The Co-Presidency of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council released a statement calling on everyone to welcome May Day strongly with feelings of unity and solidarity, to support the ‘Labor and Freedom Alliance’ and the Green Left Party in the elections and to thus destroy the fascist AKP-MHP alliance.

The KCK statement released on Saturday includes the following:

“We would like to congratulate everybody on May Day, the day of labor, solidarity and struggle of all peoples, especially the working class, women and the oppressed. May 1 is a historical day. It is celebrated as the result of great sacrifices and struggles. In this sense, May Day is both a day of celebration for the working class, laborers and the oppressed, as well as a day of resistance and struggle. On this occasion, we would like to commemorate once again all the martyrs of revolution and democracy in the person of the May Day martyrs and reiterate our promise of resistance, struggle and success to the martyrs.

The struggle of the working class and laborers against the capitalist system of exploitation has an important place in human history. Their struggle for equality, freedom and democracy has developed as a continuation of the historical struggle of humanity and has left a great legacy for humanity. The struggle of the working class, which developed based on the ideal of a socialist life, has made important contributions to the whole of humanity in terms of raising the consciousness of society against inequality and exploitation, enlightening it and giving it a combative character. In this respect, the struggle of the working class has taken its place in history among the struggles for equality and freedom, which have achieved a universal character and brought about developments accordingly.

The ideals put forward by May Day, which express the quest for equality and freedom of the working class, laborers, women and oppressed peoples, have not lost any of their meaning today. Today, the intensification of exploitation due to capitalist modernity, the deepening of inequality, the plunder and destruction of nature, and the further development of the order of poverty, war and massacre have made the ideal of an equal and free world without exploitation represented by May Day and the struggle for these ideals even more important. Therefore, it is very important to celebrate May Day in a strong way, to embrace these values and to increase the struggle to make them livable. Today, this is needed more than ever.

The Kurdistan revolution and the struggle of the Kurdish people, from its beginnings to the present day, stand for the practical realization of the aspirations of the working class, laborers, women and oppressed peoples for equality and freedom. Leader Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] has made great efforts for the development of the struggle for socialism. He has demonstrated this by creating the PKK movement and thus launching the struggle against colonialism.

The most important feature of May Day is the development of unity and solidarity. Only through unity and solidarity can the oppressed succeed in their struggle against exploitation. Strengthening the unity and solidarity of those struggling against the exploitative order is crucial for the success of the struggle for equality and freedom. For this reason, the historical leaders of the working class have always emphasized the importance of unity and solidarity and have made strong efforts to promote them. Today, unity and solidarity are needed more than ever against the increasing exploitation of capitalist modernity. The leaders of the socialist movement in Turkey have demonstrated this with their attitudes. Leader Apo has also made great efforts to ensure the solidarity and common struggle of the Kurdish people and the peoples of Turkey by continuing the attitude of solidarity put forward by Deniz, Mahir and Ibrahim. Our movement attaches great importance to and strives for the solidarity of the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom with the struggle of the peoples of Turkey and the working class, as well as to the coming together of the peoples of the Middle East based on a consciousness of common struggle.

The ‘Labor and Freedom Alliance’ formed by the Kurdish people and the revolutionary and democratic forces of Turkey is a very important step towards unity and solidarity. At a time when Turkey is going through crucial elections, it is an important achievement that the Kurdish people and the peoples of Turkey have united as the ‘Labor and Freedom Alliance’ against the fascist AKP-MHP government, which is the representative of the exploitation order. Therefore, everyone who is in favor of democracy, freedom, equality and justice should make an effort for the Labor and Freedom Alliance and the Green Left Party to come out strong in the elections. It is important to protect the legacy of revolutionaries like Deniz, Ibrahim, Mahir and the struggle for socialism, especially the memory of those who were martyred on May Day 1977. To act based on these feelings and thoughts means also to fulfill the demands of Leader Apo.

With feelings of unity and solidarity, we would like to once again congratulate all working people, especially the working class, oppressed peoples and women, on May Day. We call on everyone to welcome May Day strongly with feelings of unity and solidarity, to support the ‘Labor and Freedom Alliance’ and the Green Left Party in the elections and to thus destroy the fascist AKP-MHP alliance.”