A Revolutionary-Socialist Organ Appearing In Spite of All Repression in North Kurdistan/Turkey:

The CALL For a New World

The acquaintance of the working class and oppressed masses of North Kurdistan/Turkey with socialist thought has a history of nearly one hundred years. In this period of nearly one hundred years of acquaintance, the communist party and organisations with a claim to communism/socialism also availed themselves of publishing newspapers and journals as one of the means, besides others, of transporting communist ideas to toilers. (For example "Yeni Dünya" (The New World) from 1915 onwards, "Aydınlık" (The Daylight) in the first half of the Twenties, "Partizan" (The Partisan) in the second half of the Seventies.)
The military fascist junta of 12 September 1980 dealt a heavy blow to the revolutionary and communist movement. After a period of intense oppression and censorship, from the Nineties onwards legal and semi-legal communist journals and newspapers again began to be published.
The journal "The CALL For a New World", following as it does a publication line on the basis of upholding and propagating communist ideas in conjunction with the objective of defending Communism, began to be published in April 1997. It was, and is, the continuator of the publication line followed by the journal "For a New World" that preceded it, appearing 32 times in total. Therefore, before introducing the journal "The CALL For a New World", we must briefly mention the journal "For a New World".

"For a New World"

The journal "For a New World" said hallo to publication life with an issue dedicated to May 1st in May 1992. In the article "Introduction" introducing the journal "For a New World", the following was said in connection with its publication goals:

"We are starting off with a heart-felt hello to you, whom we want not only to be our reader, but also our comrade-in-arms. To put it more correctly, we want to advance with you, our readers, in a long march on a very long, arduous but luminous road already determined. This long march is the march to the New World. But not the new world of the 'New Order" promised by imperialists and their lackeys, and in which we are forced to live! Our New World is not the antiquated, putrified world of imperialism and reaction new in name only. Our march is in pursuit of a world, whose programmatic foundations were laid down by Marx and Engels 154 years ago, in which humanity raises itself from 'the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom'."

Following a line of upholding and propagating communist ideas, the journal "For a New World" appeared 32 issues and, leaving a foundation behind both in terms of a publication line as well as technically for the journal "The CALL For a New World", withdrew from the world of publications as a result of bans and seizures of its issues as well as fines and prison sentences passed by the bourgeoisie against its responsible editors and publishers.

Publication Line of "The CALL For a New World"

"The CALL For a New World" is a political journal, inscribing on its banner the struggle for people's democratic revolution in Turkey that will pave the way for the socialist revolution. Appearing monthly, The CALL announced in its first issue in April 1997:

With this call began our publication life. Our struggle to win the new world is going on, will go on.

The Plan of "The CALL For a New World"

