TDKP History - Reconstruction

The struggle for re-construction, and a new general conference

In 1990-91 the workers' and working people's mass movement went through a period of mobilisation. This progress not only increased our organisations' activities but also strengthened the grounds for the struggle against the attacks of liberal legalist liquidationism (old middle-path defenders, revisionist, Trotskyist and civic society defenders) which claimed that "the working class has lost its importance", that "the need for the revolutionary class party no longer existed", and that a "united party of socialists was needed". It was of particular importance to isolate and liquidate the wave of legalism from the working class movement and the awakening youth. Therefore, our party, while renewing its work among the factory workers, trade unions and intellectuals, carried out a determined struggle against the "rising" legalist liquidationism, without excluding the struggle against petty bourgeois "illegality".

This struggle without any doubt could not prevent our organisation from using legal and open opportunities in the best way possible. Moreover, making maximum use of legal platforms, and the struggle against the influences of petty bourgeois illegality could not damage our organistion's illegal work and organisation. Alongside our party's line and perspective, the development of workers' mass struggle was presenting early warning indications with regard to both the illegal and open-legal fronts of organisation.

Our party, did not ignore the sudden break away of the workers from the system and the developments in the open mass movement. On the contrary, our party Central Committee insistently encouraged and drew attention to this development. The liberal "socialist" and anarchistic "socialist" currents as well as the currents of liberal reformist legalism and petty bourgeois "illegality" were now completely decayed and failed. Nor were they able to contribute to this development in any way, or embrace and organise it. Our party openly declared the necessity of the working class mass movement "organising as an open socialist workers mass party", and that it had become possible to achieve this and to unite the political workers' movement. Later on, it supported all the steps and initiatives taken in this direction. This is because, our party's interests are not different from the interests of the working class and the people.

Besides, the development in the workers' movement and the position of our party in this movement was a clear indication of the possibility of the workers organising as an open mass socialist party. This was something our party had struggled for since 1975 onwards, but which it could not achieve because of the low level of development of the workers' movement and the monopoly of revisionism within this movement. This was something which had not been on the agenda in the post-1987 period when the demarcation line was not yet very clear in the country, when our organisation had not yet obtained the necessary positions, and when the workers' movement had not yet become sufficiently mature. This was the task for our party "to become the organisation of the leading workers with strong ties with the masses, to become the body of revolutionary workers organisations, and develop into a revolutionary mass party of the proletariat" depending on the conditions.

It was natural that the Party Central Committee should make the necessary explanations and demands, drawing attention to the developments in the workers' movement. With a circular in November 1992, it also drew particular attention to the weaknesses in both legal and illegal work and organisation, to wrong understandings and practices, and also to the difference between our organisation's political influences in the movement and its organisational ones. It emphasised the consequences of those petit bourgeois wrong understandings and practices (e.g. considering illegality as an aim rather than an instrument, irresponsible and liberal approaches towards work, etc.), the weaknesses and shortcomings stemming from the above, and the losses these cause to the movement. This circular also called on our organisations to reposition themselves and to renew their work among the masses in accordance with developments in the open movement in every field, taking into account the tasks required by these developments.

Despite their still small numbers, the conscious workers were becoming more and more aware of the increasing possibility and the necessity of organising as an independent mass working class party, and orientating to take the necessary positions. Our organisations, on the other hand, tightly took on the responsibility of doing what was necessary, of renewing their work and positions, and of organising at the fore front of the struggle. Nevertheless, the effects of non-class traditions and liberal understandings in our circles were far deeper than we had estimated. The decline in the open workers' movement from 1992-94 clearly showed this. It was inevitable that the right and left non-class influence in our organisations' work and action emerged with more destructive results in a period of decline.

Our party was never daunted by these destructive results. It took the necessary decisions (in the 1994 General Meeting of the CC) and called upon all its organisations to change the situation and to hold on to the party line. Although our organisations had been through an ineffective period because of the hindrance of the liquidationist circle, they responded to this call and orientated towards an increasingly effective work with the aim of renewing their links with fresh forces. When the first steps were taken in this direction, despite our mistakes and shortcomings, there was evidence that workers and others were more than ready for it, and that in fact this step could have been taken earlier. Nevertheless, our party's platform remained a realistic and sound one. 

