From the class struggle: The Programme Congress Egitim-Sen
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It is possible to see in almost every country the effects of the attacks of the world bourgeoisie to break the organisation of the working class and the labourers, to prevent the organisation of them in trade unions and other organisations and to make them passive and individualist. For the working class to put these attacks in vain, to show the will of adopting an understanding and a position of struggle based on its class identity and to struggle for its class interests for its future, its level of organisation and the situation of its relations with its own vanguard party is determinant. Its struggle under the conditions and processes where its relation with the vanguard is weak always shows a vacillating character and it will be inevitable for it to be defeated.
The proletariat and the labourers of Turkey and Northern Kurdistan also suffer from the same attack or disorganising the class. There has been a continuous decrease for the last years in the level of organisation and struggle of the trade unions of the class. Beside other factors, the bourgeois reformist and pacifist trade union leaders who have swarmed at the unions play an important role in the creation of such a situation. There is no doubt that these temporary defeats which the trade unions as a part of the economic-democratic struggle suffer are not the end of everything, but they cannot be disregarded at all.
The struggling unions in Turkey and N. Kurdistan do not only suffer from the attacks of the bosses but also they are being exposed to the attacks of the state. There are trade unions which have the understanding of trade unions based on class identity. Two examples of this line are Limter-Is and Tekstil-Sen whose voice is being tried to shut down trough the imprisonment of their leaders but which continue their struggle resolutely despite many costs. But beside these unions, there are many trade unions and trade union leaders who have reformist and pacifist understandings of trade union struggle and who step back in face of the attacks of the state.
Egitim-Sen (Union of Education and Science Labourers) which is affiliated to KESK (Confederation of the Unions of Public Employees) was founded in the beginning of the 90s through legitimate struggle in the streets and at many costs such as the other unions of the public employees. Its foundation and its struggle played an important role in changing the process of depolitization and pacification by the military fascist junta of the coup in 1980. It also had an important role within KESK. In 2000s, due to its leaderships who disregarded the dynamics and the initiative of the basis that created it and because of the fact that it failed at giving the necessary respond with the help of the basis to the continuous attacks of the state, let away achieving new rights, it came to the position of not even protecting the rights which had already been achieved, it was weakened and at last, it lost its right for collective negotiation. It suffered a decrease of members on one hand and the distance between the masses and the union came to the level of alienation.
Egitim-Sen has lost its line of struggling; it has restricted itself with the borders of the present system and it has surrendered to the state by omitting the article about defending the right of education in mother language instead of conducting a struggle to overcome the state's threats of closing it. These facts cannot be dealt with without taking it into consideration that there are bourgeois reformist understandings that dominate in this union.
On 6-9 February, Egitim-Sen organised a Programme Congress in Ankara. Approximately 200 delegates and many guests attended to the Congress, which had been decided at the last General Congress of the union but it was able to be organised only after being postponed for several times. The guests and academicians presented 12 contributions in the Congress while 150 delegates spoke on the stage about the draft programme that was prepared as two parts. But the alienation of the leadership of the union to the base was seen in the fact that the contributions of the academicians were given more importance both in sense of time slot and in sense of the influence of their words. By this way, the opportunity for the bases to express themselves was restricted. Many delegates expressed that the way of organisation of the Congress was anti-democratic and they reacted against the restriction of the time slot for the delegates while on the other hand, the academicians spoke as long as they needed. As a result, the Programme Congress was not able to bring the initiative of the bases to open.
On the other hand, labouring public employees affiliated to ESP (Socialist Platform of the Oppressed) carried out a series of activities in order to involve the base of Egitim-Sen in this Programme Congress. They concluded this work with a "Preparation Symposium for the Programme Congress of Egitim-Sen" which they organised in Ankara on 5-6 February. The participation of the representatives of some other trade unions and of the students beside public employees at the Symposium and at the discussions on the ways of overcoming the crisis of the trade unions should be emphasised as another positive aspect. After the free discussion of their problems, the public employees affiliated to ESP have published their demands as a pamphlet and carried it to the Programme Congress as a suggestion. The content of it was that Egitim-Sen should mobilise its base-organisations, it should defend the common organisation of the workers and public employees in some areas and that it should achieve the further democratisation of the union in order to overcome the crisis that it has been stuck into.
