Poverty Soars! Enough is Enough! Time to Unite and Fight!

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Workers, labourers, brothers and sisters!

A harsh, painful winter is coming for the working class of Turkey due to the impoverishment policy implemented by the government. All problems we experience are intensifying and becoming unbearable. As the saying goes in Turkish, there is fire in the kitchen! The storm of price hikes from energy to food is going on uninterruptedly. Poverty is growing like an avalanche day by day. The plague of corruption and bribery, intensifying poverty, increase in oppression and prohibitions, and the young generations’ of futurelessness... All these cause a wide sense of pessimism among society. Thus, workers are feeling helpless with the thinking that there is no way out. On the other hand, the government, which is responsible for all these serious consequences, is callous and reckless. The sole priority of the government that propagates pipe dreams about future is to make the capitalist class richer, to take from the poor and give to the rich! Enough is enough!

For years, the government has propagated that Turkey has become a great power and that European countries are jealous of Turkey. They expect us to console ourselves with these lies. However, the reality is very different. In 2000, Turkey was the 17th largest economy in the world. It could not rank higher in the intervening 22 years, and today it is ranked as the 21st largest economy in the world. At the end of this year, it is expected to fall to 23rd place of the list. For the first time in the history of Turkey, per capita income decreased for 7 consecutive years. In brief, the working class strives to breathe under an unprecedented wave of impoverishment in the history of Turkey.

Brothers and sisters!

In order to increase the profits of capitalists, the government implements policies that push workers and labourers into poverty, and aggravate our problems. Aggravated with the crisis that outbreak in 2018 summer, the impoverishment turned into an avalanche in recent year. Turkish lira has hit record lows, and prices skyrocketed! It is a stunning fact that the official inflation rate has increased 5 fold in the last 16 years and that the inflation rate in food has increased 9 fold. Official inflation rate has reached the highest level in the last 24 years, exceeding 80 percent. Food inflation rate reached 140 percent. And keep in mind that these are official figures. Real inflation rate exceeded 180 percent these days. While this situation is already unsustainable, inflation keeps rising and the economic devastation we experience is getting more and more severe every day.

There is an obvious policy of austerity pursued by the government against the working class. While the inflation broke records, workers’ wages were not increased at the same rate. The total rate of increase in the minimum wage in January and July is actually 69.9 percent. When we subtract this increase from the real inflation rate of 181 percent, we see how much damage has been done to the minimum wage. And what we see is our impoverishment at the same time.

Brothers/ sisters!

The working class is being pushed to the low end of the poverty pit! In this system of exploitation, poverty grows on the one hand, and wealth on the other! The money that comes out of the pockets of the working people does not disappear in the air, but fills the coffers of the capitalists! While the net profit of the banking sector in the first six months of 2022 increased by 400 percent compared to the previous period, the bosses of manufacturing industry are breaking profit records! Building contractors are getting fatter through million-dollar construction projects. The budget created by our taxes is transferred to insatiable greed of the bosses in the form of diverse subsidies.

The result is clear: Turkey ranks first in income inequality among European countries. Although the gross national product (GDP) of Turkey has regressed in the last 7 years, capitalists are hitting profit records. This is another indicator of how the working class has become poorer. As a matter of fact, according to the data of Turkish Statistic Institute (TURKSTAT), while the share of labour in national income was 37 percent in the second quarter of 2020, it decreased to 25 percent in the same period of this year. In the same period, the share of capitalists increased from 42.8 percent to 54 percent. The point is clear enough: while labour is losing, capital has grown!

According to the data provided by trade unions, the hunger line for a family of four is 7,000 Turkish Lira and the poverty threshold approached 23,000Turkish Lira. While the unemployed rose to 8 million, the debt burden of workers has reached unbearable limits. Today, 60 percent of society is in debt. In the first half of the year, the total number of people who face legal proceedings for failing to pay their loan and credit card debts reached 1 million. Workers are trying to pay off the debt with debt. This cannot go on, it should not!

Workers, labourers, brothers and sisters!

It’s all plain as day! With the opening of schools in the autumn, new and heavier burdens have been put on the shoulders of working families. Due to the hikes in fuel, electricity and gas, the bills will be unaffordable. It is unclear how hundreds of thousands of university students will cope with high student accommodation costs and house rents. Prices of basic food will continue to rise, which will further intensify the poverty of workers. This is outright devastation for all workers, no matter which party they voted for. We have been repeating this since 2018: Our poverty is not temporary, it is chronic! Since then, there has been a terrible impoverishment and the worst is yet to come.

So, what are we going to do? The working class of Turkey will not and should not sit still and come to terms with this poverty! We cannot give in to be pushed into absolute poverty and misery. There is no choice but to take action against the growing avalanche of poverty, unemployment, getting futureless, oppression and prohibitions!

In this period of crisis and chaos that we are going through, the only assurance of the working class is its own organized might. We need to know that someone will not come and save us. We must take action and the initiative for ourselves. It is now a necessity to come out of our shells when the winter of poverty is on our doorstep. We should come together more and strengthen our unity, and solidarity networks. The only way we can win is to unite in our own class organizations and stand against the front of capital as the labour front. UID-DER calls on all workers to fight against the soaring poverty.

• For wage hikes tuned to real inflation rate!
• For a Minimum Wage based on the Needs of a Family of Four!
• Revoke all price hikes!
• Cancel workers’ utility bill debts!
• Free Health, Education, Transportation and Public Utilities for Workers!
• Freeze workers’ Credit Debts!
• Freeze House Rents!
• Free and Healthy School Meals for All!
• End the Housing Problem! Free and Quality University Accommodation For All Students!
• End All Obstacles to unionising! End Repression and Bans!
• Stand up against Government Policies of deceiving, distracting and suppressing the working people!

Time to Unite and Fight!