“Sovereignty” and rabid nationalism has become the new signature of the Georgian government, which is hellbent on repressing every part of society to ensure the total domination of the current ruling bourgeoisie.

It all started with the introduction of the so-called law on transparency in 2023, after which the government introduced another repressive law anti-LGBT propaganda and the law about offshore companies which would make it easier for the ruling class to launder money.

After the reintroduction of the “law on transparency of foreign influence” and the brutal crackdown on protests that came after them, the government, predictably, used intimidation, and vote-buying to ensure electoral victory – an excellent demonstration of full capacity of the so-called democratic process.

The Georgian middle class is in disarray and effectively is standing against an existential threat, given the promises from the government about widespread terror and repression against those who it deems traitors.

There have been protests against the government since it has declared the freezing of EU integration till 2028, and, in turn, the government has responded with the use of extrajudicial crackdowns, systemic torture, massive arrests and terror by far-right thugs.

While the government churns out delusional propaganda everyday and the middle class and the haute bourgeoisie fight among each other, the conditions of the working class deteriorate and the State sows diversion and spreads propaganda where it can, and where it cannot, stiffles out any sign of dissent among the workers with force and intimidation.

Bourgeois Sovereignty and Nationalism

The government claims it is defending “Sovereignty” of the Georgian nation against the foreign influence and is justifying the repressions as being targeted against the traitors of the nation.

The so-called law about transparency is directly tied to this rhetoric – in reality, it is a tool the government will use to repress and destroy the middle class and NGOs.

Ironically, the government, at the same time, also passed the law that makes it easier for offshore companies to operate in Georgia. We can only guess, as all the law-abiding citizens should, that this will be used to further increase transparency of finances and will not be used by the current ruling bourgeoisie with its ties to Russia to launder their money in a more efficient way. In short, there is no doubt what do nationalism and national sovereignty entail – the sovereignty of the bourgeoisie class and guarantee of its domination.

The farcical theatre of nationalism has been playing out in Georgia for decades already. Right, left and centre alike share identical and identically absurd fantasies and formulas of nationalism. All of them preach the same words, chastise the same sins and extol the same virtues. Then it must not come as a surprise that Georgia has come to such a baffling picture: Everybody agrees but hates each other.

The ideology is so prevalent that politics cannot exist in its ideological form, there is no room for disagreement. Even the ruling party, with its obvious sympathies for Russia, is forced to spew bullshit about joining the EU in 2030.

Everybody loves Europe, Georgian nation, democracy, and sovereignty. And everybody hates traitors, authoritarianism, and foreign influence. There’s only a slight problem: Nobody has any clue what these mean anymore. And we doubt they meant anything in the first place.

Behind these shadows of ideology lay bare the ugliness of bourgeois society with the self-interest of the ruling class and divisions within. Then the root of “polarization” becomes clear: There cannot be a “dialogue” between “opposing views”, because there are no opposing views, there are only the opposing interests among inter and intra-class lines.

On one hand, there is the relatively affluent petty bourgeoisie, which has financial ties to Europe and travels there frequently. On the other hand, there are influential members of the haute bourgeoisie that have ties to Russian capital and are represented by the ruling party at the moment. There is also a segment of haute bourgeoisie that is more dependent on the Western capital.

But far the most important and influential is the richest man in Georgia by a wide margin, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who seeks to establish complete control over the country. It can be presumed that the small opposition among the haute bourgeoisie against the current course is not only due to the ties to different capitals, but also due to the fear that they might be crushed in the future by Ivanishvili.

One Man’s Reactionary Georgian Dream

Bidzina Ivanishvili is the one who is calling the shots. He is the sacred body of the so-called Georgian nation, similarly to Augustus and the Roman Empire. He incorporates in himself all of the “independent” branches of bourgeois government: He owns the executive, the legislative and the judiciary branches.

Liberals, of course, are not baffled by this dysfunction of their system. More stupid ones among them may even attribute this defect to the un-exorcized demon of “Soviet Mentality”. The reality, however, is quite simple: The way Georgian government works is not completely different from the way the bourgeois government works in any other case, or in the much-praised USA, for example, which by the virtue of being a wealthier country with a wealthier bourgeoisie, has a multitude of oligarchs instead of just simply one.

Ivanishvili simply has the means and ambition to become the sole head of the capital in the country, and by extension, own the government. His power is completely based on his capital.

Thus, the State shows him the recognition that he deserves and is almost deified. His informal standing and status reinforce this, having been bestowed only the vague title of the “Honorary Chairman” of the ruling party, aptly named “Georgian Dream”.

The ruling party talks of the mythical “Global War Party”, the Freemasons, foreign influences, and other scary big words which do not mean anything. It is not completely clear whether Ivanishvili himself believes in the demons he conjures or is simply making up tales to scare the populace. In any case, it is clear that he desires to avoid war and globalization and intends to establish “Georgian Sovereignty”, the grand reactionary dream of turning against the flow of history and of creating an anclave of peace and stability amidst the chaos, war, instability, and increasing globalisation around the world.

