The Path-breaking Power of the Zone-wide Strike at Tuzla*
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A zone-wide strike means overcoming the disintegration of the working class due to flexible and lawless working. This would also mean that a zone-wide strike is at the same time a political action as an answer given and as a posture shown by the shipbuilding workers by founding their class unity against the neoliberal attacks of capital. Besides the demands already declared, the strike included at the same time the shipyard workers' struggle for the right of strike, who work for subcontractors and who because of that do not have an official union they could belong to.

01 December 2008 / Red Dawn / Issue 13

Spring came along with the shipbuilders' struggle

On February 27-28, 2008, the shipbuilding workers of Tuzla went into action as if they wanted to confirm the optimistic and hopeful foresights and expectations for 2008 from the revolutionary point of view. It was as if nature was welcoming the spring. Such as the first lights of the spring, the fire of the struggle of the shipbuilding workers who stood up against hard and brutal working conditions, which is a paradise for neoliberal exploitation, was lighted in the ranks of the working class and the oppressed. Suddenly the slogans "hope is in the struggle", "hope is in unity" and "hope is here" were raised from the Tuzla shipyards, and the most sensitive among the labour and freedom forces started turning their faces towards Tuzla. Without hesitating, they shared their power for the fight and their wishes for success with the shipbuilding workers and the union Limter-Is (Port, Dock, Ship Building And Repair Workers' Union). Those who have a problem with the policies of neoliberal attack of imperialist globalisation, with the collaborating capitalist system and the regime went to the ranks of the shipbuilding workers.
They made a contribution to the success of a very important stage of Limter-Is and the Tuzla shipbuilding workers' struggle.
The Tuzla shipbuilding workers have successfully passed a stage and have won a very important battle. Tuzla shipyards are no longer the former Tuzla shipyards. The zone-wide strike on February 27-28 has changed everything. Undoubtedly, the struggle continues. The shipbuilding workers and their vanguard union Limter-Is are expecting tough conditions and big duties with a lot of responsibility in the name of the class. Of course, the fight needs to be strengthened even more now, because together with every important step of the struggle, there might be important changes to the situation, new problems, new difficulties and of course, new opportunities will arise, the main focus of the duties might change, etc. As an important step, a turn has taken place; it is now time to determine and analyse the main lines of development and the experiences of the 16 years of struggle left behind and the conditions that made it possible to win this most difficult phase and to generalise it so that it could be turned into class consciousness; as well as to concentrate on the problems and the probable development of the struggle and to try to develop a future perspective.

Reflection of the will: Consistency

In every new threshold of the struggle when important success is achieved, it might be as important as ever to show a steady dependence on the revolutionary realism, while analysing the trend of development as well as the preparation and achievement of the success and turning it into class consciousness. Those who contributed to the struggle of the Tuzla shipbuilding workers and Limter-Is in the name of defending gratefully what belongs to the class, the proletarian class culture and class ethic must be remembered. For example, the dedicated labour and effort of the first president and founding member of the union Emir Babakus, who managed to re-establish the union after the military coup of 12 September 1980, as well as later, of the president Aydin Kilicdere, who struggled for the existence of Limter-Is in the shipyards zone, must be remembered.
It is now also time to remember the important contributions of the communist workers' leader Suleyman Yeter, Limter-Is member responsible for education who with his revolutionary will had stood up in the torture centre at Vatan Street, Istanbul, like a castle. And we must mention the contributions of our dear Mustafa Barlas too, a communist workers' leader who was a shipyard worker, executive committee member of Limter-Is and who was taken away from us by cancer.
It is normal and understandable that within a long and tough struggle there will always be some who leave the struggle halfway, who regress, who run off in the real sense of the word or whose wills are broken. We must also note those who contributed to the struggle of the shipbuilding workers and Limter-Is in one way or another, although later their will was broken at some point or they were ideologically dissolved.
The shipbuilding workers of Tuzla and their vanguard union Limter-Is reached their current level of struggle, first of all, by managing to lead the struggle permanently. It is known that ensuring this consistency is not an easy job at all, and that it requires superhuman effort, self-sacrifice and power/resistance to bear. Anyone who makes a meaningful contribution to ensure this consistency will find his/her place in the history of the shipbuilding workers and Limter-Is.

Neoliberal exploitation and a laboratory of class struggle

The industrial hell created by neoliberalism at Tuzla[1] fell in the centre of society's agenda in the West by battering the deaf walls of censorship, ignorance and callousness, at a very critical moment when air raids and land operations continued in Southern Kurdistan and the colonial war was reaching its peak. However, this did not happen as suddenly as the lightning striking from a clear sky. The shipbuilding industry at Tuzla was developed in the 1990s as the paradise of surplus value production and accumulation of capital for the neoliberal policies.
Would the Tuzla shipyards zone have ever turned into a paradise of surplus value exploitation and accumulation of capital without lawless and unregistered work?! Would this have ever been possible without the subcontracting/sub-employing system that all but represents the flexible working spirit of the notorious neoliberal policies? Could the capital's "Tuzla miracle" have happened without the brutal working conditions with workers deprived of insurance and unionisation? Could it have happened where the capitalists did not spend even a thousandth of their capital for at least minimum necessary measures for labour safety? Could it have happened if the life and physical integrity of the workers were given at least some consideration? How could all this have happened if the organization of the workers was not destroyed through the collaborating yellow trade unionism?! If the bourgeois state, first of all with its police and courts, had not taken sides with the shipbuilding bosses and the subcontractors, would all this have happened?! The Tuzla shipyards zone and its growing industry of shipbuilding and ship repair has been a field where the neoliberal policies of the imperialist globalisation are applied in Turkey; it has become a real laboratory.
However, this is not all. All this formed at the same time the conditions of the fact that the Tuzla shipyards zone would turn into a laboratory and a base of the lines of class unionism and class struggle that would develop against the international capital's offensive policies under flexible working conditions without any rules. After the zone-wide strike on February 27-28, we can now for sure say that under imperialist globalisation conditions, the industrial zone of Tuzla is turning and has turned into a developing laboratory of class struggle and class unionism.

Birth of vanguard unionism under new conditions

What happened on February 27-28 at Tuzla? How can the reality of the strike be defined? These questions must be analysed from all points of views. If we need to make a basic statement, we could say that on February 27-28 the shipbuilding workers met, linked up and united with the union Limter-Is affiliated to DISK [2] at Tuzla. Now we can say that the Tuzla shipbuilding workers are organised by passing the common, "classical" meaning of the word. In order to prevent any misunderstandings, we especially want to emphasise here that it is not a typical union.
If the reality of February 28-29 is understood and analysed in the right way, then it will be easy to understand and analyse the Tuzla shipyards zone as a laboratory of the class struggle and the line of class unionism developed against neoliberal policies.
On February 27-28, the shipbuilding workers and their vanguard union Limter-Is met, linked up and united with each other in a genuine political strike at Tuzla shipyards. This means that the shipbuilding workers have met and united their will with Limter-Is and thus they have managed to overcome their unorganised situation. The workers have still not all become members of DISK/Limter-Is. However, the will displayed by the Tuzla shipbuilding workers with the strike on February 27-28 is a kind of referendum made at the shipyards and shows that the workers in total have become a member of Limter-Is as a single will / body!.. This means that the strike on February 27-28 has also the meaning of solving the question of authorisation of Limter-Is at the same time, which is the question of becoming massive.
This means that on February 27-28 the vanguard union and the shipbuilding workers met and united through the zone-wide strike and solved the question of organisation and authorisation of the union. This vanguard course of action has shown great fruits and mainly fulfilled its role.
The particular characteristics of the struggle, or better said the course of struggle, led by Limter-Is at the Tuzla zone since the 1990s, is its the quality of being vanguard. We must stress that as a reality this course of struggle has contained also the systematic and consistent interventions from "outside", that is to say, of a union-related vanguard power whose driving force is not directly formed by the shipbuilding workers in the beginning and for many years. We will not deal with the question under which difficulties and lack of opportunities Limter-Is created and developed its vanguard course of action. Nevertheless, we must at least mention that Limter-Is got the power for its unbreakable will from its unshakeable commitment to the working class and socialism, and together with this tough will, the union managed to overcome all hard conditions, difficulties and deficiencies and ensured the consistency of the vanguard course of action and struggle.
We have witnessed how the union-related vanguard power has quickly grown on February 27-28. Today, the union-related vanguard power no longer consists of Limter-Is alone. There are DISK, KESK [3], unions or branches affiliated to Turk-Is [4], small unions, associations, political parties and platforms, artists, intellectuals etc. The catalyser role of the union-related vanguard power growing so fast in leading the strike of February 28-29 to success is very important. However, it must also be stressed that the success and realisation of the union-related vanguard power's growth is a result and achievement of the vanguard course of action. It was also necessary that those powers who let the vanguard union grow also had to be won.

