Construction Workers in Turkey face Bourgeois Tyranny
Categories: Turkey
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In Turkey, the consequences of the economic crisis are being felt by the working class and the poorest sections of the population, a crisis aggravated by the costs of the war in Syria.
It is not easy to react. However, the workers’ struggle continues. In the second ten days of September, a resounding workers’ revolt exploded: the strike of the workers involved in the construction of the third airport in Istanbul, which is scheduled to open on 29 October. The strike was called by grassroots trade unions and had a strong participation.
The construction of what will be one of the largest airports in the world involves about 35,000 workers, of which at least 20,000 come from the villages of deep Anatolia, who are sleeping in the construction site in crumbling barracks infested with insects. The devaluation of the Turkish lira has emptied the state coffers, contractors are not receiving payments and a large part of the workers have been left without wages.
But Prime Minister Erdoğan and the bourgeoisie cannot afford delays in the inauguration of this great work for which they are willing to commit any crime. In the construction site, which has been open for 5 years, 400 workers have already died in accidents.
The police responded first with charges and hydrants to the strike and the marches following the umpteenth accident, in which two workers died. Then, noting that the workers had no intention of giving up, they woke up the workers in the dormitories in the middle of the night and arrested 600 people. The contractors, who provide the workers with very bad transport services, immediately found dozens of buses for the police force to take the workers to their detention centres. In the following days only some of them were released and many remain in prison with heavy charges.
After further clashes at the construction site, the workers’ revolt seems to have been suppressed and the construction site now looks like a large lager.
But bourgeois repression will not be enough to stop the workers’ revolt forever.