The journal "The CALL For a New World" also took over the publication plan of its predecessor, the journal "For a New World", whose heir it is, without any great changes, not without, however, adding new rubrics. Accordingly, its publication plan looks like this:
Current Affairs / Our "CALL For a New World" begins with one or more leading articles taking up various topics from current affairs, making assessments of the events on the agenda, analysing the situation and the tasks ensuing therefrom.
Although our journal has its difficulties in following current affairs and catching up with the agenda as it has a monthly publication period, these leading articles (Although we qualify the current affairs article of our journal here as "leading article", there is no such rubric among its columns; these articles appear under their own titles, without a rubric) nevertheless take a stand on the events and developments that were on the agenda in that month in Turkey as well as in the international plane; interpreting and commenting on the problems and main events of the agenda from a Bolshevik standpoint, drawing lessons and establishing tasks, and demanding a corresponding practice. These "leading articles" take up not only questions on the agenda of North Kurdistan/Turkey, we also give coverage, when the need arises, to topics that gain momentum in the world agenda.
Imperialists and their collaborators as well as the media of both enslave the minds with an intense ideological campaign to perpetuate their system. One component of this campaign has to do with the agenda: Through the medium of his master's voice media the bourgeoisie fixes the agenda, lets any subject be discussed within the confines it sets up; and wants workers, toilers etc. to get alienated to their own agenda through an artificial agenda set up by the bourgeoisie, through sensational news etc. etc.
And with respect to the questions on the agenda, bourgeois ideas are pumped into the minds of toilers; events are commented on from a bourgeois standpoint; various factions of the bourgeoisie are brought to the fore as alternatives; and working people are prevented from stepping outside the boundaries of the established order.
Workers and other laboring people do not have to live under the present bourgeois system, in barbarism and under fascist dictatorship. Workers and toilers have to and must become class-conscious, become aware of their might and use this might to overthrow the system of wage slavery and set up the revolutionary democratic power of workers and peasants in its stead. Workers bear the responsibility to fulfil this historic mission bestowed upon them by the class struggle.
Workers must grasp this, must realize that the sole, genuine alternative to this system is revolution and socialism. As the journal "The CALL For a New World", we follow a publication line of imparting this consciousness to the workers, trying to raise this point to the level of consciousness in our articles on current affairs.
Contrary to the propaganda of imperialists and their henchmen in recent years, we propagate that "socialism, communism is not dead", that, in fact, it is capitalism that's dead, that's decaying; that the sole and genuine alternative to capitalism is socialism.
Our call on the working class and toilers against bourgeois subterfuge to change the agenda has been the call to "impose their own agenda" on the ruling classes.
Workers and toilers must see the reality of their colossal might, of which they are unaware, of which they are not able to be aware, being used by this or that bourgeois faction in favor of perpetuating their system to get a bigger share of the system cake, and step forward on the basis of their own class demands with their own independent forces. The interests of the working class lie in setting the struggle for its own class interests on the agenda, and not in following in the footsteps of one bourgeois faction or other.
The media of the ruling classes propagate to workers and toilers that the present established order is a "good" system, a few bad things that do exist being an offspring of a few foolish persons or institutions. Spokesmen of the ruling classes and bourgeois media try to melt down the reaction against the system within the context of certain events by whitewashing the system, wanting to take the system as a whole out of the target range.
One of our tasks is to fight this lie and expose the filth of the system. The fault lies not in this or that aspect of the system or in errors made by certain individuals or institutions; the fault is the system itself! One of the links the oppressed of North Kurdistan/Turkey and the poor of the world must grasp is the truth that capitalist-imperialist system will bring nothing but ever more exploitation and oppression to the poor, that it is a rotten, antiquated system! In connection with our articles on current affairs, to bring workers and toilers to question the system and the state; to show them that there is an alternative outside the system, is also a component part of our publication line.
New Worker's World / Of all the classes standing face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class through to the end. "The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product", wrote Marx and Engels in "Manifesto of the Communist Party". The proletarians, being the special and essential product of capitalism, as futhermore pointed out in the "Manifesto of the Communist Party", "have nothing of their own to secure and to fortify". This characteristic feature makes the proletariat in capitalist society the only consistently revolutionary class. This objective position places upon its shoulders the historical mission of destroying all forms of private property over the means of production by revolution as a precondition for emancipating itself as well.
Since this mission abolishes, at the same time, the private appropriation of the means of production and, consequently, of the productive forces of society and social wealth, it is also a mission in the sense of liberating whole mankind from all consequences of this private appropriation; of liberating all mankind. The proletariat, taking on this mission, has in this struggle "nothing to lose but [its] chains. They have a world to win." (op. cit.)
Quoting these famous words in its letterhead next to its logo on the title page, the journal "The CALL For a New World" deals in its pages with the rubric of "New Worker's World" with the position of the working class in the capitalist system, with the necessity, springing therefrom, and which it must simply take upon itself, of overthrowing the capitalist system with a violent revolution and creating, in its stead, a new system based upon the rule of labor; and that only the united working class can create this new system...