Our party also decided to hold its Second General Conference in the same period. Due to technical reasons the Conference was delayed. It met after a period of shortcomings and wavering in our party and at a time when the second wave of liberal liquidationism had been influencing the weakest elements of the movement in our country for several years (The first wave after 1985 was characterised by the liquidation of the TKP-Communist Party of Turkey-; and the second by the emergence of the former DEV-YOL -Revolutionary Path- with a "new" line, and the organisation of the ODP-Freedom and Solidarity Party).

The Soviet Union and the Eastern Block had collapsed. Socialist Albania had been destroyed, and the International Communist Movement had been going through an extreme process of liquidation. The CC took decisions not only with regard to the struggle in our country but also to international events and against the liquidators who were encouraged by these events. It responded to what was required by its responsibilities for the party. The party platform was the first formal party platform to meet after these internal and external events. Having approved all activities and decisions of the CC, the Party platform also became a combative platform against the attacks of the liberal currents of this second wave of liquidationism and the so-called "illegal" terrorist currents against our party.

This Conference analysed the facts and events in our country which had taken place since the First General Conference, as well as the situation both in the world and in our country. It drew political and organisational conclusions from them. These facts indicated that "our party has reached a turning point where it has to renew and develop its tactical line and all its work in all ideological, political, organisational and practical areas, eliminating its shortcomings".

After evaluating our organisational work, the Conference emphasised once again that "legal and illegal organisation and work are not mutually exclusive as claimed by the right and left wings of the "left" which are completely on a liquidationist platform. On the contrary, they are the unity of different aspects of a single task devoted to the same aim, complementing and strengthening each other". The Conference also emphasised that "by turning one's back on the present tasks set forth for the advancement of the workers' movement it was not possible to help the movement"; that "this would also impede the establishment of a sound and developing illegal organisation". 

Considering Marxism-Leninism as a guide for analysing the facts and phenomena, drawing conclusions from them and for taking part in practical struggle, in other words, as a guide for changing the world; linking it firmly to life and concrete facts, using it in a creative way, and improving it by learning from the experience of life... all this was, for the party, part of the process of understanding M-L and implementing it as a guide to action. This process began in 1975 and developed throughout February 1980, and the 1990 and 1996 Conferences, gaining further depth in our Party's theory and practice. There is no end to learning M-L and improving one's ability to put it into practise. However, in this respect, we still have shortcomings and mistakes stemming from the idealist and formalist tradition, and it is unavoidable that these will be present in the future. However, it is undeniable that our party and organisations have become more experienced in mastering theory based on the proletarian class and in using it as a guide to action. One of the most obvious indications of this was the decisions taken in our final Conference on the question of organisation, decisions which reflected adherence to the workers' movement and a complete and courageous elimination of traditional narrow-mindedness.

The Conference set forth the most urgent tasks of the party: "giving maximum support to the open legal (economic-political) organisations of the working class and strengthening them; working in these organisations in an energetic way, and as part of this, supporting the open workers' press, one of the most influential instruments of organising and developing the struggle of the working class, strengthening it and using it effectively in daily struggle". Our Conference declared that unless these urgent tasks were achieved, it would not be possible to take any serious steps further in another task. (Quotes from the call for the Second Conference of the party in 1996)

The Second General Conference was the last turning point on the way to the Second Congress. The Second Congress was going to gather as a \lquote Congress of the revolutionary workers'organisations consisting of vanguard workers at the centre of the movement. In our organisational life and work we could not be indifferent to the tendencies and understandings which are alienated from the working class and which harm their organisation and prevent them form developing. Therefore, this Conference gave particular importance to political and ideological tasks as well as the question of the form of work and organisation which are related to these tasks. Despite our shortcomings, we had now learnt about illegal organisation and struggle. Now we needed to learn about direct legal struggle. In other words, the task was to correct the "upside-down" aspects of our illegal organisation, basing ourselves on the corrective experiences of open legal struggle and organisation; and renewing our understanding and practice with regard to combining legal and illegal work and organisation. The directives and calls of the Conference with regard to the form of work and organisation were briefly in this context. And this was a stance against petit bourgeois "illegality" as well as liberal legalism.

