The issue of impartiality

Today, the increasingly high-dose imposition of partisanship is polluting and paralyzing politics. In this environment, let alone discussing the phenomenon of democracy, there is no room to even mention it.  At first glance, it appears that such a state of lawlessness is the crudest reflection of politics open to external interference in a society where a balanced bourgeoisie has not formed, or has not been allowed to form, and consequently, where a strong labor sector and strong institutions that could balance each other have not yet taken root. However, what we must understand is that the state rises upon the law; if the law is trampled, it means the state does not exist. If there is no state, it means no one's life and property security is safe. If there is no state rising upon the law, brute force is in play, and like Hitler's gas chambers, everyone in this system eventually perishes, with the strong-armed being the last to fall. It is quite thought-provoking that the children of a generation that founded states and ruled empires in the past have fallen into a situation that so embarrasses their ancestors.  For even though state affairs, which are reflected in their crudest form, could be conducted more gently and smoothly in accordance with the law, it seems as if, perhaps because the state system itself has not yet settled, raw conflicts and reflections—as if mirroring the human essence—are being experienced on the political stage. 

For a politician wearing both the hats of President and party leader to maintain the principle of impartiality in the social and economic spheres toward citizens, the minimum rule should be either to remain loyal to absolute market rules or, in cases where they deviate from market rules, to treat everyone and every segment equally. Specifically, according to bourgeois market rules, although labor and capital possess different assets and goals, they are seen and accepted as equal before the law and the state. But such things are happening that the state does not even act with the impartiality claimed by bourgeois democracies, but rather, as Marxists argue, openly takes sides with capital, and even with international capital. Under today's conditions, national states are setting aside national goals and acting in line with the targets of international capital.

Keeping this argument in mind, let us set aside the tax advantages the state provides to the private sector, the mechanism of providing free or cheap inputs, and the support for initial capital accumulation through land or other opportunities. Let us look at how the state approaches laborers in contrast to this. The issue of minimum wage immediately comes to the fore. Since the minimum wage is subject to tax, if it were set high, the state would gain both as labor and as tax revenue. So, how did the state behave? The situation is clear. While the state practically returns almost all the income it provides to the private sector, especially to its cronies, as tax exemptions to the earner, is it compatible with impartiality to treat the laborer this way? Yes, it is compatible with bourgeois morality! 

Again, keeping our first argument in mind, while the state, which provides various advantages to capital, shows a tendency to continuously lower the corporate tax base in various periods—whether it does so or not, the tendency is in this direction—can it be defended that the state president approaches all citizens with impartiality when they show no positive thought or practice regarding the tax on the minimum wage, or at least do not put any thought into any measures that could prevent the net wage from declining toward the end of the year by keeping tax brackets wide? Yes, it can be defended, and defended quite well, because those who do not like this should use their political preference accordingly! 

As a more painful part of the matter, is the presentation of labor as a cheap commodity with flowery expressions to attract foreign capital also seen as related to the state's principle of impartiality? If only the state doing this today had not thrown labor in front of the desperately exploitative capital by transferring national assets to capital for next to nothing. Perhaps in that case, within the logic of the system, despite the exploitation, there could have been at least a modicum of labor-friendliness. It is seen that this torn patch does not hold. And it does not hold in the capitalist system! The reason for this is that in the capitalist system, the state is not neutral at all, as AKP politicians say, let alone being impartial! In the situation we are going through, especially considering recent actions, the political power is not only not impartial, but it is also trying to either force the entire society to take a side or eliminate them. 

Turkey is being governed with a lack of foresight that is beyond a joke. This course cannot be a game that any prudent politician could play on Turkey. But let us not forget that Turkey is in a peripheral position as a Middle Eastern country. The Middle East, on the other hand, is under the direct occupation of Israel, and through its demand and mediation, the US. While Turkey, which is surrounded, should try to keep its internal dynamics secure, it is dividing society in a way that it leaves almost nothing undone. Neither the opening program nor how much it is domestic or driven by external imperialist forces is yet realized by those who are trying to reach a certain goal with the wind at their backs, nor by those who are being confronted with such a project of enslavement; and by the time they do, the dust will have already settled. 

States are founded with blood, but they can survive with reason, foresight, knowledge, and conscience. The surface of the homeland and the people of the country are not an area to play political intelligence games on! If the law is politicized and the political games we witness in the country are not in the interest of the country, no matter how brilliantly constructed they may be, they cannot be seen as an action undertaken by a virtuous politician for the benefit of society!