from Ozgur Hayat

From: "Ozgur Hayat" (ozgurhayat@yahoo.com) 2 Dec 2002
Subject: Istanbul: Anarchists in anti-war rally

Istanbul: Anarchists in anti-war rally

Anarchist Platform participated massively in the rally against the war on Iraq on D1 in Istanbul with all its enthusiasm.
Anarchist Platform has been an effective group in the rally with its banners “Ozgur Hayat” (name of the bi-weekly newspaper
published by the Platform) and “Capitalism Kills In War and Peace”, breads symbolizing poverty, “For Bread, Justice and Freedom: Anarchy”
placards, and black, black-red, black-green flags. There were over 200 anarchists in the beginning of the rally, and afterwards the number
of the people in the Anarchist Platform group rose to 300 (which is an important number for the anarchist movement here). During the rally the slogans of the anarchists were “Capitalism Kills In War and Peace”, “No Justice No Peace!”, “No Bread No Peace!”,
“For Bread, For Justice, For Freedom, Action! Revolution! Anarchy!”, “Wallet or Conscience: Don’t Be a Soldier! Don’t Obey!”, “Capitalism’s War: Gun, Bomb, and Tear! Capitalism’s Peace: Blood, Violence, and Tear”, and “Earth Commune Freedom!”. The slogans accompanied by drums were yelled by the other individuals and groups in the rally. The autonoms and the organizations forming Anarchist Platform carried their own banners. Moreover, individuals from different social backgrounds besides the students and intellectuals (anarchism before jammed into these groups of people here) participated in the Anarchist Platform. This is an important situation for the anarchist struggle here.

In the rally in which the general participation was not intense (app. 7 or 8 thousand) the enthusiastic and effective participation
of Anarchist Platform has surprised many groups as anarchism is perceived as “marginal” in Turkey. Many leftist groups claiming
to be “massive” were smaller than Anarchist Platform.

Anarchist Platform continues to struggle against the global capitalism’s war on humanity, not only with this rally, but also
with the anarchist ant-war campaigns in its local struggle areas.

update from Ozgur Hayat

From: "Ozgur Hayat" (ozgurhayat@yahoo.com) Wed, 1 Jan 2003
Subject: Istanbul: Anarchists in action against war

Istanbul: Anarchists in action against war

On the 31st of December, in Marmara University campus, Goztepe - Kadikoy, Anarchist, Islamic, Socialist and Kurdish groups protested together US war on Iraq. App. 500 people participated in the demonstration chanting slogans “No War in Iraq”, “Don’t Kill, Don’t Let Kill, Don’t Corrupt Your Conscience”, “Murderer Sharon, Murderer Bush”, “Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechenia, Halepçe, Iraq, No War”, “Resisting People Will Gain Victory”. The demonstrators rallied around the university with banners in Arabic, Kurdish, English and Turkish against war, they came to the main entrance of the university and read the release against war. During the demonstration, Ozgur Hayat photographer was detained and police captured the photos.

Anarchists’ participation in the demo was crowded and enthusiastic. Especially many slogans enchanted by all groups were the ones anarchists use in their own demos.

It must be noted that participation of Islamic youth groups was very important as a ‘muslim democrat’ party (Justice and Development Party) is in power and will decide to be with US in war on Iraq or not. Besides this is the most effective demo organized in this campus for many years. And anarchists’ impact on the organization is very important for the development of the anarchist movement in Turkey.

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On the 24th of December, Anarchist Youth Federation made a demonstration against war and capitalism in Rumeli Hisarustu – Istanbul. (Rumeli Hisarustu is a suburb, but at the same time the most important university, Bosphorus University, which educates the executive officers of the system is there.) Around 60 anarchists rallied in the main road with a banner “NO WAR”, chanting slogans “No War!”, “Capitalism Kills in War and Peace”, “Don’t Kill, Don’t Let Kill, Don’t Corrupt Your Conscience”, “No Bread, No Peace! No Justice, No Peace!”. With flames and breads in their hands, anarchists blocked the main road and distributed leaflets. Anarchists entered Bosphorus University, disabling the security which tried to attack the demonstrators. They rallied through the campus, chanting “Earth, Commune, Freedom!” A university proffessor tried to crash the demonstrators by his car, but anarchists blocked his way. With flames in their hands, they came to the square of the campus chanting “If we fight we can prevent the war”. In the main part of the campus, anarchists burned the flags of multi-national corporations (BP and Shell), shouting “capitalism kills in war by guns and bombs, in peace by famine and poverty”. They ended the demonstration by burning Uncle Sam puppet and hanging another one on a tree. When anarchists left the campus, the flags were still burning on the ground and there was a hung Uncle Sam on the tree.

