At the same time, his
"urban development" policies represent the enrichment of a very tight
circle of government-connected corporations and big-shots whose power
(including over the media) is widely resented among other capitalists.
"Urban renewal" has taken place at the expense of poor
neighbourhoods. Economic growth has brought an intensification of class
polarization. In areas where the AKP once handed out bread it is now moving
schools and other facilities to the suburbs and forcing people to move out, not
by open force, but by persuading them to sign contracts for new housing in
distant areas before their old homes are torn down. Often these contracts put
people more than ever at the mercy of feudalistic obligations to powerful
individuals. This is not so popular. It is also significant that the PKK has
helped keep cities in the Kurdish east (like Diyarbakir) less turbulent than
other areas so far.
Discontent with
Erdogan's programmatic disregard for forces whose support or at least assent
has been so crucial to his success is matched by outright alarm at his
confrontational political style, as if Turkey's fate rested on him alone. His
arrogance isn't without basis, since his ruling coalition might not be able to
survive without him, but it might not be able to survive with him, either.
In addition to what is
going on in the streets, there are other signs of cracks in the ruling class.
Army units have failed to help the police in several incidents. The head of the
judge's association issued a warning to Erdogan, implying that his political
style is un-Islamic. The fact that five-star hotels have turned their lobbies
into emergency medical facilities for demonstrators and even provided staff (in
contrast to Starbucks, which closed its doors), is an interesting turn of
events, but it may not be unrelated to such splits and a general feeling that a
further slide toward an Islamic regime would be bad for business, not the least
tourism.
Some forces are trying
to sew things together again, with or without Erdogan. The move by Turkish
Deputy PM Bulent Arinc to apologize to protesters may be a question of
"good cop, bad cop," The Turkish stock exchange, which had dropped
sharply, popped up again after this gesture. Trying to peel off some of the
movement's segments, Arinc called the protests against the uprooting of the
trees "just and legitimate" and condemned the "excessive
force" by the police, but at the same time said that the movement had been
taken over by "terrorist elements" and refused to call off the police,
ban the use of tear gas or issue an amnesty for those arrested. He said that
now the demonstrators were just looters ("capulcu"). This promoted a
worldwide wave of all kinds of people posting videos of themselves on the Net,
introducing themselves in serious or funny ways and declaring, "I am a
capulcu."
Actually, there has been
remarkably little looting and relatively little destruction, aside from tearing
up pavements and urban fixtures to make barricades and gather projectiles to
use against the police. On the contrary, the youth have been assiduously
cleaning up the mess left by the fighting to demonstrate their political
seriousness and perhaps recycle materials for future use.
The atmosphere is
festive in Taksim and other places as people celebrate their victories, freely
act out their life styles and project their visions of a future happy society.
But it would be extremely dangerous to ignore the viciousness and strength of
the state and the possibility that Erdogan will pursue "double or nothing"
tactics to show that he and he alone can lead it.
Erdogan has said that
because he received 51 percent of the votes in the last elections no one has
the right to challenge him. He also said that demonstrations were occurring
only in the biggest cities, and that the rest of the country supported him. He
warned that he might not be able to keep his half of society at home much
longer. Threatening not just repression but something more like a civil war, he
declared, "Taksim Square cannot be an area where extremists are running
wild. If this is about staging a protest, about a social movement, I would...
gather 200,000 where they gather 20, and where they gather 100,000, I would
gather a million party supporters. Let's not go down that road."
Two young men have been
reported killed so far, by unknown persons, in Istanbul and Ankara, and some
observers see this as the work of AKP militias. Civilians with knives have been
reported to be joining police in beating and torturing demonstrators trapped in
alleyways. In the south-western city of Antalya, the AKP youth organization
attacked demonstrators.
No matter what approach
the state takes, the situation is very dangerous for the ruling class, because
any retreat by the regime may embolden the people in the streets, while a
refusal to make any concessions may further enrage them. At the same time, the
extremely contradictory nature of the movement against Erdogan is both an
advantage and a source of danger for those aspiring to radical social change,
because it embraces very different ideas about what society should look like –
for instance, whether the Turkey they want is one where minorities and women
are dominated, and the whole country is dominated by imperialism.
The fact that cracks
have appeared among Turkey's ruling classes and reactionaries is potentially a
great advantage for those seeking radical change. But to the degree that people
in this movement do not achieve some clarity about the need to oppose both
Kemalism and Islamism, there is a danger that one or other of the various
reactionary forces and not the people may benefit from this moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment