July 26, 2006 KESK, the Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions kicked off its series of actions across Turkey against the war in Palestine and Lebanon. One of the protests, which involve leaving a black wreath in front of the Israeli consulates, was held in Kocaeli, a large, industrial city in western Turkey. KESK, one of […]
July 26, 2006
KESK, the Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions kicked off its series of actions across Turkey against the war in Palestine and Lebanon. One of the protests, which involve leaving a black wreath in front of the Israeli consulates, was held in Kocaeli, a large, industrial city in western Turkey. KESK, one of the larger and most progressive labor confederations, held a press release in front of the local governing buildings.
Prior to the press release, the president of the local branch of BES, the municipality workers union, Akın Şişman spoke to the crowd and said the parties responsible for the barbaric attacks in the region, namely the US and Israel, should be stopped immediately. He called for Turkey to cut all its relationships with Israel and not to take part in the atrocities.
THE UN WATCHES WHILE ATTACKS CONTINUE
Hüseyin Gülseven, the spokesperson for KESK and the local branch president of SES, the health care workers union, said Israel had escalated its attacks to a barbaric level in front of the world while it trampled any and all human values. He added, “The United Nations and all other centers of power are only watching the events. Hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to emigrate. Israel is bombing the hospitals, public buildings, tourism centers and crowded residential units and massacring the young, the old, children, everybody. The occupation and holocaust staged by Israel is spreading across the Middle East.”
TURKEY SHOULD RESIGN FROM COLLABORATION
Gülseven also added that the mass democratic organizations, labor and trade organizations and political parties in Turkey have shown their support for the people of Palestine and Lebanon by raising their voices. He said the reason behind the lack of action in the world stemmed from the plans the US and other powerful forces in the world had drawn for themselves in the Middle East.
The branch president of the health care workers said, “The JDP (the Justice Development Party) government which had furthered the Islamic rhetoric and had done politics by pronunciation of Islamic issues has done nothing in the face of the recent developments in the Middle East. The JDP government is a collaborator in the occupation of Lebanon and Palestine by signing strategic vision agreements with the US. ”
After warning the JDP government as a part of the democratic forces and anti-war activists, he added, “Instead of giving false speeches, you should end all agreements with Israel and all strategic vision agreements with the US. Stop being the middleman of the US’s Greater Middle East Plans.”
The entire unions in the KESK Branch Platform Organization as well as Genel-İş, another progressive public workers union, the Peoples Houses Organization, the Socialist Platform of the Oppressed, HOC organization, The Student Collectives Association and the Party of Labor gave full support to the statement and the rally.
Kocaeli/Turkey