The political characteristic of the zone-wide strike and its ideological influence

The strike at Tuzla shipyards zone was realised not only at one or several shipyards, but throughout the whole zone. As Tuzla shipyards represent more than 90% of the shipbuilding sector in Turkey, this strike at the same time meant to be a strike of the shipbuilding sector. This was a strike throughout the whole zone, a zone-wide strike, a strike of the shipbuilding sector or with the same meaning, the strike of the shipbuilding workers of Tuzla zone.
But what kind of zone-wide strike was this? Of course it directly and immediately targeted neither the government nor the state. Actually, the Tuzla shipbuilding workers did not even aim at the launch of a law or achieving a right that they did not have before! They demanded to stop working illegally, unregistered and uninsured and they demanded the application of the Law for Heavy and Dangerous Sectors at shipyards. They demanded the laws to be applied. They demanded an end to the work-related accidents[5] leading to death, and for that purpose the abolition of subcontracting companies and the acceptance of organisation in trade-unions. From this point of view, the zone-wide strike on February 27-28 could also be defined in some way as a strike claiming rights. What gave the zone-wide strike on February 27-28 its political character, was mainly and first of all one crucial point on which the union Limter-Is focused: the acceptance of the union as the representative of the workers by the bosses' organisation GISBIR [6] as well as the solution of the question of removing all obstacles in front of the workers to organise themselves at Limter-Is which means that they can organise themselves in general. This point was combined with or included in all other demands. However, it is a fact that the question of unionisation has been merged with the other most urgent, most essential demands!
A zone-wide strike means overcoming the disintegration of the working class due to flexible and lawless working. This would also mean that it is at the same time a political action as an answer given and a posture shown by the shipbuilding workers by founding their class unity against the neoliberal attacks of capital. Besides the demands already declared, the strike included at the same time the shipyard workers' struggle for the right to strike, who work for subcontractors and who because of that do not have an official union they could belong to.
On the other hand, the shipyard sector being located mainly at Tuzla gives the strike at the same time the characteristic of a sectoral strike. This sectoral strike that according to the law can only be realised within periods of collective agreements by the authorised union was realised by a union that got the de facto authorisation from the workers and in no relation at all with the official Collective Agreements period.
Also, the fact that it was not a legal but a de facto - legitimate struggle makes the strike achieve a political characteristic.
The polarisation, separation and the appearance of two political fronts, the fronts of two different classes that were created with the zone-wide strike on February 27-28 reflect the political characteristics of the strike: On February 27-28 there were the Tuzla shipbuilding workers, Limter-Is, the unions DISK, KESK and others, associations, artists, political parties and platforms on the street on the one hand; and there were GISBIR, the government, the police and yellow union Dok Gemi-Is as their ally or collaborator, on the other!
The allegation of the Minister of Labour that Limter-Is "seeks after something ideological" reflected his ideological and class stance and front. With the bourgeois ideology that is packed with so-called hostility towards ideology, the workers have been kept away from the socialist ideology for years and by being ideologically disarmed, they have been led to surrender. This was the way to leave the unions without power, strength and spirit. Yes, now it was time for class struggle and ideological trade-unionism!
There were also ideological results of the struggle against work-related accidents leading to death at Tuzla and the zone-wide strike and these are very im-portant. "Class struggle", "brutal capitalism", "working class" and such terms have come to the agenda and have been discussed again. An ideological wind was blown in the public that made even the columnists of bourgeois newspapers revolt (!) against brutal capitalist exploitation. The results of the imperialist globalisation attack on the working class were, as it happened concretely in the case of Tuzla, exposed to the broad masses. And the concrete case of the shipyards that have always be on the agenda with ship launching ceremonies and with successful foreign exchange income, gained a place in the memories this time with the work-related accidents and the bloody accumulation of capital. It went even so far that in a press conference a day before the strike the boss of the Sedef Shipyard Murat Kalkavan had said: "We are no criminals. Our crime is to invest money into production and grow too much. We can't make the death toll reduce to zero. Without even knowing the structure of the sector, they charge us for being responsible even for those who commit suicide or die at home. In near future, they will make us responsible for all deaths happening at Tuzla." This speech showed the level of ideological pressure put on them.
On the other hand; the realisation of a strike throughout a zone where the production is highly subcontracted-fragmented has played the role of opening or clearing the way by being a hard blow against the open or hidden pessimistic thoughts that the instrument of strike can not be carried out at all because of the fragmentation of production. It has proved to the friends as well as enemies that a strike can be carried out even at a zone of a subcontracting system.

Focusing on the main link of the chain

How did Limter-Is meet with the shipbuilding workers of Tuzla, how did it unite with them or linked to them? There could be a lot of things to be said on this point. And this question can be discussed from many points of view. In one way, it can be said that this article is at the same time a holistic answer to this question. However, if we reduce the question to what was and is the basic or main coil that made the union meet with the shipbuilding workers of Tuzla or unite with them, then the question will get a more special and concrete meaning.
This question has to do with Limter-Is' stance towards the questions of the shipyards zone, its stance towards the workers' problems and demands and its relation style with them. The vanguard line of Limter-Is gets its power from, first of all, the commitment and trust in the working class as well as from the faith in socialism. This commitment and trust excludes and rejects any alienation from or indifference towards the class and the class' problems. Undoubtedly, if trust and commitment to the class do not take a concrete, practical form, they will remain abstract, and this will be the first step towards alienation from the class.
Limter-Is has always shown a constant and intense interest at the highest level in the problems and the demands of the shipbuilding workers working in the shipyards zone of Tuzla both in terms of the zone in general and in terms of every single shipyard. Its attitude is to understand the problems and demands, to take them as its own with full determination and by focusing on the main link of the chain, to develop a line of struggle that would be able to solve the problem or to get a result. Through these problems and demands, it has established relations with the workers who have never stopped at the door of the union, but who face with such problems every day, even every minute.
During Limter-Is' 20-year struggle in the Tuzla zone, the following problems and demands have always been an important gravity centre: the amelioration of the infernal working conditions, end of work-related accidents, safety of life and physical integrity of the workers, end of lawless and unsafe working conditions, end of working without insurance and without unionisation, payment of the wages entitled to them... The union leadership, the vanguard union of the shipbuilding workers, has more and more focused on the end of the work-related accidents, the amelioration of the brutal working conditions as well as the abolition of work without rules and its symbol the subcontracting system. This essential and crucial coil of the problems and demands in the zone are the main point where the shipbuilding workers and Limter-Is met. But of course, comprehending the main coil of the problems and demands in the right way also coincided with the struggle line of Limter-Is, which is a constant, determined and self-sacrificing line that gives reliance to workers. Can we talk about the vanguard course of action without developing a solution line that comprehends and responds to the most urgent problems in the zone and the most vital demands of the shipbuilding workers?
We especially want to emphasize the following point: The question of link and linking up with the working masses contains first of all an organic characteristic that finds its expression/concretises in the wish and ambition of understanding the problems and demands (in the right way!), defending vital demands in an unshakable and solution-finding way and achieving these demands, and as a result, in the determination for struggle. To understand the question of link and linking up not as an organic contact/relation but as a physical one means to put the cart before the horse.
While with the work of the Observation and Investigation Commission for the Tuzla Shipyards Zone the essential problems and demands became more concrete, in the recent process Limter-Is has managed to totally focus all its power and energy on the essential problems and demands.
Defining the main coil in the right way and holding it tightly have been one of the main conditions that prepared the success which brought together the shipbuilding workers and their vanguard union.

