Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 23:36:54 +0100
From: m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Hugh Rodwell)
Subject: Re: Turkish and Kurdish martyrs


I wrote:

>>Civil wars also involve a huge battle for popular support.

And Robert M replied:

>Are you saying that a civil war is on the agenda in Turkey? I think this a
>romantic fake leftist illusion about the reality of Turkey today.

1) A civil war is not a revolution, though it may be an expression of a
revolutionary situation. The situation in Turkey today is clearly
pre-revolutionary.

2) The Kurdish national liberation struggle is in fact a civil war. It is
not merely on the agenda, it's happening now, and has been happening for
years. The contradictions and tensions caused by this have accumulated to
such a degree that they are making the situation in the Turkish state
increasingly unmanageable.

3) You're avoiding the issue of winning public support from people who
aren't committed revolutionaries. Obviously revolutionaries build the
party. At present this involves a lot of misplaced effort given the
inadequacy of the parties involved. Equally obviously they fight to
influence people outside the party, some of them, workers or not, pretty
alien to party priniciples.  Getting people to listen is important. The
hunger-strikers are doing this. Both Zeynep and Jon F have given good
arguments here. Zeynep pointed out that a hidden death in jail is less use
than a death fighting for the cause in this way. Jon described very
graphically how a simple question on this issue destroyed a whole meeting's
build-up of credibility for a bourgeois liberal on the Irish question.

4) The point about winning 'ordinary' prisoners is useful, and needs more
discussion.

Cheers,

Hugh




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