Berat Albayrak, the Minister of Treasury and Finance of the AKP Government, presented the ‘New Economic Program’ covering the years 2020-2022.
The program is a clear declaration that the AKP will try to get rid of the economic devastation of 2018 with a secret or open IMF program. In other words, the AKP announces that it will come up with a relentless attack plan against the people with its 2020-2022 Economic Program.
Last week, the IMF delegation said, in a statement issued after the completion of observation in Turkey, that wage increases should be indexed to anticipated inflation rates rather than to the actual inflation rates. Right after the IMF’s statement, the AKP’s Minister of Treasury and Finance announced that the prices and wages determined by the state would be determined according to the inflation targets of the new program, not according to actual inflation rates. This means that in the coming period, all labor wages starting from the public sector will be further suppressed. In other words, the IMF ordered and the Turkish government decided to implement it.
One of the biggest expectations of the capitalist class and the IMF from the Program was a roadmap that envisaged the transfer of the debts of the capitalists to the public. Minister Albayrak stated that 2020 would be “a new year” in terms of banks’ “asset quality” and said, “we will do what is needed”. This means nothing but laying the burden of the bad debts of the capitalist class on the working people in the name of an economic program.
In short, all the signs indicate that the AKP attempts to present a comprehensive plan to attack the working class, risking the remaining rights of severance pay and job security and causing basic living expenses to increase.
The Communist Party of Turkey will be facing the upcoming attack with the organized power of the working class. Our people are not alone and helpless.
Communist Party of Turkey
Central Committee
30.09.2019