A DELEGATION from the of Public Servants Trade Unions (KESK) visited Britain in September to meet British workers and raise support for their struggle for workers rights and democracy, and against the vicious war in Kurdistan. Sefik Türk, a primary school teacher from Diyarbakir, spoke to Socialist Outlook about this struggle. KESK was established in 1985. Its founding principles are members' democracy, workers' rights, equality, and peace. From 1990, government workers had previously had been fighting for the right to join a Although this has now been granted, and about 500,000 workers in 22 different unions organise through KESK, it is not recognised. Since 1990, over 200 trade union members have been murdered by government forces while carrying out trade union activity.
Other union members have been relocated from their homes to distant parts of the country; often, they are sent to areas with a strong fascist presence. KESK currently seeks to achieve two goals: to restore the right to strike, and to end the war in Kurdistan. As Sefik stressed, until the war ends, there will be no workers' rights and no democracy in Turkey. The government is spending $40 billion a year on the war, which is thus a main cause of the low wages. Inflation has been over 100% over the past year, but public sector wages have risen by only 25%. Some 12 to 15 million workers are unemployed, nearly 60% of the workforce. The repression, the lack of recognition and the denial of the right to strike mean that many workers see no point in joining unions; many civil servants are not in a union, while millions of workers have been threatened with the sack if they join.
Teachers' strike
Despite this, workers continue to strike. Last year, for example, 4000 teachers in Diyarbakir went on strike before the January wage round. This brought no results. A subsequent union meeting in March in Ankara was attacked by police with dogs and tear gas.
On 28 August, the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) announced a unilateral ceasefire in its war with the Turkish state, and called on the government to open negotiations. KESK welcomed this step, and took part with others in rallies in Ankara and Diyarbakir calling for a positive government response.
Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested. If the government refuses to talk directly to the PKK, says Sefik, then they should talk to the legal - but severely repressed -Hadep party. However, the banning of a rally planned by Hadep in Diyarbakir on 27 September shows that the government has no intention of accepting the ceasefire. No freedom Although millions of Turks would support a ceasefire, there is little prospect, says Sefik, of mass political struggle to achieve this, since there is no freedom of association, speech or publication, human rights offices have been closed by the government, and peace activists are under constant attack. PKK President Abdullah Ocalan has warned that, if the government rejects the PKK's offer the war will spread through Turkey. In this war, Turkey will continue to gain the support of the British and other western governments. Despite all the froth about an 'ethical foreign policy', Britain continues to sell arms to Turkey, its NATO ally Britain - most recently, 800 armoured continues to sell personnel carriarms to Turkey, most ers. recently, 800 These arms are used directly armoured personnel in the Turkish carriers. government's near-genocidal attacks on the Kurds, who form some 20% of Turkey's population. In the course of this conflict, 50,000 people have been killed, and the government has burned 3000 villages to the ground. Thousands of Kurdish refugees have fled Turkey and neighbouring Iraq. In an attempt to prevent them entering Western Europe, the EU is establishing internment camps under Turkish military control, according to "Statewatch" Magazine Despite its alliance with NATO and the EU, Turkey's application for admission to the EU is being delayed. Officially, this is because the EU is concerned at civil rights in Turkey, and its role in the Cyprus conflict.
Although this may be part of the reason, it is clear that the real concern is the possible admission of a state with such huge unemployment, which could lead to large-scale immigration to Western Europe, and capital transfers to Turkey from the EU budget. At present, such transfers would merely subsidise the war in Kurdistan, rather than developing the Turkish economy.
A new and disturbing factor in the Turkish crisis is the deepening alliance with Israel, based on a treaty signed last year enabling Israeli pilots to conduct "training flights" in Turkey. The Turkish press reports that Israelis are now piloting Turkish military planes in attacks in Kurdistan.
Meanwhile, Turkey has threatened Syria with attack if it does not withdraw support from the PKK and hand over Ocalan - currently based in Damascus - for trial in Turkey. Turkey and Syria have long had an unresolved territorial dispute over the incorporation of the coastal Hatay region into Turkey.
There are also serious disagreements about water resources; Syria claims that irrigation schemes in Anatolia and the construction of What was that about "ethics" in foreign policy, Robin? the Ataturk dam on the Euphrates in Turkey are depriving it of the water necessary for its economy. The latest developments, combined with Israeli involvement, threaten to ignite a further war in the region.
With a collapsing economy, a vicious war, a restless military, a succession of corrupt civilian governments, and a banned Islamist party, the Turkish state is in possibly terminal crisis.
Turkey's workers are paying the economic and social price for this. The trade union movement in Britain must extend its full solidarity to trade unionists in Turkey. • Further information on trade union rights in Turkey and on the war in Kurdistan can be obtained from the Kurdistan Information Centre, 10 Glasshouse Yard, London ECIA 4JN. Phone 0171 250 1315; fax 0171 250 1317; e-mail [email protected]