May Day Lockdown Blues

From the blog of friends in Istanbul.

 

View from our flat.

May Day. For senior dogs, as committed socialists and union members during most of our working lives, this day has always held a special meaning. It is an irony of history that while May Day has its origins in U.S. labor history, it has been successfully expunged from the memory of the North American working class. It commemorates the 'Martyrs of Chicago', the four leaders of the movement for the eight hour day in the 1890s who were legally murdered by the U.S. government on trumped up charges. It is celebrated as International Labor Day throughout the world, except in the United States.

In the wake of the Gezi Park events of last summer, it was not altogether unexpected that the AK Party government refused to give permission to unions to gather in Taksim Square this May Day, 2014. They had in fact refused permission for any political gathering in the square since Gezi. The response from Turkey's small and fragmented organized labor movement (representing less than 10% of the workforce) was divided. Several union confederations, considered less antagonistic to the government, decided to gather in Kadiköy, on the city's Asian side. Other confederations, seen as more 'leftist' and 'militant' and anti-AK Party, insisted on their constitutional right to celebrate in Taksim, which meant donning hard hat and gas mask and going at it with the cops. The leader of one of them announced that she wanted to see 'all those who are opposed to the AK Party government' in Taksim on May Day. (Hmmm. And what about all of those workers and poor people who vote for the AKP?)

Cihangir center occupied.

The government refused to budge, citing the alleged possibility of a terrorist attack, but in fact making it clear that Taksim Square would permanently be off-limits for political gatherings. To back up their decision, the government brought in nearly 40,000 police and 50 water cannon vehicles; canceled ferries, metro and bus service that might bring participants to Taksim; and set up police barricades on all streets leading up to the square.

All of this meant that most of us who perhaps would have attended a May Day celebration ended up staying home under lockdown either on one side of the police barricades or the other. The government backed up its threats to keep the square free of demonstrators. In various parts of the city, especially Okmeydanı, Beşıktaş and Şişli, groups insisting on marching to Taksim were met with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons. In our neighborhood, which lies just south of Taksim, and which in the past has experienced its share of tear gas, a relaxed atmosphere prevailed with the cops spending most of the day in the local tea gardens, although the police barricades caused inconvenience for both residents and tourists. The people who suffered the most this May Day were workers who had to go to their jobs and found that their mode of public transportation had been canceled or who couldn't get to their workplaces because of police barricades. Many of them probably lost a day's pay because of the extreme measures the government took to close down Taksim.

Our street barricaded.

All in all, not a good day for labor. The government's stance follows in line with other 'advanced' countries, led by the U.S., which are closing down public space for those who wish to exercise their right to assemble for redress of grievances. The established labor movement in the U.S. and elsewhere, corrupted by their collaboration with sections of the employer class, has been unable to defend working people from these assaults on our rights. For the last 25 years of our working life, we belonged to unions which existed mainly to pocket our dues in order to spend it on bloated salaries, junkets and privileges for our 'leaders', comfortably in bed with the bosses, agreeing to contracts which consistently eroded our standard of living and working conditions. Rather than organize a real defense of workers' interests, they would pour millions of dollars of union members' dues into the coffers of Democratic Party candidates like Clinton and Obama who then turned around and stuck it to the unions.

The Turkish working class suffers from long working hours, low pay, unsafe working conditions and a growing number of super-exploited immigrant workers - especially Syrians - in need of solidarity.  Did May Day 2014 put these workers in a stronger position to fight for their rights? Sadly, no. Union officials grossly miscalculated the relationship of forces between the government and the unions. The labor movement failed to forge a unified response to the ban on Taksim Square that clearly put the onus on the government and was unable to formulate demands that speak to the pressing needs of Turkish workers. Most importantly they had no strategic objective of winning over new layers of the working class, including those who currently support the AK Party. The result was a divided, scattered non-event, that unnecessarily put people in harm's way and exposed the lack of leadership that workers in Turkey face today.

The memory of the Martyrs of Chicago and the Martyrs of Taksim, 1977 deserves better.