of the ruling classes and imperialism. It can no longer be hidden that the police and the army have close links with mafia, with gangs and with all sorts of scandals, corruption, bribery, etc.

Scandals following one another and the unbridled terror of the offensive apparatus of the dictatorship, above all the police forces who are given unlimited authority, speed up the process whereby the masses can realise through their own experience what the main functions of the state and other institutions really are, resulting in the destruction of their reactionary prejudices with regards to these institutions, especially among their awakening sections.

Another significant development is the growth of the dissatisfaction and anger among the lower strata government employees whose living conditions are deteriorating rapidly. They are getting organised as a separate force from the top strata of the bureaucracy. The fact that public employees’ movement is advancing and orientating towards uniting with the workers’ movement, though it does not include the police and the army, is an indication of disintegration in the state apparatus, and bears significance as it is afactor in the weakening of the dictatorship.

One of the most significant developments of the 1990s has been the weakening of the masses’ belief in  the improvement of living and working conditions and of democratic rights and freedom under the existing regime. Their disillusionment with traditional bourgeois parties and the orientation towards new expectations have escalated. Especially among the advanced section of the workers, the orientation towards organising as a separate party has grown stronger. However, despite this orientation, the disorganisation among the majority of the advanced workers has not been overcome yet, and they are not yet organised in a revolutionary workers’ party. This is one of the reasons why the workers’ movement has not been able to enter a process of stable development, why the stagnation of the movement in 1992-93 has not been overcome despite the mobilisations in 1994-95, and why the open mass movement of the workers is at its weakest point of the last ten years.

The reasons why the open mass movement of the workers and labourers and the Kurdish national movement have been going through a new period of stagnation and disorganisation since the middle of 1995 differ in some points from the reasons for the stagnation in 1991-94. This is because in the former period the living conditions of the working classes and the Kurdish labourers got worse and did not show any improvement such as it did in 1990-91. Furthermore, government’s campaigns for "democracy" did not give rise to expectations and become a  factor blocking the mass movement. In fact, the open mass movement was blocked mainly from within. 

The policies of the traditional liberal "left" groups’ and the trade union bureaucracy have dragged the working masses into hopelessness. Terrorism stemmed from the complete rottenness of the anarchistic "socialist" currents. All these have played a liquidating role which resulted in the disorganisation of the mass movement, the destruction of the relationship between the advanced and the backward sections of the working people, and the provocation of the political atmosphere and the masses.

The "work" of the Kurdish nationalist current which is based on the enmity between the Turks and the Kurds and which has been reshaped since 1991 within the orbit of the inter-imperialist struggle for their interests, has had a two-sided effect. Firstly, it has pushed Turkish labourers into a position that is exposed to the provocative activities of capital. Secondly, it has been a factor turning the growing dissatisfaction and tiredness among the Kurdish population into hopelessness. The organisations of the advanced workers struggling under such circumstances were not able to counter all these negative factors or to minimise their destructive consequences. In spite of the fact that the break away of the labouring masses from the system deepened in 1995-96, these factors that feed and strengthen each other gave rise to the stagnation of the open mass movement, and to a disorganising hopelessness among the lower strata of the population.

Terrorist attacks, actions on behalf of the youth, irresponsible attacks and looting by the "left" as was experienced on the May Day, and their consequences, provocative activities against trade union platforms, bureaucratic structures of the unions, etc., all these had a negative effect that destroyed the morale of the masses. All these were used by the dictatorship to usurp the positions gained de-facto by mass struggle (for example massive illegal demonstrations), to intensify its attacks and to create more fascist laws.

The stagnation of the mass movement is not an absolute phenomenon. Possibilities and conditions are continuing to develop and ripen for the mass movement to enter a new period of ascendance that may also include explosions, to develop as a united struggle of all the oppressed and exploited classes, and to overcome the factors that destroy and push backward the workers’ and labourers’ movement.

