Revolutionary Worker #1131, December 16, 2001, posted at http://rwor.org
The following statement from the Communist Party of Turkey (Marxist-Leninist) originally appeared in Turkish in the Devrimci Demokrasi newspaper in Istanbul.
Capital tries to use all sorts of means to crush all obstacles standing in its way. The means employed by capital to liquidate these obstacles know no boundaries or laws. It struggles to take advantage of all fronts, from economic to political, even including the most ridiculous ones. Eventually, when it has exhausted all alternatives, it applies what is known as the most concentrated expression of politics, that is, war.
War is a method for solving the contradictions between states, nations and classes. Through unjust wars capital seeks to find the cure to its woes. Capital is fearful, intolerant and cruel, and therein lay the fundamental qualities that create the foundations of its downfall.... The U.S. imperialists who say that "nothing is ever going to be the same again" are merely expressing their hysteria. This mental state finds its concrete expression in the fury and drive of the imperialists, which is closely connected to their failure to satisfy their endless greed, their despair at not having reached their desired position, their never-ending drive for profit and their ambition to reshape the world through imperialist wars, so as to be able to exploit the globe, free of rivals. Investigation of the periodically occurring economic and political crises of imperialism reveals that its current situation closely resembles the 1929 world crisis, which came shortly before the second imperialist war of re-division. Furthermore, it can also be seen that the existing crises of the imperialist countries have been deepening further during the '90s, particularly following the second half of the '90s.
When we study the economic and political development of imperialism from the 1990s to the 2000s we can see that the economies of mainly the U.S. and the other imperialist countries, and consequently of the world as a whole, have been moving towards stagnation, regression and internal decomposition. When we take into account a whole range of factors, including the situation of Japan and the Asian tigers, Russia's declaration of a moratorium and the deepening economic and political crises of the semi-colonial, semi-feudal countries, the countries dependent on imperialism, we can see that due to its structural crisis the world is in a tumultuous state.
Having fallen behind the position it held during the second half of the 1940s, the U.S. has been trying to resolve the situation up into the 2000s by methods such as focussed wars in the world's trouble spots, plotting internal coups and low intensity warfare, which is another form of unjust war. Internal coups (such as the one in our country when the fascist military junta under the ring leader, Kenan Evren, was brought to power in order to apply the 24 January Programme of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)), fascist juntas, focussed small-scale military operations and low intensity warfare have not only failed to bring about an economic and political resolution but have even further intensified the contradictions. The structural crises have thus deepened.
After 1946, as the means of securing the financial authority of the imperialists, the IMF and the World Bank were founded, but due to their failure to accomplish their financial tasks, the structural crises of the imperialists deepened.
When we look at the relationship between these institutions and the semi-colonial, semi-feudal countries dependent on imperialism and the backward capitalist countries we can see that such countries have been forced into conditions of total misery and poverty and that their resources have been liquidated and dried up. The fact that financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank have been unsuccessful and helpless in the face of deepening economic and political crisis, along with the bankruptcy of their programmes, which only contribute to deepening these crises, can easily be observed in the example of Kemal Dervis [a government minister with extraordinary powers, "a super minister"] who had been delegated [directly by the U.S. imperialism] with the task of sorting out our country's economic problems.
In an attempt to combat the anti-imperialist and anti-globalisation movements, which have developed as an inevitable and natural result of the structural crises existing in every country and in the world as a whole, and also to halt the reactions, trends and huge, rising social movements that have existed for many years and which have gradually been developing into a struggle against imperialism in general and U.S. imperialism in particular, they are frantically preparing scenarios to re-capture their world rule by talk of unleashing a war that they have chosen to describe as "bald eagle" or "infinite justice." What they mean by "infinite justice" is nothing other than complete destruction.
An attempt is being made to legitimise imperialist aggression. But there is no legitimate aspect to this imperialist aggression. Surely, as Maoists we would not want any defenceless and unarmed human beings to suffer any harm during a war. We are engaged in people's war, and our target is crystal clear. In the course of people's war, our aim is to protect every single defenceless and unarmed human being, that is, those who are not responsible for unjust war and are not harming the masses' interests. Our response to the kinds of actions in which such sensitivities have not been taken into account is to criticise and refute them on the basis of this failure.
However, on the other hand, we very strongly oppose any attempt to turn the deaths of the civilians during the attack on the U.S. Pentagon and World Trade Centre into an excuse to declare U.S. imperialism's "right" to carry out an international fight against "terrorism." Guided by this basic policy, the historic task of each and every Maoist is to oppose all the jingoistic propaganda of the imperialist aggressors about the "fight against terrorism," to carry out an effective struggle against their efforts to legitimise this aggression, and to mobilise the masses in this struggle.
The imperialists' policy of psychological propaganda to prepare the masses, especially through the media, must be fought, both ideologically and politically, without delay. In our country, it is no mere speculation to say the media has already started this war, as it assumes its "time-honoured" role of "more royal than the king." The media's machine-gunners, pilots and special marksmen speak of the "magnificent" bombardment of the oppressed people.
