Radical media, politics and culture.

Istanbul Anarchists Participate in Anti-War Rally

Anarchist Platform writes:

"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 “Özgür 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. 7000- 8000) 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."