The Perspective of Kaldıraç Movement October 2025
Kaldıraç Magazine Issue 291
The state has always, in every period of history, been the state of the sovereign, of capital, of the rich, of the moneybags. It was so yesterday and it is so today.
Today, unlike in the past, they have stripped away all the veils in between. “Zero It out, my son” is merely a more advanced stage. The state can no longer hide that it is the state of capital, of holdings. The state can no longer hide the fact that it is under the control of US imperialism. In exchange for ordering 300 airplanes for Trump, they are talking about posing with him.
The state is always the state of the sovereign, of capital. It was so yesterday and it is so today.
Thus, it is no surprise that the most ordinary strike or workers’ resistance is encountered by the state. Now, even the most ordinary demand for rights is encountered by the state; with its truncheons, water cannons, prisons, judiciary, tear gas, torture, press, the entire state apparatus stands against workers, women and youth. On behalf of capital, it takes a clear and open stance and no longer hides it. They write off the taxes of the capital, of the big holdings, but when it comes to the wage earners, they look for ways to tax them even more. Taxes collected from workers and laborers are transferred to the rich and war barons.
The Palace Regime, the TR state (the state of the republic of Turkey) can no longer hide itself.
Whether it is a commemoration of a massacre from the past or the demands of the people in the most ordinary problems, the state, the Palace Regime, does not hide its own face: They take a clear stance as if to say “I committed the March 16 massacre, also the Sivas massacre, also the Maraş massacre, also the 1st of May 1977, I am responsible for the murders of women, also Suruç is my creation, I did Roboski, also the Ankara Station massacre.”
But if you ask the trade unionists of our country, the liberal leftists of our country, the well-educated people of our country who walk around pretending to be “good people”, the so-called ‘intellectuals’ who have gone through NATO training, there are also “good ones within the state” and you need to reach out to them and “beg for understanding”.
This is an old disease.
Those who do not know that the state is the state of the sovereign go looking for a “good pasha” and “beg for mercy” from him.
It is peasant culture.
The landlord acts unfairly and the peasant goes to town and secretly tells his problem to a pasha , a “statesman”. It is imagined that if a “good pasha” is identified, things will be solved. However, something even worse emerges.
There is no struggle here:
There is begging.
There is no struggle and resistance for one’s rights:
There is begging.
Now, we are in Turkey and it is the 21st century.
And now, the trade unions, trade unionists, are shamelessly begging for mercy from the “state rulers”. They are pleading to them, “Sir, we are not terrorists, believe in us, we cannot make a living, give us our rights.” If they are not beaten there, if they are not stripped naked and released on the streets, it is because they say yes to everything. And if they can still shamelessly say that they are doing great things for the workers while “begging” to the Palace Regime, it is because the workers have not stripped them naked and left them in the streets like in Nepal.
They tell fairy tales to workers, to us, to students, to women. They always tell the same lies. They say, “We have conveyed our problem, just a little patience, the state is so great, this is a good person, he will understand, they will give us what we want.”
But they are all lies.
When you look into the face of the working class, you present yourself as a trade unionist, as a labor leader. But when you turn around, you are the state’s servant, capital’s hound, humanity’s disgrace, mere axe handles.
None of them voice the rights and demands of workers.
They are all modern beggars.
They request something from the state in the name of workers, as a service to the state. Then they turn around and say, “That’s just how things are.”
Strike? God forbid. The whole country is shrouded in clouds of war; production must continue and weapons and ammunition must be supplied to the fronts. The trade-unionist who utters this is supposedly on the side of the workers.
Of course not.
The state is clearly and explicitly the instrument of the rule of capital. It is the organization of capital, of capitalists, of big business. It serves as a tool to keep the working class under control.
As such, one cannot get anything from the state simply by begging.
Resistance is necessary.
One who resists receives the rights.
One who does not resist for the rights ceases to be a human being.
Trade unionists who beg for us, for the workers, are the ugliest faces of being a human.
A worker, a woman, a youth resisting and fighting for their rights is one of the most beautiful forms of being a human. Those who resist learn, those who resist flourish.
Many liberals, liberal leftists, our well-educated team confused by “politeness” say to us “we are the dissidents”.
Fine, but you are dissidents within the regime, you are dissidents within the system. You are the ones who simply haven’t received a big enough share of the spoils, the ones who say to the state “I could serve you better; you are the incompetent ones.”
Fine, but we already know that if you are not totally opposed to the state itself, the system itself, the Palace Regime itself, you are the justifiers of the system.
CHP is also a dissident. But in what way? It is a dissident for the system, on condition that it stays within the Palace Regime. However, we are in opposition to overthrow the Palace Regime, to overthrow the power of capital, to overthrow the TR state, to overthrow the capitalist system. In this respect, ours cannot be explained as “being a dissident”. Let’s define it in a positive manner, we are revolutionary socialists who are in favor of resistance, who want to establish socialism, who fight for the liberation of the working class. Unlike you, we oppose the system, the order.
If you are a dissident so that the Palace Regime can be fixed this way and that way, or so that they can give you a bigger share, you have nothing to do with us.
Workers, laborers, women, youth, in short, everyone who resists are the real owners of this country. They are not guests here. We workers are the producers. We are not begging. We are on our path to claim our rights and march to power.
Apparently, being a dissident doesn’t solve the problem.
We have passed that point.
For what, against what, against whom do you oppose?
Are you unionists? For whom are you unionizing, are you unionizing to line your pockets, to pander to the bosses, the titans, to please the workers and line more pockets?
Most of them are like that. And they “beg” on behalf of the workers. While pocketing what they gain, they also treat the workers as beggars. Yet, it is the workers who produce, who labor. They are demanding their own rights. What this means is clear: resistance. One cannot be an opponent against the system without resistance, without struggle, without organization, without confronting the system.
Trade unionists mistake workers for beggars and themselves for petitioners.
However, the workers will prove that they are not beggars by eliminating you first.
The working class is at a turning point.
The working class must, above all, purge its ranks of these axe-handles within, these agents, these extensions of the union mafia. They have already set their sails to seek shelter in the state. A gust of wind will carry them even faster to their state, to the arms of the capital they serve.
Only then can the working class rise up, freed from these parasites.
When the working class rises, our liberal leftists; who now walk around as polite, refined people will either head for the embrace of the state or join the ranks of the workers and learn not to be ashamed of being workers themselves.
This is a turning point.
If you are a dissident within the system, you will either become a direct servant of the Palace or you will abandon the attitude of being a dissident within the system and turn into a dissident against the system. This would be your first serious step in siding with the working class and the revolution.
Looking for a “good pasha” or a “good statesman” by cozying up to the state will not get you anywhere. By now, it is easy to understand what the Palace Regime really is. As long as you do not close your eyes to the facts.
Whoever wishes to close their eyes can do so.
Whoever wishes can oppose the Palace Regime and ask for a little share for themselves at the same time. Whoever wishes can be satisfied enough by criticizing this or that practice.
But the path of the working class is clear. The struggle for a world without war and exploitation, that is. The struggle for revolution and socialism, that is.
This struggle is also the struggle to be human today. It is no longer possible to remain human without taking a clear and explicit stand against the rule of capital, against capitalism, against the exploitation of human by human.
Living by resisting, not begging.
Struggling against the system, not within it.
This is the distinguishing point.