The fantasies of Ivanishvili sound awfully similar to the ideology of other geopolitically similarly aligned countries – in particular, the theory of the so-called multipolar world. This multipolarity, of course, just means the freedom of the national bourgeoisies to repress and exploit the local working classes, instead of the process of globalization meddling in their affairs.

Left and Right Wings of Capital: One Hand Washes the Other

The left and right wings of capital alike revel in this miserable farce. Both the left and the far-right, despite their insistence on their opposition to capitalism, are too enthusiastic to support the march towards authoritarianism and repression. What is clear is that philistine “anti-capitalism” of both turned out to be nuanceless geopolitical anti-Americanism and banal nationalism.

These two flanks, despite their seeming opposition to each other, worked tirelessly for the benefit of the State. The left deployed its propaganda machine of brainless heads, while the far-right deployed its muscle.

The self-proclaimed defenders of the working class applauded the repressive apparatus of the ruling class and squealed with joy at the State’s pathetic attempts at patriotic and religious propaganda. It is now clear to see, though it was not very hard to see before either, that the sole worry for these clueless and corrupt politicians was never the working class, but ideological opposition towards “Liberalism” and whatever they conjure it up to mean in their deluded minds. For the left, it is simple: if the bourgeois State attacks liberals, to hell with the working class and its demands! The left stubbornly refuses to see that it is precisely this government that oversees the efficient repression of the working class and ensures the unlivable working conditions.

As for the far-right, it is not difficult to see why they would support the State on its current path – they do share the fanatic patriotism and glee at the State’s authority. It is a clear fact that the government uses fascist militants for their terror aims. The media calls these thugs “titsushkiy”, in reference to the informal thugs used by Victor Yanukovich in Ukraine. But it must also be mentioned that these thugs tend to be overwhelmingly far-right in their beliefs and tend to belong to various fascist militant organizations.

The only political opposition are the liberals, who decry State now for the sole reason that it has at this specific point in time turned specifically against them. And even in this opposition it is mild and weak. Liberals, despite their repression, refuse to go against State in principle, and only claim that this current government is “illegitimate” and not really a government at all. They refuse to believe that the police is not filled with those who are, in the depths of their hearts, good and honest men who are secretly against the ruling party, or given enough time, can be reasoned with and shown the absolute truth of the liberal dogma. In short, they’re as hopeless as ever.

However, of course, there are certain deviations from this liberal dogma, and the followers of liberalism themselves are becoming more and more confused and radicalized. Some talk about the defense of constitution as a form of revolution. There are a lot of misguided calls for revolution without having any understanding of how the revolutionary process develops.

The Working Class - Repressed As Always

As always, what is left and discarded is the working class. It is whipped and told to shut up by the State and the far-right, and ignored by the left.

As for the liberals, the petty bourgeoisie, in its best tradition, flees and begs the proletariat for support. The middle class, when it has no support from the ruling class, is left impotent and unable.
“Strike!” – the petty bourgeoisie demands. These pretentious liberals have just remembered about the existence of a magical thing called the working class, which has these mystical ability to strike. It is bewildering how the liberals invented striking from scratch – some even did not believe in such a concept and argued that employers would just fire everyone who tried to stop working.

But liberals have seemingly forgotten that it was them who ignored the existence of the working class before or even gleefully supported its longstanding repression outright, which has left the proletariat unable to do anything.

Besides, the petty bourgeoisie moralistically condemns the worker for not striking, because this is about “the Motherland”, not their self-interest. They complain about the strikes that are done with the demand for better working conditions and pay, and instead demand that the workers call for the new elections. Put plainly, they complain that the working class follows its own interest and not the interest of the middle class.

While everyone spews this ideological bullshit, the State further strengthens its repressive apparatus and ensures even better efficiency for repressing the workers.

But fear not, amidst the repressions against the public workers, teachers of schools and pre-schools, etc., the government has thrown the workers a bone – pensions have been raised by 35 GEL, from 315 GEL to 350 GEL. Hooray! This won’t be enough to even cover the rising prices, but all that matters is patriotic pride, right? At the very same day, it was decided that the parliamentarians’ salary will be raised twofold to 11,680 GEL We can only imagine the hard work the comrades at the Deputies’ Trade Union must have put into this achievement.

On February 28th a general strike was held throughout Greece on the second anniversary of the 2023 Tempi railway disaster, in which 57 people lost their lives in a head-on collision between a goods train and a passenger train packed with young people returning from a short vacation.

During the strike, huge demonstrations took place in the main Greek cities, Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of people. It is said that around one and a half million people participated throughout Greece, out of a population of only 11 million!

