TKP announces its candidate for Mayor of Çiğli

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) continues to announce its mayoral candidates through "Communist Municipalism" meetings. At the meeting held in the Çiğli district of İzmir, Attorney Emel Diril was nominated as the candidate.

The first speech at the meeting was delivered by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey, Kemal Okuyan. Pointing out that they knew Erdoğan would most likely win the previous general elections, but that the opposition deliberately tied the public to this hope, Okuyan said, "It is a crime to cause the hopelessness that emerged in the public after the election. It is a crime to first tie people to a false hope and then let them down, to bring the public to this state."

"COMMUNISTS WERE WARNING THEN, AND THEY ARE WARNING NOW"

Okuyan stated, "Now they are saying, 'What if the AKP wins Istanbul, what if the municipalities we hold are lost?' This style of politics is used to drain the public's energy and drive them to despair. Do not film a horror movie for the public, do not condemn the public to the politics of fear." The TKP General Secretary said the following:

"For example, the subject comes to Meral Akşener in our work. Of course, she was 'Ms. Meral' back then, now she has become 'a fascist.' But friends, communists were warning then, and they are warning now. Let's stop looking for heroes. She became a villain because she returned to her own reality, and now we are looking for another hero. Look, one day Ali Koç is a hero, one day it's Akşener, one day it's Kılıçdaroğlu, and the next day people rejoice that we got rid of him. Now it's Özgür Özel, Ekrem İmamoğlu."

"WE WILL TEAR UP THE 'BUT'S, FRIENDS"

Also, this 'last exit' movie is being played again. 'What if Istanbul is lost, what if Ankara is lost... This is the last exit, you are right, but let the AKP go first...'

Friends, we cannot push back the AKP this way. The AKP is not even afraid of this. The AKP defeats those fake heroes created by the system, whom I just listed, with a corruption operation or a media game. But friends, conspiracies and intrigue do not work against the organized power of the people. We saw this in Gezi. We saw it in the Tekel Resistance. We saw it in the YGS password scandal.

Friends, there is only one last exit. That is for those who have gathered in this hall to come together as a society, to take to the streets, and to take the reins of their destiny into their own hands. Let the truth be free in this country. 'You are right, but... You are right, but...' We will tear up the 'but's, friends. We will say, 'We are right and...' We are right and we will win!

Following Okuyan, the Communist Party of Turkey İzmir Provincial Chair Savaş Sarı said, "The excitement felt in this hall today gives strength to all of us."

"İZMİR IS UNDER HEAVY ATTACK BY CAPITAL"

Sarı said, "We will stand against those who present market and rent relations as the inevitable fate of municipalities with communist municipalism. We are preparing for this and we are setting out for this; you have also given strength to this voice by being here today. Once again, on behalf of the TKP İzmir Provincial Organization, we say welcome," and continued his words as follows:

"Friends, those of you who remember, in the second half of the 2010s, İzmir's billboards began to be filled with a slogan and promotional posters:

At that time, İzmir was just beginning to fill up with skyscrapers. The ease, comfort, and peace of life, and the beauties of İzmir were the most prominent features in those advertisements. A city and life not ruined by greed, competition, and harsh living conditions were being promised.

Of course, even then, hundreds of thousands of working people in İzmir were struggling to survive under harsh working conditions. But despite the savagery of the market, it seems there was still something human in İzmir that could be marketed. The people of İzmir realized later what those slogans and advertisements meant. Not even ten years have passed. İzmir is under heavy attack by capital. In fact, with those advertisements, the local administration and the central government were marketing İzmir to capital.

"WE HAVE EXPERIENCES IN COMMUNIST MUNICIPALISM"

Communist Party of Turkey Çiğli Mayoral Candidate Attorney Emel Diril said, "We, the young people, women, workers, and laborers who stand for labor, have set out to raise the flag of labor and socialism in Çiğli." Diril said the following:

"I am one of the two children of a housewife mother and a civil servant father. I know what it means to be a student and to educate children out of town with a single civil servant salary.

