Four months after our last issue, we are here with a new issue. Our intention and wish is to increase the periodicity of the magazine.
In our historical conditions, where a fascist regime is rapidly being built and society is being imbued with fascist codes, we publish our magazine with a responsibility in favor of children. Because we know that fascism is first and foremost the enemy of the working class and labor; it rises by crushing it. Along with this, it crushes the whole people. The children of the worker, the laborer, the people remain at the bottom of the weight during and after the construction process of this regime. And they do.
Of course, we are not saying this as a distant narrative; it is all happening right next to us! Turkey is a country where children can be exposed to all kinds of neglect and abuse at any time. On the one hand, children are made workers in line with the needs of capital, on the other hand, they are subjected to all kinds of ideological pressures and religious moves of the fascist regime.
The ruling forces, which emerged from the general elections with “success”, are now heading towards the local elections. If they “succeed” this time, they will have crossed another important threshold in fascist institutionalization. The opposition forces, on the other hand, are more of a crutch than a force, so to speak. One of these two options is being imposed on the people and the children of the people. Either “bad” or “the lesser of two evils”! The politics of the order, in which the people are seen as vote depots and election objects and the needs of capital, not the people, are prioritized, is marching towards the elections with all its might. The left, socialist and populist forces are also trying to open up spaces, albeit weak and controversial, from the ground they stand on.
We will see the results together.
However, we think that we should look not at the results on April 1, but at the long-term struggle for social emancipation and democratization of the country.
Local elections, before and after, open an important ground for discussion on children’s policy. However, policies on children are obscured in local elections just like the general political atmosphere. At the same time, we struggle in various ways for children’s rights and to change the election results in favor of children. We hope that all the texts in our magazine will expand and enrich this horizon.
In this issue, we would like to thank everyone, especially the children, who wrote, drew, sang, contributed in various ways and thus expanded the Circle.
***
Our minds are on the children who were killed in Gaza, who made a press statement in front of the hospital saying “We don’t want to die!” as bombs rained down on it!
Our horizon is the possibility of another world.
Our path is for children, with children. And of course it is long..