A Class War Against State War – IWW Istanbul’s Statement on the Turkish Invasion of Syria

The following statement was originally published on Yeryüzü Postası

We call on all workers — workers who are exploited under this system, workers who have become increasingly impoverished and who are being sent to die — not to join this war, but to unite against it.

At a time when war is taking place in Syria, war which has no purpose other than death, destruction, and poverty, the AKP government launched a mission of occupation that will only further increase chaos. Like the previous occupation of Afrin, this operation shows that neither Russia, the US, nor other imperialist powers care about the Kurdish people.

This operation is a continuation of the extermination and denial of the Kurdish state based on the rejection of a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question and is also part of the AKP’s imperial fantasies that will only complicate the Syrian problem. The provocation by Turkey, with the help of other countries, caused more Syrian people to leave their country and triggered a new wave of migration that made it impossible to build housing for refugees who were evacuated from the border region. It is madness.

To eliminate Kurds from the border zone eliminates the possibility of a peaceful solution to the problem. It makes the war even worse and only increases the chances of further chaos spreading in the Middle East.

Worker’s pay has already started to be cut back with the increased cost of operations in Turkey. The meaning of this operation is “do you know the price of one bullet?”

The increasing nationalism and militarization of Turkey only strengthens the capitalist system and the bosses who run it. This operation and the crisis it creates weakens our struggle against capitalism.

We are completely against this operation because it means more death and poverty for our class. We condemn all wars between nations, as a part of our historical heritage. We believe that it is the historic duty of the working class to fight against this war and the lie of national unity that is intended to be promoted in the name of this war. We have no common interests with the bosses and the governments in their service!

Furthermore, Turkish workers and thousands of other people have lost their lives, are getting poorer every minute, and live terrorized because of the Syrian war. To end this war, the workers of the world have to organize and move. We must strongly oppose the policy of states that provoke, deepen and make even more destructive the war for the interests of the ruling classes.

We call on all workers—workers who are exploited under this system, workers who have become increasingly impoverished and who are being sent to die—not to join this war, but to unite against it.

It is time to talk about what we can do against this war from our shopfloors, how to silence the chauvinists, how to defeat the smell of nationalist blood in the air, and how to stop the war and mitigate its effects. We are organizing workers against the war. Immediately! Now!