Turkish trade unions in death throes
Restrictive laws and government hostility have crippled Turkey’s once-mighty labor movement, which made a poor showing this May Day.
On May 1, 1977, a human sea of 500,000 workers packed Istanbul’s Taksim Square, flowing in from all over Turkey. Kemal Turkler, the head of the Revolutionary Labor Unions Confederation (DISK, Turkey’s largest leftist trade union), was in the middle of his speech when bullets rained on the crowd from the 10th floor of a hotel and the roof of a public building, both overlooking the square.
Panic led to a deadly stampede. The death toll, announced the following day, included 28 people crushed, one overrun by an armored vehicle and five killed by gunfire, in addition to 136 injured. The scenes of chaos remained engraved deep in Turkish memory.
May Day in Turkey unmistakably evokes Taksim Square. Workers insist on remembering their comrades at the spot they died. This year, Istanbul's governor banned May Day commemorations at Taksim, telling workers to gather in Maltepe or Yenikapi, away from the heart of the city.
Trade unions, however, were resolute. Ali Berberoglu, a senior member of the Public Workers Unions Confederation (KESK), challenged the government on Halk TV late on April 30, saying, “Our martyrs fell at Taksim, and that’s where we are going to remember them. Where do we commemorate the Gallipoli martyrs? At Gallipoli, right?”
