The following is reprinted from the Communist Party of Turkey.
On May 1, 2019, thousands marched, hundreds became TKP members
On May 1, 2019, people, workers, youth, students, pupils all around Turkey poured into streets, with thousands marching together with TKP.
As the people joined the massive gatherings for May 1 demonstrations in Turkey’s Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, marches took place across the country, including Turkey’s eastern province of Dersim, the first communist provincial municipality of the country. Altogether, in 20 different provinces, from the northeastern Artvin to southeastern Diyarbakır, central Anatolian Eskişehir, Mediterranean Antalya, western province of Çanakkale, and many other provinces, gear and hammer flags of TKP created a red wave in the hands of working people of Turkey.
Anti-labor attacks of the ruling Justice and Development Party, who wants to put the burden of the crisis over the shoulders of workers, including the cuts to severance and unemployment pays, were the main theme of May Day 2019. TKP called on the working class to “demonstrate their power to strengthen the hope of the working people and to displease capitalists“, stating that “an organized working class will not surrender to the threats of unemployment, death, and hunger“. Marches also allowed many people, who have supported TKP by their votes in the recent municipal elections, to participate in the demonstrations together with the party.
During the demonstrations, the working people of Venezuela, who blocked another imperialist attack on the day of the international solidarity of the working class were saluted by TKP corteges.
TKP Central Committee has shared a message to workers, saluting their struggle on May Day. In the message a call to all workers to join the ranks of TKP was made:
The Communist Party of Turkey will fight against all bourgeois political parties and capitalists. TKP shows that the party is the vanguard and the voice of the working class, by being in solidarity with all workers’ movement in every factory across the country. We are going to further expand the TKP, and thus, we invite all the members of Turkey’s working class to join the vanguard political party of the workers and laborers. Workers, young people and women who are volunteers for socialism! We are calling on you to organize in the Communist Party of Turkey. Long live the First of May! Long live the workers’ day of unity, struggle and solidarity!
This call was responded to by hundreds of workers, who showed their will and enthusiasm by joining TKP as members.
