A Poem from Nazim Hikmet - Since I've been locked up

In solidarity with all the imprisoned comrades in Turkey and all over the world!

And in solidarity with Kostas Sakkas who is on hunger strike since 4th of June.

"Since I’ve been locked up,

The earth went around the sun ten times.

If you ask the sun: “No big deal, just a microscopic run…”
If you ask me: “Ten years of my life…”

I had a pencil the year I was locked up
I wasted it away just in a week of writing

If you ask the pencil: “My whole life…”
If you ask me: “C’mon, it is just a week…”

Of murder, doing his time, Osman; since I’ve been locked up
Filled the seven and a half years and got out.
Wandered around a while, end up in the joint again of smuggling, and again filled the six months and got out.
His letter arrived yesterday; got married and expecting a child in spring…

The children turned 10, who were conceived the year I was locked up.
And the quaking, long legged peers,
Have already become one apiece wide-rumped, repose mares.
Although the olive saplings; still saplings, still children.

Since I’ve been locked up, new squares have been opened in my far away town,
And there, lives my household, on a street I do not know, in a house I have not seen.

It was cotton white, the bread; the year I was locked up,
Then it was rationed.
Here inside,
People shot each other of for a fist full of black loaf
Now again it is free; but dark and tasteless

The year I was locked up, the second has not yet started,
The ovens were not lit up in Dachov, the atom bomb was not yet thrown to Hiroshima.
The time flew by, like the blood from slit throat of a child.
Then that chapter was closed, now speaks the American dollar of the third.
But the sun has shined, since I’ve been locked up,
And from the edge of the darkness, they have risen up halfway, pushing themselves up through the sidewalks

The Earth has gone around the sun ten times, since I’ve been locked up,
And I again repeat my words with the same passion,
“For they;
are the ants on the soil,
the fish in the sea,
as many as the birds in the sky.
Fainthearted, brave, ignorant and child,
And they are who doom and create,
Whose adventures are within the songs”

And all the other,
As of imprisoned me, spending ten years
Is just talk in vain…"

                                                                                           Nazim Hikmet

An Analysis on the Movement, "Taksim Rising" by Marienna Pope-Weidemann

The occupation of Gezi Park inIstanbul on 28^th May has blossomed into the largest civil uprising in modern Turkish history. 

The immediate catalyst for the protest was the planned demolition of Gezi Park, one of the last public spaces in increasingly gentrified Istanbul. The movement grew rapidly after an unprovoked attack by police killed three and injured thousands. Protests and occupations have since erupted in over 50 Turkish towns and cities.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Edroğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), in power since 2002, built its initial support base by drawing together marginalised rural Muslims,a new Islamic bourgeoisie and urban Islamic community networks. Those networks had developed as a response to the social welfare failures of the secular Kemalist regime, which emulated Western capitalist economics. The AKP was meant to reclaim Turkey from Western interests. 

But following a split from the Islamic party, the AKP abandoned its anti-imperialist principles, as well as any opposition to neoliberalism, and clamoured to join the EU. It delivered the boom it had promised: construction, tourism, exportindustries and ‘Islamic finance’ all flourished. On the very day protests began, Jeffrey Sachs was praising Turkey’s economic success. Like they praised Egypt and Tunisia, before popular uprisings set the record straight. 

As with every neoliberal ‘miracle’, it was paid for by breaking the backs of the poor. The Turkish boom represented the extension of work hours, an growing informal sector, wage repression  and soaring inequality. Instead of representing the poor, the Erdogan administration demonised and alienated them.

The official demands of the movement are restricted to the protection of public spaces and civil rights, the resignation of those who ordered the violence and the release of political prisoners. But the root causes of inequality and exploitation stretch far deeper. The Taksim movement is broad, featuring LGBT, socialist, environmentalist, religious and secular as well as numerous ethnic groups. It has the potential to generalise its aims and mount a meaningful challenge to the state. Noam Chomsky has called it “a beacon of hope and opportunity which deserves the strongest possible support one can offer.”

The Turkish uprising takes place in the context of growing international resistance to neoliberal policies which are now being rammed home in the wake of the global economic crisis. Resistance must continue until the state bends to the will of the people or is broken by it. In the meantime we should offer our solidarity to, and take inspiration from, the occupiers in Gezi Park.

                                                                                        - Marienna Pope-Weidemann

Why I Broke This Billboard? [Video with English Subtitles]

While the ongoing protests throughout Turkey have lead to 4 deaths and nearly 8,000 people being injured, the state authorities are constantly talking about "X number of billboards broken, Y number of cars burnt etc."

Here is a video by the looters and marginals of Ankara regarding the subject.

New Gatherings in Istanbul

After the Gezi Park was re-occupied by the police, inhabitants decided to gather in local parks.

Here are the addresses.

The Besiktas gathering will be held at the Abbasaga Park at 21.00

The Elmadag-Harbiye gathering will be held at the Macka Park at 21.00

The Kadikoy gathering will be held at the Yogurtcu Park at 21.00

The Umraniye gathering will be held at the Carsi Park at 21.00

#direngezi #occupiedtaksim

[Video]Brazilian People Hit the Streets.

Reports indicate that hundreds of thousands of people occupied the streets and the Congress in the capital city of Brazil, Rio de Janerio.

Will be updated!

Solidarity Message from Subcomandante Marcos

To the all citizens of the world,

Fellows, Sisters, Women, Men, Homeless People, Poor People,

They asked us how many people the Zapatas are and we told them there are hundreds of thousands out there who are fighting for their rights and freedoms. Now today, we hear that on the Anatolian lands, the land of Turks, Kurds, Circassians, Armenians, the Lazs, and many more than i can count, thousands of masked people who wants to live in honor are hailing for freedom. Like Kurdish fellows who were in an honorable fight. We knew that we were not alone, there were millions of us out there and we weren’t alone since we have started fighting. Today, we see that we are increasing. We hear that people in Turkey shout out “Ya Basta!” and they are in a riot to defend their honor against to the oppressive ruling of Turkish government. The Great Istanbul, the capital of masters throughout history, is now the capital of riot, and it has become the voice of oppressed ones. We see that on the streets of the great Istanbul are now the capital of women, children, men, homosexuals, Kurds, Armenians, Christians and Muslims. The ones who have been humiliated, oppressed, ignored for decades by their government are now saying “We Are Here.” We are thrilled!

We have never wanted a new governance, a new government or a new prime minister. We just asked for respect. We wanted the goverment to respect our requests of freedom, democracy and justice. People of Turkey are demanding for these and resisting for days: Now starting from the ingoing goverment, and all the governments who are going to be in charge, we want you to respect our requests of freedom, democracy and justice! And if you don’t do that, we, who are the owners of rights and freedoms, will stand against you, we’ll fight on the streets until you learn to respect. We don’t want too much, we just want you to respect our rights. Because we know how we want to live, we know well how we want to govern and be governed. We want to govern ourself and decide about ourself.

And we are greeting people of Turkey who are fighting for an honorable life from here, and we want to tell that the fire of riot has warmed Chiapas. Solidarity with the ones who saved the history from past and future and moved to present.

Solidarity to the free people of Taksim,
Solidarity to the EZLN,

United we stand,

Resist!