in via di traduzione
Yürüyüs magazine No.57, March 11, 2018)
MILLIONS GIVE AN ANSWER TO
FASCISM
GRUP YORUM IS IN OUR HOUSE
GRUP YORUM IS EVERYWHERE
WITH
THESE SONGS WE WILL ONCE AGAIN SHOW FASCISM THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE!
AS WE
HAVE ALWAYS SAID: GRUP YORUM IS THE PEOPLE AND CANNOT BE SILENCED!
A
music group that gives concerts to a million people...
Despite all the
pressures of fascism, the band that survived for 33 years...
A group, all of
whose members have been arrested...
A group whose Idil Cultural Centre has
been raided four times in a year
And finally, those not currently held have
had a price put on their heads by fascism and they have been put on a "terrorist
list"…
That is Grup Yorum.
And the reason Grup Yorum is exposed to such
attacks? The revolutionary ideas of Yorum are artistic. With this revolutionary
art directly reaching the public and being effective. This effect on the people
is what makes the enemies of the people scared of Grup Yorum.
Imperialism and
its collaborators despite their gigantic military forces are so weak in the face
of our folk songs. Look at them. They are so weak, they arrest the revolutionary
singers of Grup Yorum and put the rest on "wanted" lists.
There is a name
for this – it is desperation. Our folk songs that go from person to person are a
problem for the enemies of the people. It is clear that it is not their huge
technological opportunities and military forces but our songs that are
strong.
The power comes from being the Voice of Hope.
AKP reactionary
fascists put Grup Yorum on the “terrorist list” by order of imperialism, showing
how scared they are of songs of hope for the people. We will increase the fear
felt by the enemies of the people. Because we will continue to sing folk songs
of hope for the people everywhere.
For 33 years Grup Yorum has experienced
all kinds of attacks and prohibitions and knew how to overcome all of them.
Revolutionary musicians appearing on a “terrorism list” is a first in the
history of the world.
How has Grup Yorum created so much fear among the
enemies of the people?
Because every folk song of hope is a factor in
organising the people to resist.
This is why fascism cannot tolerate it and
tries to silence it. But it will not succeed...
Because Grup Yorum is not
alone, more precisely, Grup Yorum has shown once again who the friends and
enemies are.
Everybody knows that Grup Yorum for 33 years has been at the
side of the people, whatever their problems. A witness to every moment of the
fight. It has given a tongue, words and a tune to the people in the fight and
resistance.
And now, Grup Yorum’s turn has come. Now is the time to answer
fascism, and make Grup Yorum live in every part of the country.
It's a
fight. The people and enemies of the people are in inevitable collision with one
another. And victory will go to the people singing Grup Yorum songs.
We
say to the fascist enemies of the people who are servants of
imperialism
You cannot find a prison to incarcerate Grup Yorum or a
cemetery in which to bury it. Because Grup Yorum is the people. And for exactly
that reason, there is no prison or cemetery big enough to hold Grup Yorum. There
has not been and will never be. Your reactionary fascist minds cannot grasp it
but look, centuries before, people’s minstrels said the following to
tyranny:
“Our fingers cannot be counted and we cannot be consumed by breaking
them…”
You cannot consume Grup Yorum. You cannot burn folk songs that make
the people breathe everywhere. You tried this many times but you were defeated
every time. Because it is impossible to silence Grup Yorum. It is possible to
behead people’s artists but not to silence them. History bears witness to this.
The people have honour. They can be struck in a thousand places but not
surrender to you. Since everything for you is a matter of your interests, this
is not something you know. Everything in your world is for sale, including
yourselves, and you have hope of getting a result by putting prices on peoples’
heads. But you are wrong. Because for all your wealth, in the face of the
people’s honour you are not even worth a postage stamp. And Grup Yorum is expert
at being the voice of people’s honour.
You for your part are an enemy of
this voice. The rising voice of honour and hope just causes your lips to bleed.
You put into practice the order you got from your imperial masters that “this
voice must be silenced” and you issue a blacklist. But you are wrong. There is
no sword capable of silencing the voice of Grup Yorum. Fascism has made no
headway against art for the people. When fascism has clashed with revolutionary
artists, the revolutionary artists have always won. Nazim Hikmet, Yilmaz Guney,
Ruhi Su, Victor Jara and others have become immortal.