Binding all forms to the preparation of the strategic means

The zone-wide strike on February 27-28 is the highest level the struggle at Tuzla zone has reached since the 1990s. As the union-related vanguard power, Limter-Is carried out its activities with the foresight that a zone-wide strike would be the solution to ameliorate the heavy and brutal working conditions in the zone as well as putting an end to the unorganised situation of the workers that results from the unregulated working conditions and the subcontracting system. The strike on February 27-28 as the strategic means of the period did not appear at once or happened "spontaneously. In fact it was prepared also by making some kind of rehearsals many times before. The strike was prepared with foresight and will, with methodical and systematic efforts that complete each other. At this point, of dozens of examples it will be enough to remind of the semi-strikes[7] and demonstrations of thousands of workers in 2000 and 2005 against the work-related accidents, the strike at Yonca shipyard[8], numerous resistances organised for getting wages that had not been paid and the Desan resistance[9] that among all of these actions sowed resistance seeds in the zone.
The class struggle is a whole. One of the main aspects or characteristics of the line developed by the revolutionary vanguard at Tuzla shipyards was the perspective that the political mass agitation and organisat-ional activities at the living spaces of the shipbuilding workers and the work carried out by the union-related vanguard at the shipyards would complete and feed each other. This approach needs to be noted particularly among the conditions that prepared the success.
There is no doubt that the union-related vanguard power has fought for making the cut on the level of the whole sector[10], organising itself in every single shipyard and achieving legal authorisation. And it even made the cut in the zone and has achieved legal authorisation in many shipyards. However, based also on the power it got from the collaborating yellow unionism, the shipyards' bosses and their organisation GISBIR appeared as united capitalists in front of Limter-Is and the workers in the shipyards where le-gal authorisation had been achieved. It became more urgent and even more possible that this situation, which reflects that capitalists have a higher class consciousness and are more united than workers, must be overcome through a leap forward in the workers' class consciousness, class unity and struggle.
The activities and struggles carried out by Limter-Is have shown that the zone-wide struggle and the struggle in every single shipyard forms a whole, that they complete each other, that the zone-wide struggle opens the way for the struggles in each shipyard and the struggles in each shipyard is the lever of the zone-wide struggle.
We have described Limter-Is's course of struggle that lead to success with its vanguard characteristic. However, Limter-Is has never restricted itself by vanguard actions or only by the action of the vanguard union. While it carried out continuously enlightenment and organisation work in order to make the cut on the level of the whole sector and achieve authorisation on the level of each workplace, it never hesitated to organise workers' mass actions whenever there were appropriate conditions and opportunities. It used its vanguard power not only for enlightening the shipbuilding workers, organising them and making them members of the union, but at the same time for developing the class struggle as a direct and open mass struggle of the workers. Thousands of workers joined the street blockades many times, they organised demonstrations and actions and these were the forms of the united class struggle in the zone.
The vanguard course of action has combined the agitation, propaganda and organisation actions that are realised directly by the vanguard with the workers' mass struggle that are inflamed and organised by the vanguard. The vanguard course of action of the union-related vanguard power is not an aim for itself and could not be so. The course of action of the vanguard power is closely connected with the profits of the working class in the zone in whose name it is acting, with the necessities of developing the class consciousness, class organisation and class struggle of the working class in the zone.
While Limter-Is prepared the de facto legitimate mass movements through its vanguard actions realised together with advanced and vanguard workers and through its vanguard course of struggle on the basis of the class' most essential profits and demands, in some situations it managed to reach the level of direct workers' mass struggles.
Especially in the last two years Limter-Is has managed to unite the de facto legitimate mass struggle, the vanguard actions and the "bureaucratic" and diplomatic methods of struggle in an active and energetic form. Especially together with the report of the Observation and Investigation Commission for the Tuzla Shipyards Zone and the march of Limter-Is to Ankara, the reality of the Tuzla zone, the paradise of exploitation created through the subcontracting system and the working conditions without insurance and rules, turning the workers' blood and life into capital, has been put on the agenda of the TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey); and this has been an important lever of the preparation of the strike in the sense of enlightening the society, explaining the justness of the struggle, creating public support and social legitimacy. Likewise, the diplomatic relation that Limter-Is established with the Minister of Labour and Social Security has shown its power to represent the workers and defend their demands at every level and has strengthened its legitimacy and power of representation in the eyes of the workers.
One of the main conditions that prepared the success of the strike was the combative tendency DISK had adopted recently. DISK and the affiliated trade unions mobilised for and participated actively in the struggle of Limter-Is and the shipbuilding workers; KESK went into action; struggling union branches affiliated to Turk-Is and among them first of all the Tuzla branch of Deri-Is (leather workers' trade union), the general centres of Hava-Is (Trade Union of Civil Aeronautics of Turkey) and Deri-Is, progressive political parties, platforms, various associations, intellectuals and artists mobilised for the zone-wide strike at Tuzla and contributed to it. The forces for labour and freedom showed the talent to mobilise on February 27-28 and unite their forces, by that they made an important contribution to the success of the shipyards' strike. They gave the shipyard workers the power to pass an important stage in the class struggle. Therefore, the struggle of Limter-Is and the shipyard workers of Tuzla has appeared as a laboratory of the class struggle and class unionism against the policies of neoliberal attack of the capital.