Despite the constant strengthening of the dictatorship’s apparatus for attacks and repression and the intensification of oppression and terror, the scope of the democratic rights which are used in practice continued to expand in accordance with the rise and fall of the mass struggle. Turkey is going through a period where the living and working conditions of the oppressed and exploited classes are deteriorating rapidly, where none of their immediate economic and political demands are being met, where dissatisfaction, anger  and the tendency for struggle are growing among the masses. On the other hand, the ruling classes and the government are intensifying their economic and political offensive and watching for the right moment to implement new packages of attacks. The present conditions show that the economic and political attacks of the monopolist big bourgeoisie and the big land owners, supported by imperialism - above all by the IMF and the World Bank - will intensify, and the living and working conditions of all oppressed and exploited classes will become worse. This will inevitably cause the growth of dissatisfaction, anger and the orientation to struggle among the masses, and the sharpening of the contradictions between the ruling classes and those who are ruled, and between  labour and capital. 

In Turkey, although the struggle between revolution and counter-revolution, between labour and capital, and between the oppressed and exploited classes and the alliance of imperialism and the ruling classes is not yet at the level of a final settling of accounts, the current process is approaching this level. This development is not in the form of a straight line, but of rises and falls.

All these facts prove the importance and urgency of the creation of the united front for the struggle and resistance of the masses. In contrast to the right and "left" opportunist groups, our party does not consider the question of unity as one of "unity of the left" or as "an alliance between the left groups". These groups which do not have any links with the working class and its movement, and the "unity" or "alliance" among them do not play a unifying and advancing role for the movement. On the contrary, they play a weakening and liquidating role because of their platforms and their understanding of action. Our party’s primary policy with regards to unity is the creation of the united struggle of the broad masses of workers and of a Labour (and Popular) Front with the workers at its centre, as well as the creation a single party of the working class. Existing workers’ platforms, trade unions and other social organisations are the instruments to achieve this at present.

In creating a strong front for the struggle against the attacks of capital and the dictatorship, in repulsing these attacks and advancing in the direction of emancipation, the party is the fundamental weapon of the working class. Our conference draws attention to the daily movement of the working class and to the task of giving maximum assistance to the preparation and organisation of the masses - above all the working class - for the revolution, the task of rebuilding of the mass party which will have the ability use to the full all the necessary instruments and opportunities to this end and which will embrace the majority of the awakening sections of the working class, and the task of rebuilding the organisation of communist workers with iron discipline. 

After assessing our party’s activities in all fields since the First General Conference, our conference came to the following conclusions: 

The TDKP has been loyal to the cause of the emancipation of the proletariat in late 1980s and early 1990s when all the destructive consequences of the defeat that the revolutionary movement of the world proletariat and the oppressed peoples began to suffer in the second half of the 1950s appeared clearly, when the period of defeat and retreat was continuing, when imperialism and reactionary forces intensified their offensive, and when the revolutionary movement of the proletariat and the peoples fell to its lowest point. Our party drew attention to the fact that the victory of imperialism, the bourgeoisie and their bases in every country and the defeat suffered by the proletariat, the peoples and the struggle for revolution and socialism were temporary, and that the general crisis of the imperialist-capitalist system has deepened and has been moving towards a new stage at the time when it was proclaiming its final victory. The TDKP did not allow any jolt or any currents of imperialism and capital with a socialist mask to appear in its ranks even in a period when all the currents, organisations and parties which claimed to be revolutionary and socialist, were shaken, disorganised and disintegrated under the increasing repression and attacks of imperialism, the bourgeoisie and all shades of revisionism in our country and in the world. In such a period, in February 1990, it held its First General Conference and unanimously adopted the resolution to fight against the many-sided attacks of imperialism and all shades of revisionism, to defend all the historical gains of the world proletariat and to continue the struggle until the ultimate emancipation of the working class. It fought against bourgeois and petit-bourgeois non-working class tendencies which emerged in its ranks and did not allow them to divert the party from its path. It learnt lessons from its mistakes and its practice and struggled sincerely to fulfil its responsibilities not only for the working class of our country but also for the working class of the world.

The TDKP placed at the centre of its activities the maximum level of help to the development of the level of the leadership, consciousness, organisation and struggle of the working class and gave special importance to the youth, despite all the weaknesses and shortcoming of this section of society, as they represent the future. It has distinguished itself from other currents and organisations in every field with its position in and relations with the mass movement, especially the workers’ movement. Our party has become the only current which carried out activities among the workers and which has the potential to advance the workers’ movement, while all other currents claiming to make the revolution and establish socialism moved towards bourgeois liberalism or individual terrorism. 

