It has been long since first debates among Marxists over the question of imperialism took place at the beginning of twentieth century. But traces of different tendencies and some misconceptions that emerged in these debates can be felt even today despite the fact that so many events and important transformations took place in the meantime. For instance, a great majority of colonial countries that set the background for the debates on colonialism and national independence gained their national independence and established their own nation-states. However, no ideological and political clarity has been reached within Marxist ranks over these developments which occurred especially after the Second World War. The subject has been distorted in the sense that the kind of “dependence” based on unequal relationships of the imperialist system has been identified almost with the dependence of colonies to colonialist countries.

The leaders of Marxism emphasized that the emancipation of opressed and poor people is not a matter of an intelligence work but a matter of a historical struggle. For communists, the central issue is to change the world in a revolutionary way, rather than limiting themselves to interpretation of the current circumstances. The history of the world has already proved that such change can only be achieved by the revolutionary organisation and actions of the working class. In fact, successing a self-change by defeating one’s own weaknesses depends on the same conditions for all who want to join in revolutionary struggle. Without joining the organised life and action, nobody will be capable of overwhelming the petty-bourgeois inside!

The origins of the widely-used concept, “spirit of the age” go back to the German word “zeitgeist” which appeared in Hegel’s philosophical writings. The concept simply refers to a state of mind, feelings and mentality which characterize a particular period of time. Hegel took the period covering late 18th century and early 19th century as a new transition period and wrote that the distinctive characteristic of this era was essentially the “zeitgeist” initiated by the French Revolution of 1789. The Zeitgeist in those historical episodes pointed out by Hegel implies a transitional state of consciousness stretching from past to present. This state of consciousness is composed of a combination of existing social turmoil and future expectations.

Since the beginning he has become one of the symbols of the Gezi protests and news about his condition have always been of intense interest since he was hospitalized. News of his death has created a burst of anger causing numerous protests across the country. His funeral was a huge protest participated by hundreds of thousands of people. They expressed their anger at the AKP government and its police force. But the police did not hesitate to attack the funeral as well. Many people were wounded and arrested.

Turkey is shaken by a new political crisis. Ministers made resigned, sons of ministers imprisoned, state mechanism fragmented, disaccord between the government, judiciary and law enforcement, curses soaring from TV screens and public meetings, millions of dollars hidden in shoe boxes at homes, international money laundering traffic, Iranian connections, pro-government newspapers with stunning headlines saying “get off” to the US ambassador, etc. All this indicate a big political war in progress.

Now we have a big and dynamic mass that has been in a determined resistance action against state forces. Surely, there is the role played by socialist groups with various shades. But unless organised proletarian class movement gets in, this dynamic is faced with the danger of withering away or playing into the hands of nationalist powers like CHP which is the biggest anti-government political force around. In this context, advancing demands that directly concern the working class, involvement of trade-unions and workers in factories in an organised manner, organising strikes and other workplace actions etc. would be important steps forward. This kind of endeavour is also very important in terms of getting the broad masses that are still under AKP control involved in the process. One positive thing is the involvement of some religious people in Taksim actions, which is obviously not the case with the broad masses that are under AKP control. And the more Kemalists/nationalists are dominant the more it is difficult to accomplish this. Therefore it is very important to strengthen the proletarian class dynamic and not to let the toiling masses fall into the hands of Kemalists/nationalists.

The word colony in European languages means place for settling in another country in order to tie it to the metropolitan country. And Colonialism means seizing new lands, colonialist expansion. Under capitalism, colonization was realized particularly in geographical discoveries and conquest of overseas lands in the period of commercial capitalism (mercantilism) between 16th and 18th century. This expansion rose above seizure of rich raw material supplies of colonized countries and settling surplus population of metropolitan countries to these new lands.

Because of the sympathy and support for third-worldism, even bourgeois coquetries, whims in the guise of supporting “national” economy were applauded in the name of anti-imperialism. Medium or less developed capitalist countries of 1960s were categorised as oppressed nations under the label of “neo-colonies” or “semi-colonies”. Thus, the anti-capitalist mission of the struggle of the proletariat against capitalist system (i.e. genuine anti-imperialism) was abandoned based on the illusion that as if there was still a national question in these countries. The fact that imperialism is in fact an economic system that has its embodiment in every capitalist country’s internal functioning was obscured. A false anti-imperialism was created through hollow propagandism suggesting that there can be a “nationally independent” economic functioning even without leaving the system. Though the conscious creators of these kinds of political trends were the Stalinists, some other tendencies who called themselves Trotskyist also contributed to this confusion.

It is very important for the working class to support the oppressed Kurdish people to get the rightful demands of the strikers met, thus preventing any deaths as well, and help open a new page for a democratic-peaceful solution to the Kurdish question. The internationalist hand of the working class extended towards the Kurdish people will not only be an answer to the poisonous language of the rulers but also a great step for a genuine solution of this burning question that has claimed tens of thousands so far.