This had to be achieved because submission to the laxness of legalist liberalism and the narrow-mindedness of petit bourgeois "illegality" would not take us anywhere. And this could be achieved to the extent that our organisations changed their positions and opened themselves to learning from the dynamics of the workers' movement. It was not possible to take any steps further without destroying the paralysing prejudices in our circles caused by the "superstitions" of bourgeois "legality" and petit bourgeois "illegality" with regard to the forms of work and organisation.

The discussions at the Conference around work and organisational problems were productive. Its resolutions and calls received positive responses. The function of Devrimin Sesi (Voice of Revolution) became clearer. Although it began to come out less frequently, the issues after the Conference published articles containing the result of the debates around political and organisational problems. Other organs published articles benefiting from the discussions at the Conference. We witnessed the development of the reconstruction of our organisations, positioning themselves in the forefront of the struggle and reorganising their work among the masses learning from the workers. This development in work was the most significant characteristics of the post-Conference period.

The position reached at in the movement and the question of re-construction

Our organisation's ever more effective work in the post-conference period led to the systematic consolidation and growth of our party's place in the movement. Also it became evident that the representatives of the new proletarian generation who would take the leadership of the movement and the organisation (a decision of the first Conference) were beginning to do their work in a more confident way. This development meant our organisations were beginning to re-construct their revolutionary characteristics, which had been partially deformed by liberal provocations, on a more proletarian and revolutionary position. It also meant the clarification of the process towards the Second Congress.

Following a five-year harsh struggle which began in 1975 with a self-criticism which led to stronger ties with the working class and to the orientation towards Marxism-Leninism, our organisation succeeded in founding a Communist Party, the TDKP, which has had a respected position in the eyes of the awakening sections of the working class and the people of Turkey (Turkish and Kurdish) and of the International Communist Movement. As a result of the struggle waged since 1987 when the elimination of the liquidators took place, our party now has the possibility of re-constructing itself as a unity of revolutionary workers' organisations leading the workers' movement, having unbreakable ties with the backward sections of the workers, and a strong mass base. This was the aim of the 1980 Founding Congress and the concrete decision and call of the 1990 Second Conference of the party. The Second Conference held in 1996 was the final turning point which corrected the shortcomings of this process, and which approved and shaped the re-construction.

What is the reason for "re-construction"? Was the party established in 1980 not a communist working class party, as was suggested by the liquidators? Were they right in arguing that it could not be the communist party of the working class because it was not based on the majority of the vanguards of the working class. Obviously, this is no more than liquidationist sophistry. There is no need to dispute that our party emerged as an organisation representing the working class, and as a revolutionary communist party. It was established at a time when revisionism had a monopoly over the working class movement nationally and internationally, and when a minority of the working class of Turkey began to awaken and mobilise. For this reason, our party could not be established embracing all sections of the workers or their advanced sections as a whole. On the contrary, it could only be established by basing itself on a minimum number of workers' organisations and by encouraging other quality elements from other sections of working people to work among the workers with the aim of winning over and organising the advanced sections of the working class as a whole. Even the fact that our party has considered a re-construction embracing the advanced and awakening sections of the working class shows that it is on a correct platform.

Moreover, the unity of the workers' movement and socialism is not something that happens once. It occurs again and again in different periods and in different forms stemming from the phenomena characterising that period. This means the re-building of the party in every new period of fundamental changes, maintaining its foundations but taking new forms and appearances. The dialectic of the foundation and re-building of the party is one and the same thing as the dialectic of the development of the workers' movement. Therefore, if our party had not understood the question of being an independent party of the working class it would have sunk into a meaningless idealism, just as did the liquidators.

As is clear in our Conference's decisions and demands, our party has been going through a period of "re-construction" for some time. Its organisation and appearance differ from the previous forms, the illegal main apparatus being intact. Our party is a unity of different organisations with different forms, and of overt and covert different relations and forms of organisation. In the party, the organisation of workers, the formation and centralisation of organisational life has various characteristics and bears various appearances. This kind of formation shows that the movement has advanced compared to the previous periods.