This huge participation was due to various reasons. Undoubtedly there is anger at what happened in Tempi, which was a massacre waiting to happen, caused by the lack of the most basic safety equipment and the increasingly onerous working conditions imposed on crews which had been reduced to a minimum. Despite complaints from the unions, the private company that manages the railways, an Italian company called Hellenic Train, has blatantly persisted in its policy of achieving maximum profit by cutting back on safety; a policy that is also being followed in Italy, Great Britain and other European countries.

Anger against the government is growing because it is increasingly evident that it is obstructing the search for those responsible, which may extend far beyond and be much more serious than it appeared in the days immediately following the disaster. The victims’ relatives have ascertained that the government and Hellenic Train are collaborating to hide the real cause of the fire. It is very likely that the huge blaze that followed the impact was caused by the presence of undeclared explosive substances on the freight train, perhaps xylene. Xylene and similar substances are much cheaper than gasoline and are used to adulterate fuel, a profitable business for mafia organizations in league with the political and business world.

But it wasn’t just the anger at the massacre and the lack of justice that drove hundreds of thousands of workers onto the streets. The general strike was seen as an opportunity to express their desire to fight against the employers and the State, against low wages, against precarious and insecure working conditions, against pensions that are too low, and against a health system that doesn’t work and forces the proletariat to go without care.

A model anti-proletarian democracy

Greece is a “model” European capitalism, their country of reference, and small enough to be used as a “laboratory experiment”. During the debt crisis, the employers mercilessly blackmailed workers into either accepting jobs with extremely exploitative conditions or remaining unemployed. And that didn’t change after the government budget crisis ended. In Greece young proletarians continue to work 40 or 50 hours a week for a salary of 700 or 800 euros, while the cost of living is almost the same as in countries where salaries are double or triple that amount. Retirees, who have seen their pensions cut by 40% from one day to the next, continue to get by on starvation pensions whereas, for Europe, the economy is recovering and the country is getting its finances back in order!

The Greek state, during these times when everyone is crying “to arms, to arms!” and all governments are pushing to transform car and tractor factories into ones producing tanks and fighter planes, has confirmed that it is a model to follow. While in other European countries military service has been abolished, in Greece it has always remained, with the defense of the country from the danger of aggressive Turkey given as an excuse.

And military spending, even in the darkest period for the state budget, has always been maintained at 3.5-4% of GDP while that of Italy, a country that is certainly not pacifist, is at 1.5%.

In this situation of extreme social stratification, where a small number of middle class people, businessmen, politicians, mafiosi and the whole apparatus that serves and defends them, live in luxury while the great majority of the proletariat and the impoverished lower and middle classes struggle to get by, it is the populist parties of the opposition and the government that, by diverting the anger of the masses towards the objectives of the other classes, prevent the independent organization of the proletarian class, both on an economic and political level.

Certainly the huge demonstrations that have invaded the cities of Greece are something to be appreciated. They show that the Greek proletariat has not bowed its head and is willing to fight to improve its living and working conditions, but the power of the bourgeoisie remains firm even if the right-wing government is faltering. The bourgeoisie is well aware that in order to hang on to power, the government and even the political class can be changed: the important thing is that the State, that is the machinery of power, the police, the army, the judiciary remain under its control.

The KKE, the “party of struggle and government” consents to this game, just as the PCI once did in Italy.

But theirs is a dirty game. You can’t engage in an all-out struggle to defend the proletariat by occupying seats in bourgeois parliaments. Proletarian power is not conquered bit by bit, in stages, by penetrating like rats into the cracks of the system. The proletariat will achieve its emancipation by means of the revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeois order, its state and all of its organs of repression and for the management of its power.

The problem of security is not solved by transferring Hellenic Train to the public sector without compensation, even if “with the control of the workers and the company”. These are all empty words. Under the present regime, the fact that a company is publicly owned rather than privately owned does not provide the proletariat with any guarantees, nor can there be “control” of company management by the workers. Only when political power is in the hands of the proletariat will it be able to exercise its control over all social and productive activities.

The slogan that resonated in the demonstrations: “Either their profits or our lives” we can make it our own, in fact it is ours and ours alone because it affirms that this regime, not the Mitzotakis government or the European Commission, but THE CAPITALIST REGIME that pervades all the states in the world and which is based on the pursuit of profit at any cost, is now not only the enemy of the proletariat but of the human species.

For this reason it is necessary that the vanguard elements of the proletariat seriously undertake the path of revolutionary preparation that shuns foolish rebellious aspirations and instead is based on the day to day work of creating workers’ unions which are truly independent of the bourgeois parties, which includes the KKE, the PASOK and also the swarm of little groups of the so-called ” left”. The unions we are talking about are those that propose to defend the interests of the workers, aiming above all to unify the proletariat in the daily struggle of its members to defend their living and working conditions, overcoming divisions of work sector, work place, locality, nationality, religion and race. It is also a question of reconnecting with the tradition of left revolutionary Communism; with the International Communist Party. This work will pave the way for the social emancipation of the proletarian class by means of the seizure of political power and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Trump’s miserable statements, which European leaders are following, expose some of the lies and illusions propagated for decades by the bourgeoisies around the world, and by their right-wing and "left-wing" parties, to hide the ferocity of the world of capital, which now brings only death and destruction.
- International law is a fiction; it is the right of the strongest.
- In capitalism, war is an economic necessity: capitalism and peace are incompatible.

