by Berkay Kartav, Socialist Party National Committee
“They were asking for our votes before the elections and now they are attacking us,” said one of the protesters outside Turnpike Lane station on Thursday 28 November, protesting against the police raid on the Kurdish Community Centre (KCC) the previous day.
The police arrested seven Kurdish activists on the day of the raid, and a few more people were arrested at the protests, leading to even more anger towards the police and the Labour government.
The police claim that those arrested have links with the Kurdish insurgent group PKK, which is a proscribed organisation in Britain, the EU and Turkey. PKK has been waging an armed struggle against the Turkish state since the early 1980s.
Photo: London SP
The attack on the KCC is seen by Kurdish people living in London as an attack on them and their democratic rights to organise. Hundreds of Kurdish people turned up to the protest on Thursday and marched from Turnpike Lane station to the KCC, which is still sealed by the police as part of the investigation. There was another march in central London on Sunday too, this time marching towards Downing Street.
Keir Starmer continuing to supply arms to Israel and now this attack on Kurds in London, who themselves fled from repression, is a further sign of whose side the Labour government is on — definitely not the working-class and the oppressed.
Kurds are the biggest nationality in the world without a state, living mainly in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. The governments in those countries brutally suppress Kurdish people, denying their democratic and national rights.
Most recently, Turkey has removed the democratically elected mayors of the pro-Kurdish DEM party from office, and appointed government trustees. The Turkish government has also bombed Kurdish-controlled areas in northeast Syria, killing civilians including children, following a terror attack on the Turkish Aerospace Industries in Ankara in October this year.
The arrests in Britain are among other recent arrests of Kurdish activists across Europe. Turkey, as a Nato member and an ally of British and US imperialism — albeit an unreliable one, is using its influence with the pro-capitalist governments in Europe to crack down on Kurdish opposition in these countries.
We call for an immediate end to attacks on the democratic rights of Kurdish people.
There can be no trust in US imperialism or other Western countries or institutions in the struggle for Kurdish liberation. These governments seek to defend their own national interests. They cynically use the plight of Kurdish people, while making back-door agreements with the Turkish government.
The continuation of attacks on Kurds and national oppression show the vital need to build mass democratically organised struggle and independent workers’ organisations, with a socialist programme. Such a socialist force has the potential to unite the working class of all backgrounds in a struggle against capitalism, and for genuine national liberation for all the oppressed nationalities in the region.