The metalworkers’ strike in Turkey, declared by all three unions present in that industry and involving around 130 thousand workers, ended with a partial victory for the workers. The bosses’ organisation agreed to roughly eight times the wage raise that it had conceded on the first round of negotiations. Given the fact that one of the unions, by far the strongest in the industry, is a yellow union that was set up under the military dictatorship of the early 1980s precisely to regiment the struggle of metalworkers, itself the leading force in the struggles of the working class of Turkey up until that time, and that another of the three is affiliated to a confederation that slavishly follows the line of the AKP government, this in itself is quite an accomplishment. However, even more importantly, and of clear significance in terms of which side was able to impose its will, the term of the contract was held down to the conventional two years rather than the three advocated by the capitalists of the industry. The fact that these gains were wrested in the context of a State of Emergency, which the AKP government, by Erdoğan’s own candid admission, uses against the workers and in the interests of the capitalists, and the concomitant ban that was declared on the strike even before it took off, is all the more reason to rejoice.
These achievements are simply an outcome of the spectacular spontaneous movement of wildcat strike action accompanied by sporadic factory occupations waged by tens of thousands of metalworkers two and a half years ago, in May-June 2015. This movement was a full-scale reaction of fully-justified rage against the capitulation by the yellow union in that round of collective bargaining. Now, the union has apparently ended up mastering an immensely difficult situation, as a result of a visible change in its policy and at the expense of serious concessions on the part of the capitalists. It is yet be seen whether the bulk of the members of this union will simply go back to their earlier complacency as a result of the substantial gains made in this round of collective bargaining or whether with its newly acquired self-confidence deepen the process of challenging the policy of subservience to bosses to which the union is probably getting prepared to return to.
The reason why this is only a partial victory is two-fold. On the one hand, the strike ban of the government, although questioned by at least two of the unions, was in the final analysis observed. It is true that the only class struggle union among the three openly declared that the ban does not “bind” them and that even the yellow union had to have recourse to some cosmetic action. Nonetheless, these actions were only preparatory skirmishes in what could have turned out to be a major class war, which would have been a threat to Erdoğan’s popularity among wide layers of the working class. On the other hand, and as was already pointed out, viewed in its entirety, the process ended up taking the wind out of the sails of the memorable movement of May-June 2015.
International solidarity always plays a positive part in the struggle of the working class. In this case, too, working class and socialist organisations from around the world, from the US to Russia, from Argentina to Azerbaijan, and from the Balkan countries contributed to encourage at least the more class conscious elements among the metalworkers. This is all the more important at a time when the government of Turkey is trying to whip up a jingoistic and militaristic enthusiasm in favour of the war in Afrin in northern Syria.
We publicly thank all of the organisations and individuals that have contributed to this international solidarity.
We are publishing below the international solidarity petition and the organizations and individuals that signed it, in Spanish:
¡Saquen sus manos de la huelga de los trabajadores metalmecánicos en Turquía!
¡La prohibición del gobierno significa que el despotismo del AKP sirve a los patrones!
¡Solidaridad internacional con los trabajadores metalmecánicos de Turquía!
El gobierno de Erdoğan-AKP ha prohibido la huelga de los trabajadores metalúrgicos en el cierre del proceso de negociación colectiva de 130 mil trabajadores. Esto es ilegal, ilegítimo e inaceptable.
Los 130 mil metalúrgicos de Turquía habían declarado una huelga que supuestamente comenzaría el 2 de febrero de 2018. La huelga involucra a los tres sindicatos organizados en la industria del metal. Los sindicatos del metal afiliados a tres confederaciones diferentes, de orientaciones ideológicas absolutamente diferentes, van a la huelga simultáneamente. Este solo hecho es suficiente evidencia de la urgencia de la situación para los trabajadores en esta industria, ya que uno de los sindicatos, el más grande, es un sindicato contra el que, hace dos años, los trabajadores protestaron de a decenas de miles denunciando su docilidad ¡y un segundo está afiliado a la confederación controlada en forma casi disfrazada por el partido de gobierno, AKP!
La huelga está destinada a luchar contra la imposición patronal de aumentos salariales mínimos en una situación en la que los trabajadores metalúrgicos de Turquía ya reciben los salarios más bajos en países comparables y trabajan las horas más largas con la tasa más baja de ausentismo. Como novedad, los patrones también desean extender el plazo del acuerdo de negociación colectiva del período de dos años, que se acepta por regla general en todas las industrias en Turquía, a tres años para poder disfrutar de los beneficios de salarios bajos durante un período de tiempo más largo.
Los 130 mil trabajadores en huelga fuertes serían una fuerza suficientemente poderosa para luchar contra los patrones, si no fuera por la perspectiva de la intervención del gobierno del AKP de Recep Tayyip Erdoğan del lado de los capitalistas, en su mayoría grandes empresas conjuntas entre imperialistas turcos y extranjeros, corporaciones como Ford Otosan, Renault, Mercedes, Tofaş (filial del Fiat italiano) y otros. Este gobierno ha prohibido tres huelgas de trabajadores metalúrgicos en los últimos tres años, así como grandes huelgas en las industrias del vidrio, la petroquímica y la banca.
El propio presidente de la república, Erdoğan, se ha jactado en el pasado más de una vez de que su gobierno está utilizando el Estado de Emergencia, declarado en respuesta al fallido intento de golpe en julio de 2016, para detener las huelgas.
Apoyamos la justa lucha de los trabajadores metalúrgicos de Turquía contra la imposición de términos inaceptables por los capitalistas y declaramos nuestra solidaridad total contra la intervención del gobierno en el derecho legal a la huelga al prohibir esta acción tan importante con cualquier pretexto. Hacemos un llamado a las fuerzas de la clase trabajadora en todos los países para que dirijan su atención a este ataque:
El régimen de Erdoğan ha sido correctamente criticado por sus prácticas cada vez más despóticas. Prohibir una huelga legal es un claro ejemplo de esas prácticas y expone al régimen de Erdoğan por lo que es: un gobierno al servicio de los patrones contra la lucha de la clase obrera.
Metalmecánicos de Turquía, ¡somos solidarios con su lucha!
Evgeny Kozlov - Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Russian Party of Communists (RPK), Russian Federation
Tatiana Filimonova, Michail Konashev, Vladimir Oreshnikov - Co-Chairmen of the Council of the Association of Marxist Communities (AMO), Russian Federation
Kirill Vasiliev - Secretary of the Regional Committee, Leningrad Regional department of the United Communist Party (OKP), Russian Federation
Ivan Ovsiannikov- member of the Council Russian Socialist Movement (RSD) and guide of the Information Department of the Inter-regional Trade Unions Association (MPRA), Russian Federation
Alexander Buzgalin, Ludmila Bulavka and Andrey Kolganov - the Alternativyi movement, Russian Federation
Steering Committee of Solidarity, USA
Partido Obrero (Workers’ Party - PO), Argentina
Ergatiko Epanastatiko Komma (Workers Revolutionary Party- EEK), Greece
Partido de Los Trabajadores (Workers’ Party - PT), Uruguay
Marxilainen Työväenliitto (Marxist Workers’ League - MTL), Finland
Sosialist Elm, Azerbaijan
ARSindikat, Bulgaria
Diversia, Bulgaria
Daniela Penkova and Ilian Stanchev - Dokumentalni, Bulgaria
Lenka, Macedonia