The solidarity and struggle of the working class is greater than the destruction of the earthquake: How the SEP worked during the earthquake

Two earthquakes of 7.7 and 7.6 points, which started on February 6, had painful consequences in Turkey. The greedy bosses and the AKP government that protects them caused the death of tens of thousands. Building contractors who stole materials, cut columns, sold living tombs to the public instead of houses. With the zoning amnesty in 2018, AKP opened up space to the hundreds of thousands of building contractors. According to official figures, 40 thousand people lost their lives in this earthquake. Contrary to the "strong state" image of the ruling class, we have witnessed the inadequacy of state institutions that have been emptied for years. In the most critical 48 hours, very limited aid arrived in the earthquake area. The people, on the other hand, spontaneously became vigilant and started a solidarity mobilization. But it is clear that spontaneous solidarity is not sufficient because it is uncoordinated. That's why an organized and coordinated solidarity campaign is important. From the first moment of the earthquake, the SEP started an organized and coordinated solidarity mobilization.

On the first day of the earthquake, the SEP revolutionaries set out to the area from Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Urfa.

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Behind the "front", SEP members began to raise funds. In Mamak, which is a workers' quarter in Ankara, in Kızılay, in Urfa, and in Izmir, Istanbul, and the labor unions. The comrades collected the items on the list of urgent needs in the earthquake area with the papers and posters they prepared and sent them to the region. On the second day of the earthquake, SEP leader Güneş Gümüş set off from Ankara to Antep. First, SEP Volunteers, who set up tents, distributed food, clothing and other needs in Antep Nurdağı, moved to Adıyaman region, where the destruction was greater, 2 days later.

SEP members, who showed all kinds of help to the working people in regions where food did not reach, worked with great devotion.

One of the biggest needs in the region was the shortage of toilets. Turkey's largest construction factory, such as Kızılay, stopped production and did not meet the need for mobile toilets. SEP members built toilets with their own hands.

SEP Health Workers’s met the needs of the earthquake victims in the region for medicine and dressing.

Revolutionaries play with children in the region, draw pictures, and do their best to heal their wounds. SEP members who show movies to children win the love of children.

The SEP also continued to expand revolutionary international solidarity. Revolutionary-Marxist organizations in Iran, Azerbaijan, Germany, Argentina and Greece issued statements of solidarity with the working people of Turkey and the SEP.

Emphasizing that it is necessary to extend solidarity with the working people over a long period of time, not just one or two weeks, SEP aims to be in the region and to maintain solidarity with the working people, who will be left to their fate after a while. SEP, which says it's time for both solidarity and accountability, will fight against the contractor lobby and AKP.