Recently, a Kurdish comrade from Turkey came to our Progressive Labor Party (PLP) club meeting to report on the devastating earthquake that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions of Turkish, Kurdish and Syrian workers, youth and children. He is a member of the CUNY Professional Staff Congress, the National Writers Union, and the Labor Party of Turkey (EMEP).

On February 6th, back-to-back 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes hit eleven provinces, home to 13.5 million people. Thousands of buildings collapsed. As of February 24, the official death toll is more than 44,000, and this only reflects reports from hospital morgues. Thousands of people are still missing, and authorities say that more than two million people have been displaced.

The bosses fear the masses and don’t want to mobilize workers and youth into a mass rescue and rebuilding effort. Communism would do exactly the opposite, we mobilize our class to provide aid and help to rebuild areas affected by natural disasters.  

While earthquakes may be a natural event, death, and destruction are not! They are a result of the greed of the profit system. All the ruined buildings were built by construction companies and monopolies using cheap and low-quality construction material. Safety was never a concern for them, even as Turkey sits on fault lines that cause earthquakes. In 1999, there was another big earthquake. Like now, the government did not send proper aid to the disaster zone. Instead, workers, socialists, trade unions, and mass organizations brought aid to Düzce and set up camps. The government sent riot police to attack the aid tents and then sent “aid.” Since then, communists and organizers have continued to fight back.

After 1999, the state passed an “earthquake” tax to prepare for future disasters. The amount of money collected in the last 24 years would save thousands of lives today. But the bosses used it for their ends.

Turkish President Erdogan’s first response was not to rush aid to the victims but to declare a state of emergency. There was no government relief effort for days, especially in the provinces of Hatay and Antakya.While people under the rubble were still tweeting their addresses, the government blocked Twitter to suppress live feeds of the devastation and opposition voices. After a public outburst, Twitter was unblocked, and almost 20,000 troops were deployed, but even then, soldiers were not directly involved in clearing the rubble and rescuing victims. Due to this capitalist incompetence, many victims died from hypothermia since the region experienced a harsh winter. Many people could not even find shroud cloths to cover their dead.

The state of emergency is aimed at attacking left-wing and progressive, mass organizations who rushed to set up relief efforts and camps for the victims. The government wants to counter class rage and solidarity. When working people act in solidarity, it boosts class confidence .”

We say NO to fascist provocations, and YES to the unity of Turkish, Kurdish and Syrian workers! We stand with workers and youth in Syria, fighting against racism and lynching that have been organized by fascist and counter-insurgency organizations. Racism is poisonous to our class. The working class has one option in confronting capitalist barbarism: our unity!

We will win. We will win with the understanding that working people do  not deserve this. We will clean this blood and dust together. And we will hold the bosses accountable for this destructive capitalist massacre. We know who the murderers are. The day is coming when the racist rulers will be buried under the rubble of their system as the workers come to power.