Re: CP of Turkey: TKP Bulletin No: 36

[Ben C <benj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From the article "Being scared of Cuba" by Kemal Okuyan, General
Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey:

"Those who are scared of Cuban socialism from a leftist point are in
fact afraid of themselves.

I think, more generally than just the issue of Cuba, this is a sore
point for many on the international far-left. Especially the various
trotskyist tendencies, but often also the autonomists, independent
activists, and others. The classic problem of left wing sectarianism is
fear of opportunism, manifested as abstentionism and finger-wagging. I
think this fear, magnified by the pressure of hypocritical bourgeois
ideologues,  is what drives the (occasionally paranoid) fear
of/hostility to Cuban (and other) socialist struggles, as much as it
moves the "reductio ad absurdum" of the Spartacist League to condemn
just about *every* progressive struggle or working class leader who
doesn't match their levels of purity.

"These people are in fact by no way leftists."
Well, that's a bit harsh. I don't know any TKP people, all my Turkish
friends here are from other left groups (Revolutionary Path and
Revolutionary Left). But perhaps I can see in this the hard factional
division which cripples the Turkish left?

Ben C


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