Successful environmental day of struggle in Turkey

Numerous ecological organizations took the issue of climate justice to the streets in Turkey as part of the global COP26 movement and formed a COP26 coalition. In addition to a Turkey delegation of various militant environmental organizations to Glasgow, there were diverse actions in Turkey as part of the global environmental day of struggle on November 6. A total of 15 actions took place, which stood out especially in the cities of Izmir and Mugla. In Mugla, there were actions in several quarters, while the HDK Ecology Commission set up information tents in Izmir for 2 days. Of particular importance was that world monopolies, such as Total, which bear the main responsibility for the climate crisis, were targeted by the movement. Overall, the actions were not as mass and colorful as in Europe, but under conditions of fascist repression that intent to create a climate of fear and powerlessness, the actions in de Turkey were an important success. After the immense forest fires and floods in the summer, this time the issue of "climate" was a direct agenda of the ecological movement, which opposed the bourgeois policy of environmental destruction. The campaign "Kazma Birak" (Stop Digging) organizes concrete actions against the climate crisis and creates a basis for different militant mass organizations, left, socialist and ecological organizations to fight together. Nevertheless, the relationship of many left organizations to the current climate crisis is still insufficient. The Fridays for Future movement in Turkey organized an action independently of the COP26 coalition in Istanbul, distancing itself from the militant environmental movement. This expressed an important political split in the climate movement. Also, militant trade unions, such as the metalworkers' union BirleFik Metal-, which has an important relation to the climate crisis due to its sector, did not show any attitude towards the climate crisis. The main weakness of the environmental organizations was that they did not mobilize all their organized forces. Besides that, there were other important conclusions of the environmental struggle day, namely that an anti-capitalist climate policy needs to be addressed even more. People who become new activists need to be actively be involved in working groups and different structures. Under conditions of the fascist AKP regime, the topic of climate justice is an important field of struggle on which the entire anti-fascist movement can draw strength. The theoretical work and press work in the run-up to the COP26 actions, which has been carried out on the basis of various publications and interviews, has been successful. At the moment there is a discussion within the COP26 coalition on how to continue the struggle. A permanent platform for climate justice is been discussed.