As long as there are no fundamental changes -positive or negative- in Turkey or in the workers' movements, the present characteristics of the formation of the party will remain valid. Under the present conditions of the country and the movement it is not possible to help, embrace and organise the movement through a form other than the present one of work and organisation which we have and are building today. It is obvious that the party functions to unite the workers as an independent revolutionary class. Therefore, our party will never cling on to one form; it will re-build its organisations on the basis of new forms which have the ability to embrace the advanced and awakening sections of the working class of that period, and to link the workers' movement to the revolutionary movement. The fact that our party is being re-constructed presents a rich experience vis-a-vis the narrow-minded schematism which dominates traditional "left" movement as well as the workers' movement.

Since the year 1975 when the task of "building the vanguard party of the working class" was set forth as the "main task", our party's view, line and practice have been enriched and developed by understanding, criticising, and surpassing the previous period in terms of the questions of the workers' movement, its dynamics, the dialectic of development, and the forms of organisation and work. The present position of our party is a vital stage of the ideal that it has been fighting for since 1975. The 1980 Founding Congress achieved, within the limitations of that period, the aims set forth previously, and determined as a concrete organisational task the achievement of the present position of our party in the movement.

Today we witness the first signs that we are close to achieving the unity of the awakening sections of the working class in the party organisation. This was the aim of the First Congress and reflects the concrete decisions of the First and Second General Conferences. This is an organisation which is at the centre of the movement and which is a unity of the revolutionary workers' organisations having links with the broad masses who are getting organised. If there is no sudden turning back in the country, it is seen even today that this will be the ground on which the Second Congress of our party will develop. Our party's aims, which were set decades ago and for whose fulfilment we have consistently fought, are becoming realities today.

The task of the day is to further fulfil our aims and to take forward our organisations which are growing as proletarian organisms; to re-set more advanced aims and tasks, and to wage a determined struggle in order to fulfil them. No other generation in Turkey has been so lucky as to undertake such great tasks which mean a historical transformation and qualitative leap for the working class movement, the results of which can be seen in the same period. One can be sure that our organisations will handle this opportunity and these honourable tasks in a revolutionary manner, undertaking them with enthusiasm and talent.

The aims can be translated into the following tasks:

The workers' party must become a mass party, embracing the working class and the awakening sections of the people and their organisations, further increasing its initiative and dynamism in daily struggle, and understanding its role in the class struggle.

Our organisations must re-construct themselves as an organic unity of vanguard and revolutionary workers' organisations which are in the forefront of the struggle and which embrace the most advanced elements of the workers' movement in all kinds of trade unions and political organisations.

It must help the increasing number of conscious workers to act more courageously and with a greater initiative, and encourage them to form their organisations and to undertake the management of these organisations.

As can be seen, the fulfilment of the first two tasks depends on the third. The party can become a real workers' party only when the advanced workers form their mass party and organisations, when they adopt scientific socialist theory with their own point of view, and when they in practice run their organisations in their own way. It is only then that the working class of our country can successfully pass this first, fundamental and historical junction.

This is the only way of eliminating the remnants of non-class views with regard to understanding the class struggle and socialist theory. It is the only way forward for the development and deepening of our proletarian understanding which has been strengthened since 1975 onwards. The success of the working class in taking this historical turning point is of vital international significance. The role of the party organisations in achieving this is also obvious. Therefore, the present generations of our party have to hold on to their tasks with ever increasing responsibility, talent and dynamism.

Conclusion: Experience in the struggle and success in the tasks

The history of struggle of our party which has brought it to the present day, the formation of its line and stance, and the trend of its development which has progressed in ebbs and flows are rich in experience. Our party has reached its present position through tough struggles, learning from failures and defeats as well as from progress, and constantly renewing its line and stance. If our organisations want to be successful in their tasks and want to unite with the workers, and find the basis of teaching the workers as well learning from them, they have to learn the general line of our party, the different stages of its struggle, its trend of development and its collective historical experience.

We have mentioned earlier that the present position of our party within the movement and the line it follows is full of lessons for the "left" circles too. Whether they learn from these is up to them. However, both our party's mature and young generations must master the concrete and living dialectics and experiences of the workers' movement, of the improvement of workers' consciousness, and of the class organising as a party. This is because our party's 19 year-history (in fact it is almost 30 years old) and its present perspective and practice with regard to the shape of its reconstruction provide all the necessary fundamental implications for the present day generations of our party to strongly tie themselves to the process of development of the workers' movement', to take up a revolutionary position which will take it forward, to understand the class instinct, revolutionary talent and spirit of the workers, and their own roles and tasks.