They want to prepare democratic public opinion for this unjust war and wrongfully lead the consciousness of the masses to become part of, and support, the imperialists' aggression. Apart from the psychological war, they are waging a war of appeasement. They want to appease the anger of the masses against imperialism. In preparation for the war, the puppet media has acted in a co-ordinated fashion to heighten this effort. To make the masses forget the social contradictions and problems, they focus their attention on the imperialists' strength. "Now is not the time to talk about U.S. misdeeds, we have to finish off the devil first." With that, the feudal bourgeois media wants to hide the essence of U.S. imperialism, and make the oppressed people of the world forget that the U.S. is their principal enemy. (Sabah, Hurriyet, Milliyet, Star and all the television news programmes are carrying out a high level of psychological warfare.)
Of course, we are not saying that they carry this out only through the media - the ruling classes, imperialists and fascist dictatorships also lead and push their own propaganda directly. They have tried and continue to try to use the masses' religious feelings to legitimise their attacks.
This situation is taken to its extremity by the Turkish state. Just before the attack, in an effort to comfort themselves, they told the people that they were going to solve the economic crisis in the country, but now they give sermons to "legitimise" the imperialists' attacks.
"Whoever wrongly takes a life or creates discord in the world kills everyone. Whoever saves a life saves the whole of mankind." [Quote from the Koran.] "Oh believer, all together enter into peace, be careful not to follow evil." [Quote from the Koran.] With such explanations they try to use bin Laden as an excuse to legitimise U.S. imperialism's occupation of Afghanistan.
With the use of these sermons, the ruling classes use religion as a device to govern the state, to oppress the people and wage wars; however, they never hesitate to attack religion and portray it as an "enemy" when it is not under their control. In our recent history, the Hizbullah, a religious organisation, was used by the Turkish state itself against the Kurdish national movement and the revolutionary and communist movements. In the same way, the U.S. used the Taliban and Osama bin Laden against the Warsaw Pact and Russia.
Of course this is the organisational form of the "green arc" strategy of the U.S. and the other imperialist countries. Only the names differ, but the essence is the same. Therefore, the USA, which fed, nurtured, and trained the Taliban and bin Laden for its own interests, now, in order to reach its strategic goals, take them to be an enemy, using the excuse of "terrorism." The imperialists want to use the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon as the basis to legitimise and justify their imperialist war. The U.S. is furious with the Taliban and Bin Laden, because they are not under its control. He who falls into the sea will grasp at a serpent, hence the fascist Turkish state has taken up the concept of the "fight against international terrorism" to hide its face of terror. The fifth article of NATO [which says any attack on any NATO country is an attack on NATO as a whole] is welcomed by the fascist dictatorship of Turkey, "even though PKK terror was taking place against a NATO member [Turkey] and was supported by some countries that weren't members of the alliance. We can say that this ultimate decision by NATO has proved the thesis of Turkey correct." With this, the Turkish state wants to liquidate the general revolutionary movement, the Kurdish national movement and the guerrilla war under the leadership of the Maoist vanguard, with a policy of killing two birds with one stone.
We have emphasised that the imperialists are pulling the world into war, and every government is taking a position on the war. The state is in a position of being on its guard in order to strengthen its control behind the lines; it is clear that they are going to carry out fascist dictatorship instead of "democracy."
The agreement between the U.S., UK and other NATO countries is not limited simply to starting a war on a weak country and on ways to generalise it, but the domestic laws of these countries are also promoting fascist trends, eliminating all the democratic rights gained through the democratic struggle.
Germany's Home Office Minister, Otto Schily, made a call "to provide security by the military if necessary." Schily said, "Sometimes we can apply military means for our political goals"--this explanation means that they are openly promoting the war.
The Turkish state has made the country a U.S. military headquarters in order to best serve them as puppets. Turkey, which is going to join the war carried out under U.S. leadership, is already supporting, militarily and by other means, General Rasit Dostum, a rival of the Taliban.
The oppressed people are of course not helpless. The only force that can liberate humanity from war and the threat of war, smash the system of imperialist and fascist dictatorships and prevent reactionary war, is people's war under the leadership of the Maoist parties. The war the proletariat and oppressed people of the world must join is not the imperialist war but the people's war that will liberate them.
Wherever we are in the world, we must unite with our brothers and sisters against the reactionary imperialist system, which must be wiped from the Earth, so as to bring democracy, peace and the real freedom to transform society. Again, this will be achieved by people's war. The strongest force is the movement organised and under the leadership of the Maoist parties. This force has the genius to carry out transformations and build the strength needed to smash imperialism. We must have infinite trust in this force and build its creativity and its energy by joining the guerrillas and people's wars that strike the armies of the imperialists and hit their puppets' positions.
Therefore, we must participate in the people's war that is being carried out in our country under the leadership of the Maoist party. We must prevent the fascist state from using the people for its own sinister fascist aims. The masses have no interest in this unjust war. This war is nothing but a savage, oppressive massacre.
As part of the world revolution, we must advance and develop the revolution in our own country, and, in accordance with the political and economic structure of each country, we should actively join the process of revolution everywhere. We must work to the maximum of our force to establish an international united front of the oppressed people. Our slogan is: proletarians and oppressed people of the world, unite and fight.
October 2001
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