The Turkish government is one of the biggest supporters of US policy in the Middle East. There are many US bases in Turkey and all the US nuclear weapons in the Middle East are stored there. The Turkish government is enthusiastically pro-war. Turkish workers, however, are fighting back and demanding "No to War".
48,000 miners in Zonguldak struck on December 1 in the biggest all out industrial action in Turkey since the military coup in 1980. There have been daily massive demonstrations in Zonguldak. 6,000 women took to the streets. Shops in Zonguldak were closed for two days in solidarity and parents did not send their children to school for three days to show their support. The Government is threatening pit closures and has closures and has brought tens of thousands of soldiers and police to the region from other provinces.
120,000 engineering workers have now also gone on strike, and on January 3 1991, 1.5 million workers went on a one day General Strike. The Turkish Government has used the danger of the Gulf War as an excuse for banning the strikes, but workers have ignored the bans and made "No To War" one of their main slogans.
On January 4, 80,000 miners, miners' wives and supporters set out to march the 150 miles from Zonguldak, a mining area on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, to Ankara the capital. On January 6, they were stopped by barricades and tanks set up by troops and police after getting a third of the way to Ankara. 326 miners were arrested. The miners have now marched back to Zonguldak, but their strike continues. And millions of other workers in Turkey are due to strike soon. All of these workers face the prospect of their strikes being banned, with the Gulf War being used as the excuse.
In Turkey the official rate of inflation is 55%, the true rate is probably closer to 80%. An average worker has to work half and hour to earn the price of a loaf of bread, 7 hours to earn the price of a kilo of meat and 800 hours to earn the price of a refrigerator! Since the military coup in 1980, the share of wages in the national income has fallen from 43% to 17.4%.
These new workers' actions represent an important new beginning of the workers movement in Turkey after the defeats imposed by the military coup in 1980. The miners are saying "a victory for us will be a victory for all". Their opposition to the war, in a country so close to the conflict means that our struggle is linked to theirs.