How to Stand Against the Attacks? The Experience of Maden-İş Union Shows the Way

We are experiencing sweltering summer days as a result of the scorching temperatures. But there is a fact that makes these summer months even more sweltering for workers and labourers: we are rapidly getting poorer! When the minimum wage was set at 11,402 liras on 20 June, it was equal to 482 dollars. It fell to $451 on June 24, when the decision was published officially, and to $423 a month later. The government proudly announced the pay raise as if it was a great blessing. But it melted away before workers received it. On the other hand, on July 31, Türk-İş announced that the hunger threshold for a family of 4 reached 11,658 liras. The new minimum wage had been set in the name of “protecting workers from inflation”. But within just one month, it fell below the hunger threshold. It is really a dizzying speed, isn’t it?

Under these conditions, the pay raises resulting from collective bargaining agreements are also melting away. The wages of unionized workers are rapidly falling to the level of the minimum wage. Indeed, the Central Bank has admitted in a published research that the minimum wage has rapidly become widespread as a “general wage”. In other words, the poverty threshold is almost 38,000 liras, whereas general wage amounts to a third of that. On the other hand, income tax brackets are kept low. Moreover, the ceiling for severance pay is decreased through various tricks. On top of that, VAT and SCT rates hit record highs. Hence, the government has taken back much more than it had given. On his first day in office, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said, “Turkey has no choice but to return to a rational ground.” We are all experiencing what it means to return to the “rational ground” in the vocabulary of the capitalist class.

While the workers and labourers are being subjected to all these, all resources continue to be transferred capital under the name of incentives, tenders, loans, and public-private cooperation projects. And all these are taking place in the name of protecting and stabilizing the economy! It’s all plain as day: workers and labourers are paying the price of economic destruction and the bill of the crisis.The capitalist class is enriching itself, while making the working class pay the bill! The bill is exacerbating with all kinds of political repression such as bans on strikes, the use of police violence against villagers who want to protect their forests, and the arrest of farmers who protest the gasoline price increases!

So, here is the question that needs to be answered: Why is the working class unable to resist such massive attacks and give a meaningful response? How is it that the capitalist class in Turkey does not face strong resistance to these wide-ranging attacks, which brought about massive demonstrations and strikes in other countries? The wave of impoverishment, which has shaken the lives of workers and labourers, surely caused discontent and reactions. But why did such discontent and reaction produce no meaningful result? Workers and labourers are expressing their discontent against the hikes, the cost of living, low wages and the usurpation of their rights in various ways. In fact, we see that workers in many cities across Turkey express their reactions with demonstrations. But why don’t these actions grow, spread further and finally reach a level that can stop attacks of the capitalist class?

Workers’ Solidarity has answered these questions many times.We emphasized the effects of the historical-cultural background that prevented the progress of the working class movement in this country. We analysed the effects of the 1980 military fascist coup. We pointed out the effects of the government’s polarization policy and how it poisons workers with nationalism. But as we repeatedly underlined, despite this background, the working class has a way out. The rise of the class movement in Turkey during the 1960s and 1970s shows how we can overcome this background and stand against the attacks: through combative class unionism, strong trade unions, strong political organizations and a strong working class!

During 1960s and 1970s, Maden-İş, the union of metal workers, established combative class trade unionism in Turkey. Thus, the working class movement in Turkey became more powerful than ever. In those years, the working class was able to show a great resistance against the attacks of the capitalist class on its economic, democratic and political rights. For, Kemal Türkler and his comrades had transformed Maden-İş into a true workers’ organisation. They had rejected the trade unionism of Türk-İş confederation, which was controlled by the state and the bosses. Such a trade unionism was in stark contrast with the general interests of the working class.Against this line, they founded a new confederation of trade unions, DİSK in 1967 in order to advocate the line of combative and independent class trade unionism. Maden-İş was the backbone of DİSK. At Maden-İş, Kemal Türkler opened the doors for combative and revolutionary workers and socialists. This is what gave Maden-İş its distinctive character and paved the way for the class movement. Over time, Maden-İş and the working class made each other stronger.

Maden-İş was a great centre of attraction for workers.It was a true class organisation where meetings, discussions, trainings, new organisations were planned and problems were discussed. In the regular trainings held in the workplaces where Maden-İş was organised, workers learned about the history of the working class, their struggles against the bosses, their rights and political interests. Having gained class consciousness, workers were also taking part in political organisations and active struggle. They were winning over fellow workers to the struggle. Having realised where their power came from and what they could achieve when united, the workers from Maden-İş were putting into practice what they had learned, starting from their own workplaces. At the beginning of the collective bargaining processes, workers were coming together in all departments to determine their demands and draw a struggle line around their demands. This method was spreading from factory to factory and sector to sector. In 1970s, unions from different sectors acted in concert with Maden-İş in collective bargaining processes. Thus emerged a united and powerful working class image.

In the struggles led by Maden-İş, workers were gaining class consciousness, getting organised at the grassroots level and turning into a true power. The chairman of Maden-İş, Türkler, was not one of those trade union bureaucrats who bowed down to the bosses and limited themselves to mere wage and sectoral unionism. He was sharing a common fate and spirit with the workers.As a result, workers had a great confidence in their union. The calls of Maden-İş were finding echo among workers, who were bravely taking up harsh challenges. The workers were getting united as the working class of Turkey, building a working class front against the capitalist front. Under the roof of DİSK, they were protecting not only their economic rights but also their democratic and political rights. They were standing up against governments and holding them to account. They were leading the society.

Back to today... The trade unions, which should be the fighting organisations of the working class, are in the hands of trade union bureaucrats who consider the unions as their own fiefdoms. In the face of the serious problems of the working class, these bureaucrats limit themselves with face-saving press statements. They argue that politics should not be allowed into the unions, while keeping the doors wide open to bourgeois politics. They consider combative class unionism and the workers defending politics of the working class as enemies. They do not even hesitate to collaborate with the bosses to dismiss class-conscious and struggling workers from their workplaces. Just like the government, they are trying to divide and rule the workers in factories, strikes and resistances in order to stay in power. This mentality has nothing to do with the trade unionism of Maden-İş and Kemal Türkler. It can by no means create confidence among workers or encourage them. This is the main reason why the working class of Turkey is unable to stand up against the attacks.

So, in order to stand up against the attacks of the capitalist class, we must first remove the first obstacle in our way. We must fight against the collaborative, bureaucratic trade unionism in order to raise our unions again. We must make the combative class trade unionism, once represented by Kemal Türkler and Maden-İş, dominant again. As workers, the task confronting us is to organise in our workplaces, overcome conciliatory trade unionism, reclaim our unions and turn them into truly combative organisations.