May 1st is not a holiday

Let's imagine a scenario: What if all workers on May 1st, dressed in black and carrying black flowers, marched in small groups through major cities—especially in working-class districts and on important streets—without disturbing anyone or engaging in any illegal acts? What could anyone do? Because neither wearing black clothes without causing a disturbance nor walking in small groups is a crime. So, how would the public perceive such a demonstration, how would security forces react, and how would the media portray the event the next day? My opinion is that such a silent demonstration would be far more effective on the relevant circles than a May 1st celebration filled with drums, clarinets, and plenty of festive dance groups. This voice would be heard by capital and its political partner, the government. So let us consider this: Is May 1st a day for festivities and celebration, or is it a day for reflecting on exploitation and other social issues, and for sending a message to the relevant authorities to produce projects that solve these problems?

            It is strange that while workers celebrate May 1st, they treat the state as their interlocutor and push capital into the background. With this attitude, our worker friends are falling into a very serious error and straying from the real target of the struggle. We must know very clearly that the controlled herding of workers into an area to create a festive atmosphere is the result of capital-state cooperation. Workers need to be conscious of this cooperation and overcome it without committing any crimes.  

            The administrative apparatus known as the state masks the struggle between the real parties through the mysterious policies it pursues between capital and labor. The reason for the confrontation with the state every May 1st regarding the gathering place is that the state puts itself forward on behalf of capital. As in every year, the state, which has intervened to maintain public order and pushed capital into the background, has banned Taksim, the symbolic area, as of the moment this article was written.  

            If there are those who enjoy unearned luxury in the face of those who work and suffer unjustly on these lands, and if this extreme disparity is based solely on the ownership of the means of production and power relations based on the state, then there is a flaw at the beginning of this matter. It must be clearly understood that the main culprit of this flaw is not the state, but capital. In other words, the structure hiding behind the state apparatus is the capitalist system. Our worker friends, please pay attention to the name of the system; the name of the system does not define labor, sweat, or suffering, but on the contrary, it defines capital and the boss. Such being the case, if we are complaining about our environment, we must recognize its true interlocutor and the organ that represents it. If the wrong address is chosen, the diagnosis will also be wrong; therefore, we cannot perceive the game we repeat every year, we turn the event into a celebration, dance our dances, and while deceiving ourselves, we miss the real target and leave it satisfied.

            Yet, the fact that must be clearly seen is that the process, which comes from the depths of history and is a candidate to extend into the future, is neither a one-day event nor a celebration. This process is the long-term and conscious struggle of class societies. It is clear that there are parties in this struggle. The truth that must be known very clearly is that one of the parties is the working class, and the other is not the state or the government, but capital. The negatives reflected to society such as severance pay, inflation, unemployment, and tax policy are maneuvers produced by capital, benefiting capital, but perceived as state or government policies. The state apparatus is shown as the culprit and potential solver of these policies so that the issues cannot be understood deeply and social peace can be maintained. However, we all know that it is not capital, but the state, that is most disturbed by unemployment, inflation, and other similar problems. Then, shouldn't we approach the issue a little differently? Capital, under the leadership of the state, divides and fragments labor organizations and unions. While capital and the state treat some unions relatively positively and partially protect them, other unions are treated like stepchildren. This is the attitude of capital and its political agent toward unions in the face of the spirit of May 1st.

            Wouldn't it be much more positive for all workers if we proposed holding educational seminars for unions where the functioning of the bourgeois economy and the phenomenon of exploitation are explained in detail? Wouldn't it be more meaningful and useful than single-day festive celebrations if we did not squeeze this project into one day, but accepted the month of May as the “month of labor,” and held seminars in factories and various workplaces under headings such as labor-capital-state, work life, and policies? Such a program would have two-fold benefits. First, the conscious actions of our worker friends would be much more effective. Second, the attitude of capital, which is frightened by this mobilization, and the government, which acts as its political leg, toward labor would be much different and more positive than it is today. Every positive attitude toward labor provides a certain benefit to the labor sector in the short term, but in the long term, capital tries to find ways to take this gain back and, unfortunately, succeeds in doing so. Therefore, while workers try to narrow the field of exploitation as much as possible, they must also always keep the dream of a society without exploitation and classes fresh in their memories.     

            Since I will be abroad to celebrate my grandchildren's graduations, I ask my dear readers for a one-month leave. See you on May 29th, and may May 1st be auspicious to all my worker friends!