An alliance of seven left-wing parties and organizations issued a joint statement calling for strong participation in May Day demonstrations in Turkey. The alliance consists of the parties HDP, EMEP, SMF, EHP, TIP and TÖP as well as the initiative of the "People's Houses" (Halkevleri).

The statement released on Tuesday includes the following:

"The bosses, who mercilessly exploit the workers, are putting the whole burden of the pandemic and the economic crisis on the backs of the poor people. The more the enthusiasm of the AKP increases, the more the poor suffer. Unfortunately, we are celebrating May 1, 2022 with an even greater gap between the rich and the poor. The AKP government has destroyed agriculture through its neoliberal policies, turned the country into a place of cheap labor for the international monopolies and opened the way to plunder. The AKP government is the one politically responsible for the impoverishment.

The war has plunged society into hunger

The minimum wage is already a joke today. Wages set in the collective agreement are minimized by inflation. The government is responsible for hyperinflation. As the pomp of the palace grew, the food on the table of the people became less and less. The wave of increases in the price of basic consumer goods has now become a habitual permanent condition. Electricity, natural gas, the internet, transportation and communications are burning people's money. Babies and young children now lack access to basic foodstuffs. People who get sick don't have access to medicine and free, qualified health care. The government has considered lowering the value-added tax, but the interest rate machine is working fast. The Turkish lira is melting like snow against the dollar, and the people are again paying the price.

The insistence on solving the Kurdish question and other social problems through policies of violence and war has plunged Turkey into an abyss, a crisis, hunger and poverty. Those who ask "How much does a bullet cost?" [Erdoğan statement to justify war spending] have burned the people's dinner tables. The appointment of trustees (to HDP municipalities), the robbery of the political will, the political attacks, have become attacks on work, wages and bread. The government, imposing on the poor a burden of tax increases and rising prices, knows no limits when it comes to the demands of capital. A red carpet is rolled out to the 'gang of five' [five big companies of Turkey] and all other organizations of the bosses. Like looters, they distribute public property to their supporters through unlawful auctions. For every bridge or highway, the unborn children are already indebted. The minimum wage has become the norm and hunger has become a general condition. The youth are deprived of any hope for the future, and unemployment is rising like an avalanche. The producing farmers cannot afford fertilizer, their tractors are mortgaged.

"The regime has declared a war against women, too"

During the pandemic, women were the first to be sent home. They were thrown into a vortex of domestic and housework. The elderly, women and those who have to take care of children have been increasingly squeezed out in both reproduction and production. The government's war on women results in femicides every day. Murderers, rapists, men who commit sexual violence against children walk free, while women who defend their lives are imprisoned. Women are fighting against all of this. They are fighting for their jobs, their bodies, their identities, their lives. On March 8, the streets became battlefields against poverty, unemployment and attacks on women's lives.

The workers' resistance

Society naturally rebelled against this destruction, and 2022 began with a wave of strikes by the working class. Since December, strikes have taken place in 120 factories and plants. The resistance of textile workers, metal workers and shipyard workers followed each other in a wave of action. This wave began with the resistance of workers in the courier services. This sector had already been discussed at the beginning of the pandemic. The victory of the Migros warehouse workers gave hope to the whole of Turkey. Health workers also went on strike, while municipal and metal workers filled the squares. There was also a wave of action by the peoples of Turkey against the increase in prices. From Marmaris to Yüksekova, from Bodrum to Doğubeyazıt, thousands of people took to the streets, triggering a revolt under the slogan 'We can no longer feed ourselves'.

May Day is the people's day to stand up against exponentially growing poverty, the endless wave of price increases and unemployment. May Day is the day for the working class and the poor to stop this in the strongest way possible. May Day is the day to unite all struggles and oppose the robbers, the looters, the capitalist class. May Day is a day of unity, struggle and solidarity for workers of all nationalities from all walks of life, whether Kurdish or Arab, Alevi or Sunni, believer or atheist. The working class of Turkey and the peoples will set one of the strongest examples of this this year on May Day.

Let's turn the May Day squares into a sea of people

While the regime is expanding all kinds of repression against the people in an attempt to ensure its own survival, the domesticated opposition is trying to sell the ballot box as the sole solution. However, as the latest amendment to the electoral law shows, neither the ballot box nor the election is safe. We, seven parties and organizations, call on our people to fill the May Day squares for bread, democracy and freedom. The places to guarantee and protect the power of the people and not to support the regime of the capitalists are the streets, the squares, the struggle and solidarity.

This was shown by the resistance of women who filled the squares on March 8. This was also shown by the great uprising of hundreds of thousands of people who filled the Newroz squares for equality and freedom. Now it is time to turn the May Day squares into a sea of people inspired by the resistance of women on March 8 and the struggle of millions on Newroz.

As seven parties and organizations, we call on trade union, labor and professional associations to celebrate May Day broadly and en masse throughout the country. Let's start preparing immediately and as soon as possible. Let's celebrate in factories, stores and neighborhoods during the week of May 1.

The ‘May Day of Struggle’ of the international working class will be part of the international solidarity and struggle against international capital and reactionism."