-Introduction-
In Turkey, the student youth movement has organized in various ways over different periods depending on political, social, and economic conditions. These organizations have addressed not only problems in the field of education but also broader debates on social transformation. In this context, the Revolutionary Student Union (DÖB) defines itself not just as a student organization, but as a political structure that approaches the youth struggle through the perspective of social change.
DÖB is based on a political heritage shaped particularly by the 1968 generation student movements and the anti-imperialist youth struggle that became symbolic during this period. This heritage highlights the idea that student youth should be positioned not within a framework limited to education policies, but as a class-based and political subject.
-What is DÖB?-
In the most general sense, the Revolutionary Student Union can be defined as a structure that aims to develop a certain political awareness and organized struggle among student youth. This structure views the student movement not as a community shaped solely around academic issues, but as a structure taking its place in the working class’s struggle for socialism.
The fundamental assumption of this approach is that the education system is not an independent area outside of the social structure. According to this view, universities and schools are not independent of the current economic and political order; on the contrary, they are institutions where this order is reproduced. Ideologically, DÖB states at this point that student youth must act not merely with individual, academic demands, but with broader goals of social transformation.
Within this perspective, organizing is treated not just as a technical tool, but also as the primary ground for producing political consciousness. Bringing students together through committees, units, and collective structures is a method aimed at both strengthening solidarity and creating a common political direction.
The Revolutionary Student Union was founded by Deniz Gezmiş, Sinan Cemgil, and their comrades. As DÖB, we are the carriers of their heritage. Claiming that brilliant heritage of the period and keeping revolutionary values and traditions alive are indispensable conditions for the success of the revolutionary youth struggle.
As its name suggests, the Revolutionary Student Union is the union of vanguard students within the student youth who possess the most advanced class consciousness, have revolutionary goals, and consider the struggle for these goals a part of their lives, as well as a requirement of their responsibility toward the working class and the laboring people. Without such a union of vanguard youth equipped with Marxist-Leninist theory—whose aims, goals, tools, and methods of struggle are defined—it is impossible for the student youth movement to be indissolubly linked to the working-class struggle. For this reason, it is necessary for revolutionary students to come together around a program where their worldview, targets, and goals are determined with great clarity. This also gives us the task of promoting the ideology and program of the proletarian party among student youth. To put it more clearly, the task of making the ideology and program we rely on accepted is the first and fundamental condition for ensuring the unity of the vanguard youth.
The DÖB structure is not an alternative or a reflection of the political structure of socialist youth; on the contrary, DÖB is a union formed for the organization—which aims and claims to be the leader of the entire youth movement—to be active within the student movement. From this, it is understood that within DÖB, its ideological and programmatic views and its approach to youth and the youth struggle are of primary importance.
-DÖB and the Youth Struggle from History to the Present-
DÖB is based on the student movements rising in Turkey in the late 1960s. This period represents a phase where youth gained visibility as political subjects in Turkey, just as they did worldwide. Anti-imperialist discourse became one of the main political references for university youth; student movements came to the forefront with street protests, occupations, and mass demonstrations.
The symbolic figures of this historical period became representatives of a tradition of struggle for subsequent generations, not just individual leaders. DÖB evaluates this heritage as the starting point of a continuous political line.
Although the political disruptions after the 1970 military coup caused student movements to be interrupted, student youth organizations increased rapidly again from the mid-1970s. Likewise, the level of organization, which declined across the country with the 1980 military coup, affected student youth organizations as well; however, after the 1989 Spring Actions, student organization began to rise along with the rising workers’ actions. Especially the 1990s was a period when different student formations became visible again in universities. Within this historical continuity, DÖB positions itself as the reinterpretation and updating of past experiences.
In this context, the organization develops an approach arguing that these memories should not just be a practice of historical remembrance, but must also be linked to the current political struggle.
Today, youth face multi-dimensional problems such as economic uncertainty, unemployment, anxiety about the future, and social pressure, rather than just issues related to the education system. This situation moves the political and social demands of youth to a broader ground.
DÖB’s approach is that these problems should be handled as parts of a structural whole, not individually. According to this perspective, the education system is directly connected to the labor market, and youth are positioned within this system not only as students but also as the future labor force.
In this framework, the youth struggle cannot be reduced to on-campus issues alone; it must be handled with a broader perspective of social transformation. DÖB’s theoretical approach aligns with a line that connects the student movement with the working-class struggle. This is because the problems of youth are not independent of the social system.
DÖB’s organizational model is a structure that spreads to the grassroots where local units are active, rather than a centralized structure. In this structure, universities, high schools, and different areas of student life are the main grounds of organization.
At the same time, DÖB forms action alliances on certain issues with progressive youth groups of different political tendencies. This approach consists of temporary action alliances around common goals rather than absolute unity.
In conclusion, DÖB argues that the problems of student youth will be solved not just within an academic framework, but through gaining political freedom. With this goal, it organizes student youth in line with political targets and ensures that student youth take their place in the struggle of the working class.
