Students in Turkey and around the world are returning to campuses under conditions unprecedented since the dark days of the 1930s and World War II.

Capitalism is dragging humanity into barbarism and destruction. With NATO’s support, Israel has committed genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza; the imperialist powers are embarking on a global war of redivision in which the use of nuclear weapons is threatened; public resources that should be spent on areas such as education, health, and safe housing are being diverted to militarism; social cuts are being imposed to cover massive budget deficits; the working class and broad sections of society are being driven into poverty.

The ruling classes are increasingly turning to authoritarian regimes and fascism to enforce unpopular policies. The Donald Trump administration in the United States is the most extreme example of this trend, which reflects the deepening crisis of the global capitalist system.

However, the contradictions that lead capitalism to these disasters also form the basis for social revolution. Workers and youth everywhere are looking for a way out of war, genocide, the high cost of living, unemployment and anti-democratic attacks.

In Britain, the US, Australia, Germany and many other countries, masses of workers and youth are defying state repression and opposing the genocide in Gaza. In Italy, the refusal of port workers to ship weapons to Israel was followed by a general strike of 2 million workers. Those in France are taking to the streets to demand a stop to massive social cuts. In Kenya, Morocco, Madagascar, Indonesia and Nepal, “Gen Z” protests are shaking governments.

In Turkey, too, broad masses of students and workers are turning to a struggle against growing social inequality and increasing attacks on democratic rights, including the right to vote and be elected, as seen in protests against the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul Mayor and Republican People’s Party (CHP) presidential candidate, in March.

This movement, which is developing in Turkey and around the world, shows that the broad masses of workers and youth are ready to fight against capitalism and its destructive consequences. What is lacking is a revolutionary perspective and organization that will help these struggles escape the dead ends in which they are currently kept contained.

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), the student and youth movement of the Socialist Equality Party—which completed its official establishment last August—argues that the only way out is to turn to the international working class with a revolutionary programme and mobilise it in the fight for socialism. Together with our comrades in the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), which continues the tradition of classical Marxism and the October Revolution of 1917 against social democratic and Stalinist betrayals, we are fighting for the building of an anti-war socialist movement among students and youth.

Genocide and imperialist war

Over the past two years, workers and students around the world have taken up the struggle against the genocide in Gaza and the complicity of their own governments. Peaceful protests and actions have been met with widespread police violence and “antisemitism” smears in all so-called “democratic” countries.

To stop the imperialist war and the genocide that is part of it, it is essential to understand their objective foundations. Imperialism, the last stage of capitalism, is characterised by monopoly, the domination of finance capital, economic parasitism and political reaction in all areas. As the imperialist powers constantly struggle to forcibly divide and redivide the world among themselves, they are dusting off the most reactionary ideologies—genocidal fantasies, fascism, religious fanaticism and the most virulent forms of racism—in their arsenal.

The Gaza genocide is part of an expanding global war targeting Iran, Russia, and ultimately China. On another front of this global war, NATO is waging a proxy war against Russia through Ukraine. The struggle over strategic resources has already led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of displacements. The European powers are now escalating the war against Russia, risking a nuclear catastrophe. Under the banner of fighting a demonised Russia, they have increased their military spending and declared war on social rights.

As President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent visit to the White House and his political closeness to Trump has confirmed, the Turkish ruling class is deeply committed to imperialism and NATO. Turkey, which has the second largest army in NATO, has been involved in and supported the bloody wars waged by US and NATO imperialism in the Middle East, Central Asia, the Balkans and North Africa for decades.

Despite all its rhetorical statements, the Erdoğan government is complicit in the Zionist regime’s genocide of the Palestinians by maintaining trade with Israel “through Palestine”, allowing oil to flow from Azerbaijan to Israel, and allowing the use of US bases in Turkey for the benefit of Israel. In Turkey, countless anti-genocide protesters have been subjected to police violence and detained for exposing this cooperation.

The CHP’s rhetorical criticisms are similar, and it also stands behind the military-strategic alliance with the US and NATO imperialism—the forces behind the genocide. The CHP’s support, joining the Erdoğan government, for Trump’s reactionary plan to place Gaza under colonial rule also confirms this.