Trump is no smarter, stupider, or crazier than those who came before him. He merely reveals the true face of capitalism: this is the anonymous monster that threatens humanity! It’s not Trump who holds power, but the industrial-financial complex, in the hands of the bourgeois class, which uses the machinery of the state to defend its interests. This is true for the United States and for all states in the world: all are bourgeois regimes against the working class. They are so regardless of the ideology and form of government they disguise themselves with: from "democracy” to false socialism, like that of China, or Venezuela, to the theocracy of the ayatollahs in Iran, or the "Jewish State" in Israel.

The bourgeoisie itself cannot "decide" anything because its policy is imposed on it by the economic crisis of overproduction in global capitalism. All national capitalisms and industrial sectors are under attack and overwhelmed by decades of overcapacity: Europe, the United States, China, and all the smaller bourgeoisies must flood the world with goods they cannot sell within their national borders, thus colliding with their competitors.

The United States, as the world’s largest capitalist system, is the most vulnerable to the economic crisis because it is increasingly difficult for it to maintain its global dominance. Today, the United States bourgeoisie must cut costs and pass the bill on to their "allies". They are revoking "humanitarian aid", which was once a useful instrument of international corruption. They are forced to strip the state apparatus of all "superfluous" resources (education, healthcare, social assistance), reducing it to its essence as a machine for oppressing the working class.

The policy being imposed today in the United States is not "isolationism", which, although in the interests of this national capitalism, would bring world peace. It is, instead, a different kind of shifting of US forces, concentrating them in the Indo-Pacific, a theater of primary strategic interest, to the detriment of the Atlantic and Europe. It serves to prepare for war against emerging Chinese imperialism, in a new division of world markets.

The imposition of tariffs on imports — which also partially harms American capitalism, but hurts competitors more — is a desperate policy, an economic-trade war that prepares for war with weapons. History repeats itself: the protectionism of all states preceded World War II. The new "golden age" promised by Trump will be one of tears and blood for the American working class, sacrificed to save the bourgeoisie’s profits and social privilege, in preparation for war.

But it won’t be the bourgeois regimes competing with the US that will save the global working class from the Third Imperialist War. A peaceful multipolar world under capitalism is just another lie.

Driven by the crisis, and increasingly unable to sell other goods, the bourgeoisie of all countries is throwing itself into the war industry. The drive toward rearmament is accelerating. The European Union, after decades of forcing workers to tighten their belts under the pretext of reducing debt, now claims to be willing to go into debt up to its neck to produce weapons! Beyond false ideological oppositions, all bourgeois states share an interest in investing enormous sums in war production to alleviate the crisis and prepare for war. For this reason, they all have a common interest in leading workers to war, convincing them that the enemy is not capitalism, starting with their own bourgeois regime, but an "enemy" alliance. To this end, it is essential to instill workers in nationalist ideology.

The European Union is not only reactionary, but also impossible —as Lenin asserted as early as 1915— because bourgeois states will never renounce their national interests. There is no such thing as European imperialism, but rather an alliance between certain European imperialisms: of the 800 billion euro rearmament plan over four years, 650 billion euro should be allocated to national armies. Nationalism—which today is called "sovereignty"—is only the other side of the ideological lie of the European Union. The "multipolar" Europe of "sovereignty" will be sucked into the vortex of the Third World Imperialist Conflict, as already occurred in the two world conflicts of the 20th century, under the pressure of the same economic and political determinants that are pushing the European Union to arm itself today. The anti-EU bourgeois parties that today cloak themselves in pacifism will tomorrow be as warmongering as the pro-EU parties and Trump are today.

The only force that can prevent war is that of the working class united across national borders, refusing to shed its blood in defense of the homeland. For workers, it makes no difference whether they are exploited and oppressed by their own national bourgeoisie or that of another country. But it is certainly preferable to fight their own social war, with powerful strikes, up to the point of revolution, against any bourgeoisie in power, national or foreign, rather than to die by the hundreds of thousands on the front lines of the war between capitalist states, on the battlefields, and under bombardment.

The authentic Communist Party desires and promotes the military defeat of its own bourgeois state in the imperialist war because it puts an end to the carnage of war, because proletarian defeatism on the home front, with strikes in factories and among soldiers, infects and unites uniformed workers across the front lines, because military defeat weakens its own bourgeoisie and favors the revolution.

To prevent or halt imperialist war, the working class must be organized. This means organizing itself into strong class-based unions that unify workers’ struggles in increasingly broad and powerful strikes aimed at defending wages and reducing the pace and length of the workday. These basic demands of the proletariat are in themselves unpatriotic because they damage national capitalism and its competitiveness.

