Manifest by TKP Central Committee on Democracy and Freedoms

The AKP government's attacks to shrink the political sphere in Turkey have gained momentum in the recent period. TKP argues for some time that the AKP is attacking more and more in order to manage the conflict within itself and within the state bureaucracy. The opposition which hides behind the rhetoric of democracy and freedom in the face of these attacks, in the meanwhile, tries to cover up a reality: There is no democracy and freedoms where there is no equality. In order to stand against the AKP’s growing aggression in politics and not to let the bourgeois opposition deceive the working class with the fairy tale of democracy and freedom and to expose their hypocrisy, TKP explains what communists understand by democracy and freedom and challenges all the parties. 

https://www.tkp.org.tr/en/agenda/manifest-by-tkp-central-committee-on-democracy-and-freedoms/

Enemies of secularism and the republic demanded democracy for the sects and freedom for sheikhs, imams, and hodjas. 

What the capitalist class understood from democracy was immunity for themselves, permission to loot and plunder, and freedom to exploit workers as they desired. 

Freedom was a pretext for imperialists to invade countries; while democracy was a codename for coup and "colour revolution" attempts. 

Together, they tarnished these concepts and values. 

Standing against this tarnish does not mean we would not want democracy and freedom.  

We want the best for humanity, for our people, for our country...  

However, we will not give even the slightest credit to a freedom enslaved to imperialism and exploitation, and a democracy tarnished by pro-Soros and pro-NATO stance and marketism and sectarianism.  

Democracy means no restrictions to the people’s participation in decision making processes. The decades of precautions in Turkey against workers doing politics and sending their own representatives to the parliament were pushed to the limit by AKP, narrowing the political arena, reducing all politics to elections, and finally bringing it to the brink of removing the right to elect and be elected.  

The people's right to protest was accused of putschism, politics was "judged", and the appointment of trustees was turned into a tool of bargain and blackmail. Arbitrary moves against political actors with whom our party does not have the slightest affinity in terms of class perspective and ideology, and have an opposite political position for reasons that are not personal but deeply rooted, have turned into intimidation of the people with the message that the elections can also be put aside if necessary. 

TKP says that an advanced democracy and real freedoms will be achieved in a socialist system where the working people are in power. If there is no equality, no independence, and no secularism, there cannot be democracy or freedom. 

Exactly for this reason, one part of our struggle to overthrow the dictatorship of the capital is to link the quest for democracy and freedom to the people's emancipation from exploitation. 

We challenge all the parties of this system. 

So you thought that you could make people buy into bigotry, pro-US mentality, capitalist cruelty, and liberal nonsense in the name of "democracy and freedom". So, here it goes then: 

1. Today, the ones with no rights in this country are the workers. They are the ones getting squeezed under the cost of living, wanted to be disciplined under the threat of unemployment. Their right to stand against low wages are taken. They have no say in the determination of the minimum wage. The right to strike, which came from history and gained through a heavy price, is removed almost completely.

2. Politics cannot be narrowed down to elections. The right to elect and to be elected is very important. However, even this right itself does not mean just to put some votes into a box every few years. Politics is a type of social relationship that keeps going in every part of life and all the time. It is not a crime in any way for workers or social groups to protest the government, to call for resignation, or to put political and ideological pressure. The government fabricates crimes, thinks itself is immune.

3. We are for an organised society. Our citizens must be organised in workplaces, schools, and their home districts. Mass organisations, assemblies, unions, and political parties are different ways of getting organised. While conducting a systematic attack against all those types of organisations, the government in Turkey has given a wide room for the religious sects that were prohibited by the Republican revolutions. These sects that purport to be "holy" are conducting all kinds of activities with no supervision, enlisting children under the name of training courses, occupying all government institutions, gaining massive profits exempt from taxation. The description that "Secularism is to respect beliefs" which has been put in lecture books, is fabricated to set the sects free. The freedom of religion and worship is a basic human right, nobody can touch it. Secularism has only one description: To keep religious affairs away from the state affairs and politics.

4. Turkey has to get rid of current domestic law on political parties and the elections. All the clauses of this law are designed to keep the people away from politics. This law creates one-man parties. Ranging from the should-have-been-impartial Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) funded by the taxpayer turning into the government's instrument being away from all kinds of esthetics and the truth, to putting the 7 percent threshold for entering the parliament, it is full of provisions and applications that damage the principle of equality from its base.

5. Both the presidential system and the parliamentary system put against it are restricting the authority of the grand national assembly. However, there must be no power above public sovereignty. Ministers, the head of state, and the prime minister must be elected by the assembly, must be accountable to the assembly, and be subject to dismissal when the assembly deems it necessary. The assembly that uses this authority must comprise workers, intellectuals, and students who continue to live and produce among people instead of being professional politicians. Assembly must gather not continuously but periodically in front of the public eye, raising all the important matters of the country.

6. Today's government has no license to make a constitution. The counter-revolutionary constitution of September 12 (fascist military coup) cannot be replaced with another. Turkey's next constitution should be a revolutionary one. If an update is necessary, the article "The state compensates all the educational, health, housing, and heating needs of the citizens with no cost" must be inserted amongst the constitution's unamendable article, "Exploitation of the people by the people" must be prohibited.

Now, we ask all the political parties, the government, and the opposition: What do you think about these basic topics? 

Are you going to continue to say "democracy and freedom" when it suits you and bury your heads in the sand when it does not? There is democracy, there is “democracy"... The democracy you are defending and covering behind is the democracy of the capital and the capitalists. In this democracy, there is no place for the working people, the working-class. 

Starting with this proclamation, we will expose one-by-one how you hide behind the words "democracy" and "freedom" which you never drop from your mouths. 

If you say ‘we are sincere’, you must respond to our proposals regarding the law on political parties and the elections, which you will receive in a short time, and fulfil its requirements.