Imparting class consciousness into the working class that has been unable to attain class consciousness and is unable to question its position within the system is an indispensable condition for revolution. The union of the science of Marxism-Leninism with the working class is an indispensable condition for the working class to be able to fulfil its historical mission we sketched above. Our journal seeks to fulfil this task as good as it can.
We are living in a world based on "complete" domination of imperialism. In this present world based on the exploitation of the working class, imperialists are launching attacks after attacks against the international working class under the pretext of "New World Order", "globalization" etc. "Policies" floated under names like MAI, MIGA etc. are among them. In view of these all-sided attacks launched by imperialism under whatever arguments or names, our journal "The CALL For a New World" is carrying into the working class the consciousness that it must fight these attacks; that the system of exploitation will not cease to exist without the overthrow of the imperialist system; that, in order to thwart these attacks and overthrow the system of exploitation, one must organize and wage the struggle on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. It is conveying to the working class the correct idea that, as in other spheres, on this point, too, socialism is the alternative to imperialist barbarism.
From the attacks of imperialists against the international working class, the working class of North Kurdistan/Turkey is also getting its share. International agreements like MAI, MIGA etc.; flexible work, privatization, subcontracting etc. practices hit the working class of North Kurdistan/Turkey as well. Again, organizations like the IMF, the World Bank, etc., upholding imperialist interests, launch attacks against the working class and toilers in cooperation with the Turkish ruling classes. The working class and broad toiling masses are languishing under the oppression and exploitation of the Turkish ruling classes. Many rights of the working class, including its union rights, have been usurped.
The working class of North Kurdistan/Turkey has the task of fighting capital and the state protecting it, of razing this system of exploitation to the ground. In order to carry out this task, however, the working class of North Kurdistan/Turkey must combat the trade-union bureaucracy in its own organizations of trades unions and their confederations that acts to guard the interests of capital. What's more, the working class of North Kurdistan/Turkey must also push back the influence of parties and organizations that speak in the name of "Left", "socialism", "Communism" etc., that carry a reformist consciousness into the working class and help through this way to protect the system of wage slavery, must get rid of these obstacles in the way of overthrowing the order of wage slavery.
Besides carrying into the working class the consciousness of the necessity of abolishing the system of wage slavery, of throwing oneself into organized struggle for that end, the journal "The CALL For a New World" shows the working class the ways and means of organizing and struggling also against the hindrances put up by the trade-union bureaucracy acting as an agent of capital within the working class. Organizing "Strike and Struggle Committees" and waging the struggle on this basis are propagated by us as one of the means to break the influence of trade-union bureaucracy sold out to capital.
In recent years, ideological-political polemics with currents that wrap themselves up in a "left", "socialist" etc. cover and carry a wrong consciousness into the working class, sometimes in the shape of reformism that defends state capitalism in the name of fighting imperialism, sometimes in the shape of tailing the workers and sometimes from a sectarian viewpoint that fails to grasp the importance of the working class, also appear under the rubric of "New Worker's World" in the journal "The CALL For a New World", following a publication line of making the working class grasp Marxism-Leninism as the science showing it the true path to its own emancipation.
Under the rubric of "New Worker's World", we assess various aspects that come to the fore in the struggles of not only workers, but also other working strata, and propagate socialism as the true alternative. A certain rise in the activities of civil cervants, small traders, the unemployed, retirees, etc. and poor peasants are being observed in recent years in North Kurdistan/Turkey. Like the working class, organized forces of these sections are withheld within the system by their bureaucratic leaders, and bureaucracy is performing in this sphere, too, the task of "bridling the masses" set by the system.
New Woman's World / From the first day of its publication life, our journal has been following a publication activity in accordance with the motto of "Work among toiling women is half the entire communist work" (Clara Zetkin).
In every number of our journal, we publish articles dealing with various questions of the struggle for the emancipation of women in special pages under the rubric of "New Woman's World". But we do not content ourselves with that. While taking a stand on every field of the class struggle, we consider it our duty to expose the special oppression of toiling women, take up and defend the demands that ensue from this oppression as demands of the general struggle. This practice of ours rests upon the general political perspective of winning our women comrades not only for the struggle for women's emancipation alone, but for all spheres of political struggle, helping them to develop in all spheres.
We are taking an active part in various struggles of the working class and toilers, in their preparatory work for strikes and united action, trying to bring in our communist positions on the struggle for women's emancipation into these actions and discussions.
New Youth World / Under this rubric we are following a publication line of dealing with the questions concerning the youth, this most dynamic section of society, in general, and the working youth in particular, and aiming to win the youth to the class struggle.
The work of grasping the present questions and bringing them across to others as a precondition of laying down the orientation and organizational perspectives of the youth, and working youth in particular, in North Kurdistan/Turkey is one of our tasks.