Defending your economic interests today through union struggle means already being on the path that will lead you to defend your political interests tomorrow, opposing militarism and the war of the bourgeoisie.

We can expect the official trade union federations of all countries, aligning themselves with their bourgeois bosses in each country, raising the anti-proletarian banners of nationalism and multipolar capitalism, to lead the workers to the slaughterhouse of inter-imperialist world war and the bourgeois dispute over territories and borders.

Combative trade unionism, to rebuild the strength of the working-class trade union movement and free workers from the control of the regime’s unions, must act unitedly in struggles across all categories, to strengthen and unify them, and to promote the struggle against war for the international unity of workers.

- Solidarity among workers of all countries!

- Against all Fatherlands!

- Class war against imperialist war!

The proletarians of Gaza took to the streets by the thousands in what were the first mass demonstrations since October 7, 2023.

And they didn’t do it by chanting for the war against Israel, for the Axis of the Resistance, aiming for martyrdom for a “Palestine free from the Jordan to the sea”, but by shouting “Hamas out”, and asking for the end of the war.

The proletarian and disinherited masses of Gaza did indeed mobilize, but against the war, which was wanted and sought after by both Hamas and the Israeli bourgeois state.

The demonstrations began last Tuesday, March 26th, in the north of the Strip, in Beit Lahia, one of the towns most devastated by the war, with a few hundred participants. The following day they grew in size and spread not only to Jabilya – also in the north – but also to the Shejaiya and Zeitoun neighborhoods of Gaza City, respectively to the east and southwest of the city, and to the Nuseirat refugee camp, in the center of the Strip. Only three days later, on Thursday, did they decrease in intensity.

One of the most significant aspects, besides the slogans against Hamas and for an end to the war, is that not even a Palestinian flag was waved, only some white flags.

The proletariat of Gaza, who defied the ferocious repression to take to the streets, shows that their support for Hamas and the war is only propaganda.

In the report on the war in Gaza and the Middle East at the general meeting last January, in this issue published in full, we wrote “now that the Israeli bombs are temporarily no longer raining down, it will not be easy for Hamas to maintain control over 2 million 300 thousand people, in the conditions to which the war has reduced them”.

This prediction has been confirmed: peace has been restored after 15 months of massacres, but when the bombings started again thousands of workers said “enough is enough” and preferred to risk dying at the hands of Hamas rather than die under the bombs.

The funeral of a young man, whose family members accuse Hamas militants of having tortured and killed him in response to his participation in the demonstrations of the previous days, became a small procession, and 6 other Palestinians were allegedly executed on charges of collaboration.

On the other side of the conflict, in Israel, the end of the truce, which lasted only two months, has given new strength to the anti-war movement, and there are once again tens of thousands of demonstrators protesting against the Netanyahu government.

The words of an article published on March 27th in Haaretz are worth sharing: “These protests are not only courageous. They are deeply moving. They represent the real victims of this war: alongside the Israeli hostages and the victims of the massacre, these are the civilians whose suffering has gone unheard. They also challenge Israel’s extremist government directly: any continued attacks on civilians who are calling for peace will expose the fact that this is not self-defense.”

Again in Haaretz, March 28: “The Israeli Defense Forces warn that a crisis is developing in the reserves due to plans to intensify fighting in the Strip (...) Dozens of reservists announce that they will not report for duty (...) struggle to report for further calls not only for political reasons, but also because they are simply tired.”

In fact, on both sides of the war front, large sections of the population are fighting against their respective governments and against the continuation of the conflict.

The demonstrations in Gaza can only strengthen those in Israel, because they weaken the Israeli warmongering propaganda that wants all Palestinians to be Hamas supporters. The breaking of the leaden cloak of the bourgeois regime in Gaza can only favor the growth of awareness that even in Israel there is a social force that opposes Israeli imperialist policy.

The two movements are in fact allies.

What is needed is a political party whose program includes the vital necessity of the working class to oppose the war by fighting its own bourgeois regime, united with the workers of other countries. This is the party of international communism, necessary for the international union of the working class.

In every country, the trade union movement must be guided by the principle of an uncompromising struggle to defend the living conditions of the workers, without taking on the task of defending the economy of national capitalism, and in the future, defending it militarily.

* * *

The propaganda of the bourgeoisie that supports Hamas, not being able to deny the demonstrations, has minimized their size and claimed they were provoked by opposing parties that collaborate with Israel.

Opportunism throughout the world has endorsed and spread this warmongering anti-proletarian propaganda – as it has done throughout the conflict.

An example of the opportunist arguments used to defend Hamas and support the continuation of the imperialist war, presented as “revolutionary”, is the article published by the political group that directs the SI Cobas grassroots union in Italy, which reads: “In the last year, Hamas has recruited about 15,000 new fighters, rebuilding part of its military and administrative infrastructure and maintaining firm control over the Gaza Strip. This level of organization and support would not be possible without significant support from the local population.” What is clearly missing is the fact that in the Gaza Strip, joining the Hamas military apparatus is almost the only way to feed one’s family.

