TK: Left fusion creates Love & Revolution party (fwd)

[Ryan Daum <rdaum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just thought this might be of interest to some of the people debating and
discussing various sectariana; look! there are actually socialists who
are capapble of working together!

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Turkey
Left fusion creates "Love and Revolution" party

Over 15,000 people participated at the creation of the new far left Freedom and
Solidarity Party (VDP) in Ankara on 22 January 1996. This is an unprecedented
event, given the extremely sectarian traditions of the revolutionary left in
Turkey. The new group, already nicknamed the "Love and Revolution" party, brings
the absolute majority of Turkey's far-left militants and leaders together in one
organisation, with a common project.

by Masis K|rkg|gil

(8,000 characters)
The VDP is the result of the fusion of two organisations. The Common Initiative
for shaping the Future (GBKP), which includes the remains of Dev-Yol
(Revolutionary Way), the country's leading revolutionary organisation of the
1970s, and the Socialist Party (BSP), itself a regroupment of several left
groups, including the Fourth International supporters, Yeniyol. The GBKP brings
just over 3,000 members to the VDP, the DSP a little less. But the new party has
already attracted some 4,000 non-aligned activists: Marxist intellectuals,
feminists, ecologists, youth, student and pacifist militants. Three generations
of radical left militants, previously fragmented into rival currents.
The Fourth International supporters of Yeniyol had already worked for the unity
of a number of groups in the BSP. As vice-president and, in recent months,
General Co-ordinator of the BSP, Yeniyol  leader Masis K|rkg|gil, was able to
co-ordinate an active Yeniyol participation in the process of construction of
the VDP. Following the fusion of the BSP and GBKP, K|rkg|gil was elected to the
Central Committee of the VDP (which has 24 members). He has also been assigned
responsibility for the international relations of the new party. Another Yeniyol
leader, Vzlem O, has been elected to the 100-strong "Broad Leadership", the
'parliament' of the VDP.
When we founded the BSP two years ago, we characterised it as a partial fusion
of Marxist and socialist forces. We stressed that other steps were still needed
if we were to realise a true union of the ensemble of left forces. We were
already thinking about a rapprochement with the comrades of GBKP. It is
important to recognise that the BSP, on its own, was not able to unite, or
mobilise, enough forces to create a mass socialist party.
Nor was the GBKP able to meet its own goals. It had attracted several sectors
which had left the Social Democrats after the 1994 elections. But it had not
adopted a clear programmatic self-definition, like the BSP had.
The GBKP wanted to unite all the sectors struggling for democracy, in the
interest of the "forces of labour". But the organisation consistently refused to
define itself as a party, preferring an 'untidy' programmatic identity: limited
more or less to a plan of action.
Despite all this, most of the left considered the BSP and GBKP to be rather
similar organisations. It was difficult to justify the existence of separate
organisational frameworks. Neither party could win wide credibility for its
project. Their fusion was, then, above all a 'marriage of reason'. There is
still no clear, unambiguous common project. We are heading in that direction,
through a synthesis of the two organisations. Until now, each party has
emphasised its own activities and discussions. But, as the new party develops
its activities, and organises its own discussions, the situation will clarify.
One could argue that a heterogeneous party of distinct organised groups each
firmly attached to their former identity, and a mass of 'non-aligned' individual
members who do not define themselves as socialists. On the other hand, Turkish
workers wouldn't see the point in any kind of new left organisation which was
not a united party.  Such a structure would remain marginalised from the real
social and political dynamics. So the only solution was to advance towards a
common party, with an action programme which will define a common identity in
function of the actions and debates which this common action will generate. Nor
should we forget that, whatever the worries of some of the founders and members
of the VDP, the media and public opinion certainly see the new organisation as a
unified socialist party.
It was not easy to come this far. We went through a number of difficult steps.
In 1995, the GBKP invited us -- as individuals, not as the BSP - to a series of
political discussion. That summer we formed a commission for informal contacts
between the two parties. In September, they accepted our invitation to jointly
organise our Peace Festival (centred on the Kurdish question). This was a big