Wherever there is
resistance to injustice, there will be Grup Yorum songs sung
Even when
the lips of Grup Yorum have bled, their tongues have never ceased singing folk
songs of love for the people. Wherever there is tyranny, wherever there is
injustice, Grup Yorum, like Koroglu, is a cry of remembrance. It is the rising
voice of the people’s refusal to submit.
But all you know is establishing a
throne in your palace of exploitation. Whereas Grup Yorum has established a
throne in the people’s hearts. This is why every house of the poor in Anatolia
is a house, studio, theatre and stage for Grup Yorum. Revolutionary art
established among the people is not a stage you can dismantle.
Grup Yorum’s
songs are the voice of heroism under torture and a fist of honour that strikes
torture in the face. Grup Yorum’s songs are primarily about resistance. They
start off from the place where there is resistance. Hands may be manacled behind
you and there may be no blood left in your body but as long as Grup Yorum songs
are sung it means the flag of resistance has not fallen and will never fall.
They know this and so resort to low methods of attack.
Grup Yorum folk songs
are indispensible when pacing around in prison or when resisting. Voices that
begin to shout, “Long live resistance, long live victory” tear down tyranny’s
dark work. From morning to evening in prison, Group Yorum songs bring fire from
one prison cell to another. You understand this with both hearts and ears.
Grup Yorum songs maintained the morale of a girl working in a textile
factory. These songs became a guide to freedom for this teenage girl.
Callused hands build barricades when patience is at an end, and an angry
voice comes from these barricades. This is the voice of anger, with Grup Yorum
as a composer.
Grup Yorum compositions are the natural voice of halay dances
by strikers and the squares where there is a struggle going on. Wherever there
is a just struggle, Grup Yorum songs are sung and the halay is danced there. It
boosts solidarity against fascism, shoulder to shoulder with the people.
For
those who have lost their way, Grup Yorum is like the Polar Star, showing the
way ahead.
It is a guide to those who still have a desire to reach their
goal even if their lives have been turned upside down. Without even once falling
into an ambush, theirs is the path of struggle. They remove reasons to feel
depressed, make people run down their path, and run faster, And on roads full of
adventure…
Grup Yorum is henceforth a tradition
After 33 years
we can say that Grup Yorum is a tradition. They carry the torch of people’s
minstrel once carried by a master like Ruhi Su. Even if you imprison everyone,
you cannot put an end to the art of Grup Yorum.
LOOK HOW CROWDED THE GRUP
YORUM CHORUS IS. A DEADLINE DATE AND ALSO A FUTURE.
Look at how mothers who
are just again and again have given birth to a new future for Grup Yorum. So
that instead of lullabies, babies listen to Grup Yorum folk songs while growing
up, even before they have started to talk. This is why you are losing this
struggle. Because with the struggle and the future of art for the people, Grup
Yorum has won the future for itself.
Your imperialist bosses know that Grup
Yorum is the only artistic organisation that sings songs with anti-imperialist,
anti-American feeling and does not give up this practice. So this communicates
the truth to the people and sharpens class consciousness. Imperialism is an
enemy to Grup Yorum as it does not sing of obtaining freedom from America or
democracy from the European imperialists. And Grup Yorum regards it as glorious
to be considered an enemy by imperialists.
Grup Yorum and those like it
must proliferate, in order that the voice of independence as opposed to
imperialism, democracy as opposed to fascism and socialism as opposed to
capitalism should be louder, in Anatolia and everywhere in the world. And this
is why such “democracy” champions in Europe, especially Germany, have banned
Grup Yorum. But repression and bans are of no avail against Grup Yorum. Even if
you imprison its members new ones will arise and the voice of hope will continue
to be heard over an ever wider area.
The imperialists wanted revolutionary
thoughts to be erased all over the world and particularly since the 1990s, they
have wanted to make the left change its beliefs and cause a turncoat left to be
dominant. The Marxist-Leninists of Turkey in the world have gone over to the
attack against this pressure from the ideological point of view, and Grup Yorum
sings these songs of resistance and attack.
What they sing gives expression
to love of the people and the homeland. Grup Yorum sings folk songs of the fight
and of love, devotion, self-sacrifice and of the comrades in this fight.