If the demonstrations were promoted by anti-Hamas parties, the fact that thousands of people participated means that the demands – out with Hamas and an end to the war – are shared by the majority of the population. On the other hand, there is no reason why the bourgeois parties opposed to Hamas shouldn’t promote such demonstrations.

In reality, all the Palestinian bourgeois parties have an interest in preventing the proletariat from mobilizing. Even in the event of Hamas being removed from power, the proletariat would find itself fighting for its living conditions.

This is to the chagrin of all the opportunists who describe the conflict between Hamas and Israel as a “revolutionary war” of the Palestinian masses instead of a war between opposing imperialist fronts – Israel, USA and European imperialists against Hamas, Iran, Qatar, China.

The workers’ struggles in Turkey, which gained momentum as of the last quarter of 2024, continue into 2025, spreading to other lines of work, cities and regions. The advancing economic crisis is driving workers to resistance in order to make a living!

Strike Fever Burning Başpınar

Last month, under the leadership of BIRTEK-SEN, workers in dozens of factories in the Başpınar Organized Industrial Zone in Antep went on strike demanding a raise to the minimum wage they were receiving.

Strikes began in early February at Yalçın Kardeşler Weaving, Şireci Tekstil, Çelikaslan Tekstil, Ufuk Carpet, Özkaplan Carpet, Kaplanser Carpet, Bulut Tekstil, Has Sag, Grand Carpet and Sırma Carpet and spread to most of the Başpınar Organized Industrial Zone within a few weeks. Ufuk Carpet workers ended their resistance with a 40 percent raise after one day of resistance. The resistance at Özkaplan Carpet ended in exactly 2 hours with a 45 percent raise. During this time, there was a great solidarity between workers from different factories; Yalçın Kardeşler and Şireci workers said the words that would scare the entire bourgeois class during their visit to Çelikaslan workers: "There are attempts to divide us, let’s not play this game". Of course, the bourgeoisie, which has all the repressive apparatus at its disposal, to no one’s surprise, imposed a ban on demonstrations in Gaziantep.

As if that wasn’t enough, they arrested Mehmet Türkmen, the chairman of BIRTEK-SEN, on charges of "violation of freedom to work" and "incitement to commit a crime". "Violation of freedom to work"? It is not the "freedom" to work that is violated, but your "freedom" to exploit workers! And the "crime" incited is the worker demanding a living wage! We are not going to give lectures on how the capitalist economy should be organized, nor are we going to criticize the law in all countries as if it were not bourgeois law, taking refuge in bogus concepts of "rights", "justice", etc. Oppression is part of the normal functioning of the capitalist economy and bourgeois law.

Despite all these repressions and bans, the workers of Has Sag ended the struggle with gains such as the reinstatement of dismissed workers and compensation. Grand Carpet and Yalçın Kardeşler workers fought shoulder to shoulder without giving in to gendarme and police repression. Grand Carpet workers ended the struggle with a raise, while the strike at Yalçın Kardeşler continues. The union movement is still spreading. On March 4, Durkar Carpet and Sebat Carpet started resistance. On March 6, Bellatex Carpet workers stopped work and Eviza Carpet, Durkar Carpet and Sebat Carpet workers ended the struggle with gains such as layoffs or raises. On March 7, Gür Thread and Alka Polyester workers started resistance.

The resistance in Başpınar has again demonstrated the importance of this industrial zone for the trade union movement in Turkey. Since the 2000s, Başpınar has witnessed important labor struggles. We invite our readers to read about these struggles in the study titled "The Last Forty Years of Class Struggle in Turkey: An Overview from 1980 to 2020". From the moment it appeared on the stage of history, the working class in Başpınar has repeatedly realized that "it has nothing to lose but its chains"; as the arrested union leader Mehmet Türkmen said, after all, prison is not so different from the factory.

Municipal Strikes

While some of the municipal workers’ strikes that began in November 2024 in Istanbul’s Maltepe, Kartal and Ataşehir districts and in January 2025 in Izmir have ended, new waves of strikes have begun in parallel.

In Izmir, the metropolitan municipality workers went on strike following the news of a 1.6 billion lira cut from the Bank of Provinces and a cut in salaries by the municipality. On January 8, a meeting of workers of İZENERJİ and İZELMAN, two companies operated by the municipality, in front of the DİSK building turned into a march after threats by mayor Cemil Tugay. After the talks held by DISK during the day, DISK called for salaries to be paid and the strike ended with a win.

In February, subcontracted toilet cleaning workers employed by the Izmir metropolitan municipality were fired from their jobs due to the struggle for their rights that started in January. The actions of the subcontracted cleaning workers had started with the demand for the right to work. At the end of February, after a month of struggle, they reached an agreement with the municipality administration on their demands and suspended their action. According to the statement made by the workers, they will return to work in March with their gains.

