Tens of thousands of people from different provinces joined the meeting held in Ankara, led by the Confederation of the Public Employees Trade Unions (KESK) and the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK).

According to the KESK, the participation was around hundred thousands. “The Labor, Peace and Democracy Meeting against Unemployment, Poverty and Price Increases” held at Ankara’s Sıhhiye Square was also supported by the Professional Chambers and the left wing political parties and groups.

Speaking to the workers, DİSK’s president Süleyman Çelebi said, “Brothers! No more talking. It is time for action. All the work places, squares, workers neighborhood, bazaars have become places of action. Now our kitchens, shops, schools are places of action.”

“As workers and laborers, we are screaming: no, the crisis did not spare us, it stuck right into our heart, but it is not time to cry. When the whole world is discussing the solutions to this crisis, nothing is happening in Turkey. The only solutions they are discussing are the suggestions that will save the bosses and the capital. They are even thinking of transferring the unemployment fund of the workers to the capitalists. This is not out crisis, but that of the capitalist system. Therefore, the system and the financial circuits that created this crisis should pay the bill.”

“Do not leave the workplaces”

Çelebi proposed forming “labor fronts” in all the provinces, the districts, the workplaces and the neighborhoods.

Çelebi said they should form “struggle platforms against the crisis” and let those who have lost their jobs, whose workplaces are shut down, and those who have something to say about the price increases speak at these places. Çelebi told everyone not to leave his/her workolace but to use his/her legal constitutional rights.  

KESK’s President Sami Evren demanded that all the deals with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ended, the terminations banned, and the price increases reversed. (EÜ/TB)