Understanding the new situation, consolidating the achievements

An important stage has been achieved in the great class struggle that has significance also from the point of view of the working class' and trade union movement's history of struggle and that tested sand concretised the line of revolutionary class unionism against the international capital's policies of neoliberal attack. All the constructors of the process that put their efforts to this struggle, including those who have led the movement, and all friends and allies who supported it in different forms and showed solidarity deserve to be exposed to the reality and feeling of having achieved and having won. Drinking from the wine of victory thirstily but without languor, they must prepare themselves for greater struggles and greater victories by accumulating power, energy and self-confidence.
Together with this, it is necessary to live with the consciousness and feeling that in every important stage of the class struggle, in every moment of success and afterwards, the most important problem of this "moment" is "not to slack off", "not to get stuck in the first flush of victory" and "not to crow over". Slacking off in such a moment, being spoilt, and crowing over can destroy everything. First of all for these reasons, it is now time to hold firm in the shipyards zone.
The success of the strike in the Tuzla shipyards zone is a very important achievement. These achievements must be turned into class consciousness by being analysed, defined and discussed; and must be digested in the intellectual and psychological sense. It is a part of the urgent tasks to concretise and enrich the understanding/idea of revolutionary class unionism on the basis of the experiences, lessons and results that could be drawn from the this struggle that has been continuing for many years, the processes that it passed and the preparation of this recent increase and peak of the struggle and on the basis of turning all these into class consciousness. This is also important for the reason that it is also the soil/the ground, which the march forward that is to be continued uninterruptedly will also base on; it is a necessity of the struggle. The urgency and essential importance of analysing the new situation created with the victory of the zone-wide strike as well as building up perspectives and politics of how to move on from this point must be clear for everyone.
The victory of the zone-wide strike itself is a very important achievement. Moreover, it is a fact that with the zone-wide strike the demand of labour safety and unionisation have been imposed on the organisation of the shipyards' bosses GISBIR and opened the way for the achievement of these rights. A new situation has appeared. With the zone-wide strike, Limter-Is has achieved authorisation from the shipbuilding workers. It is the duty of the vanguard union to digest the consciousness, responsibility and the feeling of the reality that it is their legitimate and legal (yes legal, legalised by the strike!) representative and to reflect this in the behaviour and course of action. The vanguard union has proofed its capability and power with the zone-wide strike, it has achieved authorisation from the shipbuilding workers and thus reached the level of being the union leading them. By that, the vanguard course of action has mainly completed its duty. Using this course of action will again be necessary from time to time; but now the line and course of action must turn into the direction of the workers' mass participation/movement in the trade union struggle; into the course of mass class struggle. The change of its course of action and the leadership means its re-construction.
Consolidating the achievements and the current situation is the main problem and duty that must be completed at the moment. This means that the line followed until now must be continued to be followed with persistence. For that, it must be figured out and concretised what is needed for consolidating the achievements. As the strike in the Tuzla shipyards zone opened the way by declaring Limter-Is as the legitimate authorised union, consolidating the achievements will mean first of all to walk this way. Consolidating the achievements means to organise every single shipyard, conquer each of them and -as DISK general president Suleyman Celebi said- "to raise the flag of DISK/Limter-Is at all shipyards". Therefore, a broad organisation campaign is essential. This organisation campaign must be carried out separately in every single shipyard. The leadership performed by the union will be able to carry out successfully such an organisation campaign only if it unites with advanced/vanguard workers, educates them as cadres, and makes them join the leadership activity of the union. The integrity of the struggle and organisation of the union in every single shipyard and the struggle and organisation throughout the zone; the integrity of the united organisation-united struggle must be maintained. In this sense, it may be right for the union to found a kind of organisation such as a workers' assembly (or council etc.) of the zone which can be joined by vanguard workers from all shipyards - or an assembly of the representatives of workplaces in the zone participated by the representatives of the union in each workplace.
What we must especially emphasize is that the success of every work and organisation campaign is linked with and dependent on educating new cadres. The mobilisation to organise the union in every single shipyard must be combined with an immediate mobilisation for educating new cadres. Every work and mobilisation for educating cadres must cover an ideological transformation and a reconstruction on the ideological basis. The work for ideological transformation must at first cover a program that gives vanguard, advanced workers the minimum basic class consciousness which will let them carry out trade union work functionally. It is essential to avoid doctrinarism and schematism, to trust in the workers/working class and to carry out an uninterrupted work in order to arm them ideologically with the line of class unionism and to educate them as cadres. The vanguard should not avoid the mobilisation of forces which is necessary for this work.
For consolidating the achievements, the continuous struggle for achieving the essential demands which are also defended by the public, being the owner and observer of the union, informing the workers and ensuring the participation of the workers are necessary. Mass struggle and diplomacy and "bureaucratic" forms of struggle must complete each other. The dialogue-negotiations etc with GIS-BIR must be continued, while the fight continues with the determination to achieve the demands, there should be no hesitation to produce practical solutions that meet with the workers' profits and demands, even from making reconciliations and agreements. Reconciliations, agreements etc. have become one dimension of the trade union struggle. What is important is that the reconciliation and agreement made under each given situation and conditions of the relations of powers etc. must finish with achievements that are appropriate to the working class' profits. For urgent demands such as the amelioration of the working conditions throughout the zone, measures for labour safety etc., the struggle must be led in every single shipyard, too.
The shipyard bosses and their class organisation GISBIR have been in trouble since the neoliberal hell of Tuzla has been exposed by the political general strike in the zone. What will they do now? How will they continue with their class struggle? What will GISBIR that under the conditions of the zone-wide strike had to sit at the table with Limter-Is, now do? This is a situation which can be more or less predicted. Now GISBIR will try to detain and calm down the workers, will wait until the interest and the sensitivity of the public reduces. In the meantime, it can try to give the impression that the problems are being solved. It must be foreseen and expected that the shipyard bosses and GISBIR will fight for every single shipyard in order to hinder the organisation of Limter-Is and cover up the fact that Limter-Is is the authorised union. It will also be no surprise if workers would be sacked in masses or black lists prepared. There is no doubt that the shipyard bosses and its class organisation GISBIR will not hesitate to use their yellow union weapon in an influential way. It is a situation to be expected that the yellow collaborating unionism that played its role in a passive way in the past will have an active role reactivated by the bosses.
This means that the struggle has reached a level more complex and complicated. It requires a clearer openness, a more concrete perspective, a higher talent of strategy and tactics, determination as well as capability of manoeuvres.

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* This article has been taken from the April-May 2008 issue of the Marxist theoretical-political magazine Teoride Dogrultu published every two months.

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1- Tuzla shipyards zone is the largest shipbuilding and repair zone in Turkey. According to state figures, 48 of the 62 shipyards in Turkey are located at Tuzla shipyards´ zone. Altogether 563 subcontracting companies are active in this region which has the 95% of the private shipbuilding sector as well as of the repairing industry. Tuzla shipyards' zone has grown rapidly since 2001 and reached rank 5 in the world at shipbuilding and repair sector. It has reached an export volume of 2,5 billion USD. It is supposed that 40.000 workers are employed in fact at these shipyards, while the number of registered workers is 5.300 at the main companies and 8800 at the subcontracting firms. Due to the working conditions at the zone, work-related accidents leading to the death of the workers are quite widespread. 5.800 accidents happened only in 2006. The number of workers who died following work-related accidents registered by the union is 105 so far.
2- DISK (Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions) was founded in 1967 as a result of militant workers' strikes and resistances and was defended by workers against all attacks of the state. Although it lost its militant character and became a reformist confederation, it continues to show a progressive stand and to include some revolutionary class unions.
3- KESK (Confederation of the Public Employees' Unions) was founded in the 1990s through the militant struggle of the public employees, the teachers at the first rank.
4-Turk-Is (Confederation of Workers' Unions of Turkey) is another trade union confederation founded by the state in the 1950s in order to hinder the development of independent revolutionary trade unions.
5- In Turkey and Northern Kurdistan, work-related accidents are called "work-related murders" by the workers and trade unions in order to expose the lies of the bosses and the state that these deaths come out of coincidences and accidents and not of the lack of labour safety measures.
6- GISBIR (Union of Shipbuilding Industrialists and Businessmen) is the organisation of the shipyards' bosses.
7- In these actions, workers stopped the work for a few hours without officially declaring a strike, due to the bans and attacks of the state.
8- On April 26, 2002, the shipbuilding workers started a strike at Yonca shipyard because of the dismissal of the workers who were affiliated to the union Limter-Is. They demanded that the dismissals should be cancelled and the bosses should accept to confer with the union. This was the first strike of the shipbuilding workers in Turkey after 24 years. The strike continued under the heavy attacks of the state and the representatives of the union were arrested several times.
9- In May 2006, 55 workers of the Desan shipyard started a strike demanding the payment of their salaries that were not paid since 1,5 month. This strike has been an example for the whole zone, and especially with the imprisonment of two leaders of the union Limter-Is, among them the general president Cem Dinc, the voice of the shipbuilding workers was heard by the whole society.
10- In order to have authorisation in one single workplace, a union has to pass the quota of 50% across the sector.


