A left-wing wave whose time has come

The year was 1988. President Kenan Evren was on a visit to the United Kingdom as Queen Elizabeth’s official guest. The Prime Minister, on the other hand, was Margaret Thatcher. It was an important visit for Evren, who had come to power in a military coup. His sights were set on truly cementing his legitimacy on the international platform.
A brief report on this visit in the 2 July 1988 issue of the Cumhuriyet newspaper: ‘It is believed that at least 60 more signatures will be appended to the motion drafted by main opposition Labour Party MP Jeremy Corbyn and signed at the first stage by 32 people not least the first black woman MP Diane Abbott. In the motion, reading, “We do not endorse General Evren’s visit to Britain; we are of the view that the visit will create a false opinion that there is democracy in Turkey. We recall that he staged the 1980 military intervention, caused thousands of trade unionists to be imprisoned and waged a war against the Kurdish people,” there is also the demand for all political detainees to be released and for the Turkish people to be guaranteed trade union and political freedom.’
That young man who was one of the representatives of the party’s left wing is today the leader of the British Labour Party and achieved unexpected success in the elections the day before yesterday. As to the Diane Abbot mentioned in the report, she was one of 36 MPs who had the courage to nominate Corbyn for party leadership in the face of the party’s right wing. Just now, she is home secretary in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.
In this election result, the British Labour Party, which Tony Blair turned into a centre-right party, has attained legitimacy for its turn towards the left from the people, too. The ‘centre ground’ within his party, who have probably pressurised Corbyn more than the Conservative Party, and opinion leaders in the media have seen that attempt to make the charge ‘he cannot achieve success in the election’ stick on the new leader has come to naught.
The Labour Party put forward a socialist manifesto. Included in the manifesto was wide-ranging nationalisation, the principle of public ownership in energy, and large advancements in social rights. Corbyn envisages a plan for leaving the European Union that will look out for working people and not capital. If a government cannot be formed, election victory will go to the Labour Party with its left-wing manifesto. Theresa May, on the other hand, who has lost seats in parliament and whose ability to form a government hangs by a thread is a hunter turned prey and probably one whose political career is over.
The rebellion against technocratic neoliberal economic policies that are stuck in the 90’s is not the monopoly of the new populist movements. The barrier to the said movements undoing the advances in social values that have been won over the past thirty years is rebellion from the left.
What Bernie Sandersin the USA, Corbyn in the UK, Podemos in Spain and, despite everything, SYRIZA in Greece have shown is that there is a way out from being stuck between the populist right and the neoliberal ‘centre’.
This way out is, at the same time, a way out for Turkey. There is a strong probability that Corbyn, who stood on the right side of history in 1988, is on the right side of history today. Has the time not come here, too, for a left-wing wave with confidence in itself and the people?