TKP announces its Kartal mayoral candidate

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) held the first of its "Communist Municipalism" meetings today in Kartal, Istanbul. 

"Kartal is labor. We are announcing the candidate of labor" was the title of the meeting, where the first speech was delivered by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey, Kemal Okuyan. Drawing attention to the rent-seeking occurring in municipalities, Okuyan said, "We do not view the municipality as a source of rent. For us, the interests of society and the interests of the citizens living in that municipality are essential."

"MUNICIPAL COUNCILS ARE PLACES WHERE THE INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE ARE CAST ASIDE"

Okuyan stated, "In these elections, we will get our candidates into the municipal councils. Because municipal councils are places where money and wealth circulate, where rent is sought, where profits are shared, and where the interests of the people are cast aside. We need to get the people's observers and the people's guardians into these places so that they do not steal and plunder what belongs to the public," he said. 

Using the phrase "Municipalities are places of service, not places for the distribution of rent and profit," the TKP General Secretary said the following: 

"Every communist who enters the municipal councils is a defender of the people's interests. We do not view the municipality as a source of rent. For us, the interests of society and the interests of the citizens living in that municipality are essential. If we are running as candidates, we are doing so to defend the interests of the people and to provide service."

CANDIDATE PRESENTED

Speaking after Okuyan, the Istanbul Provincial Chair of the Communist Party of Turkey, Senem Doruk İnam, said, "The enthusiasm in the hall adds strength to our power." Saying, "Once again, welcome to all of you on behalf of the Istanbul Provincial Organization," İnam continued her words as follows:

"Istanbulites go to work in the pitch-black darkness of the morning, and workers who work at least 8 hours return home without seeing the sun.  We will give the floor to our candidate in a moment, but before that, I want to say a few things. 

The people of Kartal see us with our leaflets at metro stations while they go to work in the pitch-black darkness of the morning, and they see our neighborhood houses when they return home in the evening. Children receive support education for their schools in our neighborhood houses, they read, they watch.  Now, I invite my dear comrade, with whom we will always weave the struggle for equality and organization in our country shoulder to shoulder, our TKP Kartal Mayoral candidate, to the stage.”

TKP Kartal Mayoral Candidate: 'We will live without stealing, without plundering, fairly and for the people'

WE WILL LIVE WITHOUT STEALING, WITHOUT PLUNDERING, FAIRLY AND FOR THE PEOPLE

Then, the Communist Party of Turkey's Kartal Mayoral candidate, lawyer Gökmen Dumlu, took the floor. Starting his speech by saying, "Today we will witness history here, we will rewrite the history of Kartal," Dumlu said the following:

"I have been a resident of Kartal for 41 years. I am someone who has never left Kartal and still lives in Kartal, knowing every corner of its streets and neighborhoods. 

My mother is a housewife, and my father is a retired civil servant. I am married, and we have a daughter and a cat. I completed my primary, secondary, and high school education in Kartal, and my university education at Marmara University Faculty of Law.

I salute my faculty friend and brother, lawyer Can Atalay, with whom I formed a friendship and bond during that same period and who is currently imprisoned unlawfully. 

I am very happy to have the honor of giving our people the good news here.

MAYORAL CANDIDATE GÖKMEN DUMLU

Our side is clear; we stand with the municipal workers who work day and night in Kartal but have been dragged along for months when it comes to giving them their rights.

We stand with the retirees who make up a significant population of Kartal but do not even have a place to drink a simple cup of tea, who try to survive under blankets in cold rooms in their homes, and who are dragged into loneliness day by day.

We are on the side of those who want nurseries, dormitories, and scientific education, not religious cult houses. This is not a dream, we are ambitious!

The practice of Terzi Fikri in Fatsa and Mayor Maçoğlu in Dersim is as clear as day. Why not Kartal? Actually, we will do the easiest part; what the others do is the hard part. Because it is their job to turn somersaults for theft, plunder, and chaos, and to prepare huge covers for the minarets they have stolen.

We will not deal with these. We will live without stealing, without plundering, fairly and for the people, and we will do this openly with our transparency. 

'We will create communist municipalism in Kartal together'

Our side is clear.

'COMMUNIST MUNICIPALISM'

We will stand with the workers, the laborers, and the good, virtuous people, and we will create public-oriented communist municipalism in Kartal together. Let us explain what is in our program:

1-First of all, I will declare all my assets to all the people of Kartal. 

2-Waste will be ended in Kartal; the municipality will not pay millions of liras to popular culture artists to give concerts. Instead, Kartal will have its own artists who are its own children, and the newly established Kartal Municipality People's Choir will perform on special days and programs. 

3-All tenders will be transparent. If necessary, work will be carried out together with the people of Kartal without holding a tender.

4-All official vehicles of the mayor and municipal directors will be sold; if they are rented, the rental contract will be terminated.

5-The definition of the mayor's office will be abolished and it will function as a people's room. The mayor's primary office will be the neighborhoods and streets of Kartal. 

6-Neighborhood assemblies will be established regularly every month in the 20 neighborhoods of Kartal. The people of Kartal will have a say in these assemblies through direct participation. The problems of Kartal and the points of solution will be identified by the Kartal people's assemblies and implemented with the decisions that emerge from there. 

7-The salaries of the laboring Kartal personnel working in the Kartal Municipality will be higher than the salaries of those working in other district municipalities in Istanbul. However, once identified, the employment contracts of "ATM personnel" (ghost employees) will be terminated. 

8-Agriculture will be carried out on municipal lands belonging to the Kartal district. Cheap vegetables and fruits will be provided to the public through the agricultural cooperatives to be established. 

9-Chicken and egg farms will be established. Their distribution will also be carried out through cooperatives. 

10-Mushroom farms will be built. Worm and fertilizer production will also be carried out using vegetable and fruit waste collected from markets. 

11- A fish farm will be built on the sea on the Kartal coast. A fisherman's village story suitable for the history of Kartal will begin again. 

12-Market regulation areas belonging to the municipality will be established. The public will shop very cheaply from these regulation areas without intermediaries from the producer to the consumer. 

13-Kartal Municipality will be production-oriented. Through the cooperatives to be established, it will both provide cheap food to the public and create new employment areas. 

14-Kartal Card will be issued. Special rights and discounts will be offered to those in need and all retirees. 

15-Modern shelters will definitely be built for stray animals, and treatment and health support will be provided under very good conditions. 

We are not making promises. We will fulfill public-oriented, pro-people, communist municipalism. 

Communist Municipalism will suit Kartal very well."

The event ended with folk dances and folk songs.

News Source: 12punto