National Liberation Front Of Kurdistan (ERNK) May Day Statement

"Long Live The Struggle For Socialism"

     Today, under the heavy pressure of the capitalist system,
human rights have been devalued. The politics of globalisation
and the idea of the "New World Order" means that those who live
under colonialism and many others are kept in a state of
repression. It is very clear that the imperialists want to find
new colonies to dominate in order to strengthen themselves. It is
obvious that capitalists have turned people away from fighting
for their own needs. So the people are made so poor that they
need to beg for bread and bow down before their masters simply to
survive. Unionised workers who demand their rights are
intimidated. Humanity is being strangled and human values lost.
     Capitalism alienates people from their work and creates a
degenerate society. Once hope, love and brotherhood were the main
human values, but now these values have lost their importance.
War and colonialism have taken their place. Wars rage all over
the world. Chemical and biological weapons are used to intimidate
humanity. Imperialist techniques are paralysing human life. By
implication capitalism means selfishness and the destruction of
real human values in order to reinforce its own purpose and set
itself up as the only alternative. At the same time imperialism
attempts to colonise the whole of nature and this is another
threat to humanity. Chemical pollution, over-consumption of green
land putting the environment into the service of capital shows us
that colonialism and capitalism are a serious threat to the
world.
     Despite all this, the problems of workers from America,
Europe, Turkey and Egypt are basically the same. Even the biggest
struggle by workers and oppressed people is not enough in the
face of capitalism. This lack of success has an adverse effect on
humanity. The stuggle is endless and based upon honourable
principles. The worker puts these principles into practice
because he lives the struggle in his mind and heart.

To The Workers Of The World

     The factories and the goods which we manufacture, combined
with the struggle of capital against community, means that we
create the world crisis with our own hands. Just to maintain
capitalist profit levels humanity (living constant capital) has
to be destroyed. The profit motive does not bring an end to war,
on the contrary, it makes wars inevitable. There is starvation
amongst the African peoples, but instead of sending them the
necessary supplies, bombs and other weapons made by working
people are sold to their oppressors. In a country with many
resources like Kurdistan, just for the sake of extra profit,
thousands of people are killed by weaponry which is sold to our
oppressors by capitalists. In our country, which does not have
any possibility for a social life, people are forced to go abroad
as cheap labour. To stop this is the duty of everybody who says:
"I am a human being" and at one with all working people.

To Our People And To All Humanity

     In spite of what the imperialists say about Socialism being
dead, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) which is internationalist
and peaceful and bases itself on the principles of freedom and
brotherhood, is keeping the struggle for Socialism alive. After
the collapse of the former USSR, capitalist propaganda tried to
turn people against Socialism to destroy their confidence in
Socialist ideas and to convince people that the capitalist was
the best way. The negative environment created by capitalism
hindered their own self-justification and caused people to seek
an alternative way. According to our party, Socialism is not just
a theory, but a reality, which when practised in its proper form,
is the only way to liberate humanity. Our party has proved this
by its own good practice. The PKK continues its leadership of the
struggle on the basis of opposition to environmental pollution
right through to opposing the breakdown of human relationships,
and through this to the liberation of nations and the liberation
of individuals. According to our party the real liberation is the
liberation of humanity. The PKK creates a new person, a new
Socialist person and it is on this basis and believe that we
fight. To create this new person and to struggle for this cause
is the most valuable contribution we can make to international
labour and a Socialist culture. To create a new person is the
greatest contribution which the PKK has made to Socialism in its
struggle against the selfishness, egotism of imperialist culture.
Our leader Abdullah Ocalan, our guerrilla fighters and the
Kurdish people, struggle for all peoples that they might live in
peace, unity and brotherhood and on this basis create a new
Socialist society which is our final aim.
     Because of this the Kurdish people fight the most extensive
guerrilla war in the world. The reason for Turkish and
imperialist attacks on Kurdistan is the Socialism which is being
realised in the PKK. This is why the Turkish state attaches great
importance to psychological warfare with no thought for human
values. As a last hope the Turkish state has embraced the idea of
the total liquidation of the PKK, but the dominant spirit in the
PKK is that of the Kemals, the Hakis and the Mazlums (founders of
the PKK).
     The greatest help which the working class can give our
people's army which spearheads the international struggle for
Socialism, is to prevent their own governments from selling arms
to Turkey. The international solidarity of workers, especially
the Turkish and Kurdish workers, is the greatest contribution to
the success of our struggle. Today a stand against defeatism,
separatism and racism will be the greatest victory for Socialism.
     May Day is the symbol of Socialist struggle which continues
to this today. However, the imperialists did try to weaken this
idea, but were defeated in the face of Socialist power, and they
will be defeated yet again. The Socialism which grows under the
leadership of the PKK is based on the ideology which will free
the human race. Only with this ideology can we commemorate and
honour May Day. It is in this spirit that we greet May Day, for
all workers and progressive people of the world.

Long Live May Day!
Long Live the PKK, ARGK, ERNK!
Long Live Socialism!
Long Live Our Leader Apo!

ERNK European Representation
May Day 1998