That is, the voice of revolutionary beliefs they want to silence is
spreading more widely. This reality makes the imperialist lowlifes resort to
fascist collaborators in an effort to silence this voice. Because this voice
carries the historic message to the people: “Since it is human to make dreams
into reality/ we can establish a new world all over again”.
Yes, this is what
is needed by life and the peoples: to establish a new world all over again… That
is, to establish a socialist world all over again, free of imperialist
exploitation and fascist tyranny… Exactly for that reason, the fight for
tomorrow must be started from today. That is, the vanguard of this struggle are
the rank and file under the leadership of Dayi (Uncle). The voice they seek to
suppress is the voice of Mahir, Huseyin and Ulas. They will not suppress it.
Because the voice of the peoples says “”War Until Liberation”.
The
tradition of revolutionary art is the secret of invincibility
Who is Grup
Yorum and why do they want to destroy it? Why do they put Grup Yorum members in
prison?
Why do they offer rewards and put people on wanted lists?
The
answer to these questions is clear.
Grup Yorum is the voice of history. It
is the memory record of the people. “The Sultan has the directives, the
mountains are ours” – this is the saying. The Kenans and Leylas go to the
mountains to oppose the directives, wrapped in the folk songs of hope that
contain the peoples’ pain. Perhaps there is no bullet in the gun barrel but
these folk songs show the eagerness for battle of falcons, whatver their weapons
are.
Grup Yorum is a guide to the future. The people’s artists in question
are aware of their historical responsibility. What is the aim, what direction is
the march going in… How will each step be taken… All these are part of Grup
Yorum’s traditions, describing their knowledge of life like a book.
Grup
Yorum sings folk songs of hope. Hope for the peoples is revolution and
socialism. “War Until Liberation” expressed the will and takes socialism away
from being an abstract goal. Grup Yorum sings folk songs that express
revolutionary will.
Grup Yorum sings folk songs of honour – honour that
opposes your lack of honour, that is, capitalist injustice and fascist vileness.
Resisting with honour is to be right. And Grup Yorum are expert in summoning all
to dance the halay that expresses the essence of resistance.
As is seen,
Grup Yorum has a mission. Grup Yorum is the representative of people’s art,
revolutionary art. It is different in that it is organised. Grup Yorum is the
organised state of the “Big Family” of the people. This being so, no fascist
attacks and bans can stop Grup Yorum. Soloists can be jailed, new soloists come
on stage. They live inside great collectivism. So much so that even the unborn
are organised in Grup Yorum within the people while still in the womb. This is
the immortal and unbeatable secret of artistic tradition that is revolutionary
and on the side of the people.
Where Grup Yorum is different is that in the
area of art it is a vanguard, a leader, an organiser. Above all, Grup Yorum has
created a revolutionary alternative in the artistic sphere. This alternative is
essentially characterised by being organised and revolutionary. Being organised
means organising among the people for victory, out of love for the people and
homeland. Grup Yorum does this with great enthusiasm.
To be organised means
making revolutionary thoughts take on a material form. Individualism is the
hollowness of bourgeois thoughts given a material form. The bourgeoisie use
individualism in an attempt to make artists who originate from the people
surrender or become ineffective. Because unorganised artists cannot be a force
opposing the enemies of the people. Those who remain outside the solidarity and
organisation of the people cannot escape eventual surrender to the system. That
is, art has to take a position against fascism. The way to do this is through
organisation. It is Grup Yorum that does this.
Revolutionary Art Is A
Front Against Fascism
From yesterday to today, Grup Yorum, in the
struggle for people’s liberation is organised in the artistic front against
imperialism and fascism. Today the enemies of the people show their fear of Grup
Yorum’s organisation when they throw all members in jail, offer rewards for
those who are not in their grasp and put them on “wanted” lists. Fascism has
officially declared war on Grup Yorum.
In the course of a year, the Idil
Culture Centre has been raided four times, all Grup Yorum members have been
jailed or are being hunted, and the only meaning of all this is to seek to
isolate them from the people and prohibit their concerts.
But in vain. They
did not succeed and will not succeed. Grup Yorum cannot be cut off from the
people. They won’t get a result from jail or from “wanted” lists in their
efforts to criminalise. They cannot succeed!
