Solidarity messages to the Tekel workers

We publish here some of the solidarity letters we have received and passed on to the Tekel workers in Turkey. The courageous struggle has now gone on for 46 days and put huge pressure on the Turkish government. The letters from workers and trade unionists from all over the world are a great source of inspiration in order not to give in but fight until the victory. Please keep on sending them!

Dear brothers of "Tekel",

I have been informed by the Greek Marxist paper "Marxistiki Foni" and by the IMT about your heroic strugle.
As member of the Greek Parliament and member of the leadership of the Greek Left I want to express my solidarity to your strugle. This struggle is a source of inspiration for the Greek workers' movement and the Greek Left.
- Long live the just struggle of the workers in Tekel!

PANAGIOTIS LAFAZANIS
Member of the Greek Parliament
Member of the Political Secretariat of "SYNASPISMOS" party.

Dear Comrades the Tekel workers of Turkey,

This is a letter of greetings from fellow workers in Portland, Oregon! We are with you all the way in your struggle against the forces of Turkish capitalism. For the sake of some measley profits the government is willing to downsize and privatize your livelihoods. We here in America ardently follow your heroic struggle for a better life. Your cause is our cause, and we will prevail. Forward, to victory brave fighters.

In profound solidarity,
Brad Forrest
Shamus Cooke
Crystal Geyer
Mark Vorpahl
(USA)

I offer my full solidarity to the Tekel workers in Turkey. Their struggle is our struggle.

Comradely,
Graeme Anfinson
BCTGM Local 22 (AFL-CIO)
Workers International League
Minneapolis, Minnesota
USA

Here in the city of Philadelphia in the United States we are inspired by your struggle! The workers united arm and arm will never be defeated! Keep up the good fight, you are sure to win!

Onward to Victory!

Kevin Nance, of the Philadelphia International Marxist Tendency!

Dear Brothers & Sisters

As workers our fate is bound up together in common cause across the planet. The struggle unites us across the borders drawn by those who seek to divide us. Your struggle is an inspiration to the trade union movement in Britain as we fight job cuts, privatisation and attacks on our terms and conditions.

Stand firm. United you will win !

In solidarity

Matt Wells
PCS union Efra Group Assistant Secretary (pc)
Britain

Dear Brothers and sisters,

We would like to extend our solidarity to you strike, the workers and the families involved. Workers have no alternative but to fight against injustice. Victory to your cause!

Comradely,
Rob Sewell, chairman, London Central, National Union of Journalists
Steve Jones, Treasurer, London Central.
Britain

To the Tekel Workers,

We, trade union and youth activists from Switzerland, send you all our comradely solidarity to your struggle, despite brutal state repression. Your determination is inspiration for us and for workers militants all over the world. We hear it is cold in the streets of Ankara, but our hearts are warm and the coldness will soon disappear from the streets and find its way into the bosses offices. They are already shivering in their armchairs!
We will continue spreading the spark of your fight in the Swiss workers movement.
Long Live Workers Struggle!
Long Live International Solidarity!
Justice will be done!

The Swiss Section of the IMT - The Spark

Jonas Gerber - Trade Union "Unia" regional committee, Winterthur
Daniel Flückiger - Trade Union "Unia" regional committee, Winterthur
Moritz Fischer - Trade Union "Unia" Youth Board, Zürich/Schaffhausen
Achim Hahn - Socialist Youth President, Winterthur
Hannes Brühlmann - Socialist Youth Board, Winterthur
Magnus Meister - Trade Union "Unia" regional committee, Geneva, co-president Socialist Youth, Geneva
Clara Curchod Löi - Socialist Youth Board, Geneva

Dear Comrades,

we heard about your brave fight against the closure of the Tekel plant. We want to let you know that you are not alone – everywhere in the world the workers are forced to defend their social achievements, their rights and their jobs. Here in Austria, in Turkey, everywhere. In the name of the Socialist Youth of Vorarlberg (Austria) we want to send you our warmest greetings of solidarity and express you our biggest support – your fight is our fight!

Lukas Riepler,
Chairman of the Socialist Youth of Vorarlberg (Austria)

As an Iranian communist worker who lives in Norway, I want to show my solidarity with Tekel workers. Hold on and fight agaist capitalism.
J.M.

Dear Comrades,

In your heroic struggle for justice you are suffering many difficulties, and so in such a context, I think it necessary for all socialists, Marxists, and communists of any colour and variety to offer to you our gratitude and solidarity. Your struggle is a universal one, and so is historic for the whole of the working class. Every victory of the working class is a defeat of the bourgeois – and a step to world socialism! In your fight for your rights, and your very basic demands to the capitalists that occupy every bourgeois state and corporation, there are the seeds of a fairier society and an example to all workers and youth of the world. The struggle you are carrying out is a struggle for all the proletarians, all of the many poor of Turkey and the world. In this sense your particular class struggle, this small battlefield in the context of the whole of the worldwide class war is of world historic importance, just as every action of the militant working class is. With this sense of significance and duty, anything may be accomplished, and so the working class the world over must grant their unconditional support and class solidarity to you and your struggle, which is also theirs. As the great Marxist Che Guevara once said: ‘Hasta la victoria siempre!’, ‘Until victory always!’

In admiring solidarity and with revolutionary greetings,

Owen Walsh.

I have read about your struggle and it is truly a source of inspiration. Please know that the information about your fight will be spread in the workers movement - in Sweden and across the world. Your struggle against "flexibility" is part of a global attack of the bourgoise governments and the employers against the rights and conditions of the working class. What they don´t understand is that we will never give up without a fight, but keep struggling until final victory.

A loss for one is a loss for all, but a victory for one is also a victory for all of us!
Strength and unity in this harsh moment!

Erik Andersson, member of the Left Students Union at Södertörn College
Mohammed Mahmoud, member of the Left Youth Sweden

My brothers and comrades in this hour of trial and courage we are with you. The students of Pakistan

Asad Rehman

From Morocco

Please keep on sending messages of solidarity and support to editor@marxist.com. We will pass on these messages to the Tekel workers.