ANKARA - Tens of thousands of people filled the Tandoğan Square of Ankara, celebrating May 1 with the slogan "Resistance will win". The crowd, giving the message "We will win together", then marched to Kızılay Square.

Tens of thousands participated in the May 1 Workers' and Labourers' Day celebration held in the Tandoğan Square of Ankara with the slogans "Together We Will Change". Workers and citizens who came to  Tandoğan early, went in front of the AKM to enter the cortege.

THE ENTIRE CITY IN THE CELEBRATION AREA

The left, socialist parties, trade unions, Ankara Bar Association, legal organizations, university students, journalist unions, Ankara Municipality Employees Association, Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Center, United Metal Is, Democratic Alevis Association, Workers' Party of Turkey (TIP), Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Republican People's Party (CHP), Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), People's Houses, Socialist Re-Establishment Party (SYKP), Labor Party (EMEP), Kaldıraç, Revolutionary Party, Alinteri, United Forces of Struggle (BMG), Mimoza Women's Association, Women's Defense Network, Beşiktaş Çarşı Group, Civilians Union, Ankara Dersim People's Association, The Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) and many labor and professional organisations participated in the rally led by the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (DISK), Confederation of Public Workers Unions (KESK), Turkish Medical Association (TTB), Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB).

EMPHASIS ON JOINT STRUGGLE

While the mass marching in cortege often shouted slogans such as "This is just the beginning, continue the struggle", "Long live May 1", "We do not give up on the Istanbul Convention", "Equality, freedom, solidarity, peace", "Security for everyone”, “Fighting together against the price hikes”, “Child, not an apprentice”, “Stop child labour”, “The most beautiful poem is peace”, “No to sexist language”, “Thanks to you, we live by chance” banners, flags of many unions were carried.

The slogans of “Bijî Serok Apo" (Long live Abdullah Öcalan) and “Colonial TR will be held accountable” were also raised in the corteges.

CHILDREN PARTICIPATED IN THE CELEBRATIONS

The workers came to the celebrations with their children. Children's carrying of May Day placards in their hands created colorful images. A baby who came to the area with a pacifier carried the "Diaper, baby food, freedom" placard.

'WE HAVE TO COME SIDE SIDE'

Enerji-Sen Member Mehmet Ali İçcere, who entered the area, was beaten by the police. İçindere said," Everyone is brothers and sisters in the same struggle, We are organizing to support each other as workers in this country. We are in this struggle because we want to live humanely and work safely. We are defying the order of the bosses that has taken us prisoner. We unite in our own unions. We have to come side by side with strict discipline. Let's march to establish a new order. We are the ones tha produce, we will be the ones in charge.”

HDP MASS AT THE FIELD

HDP Co-Chair Mithat Sancar, HDP MPs Filiz Kerestecioğlu, Zeynel Özen and Central Executive Board (MYK) members took part in the HDP cortege. HDP entered the arena  with the banner "We will change the poverty order for labour, freedom and justice". Slogans against the war were frequently shouted in the HDP cortege.

RESISTANCE MESSAGE FROM GEZI

Messages from human rights defenders arrested in the Gezi Trial were read. The message from Silivri and Bakırköy Prison said, “Happy worker's day of the working class. We will be in the streets where we will celebrate the 1st of May on the 1st of May. We will resist tyranny, we will win together. Our fight for equality and democracy will win”.  KESK Branches Platform Term Spokesperson Hüseyin Köklü said, "The one-man regime is attacking our freedoms and rights so that the order in which they enjoy their lives will not end. Erdogan is trying to destroy those who object and say that you can't do it. The pro-government judges rained down sentences on those who showed the best resistance, the most sincere solidarity, and the most unconditional solidarity in Gezi Park. Let them see that the workers stand up to take care of their own lives, so that they understand that this order will not continue like this.""

After Köklü's speech, the song "Mausa Harbor" was sung for those who lost their lives in the Gezi resistance. Then, the song of “Ciao bella” was sung together. The songs ended with the slogans "Shoulder to shoulder against fascism".

DİSK Ankara Representative Tayfun Görgün read the joint statement. Görgün said, “Here we meet again. This order is an order in which job security is destroyed by the state, and everyone can be left unemployed. This order is a dark order in which labour, nature, cities, agriculture, all fundamental rights from education to health are surrendered to the desire for unlimited profit and rent. It is a system that does not learn from Soma, Ermenek, and Şirvan, leaves the health and safety of workers to the profit ambition of the capital. 2 thousand 500 workers die while working every year. While the people are struggling with unemployment, poverty, pandemic, unpaid bills, all the resources of our country are spent for the bosses. The wheels of this order turn to create cheap labour to exploit for capital, nature to be plundered, cities to be plundered."

REQUESTS

Görgün listed the demands of the workers as follows:

“The hikes in electricity, water, natural gas and internet bills should be withdrawn and the bills should be exempted from all taxes.

* All wages, especially the minimum wage, should be increased, the lowest pension should be increased to at least the minimum wage level, and the pension rights of people who can not retire due to age should be given.

* The tax burden on wages should be reduced and a fair tax system should be established.

* All forms of precarious employment should be ended, and everyone should be provided with secure employment.

* All obstacles to freedom of association, which is our constitutional right, must be removed.

*The privatization of public assets should be abandoned, and all public services, especially education, transportation and health, should be provided free of charge by the state.

* The dormitory and accommodation problems of the youth should be solved by expropriating the religious orders dormitories that were grown with public resources.

'WE WILL WIN'

Emphasizing that, in addition to their freedom and publicism, they will oppose all kinds of violence against women and defend the Istanbul Convention, Görgün said, “We always insist that a handful of capitalists exploit and take advantage of the war. We will say no together. We will never allow imperialism, which turns peoples against each other. If we stregnthen our solidarity, and we unite and we will win.”

The rally ended with the slogan by thousands of people "No force can eat an organized people".