Will it be opened to workers after 12 years? May 1st call from CHP

CHP Deputy Chair responsible for the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Gamze Taşcıer, made statements regarding May 1st Labor Day.

Calling for May 1st to be celebrated in Taksim Square, Taşcıer stated, "As the Republican People's Party, we declare our stance on this issue clearly and unequivocally. We are calling for the implementation of the decision taken by the Constitutional Court on October 12, 2023, which lifted the ban on May 1st by stating, 'Taksim Square is the collective memory of the workers'."

Announcing that CHP Istanbul Provincial Chair Özgür Çelik and the provincial organization will hold a meeting with the Istanbul Governorship, Taşcıer said, "They will convey our party's demand and expectation regarding Taksim."

Taşcıer issued the call, "We invite everyone who says 'enough' to the order of oppression and exploitation to the squares on May 1st."

Gamze Taşcıer's statements are as follows:

"I would like to start with condolences. We are experiencing the sadness of losing our party veteran, our Turkish Grand National Assembly Group Manager Levent Bayraktar. He was a very gentlemanly, smiling person. I wish patience to his family, his loved ones, and our Republican People's Party family. May he rest in peace.

Two weeks from now, the calendar will show May 1st. Workers are facing this May 1st in an environment filled with low wages, overwork, a struggle to survive at the hunger threshold, and attacks on the right to unionize.

The worker is unhappy, the civil servant is unhappy, the white-collar, blue-collar, and gray-collar workers are unhappy. Everyone in Turkey who earns a living with their labor and sweat is unhappy. Because no one thinks they are receiving the compensation they deserve for their labor. Since inflation cannot be stopped, it is the poor and the middle class who suffer. While some are getting even richer, the middle class is being pushed into poverty, and the poor into hunger. With the greatest wealth transfer project our history has ever seen, tens of millions are losing their gains to a handful of the elite."

EMPHASIS ON TAKSIM SQUARE

I wish May 1st were a holiday that could be celebrated, but unfortunately, we are very far from that in Turkey. For us, May 1st is a symbolic day of struggle, a day of seeking rights, making our voices heard together, unity, and solidarity. Such a symbolic day, of course, has a symbolic venue for us, and that is Taksim Square.

None of us forget the '77 Bloody May 1st. We commemorate our people who were massacred by dark forces.

We also do not forget what happened and what was said in the recent past. We remember like it was yesterday the words spoken when Taksim Square was reopened for May 1st after 33 years: 'This is a work of Turkey's struggle for democratization.' We know who said, 'Yesterday Taksim hosted 100 thousand people. A historic day was experienced. Turkey had to wait 32 years for this festive scene.'

We also know very well that the same Erdoğan has turned Taksim into a closed prison every May 1st for years. We also know that this exclusionary mentality has subjected workers who want to protect the historical past of Taksim to all kinds of pressure, persecution, and threats.

"MAY 1ST IS TAKSIM"

Knowing all this, we say this: May 1st is Taksim, and Taksim is May 1st. As the Republican People's Party, we declare our stance on this issue clearly and unequivocally. We are calling for the implementation of the decision taken by the Constitutional Court on October 12, 2023, which lifted the ban on May 1st by stating, 'Taksim Square is the collective memory of the workers.'

We do not want insistence on an unlawful ban; we want the square to be opened to workers in a manner befitting its history and value. We do not want a symbolic permit for a limited number of people; we want the square to be opened to millions. We also support the calls made by unions and democratic mass organizations on this matter.

CHP DELEGATION TO MEET WITH GOVERNORSHIP

In the coming days, our Istanbul Provincial Chair, Mr. Özgür Çelik, together with our Provincial Organization, will hold a meeting with the Governorship on this issue to convey our party's demand and expectation regarding Taksim.

"DO NOT CRUSH EMPLOYEES UNDER INFLATION"

Workers are tired of insecurity, scarcity, poverty, injustice, and not knowing what kind of life they will live the next day. Do not tire the workers anymore. Do not present living in misery conditions with the minimum wage as a favor to those who work, do not tell millions of retirees to 'fend for yourselves' by decorating the pittance of a raise to be given to them with the lie that the economy will collapse, do not turn a blind eye to the raises in salaries evaporating in the first quarter of the year. Do not crush employees under inflation.

What the government wants to do today is to create a May 1st culture that is detached from its historical character and the reality of struggle, and thus domesticated. But of course, they cannot achieve this. And when they fail, they resort to pressure, violence, and bans.

"WE EXPECT YOU IN THE SQUARES ON MAY 1ST"

We invite everyone to the squares on May 1st: the working class that is being isolated by being made unorganized today, the minimum wage earners trying to hold onto life with 17 thousand liras, the subcontracted workers who cannot get permanent staff status, the insecure workers, the victims of apprenticeship and internship, the farmers who cannot get the return for what they sow, our tradesmen who pray today that they haven't gone bankrupt yet, our retirees struggling at the death threshold with 10 thousand liras, our teachers who cannot be appointed, and everyone who says 'enough' to the economy that is getting worse every day, to rent-seeking, to double standards, and to the order of oppression and exploitation.

We invite all workers to stand together, to shout shoulder to shoulder, and to raise their voices to get what is rightfully theirs. We say let's be in the squares on May 1st to say yes to living and no to just surviving."