success in Istanbul and a number of other cities. Meanwhile, at the BSP June
Congress, we adopted a clear motion in favour of unity with the GBKP. In
October, we organised a series of common meetings, bringing together 200 leading
members of the two organisations. The first discussion covered the political
situation in Turkey and the world, the second dealt with the model of the party
and "the way to do politics".
We discovered that whenever we tried to elaborate what we should do, there was
no real divergence. But as soon as we tried to define something in formula and
words, complete confusion developed. We resolved to continue the discussion, at
the level of representatives of each group. Then, all that was left was to deal
with the formal questions.
By this time, the BSP considered the fusion to be a reality. When the Kurdish
nationalist HADEP party (successor to DEP) proposed an alliance for the December
1995 parliamentary elections, we delayed our reply until we had consulted the
GBKP. Unfortunately, we were unable to make a national agreement (though certain
sectors and local groups of the GBKP did participate in the BSP-HADEP electoral
campaign.
The point of no return was the joint meeting of 1,500 militants on 26 November
1995. Fusion went ahead, in practical terms, under the pressure of the base of
both parties, before the leaders had come to a formal agreement.
We formalised the fusion by a well-mediatised festival in Ankara, attended by 15
000 people. The bourgeois media have given the new party reasonable, though
somewhat condescending coverage. They seem to have been seduced by the new
party's nickname, "Love and Revolution Party".
The VDP already has 10,000 members: more than the BSP and GBKP (which had about
3,000 members each). Many of the new members are quite young. We expect to have
20,000 members by the time of our first Congress, in six months.
Such rapid growth brings risks for the socialist identity of the party. This is
not a period of upturn and growth in the class struggle. So building the VDP is
somehow 'swimming against the current', in respect of our political objectives.
The fascists and Islamic fundamentalists took one in three votes in the December
1995 elections. Only 4.2% of the population voted for HADEP. And the radical
left represents a very small part indeed of these 'protest voters'.
Turkish society has suffered a series of shocks, starting, but not ending, with
the military dictatorship. Society has moved to the right. The social democrats
have spend the last four years collaborating with the rightist DYP/CHP
government. Their credibility is gone. The social democratic leadership keeps
moving to the right, creating a vacuum among the urban and rural masses. So far,
it has been the Islamic fundamentalists and the fascists who have filled the
gap. But a unified socialist movement can be a leaver towards another kind of
intervention into this political space. The VDP represents just such a hope,
just such a possibility.
But the party keeps growing. New members are signing up. Most come are former
social democrats, disappointed by the evolution of their former leaders. These
new militants are politically to the right of the organisations which founded
the VDP. This revolutionary socialist core could find itself "diluted" by the
newcomers, many of whom have the traditional, Kemalist [secular, modernist,
nationalist] ideology of Turkish social democracy, which is reformist to the
core.
This risk of dilution is  a necessary evil. But a real problem for the smaller
groups, like Yeniyol, which are well to the left in the new party, and risk
finding their weight and representation on leadership bodies further reduced
after the first congress of the new party. Yeniyol will need to develop a new
strategy of alliances and activities within the VDP, if we are to develop our
particular current as well as the party.
But we shouldn't attach too much attention to definitions and political formula.
If we can make the VDP into a real instrument of struggle, on the basis of the
fundamental themes of its political programme, then our current debate about the
precise formulation to use will become irrelevant. What is essential is to
intervene in struggles and, simultaneously, to widen the internal democratic
life of the party. Or, more precisely, to find a style which enables these two
aspects of the new organisation to reinforce each other.
This is a difficult epoch for revolutionaries. We should preserve both our
"revolutionary pessimism" and our "optimism of the spirit". The role of Yeniyol
is essentially the same as it was inside the BSP. We strive to make this wider
party an efficient instrument in the development and definition of an
independent political position for the working class.
Note: This is a working translation, without footnotes and references to other
materials available in English. The polished, final version will be available
(on request) by the end of the month.




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