Turkish activists arrested in Europe
By John Catalinotto
The police forces of Turkey, Italy, Germany,
the Netherlands, Greece and Belgium struck out April 1 and 2
against political activists. Sixty-three people were arrested,
40 of them in Turkey, under the cover of "anti-terrorism."
(Reuters, April 2)
The announced target of this new wave of state repression is
accused members of, or sympathizers with, the Turkish
revolutionary organization Revolutionary People's Liberation
Party-Front (DHKP-C). This working-class, revolutionary group
is known for its resolute struggle against the Turkish military
regime and especially in the past few years for its struggle
within Turkish prisons. The DHKP-C has been forced to operate
illegally in Turkey and for the last two years it has been
banned by the European Union.
Turkey is a NATO member. Its rulers want to join the EU, so
Turkey now has an elected parliamentary government. But the
real power still lies with the Turkish army, which in turn is
dependent on its close ties to U.S. and German imperialism. The
Turkish state and fascist-like death squads linked to the state
have kept up a steady attack on workers' organizations during
this entire period. The army has also committed mass murder
against the Kurdish population.
The DHKP-C's members have played a leading role in a prison
hunger strike that has gone on since 2000. Its aim is to
prevent the introduction of maximum-security lockups that
isolate individual political prisoners in an attempt to break
them, as is done in the United States.
DHKP-C members have shown great courage and self-sacrifice.
Some 60 of them have died during the hunger strike. Many more
have been injured and murdered by the Turkish guards and
military. The organization has also struggled against NATO and
the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
While the DHKP-C is not pacifist, in Europe it has carried
out only political activity. The group has never been
identified with such acts as the bombing of a synagogue in
Istanbul or the bombing of commuter trains in Madrid. Not even
the police can seriously make such accusations. It is apparent,
though, that the EU police apparatus has misused the fear
created by these attacks to try to break a revolutionary
workers' organization.
Along with Turkish immigrants, three Italian members of the
Anti-Imperialist Camp (CAI) were arrested in Perugia, Italy.
The Italian capitalist media has constantly attacked the CAI in
recent months because that group has taken an explicit public
position supporting the armed Iraqi resistance to the U.S.-led
occupation of that country. The big-business media has been
trying to discredit the idea of solidarity with the resistance
and even support for the immediate withdrawal of Italian and
U.S. forces from Iraq, identifying these positions with
"terrorism." The media campaign and the arrests are meant to
intimidate the massive anti-war movement in Italy, whose ranks
are moving toward an ever more anti-imperialist position.
Meanwhile, in Greece, the teachers, public workers and other
unions have made statements opposing arbitrary arrests of
DHKP-C sympathizers in that country.
Reprinted from the April 15, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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