Social & Economic Crisis in Turkey w/ TKP Secretary General
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 23 August 2022
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A political, social, economy, and class struggle has been intensifying in Turkey. What are the demands of the people and the progressive forces like the TKP, the Communist Party of Turkey?
Brian is joined by Kemal Okuyan, who is the secretary general of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), for an inside look.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today we'll be talking about the political, social, economic, and class struggle in Turkey. |
| 0:08.0 | We need a new system. We need a new society. |
| 0:12.0 | We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, |
| 0:17.0 | but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Welcome to The Socialist Program. I'm your host, Brian Becker. If you enjoy or rely on this show or both, please show your support by subscribing to our show at patreon.com forward slash the socialist program. |
| 0:57.5 | Today we're talking with the Secretary General of the Turkish Communist Party or the Communist Party of Turkey, TKP. |
| 1:04.9 | Kamal Okion. Kamal, welcome back. |
| 1:08.1 | Hello, Brian. How are you? |
| 1:10.0 | Very, very good. I mean, Kamal, I had a great honor and pleasure in a trip to Turkey in September 2018 |
| 1:18.6 | with Eugene per year representing the Party for Socialism in Liberation. |
| 1:23.6 | Your party was very gracious. |
| 1:25.6 | You hosted us. |
| 1:26.6 | You took us around. We were able to see the very, very |
| 1:30.3 | impressive achievements of TKP and the beginnings of a new workers movement. And I'd like to be able to |
| 1:38.9 | just help our audience, and especially for those who may not know that much about Turkey, |
| 1:45.6 | to provide in the beginning the political orientation and the origin of your party, of the TKP, and also in the context |
| 1:54.9 | of what's going on inside of Turkey, and we're going to cover a lot. Of course, there's an upcoming |
| 1:59.6 | election in June |
| 2:01.5 | 2023. Again, all of this is playing out in the context of a global economic crisis and inside |
| 2:09.2 | of the Middle East or inside of your neighbors in the Middle East. Also, very, very grave |
| 2:15.3 | contradictions. So let's just get started with the TKP for those who are hearing |
| 2:20.1 | about it, say, for the first time. Yes, actually, we were a very small organization during the |
| 2:26.5 | late 70s. We came out of one of the political parties that we can call a pro-Soviet party |
... |
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