Turkish workers movement after 1980 coup by 144.5%. Thus, it is obvious what sort 10 to 15%, with the back pay given only
In a previous article, I discussed the development and struggle of the Turkish working class before the September 12, 1980, military coup.
In this article, I will outline the attacks on the working class by the junta after the coup and the junta's preparation of a new labor code. I will also try to give a general picture of the economic, social, and cultural situation of the militant Turkish working class, the largest in the Middle East.
The coup that put the present military regime in power in Turkey on September 12, 1980, was carried out over the night of a Thursday and the early mornof a Friday. In the morning a curfew was
Thus, the coup's organizers made sure that they would have three days in which the workers would be scattered in order to intimidate the working class. How successful they were became clear on the morning of Monday, September 15. Millions of workers, including 58,000 who had been on strike, quietly filed into the factories.
The new National Security Council banned activity by DISK and two other small confederations. The DISK leaders were detained. After a time passed, the national, district, and factory officials of unions affiliated to DISK were called on to surrender. This demand was projected in a muted but threatening way over TV and radio and through the press. trade union officials were themselves on such and such a day at such and such an hour at the martial law command centers.
On the day in question, thousands of union officials and rank-and-file leaders formed long lines outside the martial law centers. This was much more the result of the weariness, demoralization, and atmosphere of disorderly retreat in the of a blow a 70% raise over the next two years was for the workers.
On the other hand, the National Security Council announced through the martial law command centers that layoffs were frozen. It was also announced that those workers who resigned from one union could not join another until a further order was issued (this decision still remains in effect). The first decree did put layoffs under the purview and control of the martial law command cen-
This very often led to complaints from the bosses. However, it was an important instrument in the junta's demagogic effort to present itself as above
So, the military may intend to apply it for a certain time.
The decree freezing trade-union membership was a different matter. would have been relatively easy to force TURK-Is. But this would have the eifect of uniting the workers and lead inevitably to a revival of trade-union acti-
Instead, the Junta chose to act to And it is indisputable that in this the junta was successful.
The September 12 Junta has deon many occasions its determination to apply the economic measures that were adopted on January 24, accordance with the directives of the International Monetary Fund. gram was aimed both at accomplishing conjunctural objectives-stopping inflation and achieving a stable equilibrium in the balance of payment-and at carrying out a broad capitalist restructuring of the
A NEW SYSTEM OF "LABOR RELATIONS" In order to accomplish these aims in the short term, a new system of labor regulations was adopted. On January 4, 1981, pending the drafting of a new lain periodic installments of 3,000 to 5,000 lira (respectively about US dollars 20 and
These derisory wage increases represent an absolute decline in the buying power of workers since September 1980. Along with such low raises, the contracts drawn up by the high court contain provisions restricting time off, increasing the workday by eliminating paid hours, for example, and eliminating job security. They include provisions doing away with various social services.
Along with the immediate financial consequences of the new contract workers, the junta has made a lot of changes in the "laws" relating to workers. after the coup, the workers' rights to seniority pay severely restricted, and these measures were made retroac-
Under the new social security law, pensions fell below the minimum wage, and pension fund deductions were creased. The retirement age was raised by
Deductions started being again from workers wages for health services. By eliminating some legal holidays, the junta increased the effective
After September 12, the minimum wage was set at 10 thousand lira monthly (about US dollars 67). Even the TURK-Is leaders walked out of the talks on the minimum wage, and the decision was by the representatives of the government and the bosses alone.
THE WILL OF THE WORKERS NOT BROKEN From the great majority working class, there was no active response to these attacks. The whole development I described in my first article explains why a strong reaction could not be expected. But even with 100,000 people in prison, or rather in concentraworking class than it was of the junta's code, union contracts were to be tion camps; torture; the killings; and
With this de- other such creed by the junta was that all labor contracts were to include a 70% raise and that was to be final. If you consider that the contracts signed before September 12 included raises never under 100% and often 200% or 300%, it becomes clear what this raise amounted to. According even to the official statistics, prices had increased between May 1979 and May 1980 handled by the high court. cision, labor relations in Turkey returned to the practices followed in the 1950s. A nine-person tribunal prepared all the confor millions of Hundreds of thousands of workers are still being paid on the basis of contracts signed in 1979. They are still waiting for their 1981 contracts. Some contracts for 1981 provide only for raises of practices by the state, the working class has raised its voice in a few places. Thus, in the summer of 1981, there were five unofficial and two in Izmir. These were also the vanguard areas of the workers struggle in the 1960s and 1970s.
In engineering plants and foundries, petrochemical plants, and textile mills, actions such as occupations, strikes, lunch boycotts, and work stoppages have been carried out. Some of these actions have
certain industries to the entire industry. throughout the capitalist world. It canlasted only a few hours, some a few days. But they have involved significant numbers of workers.
These illegal strikes have come over demands for raises, work safety measures, reduction in work hours, and for the restoration of holidays. And they have all been successful.