 

 

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The Path-breaking Power of the Zone-wide Strike at Tuzla*
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A zone-wide strike means overcoming the disintegration of the working class due to flexible and lawless working. This would also mean that a zone-wide strike is at the same time a political action as an answer given and as a posture shown by the shipbuilding workers by founding their class unity against the neoliberal attacks of capital. Besides the demands already declared, the strike included at the same time the shipyard workers' struggle for the right of strike, who work for subcontractors and who because of that do not have an official union they could belong to.

01 December 2008 / Red Dawn / Issue 13

Spring came along with the shipbuilders' struggle

On February 27-28, 2008, the shipbuilding workers of Tuzla went into action as if they wanted to confirm the optimistic and hopeful foresights and expectations for 2008 from the revolutionary point of view. It was as if nature was welcoming the spring. Such as the first lights of the spring, the fire of the struggle of the shipbuilding workers who stood up against hard and brutal working conditions, which is a paradise for neoliberal exploitation, was lighted in the ranks of the working class and the oppressed. Suddenly the slogans "hope is in the struggle", "hope is in unity" and "hope is here" were raised from the Tuzla shipyards, and the most sensitive among the labour and freedom forces started turning their faces towards Tuzla. Without hesitating, they shared their power for the fight and their wishes for success with the shipbuilding workers and the union Limter-Is (Port, Dock, Ship Building And Repair Workers' Union). Those who have a problem with the policies of neoliberal attack of imperialist globalisation, with the collaborating capitalist system and the regime went to the ranks of the shipbuilding workers.
They made a contribution to the success of a very important stage of Limter-Is and the Tuzla shipbuilding workers' struggle.
The Tuzla shipbuilding workers have successfully passed a stage and have won a very important battle. Tuzla shipyards are no longer the former Tuzla shipyards. The zone-wide strike on February 27-28 has changed everything. Undoubtedly, the struggle continues. The shipbuilding workers and their vanguard union Limter-Is are expecting tough conditions and big duties with a lot of responsibility in the name of the class. Of course, the fight needs to be strengthened even more now, because together with every important step of the struggle, there might be important changes to the situation, new problems, new difficulties and of course, new opportunities will arise, the main focus of the duties might change, etc. As an important step, a turn has taken place; it is now time to determine and analyse the main lines of development and the experiences of the 16 years of struggle left behind and the conditions that made it possible to win this most difficult phase and to generalise it so that it could be turned into class consciousness; as well as to concentrate on the problems and the probable development of the struggle and to try to develop a future perspective.

Reflection of the will: Consistency

In every new threshold of the struggle when important success is achieved, it might be as important as ever to show a steady dependence on the revolutionary realism, while analysing the trend of development as well as the preparation and achievement of the success and turning it into class consciousness. Those who contributed to the struggle of the Tuzla shipbuilding workers and Limter-Is in the name of defending gratefully what belongs to the class, the proletarian class culture and class ethic must be remembered. For example, the dedicated labour and effort of the first president and founding member of the union Emir Babakus, who managed to re-establish the union after the military coup of 12 September 1980, as well as later, of the president Aydin Kilicdere, who struggled for the existence of Limter-Is in the shipyards zone, must be remembered.
It is now also time to remember the important contributions of the communist workers' leader Suleyman Yeter, Limter-Is member responsible for education who with his revolutionary will had stood up in the torture centre at Vatan Street, Istanbul, like a castle. And we must mention the contributions of our dear Mustafa Barlas too, a communist workers' leader who was a shipyard worker, executive committee member of Limter-Is and who was taken away from us by cancer.
It is normal and understandable that within a long and tough struggle there will always be some who leave the struggle halfway, who regress, who run off in the real sense of the word or whose wills are broken. We must also note those who contributed to the struggle of the shipbuilding workers and Limter-Is in one way or another, although later their will was broken at some point or they were ideologically dissolved.
The shipbuilding workers of Tuzla and their vanguard union Limter-Is reached their current level of struggle, first of all, by managing to lead the struggle permanently. It is known that ensuring this consistency is not an easy job at all, and that it requires superhuman effort, self-sacrifice and power/resistance to bear. Anyone who makes a meaningful contribution to ensure this consistency will find his/her place in the history of the shipbuilding workers and Limter-Is.

Neoliberal exploitation and a laboratory of class struggle

The industrial hell created by neoliberalism at Tuzla[1] fell in the centre of society's agenda in the West by battering the deaf walls of censorship, ignorance and callousness, at a very critical moment when air raids and land operations continued in Southern Kurdistan and the colonial war was reaching its peak. However, this did not happen as suddenly as the lightning striking from a clear sky. The shipbuilding industry at Tuzla was developed in the 1990s as the paradise of surplus value production and accumulation of capital for the neoliberal policies.
Would the Tuzla shipyards zone have ever turned into a paradise of surplus value exploitation and accumulation of capital without lawless and unregistered work?! Would this have ever been possible without the subcontracting/sub-employing system that all but represents the flexible working spirit of the notorious neoliberal policies? Could the capital's "Tuzla miracle" have happened without the brutal working conditions with workers deprived of insurance and unionisation? Could it have happened where the capitalists did not spend even a thousandth of their capital for at least minimum necessary measures for labour safety? Could it have happened if the life and physical integrity of the workers were given at least some consideration? How could all this have happened if the organization of the workers was not destroyed through the collaborating yellow trade unionism?! If the bourgeois state, first of all with its police and courts, had not taken sides with the shipbuilding bosses and the subcontractors, would all this have happened?! The Tuzla shipyards zone and its growing industry of shipbuilding and ship repair has been a field where the neoliberal policies of the imperialist globalisation are applied in Turkey; it has become a real laboratory.
However, this is not all. All this formed at the same time the conditions of the fact that the Tuzla shipyards zone would turn into a laboratory and a base of the lines of class unionism and class struggle that would develop against the international capital's offensive policies under flexible working conditions without any rules. After the zone-wide strike on February 27-28, we can now for sure say that under imperialist globalisation conditions, the industrial zone of Tuzla is turning and has turned into a developing laboratory of class struggle and class unionism.

Birth of vanguard unionism under new conditions

What happened on February 27-28 at Tuzla? How can the reality of the strike be defined? These questions must be analysed from all points of views. If we need to make a basic statement, we could say that on February 27-28 the shipbuilding workers met, linked up and united with the union Limter-Is affiliated to DISK [2] at Tuzla. Now we can say that the Tuzla shipbuilding workers are organised by passing the common, "classical" meaning of the word. In order to prevent any misunderstandings, we especially want to emphasise here that it is not a typical union.
If the reality of February 28-29 is understood and analysed in the right way, then it will be easy to understand and analyse the Tuzla shipyards zone as a laboratory of the class struggle and the line of class unionism developed against neoliberal policies.
On February 27-28, the shipbuilding workers and their vanguard union Limter-Is met, linked up and united with each other in a genuine political strike at Tuzla shipyards. This means that the shipbuilding workers have met and united their will with Limter-Is and thus they have managed to overcome their unorganised situation. The workers have still not all become members of DISK/Limter-Is. However, the will displayed by the Tuzla shipbuilding workers with the strike on February 27-28 is a kind of referendum made at the shipyards and shows that the workers in total have become a member of Limter-Is as a single will / body!.. This means that the strike on February 27-28 has also the meaning of solving the question of authorisation of Limter-Is at the same time, which is the question of becoming massive.
This means that on February 27-28 the vanguard union and the shipbuilding workers met and united through the zone-wide strike and solved the question of organisation and authorisation of the union. This vanguard course of action has shown great fruits and mainly fulfilled its role.
The particular characteristics of the struggle, or better said the course of struggle, led by Limter-Is at the Tuzla zone since the 1990s, is its the quality of being vanguard. We must stress that as a reality this course of struggle has contained also the systematic and consistent interventions from "outside", that is to say, of a union-related vanguard power whose driving force is not directly formed by the shipbuilding workers in the beginning and for many years. We will not deal with the question under which difficulties and lack of opportunities Limter-Is created and developed its vanguard course of action. Nevertheless, we must at least mention that Limter-Is got the power for its unbreakable will from its unshakeable commitment to the working class and socialism, and together with this tough will, the union managed to overcome all hard conditions, difficulties and deficiencies and ensured the consistency of the vanguard course of action and struggle.
We have witnessed how the union-related vanguard power has quickly grown on February 27-28. Today, the union-related vanguard power no longer consists of Limter-Is alone. There are DISK, KESK [3], unions or branches affiliated to Turk-Is [4], small unions, associations, political parties and platforms, artists, intellectuals etc. The catalyser role of the union-related vanguard power growing so fast in leading the strike of February 28-29 to success is very important. However, it must also be stressed that the success and realisation of the union-related vanguard power's growth is a result and achievement of the vanguard course of action. It was also necessary that those powers who let the vanguard union grow also had to be won.

