On May 13th Turkey faced a big massacre of miners. The mine which is in the miners’ city of Soma, about 75 miles north-east of the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, exploded. Hundreds of workers died. When this article was being written authorities were saying 232 dead and hundreds waiting to be rescued. In fact the number of dead miners may reach around 600, because there are hundreds still underground!
It’s evident who is responsible for this massacre: The ruling Islamist party AKP has privatized the mines according to its neoliberal policies. The bosses who think of nothing but profits have spent no money on security measures. Despite the 58 missing measures that were found in 10 different inspections, the government didn’t close the mine. The AKP refused to pass the resolution that was presented in the parliament consisting of investigating the deficiency in Soma. The Minister of Energy Taner Yıldız himself opened the mine with the bosses and in his speech praised the precautions that were taken in the mine.
After the massacre happened in Soma, as AKP is scared of the workers anger, there is a siege situation in the area. Thousands of police and soldiers were deployed there.
Turkish capitalists and AKP has put the whole country in an unsecured working environment. The main axis of our struggle is to bring together the masses of the June uprising along with the low-wage, “flexible” and precarious workers against subcontracting workers.
RED Movement proclaims that the ruling party and the bosses are responsible for the massacre. We will do everything for them to be imprisoned. As soon as the disaster occurred, we called for the General Strike and Boycott in Schools to protest the Soma mine massacre and to make sure that those responsible to be sent to prison. Boycott and protests started in many universities. The union bureaucrats are trying their best to prevent general strike. But, no one can stop the poor people. In many cities protests have already started! Workers know who are responsible and are going out into the streets.
We will make them pay for our dead miner brothers!
General Strike and Boycott in Schools!
Government officials and bosses in jail!
Barricade! Strike! Revolution!
