Speech from Struggle Unity (Türkiye) for the 2nd Session “Ideological Struggles Against Historical Revisionism and Opportunism Today” of the International Colloquium in Belgrade on June 29
Comrades,
We cannot properly understand the class struggle without first correctly understanding our era. We live in an age of social revolutions—an age in which the idea of revolution is not an abstract ideal, but a material necessity.
Unfortunately, many socialist movements today are incapable of seeing this reality. Petty-bourgeois socialism, because of its conciliatory character, fails to articulate the revolutionary essence of this era. Just as Karl Marx warned, “Theory that does not become practice is dead,” these movements cannot establish the link between revolutionary theory and practice.
A similar picture existed in Lenin’s time. Bernsteinites and so-called Marxists like Kautsky reduced socialism to mere parliamentary gains. They postponed the revolution. But Lenin stated clearly: “Revolution is the smashing of the bourgeois state apparatus.” Any line that lacks this clarity today is carrying on the legacy of the revisionists Lenin exposed.
Now, let’s look at the present. Many components of the Türkiye socialist movement
left fall into the same trap. We are faced with organizations that cannot go beyond the limits of the bourgeois order, that see elections as salvation, and reduce street politics to empty protests.
The TKP (Communist Party of Turkey)—one of the most active components of the social chauvinist and reformist “European Communist Action” alongside the KKE—is a party in deep reconciliation with the bourgeois order. It has no organic continuity with the historical TKP—it has merely committed “name theft.” Its only virtue lies in defending the “bourgeois republic” and Kemalism against the current religious-fascist regime.
Meanwhile, the fascist bourgeois order attempted to pull a thin veil of “democracy” over its dictatorship by silently approving the establishment of a party bearing the name “communist.” This is no coincidence. This party, formerly called the Socialist Workers’ Party (SİP), changed its name to TKP during a period of constitutional ambiguity. Although this was technically illegal according to the penal code, the fascist dictatorship raised no objections. A few years later, laws were amended to remove the prohibition against using the word “communist” in party names.
Even the way TKP acquired its name reveals a tacit agreement with the bourgeois order—an attempt to grant it legitimacy. At every critical juncture in the country, it turned the rudder toward safeguarding the bourgeois order. In elections, in the words of its own general secretary, it “shamelessly and brazenly” supported the bourgeois opposition—and even portrayed this as an achievement. On the war in Ukraine, it pragmatically tailed the KKE, despite being unable to call Russia as imperialist. There’s no need to even mention its overtly social-chauvinist line on the Kurdish national question.
The line that the TKP defends is not a struggle to overthrow the bourgeois order and build socialism, but rather to support the “Kemalist-republican CHP” and bourgeois opposition against the current religious-fascist regime.
The TKP is a concrete example of how petty-bourgeois socialist movements reproduce reconciliation with the system over and over again. The more these movements distance themselves from revolution, the more they pull the masses away from it.
And it must be emphasized: In Turkey, even the bourgeois opposition is imprisoned. The most ordinary journalists are detained. Revolutionaries and communists spend their lives in prison. Yet not a single investigation has ever been launched against the TKP—a party that claims the name “communist.”
But comrades, in this era, revolution is not a historical possibility—it is an objective necessity. The contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production, as Marx explained, has reached a breaking point. Capitalism is now producing the conditions for its own collapse. In every country, uprisings, mass movements, and strikes are manifestations of this contradiction. Even individual acts of resistance are expressions of social revolt—because the individual is a social being.
However, these uprisings will come to nothing if they are not connected to a revolutionary orientation. Just like during the Gezi Uprising and March upheaval. That day, the masses said, “We have begun.” But if there is no political objective, no will to seize power, the movement will be swallowed once more by the system.
Overthrowing the bourgeois order is not just a matter of people taking to the streets—it requires that these movements be connected to a revolutionary class line. As Lenin repeatedly emphasized: “Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement.”
At this point, the task falls to the revolutionary party of the proletariat. In a revolutionary age, it is the political vanguard—combining revolutionary theory with revolutionary practice—that will illuminate the way forward for the masses. This is precisely what the reformists cannot do.
The reformist left, having placed its hopes in elections, soon began to play its role within the system. In a context where the capitalist crisis is deepening and class contradictions are sharpening, these false hopes cannot endure. For this reason, reformist lines have been exposed. But this exposure does not automatically mean that the revolution will advance.
We must address the revolution as a current and immediate task. Revolution is not a distant future goal—it is the concrete politics of the present. Therefore, we must not only speak of revolution, but also organize it in practice. As Marx said:
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.”
Comrades,
For years, revolutionary masses in this country have tried to change the reformists. But petty-bourgeois movements have insisted on reproducing their own reformist lines. Though they are the ones who need to change, they have always tried to change the people instead. But the truth is this: No organization that cannot break with the bourgeoisie can lead the people to liberation.
Revolutionary struggle is the only real path of resistance and freedom. This path is not walked through internal calculations within the system, but through revolutionary organization outside of it.
And finally, let us not forget: Though uprisings and revolutions are determined by objective conditions, they cannot succeed without subjective preparation. Every revolutionary initiative brings us one step closer to victory—so long as we give this era and this struggle the commitment they deserve.
Mücadele Birliği