The political characteristic of the zone-wide strike and its ideological influence

The strike at Tuzla shipyards zone was realised not only at one or several shipyards, but throughout the whole zone. As Tuzla shipyards represent more than 90% of the shipbuilding sector in Turkey, this strike at the same time meant to be a strike of the shipbuilding sector. This was a strike throughout the whole zone, a zone-wide strike, a strike of the shipbuilding sector or with the same meaning, the strike of the shipbuilding workers of Tuzla zone.
But what kind of zone-wide strike was this? Of course it directly and immediately targeted neither the government nor the state. Actually, the Tuzla shipbuilding workers did not even aim at the launch of a law or achieving a right that they did not have before! They demanded to stop working illegally, unregistered and uninsured and they demanded the application of the Law for Heavy and Dangerous Sectors at shipyards. They demanded the laws to be applied. They demanded an end to the work-related accidents[5] leading to death, and for that purpose the abolition of subcontracting companies and the acceptance of organisation in trade-unions. From this point of view, the zone-wide strike on February 27-28 could also be defined in some way as a strike claiming rights. What gave the zone-wide strike on February 27-28 its political character, was mainly and first of all one crucial point on which the union Limter-Is focused: the acceptance of the union as the representative of the workers by the bosses' organisation GISBIR [6] as well as the solution of the question of removing all obstacles in front of the workers to organise themselves at Limter-Is which means that they can organise themselves in general. This point was combined with or included in all other demands. However, it is a fact that the question of unionisation has been merged with the other most urgent, most essential demands!
A zone-wide strike means overcoming the disintegration of the working class due to flexible and lawless working. This would also mean that it is at the same time a political action as an answer given and a posture shown by the shipbuilding workers by founding their class unity against the neoliberal attacks of capital. Besides the demands already declared, the strike included at the same time the shipyard workers' struggle for the right to strike, who work for subcontractors and who because of that do not have an official union they could belong to.
On the other hand, the shipyard sector being located mainly at Tuzla gives the strike at the same time the characteristic of a sectoral strike. This sectoral strike that according to the law can only be realised within periods of collective agreements by the authorised union was realised by a union that got the de facto authorisation from the workers and in no relation at all with the official Collective Agreements period.
Also, the fact that it was not a legal but a de facto - legitimate struggle makes the strike achieve a political characteristic.
The polarisation, separation and the appearance of two political fronts, the fronts of two different classes that were created with the zone-wide strike on February 27-28 reflect the political characteristics of the strike: On February 27-28 there were the Tuzla shipbuilding workers, Limter-Is, the unions DISK, KESK and others, associations, artists, political parties and platforms on the street on the one hand; and there were GISBIR, the government, the police and yellow union Dok Gemi-Is as their ally or collaborator, on the other!
The allegation of the Minister of Labour that Limter-Is "seeks after something ideological" reflected his ideological and class stance and front. With the bourgeois ideology that is packed with so-called hostility towards ideology, the workers have been kept away from the socialist ideology for years and by being ideologically disarmed, they have been led to surrender. This was the way to leave the unions without power, strength and spirit. Yes, now it was time for class struggle and ideological trade-unionism!
There were also ideological results of the struggle against work-related accidents leading to death at Tuzla and the zone-wide strike and these are very im-portant. "Class struggle", "brutal capitalism", "working class" and such terms have come to the agenda and have been discussed again. An ideological wind was blown in the public that made even the columnists of bourgeois newspapers revolt (!) against brutal capitalist exploitation. The results of the imperialist globalisation attack on the working class were, as it happened concretely in the case of Tuzla, exposed to the broad masses. And the concrete case of the shipyards that have always be on the agenda with ship launching ceremonies and with successful foreign exchange income, gained a place in the memories this time with the work-related accidents and the bloody accumulation of capital. It went even so far that in a press conference a day before the strike the boss of the Sedef Shipyard Murat Kalkavan had said: "We are no criminals. Our crime is to invest money into production and grow too much. We can't make the death toll reduce to zero. Without even knowing the structure of the sector, they charge us for being responsible even for those who commit suicide or die at home. In near future, they will make us responsible for all deaths happening at Tuzla." This speech showed the level of ideological pressure put on them.
On the other hand; the realisation of a strike throughout a zone where the production is highly subcontracted-fragmented has played the role of opening or clearing the way by being a hard blow against the open or hidden pessimistic thoughts that the instrument of strike can not be carried out at all because of the fragmentation of production. It has proved to the friends as well as enemies that a strike can be carried out even at a zone of a subcontracting system.

Focusing on the main link of the chain

How did Limter-Is meet with the shipbuilding workers of Tuzla, how did it unite with them or linked to them? There could be a lot of things to be said on this point. And this question can be discussed from many points of view. In one way, it can be said that this article is at the same time a holistic answer to this question. However, if we reduce the question to what was and is the basic or main coil that made the union meet with the shipbuilding workers of Tuzla or unite with them, then the question will get a more special and concrete meaning.
This question has to do with Limter-Is' stance towards the questions of the shipyards zone, its stance towards the workers' problems and demands and its relation style with them. The vanguard line of Limter-Is gets its power from, first of all, the commitment and trust in the working class as well as from the faith in socialism. This commitment and trust excludes and rejects any alienation from or indifference towards the class and the class' problems. Undoubtedly, if trust and commitment to the class do not take a concrete, practical form, they will remain abstract, and this will be the first step towards alienation from the class.
Limter-Is has always shown a constant and intense interest at the highest level in the problems and the demands of the shipbuilding workers working in the shipyards zone of Tuzla both in terms of the zone in general and in terms of every single shipyard. Its attitude is to understand the problems and demands, to take them as its own with full determination and by focusing on the main link of the chain, to develop a line of struggle that would be able to solve the problem or to get a result. Through these problems and demands, it has established relations with the workers who have never stopped at the door of the union, but who face with such problems every day, even every minute.
During Limter-Is' 20-year struggle in the Tuzla zone, the following problems and demands have always been an important gravity centre: the amelioration of the infernal working conditions, end of work-related accidents, safety of life and physical integrity of the workers, end of lawless and unsafe working conditions, end of working without insurance and without unionisation, payment of the wages entitled to them... The union leadership, the vanguard union of the shipbuilding workers, has more and more focused on the end of the work-related accidents, the amelioration of the brutal working conditions as well as the abolition of work without rules and its symbol the subcontracting system. This essential and crucial coil of the problems and demands in the zone are the main point where the shipbuilding workers and Limter-Is met. But of course, comprehending the main coil of the problems and demands in the right way also coincided with the struggle line of Limter-Is, which is a constant, determined and self-sacrificing line that gives reliance to workers. Can we talk about the vanguard course of action without developing a solution line that comprehends and responds to the most urgent problems in the zone and the most vital demands of the shipbuilding workers?
We especially want to emphasize the following point: The question of link and linking up with the working masses contains first of all an organic characteristic that finds its expression/concretises in the wish and ambition of understanding the problems and demands (in the right way!), defending vital demands in an unshakable and solution-finding way and achieving these demands, and as a result, in the determination for struggle. To understand the question of link and linking up not as an organic contact/relation but as a physical one means to put the cart before the horse.
While with the work of the Observation and Investigation Commission for the Tuzla Shipyards Zone the essential problems and demands became more concrete, in the recent process Limter-Is has managed to totally focus all its power and energy on the essential problems and demands.
Defining the main coil in the right way and holding it tightly have been one of the main conditions that prepared the success which brought together the shipbuilding workers and their vanguard union.