 

 

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From the class struggle: The Programme Congress Egitim-Sen
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It is possible to see in almost every country the effects of the attacks of the world bourgeoisie to break the organisation of the working class and the labourers, to prevent the organisation of them in trade unions and other organisations and to make them passive and individualist. For the working class to put these attacks in vain, to show the will of adopting an understanding and a position of struggle based on its class identity and to struggle for its class interests for its future, its level of organisation and the situation of its relations with its own vanguard party is determinant. Its struggle under the conditions and processes where its relation with the vanguard is weak always shows a vacillating character and it will be inevitable for it to be defeated.
The proletariat and the labourers of Turkey and Northern Kurdistan also suffer from the same attack or disorganising the class. There has been a continuous decrease for the last years in the level of organisation and struggle of the trade unions of the class. Beside other factors, the bourgeois reformist and pacifist trade union leaders who have swarmed at the unions play an important role in the creation of such a situation. There is no doubt that these temporary defeats which the trade unions as a part of the economic-democratic struggle suffer are not the end of everything, but they cannot be disregarded at all.
The struggling unions in Turkey and N. Kurdistan do not only suffer from the attacks of the bosses but also they are being exposed to the attacks of the state. There are trade unions which have the understanding of trade unions based on class identity. Two examples of this line are Limter-Is and Tekstil-Sen whose voice is being tried to shut down trough the imprisonment of their leaders but which continue their struggle resolutely despite many costs. But beside these unions, there are many trade unions and trade union leaders who have reformist and pacifist understandings of trade union struggle and who step back in face of the attacks of the state.
Egitim-Sen (Union of Education and Science Labourers) which is affiliated to KESK (Confederation of the Unions of Public Employees) was founded in the beginning of the 90s through legitimate struggle in the streets and at many costs such as the other unions of the public employees. Its foundation and its struggle played an important role in changing the process of depolitization and pacification by the military fascist junta of the coup in 1980. It also had an important role within KESK. In 2000s, due to its leaderships who disregarded the dynamics and the initiative of the basis that created it and because of the fact that it failed at giving the necessary respond with the help of the basis to the continuous attacks of the state, let away achieving new rights, it came to the position of not even protecting the rights which had already been achieved, it was weakened and at last, it lost its right for collective negotiation. It suffered a decrease of members on one hand and the distance between the masses and the union came to the level of alienation.
Egitim-Sen has lost its line of struggling; it has restricted itself with the borders of the present system and it has surrendered to the state by omitting the article about defending the right of education in mother language instead of conducting a struggle to overcome the state's threats of closing it. These facts cannot be dealt with without taking it into consideration that there are bourgeois reformist understandings that dominate in this union.
On 6-9 February, Egitim-Sen organised a Programme Congress in Ankara. Approximately 200 delegates and many guests attended to the Congress, which had been decided at the last General Congress of the union but it was able to be organised only after being postponed for several times. The guests and academicians presented 12 contributions in the Congress while 150 delegates spoke on the stage about the draft programme that was prepared as two parts. But the alienation of the leadership of the union to the base was seen in the fact that the contributions of the academicians were given more importance both in sense of time slot and in sense of the influence of their words. By this way, the opportunity for the bases to express themselves was restricted. Many delegates expressed that the way of organisation of the Congress was anti-democratic and they reacted against the restriction of the time slot for the delegates while on the other hand, the academicians spoke as long as they needed. As a result, the Programme Congress was not able to bring the initiative of the bases to open.
On the other hand, labouring public employees affiliated to ESP (Socialist Platform of the Oppressed) carried out a series of activities in order to involve the base of Egitim-Sen in this Programme Congress. They concluded this work with a "Preparation Symposium for the Programme Congress of Egitim-Sen" which they organised in Ankara on 5-6 February. The participation of the representatives of some other trade unions and of the students beside public employees at the Symposium and at the discussions on the ways of overcoming the crisis of the trade unions should be emphasised as another positive aspect. After the free discussion of their problems, the public employees affiliated to ESP have published their demands as a pamphlet and carried it to the Programme Congress as a suggestion. The content of it was that Egitim-Sen should mobilise its base-organisations, it should defend the common organisation of the workers and public employees in some areas and that it should achieve the further democratisation of the union in order to overcome the crisis that it has been stuck into.