Around 300 workers, trade unionists and socialists met at the Petrol-İş conference hall in Altunizade, Istanbul, on Sunday (21 June) to reshape the labour movement.
The Workers' Forum met under the slogan "Dismissals should be banned". Anyone who wanted to spoke at the gathering, discussing effects of the crisis and suggesting solutions.
The gathering had been organised by the Socialist Coordination Initiative. Representative Zeki Küçükarslan said that the aim was "to organise a campaign around agreed demands and to take these demands to the streets."
Messages of support were sent by the KESK trade union confederation of public employees and the Birleşik Metal-İş metal workers' union. İbrahim Doğangül of the Petrol-İş trade union said that they were trying to "push" their umbrella confederation TÜRK-İŞ into action but were not very hopeful.
Dismissals and no pay
Among those speaking at the forum were workers who told their stories. Gazi Özdemir, a textile worker, described how he had required an operation on his back after three months of lifting heavy weights. When he returned after the operation, he found that he had been dismissed.
Worker Şafak Sarı said, "They want us to sacrifice our rights. Those who complain are dismissed. The bosses are turning the crisis into an opportunity. The people face the difficulties and are forced to accept them."
One worker told a story that was greeted with cheers by the audience: The employers moved their workshop in order to avoid paying the workers what they owed them; the workers went after them, became members of a trade union and forced the boss to recognise their rights.
All the workers who spoke emphasised the need for a "common movement".
"The system is in crisis"
Ertuğrul Kürkçü from the Socialist Labour Movement (SEH) accused the government and capitalists of pretending that the crisis would be of a short duration, when, so he said, it was the actual system that was in crisis.
"That is why we have to do more than find work for the unemployed. The capitalists will find their own solution to this crisis; we have to create a labour solution. A great part of the population is affected by unemployment and the crisis."
Kürkçü further pointed out that the crisis was feeding fascism and conservatism. He added that there was not one single solution for workers, but that "the only formula is to share the struggle and to put the workers at the centre of the struggle."
Osman Ergün from the Umbrella Party Initiative also said that the only solution was for workers to organise in structures created by themselves. (EÜ/AG)
