[Note: This article is the editorial piece from issue 343 (31 December 2025) of Özgür Gelecek Gazetesi, a newspaper published in Turkey along Marxist-Leninist-Maoist lines.]
As we conclude 2025, we will also have left behind the first quarter of the 21st century. A brief look at the current situation internationally and in our region can give us an idea of how the coming years will unfold. To this end, it would be useful to first address the state of the capitalist economy, which is a global system, and then the superstructure shaped by this economic infrastructure. Of course, the Turkish Republic, which has a direct connection to this global system, is not independent of this economic system due to its class structure. Therefore, it is directly affected by developments in the international arena.
The defining reality of the first quarter of the 21st century is the economic crisis of capitalism. Some circles also define this crisis as capitalism's ‘Third Great Depression’. At this stage, the economic crisis triggered by the major financial collapse, defined as the ‘Global Financial Crisis’ in 2008, has become continuous, following a fluctuating course while gradually deepening.
Undoubtedly, the capitalist world economy has been growing, albeit in a fluctuating manner, from the 2008 financial crisis to the present day. The growth of the world economy, although influenced by the growth figures of social imperialist China, is generally trending towards declining averages. This situation can be understood, for example, from the fact that the German economy, the driving force of EU imperialism, has entered a recession (contraction). In other words, while the global economy is growing overall, this growth is occurring at a rate below 1%, as seen in the examples of the European Union and Japanese economies.
The current state of the capitalist world economy can be likened to a state of ‘stagnation.’ This stagnation has led to expectations that the excessive inflation of the capitalist world's stock markets, relative to production defined as the ‘real economy,’ will soon cause a new ‘bubble burst.’ Behind the excessive inflation of the stock markets lie the technological advances made in recent years in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and investments in information technology equipment and software. Investments in these two areas account for 92 per cent of the growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US capitalism. When this is considered alongside the fact that the US economy grew by only 0.1 per cent in 2025, the sheer magnitude of the struggle becomes clear. It is stated that if AI investments do not have a significant impact on short-term productivity increases and, consequently, profitability, a new stock market crash and global financial crisis similar to the one experienced in 2008 will occur. This is one of the fault lines of the capitalist economy and points to the possibility of a new and higher capitalist crisis.
Another damaging aspect of the capitalist world economy is the debt crisis. The crisis of the capitalist economy has led to it being treated as a sustainable crisis rather than one that needs to be overcome. To this end, the monetary policy of capitalist centres' central banks (such as the US Federal Reserve Bank), which aims to devalue money, reduce borrowing costs and stimulate investment and employment, and the demand-boosting fiscal policies of capitalist governments, which rely on high levels of spending, have led to the capitalist economy being put on life support.
This situation has led to a massive increase in public debt in all capitalist states. Not only semi-colonial countries but also the core countries of capitalism are mired in huge public debt. Under current conditions, the debt of semi-colonial economies under imperialist capitalist exploitation has reached an unsustainable level. However, what is even more striking is that public debt has also reached enormous proportions in the core capitalist countries.
As of 2025, in the ranking of the world's most indebted countries, Japan (229.6%) tops the list in terms of debt-to-GDP ratio, followed by the United States (125.0%) and the United Kingdom (103.4%). However, the United States, China, and Japan lead in terms of total debt and rate of increase. The United States and China, in particular, stand out as the countries with the fastest-growing debts, while France and Germany are also experiencing significant debt increases. (11 December)
According to data from the Institute of International Finance (IIF), global debt reached a new record level of nearly $346 trillion by the end of the third quarter of 2025, equivalent to approximately 310% of global GDP. The bulk of the debt, which increased by more than $26.4 trillion in the first nine months of the year, is due to increases in public borrowing in the core capitalist economies (particularly the US, France, Germany, and the UK). This is the highest level of indebtedness in world history during a non-war period.
Meanwhile, the debt crisis is also being experienced in countries at the very heart of the capitalist system. This indebtedness and public deficit, together with the bourgeoisie's attack on the social services (health, education, pensions, etc.) that the working class and labouring people have won, reveal the objective basis for class struggle.
