Joint statement of labor unions from 8 countries on May Day

12 labor unions from 8 countries, including Turkey, have released a joint-statement to mark May Day in 2017.

Calling for a united effort in working for a world free of exploitation, wars, and refugees, unions from Greece, Serbia, Syria, Palestine, Austria, Cyprus, Italy, and Turkey said in their joint-statement: “We have united around our common interest for a life that is free of rich and poor…Governments of USA, EU countries, Russia, and our own countries are involved in the heated imperialist competition run for the sake of controlling markets of oil, natural gas, and energy transfer in line with the interests of monopolies…”

Highlighting the war in Syria as a result of the competition between the imperialist forces, the statement of the unions also noted that ‘this latest situation also demonstrates how capitalism, which only expands the wealth of a small number of groups, also creates social issues, wars, refugees, and destructive conditions for millions of workers and their families’.

Noting that ‘the bourgeois groups have been been presenting their interests, both in times of war and peace, as the interest of their nations’, the statement included a message of cross-border solidarity among the members of the working class in various countries of the world.

‘In the face of the weapons and flags of capitalists, we raise the flag of the working class, whose weapon is solidarity’, said the message.

Unions listed the purpose of their unity as the following: to stand united against their countries’ involvement in cross-border imperialist interventions and wars; presence of NATO in the Aegean and the Balkans; political and military alliances of imperialist powers; expoloitation of workers and public resources for the interests of cross-border wars; racism and chauvinism.

Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/dunya-sendikalarindan-1-mayis-mesaji-var-157604.html