Türkiye: Hands off the SEP!

In a dawn operation on December 13, Turkish police raided homes of members of the Sosyalist Emekçiler Partisi (Socialist Laborers Party or “SEP”). Nineteen, including SEP leader Güneş Gümüş, were detained for 4 days. After that, three were placed under house arrest, while the others were released under judicial control. Workers and leftists in Türkiye and around the world, especially in Germany with its large population of Turkish and Kurdish origin, must stand up and protest against this attack on the SEP.

The police have been monitoring the SEP for years, yet have produced no evidence of any wrongdoing. Instead, the prosecution is based on the bogus claim that the SEP is part of an imaginary “Trotskyists 4. Left Construction (Bolshevik-Trotsky),” which the government claims is a “terrorist organization.” In reality, there is no such organization or tendency in the Trotskyist left in Türkiye or anywhere else. As the SEP has stated, it is an “organization” that “no one except a unit within the police department has heard of.”

Such allegations of conspiracy and “terrorism” have long been used by the Turkish state ever since the September 12, 1980 coup to target anyone who opposes repression. Türkiye is now in turmoil, with inflation far outstripping the pathetic minimum wage increase, ongoing attacks on Kurds and Alevis and other minorities, constant violence against women, and rising fascist attacks. This is all amplified by Türkiye’s military moves in Syria in alliance with the US/NATO imperialists and the Zionist butchers, with Turkish lackeys skimming the cream off the top. The SEP is targeted for taking a side against Kurdish oppression, for democratic rights, women’s rights and for workers’ unity against imperialist plunder in the Middle East.

Defending the SEP against these threats in a united front centered on the union movement will benefit the workers and the oppressed against deepening misery, state repression and growing fascism. It is necessary for the labor movement and the left to mobilize broadly in defense of the SEP, not just in Türkiye but around the world. The SEP has launched an online petition that demands: “The conspiracy case against the SEP must be dropped immediately! Long Live Revolutionary Solidarity! ” We and our fraternal organizations have signed this petition. We call on you to sign it as well at:

https://tinyurl.com/seppetition.