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PROTESTS INCREASE AMID ECONOMIC CRISIS IN TURKEY For further information and the latest developments in Turkey please contact the Party of Labour (EMEP). E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Hundreds of thousands of workers, public employees and small tradesmen have been staging protests against the ever deteriorating living conditions caused by the recent economic crisis. The latest protests took place last Saturday, 14 April 01, with the attendance of 500 thousand people across Turkey. On 11 April one hundred thousand people demonstrated in Ankara, the capital city, against the government and the IMF which brought the country into this situation. Police attacked the demonstrators when they wanted to march on to Parliament, arresting and injuring dozens of people. Protesters call the government to resign and chant the slogan "IMF get out, this country is ours!" The crisis is rooted in the economic reform programme that was crafted by the IMF and designed to privatise all public enterprises and implement even tighter austerity measures. When the government was stuck with the repayment of the domestic and foreign debts, it abandoned a controlled exchange-rate policy on Feb. 22, and allowed the lira to float, leading to its devaluation by 44 per cent against the dollar. Waged people’s real income dropped by almost 50 per cent. Fuel prices were increased five times since the crisis began. The price of imported medicines has skyrocketed, and some suppliers are refusing to ship drugs to Turkey because of uncertain exchange rates, leading to severe shortages. Hundreds of thousands of workers have been made redundant, bringing the unemployment rate to over 20 per cent. The three-party coalition government has appointed a "super minister" to tackle with the crisis. He is trying to get the urgently needed $12 billion credit from the IMF to give a breathing space to the economy. His programme, therefore, involves a faster process of privatisation and even greater burdens on the working people. In the face of these developments, the Labour Platform, which was set up by many trade unions, democratic mass organisations, profession organisations and political parties on the side of the labour movement, has set up its own alternative Labour Programme which is designed to shift the burden of the crisis from the working people onto the big capital, and which promotes an independent Turkey whose economic development is based on its own dynamics rather than foreign capital and IMF imposed policies. Alongside the participants of the Labour Platform, many patriotic and pro-labour academicians contributed to this Programme which came out of an economic symposium in late March. Following is:
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