In March, tobacco workers joined the strike wave started by municipal workers in Izmir. Sunel and Oriental tobacco workers organized in Branch No. 7 of the Tekgıda-İş Union, affiliated to the Türk-İş regime trade union confederation, went on strike. The workers went on strike in 3 different factories after failing to get what they wanted from the collective bargaining agreement negotiations, and a total of nearly 1700 workers went on strike for their rights. The workers stated that the salaries they receive do not cover the increasing cost of living, that the bosses’ proposals are far from reality and that they responded to the situation with workers’ solidarity.

In Istanbul, Beşiktaş was added to the municipal workers’ strike that started on the Anatolian side (Ataşehir, Maltepe and Kadıköy), organized in DISK. According to reports, late payment of salaries have become a chronic problem in the municipality in the last month and a half. However, the municipality is hiding behind the arrest of Beşiktaş mayor Rıza Akpolat on corruption charges and the "assassination of reputation" discourse they have created with this arrest. Workers organized around the European Side No. 1 of DİSK Genel-İş will go on strike as of March 15 if no agreement is reached. However, workers in Beşiktaş Municipality’s cleaning, parks and gardens, veterinary and public works departments have walked off the job independently of the union because the payment of their salaries has been delayed for months. Upon the workers’ decision to strike, the CHP-affiliated Beşiktaş Municipality decided to fire the workers and appealed to the CHP-affiliated neighboring Beyoğlu Municipality to break the strike. The cleaning workers were also angry with the European Side Branch No. 1 of Genel-İş, one of the most collaborationist member unions of DİSK, because the retroactive payments of the contract signed in November were pushed back to May 2025 without asking the workers.

Parallel to these movements, electricity infrastructure workers are also continuing their protests. After more than two months of inconclusive negotiations between ISPER.AŞ and DİSK Enerji-Sen, the Istanbul branch of DİSK Enerji-Sen called for a province-wide strike. The union’s primary demand was to increase the "handout" wages imposed by the municipality. On February 28, the union made a press statement in front of the municipal ISKI General Directorate and announced that they once again rejected the misery wage.

There are also reactions from Adana’s Seyhan Municipality about the workers’ unpaid wages. The Seyhan Municipality did not comply with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement it signed and paid the salaries, which should have been 55 thousand liras, as 35 thousand liras. In response to the underpayment of salaries, workers of Seyhan Municipality held a press statement on February 25 organized by DİSK Genel-İş.

In February, another call against the rising cost of living and capital’s austerity policies came from Eğitim-Sen, the teachers union. Eğitim-Sen made a statement on its official Twitter account and shared its union demands;
- Reduce the indirect tax rate on essential consumption items of working people to zero!
- All payments, including additional supplementary payments, should be added to the base salary!
- Abolish the interview for public sector jobs.

Çayırhan Miners Resistance

On November 20, 2024, 500 miners in Çayırhan, a town near Ankara, locked themselves in the mine against the privatization decision. Bourgeois law is incapable of defending workers’ rights. During the privatization process, the tender specifications did not include any clause that protects workers’ rights; on top of that, it was demanded that the lodgings where the workers stay be vacated within 4 months. This caused a reaction among the workers.

The workers went underground with a steel will and determination; above ground, their protests received widespread support. The bourgeois state, which has nothing to fear more than the workers uniting and supporting each other, had its skirts on fire. The gendarme barricaded the workers who wanted to enter the mine. The workers decided to wait in front of the barricade until they entered the mine. Talih Kocabıyık, branch president of the Turkish Mine Workers Union affiliated to Türk-İş, said "it is a very profitable enterprise, that is probably why it is being privatized", but no explanation was given about the privatization decision.

The de facto strike launched by the workers partially yielded results within 10 days. The Privatization Administration decided to postpone the tender until March 4. The workers then took action again, chanting "Don’t postpone, don’t cheat, cancel the sale".

In spite of everything, the workers managed to change the terms of the tender and won the right to employ 2050 minimum staff for 5 years and the right to live in the lodging house for one year even if the worker is dismissed.

Tender applications ended on March 4, 2025 at 18.00. Workers stated that they will keep their tents in the area in order to be prepared for situations that may cause them difficulties.

Maden-İş Çayırhan Branch President said that they will remain on watch until the tender process is finalized: "Today was the last day of bidding for 104 days. We have not received the results yet. As you know, nearly 50 of our friends have been underground for two days. We did not take the risk because of the health risk, we took our friends out. The struggle will continue here at the mouth of the mine. Our tent will continue here until the tender process takes a clear shape. In case we don’t like it or in case it will put us in difficulty, our tent will remain here until Friday, provided that we are always ready in any way. We expect a clear announcement by Friday. Our struggle is not over, our struggle continues."