update from Ozgur Hayat

Istanbul: Anarchists in anti-war action

On the 26th of January, Anarchist Platform participated massively in the action against the war on Iraq in Beyazit Square-Istanbul with all its enthusiasm.(Beyazit Square is significant in the history of revolutionary or other social movements so anarchists’ participation there is important for the history of anarchism here) With the banners “Capitalism Kills”–Özgür Hayat( name of the bi-weekly newspaper published by the Platform), “No War”, black,black-red, black-green flags and breads in their hands anarchists rallied to Beyazit Square yelling the slogans “Capitalism Kills in War and Peace”, “For Bread, For Justice, For Freedom, Action! Revolution! Anarchy!”, “Wallet or Conscience: Don’t Be a Soldier! Don’t Obey!”, “Capitalism’s War: Gun, Bomb, and Tear! Capitalism’s Peace: Blood, Violence, and Tear”, “Earth Commune Freedom!” “Don’t Kill, Don’t Let Kill, Don’t Corrupt Your Conscience”, “State, Domination, Hierarchy will be destroyed by Anarchy”, “Corporation, Domination, Hierarchy will be destroyed by Anarchy”, “Afghanistan, Palestine, Halepçe, Iraq, No War!, “Earth, Commune, Freedom”. In Beyazit Square a lot of people participated the action with anarchists, when the torchlights are fired, the slogans were yelled louder and louder all together.Anarchists once more emphasized that they are not only against war but they are also against the peace of capitalism which means hunger, poverty, death and tear

this picture is taken after the Beyazit demonstration on the ferry from Eminonu to Kadikoy on the 26th of January,2003.

Istanbul-Kadikoy: Anarchists in action against war

On the global action day against war, 15th of February, Anarchist Platform participated the demonstration against war in Istanbul, Kadikoy Square, and they rallied along the streets of Kadikoy after the general demo had ended.

There was intense police repression and threat in every corner of Kadikoy since early in the morning. Police was trying to prevent the demo, so they terrorized the area and arrested many protestors before the demo started. Despite the arrests and repression, about 5,000 demonstrators were in the square.

Anarchists, gathering in the narrow streets, appeared in the main street to the square with black, black-red, and black-green flags. Carrying placards in Turkish and Greek written “Capitalism Kills in War and in Peace”, demonstrators lighted the torches and yelled the slogans “Don’t Kill! Don’t Let Kill! Don’t Corrupt Your Conscience!”, “Either Conscience or Wallet! Don’t Be a Soldier! Don’t Obey!”, “Capitalism Kills in War and in Peace”. Anarchists were about 200 in the square.

Many demonstrators from other groups or individuals participated in chanting the anarchists’ slogans. Anarchists carried “Capitalism Kills in War and in Peace - Özgür Hayat [bi-weekly anarchist newspaper]” banner.

After the demo, anarchists didn’t finish their actions and began a rally in the streets of Kadikoy. The police and military helicopter followed the anarchists who chanted the slogans “For Bread! For Justice! For Freedom! Action! Revolution! Anarchy!” and “Earth, Commune, Freedom!”. Along the Kadikoy Bazaar there was intense support of the shopkeepers and people around the streets. Anarchist group which reached over 250 people walked to the Bahariye Street of Kadikoy. Anarchist Platform ended the action here, after chanting the slogans.

Although the general participation was not that high, there was enthusiasm in the square.

For photos: http://www.istanbul.indymedia.org/news/2003/02/195.php

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