The 10% wage increases in the 1981 contracts provoked protests in Istanbul, especially by many workers in plants that were in the front line of the struggle in the 1970s. They took the form of lunch boycotts (actions in which workers refuse to go to the lunchroom together at time) and slowdowns. None of these actions went beyond economic demands, and they all involved a very small part of the working class. In particular, they were short-lived "blow
These actions are by no means sufficient to indicate a new upturn in the workers movement. However, it can be said that these actions demonstrate that even in extremely repressive it has not been possible to break the determination of the working
It is not clear how long or in what forms the military dictatorship will remain in power. But it is clear that it intends to restructure the society for a long after it itself The text of the new trade-union law was made public in December 1981.
the provisions strikes and collective bargaining (which are to be the subject of future laws), this draft outlines the basic features of the new labor code that is being drawn up. It is framed to be the completion of the structural changes initiated by the 1980
The junta is not offering the prospect of a future without labor unions to a working class that has gone through twenty years experience of trade-union and of winning gains through The military's objective with the new labor code is to reduce the role of unions and subject them to bureaucratic
The features of this system can be -Contracts of one to three years duration. This is the same as the old law. But the new law introduced the "principle of contracts for an indefinite period," which would keep the price of labor the same for an undetermined period.
-It seeks to block the signing of contracts for individual workplaces. This procedure would increase the influence of vent the more backward sections of the working class from following the example given by the more advanced and experienced workers through successful strikes and the winning of favorable contracts.
-To extend contracts signed by unions representing 25% of the workers in
This means that a few big unions, or more precisely a handful of trade-union bureaucrats, could make the contracts for millions of workers. (On the other hand, the result of this high degree of bureaucratic centralization might be to prepare the way for general strikes on an unprecedented scale. Time will tell.)
-Restrictions on resigning from, and joining, trade unions. (This meant severely restricting the rights of workers to their trade union affiliation and consolidating the bureaucratic structure.)
-In order to be able to sign unions have to represent at least 10% of workers in an industry. (The aim is to prevent more than one trade union in the same work place. The old system has been criticized as creating union inflation" by the bosses.)
-Only a minimum of seven unions can form a confederation. they are trying to form the conditions for
"single trade-union confederation.")
THE POLITICAL EDUCATION OF
THE WORKING CLASS It is useful to take a look at some of the changes that have been developing in the last twenty years in the ideological, political, cultural, and moral life of the working class.
The leading cadres of the Turkish working class have played an extremely important role in the vast social struggle that has shaken the country over the past
On the basis of the rich experience of the economic, political, and ideological struggles of these two decades, the working class has risen to the threshhold of becoming an experienced proletariat with correspondingly greater capacity for struggle.
This degree of political maturity is not the result only of its own experience in struggle. It has learned lessons from the radicalization of broad layers of the petty bourgeoisie and youth.
In the last twenty years, there has been an extraordinary politicization and mobilization of the middle classes, the petty bourgeoisie, youth. These have produced an extremely rich experience. Hundreds of thousands of people, most often in the name of socialism, have participated in myriad forms of political struggle, from the most basic agitation to various forms of armed struggle, huge mass demonstrations, unofficial strikes, and occasional street battles. And in conditions of relative legality this experience represented a higher level of consciousness than the sort of struggles would have in illegal conditions.
Of course, illusions also developed, and there was disillusionment and demoralization. But despite that, all this rich experience will be an important factor in the future in the rise of the struggle of the working class to new heights.
The Turkish working class has been subjected to the same sort of ideological conducted by bourgeoisies not be said that in the last twenty years much of an antidote to this has been produced. This, of course, is the result of the newness and weakness of the Turkish Marxist movement.
In connection with this weakness, a few things should be said about the relationship between the workers movement and the left currents. The workers' experience of general political organization lagged far behind the experience they gained in trade-union struggles.
The spread of political movements into the ranks of worker militants was essentially a development of the 1970s. But comparing the strength of the left political currents in general with the strength these currents had in the working class produces some interesting results. The Turkish military junta (DR)
Before September 12, all the self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist be said without exaggeration to have had periodicals with a total circulation of over
But the number of worker readers could not have been more than 10 to 20 thousand. Students, teachers, civil servants, and the unemployed (unemployed" in the sense of not having worked yet, young people coming from various strata of the petty bourgeoise) were incomparably far ahead of the working class in mass political action and or-
This predominance of the middle layers was a feature of all political tendencies, including the left currents that existed in the working class.
I am not overlooking the fact that after 1975 the illegal Turkish Communist Party won a number of elements in the DISK bureaucracy as well as a not inconsiderable number of working-class activists to its ranks. Despite the great loss of credibility by the CP inspired current in the bureaucracy, and the general ebb in the workers movement this caused, the influence of the Communist Party among workers affiliated to DISK ( and at the the bureaucracy of the DISK) is something that has to be taken seriously. Indeed, a lot of other vanguard workers joined various political currents.