This is what Dayi said: “We are
human beings of this soil. We are people. We are one with the people. We are the
vanguard of the people.” We can also make this definition of Grup Yorum’s art
tradition at the side of the people. So Grup Yorum makes revolutionary art in
this land. The music of the Anatolian Rebellion goes from ear to ear and heart
to heart and in this land. And no obstacle can prevent it.
When concerts
were banned, Grup Yorum went out onto roofs. When theatres were barred to their
concerts, they held them from the tops of lorries and travelled from street to
street to come in contact with the people.
Grup Yorum has created a
tradition in revolutionary art of not heeding bans and not giving in to
repression. If they come to a place, a room in a house, a village field, a
strikers’ tent, outside a cemetery… Wherever the people are. And the stage has
always been where Grup Yorum could be.
And we never remained without
politics. We always replid to every attack by fascism with our revolutionary
politics. This is what Grup Yorum has done. They gave a clear answer to fascist
attacks and said: we will defeat your terror lists with our new compositions!
Not your lists but the music we compose will win!
Grup Yorum makes folk
songs out of love for the people and homeland
While Grup Yorum members
were being put on “terrorism lists”, two artists from the system ranks emerged –
Yavuz Bingol and Selda Bagcan… The message from the ruling class was clear: be
like them. Sing songs like them.
The spokesman of British imperialism, the
BBC, broadcast an interview with Selda Bagcan. They were saying, if you have to
be a leftist, be like Selda Bagcan… Turn your back on the people, obtain money
and fame… Instead of organising, choose individualism… Look down on the people
and promote yourself…
For money, for your interests, the songs you sang
yesterday you will betray and turn into one of the palace clowns and an enemy of
the people…
This is a ruling class operation aimed at putting an end to
revolutionary art. And essentially it aims at thought reform. Because they are
afraid.
Because through the vehicle of revolutionary art, a mass of hundreds
of thousands, even millions can be attracted. And these masses can increase the
confidence of the people in themselves. So that every Grup Yorum concert became
a show of people’s strength. Not just concerts, every Grup Yorum song with its
anti-fascist, anti-imperialist content became a position held by the people
against the enemies of the people.
The “great crime” of the Grup Yorum
members is to boost the hopes of the people with their folk songs at concerts.
In conditions where everything is being done to deprive the people of hope, folk
songs that give the people hope are enough to attract violence from fascism.
Pir Sultan said, “You turn if you want to, I am not turning back from my
path.” Centuries have gone by since but the irreconcilable contradictions
between the people and the enemies of the people and the merciless clash between
them go on, and what Pir Sultan said then is said by Grup Yorum now.
Grup
Yorum makes the folk songs of this land. It struggles for the independence of
this land, it pays the price for this land. This is why it is connected to this
land and nobody can remove it from there.
Grup Yorum sings songs of hope for
the people. It struggles for the liberation of the people from exploitation and
tyranny. It turns the paying of a price for the freeing of the people into a
dynamic of liberation. This is why it has a place in the hearts of the people.
Nobody can remove it from there.
This being the case, forces of the people
support “Grup Yorum is in our house, Grup Yorum is everywhere”. And they know
that what they are supporting is also their own hope, honour, fight, longing and
future. This is a barricade we put up against fascism that cannot be
overcome.
This is our call to all of our human beings in the ranks of the
people, from seven to 70:
Let us show that we support the slogan “Grup Yorum
is in our house, Grup Yorum is everywhere”. Let us make concrete the inability
to destroy Grup Yorum, using the creativity of the people and the unlimited
character of the methods of the people. There is something that everyone can do.
Let us bring out Grup Yorum everywhere. Let us lay siege to fascism with our own
creativity.
Since they are looking for Grup Yorum, let us reply in every
square, every city, every city neighbourhood, every street: Grup Yorum is in our
house… Grup Yorum is everywhere!
Let us write it everywhere, let us spread
it everywhere: GRUP YORUM IS IN OUR HOUSE…
With this slogan we will once
again show the power of the people. Do they search for members of Grup Yorum? We
will shows with the forces of the people that there are a thousand and one
places where they are found in the hearts of the people. There is something
everyone can do. Some can publish for the people, some can sing… Some will even
play Grup Yorum songs from the minarets of mosques. Songs of hope will rise from
the marketplaces, the schools, the fields. There is no limit to the creativity
of the people. For as we have always said, Grup Yorum is the people. We cannot
be silenced!
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