I won the Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Law and came to İzmir, and I have been practicing law for over 10 years. I live in Evka-2, Çiğli. We will change the life offered to us, the laborers, in Çiğli together. And if we don't do it, no one else will, no one else can.

As the Communist Party of Turkey, we have experiences in communist municipalism that we have been a part of before. We did these in Ovacık, in Dersim. We want to develop this understanding and multiply its examples.

Of course, those who fill their pockets with rent oppose this, and they will! Of course, those who are accustomed to the culture of plunder oppose this, and they will! We know this: in Çiğli and in other localities, our people want honest municipalism, they hope for a healthy environment for their children and grandchildren, and they desire an administration where there is justice, not exploitation. We will do this together!

Communist municipalism is not the answer to the question of whether you will grow chickpeas here. If communist municipalism means supporting production in localities where agriculture and animal husbandry are the primary economic gains, in Çiğli, it means producing solutions for the industrial zone and where female textile workers are located.

It does not mean doing in Çiğli what was done in Dersim. It means the will to establish a textile cooperative belonging to the municipality, without a boss!

It means putting effort into Çiğli for the development of culture and art. If we don't have fields to grow chickpeas, it means providing free tutoring in neighborhood houses for our children, who are the guarantee of our future. Communist municipalism means creating resources based on production and the participation of the public in management.

We don't have projects! We have principles, we have a program. What does this mean:

• The Communist Party of Turkey has two neighborhood houses in Çiğli. One is in Evka-2, one is in Egekent. We communists change and beautify the places we touch. We will establish our neighborhood houses in all neighborhoods of Çiğli. We will hold weekly and monthly meetings. We will form public assemblies. Each neighborhood will discuss and talk about its own local, political agenda. And the municipal council will put these on its agenda.
• We have one worker's house in Çiğli. Every day, our door is knocked on by the cry of at least one worker. Çiğli is a worker's city. It has a very large organized industrial zone. This is a city where laborers and workers live densely. Of course, Çiğli is also a 'favorite' district for bosses. It is a city where rights violations and labor exploitation are experienced very frequently. Those whose severance pay is not paid, whose overtime is not paid, who are subjected to mobbing... Work accidents, work murders... We will protect the rights of the worker in this worker's city. There will be a large Workers' Rights Center in the Çiğli Municipality. It will be a large center with lawyers, trainee lawyers, and occupational safety experts. It will be a center where we will work in coordination with the İzmir Bar Association, and where workers seeking their rights can apply.
• In Çiğli, women's labor also has a very important place in working life and social life. So, how does the life of a working woman with children in Çiğli go? There are 36 nurseries in Çiğli. 33 of these are private nurseries. Today, the average monthly fee for a nursery varies between 10,000-12,000 TL. How many of the children of laborers working in Çiğli can go to a nursery? In order for women to take the place they deserve in social life, many social and economic opportunities must be provided. These are already the duties of municipalities. We will open at least one municipal nursery in every neighborhood. Our unappointed preschool teachers will perform their duties in these nurseries. There is much to be done for women's participation in social life and for children to grow up in a healthy environment.
• İzmir and Çiğli also have an earthquake agenda. Especially the Ataşehir and Balatçık regions in Çiğli. Scientists have been saying these for months. Earthquake resistance tests need to be done one by one.
• The economic crisis, the cost of living, and the housing problem, which are also problems for all of Turkey. Çiğli also gets its fair share of these problems. I also live in a rented house. The economic ways for an adult young person to stand on their own feet are now blocked. There are young people studying at university in Çiğli, there is a university. But there are no dormitories. They want this: let poor children, children of laborers be forced into religious sect dormitories. We know what happens in those dormitories! We have to save our children and our youth from the hands of the sects! They do not explain to the public where they spend their resources. Because they are not spending them on us. We are against everyone, directly or indirectly, who tries to condemn us to reactionism!"

Following the speech of the TKP Çiğli Mayoral Candidate, which ended with enthusiastic applause and whistles, the event concluded with the Çiğli people dancing the halay with drums and zurnas. Many Çiğli laborers filled out the forms on the tables to become TKP volunteers.