By Esat Erdoğan
Erdoğan’s Palace regime, which claimed that it would stop inflation by slowing down consumption, has failed to stop inflation and has brought the economy to the brink of bankruptcy. With interest rates and inflation spiraling upward, unemployment is increasing (broadly defined, unemployment rate is 26.5%), while wages and working conditions are rapidly deteriorating. While the big bosses and money lords pay almost no taxes, the entire cost of the crisis is imposed on workers. Under Economy Minister Şimşek’s Medium Term Programme (MTP), the hunger line has risen above the minimum wage, while credit card debts have become unpayable. According to DISK-AR (Revolutionary Worker Unions Confederation Research Department), rent has increased by 121% and education costs by 121% in the last year. Similarly, food inflation for low-income people increased by 80%. Since 2003, average prices have increased 20 times and food prices 31 times. As if this impoverishment were not enough, the Palace is looking for ways to further relieve the capitalists by abolishing severance pay.
Building on the 24 January decisions (harsh neoliberal reforms preceding, and in line with, the 12 September 1980 coup), Erdoğan’s Palace regime is continuing to implement the labour policy of the military junta’s dreams. The palace is reorganising working life in favour of the bosses under the pretext of the crisis. The state and its laws protect the interests of the bosses’ class. All the natural resources of the country are being plundered lawlessly. Those who oppose, like the environmental defenders in Hopa, are sometimes attacked by civilian fascist groups, or by security forces, like what happened to the Polonez workers. When the labour movement is not stopped by repressive methods, the trade union bureaucracy and the bourgeois opposition take the stage to restrain our struggles. ‘To work or to fight to the death’ is the question our labour siblings are asking themselves all over the country.
No matter what they do, discontent boils over
In July, despite high inflation, we did not receive a wage increase. Collective agreement increase rates in unionised enterprises do not compensate for our wage losses. In different sectors, unionized workers demanded additional raises; where we find ourselves without unions, we begin to organize to confront the boss and fight for a union to improve our working conditions. However, in both cases, we face retaliation and dismissals. The bosses cannot tolerate even the slightest demand for our rights. The law of the Palace, which approves of their lawlessness, tries to stop the workers with police forces. However, our demand for rights is both constitutional and legitimate. Their lawlessness is the epitome of injustice.
In many workplaces, our siblings began to respond to this wave of attacks in a more militant, more defiant way. Today we see the signs of a new era. The footsteps of the vanguard of the working class are shaking the earth and the sky. Clenched fists surround factories and plazas. Struggles are about to break through. Experiences set an example for each other, paving the way. There are more struggles all over the country than we have seen for many years. Some of the struggles have the dynamics of breaking away from class-collaborationist unionism. A new understanding of rank-and-file unionism, a new generation of militant workers is brewing. Young workers are preparing to strike for the first time in call centres, mines, warehouses and factories.
A New Wave of Struggle
One recent site of struggle has been the CarrefourSA warehouses. In retaliation for demanding an additional raise for DGD-SEN warehouse workers, 6 of our union officers were dismissed. However, through the outpouring of solidarity and a determined, widespread struggle, every store of CarrefourSa was turned into site of action and the bosses had to step back and reinstate our dismissed brothers and sisters. The union, which spread the action area from the workplace to the streets achieved a significant success through its determination and militancy.
Another important struggle is being waged by our brothers and sisters at Femma Mines who are members of the Independent Mine Workers’ Union (Bağımsız Maden-İş, ba-um-suz maw-den ish), who have unionised and struggled despite the government’s attacks. The workers who were dismissed for unionising are supported by their colleagues who stop work in response. They do not leave their friends behind. With the support of their families, they filled the streets of the city of Soma and confronted the boss, who is the deputy of the Palace. They do not back down in the face of arrests and threats. They want their working conditions to improve, their wages to improve. They are subjected to violence for this, but they know they are right and they are determined to win.
Our worker brothers and sisters, members of Birtek-Sen, who have led important struggles in Antep and Urfa, have recently organised in Antep Akcanlar Tekstil (an-tep ak-jan-lar tex-til) against dismissals and bad conditions. Instead of waiting passively in front of the factory, they are trying to spread the struggle. They were violently attacked when they made a statement in front of the boss’s hotel, but they did not give up. They unite both the families of the workers and the society with their actions.
