02.02.1995

Gold to our movement

Kemal Osman is a Turkish textile worker who has recently joined the Communist Party in Hackney, an area with a high percentage of migrant workers and exiled revolutionaries from Turkey. He tells the Weekly Worker why he has joined the Party

SOME PEOPLE from my community may say, ‘Why have you joined a British organisation?’ But I don’t think I have joined a ‘British’ party. Communism is not about workers in Britain or workers in Turkey - it is about the workers of the world uniting together to fight.

I am living in Britain and I am a communist. Therefore, I must be in an organisation that is fighting for the revolution in this part of the world. It does not matter where I came from originally.

I think it is wrong to suggest that, if you are living on some sort of permanent basis in this country, you should join a Turkish group that is organising for the revolution back in Turkey. We should fight the capitalist government of the country where we live, not one thousands of miles away.

It is not an easy decision on a personal level. Sometimes I feel guilty emotionally, particularly when friends of mine join Turkish organisations working in this country such as Dev Sol (Revolutionary Left), TDKP (Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey) or TKP (Communist Party of Turkey).

Being a revolutionary is certainly a process that engages all your personality, including your emotions. But primarily, a communist is a person ruled by the head, not by the heart. For too many fine revolutionaries in the Turkish working class community in Britain, revolution has become a matter of a passive nostalgia, a sentiment for the struggle thousands of miles away.

If I joined an organisation fighting for the revolution in Turkey, on a practical level what would I be doing? What would be the content of my political work? The danger facing revolutionaries in this country who do not join the Party here is that their day-to-day work becomes more and more like social work - dealing with workers’ DSS problems, housing and translation. Whether they want to or not, they are sucked into British society - but not as revolutionaries, unfortunately.

With the Party in Britain I am able to play a full role as a communist.

Of course, the reverse is true also. If a British revolutionary lives in Turkey, then they should join an organisation in that country fighting to overthrow the state there.

Meanwhile, the workers in this country live and fight. They march against the poll tax and battle with the police. The miners fight for their jobs. The Irish people have fought the British army in northern Ireland. Revolutionaries from Turkey could have contributed many things to these and all the other struggles of the class here. They have very valuable experience and histories which could be gold to the movement in this country. Instead, they have watched, waited and planned for the revolution in another country. Worse than that, they have tried to keep the whole working class community with their eyes on Turkey, instead of making them a distinct, but integral part of the working class in this country.

For example, Kurdistan is a very important question for revolutionaries from Turkey. But what about Ireland? Here is a national liberation struggle, in this state, against this bourgeoisie. What are we saying and doing about this?

I hope I am the first of many comrades - both from Turkey and other parts of the world who now live in Britain - who will take this step.

It does not mean denying or being ashamed of the history of the movement in Turkey - far from it. It means getting our ‘affiliations’ right. First, I feel I am a communist. Only then do I feel I am a Turk. I must admit, however, I’m afraid I never feel ‘British’!