'The socialist struggle is being targeted through fascist attacks in universities'<Speaking about the fascist attacks at universities, the young people stated that the attacks stemmed from the fact that the socialist struggle at universities had become a target.Recently, fascist attacks at universities have been increasing. Most recently, at the Middle East Technical University (METU), a fascist attack occurred during an İlkay Akkaya concert at the Revolution Stadium, followed by the targeting of revolutionary students and the arrest of two students. The detained students were tortured, and they were targeted by fascists on social media. Some students also received death threats.
We spoke to Eda Koçak from the Commune and a student from METU (Middle East Technical University) about the attacks that have taken place at universities. We cannot reveal the name of the METU student, who stated that they are still receiving threats, for security reasons.
<'THEY USED THE FLAG FOR PROVOCATION AT METU'EF, who was present at METU during the attacks and witnessed the events, said the following regarding what happened: “The claim that the flag was attacked is absolutely false. On the contrary, the group that came to provoke wanted to use the flag to create a media image. For days, they had been trying to build propaganda from the areas. From the moment Ilkay Akkaya took the stage, a group, half of whom were not from METU, started booing incessantly under the large flag.”
As the seventh song approached, our friends, unable to tolerate the insults and booing any longer, intervened. When the intervention began, the group suddenly hid behind the Turkish flag, and continued to circulate the footage in this manner in the following days. It was entirely a tactic used by the ultranationalist groups on the opposing side to exploit the numerically superior ODTÜ (Middle East Technical University) students. They had tried to do the same thing last year when Nur Sürer came, but failed.
On the second day of the festival, they continued to behave in the same way, waving Göktürk flags and making the Grey Wolf sign, advancing towards our friends from UGT, laughing and insulting us, and physically assaulting our friends who argued with them. When the security forces tried to remove them from the area, they would leave for a while, then regroup with torches, acting as if they had won a battle.”
<'THEY DON'T WANT LEFTIST STUDENTS TO HAVE SPACE IN SCHOOLS.'EF stated that the attacks on METU (Middle East Technical University) are fundamentally aimed at escalating the climate of fear, and pointed out the following: “This was something we didn't see so often at METU, but because we stood by our friends at other universities, we were seeing and experiencing these fascist attacks. Of course, they aim to further escalate the climate of fear and right-wing sentiment, thereby weakening the student movement. They don't want universities to be spaces where leftist students can freely exist and organize.”
One of the things they find most difficult to accept is that METU, unlike other universities, can still function as a 'liberated zone,' and that traditions like the Revolutionary March still continue. Regardless of what happens, even if the demographics at the school change and the right wing rises as much as everywhere else, revolutionary practice and tradition don't lose control to a certain extent, and the atmosphere of a Revolutionary METU is preserved. This is what these ultranationalist groups find most unacceptable.
I think they are also uncomfortable with the positive connotations we unintentionally gained in the eyes of the nationalist segment during the March 19th process, such as 'the future of the country, its bright face.'
<'OUR FIRST PRIORITY IS TO MAKE THE SCHOOL SAFE FOR STUDENTS.'EF stated that students were holding meetings to evaluate the process in response to the attacks, adding, “As components of the school, we are holding meetings based on criticism and self-criticism to see how we can rebuild unity and solidarity. We are trying to manage the process in a way that minimizes the number of our friends who are profiled, detained, or harmed. Our first priority is to make the school safe again for leftist, female, and LGBTQ+ students. To continue protecting the revolutionary METU as it was left to us. This is our biggest priority. We will continue to fight against the fascist agenda together with the components that make METU what it is.”
<'SOCIALIST STRUGGLE IS BEING TARGETED IN SCHOOLS'Eda Koçak, noting that the forms and intensity of fascist attacks in universities have changed recently, drew attention to the following: “Fascist attacks occurred whenever socialist students were actively engaged in activities and activism in universities. However, in recent times, in universities such as DTCF, Hacettepe, Istanbul, Ege, and Dokuz Eylül, where fascists have been able to act in an organized manner, students have been attacked with cleavers, knives, and machetes during actions where they expressed their demands regarding campuses, raised their complaints about university administrations and appointed rectors, engaged in active political activities, or brought social issues to the agenda on campus.”