What prevented our party from renovating and making the necessary changes in time in the relations between its slogans and forms and methods of organisation and the struggle in accordance with the changes in the conditions and according to the development of the workers’ movement, were the reflections of bourgeois liberalism in various fields, above all on organisational discipline, and the practical opportunism in its ranks which represented the so-called underground work of the traditional left. This so-called underground work of the traditional left has no links with the workers’ movement and with its needs. Instead, these elements hid behind the excuse of secrecy and security, and  did not have the courage to make the change and development in their way of thinking, living and working that is required by the needs of the workers’ movement. Our party did not have the ability to use to the full all the possibilities and instruments developed both by the progress in the workers’ movement and by the activities it carried out. 

Moreover, these possibilities were paralysed as a result of these tendencies and weaknesses in our organisation. These tendencies had opportunity to develop in recent years when the dictatorship’s attacks intensified on our party and were able to be effective due to the delay in the rebuilding and renovation of the party, and when extraordinary measures had to be taken in order to minimise losses under these conditions.

The changes in conditions, the level of development of the tendency especially among the advanced workers to organise as a separate class, the outcome of the activities carried out by our party so far and its position and influence in the workers’ movement, all these have proved that the agitation and propaganda and organisational activities which - despite the mistakes and weaknesses - advanced our party’s work, and the organisations, positioning of the cadres and the relations between the forms and instruments that it used in carrying out these activities have become obsolete. It has become inevitable that we renew and develop these activities with new forms and instruments. It was not possible to achieve this transformation through some partial changes, while keeping the old organisation and old perspective. It could only be achieved through rebuilding our party in every field - legal and illegal - and purifying and renewing its forces. Our conference approves all the decisions of the Central Committee taken with this perspective and the steps taken in practice by our party. It draws attention to the decisive relation between the rebuilding of our party, the renovation of its activities in all fields according to the changes in conditions, and the ability that all the party forces will show in overcoming their weaknesses and mistakes, and most importantly, between the renovation of the working class and the youth with fresh forces and an iron discipline.

Not only in countries like Turkey where a fascist dictatorship reigns but also in the most democratic and stable bourgeois republics, the revolutionary party of the working class has to have a sound clandestine organisation in order to secure the continuation of its activities, the future of the workers’ movement, and the development of assistance to and influence on this movement with a revolutionary line which is not restricted by (bourgeois) laws.

In addition to the maximum use of the legal possibilities and the consolidation of the work in this field, one of the most important tasks of the day is the rebuilding and consolidation of the illegal organisation which has the features required to meet the needs of the workers’ movement. This is necessary for the continuation of the activities of preparing and organising the revolution and for its success. What is needed is not a so-called illegal organisation which has no links with the workers’ movement, which is far from meeting the needs of this movement, and which has become degenerated and become an aim instead of an instrument (for the revolution). What is needed is an illegal organisation with thousands of links, which is sound and capable of utilising all instruments and possibilities and of organising and directing the struggle for revolution and socialism in the face of the fierce attacks of counter-revolutionary forces. While utilising the possibilities in legal field to the full, another fundamental task facing the conscious sections of the working class, above all the organised forces of our party, is to become perfect in illegal work, to strengthen the clandestine organisation and to encourage the awakening sections of the working class to organise in that organisation. 

Contrary to the suggestions of the right and "left" wing of the traditional "left", which stand on a completely liquidationist platform today, legal and illegal organisation and work do not exclude or alternate each other. On the contrary, they constitute the unity of two different aspects of a single aim, complementing and strengthening each other. It is not possible to help the workers’ movement develop and to build a sound and constantly strengthened clandestine organisation by turning one’s back on the present tasks to advance the level of consciousness, organisation and struggle of the workers’ movement, on the most effective instruments and forms of this work, and consequently, on the movement itself.

On the basis of organising revolutionary work based on factories and advancing this work, our conference draws attention to the importance of strengthening and giving full support to the organisation of the working class in the open-legal (economic-political) field, to supporting and consolidating the open/legal workers’ press which is one of the most influential instruments of organising and advancing the struggle of the working class, and to using it effectively in the daily work that must be carried out energetically in this field. 

Our conference, which has passed resolutions on the questions of organisation, women, culture, youth, overseas organisations and the national question, expresses its belief that all party organisations and forces, advanced workers, and the youth will sincerely and with great sacrifice carry out the decisions of the Second General Conference of the TDKP.

October 1996