There is a lot to learn from the history of the international communist movement in connection with the youth and its role in the class struggle, its perspectives on organization etc. Setting itself also the task of publicizing the unknown gains (or considered unimportant) of the communist movement in the youth field as well as in other fields, our journal helped to achieve the translation of the "Programme of the Communist Youth International" into Turkish for the first time and published it.
In this sphere, compared to our publishing objectives, sometimes we have our shortcomings in the things we do /especially in connection with concrete and current affairs/ and our hardships. However, with the development of revolutionary movement, and consequently with the working youth becoming more active, we will surely overcome this difficulty as well.
Panorama / One of the basic slogans of "The CALL For a New World" is "Socialism or Barbarism!" As we have pointed out on more than one occasion above, we are living in a world dominated by the barbarism of imperialism. In a number of countries there reigns all-out reaction in politics and open terrorist dictatorships in many regions. In this world under the complete domination of imperialism, we are experiencing new divisions and contention among imperialists to redivide the world in accord with the changing balance of forces; reactionary, counter-revolutionary wars do not cease to occupy the agenda, chauvinism is stirred up, the principle of the right of nations to self-determination is trampled under foot etc. etc.
To take a stand on current developments occupying the agenda in some countries/regions in the world of imperialist barbarism, to expose this barbarism on the basis of these examples, and to propagate socialism as the only genuine alternative to barbarism... is among our duties. Under the rubric of "Panorama" we are carrying out precisely this task of taking a stand on current developments that come to the fore in the international plane, examining them within the framework of Marxism-Leninism and pointing to the points of departure.
The Struggle For Environmental Protection / For The Protection of Foundations of Life / One of the manifestations of imperialist barbarism today is the plundering of Nature in the quest for imperialist profits; the destruction of the foundations of life. To combat this plunder of Nature by imperialist barbarism putting a mortgage on the future of mankind is among the most fundamental duties of the working class. To fulfill this duty, the working class needs an awareness for the problem. The journal "The CALL For a New World" tries to impart precisely this awareness to the working class by following a very sensitive publication line on issues of environmental protection. Our journal takes up these issues on the basis of concrete examples in the world and in North Kurdistan/Turkey, filters them through the standpoint of the working class; and imparts to the working class the consciousness that the source of the problems in this field, too, is the imperialist-capitalist system itself, that, so long as the imperialist-capitalist system acting with the motive of shoveling more profits is not abolished, the foundations of life are in danger.
The True Fight / The Fight For Truth / Under this rubric, on an irregular basis, we publish polemics with various organs, parties and organizations. There is no developed discussion culture in and among parties, organizations and groups acting in the name of "Left", "socialism", "Communism" etc. in North Kurdistan/Turkey. To discuss the issues in contention, to furnish facts and be open to being convinced in the course of a discussion when the opponent is in the right etc.... such an attitude is alien to these circles. Consequently, neither can a true "fight" be waged, nor the fight for the truth... Shallowness, dogmatism, resorting to brute force to "solve" problems instead of discussing them etc. are the most characteristic ailments in this field.
We are at loggerheads with those who try to distort our ideological line, who slander it or try to present it in a revised fashion to the masses; or who attack the gains of the world communist movement. We are at loggerheads with those currents that act in the name of "Left", "socialism" etc., do not, however, yet but contribute a blurred consciousness. We know that "truth" will sooner or later win, and are working to establish the domination of "truth". As an organ upholding the principles of Marxism-Leninism, we are obliged to wage the struggle for truth.
As the journal "The CALL For a New World", we are waging the true fight and the fight for truth, and upholding the most fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism.
Schooling Corner / In this corner, we explain the basic principles and terms of Marxism-Leninism to the workers and toilers in a plain, comprehensible language. We published them with following titles: "Classes", "Fighting Perspectives of the Working Class", "Revolution and Types of Revolution", "Anti-Marxist Currents", "Philosophy" and "On Some Categories in Political Economy". In due course, this work helped build a small "Bibliothek of Marxism-Leninism"; we published these articles as separate brochures with the same titles.
Let Us Learn From Teachers of The Proletariat / Under this rubric we bring some articles from proletarian teachers without commentary, aiming to get workers and toilers to know and learn from these sources at first hand.
The Way of the World / Under this rubric, starting out from various statistical data, we pinpoint and expose the ugly face of barbarism in the world from various aspects, call upon workers and toilers to rally under the standard of socialism against barbarism and fight for a new world free from classes and exploitation.
Book Review / Under this rubric we bring a book review every month. Sometimes it is one of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, but at other times, this may be a book review of a revolutionary novel or some other story.
Exemplary News / Under this rubric we take a stand on some exemplary news in bourgeois media of the kind that would make one say "This is so unbelievable!". The greater part of these notices are devoted to "profound" words or deeds of ruling class politicians. Through these news and our commentaries on them we rather try to expose the bourgeois system with a humorous and ironical style.
Besides some clippings published under this rubric, we also bring some interesting photos. Moreover, we also publish a caricature standing in connection with one item of the agenda or other under the rubric "Caricaturestew".
Crossword / In every number of "The CALL" we bring a crossword puzzle. In these crossword puzzles we especially ask some terms pertaining to economics and politics and then some artists, writers, politicians etc., aiming to broaden the knowledge of our readers about the terms and persons, of whom they have heard, but about whom they have but very little or no knowledge at all.