Binding all forms to the preparation of the strategic means

The zone-wide strike on February 27-28 is the highest level the struggle at Tuzla zone has reached since the 1990s. As the union-related vanguard power, Limter-Is carried out its activities with the foresight that a zone-wide strike would be the solution to ameliorate the heavy and brutal working conditions in the zone as well as putting an end to the unorganised situation of the workers that results from the unregulated working conditions and the subcontracting system. The strike on February 27-28 as the strategic means of the period did not appear at once or happened "spontaneously. In fact it was prepared also by making some kind of rehearsals many times before. The strike was prepared with foresight and will, with methodical and systematic efforts that complete each other. At this point, of dozens of examples it will be enough to remind of the semi-strikes[7] and demonstrations of thousands of workers in 2000 and 2005 against the work-related accidents, the strike at Yonca shipyard[8], numerous resistances organised for getting wages that had not been paid and the Desan resistance[9] that among all of these actions sowed resistance seeds in the zone.
The class struggle is a whole. One of the main aspects or characteristics of the line developed by the revolutionary vanguard at Tuzla shipyards was the perspective that the political mass agitation and organisat-ional activities at the living spaces of the shipbuilding workers and the work carried out by the union-related vanguard at the shipyards would complete and feed each other. This approach needs to be noted particularly among the conditions that prepared the success.
There is no doubt that the union-related vanguard power has fought for making the cut on the level of the whole sector[10], organising itself in every single shipyard and achieving legal authorisation. And it even made the cut in the zone and has achieved legal authorisation in many shipyards. However, based also on the power it got from the collaborating yellow unionism, the shipyards' bosses and their organisation GISBIR appeared as united capitalists in front of Limter-Is and the workers in the shipyards where le-gal authorisation had been achieved. It became more urgent and even more possible that this situation, which reflects that capitalists have a higher class consciousness and are more united than workers, must be overcome through a leap forward in the workers' class consciousness, class unity and struggle.
The activities and struggles carried out by Limter-Is have shown that the zone-wide struggle and the struggle in every single shipyard forms a whole, that they complete each other, that the zone-wide struggle opens the way for the struggles in each shipyard and the struggles in each shipyard is the lever of the zone-wide struggle.
We have described Limter-Is's course of struggle that lead to success with its vanguard characteristic. However, Limter-Is has never restricted itself by vanguard actions or only by the action of the vanguard union. While it carried out continuously enlightenment and organisation work in order to make the cut on the level of the whole sector and achieve authorisation on the level of each workplace, it never hesitated to organise workers' mass actions whenever there were appropriate conditions and opportunities. It used its vanguard power not only for enlightening the shipbuilding workers, organising them and making them members of the union, but at the same time for developing the class struggle as a direct and open mass struggle of the workers. Thousands of workers joined the street blockades many times, they organised demonstrations and actions and these were the forms of the united class struggle in the zone.
The vanguard course of action has combined the agitation, propaganda and organisation actions that are realised directly by the vanguard with the workers' mass struggle that are inflamed and organised by the vanguard. The vanguard course of action of the union-related vanguard power is not an aim for itself and could not be so. The course of action of the vanguard power is closely connected with the profits of the working class in the zone in whose name it is acting, with the necessities of developing the class consciousness, class organisation and class struggle of the working class in the zone.
While Limter-Is prepared the de facto legitimate mass movements through its vanguard actions realised together with advanced and vanguard workers and through its vanguard course of struggle on the basis of the class' most essential profits and demands, in some situations it managed to reach the level of direct workers' mass struggles.
Especially in the last two years Limter-Is has managed to unite the de facto legitimate mass struggle, the vanguard actions and the "bureaucratic" and diplomatic methods of struggle in an active and energetic form. Especially together with the report of the Observation and Investigation Commission for the Tuzla Shipyards Zone and the march of Limter-Is to Ankara, the reality of the Tuzla zone, the paradise of exploitation created through the subcontracting system and the working conditions without insurance and rules, turning the workers' blood and life into capital, has been put on the agenda of the TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey); and this has been an important lever of the preparation of the strike in the sense of enlightening the society, explaining the justness of the struggle, creating public support and social legitimacy. Likewise, the diplomatic relation that Limter-Is established with the Minister of Labour and Social Security has shown its power to represent the workers and defend their demands at every level and has strengthened its legitimacy and power of representation in the eyes of the workers.
One of the main conditions that prepared the success of the strike was the combative tendency DISK had adopted recently. DISK and the affiliated trade unions mobilised for and participated actively in the struggle of Limter-Is and the shipbuilding workers; KESK went into action; struggling union branches affiliated to Turk-Is and among them first of all the Tuzla branch of Deri-Is (leather workers' trade union), the general centres of Hava-Is (Trade Union of Civil Aeronautics of Turkey) and Deri-Is, progressive political parties, platforms, various associations, intellectuals and artists mobilised for the zone-wide strike at Tuzla and contributed to it. The forces for labour and freedom showed the talent to mobilise on February 27-28 and unite their forces, by that they made an important contribution to the success of the shipyards' strike. They gave the shipyard workers the power to pass an important stage in the class struggle. Therefore, the struggle of Limter-Is and the shipyard workers of Tuzla has appeared as a laboratory of the class struggle and class unionism against the policies of neoliberal attack of the capital.