On the way to becoming a mass organisation, the party has progressed from the THKO of the 1970s to the TDKP of February 1980; from the liquidated and disorganised TDKP of 1985-87 to the present day TDKP. 10 years on, our party has become the sum of the revolutionary vanguard organisations which are at the heart of the movement, and has taken advanced and irreversible steps on the way to organising the awakening sections of workers without dividing them. This has been a period which has witnessed contradictory events of different kinds, intense struggles and conflicts, and various turning points which have taken our organisation both backward and forward. This consequently has led to an accumulation of experience. Unless the present young workers and revolutionary generations who are organising the mass movement of the working class learn thoroughly from this period, they will deprive themselves of an effective weapon which will help them to do their work in the most creative and effective way.

However, the working class forces which are struggling to organise as a mass-political movement cannot be deprived of this experience and this weapon. The reason for this is obvious: Every movement develops accumulating its own experience, and the elements of this movement master and take forward the workers' movement, taking central positions, differentiating themselves from innumerable groups. This is one of the most important and vital necessities facing the young generations of the working class of Turkey, and young Turkish and Kurdish communists.

In addition, there are conditions imperative for understanding the collective experience of our party, just as for succeeding in holding on to the position of uniting with the workers. Our organisation and those individuals and currents who do not have the perspective of uniting with the workers and their movement are on different planets. It is impossible for them to understand our line and experience. Our organisations, however, are naturally in a position to understand our line and historical experience. But they can only succeed in this when they adopt the base and essence of the stance of our party which has adopted throughout its history in relation to the workers' movement.

The line of our organisation is based on trust in the working class, in its talent for struggle, and in its historical role. It is based upon the working class and directs all its work towards uniting the workers on a more advanced level. Moreover, this line has been shaped on the basis of the theoretical inheritance of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, the experience of Marxism-Leninism, and the historical experience of the workers'and communist movement. Our party is revolutionary in reaching the working class' perspective, basing its work on the class, and in its stance against its own mistakes and shortcomings in understanding Marxism-Leninism, and the theory and tactic of the emancipation of the class. The revolutionary principle, which says that the proletarian revolution advances by self-criticism, is one of the most important features of our party's line and stance. While taking great care to defend the gains of the class and of communism, it is never afraid of openly criticising its mistakes, and using self-criticism systematically. In addition, our party has been tied strongly to the idea that it is very important to test its line in practice. It believes that the workers' perspective in our ranks, the Marxist-Leninist line, and the ability to use theory as a guide to action can be developed by linking to the class and particularly by learning from the workers.

We can say that the features of our party's line and stance on these fundamental problems have differentiated it from other currents not only in theory but also in practice, in other words in terms of class character. Therefore, our organisation has gained undeniable and definite superiority over the non-class-based currents. It has approached much more closely to the class, and to the revolutionary utilisation of historical experience. The features of our line and stance have been the fundamental dynamics for our party in overcoming its main shortcomings, and in differentiating itself from others to take its current position in the workers'movement.

We believe that the experienced and young organisers of the workers'movement will embrace these features of the line and the stance of our party. This gives us the opportunity to be part of the actions and lives of the workers, and to master the international historical experience as well as the experience of our party in a revolutionary way (without distortion, schematism and imitation). Briefly, the need for the present day generation is to understand the workers, learn from them, study the facts and become more able to draw conclusions from these facts. This can only be fulfilled by understanding our line and historical experience.

The young generations of our party and of the working class need to understand the following: in order better to help the open-mass political organisation of the working class, it is imperative to gain those characteristics which a conscious worker shows in his/her attitude and action. In addition, only communists who are experienced in the workers'mass movement and in their organisations as organising militants and who have become mature with the experience of the mass movement can join our party. All these features and characteristics will be gained through learning, understanding and comprehending the 30 years of our party's experience.

The opportunity to learn and understand the line and the historical stance of our party can only be found here: to be united with the working class movement and our daily work in an energetic, patient and responsible way, to analyse and draw conclusions from the most typical workers' struggles and to learn from the leading workers who emerge through the struggle.