Capitalism's ongoing and deepening economic crisis is leading to the superstructure being shaped accordingly. The rise and spread of racist fascist movements internationally, and their rise to power or continued rule in some countries, is largely due to the decisive impact of the crisis in the capitalist economy.
As can be understood from the United States' recently announced National Security Strategy (2025) document, we have entered a ‘new process’. As clearly stated in the document, racism is being normalised, and the way has been paved for fascism, particularly hostility towards immigrants and women-LGBTQ+.
Capitalism attempted to overcome its previous major crises (the First and Second Depressions) through imperialist expansionism and brutality, the rise of fascism, and massacres. A similar path is now being followed. Preparations for a new imperialist war of division (the Third Imperialist War of Division) are in full swing.
The developments in 2025 saw the rise of Russian and Chinese imperialism, and the ‘multipolar world’ replace the decisive dominance and ‘unipolar world’ of US imperialism after the Second Imperialist War. The Imperialist War of Division has been replaced by the rise of Russian and Chinese imperialism, and a ‘multipolar world.’ Preparations for a new world war are proceeding at full speed, with regional reactionary forces aligning themselves with these two imperialist reactionary powers. In these preparations, US and British imperialism play the leading role (Germany and France are also making preparations as if to say, ‘I'm in this game too’), while Chinese and Russian imperialism remain more in a defensive and time-buying position.
The Economist magazine, published since 1843, points out in its traditional ‘cover of the year’ predictions for 2026 that ‘we are entering a period in which global balances will be reshaped.’ Furthermore, while mentioning 20 conflicts to watch in 2026, it states that "the world has returned to a bloodier era. 2026 could set a record for the number of war-related deaths this century.‘ (24 November)
In summary, capitalism promises new ’Gazas" for the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world in the coming years!
The Year of Rising Fascist Aggression and Resistance: 2025
The year 2025 can be summarised for Turkey as a year of escalating fascist aggression on the one hand and popular resistance on the other. The AKP-MHP clique, which holds power for the Turkish ruling class cliques, continued its aggression in 2025, raising the bar against both the representatives of the bourgeois clique embodied in the CHP and the people. What made the past year different was that this time, the ruling class clique's representatives in the opposition were also targeted by fascism's fascist aggression against revolutionary and democratic forces. Operations carried out through the judiciary and the policy of appointing trustees to municipalities were this time directed at the main bourgeois opposition party. This became one of the main factors determining bourgeois politics and the agenda.
It should be remembered that in the local elections on 31 March 2024, the bourgeois main opposition party, the CHP, increased its votes across Turkey to over 37 per cent and won by a clear margin in 14 major cities where a significant portion of Turkey's population lives. This electoral success of the bourgeois opposition led to an intensification of the power struggle among the ruling class cliques. The power struggle among the ruling class cliques was taken to court through the judiciary. The AKP-MHP government's arrest of Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and various other mayors on charges of ‘corruption and terrorism’ signalled a significant break in the politics of the ruling class. It is clear that the background to the cancellation of E. İmamoğlu's diploma and his subsequent arrest was the AKP-MHP government's goal of eliminating the opposition's strongest candidate for the next presidential elections. It is equally clear that the power struggle between the ruling class cliques does not and will not serve the real interests of the people. The CHP's response to this attack has been to call the masses onto the streets and to continue its signature campaign and mass rallies.
At this point, it can be stated with confidence that the development that will also affect the upcoming process for 2025 was the student youth overcoming the police barricade erected in front of them in Beyazıt on 19 March and marching to Saraçhane with slogans. The youth breaking through the police barricade signalled a significant crack in fascism's pressure on the mass movement. The mass movement, which had been in retreat until 19 March 2025, was propelled forward by this youth uprising, and this advance made itself felt in the May Day demonstrations. The massiveness and anger of the youth crowds in the May Day demonstrations showed that the masses were seeking to create their own independent mass movement outside the power struggle of the ruling class cliques.