Understanding the new situation, consolidating the achievements

An important stage has been achieved in the great class struggle that has significance also from the point of view of the working class' and trade union movement's history of struggle and that tested sand concretised the line of revolutionary class unionism against the international capital's policies of neoliberal attack. All the constructors of the process that put their efforts to this struggle, including those who have led the movement, and all friends and allies who supported it in different forms and showed solidarity deserve to be exposed to the reality and feeling of having achieved and having won. Drinking from the wine of victory thirstily but without languor, they must prepare themselves for greater struggles and greater victories by accumulating power, energy and self-confidence.
Together with this, it is necessary to live with the consciousness and feeling that in every important stage of the class struggle, in every moment of success and afterwards, the most important problem of this "moment" is "not to slack off", "not to get stuck in the first flush of victory" and "not to crow over". Slacking off in such a moment, being spoilt, and crowing over can destroy everything. First of all for these reasons, it is now time to hold firm in the shipyards zone.
The success of the strike in the Tuzla shipyards zone is a very important achievement. These achievements must be turned into class consciousness by being analysed, defined and discussed; and must be digested in the intellectual and psychological sense. It is a part of the urgent tasks to concretise and enrich the understanding/idea of revolutionary class unionism on the basis of the experiences, lessons and results that could be drawn from the this struggle that has been continuing for many years, the processes that it passed and the preparation of this recent increase and peak of the struggle and on the basis of turning all these into class consciousness. This is also important for the reason that it is also the soil/the ground, which the march forward that is to be continued uninterruptedly will also base on; it is a necessity of the struggle. The urgency and essential importance of analysing the new situation created with the victory of the zone-wide strike as well as building up perspectives and politics of how to move on from this point must be clear for everyone.
The victory of the zone-wide strike itself is a very important achievement. Moreover, it is a fact that with the zone-wide strike the demand of labour safety and unionisation have been imposed on the organisation of the shipyards' bosses GISBIR and opened the way for the achievement of these rights. A new situation has appeared. With the zone-wide strike, Limter-Is has achieved authorisation from the shipbuilding workers. It is the duty of the vanguard union to digest the consciousness, responsibility and the feeling of the reality that it is their legitimate and legal (yes legal, legalised by the strike!) representative and to reflect this in the behaviour and course of action. The vanguard union has proofed its capability and power with the zone-wide strike, it has achieved authorisation from the shipbuilding workers and thus reached the level of being the union leading them. By that, the vanguard course of action has mainly completed its duty. Using this course of action will again be necessary from time to time; but now the line and course of action must turn into the direction of the workers' mass participation/movement in the trade union struggle; into the course of mass class struggle. The change of its course of action and the leadership means its re-construction.
Consolidating the achievements and the current situation is the main problem and duty that must be completed at the moment. This means that the line followed until now must be continued to be followed with persistence. For that, it must be figured out and concretised what is needed for consolidating the achievements. As the strike in the Tuzla shipyards zone opened the way by declaring Limter-Is as the legitimate authorised union, consolidating the achievements will mean first of all to walk this way. Consolidating the achievements means to organise every single shipyard, conquer each of them and -as DISK general president Suleyman Celebi said- "to raise the flag of DISK/Limter-Is at all shipyards". Therefore, a broad organisation campaign is essential. This organisation campaign must be carried out separately in every single shipyard. The leadership performed by the union will be able to carry out successfully such an organisation campaign only if it unites with advanced/vanguard workers, educates them as cadres, and makes them join the leadership activity of the union. The integrity of the struggle and organisation of the union in every single shipyard and the struggle and organisation throughout the zone; the integrity of the united organisation-united struggle must be maintained. In this sense, it may be right for the union to found a kind of organisation such as a workers' assembly (or council etc.) of the zone which can be joined by vanguard workers from all shipyards - or an assembly of the representatives of workplaces in the zone participated by the representatives of the union in each workplace.
What we must especially emphasize is that the success of every work and organisation campaign is linked with and dependent on educating new cadres. The mobilisation to organise the union in every single shipyard must be combined with an immediate mobilisation for educating new cadres. Every work and mobilisation for educating cadres must cover an ideological transformation and a reconstruction on the ideological basis. The work for ideological transformation must at first cover a program that gives vanguard, advanced workers the minimum basic class consciousness which will let them carry out trade union work functionally. It is essential to avoid doctrinarism and schematism, to trust in the workers/working class and to carry out an uninterrupted work in order to arm them ideologically with the line of class unionism and to educate them as cadres. The vanguard should not avoid the mobilisation of forces which is necessary for this work.
For consolidating the achievements, the continuous struggle for achieving the essential demands which are also defended by the public, being the owner and observer of the union, informing the workers and ensuring the participation of the workers are necessary. Mass struggle and diplomacy and "bureaucratic" forms of struggle must complete each other. The dialogue-negotiations etc with GIS-BIR must be continued, while the fight continues with the determination to achieve the demands, there should be no hesitation to produce practical solutions that meet with the workers' profits and demands, even from making reconciliations and agreements. Reconciliations, agreements etc. have become one dimension of the trade union struggle. What is important is that the reconciliation and agreement made under each given situation and conditions of the relations of powers etc. must finish with achievements that are appropriate to the working class' profits. For urgent demands such as the amelioration of the working conditions throughout the zone, measures for labour safety etc., the struggle must be led in every single shipyard, too.
The shipyard bosses and their class organisation GISBIR have been in trouble since the neoliberal hell of Tuzla has been exposed by the political general strike in the zone. What will they do now? How will they continue with their class struggle? What will GISBIR that under the conditions of the zone-wide strike had to sit at the table with Limter-Is, now do? This is a situation which can be more or less predicted. Now GISBIR will try to detain and calm down the workers, will wait until the interest and the sensitivity of the public reduces. In the meantime, it can try to give the impression that the problems are being solved. It must be foreseen and expected that the shipyard bosses and GISBIR will fight for every single shipyard in order to hinder the organisation of Limter-Is and cover up the fact that Limter-Is is the authorised union. It will also be no surprise if workers would be sacked in masses or black lists prepared. There is no doubt that the shipyard bosses and its class organisation GISBIR will not hesitate to use their yellow union weapon in an influential way. It is a situation to be expected that the yellow collaborating unionism that played its role in a passive way in the past will have an active role reactivated by the bosses.
This means that the struggle has reached a level more complex and complicated. It requires a clearer openness, a more concrete perspective, a higher talent of strategy and tactics, determination as well as capability of manoeuvres.

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* This article has been taken from the April-May 2008 issue of the Marxist theoretical-political magazine Teoride Dogrultu published every two months.

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1- Tuzla shipyards zone is the largest shipbuilding and repair zone in Turkey. According to state figures, 48 of the 62 shipyards in Turkey are located at Tuzla shipyards´ zone. Altogether 563 subcontracting companies are active in this region which has the 95% of the private shipbuilding sector as well as of the repairing industry. Tuzla shipyards' zone has grown rapidly since 2001 and reached rank 5 in the world at shipbuilding and repair sector. It has reached an export volume of 2,5 billion USD. It is supposed that 40.000 workers are employed in fact at these shipyards, while the number of registered workers is 5.300 at the main companies and 8800 at the subcontracting firms. Due to the working conditions at the zone, work-related accidents leading to the death of the workers are quite widespread. 5.800 accidents happened only in 2006. The number of workers who died following work-related accidents registered by the union is 105 so far.
2- DISK (Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions) was founded in 1967 as a result of militant workers' strikes and resistances and was defended by workers against all attacks of the state. Although it lost its militant character and became a reformist confederation, it continues to show a progressive stand and to include some revolutionary class unions.
3- KESK (Confederation of the Public Employees' Unions) was founded in the 1990s through the militant struggle of the public employees, the teachers at the first rank.
4-Turk-Is (Confederation of Workers' Unions of Turkey) is another trade union confederation founded by the state in the 1950s in order to hinder the development of independent revolutionary trade unions.
5- In Turkey and Northern Kurdistan, work-related accidents are called "work-related murders" by the workers and trade unions in order to expose the lies of the bosses and the state that these deaths come out of coincidences and accidents and not of the lack of labour safety measures.
6- GISBIR (Union of Shipbuilding Industrialists and Businessmen) is the organisation of the shipyards' bosses.
7- In these actions, workers stopped the work for a few hours without officially declaring a strike, due to the bans and attacks of the state.
8- On April 26, 2002, the shipbuilding workers started a strike at Yonca shipyard because of the dismissal of the workers who were affiliated to the union Limter-Is. They demanded that the dismissals should be cancelled and the bosses should accept to confer with the union. This was the first strike of the shipbuilding workers in Turkey after 24 years. The strike continued under the heavy attacks of the state and the representatives of the union were arrested several times.
9- In May 2006, 55 workers of the Desan shipyard started a strike demanding the payment of their salaries that were not paid since 1,5 month. This strike has been an example for the whole zone, and especially with the imprisonment of two leaders of the union Limter-Is, among them the general president Cem Dinc, the voice of the shipbuilding workers was heard by the whole society.
10- In order to have authorisation in one single workplace, a union has to pass the quota of 50% across the sector.