The lesson of Gladio is clear and represents a challenge to the entire policy followed by the mainstream Italian left since the war. If the aim is to build a society where profit no longer rules, and there is no longer a separation between exploiters and exploited, then at some stage a confrontation with the repressive state apparatus is unavoidable. * is the miners of Zonguldak that have been at the forefront of working class combativity. FUAT ORÇUN
S EVERAL factors have been
fuelling militancy. Firstly the 1980 coup d'état is slowly but Ozal's Motherland Party (ANAP) won the 1983 legislative elections with 45% of the votes. In 1987 it got two thirds of the seats, but only 36% of the votes, while in the municipal elections of March 1989 its score was down to 21% (see IV 166, June 26, 1989).
But, rather than making the slightest concession to the appeals for legislative elections, the then Prime Minister Özal had himself elected president by his parliamentary majority. Özal has concentrated so much power into his own hands that institutional reform is blocked.
meanwhile, in the absence of independent forms of political expression, are totally outside the political system, at a time when both the debates on the Kurdish question and the strikes of spring 1989 showed the growth of social discontent, sharpened by the catastrophic results of ten years of economic
Wages have fallen by a half and the rate of unionization has stayed at around 11% - in 1980 there were about 5.7 million trade unionists, but only 1.7 million in 1985, rising to 1.9 million in 1990. It would be too much to say that the past decade has seen the creation of a new working class, such as that which carried through the Brazilian "economic miracle". Even so, given their economic situation and awareness of the declining credibility of the regime, Turkish workers are determined not to accept further wage
Furthermore the actions of May 1989 active military role in the crisis. However, the president is about the only person in the country who wants this war, which is supported neither by the workers, the bourgeoisie, nor the army high command itself. The crisis has given a further upward twist to inflation, while the oil producing and notably Iraq, are among Turkey's main trading partners. And all this puts the workers in an even more insecure position.
Zonguldak is a city of 1.1 million people, isolated on the shores of the Black Sea. Its whole social and cultural life are centred on the mines. This is a peculiarly favourable situation for militant trade unionism. The new leadership of Genel Maden-Is, and its president, Semsi Denizer — nicknamed the "Turkish Walesa" — have taken full advantage of this to oust the old union leadership which was isolated from its base.
Fall in mining profits
Zonguldak was the fifth largest city of Turkey in 1975, but is now somewhere below the 20th largest. The reason for its decline is the fall in the profitability of the mines. And this is also the main reason used by the government to reject the workers' wage demands. They have threatened to close the mines, arguing that it is cheaper to import coal. And, in fact, imported coal - mainly from South Africa - costs $50-60 a tonne while that of Zonguldak sells at $80, its cost price being $130 a tonne. The mines thus operate at a loss, since state subsidies have been abolished ( Germany and France, for example, subsidize their coal by $72 and $69 a tonne respectively).
Thus the conflict in the mines is more than just a wage struggle. The miners want more than just a rise; they want a decent wage, giving them back the standard of living they enjoyed ten years ago before the military coup.
It is the government, however, accustomed to meeting no serious opposition, which has been responsible for the symbolic significance which the miners' 11 struggle has assumed. Özal thought that,
International Viewpoint #199 • February 4, 1991
TURKEY by threatening, on television, to shut the mines, and using the war hysteria, he could settle for a pittance, while buying off the union leaders in the usual way. But the miners were determined and their leaders were not for sale.
A three-day warning strike involving union demanded the resumption of negotiations, and the government replied with threats. Notification of the strike was given for November 30, when 48,000 miners went on strike, supported by 24,000 other workers deprived of the right to strike. Zonguldak was abuzz. For a whole month dozens of meetings and demonstrations were taking place with miners, their families, shopkeepers, officials and pawnbrokers.
The demonstrations were organized by ad hoc committees set up by the unions, while the strike itself was organized through strike committees. Özal's threats only served to further radicalize the struggle, although the national television maintained a news blackout on the strike.
The struggle became one between the miners and Ozal, and the former decided to organize a march on the presidential palace in Ankara. Faced with this radicalizátion, the Türk-Is union confederation to support the miners. It called on December 20, 1990 for a day of "general unemployment" on January 3 or two weeks after (the formula of "voluntary non-paid unemployment" was a way round the constitution and laws which
Union leader joins military government
The Türk-Is trade union was founded just after the Second World War on the US model and with the support of US unions. It has always been connected with the regime, and was the main rival of the progressive DISK confederation in the 1970s. After the 1980 coup, the Türk-Is' general, Sadik labour minister in the first mil emment. Sevket Yalmaz, its p: that time, and still in place, is known to be close to the ex-prime minister Demirel and his Party of the Just Way (DYP — the right wing opposition).
It is thus somewhat ironic that Türk-Is, under pressure from below, found itself calling actions to force the government into negotiations. At the same time this was a manoeuvre since it involved postponing the march on Ankara.
Türk-Is was above all frightened by the prospect of a massive and uncontrolled extension of the struggle since, just after the miners' collective agreement, those of other groups organized by Türk-Is were up for negotiation. The rises demanded by the miners were nearly three times 12 those being put forward by the right wing unions in Türk-Is.