Censorship, Other Forms of Repression and
"The CALL For a New World"

While introducing any sort of Left publication from North Kurdistan/Turkey to the international public opinion one must also add the repression and censorship suffered by that organ. For under the conditions of fascist barbarism obtaining in North Kurdistan/Turkey, oppositional publications appear despite great repression and aggression.
In a country where left oppositional press, especially newspapers, journals and publishing houses with a Left, socialist, communist reputation are closed down, prosecuted, brought before court with demands of very high fines and heavy prison sentences, and committed to such fines and sentences; where responsible editors of tens of revolutionary publications, writers, owners and publishers of publishing houses, newspapers and periodicals are brought to trial and committed to prison sentences, a number of journalists and writers have been let miss, murdered under custody, newspaper buildings have been bombed, publishing oppositional organs is kept going at great cost and risk. This is the usual situation since legal left oppositional, revolutionary-communist publication activity began and became widespread.
Our predecessor, the journal "For a New World" is one of the periodicals subjected to state censorship. In issue #11 of this journal published in October 1993, the following was said in an introductory article titled "From the 'New World'":

And after publishing its issue #12 in December 1993, the journal "For a New World" was silent, was brought to silence for more than a year.
In March 1995, with its issue #13, "For a New World" said "Hallo" to its readers again. Nevertheless, the journal "For a New World" could not withstand state repression for long. Dozens of charges were levelled against its publisher and responsible editors with tens of years of prison sentences. Fines of thousands of millions of Turkish Lira were demanded and hanged. Continuing its publication in spite of state repression, lawsuits, seizures and closures as well as prison sentences, the journal "For a New World" was forced to discontinue its publication after the appearence of its issue #32.
Taking over the inheritance of the journal "For a New World" and following its footsteps in the world of publications, the journal "The CALL For a New World" began to get subjected to state repression and aggression right off from its first number. Its first two issues were seized. In issue #3 of "The CALL For a New World", we wrote as follows on the subject:

Although the ruling classes continue to claim that Republic Turkey is a state founded on the rule of law, in it reigns democracy, the press is "free", it can not be censored, people cannot be charged of offences for freedom of information, freedom of expression or freely expressing their views etc. etc., they continue to do precisely the opposite. However much they try to conceal their fascist dictatorship behind sweet words, fascism cannot conceal its true face.
While saying there is no censorship in Turkey, provisions for censorship have been made in every Constitution upto now. And precisely for this reason, censorship was focused principally on revolutionary-socialist organs, primarily revolutionary newspapers and journals were subject to censorship. The tradition of censorship has reached such a point in the fascist Turkish state, that periodicals are controlled before they appear on the market; prosecuted before they reach their readers. The present state of censorship in Turkey differs in no way from one of the heaviest periods of censorship in the Ottoman Empire, from the period of Abdulhamid.
At the present stage, the fascist Turkish state is in the midst of an all-out attack against left oppositional sections with revolutionary democrats and communists at the head. This attack is being continued on all sides. Institutions and associations working on a legal footing, press organs, legal Left parties and organizations etc. etc. are intimidated. The press is one of the special targets. Compared with last year, there has been a significant increase in the number of newspapers and periodicals seized, prosecuted or banned since January 2001. Issues #43, #44 and #45 of the journal "The CALL For a New World" were seized. The brochure published by our journal on the occasion of 8th March, International Working Women's Day, was confiscated although there was no court order for its seizure! And it seems as if the state is going to continue and even escalate the repressive stand it hitherto displayed.
International solidarity is a strong weapon against this kind of repression as well.

April 2001

Contact addresses:

Turkey:

(Look at the bottom of this page)

Representative abroad:
CAĞRI c/o Güney
Bookstore Frohlinder Strasse 60 44577 Castrop/Rauxel
Federal Republic of Germany
Phone: +49 2305 54 28 46 Fax: +49 2305 54 28 45