On the other hand, it can be said that this emergence of the youth also affected the politics of the ruling class. The traditional view of the bourgeois opposition, which coded the streets and mass actions as ‘terror’, was also dealt a blow, and the masses did not remain indifferent to the call to take to the streets. In other words, the mass movement pulled bourgeois opposition politics to the ‘left’. However, the isolation and weakness of the revolutionary and communist movement from the masses stood as an obstacle to the broad masses' reaction to fascism, turning into an independent mass movement. The bourgeois opposition was able to harness the masses' anger and reaction towards the regime to a significant extent behind its own political line.
This reality points, on the one hand, to the shortcomings of the revolutionary and communist movement and its tasks, while on the other hand, it points to the danger that in the coming period, the reaction of the broad masses to poverty, all kinds of democratic usurpation and fascist aggression, primarily the decline in purchasing power, will again be channelled within the system, behind another clique of the ruling classes.
Freedom is not in the ballot box, but in the streets
Another development that dominated the agenda in the past year was the developments in the Kurdish national question. The ‘process’ that was reflected in the public sphere at the end of 2024 has dominated the agenda throughout 2025. Despite the Kurdish national movement's call for a ‘democratic society’ and the steps it took in the process dubbed ‘Terror-Free Turkey’ by the government, such as disbanding itself, burning its weapons and withdrawing from Zap, the Turkish state has not taken any concrete steps beyond ‘establishing a commission’, ‘preparing a report’ and ‘meeting with Öcalan’. Öcalan," the Turkish state has not taken any concrete steps.
It is understood that the Turkish state will continue the process with a legal regulation that aims to liquidate the national movement, which could be defined as a ‘return home law’. It is clear that the problem cannot be solved with an approach that does not even acknowledge the existence of the Kurdish national question. The Kurdish nation has neither had its existence recognised nor been provided with a legal basis for exercising its most natural rights as a nation. Therefore, developments related to the Kurdish national question will remain on the agenda for the popular movement in the coming period.
It can be stated that 2025 was a year of resistance and struggle for various components of the mass movement. Working-class actions increased, primarily due to workplace fatalities, low wages, inflation, and deteriorating economic conditions; actions (work stoppages, marches, strikes) were carried out, particularly in the automotive sector and among public sector workers, within the scope of collective bargaining processes and the pursuit of rights. Struggles also continued in construction, healthcare and other sectors; trade unions and labour organisations signalled broader actions, particularly with demands such as protecting wages and preventing layoffs, and emphasised the need for organisation. MESEMs (Child Labour Protection Centres) also came to the fore in the final months of the year with child labour deaths, generating significant reaction. It is clear that these struggles will continue in the coming year.
While the government declared 2025 the ‘Year of the Family,’ the women's and LGBT+ movements focused their efforts on protests against legal regulations such as the ‘11th Judicial Package,’ inspired by the government's policy, the fight against male violence and hate crimes, marches on international days such as 8 March and 25 November, and Pride Week events in June. It is clear that the struggle against the government's attacks on women and LGBT+ people will continue next year. To the extent that this struggle can be advanced in conjunction with the class struggle, certain bottlenecks will be overcome, and the struggle will become more widespread.
The year 2025 passed with the struggle of oppressed faiths, particularly Alevis. The Alevi struggle emphasised resistance and organisation against the ruling faith's policies of denial and assimilation, while actions were taken against the massacres of Alevis by jihadist gangs in Syria. In 2025, the struggle of peasants in Turkey for nature and the environment continued, particularly with resistance against projects such as gold and coal mines, hydroelectric power plants, and thermal power plants. Similarly, 2025 was marked by actions against the government's policy towards street animals and the struggle for a ‘New Stray Animals Law’.
The past year was marked by resistance and struggle against the government's attacks on the public in almost every area. The actions, resistance, and struggles of the masses offered a new perspective for the coming years: “Emancipation Will Not Come Through the Ballot Box — The Only Solution Is Revolution.”
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