Tayfun Kahraman writes from Silivri: Rent-seeking or social municipalism?

Tayfun Kahraman, a prisoner in the Gezi Park case, wrote an article for BirGün as the country heads toward the March 31 local elections. 

Drawing attention to the importance of the elections, Kahraman emphasized that the "25-year-long Islamist-tinged neoliberal municipalism" ended with the social democrats taking office, and highlighted the significance of the upcoming elections.

Here is the article Kahraman wrote from Silivri No. 9 Prison:

"There are almost two months left until the 2024 Local Elections, and we are mostly talking about candidates and prospective candidates. However, what will truly leave a mark on these elections is the autocratic governance approach of the current ruling power; that is, it will be a choice that goes far beyond the local election dimension and concerns the country's regime. We will either choose an approach that turns all public institutions, including municipalities, into companies and citizens into customers, limiting participation in decision-making processes to the influence of narrow interest groups and capital owners; or we will choose a management style that prioritizes citizenship, the right to the city, and the public interest, aiming to ensure social justice.

Since the mid-90s, we have experienced a very long and widespread local government approach where neoliberal policies were implemented through rent-oriented spatial regulations, and the voter was rendered passive and turned into an object of social consent production by supplementing conservative rhetoric with the concepts and practices of social municipalism. Local governments belonging to the same political party as the central government institutionalized rent production by favoring the interests of certain privileged groups in service production and spatial decisions, while on the other hand, they reproduced poverty by binding disadvantaged urbanites to themselves through cultural proximity and local solidarity networks. As the networks for producing social consent expanded with this neoliberal approach in politics, which is financed through land plunder, the support of the majority was secured in every election. However, with the 2019 local elections, the victory of CHP candidates in the Istanbul and Ankara Metropolitan Municipalities—which are very important in terms of both resource capacity and political influence—broke this distorted equation. Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş emerged victorious from the election with the unifying language they used against the language of polarization and the promise that they would prioritize public interest over rent-seeking.

"EXTRA-LEGAL PRESSURES"

With the social democrats taking office, the 25-year-long Islamist-tinged neoliberal municipalism came to an end; voters showed their reactions to economic difficulties, real estate rent, and crony municipal practices based on construction. CHP mayors, who tried to realize promises of service production for the public interest, public participation in decision-making processes, co-production, and fair distribution, also had to deal with the de facto, and even extra-legal, pressures of the government that far exceeded the guardianship oversight arising from administrative law. The obstacles and pressures aimed at their failure to ensure the continuation of the system built on rent made democratization in local governments and practices prioritizing public interest a necessity in a sense, by highlighting the public will, which is the greatest support. As a result of the government's pressure, opposition municipalities did not just settle for complaining to the public about the obstacles placed in their way; they further emphasized participation in decision-making processes, transparency, and public interest to increase public support.

"BACKFIRED THANKS TO SUCCESS"

Thus, the efforts of the government, which wanted to create the appearance of management weakness in opposition municipalities by constantly creating artificial crises, had a limited effect as a result of them being neutralized by high management capability and the services that were attempted to be blocked being continued and increased. Faced with the government's policies that protect privileged segments seeking real estate rent through practices that exceed the central government's administrative guardianship authority, and interventions that cut off the municipalities' financial resources and block their services, a successful test was passed with methods of solving problems on-site and developing resources. These extra-legal and unethical interventions by the government, which wanted to win the metropolitan municipalities—which also have high influence on national politics—at any cost, backfired thanks to the success achieved; it created an effect that increased the vote percentages of the current opposition mayors.

"DISPLAYED CURRENT EXAMPLES"

While the government, which wants to continue the municipal understanding that prioritizes rent in spatial regulations and vote-hunting in services, engaged in pressure and interventions that went beyond the boundaries of its authority through guardianship relations, the municipalities that passed to the opposition exposed this in various ways. The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's explanation of the massive rent created by privileged zoning rights granted in previous periods, the natural destruction planned with the Kanal İstanbul project, and the ending of unnecessary service procurements and waste received intense public support. Besides this, practices such as the Başkent Market in Ankara and City Restaurants (Kent Lokantaları) in Istanbul to give the public a breather against rising food prices in an inflationary environment, increasing the effectiveness of Halk Ekmek (People's Bread) founded by Ahmet İsvan, the pioneer of social municipalism in our country, and aid efforts that organized solidarity with the active participation of the public against the government's obstacles that reached the point of seizing aid during the pandemic and earthquake disaster, the 'Suspended Invoice' (Askıda Fatura) application, food vouchers distributed to those in need, and programs that bring producers and consumers together by supporting urban agriculture, displayed current examples of social municipalism, even if there were shortcomings.

"DISADVANTAGED URBANITES"

Contrary to the privatization approach in local governments that started with ANAP municipalism in 1984 and gained a different dimension with the AKP, the metropolitan municipalities that prioritize public interest with common production and consumption conditions in the city revealed a management style suitable for the social municipalism understanding, the first seeds of which were sown in 1973. However, the negative experience of the SHP, which was in office in most municipalities in 1989, should also be a cautionary example for social democratic candidates who are aspiring to office again today. The SHP municipalities, which could not keep the promises of participation, public interest, and co-production they made back then and leaned towards right-wing practices, inevitably failed in the 1994 local elections. In this sense, although the CHP metropolitan municipalities did not fall into the same mistakes in the 2019-2024 period, it is necessary to expand the current social municipalism practice to regain their support, considering that disadvantaged urbanites struggling with poverty are inevitably affected by the polarization and hate speech based on intense disinformation.

SOCIAL MUNICIPALISM

As a result, within the framework of the religion-tinged neoliberal order that the government wants to continue by spreading it, the return to office of a management approach constructed through urban rent distribution with the unscientific spatial regulations of municipalities managed like companies will definitively eliminate the demand for democratization to be built on public interest and urban justice in local governments. For this reason, the 2024 local elections will, on one hand, keep our hope of returning to democracy alive despite the government's autocratic politics, and on the other hand, it will be an important step towards the continuation of social municipalism. Therefore, these elections carry much more meaning than a local election. In other words, we will either give forced approval to an approach that condemns the broad masses of the people to sustainable poverty while protecting the interest groups to which it distributes zoning rent, or we will say 'full speed ahead towards hope' with municipalities that show successful social municipalism practices despite guardianship pressures by prioritizing public interest and the public will above all else.

News Source: 12punto