Labor and Freedom Alliance of HDP holds its first meeting in İstanbul

Click to read the article in Turkish (1) (2)

With the elections nearing in Türkiye, the Labor and Freedom Alliance established by the People's Democratic Party (HDP) held its first meeting in Kartal, İstanbul on Sunday.

The alliance was founded, announcing a declaration in September 2022, and is made up of HDP, the Labor Party (EMEP), the Türkiye Worker's Party (TİP), the Social Freedom Party (TÖP), the Labor Movement Party (EHP), and the Socialist Councils Federation (SMF). 

Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned ex-chairperson of HDP sent the meeting a new song he has written, and the song was played in the meeting.

Demirtaş has also written the lyrics of the song called "We are laborers."

"Look at his square once,
Not one vote to you from here,
We are the people, we are the laborers," says the song.

TÖP spokesperson Juliana Gözen, EHP President Hakan Öztürk, HDP co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar, and SMF spokesperson Barış Kayaoğlu addressed the meeting.

Buldan said in her speech, "Our struggle is as determined as İstanbul. Our alliance is as beautiful as İstanbul, it is the garden of İstanbul. If we win the elections in İstanbul, it means that we win it in Türkiye."

"We know that İstanbul is Cizre, it is Botan. It is the Mediterranean. It is the Blacksea. Thus İstanbul is HDP. So once again, good luck to all of us with our alliance," added Buldan.

Also addressing the meeting, Gözen of TÖP said, "The government waged a war on the people in order to remain in power at any cost. So what do they say? They will be determining the date of the elections, and the parties to enter the elections all by themselves. They will be closing HDP which is the party of millions. These people have never surrendered to you, will they now?" 

Also present in the Kartal meeting were the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), the Revolutionary Party (Devrimci Party), the Socialist Party of Oppressed (ESP), the Socialist Solidarity Platform (SODAP), the Socialist Re-Construction Party (SYKP) and the Green Left Party that take part in HDP.

Community Houses (Halkevleri) and Kaldıraç magazine were two other socialist political groups that participated in the meeting behind their own banners.

Women's groups, initiatives, and organizations of the retired and students and LGBTİ+ people, and LC Waikiki and Bekaert workers, the workplaces of some recent labor disputes were present in the meeting.

The main slogans were "HDP is the people, the people is here," and "Bijî berxwedana zindana" (Long live the resistance in prisons-in Kurdish). Greetings were sent to those arrested in the Gezi case and those killed in the Gezi Park demonstrations were commemorated.

(TY/RT/PE)