But among the members and sympathizers of the Communist Party, as well as of the other big organizations and currents, workers were a small minority.
It can scarcely be said that, apart from acquainting the workers in a general way with socialism, all these political organizations and currents played a positive role in the political education of the working class. In particular, from a theoretical standpoint, these groups were sunk in ideological confusion, and cannot be said to have played a positive role.
In general, the public organs of the left currents, the union organs that were controlled by them, and the educational efforts of their militants within the unions remained within the framework of bourgeois methods of thought. But they did not fail to introduce the workers to new questions, new conceptions, and new ideas. After a ten-year period of stagnation, this represented an extraordinary leap.
Moreover, with the big increase in the translation, publishing, and distribution of Marxist literature, a lot of Marxist readers. The Turkish population is predominantly young. Some 60% of the population is under the age of nineteen, and this is also true of the working class. youthfulness was one of the important factors in the openness of the vanguard to new ideas.
On the other hand, it would be correct to say that the working class represents a culturally advanced section of the
Some statistics from eight years ago can give an idea of this.
Interviews with 56 thousand workers in the engineering and metals industry produced the picture shown by the following table:
Unable to Either Read or Write Able Only to Read and Write Primary School Diploma (5 year course) High School (8 year course) Preparatory School (11 year course) University Education
In this industry in 1974, about 13% of the workers had been working more than ten years. Today, these older and educationally more disadvantaged workers would be retired or about to retire.
So, even these statistics collected eight years ago among workers in big industrial cities showed an insignificant number of illiterates.
Moreover, beginning in the early 1970s, the number of preparatory school graduates who did not go on to university was every year in the hundreds of thou-
These masses of youth were destined for jobs in the technically advanced plants. In fact, a lot of plants are making a high school or preparatory school diploma a condition for employment.
All these indicators of the educational level of the working class show that there is a firm basis for the development
Furthermore, following the rapid growth of capitalist relations and institutions in the country and 55 years of secularism, the influence of religion on the working class (in particular in comparison with the more backward sections of the urban petty bourgeoisie and the peasants)
An indication of this weakness of religion among workers is the fact that HAK-Is and MISK, the first a religious labor confederation and the second a fascist one, were able to attract only a few tens of thousands of workers. In the big cities in particular, "religious" workers are only a tiny minority. In fact, since the bourgeoisie was to a certain extent aware of this fact, religious themes and instruments have not been much used in the ideological attack on the working class.
### FASCIST MOVEMENT
The fact is that in the 1970s, the world's strongest fascist movement appeared in Turkey. The fascist party showed its ability to get more than a million votes. The fascist youth movement had thousands of members. The fact that in the last few years, this movement murdered about 3,000 progressives and radicals indicates how strong it was.
Moreover, for a period of more than two years following 1975, the fas-
So, it was able to root itself at various levels of the state machine. In partistrength in the army.
3.69 % 13.68 % 69.27 % 6.05 % 6.79 % 0.52%
However, despite all this, the fascist movement's assault on the working class was comparatively feeble. In the first place, the fascist movement was relatively weak in the big industrial cities. For example, the fascist party's overall vote potential was 10%, but it got only 3% of the vote in Istanbul.
The fascists had total control over a great many cities and towns in Anatolia, considerable organized striking power, and support by the state forces. But they were not able to extend their domination to Istanbul and most other industrial cities, outside of a few peripheral areas.
Of course, the fascist movement has been able to make serious attacks on certain positions of the working class, and in some places won significant influence. For example, in 1975-76, major fascist attacks were made on the 19,000 workers in the Iskenderun iron and steel works in 6,000 workers at the Aluminym works in a town in central Anatolia, and the 7,000 workers at the Taris textile factory in the major industrial city of Izmir, and in the Bursa automobile factory.
In these attacks, about ten workers were killed. And the advanced union organizations in Iskenderun and the Aluminyum workers were defeated. But the successes the reactionary unions achieved in these areas with the help of the fascists were not followed up by other successes in the big cities. They were not a factor in the decline and demoralization of the workers movement.
The fascist movement's attacks on advanced sectors of the population outside of the industrial working class, however, were very extensive. The great bulk of those murdered by the fascists were students, white-collar workers, and tea-
Since the fascist assaults were directed at targets mainly outside the trade-union struggles, to a certain extent the working class stood aside from the antifascist struggle. Thus, it can be said that in the area of struggle against tascism, the experience of the working class remained insufficient.
the September 12 military dictatorship is attacking a working class with a considerable tradition. drive the Turkish working class, which despite its newness won unusually strong positions for a working class in a neocolonial country, back to the stagnation that existed before 1960, back to a low level of political consciousness?
Can this energetic and militant working class be kept penned up for a long period by repressive laws, oppression, and violence? To believe that, you would have to be an extremely optimistic dictatorship or an extremely pessimistic revolutionist.