Humanity Can Get out of the Capitalist Maelstrom with the Struggle of the Working Class

There have been many periods of profound crisis/depression throughout history. Crisis-ridden, turbulent and troubled periods in which the old decays and turns into a catastrophic obstacle to the development of society, but the new one cannot be born…. It is the characteristic of such historical periods that the existing order is out of joint, the way of production and distribution exacerbates social contradictions, and the enormous problems that have piled up in every field turn into a tangle. The word “maelstrom” perhaps best describes these chaotic periods. A maelstrom is a downward spiral movement of the water or air stream that encounters a barrier, on its own axis, pulling everything around it and sucking it into its centre. Doesn't the chaotic scene in the world and Turkey today remind us of a maelstrom?

It is a known fact; people want to find easy solutions to the problems they face. But in today's chaotic age that we mentioned and we are going through, there is no easy solution to social problems. Since the capitalist system of exploitation has created huge problems for humanity. We live in such a world that there is a deep, inseparable connection between the simplest and the most complex, or between what appears to be local-national and international. For example, there is a link between the food prices that squeeze workers in Turkey and the imperialist war and the global climate crisis.

Of course, the one-man regime is the chief responsible for the horrendous cost of living in Turkey today! Because the government's ferocious economic policies increase inflation far above the world average and make high cost of living devastating. There is no doubt that inflation is rising all around the world due to the big problems caused by the capitalist system. However, despite this, the inflation rate in the USA, which has reached its peak in the last 40 years, is not even 9 percent; whereas the real inflation rate in Turkey is over 160 percent. During the election process of June 24 2018, when the one-man regime became official, the dollar, which was 4.8 lira, skyrocketed to 17 lira, real wages plummeted in four years, the purchasing power of workers decreased, so the labour share of income decreased from 37.8 percent to 31.5%, and the number of unemployed rose to 8 million! In other words, the policies of the government, which knows no limits in its hostility to workers, combined with the developments in the world and descended upon the working class.

However, we should not forget that the establishment of the one-man regime that created this catastrophe and the chaotic process in the world were not independent of each other. As we always point out; workers, working women and young people have to see these facts. We cannot turn our backs on the problems that undermine us and drag humanity into a maelstrom! In history, the destiny of humanity has never been as common as it is today. The capitalist system has connected all countries and created an integrated world economy with the global production chain. Let’s take a simple example: the smartphones we hold in our hands are co-production of the labour of workers in different countries such as Brazil, South Africa, China and so on. In today’s world, entire countries breathe at the same time.

Today, with advanced technology; we can produce to feed all humanity; we can end hunger, poverty, unemployment, and diseases. There is science, technology and advanced human power to build such a world, but capitalism does not allow it. In our world, where a billion people starve and people from Africa to Asia are suffering from the simplest diseases. However, states spend trillions of dollars on weapons. A van full of super-rich rule over more wealth than the combined wealth of the world’s population! That is how the capitalist system works. And day by day, the gulf between rich and poor is widening. This system is so deadlocked that the social problems instantly turn into crises and the solution becomes impossible. The recurring economic crises and imperialist war are accompanied by the global migration crisis, climate crisis, drought, water crisis, food crisis, epidemics and similar crises.Isn’t it obvious that such a system based on exploitation and plunder of labour and nature cannot offer humanity a future?

Objective conditions of the present world where technology has advanced so much, production has become global, billions of people gather in cities, and the destiny of humanity becomes literally common, necessitate a new system. Capitalism is not compatible with the level of development of humanity. This system, which creates a chaotic world where people are oppressed, humiliated, destroys freedoms, fuels competition, individualism and violence, has put humanity in a straitjacket! That is why, it is impossible for this system, which pursues the interests of the richest 1 percent of the world's population, not to rot and the working people not to uprise against it!

As a matter of fact, workers' revolts have been erupting in many countries around the world, especially since the early 2000s. In the early 2000s, Latin America was turned upside down by workers’ uprisings.  Just as workers’ rage was thought to have downed, a new wave of revolts started in 2018 and extended from Chile to Algeria throughout 2019.  And 2022 is opened by the workers’ uprising in Kazakhstan. The working class is organising protests all over the world against unemployment and the cost-of-living crises. There are workers’ uprisings in Sri Lanka and Ecuador that make the rulers tremble with fear. A working woman who can’t feed her children in Ecuador says: what a life is this! The working people do not want to live in this system that leaves people unemployed and poor, oppressed and humiliated. When the working class achieves adequate organization and solid leadership, the worker’s uprising will surely reach their goals and the capitalist order will be destroyed!

The chaotic situation created by capitalism and seeking a safe haven fosters another tendency: waiting for a saviour! As we have emphasized, such periods are favourable for authoritarian leaders who present themselves as saviours. However, history has repeatedly shown that there were no saviours to save society. Those who appeared on the scene as saviours have always led workers to disaster. We do not need to look very far; in the 2018 elections, Erdogan appeared on the scene like a saviour and said, "Give this brother the authority, then you will see how to deal with this interest, and so on." In the fourth year of his statement, the state of the country is there to see! Despite this fact, countless workers expect that something will happen in the coming months, everything will change with a magic touch!

Of course, the main reason for this is that the working class is unorganized, does not realize its own power and cannot appear on the political stage as a political force. However, workers have to take action and take the initiative, knowing that someone will not come and save them! And workers who get united in their own class organisations, undergo transformation and become conscious, get to know and see that no saviour will come, that social emancipation is in their own hands. In history, overcoming the chaotic, crisis-ridden, and troubled periods and establishing a new order could only be possible through great social transformations or revolutions. Thus, the old order which has rotted and lay like a dead weight on society’s way of progress was disposed and a new era was opened. Today, the impasse created by the capitalist system of exploitation can only be overcome with a revolution. In fact, the workers' revolts that erupted all over the world is the expression of such a quest. The working people have not yet reached their goals. However, it is clear that the concept of revolution will be on the agenda of the world more in the coming period!