We, those who come here today with anger, faith and resistance, those who say we don’t want to live like this anymore against lies, looting, poverty, exploitation, injustice, lack of future, those who do not recognize the protest bans and take to the streets for their lives, we want more.
It is the resistance that foiled the Palace’s plan!
The plan of those who realized that they would not be able to take Istanbul back through elections even if they cheated, the plan of the owners of the phrase “whoever takes Istanbul takes Turkey” was to arrest İmamoğlu and then appoint trustees to the municipality. This plan was foiled by our anger, hundreds of thousands of workers, students, women, LGBTQ+s, pensioners who took to the streets.
This is just the beginning, keep fighting!
But this resistance could not prevent the arrest of another elected mayor and the addition of new trustee municipalities.
While we were in Saraçhane to protect IBB, while we were saying “we will resist” from the rostrum, trustees were appointed to Şişli Municipality. Of course, the call that did not come from the Saraçhane rostrum was effective in this.
This resistance is not only subject to the Saraçhane rostrum. On the first day, students broke through the barricades and went in front of the IBB, defended Şişli Municipality against the trusteeship, and organized their own actions by boycotting universities.
We must learn from this will, from this organization. Those who are the igniting force of the resistance are pointing out with their actions what we need to do for the future of the resistance.
Resistance teaches!
The resistance has been the answer for everything we complain about and curse one by one, everything for which we said there is nothing to do. It showed us and the Palace our power. It opened our minds. It has shown that we are not doomed to this life.
- In order to send all the trustees appointed to municipalities and universities,
- In order to release those arrested for resisting side by side with us,
- In order to end poverty, futurelessness and injustice,
- In order to claim our lives and our future, it is necessary to make this resistance permanent.
For this, we need to come together to discuss our next steps, to define our demands, to make decisions together and to implement them together. This is the only lesson we have learned from every mass action since Gezi.
General strike, general resistance!
We don’t have money vaults, we don’t have villas, yachts, floors, billions in banks, but we have hands that produce the daily life of a city, that produce the consumer goods that are now being boycotted.
This is the greatest power we workers have. When this power stops producing milk, bread, cars, does not open stores, when this power stops metrobuses and ferries, when this power calls for a General Strike as a whole, it is possible to send the trustees away and to release our prisoners from prison.
We do not have to wait for the call of a union or a party to go on strike.
It is enough for the millions filling the squares to decide on a general strike, to spread this idea in workplaces and to set a date. It is enough to fill the streets that we already fill in the evenings by coming out of our workplaces and schools and stopping life for a full day. If it’s not enough, one more day, if it’s not enough, one more day… One thing is certain, the general strike is the Palace’s nightmare and it will have to back down in the face of it.
Life is in our hands!
Neither waiting for a call from a rostrum nor an election is enough to repel these attacks, which take place by pressing all the buttons at the same time. The Palace Regime did not come with elections and will not go with elections. Only we can take ownership of our own lives.
Workers, pensioners, women, students, peoples have the power to build the life they want for themselves. Persistence and continuity are necessary to win.
Kaldıraç Movement,
28 March 2025