Workers of Tek Gıda-İş (tek gu-da-ish) are also on strike in many factories. The most prominent of these are the Polonez workers. Our 132 worker brothers and sisters, who have been thrown out of their jobs for unionising, are growing social struggle and solidarity. They are setting an example with their unity, enthusiasm and struggle that goes beyond the workplace. For this reason, they are threatened almost every day by law enforcement forces. It is not enough that they are sacked, they are also subjected to violence. Polonez is strengthening the struggle with a solidarity and unity that has not been seen for a long time. The union calls all forces in favour of the working class to its defence. The union is on strike at Kristal Oils, Lezitta and Perfetti facrtories. With these four important struggles, food workers are leading the way for the whole working class.
Municipal workers are also struggling against both the bosses and the union bureaucracy, tearing up the miserable sweetheart contracts signed by their unions. Izmir Karşıyaka (eez-meer kar-shu-ya-ka) Municipality Kent A.Ş. workers were dismissed per Code 26 and Code 46. Dozens of workers were sacked without compensation and started resisting. 147 dismissed municipal workers have been struggling for more than three months. Menemen municipality workers, who were also dismissed for seeking their rights, are also in resistance. Izmir Kemalpaşa municipality dismissed 140 fellow workers. The workers of Dersim Nazimiye municipality are also continuing their struggle with determination. They do not kneel or bow down to the working conditions and political pressures in the municipalities. Left trade union bureaucracies and the CHP (je-he-pe, the Republican Party) can no longer restrain them.
Although the metal sector has not yet ignited the strike fire strongly, there are struggles in many workplaces. United Metal Workers’ Union (BMİS) workers are on strike at Belfasa Silvermet demanding a 70 per cent raise. The strike of Gebze Merzan workers, also members of BMİS, has completed its first month. Hatay (ha-ta-ee) Yolbulan Metal workers continue their strike. Çiğli KLS Klima (chee-lee ke-le-se klee-ma), İzmir Çiğli (eez-meer chee-lee), Norm Cıvata (norm ju-va-ta), Elbistan Celikler Holding (el-bee-stan je-leek-ler hol-ding), Eti Krom workers are at the forefront of the struggle.
Petrol-İş (petrol-ish) workers at AS Plastik went on strike. The employer dismissed 6 workers. This week Elba Tape put up the strike signboard. Last week, the workers of MKB Rondo, members of Selülöz-İş (sel-yu-luuz-ish), went on strike. Denizli Filidea workers were dismissed because they were members of Teksif and went on strike. Sara workers went on strike with Öz Büro-İş (uuz boo-ro-ish). Private sector teachers continue their protests. Construction workers continue their protests at Fikirtepe construction sites and Bakırköy (baw-kur-gyo-ee) metro construction site.
Road blockades by farmers fighting for their lives were added to all these. There were unprecedented actions in Izmir, Antep, Maras, Bursa, Balıkesir (ba-lu-ke-seer), Burdur and other provinces. The struggle is fermenting, strike fires are burning…
Struggles Must Unite Nationally
The confederations of Türk-İş (toork-ish) and DISK could not remain silent in the face of the rising voices of the working class and street protests. Although symbolic, this pressure on them is important. We ask all confederations, why don’t you take action together? Why don’t you ever put pressure on politics and the bosses? Unite today, and show that a union is not just about paying dues.
Workers will not stop organizing, whether the big-name confederations act or not. As we said, we don’t want to work and die anymore. We will unionise, stop work and go on strike for better conditions. Workers, revolutionaries, youth, women, oppressed people will joins with our strikes.
With the Medium Term Program and new attacks on workers, flexible and precarious work is becoming widespread, and wages are being reduced. The transfer of social security and severance pay to private companies is being discussed. We have to use our weapons of strike and actual struggle against the MTP, the Twelfth Development Plan, the public austerity package and other austerity policies. Only we, the working masses, can break this blockade. Let us establish our coalitions for united struggle and lead our working class.
Strikes will win, we will win!