The main lesson of the two-year long genocide is the failure of calling on imperialist governments and their collaborators to stop the genocide. Students and youth cannot stop the destruction of the Palestinians by appealing to imperialist states and their own capitalist governments. Their ceasefire and peace plans are merely a pause to suppress social opposition and prepare for greater attacks.

Students and youth must respond to war and genocide with a struggle against their underlying cause, the capitalist system. This struggle can, by its nature, only be waged under the leadership of the working class.

For this reason, the IYSSE calls on students and youth to stand with the working class in the fight for international socialism against genocide, dictatorship, and world war.

The Fight Against Militarism and Authoritarianism

What is causing the explosion of militarism is the deepening crisis of the capitalist economy. Resources are being channeled to the armed forces and the corporate-financial oligarchy through attacks on the wages and social rights of the working class and broad sections of society. Capitalist governments are simultaneously engaging in wars of conquest and plunder while also waging war on all the social gains that the working class has won through decades of struggle.

While the wages of workers and retirees are eroding in the face of the soaring cost of living, resources are being wasted on high interest rates that enrich the financial oligarchy and on military spending. As the tax burden on laborers constantly grows, wealth continues to be transferred to big corporations through tax cuts and incentives.

However, the current level of exploitation and austerity is deemed insufficient, and the attack on the working class’s working and social conditions is escalating. It is this ruling class offensive that lies behind the social disaster facing young people.

Based on 2024 figures, it is estimated that Turkey—whose military spending accounts for 2 percent of GDP (800 billion TL)—will need to allocate an additional 1.5 trillion TL from its budget to increase military spending to 5 percent in line with its NATO commitment. The war policies and reactionary ambitions of the capitalist oligarchy abroad are inextricably linked to the war being waged against the working class at home.

One of the most important problems facing university students is housing. The number able to access state dormitories is low. According to last year’s data, only about 880,000 of the 7 million students can stay in a state dormitory. This forces students to pay high rents for private dormitories or houses under conditions of high inflation and exorbitant rents. Moreover, the conditions of the dormitories or houses where students reside are inadequate and uncomfortable.

Nutrition is another urgent problem facing students. A significant proportion lack access to healthy food. Furthermore, many students are forced to work in precarious jobs for low wages to continue their education and start experiencing unemployment anxiety even before graduation.

This system, which increasingly disregards the social needs of the overwhelming majority of society and serves the interests of a small minority, is incompatible with democracy. The rising authoritarian tendency from the US to Turkey and the rest of the world is a product of the financial oligarchy’s attempt to preserve its power and wealth at all costs. This is because no fundamental social problem can be solved without a frontal assault on them and without the transfer of power to the working class.

Our future is being shaped by war, genocide, unemployment, collapsing social services and living standards, ecological catastrophe, and dictatorship. However, youth are not helpless in the face of these worldwide problems and policies of destruction. There is growing opposition to capitalism among millions of people, especially among the younger generations who have not seen even the slightest prosperity under this system.

However, young people must recognise that social rights such as education, healthcare, housing, nutrition, and cultural rights cannot be met within the current economic and social order. The same capitalist order is confronting humanity all over the world with problems such as war, genocide, the rise of fascism, massive levels of social inequality, and climate change. Therefore, the issues concerning youth today cannot be separated from the more comprehensive global issues facing the working class.

In Turkey, both the government and the so-called “opposition” parties are in complete agreement on this basic issue: loyalty to imperialism and hostility to the interests of the working class. Due to their class nature, these parties are incapable of solving fundamental social and political problems.

Workers, youth, and students must reject the reactionary politics of all established parties that are defenders of the capitalist system. Despite their tactical differences, all capitalist parties are the continuers of these policies. In the struggle against capitalism, workers and youth must break not only from these parties but also from the pseudo-left parties that constantly subordinate social opposition to them.

Join the IYSSE!

All fundamental problems faced by workers and youth are international problems. As globalization connects billions of people across national borders, continents, and time zones within a world system of production and communication, the power of the international working class has increased tremendously. Only this social force has the ability to end genocide, war, dictatorship, and social misery, and to build a secure future in which people can live with dignity.

We call on all university/high school students and young workers who see the revolutionary mobilization of the international working class for socialism against imperialist war and the capitalist system as the only way out to participate in the building of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE). Contact us to establish an IYSSE branch at your school and to join our study groups!