Just a week ago at METU (Middle East Technical University), we experienced a process that paralyzed the national agenda and, through widespread provocative efforts, targeted not only students but also the socialist struggle itself.
Both of our revolutionary comrades were arrested for repelling these fascist attacks. In fact, we can consider the period after March 19th as the time when fascist attacks intensified in universities. Apart from occasional hushed voices rising from the campuses, there was no significant student movement that had garnered considerable attention. However, during and after March 19th, we experienced a period where the organized struggle of the youth became visible, and independent student groups began to organize.
Many unorganized young people, and the youth of this era, came face-to-face with the state during this period, directly confronting law enforcement and state violence. While there were individual, perhaps nationalist-fascist, unorganized groups during the March 19th process, slogans and organizational forms belonging to the revolutionary and socialist struggle, unheard of for years, were also developed. Many student groups, from foundations to state universities, developed their self-organization and gained a reflex to act in close solidarity and unified struggle. These gains are positive contributions to the socialist struggle.
<'FASCIST ORGANIZATIONS EXIST'Following this, in response to the potential consolidation of scattered revolutionary-socialist groups on campuses, or the possibility of their consolidation, scattered fascist groups also began to organize themselves under the direction of certain party centers and fascist strongholds. We have been able to observe this in the last year. We are encountering new fascist formations, not only in universities, but also those that we see as primarily based on youth.
It cannot be a coincidence that the bizarre group called the "Independence Women's Movement," composed of a bunch of deranged individuals who organized the hysterical fascist provocation at METU, chose this name and style. While we are aware that socialist thought is not a focal point for the public, we also know that these fascist fanatics have no support among the people either.
Although we can't see anything concrete about the process, we are witnessing the reality of an opening, as announced by Bahçeli. The Victory Party, which appears to be opposed to the AKP-MHP government and this opening, but is in fact an AKP-MHP remnant, has become the planner of this new fascist formation. This is why, at a time when the socialist struggle and revolutionaries are accelerating their power accumulation and focusing on organization, they are rapidly taking steps to challenge the status quo in many areas of struggle, not limited to universities.
And it should be noted that there is no organization here that can provide solutions to women's problems, or a movement that is essentially concerned with women's issues. This fascist organization, knowing that it has no value in the eyes of the public, deliberately uses the name 'women's movement' in order to appear more legitimate and untouchable.
We can see this in the general fascist tendency in the country. This is also why Akın Gürlek, in order to whitewash his disgraced image, has assumed the role of solving suspicious femicides. We will see more clearly in the coming period how these fascist formations are spreading not only to the women's movement but also to ecology, trade union struggles, and labor struggles.”
<'THEY ARE CONSTRUCTING A NON-POLITICAL IDENTITY IN UNIVERSITIES'Eda Koçak, stating that the perpetrators of the attacks were fascist gangs, said: “These fascist gangs do not have a presence on university campuses that would even defend socialist students. Those who are students are marginal groups in schools; however, they use the areas and positions within the school bureaucracy that the state has opened up for them. Through their provocative propaganda and the gang members they bring into universities on certain days, they create perceptions of being 'oppositional' among student masses. They construct the university student identity as a non-political identity and act as a refuge for it.”
While a large number of students are disturbed by the existence and practices of these gangs, some are also influenced by this manipulative politics. However, the students' own organized power must be structured to provide the necessary response, both physically and ideologically, and to establish its hegemonic power. We are organizing this in the areas where we operate.”
<'THE STANCE OF YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS IS CLEAR'Eda Koçak, stating that youth organizations have a clear stance against gangs, concluded her remarks by saying: “As youth organizations, our stance and practical plans against these fascist gangs are clear. We are committed to both an ideological struggle and forceful intervention against these gangs in universities and in every field.”
Furthermore, as a call to youth organizations, we must create the tools to bring revolutionary politics, a different definition and history, to the masses influenced by the fascist gangs' seemingly 'opposition' and semi-'class' politics. We are setting before ourselves a form of total struggle.”
<https://anfenglishmobile.com/guncel/Universitelerde-fasist-saldirilar-araciligiyla-sosyalist-mucadele-hedef-aliniyor-228848