After 78 days of resolute and militant fighting, the heroic battle of the Tekel workers of Turkey has now entered a new phase. At the end of January, the government issued a decree that involved some minor improvements to the new employment status of the workers, giving them a month to make the transition to this new status or to lose their jobs all together. The workers and their union refused this new offer, since the casual nature of the employment status remained despite the improvements (the workers could be sacked at the end of 11 months of employment in their new jobs.) On 1 March, the penultimate day before the term recognised by the government expired, the Council of State, a high court in the French tradition that oversees administrative decisions, decided to stay the execution of the government decree, on the grounds that the 30-day period given by the government to make the choice was "unnecessarily restrictive".

After at least a decade and a half of stagnation, the working class movement of Turkey is making a great stride forward, thanks to the militant action of the workers of a now privatised former state economic enterprise, Tekel, the state monopoly of tobacco and alcoholic beverages. The resolute and tenacious fight put up by the 12,000 Tekel workers and their families has made an electrifying impact on major sections of the working class. Despite the dogged resistance of the top bureaucracy of the Türk-İş confederation, the biggest of Turkey, to which the Tekel workers' union is affiliated, the pressure for a general strike is mounting. Given the immense social and political contradictions Turkey has been subject to within the last few years, this new awakening of the proletariat adds still another tension to a society already torn apart by strife and dissension, but is susceptible to change the whole chemistry of the country and to create the possibility of a progressive resolution to the already existing problems. 

In response to a critique bu our comrade Sungur Savran of his position of defending military coups and the base deeds of the counterinsurgency organisation of the Turkish state, Stalinist writer Yalçın Küçük has sued our comrade for "defamation". We are posting below a news report about the court case published on a leftist news web site, www.bianet.org.

The Initiative for the Revolutionary Workers' Party (DIP) has taken another step towards the foundation of the party by holding its Pre-Conference. The meeting was held on 14 February 2009 in Istanbul, in the auditorium at the headquarters of the United Metal Workers' Union, one of the most militant mass trade unions in Turkey. Delegations attended from some of the major cities of the country (Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Bolu and Mersin), as well as single delegates and militants from Kocaeli, Zonguldak, Kütahya, Uşak and Eskişehir.

Not enough to abandon the panel at Davos-what matters is to end the alliance with Zionism!

The Initiative for the Revolutionary Workers' Party considers fully warranted the response by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan to the attitude of Shimon Peres, the president of Israel, and David Ignatius, US journalist and moderator of the panel discussion. It was correct to criticise sharply Peres' manner of speaking, to respond in kind to the moderator, who kept patting the prime minister of a foreign country on the shoulder, displaying the arrogance of a person close to the establishment circles of an imperialist country, to remind him of the unfair allotment of time to the different speakers, thereby privileging Peres, and in the end to abandon the panel. Those who criticise Erdoğan for using the bullying style he resorts to back home are thereby promoting the idea that he should have acted meekly when confronted with such effrontery from imperialists and Zionists. They have thus also been admitted that they cannot defend the idea of equality among nations even for their own people, let alone for those nations whom they oppress. Erdoğan's behaviour is so abominable domestically because he unjustly attacks oppressed people. It is exactly for the symmetric reason why his behaviour at Davos is to be commended. There is no basis for comparing the two, as Erdoğan is the oppressor in the domestic cases while he represents the underdog in the Davos case. Erdoğan has displayed a more honourable attitude vis-à-vis the representatives of imperialism and Zionism than his detractors.