While Çayırhan workers are determinedly fighting for their rights, they are also expressing a nationalist reaction in favor of nationalization. Therefore, through the regime union Türkiye Maden İş, nationalist left and right opposition bourgeois parties that advocate partial state ownership against privatization have tried to intervene in the process. At this point, it should be emphasized again that under capitalism, state ownership and private ownership are essentially a legal distinction that does not change the nature of the enterprise and does not eliminate the relationship of exploitation.

KFC and Pizza Hut

Following the end of the agreement between Yum Brands and İş Gıda, mass layoffs of workers have begun. While İlkem Şahin, who has investments in many sectors, says that he is bankrupt due to a debt of 7.7 billion, someone should remind Görkem Şahin that he said "I will not go bankrupt even if the state goes bankrupt". The company did not pay the last two months’ salaries of its employees and "threw its workers out on the street" when the concordat was declared.

KFC workers believe that the layoffs were planned in advance. As the company was preparing to declare bankruptcy, the boss attempted to evade the workers’ rights by putting his assets in his wife’s name and attempting to divorce her. Even though it was known that a concordat would be declared, workers were kept working until the last day. They did not receive their salaries, they were not released from insurance on time, so that they would have to waive their right to compensation if they wanted to take another job.

This is the essence of the bourgeois judicial mechanism! İlkem Şahin is able to use the law to get away with mass layoffs by making workers work until the last day of their employment, and thus profit from it! After creating this mass victimization of workers (our so-called debt-ridden bourgeoisie!) buys a yacht for 50 million TL. They are blatantly making fun of the victimization of workers. The bourgeois state apparatus is one of the partners in this crime. Its laws protect the bourgeoisie and victimize the working class. Why don’t these incidents reach the ears of those in the palaces? The bourgeois law and state have shown how meticulous they are in sending gendarme and police forces to workers’ struggles. But when it comes to the workers (not surprisingly) it ignores the injustice!

The workers showed their reaction to this situation by gathering in front of the company headquarters in Kavacık, Istanbul. At every opportunity the workers have been and are showing that they are determined in their struggle. The regime unions and some bourgeois left parties quickly "jumped in" to the protests in order to mislead the workers with bourgeois democratic rhetoric and to divert them from their path.

The protests are still going on and workers are calling out from the fields of resistance:

"We have kept silent and endured for 2 years, but enough is enough. We have worked overtime without taking leave, carrying heavy loads. This brand, which grew with our sweat, now condemns us to starvation. We know that this situation is not only happening to us. It can happen to all Yum Brands employees around the world. So we call out to Yum Brands workers all over the world. Wake up, stand up for your rights, don’t be silent! If we act together, we can make our voices heard. Let’s put a stop to this injustice by standing shoulder to shoulder together, let’s make our voices heard all over the world."

The biggest weapon of the working class against international companies like Yum Brands is international strikes and resistance. Companies that try to achieve their growth targets by declaring bankruptcy and shifting their capital from one country to another seem to cover their moving costs with the unpaid wages of workers. Workers can protect themselves from this predatory global capitalism by protecting their self-organization, their unions. Forcing the unions to build international links and spread strikes and resistance to many enterprises will increase the workers’ chances of winning.

Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant

The Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, which is being built in Mersin through the cooperation of Russian and Turkish capital, is an opportunity for national capital to achieve the glory of the "national economy" and a concentration camp for the working class.

Akkuyu has a total of 4 pressurized water reactors and the foundations for all four have been laid. While units 1 and 2 are under construction, construction of cells 3 and 4 has been halted by Rosatom and workers are being fired.

Akkuyu workers have to cope with poor working conditions, arbitrary dismissals and unpaid salaries! The bosses’ arbitrariness is so precious that they leave 500 workers unemployed and don’t need to give a reason. Not to mention the unpaid salaries since December 22nd!

"If so many workers were to be laid off in a short time, why were they hired? We are already crawling in shacks. We have no money and no right to work humanely. All we get is three pennies. We sleep in filthy places, food with filth in it is put in front of us. What for? We already work almost for free. And this treatment is really shameful." They add, "This is not a construction site, it’s like a Nazi camp!"

In the capitalist mode of production, production is carried out to maximize profit. Maximizing profit means exploiting surplus value as much as possible, that is, cutting workers’ wages and making profit by cheapening even the most basic needs of workers. "I shot the video with my friends. They wouldn’t believe me if I told them. I even sent some videos to those who didn’t come to dinner that day. There is a shortage of food. The other day, used condoms were found in the yogurt at dinner. What kind of unscrupulousness is this?"

Unable to endure these inhumane working conditions, the workers began a work stoppage. The reaction of the bourgeoisie’s bloody stick, the state, to the work stoppage is not surprising: sending gendarmes. Wherever there is a worker who seeks their rights, the bourgeois political order either forces them to cooperate with the state and puts them through legal barriers or, like the Akkuyu workers, tries to silence them. This is the reality of the rights, justice and law that the hypocritical bourgeois society treats us to.

It is only through the existence of class unions and a class party that workers can be liberated from the capitalist order!