In any case, the miners postponed their march to January 4, and the day of action went ahead on January 3, despite threats Depending on the source, participation was between 60 and 90% - a success, particularly given that nothing like this has been attempted for 10 years.
Dozens of buses carrying miners from Zonguldak to Ankara were stopped by the army and police. The miners then decided - in the middle of winter — to walk the 280 kms to Ankara.
The Türk-Is president, Sevket Yilmaz, called on the miners' leader to abandon the march. The latter replied: "When we say that Özal bears the main responsibility for the past ten years, we must add that Sevket Yilmaz also fully shares that responsibility. He has nothing to offer the working class. He is even one of its chief obstacles... His mentality is that of the government."
From 80,000 to 120,000 workers then took the road, although the government had declared their action illegal. The cortege contained women and men, people from Zonguldak and the surrounding area. It was the biggest march in the history of the Turkish workers' movement. Need to overcome the legacy of dictatorship
As Semsi Denizer put it: "We must above all put an end to the fear that has been instilled in us by the repressive region of September 12, 1980. People must be made to raise their heads, and see the realities of Turkey today.... We have tried to practice up-to-date democracy with all its institutions and practices."
Their first stop was a small town of 15,000 inhabitants. Here the whole population came out to greet and provide for the miners. Food coming from the surrounding area and the capital was fairly distributed. On the second and third days, the march was surrounded by the police and army. Then, finally, on the governand the demonstrators' blocked. Some 200 miners were arrested for trying to get across the barriers.
The march could go no further, but the miners refused to go back and negotiations began. Things came close to a clash with the soldiers when convoys carrying bread and blankets from Ankara were from the mining community played a very important role. They were troops, lifting morale, organizing solidarity and marching in the front ranks. When Denizer suggested that they should go back to Zonguldak and await the outcome of negotiations, they refused indignantly: "Our place is with our friends. Nobody will be able to say that they died of cold!" They also launched the shout: "Soldier, are you going to shoot us down? We are not in Israel!"
On the fifth day, with negotiations promised, the miners, overcome by the cold, isolated and in the absence of any massive solidarity actions, were obliged to return to Zonguldak, but have not given up the fight: "we were not looking for a fight. We hoped that they would remove the barricades. But they seem to regard us as enemies.... If I had asked for it, we could have got through the barricades. We were 120,000, a crowd 6 kms in length. There were 45,000 miners in the front rank.... Faced with this danger I gave the order to retreat.... They would have shot us down.... It was too cold to stay and conduct a war of nerves.... It was hard, but we decided to go back home. Conditions in Turkey are not ripe for such an advance.... That would need united action by all the democratic forces; without that it is impossible to get over the barricades mounted against democracy." 2
The government has tried to profit from the Gulf crisis to drag out the negotiations. The miners fear that the government will order a state of war to suspend
Pressure for renewal in the wage negotiations, the strike in Zonguldak represents an important step to overcoming the legacy of the lost decade. In the unions, the renewal that started in spring 1989 is continuing. Nineteen out of the 32 Türk-Is unions are still in the hands of collaborators, but they are under pressure. The fact that Özal has stepped forward as the mouthpiece of the enterprise management has had an impact on the workers. In the last legislative elections the two social democratic parties got 43% of the vote in Zonguldak, and social democratic deputies and even the rightist DYP took part in the march, while town halls controlled by the former have given practical support.
A number of legal obstacles have been brushed aside in action. Even the bosses confederation has spoken out against legal attacks on the workers and demanded an overall solution to the wage problem.
The coming months will show if the march on Ankara was a harbinger of a fundamental change. As the miner's leader Semsi Denizer said, "The working class must above all be united, for its interests are the same. Our rights will not be decreed by the leaders. We cannot expect that anywhere in the world. We have to win them by our own efforts. Obviously that involves risks; we must be ready to take them. The resistance in Zonguldak will be the best of examples".3 * 1. Interview with Semsi Denizer in the daily Cunhu2. Semsi Denizer, Milliyet, January 13, 1991. 3. Declaration at the end of the march on January 9,
alternative to
ALGERIA by the Gulf crisis. Whereas it has given the impression of condemning the foreign presence, President Chadli, in the course of a television broadcast, pronounced himself very energetically against the invasion of Kuwait.
In fact, the government is in a contrafundamentalism dictory situation — it must condemn the foreign presence in the Gulf, so as not to go against the general sentiment of the country, and, at the same time, placate its western "partners".
The attitude of the regime, like that of
LONG awaited by the partisans of Ait Ahmed, leader of the
Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), the demonstration of
December 27, 1990, in Algiers, attracted some tens of thousands of people.
The day before, the Algerian parliament had adopted a law on
Arabization, making the use of any language other than Arabic punishable by a fine. In its majority Kabylia [Berber], the FFS was able to profit from this show of strength and to channel popular discontent as much against the rise of religious fundamentalism as against the regime.
For the latter, the law is above all about outbidding the fundamentalists. It appears more as an error on the part of the regime than a deliberate manoeuvre. Indeed, it seems rather misjudged in the light of its tactic, followed until now, of seeking to draw all bourgeois opposition to the Islamic
Salvation Front (FIS) into a common front at the second round of the next legislative elections.
CHAWKI SALHI
G