A rally organised by the Labour and Democracy Platform took place in Amed to mark May 1, International Workers’ Day.

The police only allowed the numerous participants to enter the Şêx Seîd Square, which was cordoned off with bars, in groups. In a statement read out in different languages by the organising committee, it was stressed that Turkey was suffering from mega-inflation and a capitalist economy that put profit above welfare and exploited people.

Participants of the rally welcomed the plan of the Labour and Freedom Alliance to transform the economy. In its election manifesto, the alliance, which includes the HDP, Green Left Party and Labour Party (EMEP), calls for an economic system in which people work and live in a humane way and for a democracy based on the rule of the people. High cost of living, low wages, unemployment and poverty are named by the alliance as the most pressing problems at present. The improvement of the working and living conditions of the labourers and the oppressed masses of the people is the most important concern of the parties.

A statement by the Labour and Democracy Platform in Amed denounced the insecure working conditions of workers, women’s unemployment and illegal working life marked by violence, harassment and mobbing, the high rate of brain drain, ever-increasing price increases, the policy of deadlock with regard to the Kurdish question, maintenance of the system of exploitation, militarist structures serving the interests of the state, establishment of a fascist alliance for elections, policies of denial and annihilation of the Kurds, misogyny, reactionism, anti-peace mindset, elimination of democracy, trustee system, dismissals, injustice, militarism, torture, inhuman practices in prisons and political genocide operations.

“Today is not the day to complain, but to change this order,” underlined the statement.

Speaking after, HDP Amed provincial co-chair Zeyyat Ceylan vowed that May 14, when presidential and parliamentary elections will be held, would be turned into a day of resistance and victory.

“We will welcome May Day without the AKP–MHP government next year. The current state's mindset is against workers and the sense of community. They attack the achievements of the HDP and put hundreds of our friends in prison. Whatever they might do, we will defeat them on May 14. They attack society unabated because they hate it. We will call the AKP–MHP government to account for peace and freedom. On May 14, we will pave the way for an honorable peace and present it to our mothers and our people under the leadership of the HDP and the Green Left Party. Victory will be ours,” Ceylan said.