'This tree will now come into leaf in Yozgat'

Photo: Tuğçe Yılmaz / bianet.

Click to read the article in Turkish

Cemal Bilgin who worked as a caregiver in the University Hospital of Çapa, İstanbul is now a candidate for MP from the Green Left Party (YSP) list at first rank in Yozgat. He is also the President of the Workers' Own Party (İKEP) since 2019. 

Bilgin went to the Netherlands in 2000 after working at the Çapa Hospital for a while and worked in this country as an illegal worker. He learned the Dutch language to be able to find a job easier. 

He returned to Turkey after clearing the debt his family had made. Returning to his job at the Çapa Hospital, he was laid off because he proved that nearly 40 workers got poisoned because of the meal. Tens of lawsuits and hundreds of investigations were opened against him. 

He is now a candidate for MP. 

Bilgin defines himself as coming from a religious and nationalist background. About being a candidate for MP in Yozgat, he says, "We planted this seedling to the soil. All seedlings planted in the soil have to grow. We will do the caring for that seedling as the workers, the laborers, the villagers, and farmers, all together. So that this green tree will come into leaf and grow in Yozgat." 

We listened to his story and the process that went to his candidacy from Cemal Bilgin himself. 

May we get to know you first? Who is Cemal Bilgin? What does he do, where was he born and where did he grow up?

I studied the primary, secondary and high schools in Gazi neighborhood in İstanbul. I graduated from the Furniture and Decoration department of the Küçükköy Vocational High School. 

I worked as a caregiver in the  Çağa Hospital of the İstanbul University Medical Faculty. This is my occupation. I started working in the hospital in 2009 and I did everything from cleaning to caregiving. 

I went to the Netherlands and worked there as an illegal worker. I stayed there for four years. We lost lots of money in the ceramist workshop that my father was keeping due to the devaluation in 1995-96 and I had to go to the Netherlands to support my family. 

I have two sisters and one brother. I am not married and I do not have any children. I grew up in a nationalist, conservative and religious family. 

How were your Netherlands years?

"Of course, tt was difficult in the beginning. You do not speak the language. I had to work but I also had to learn the language. I went to a course for six months in the Netherlands and I learnt the language even if a little. I developed it further later and it became easier for me to find jobs.

"I worked in construction works, in gardens. And of course in the most difficult conditions. Because we were not qualified workers, and we did not have any rigths. I did whatever they told me. I made use of whatever rights they gave me. Then I came back here, because it is difficult to work abroad, and we had paid back our debts. I did my military service in 2005-2006 and then I contacted the doctors I knew and started to work in Çapa again. Until the ninth month of 2016."

"Our name was subcontractor worker, our surname was slave"

Why until 2016?

Because of the damn subcontractor system. When I came back to Turkey I was working at subcontractor companies. It really hurt me, because I went to the Netherlands and worked at subcontractors. Here again I was working for subcontractors. They were stealing our labor, the work we were doing. 

To put it in a nut shell, foryears, our name was subcontractor worker, our surname was slave. But I had to work, because there was family pressure too. 

What kind of a pressure?

My familiy is a conservative family, they are religious, nationalist. If you quit your job, or if you are dismissed, they take it as something bad, as if you have stolen something, as if you have committed a theft or corruption. We have always been told that we should not be on the carpet. If you are unemployed and especially if you have come to the fore in any kind of dispute, this is seen as a bad image. The same is true with regard to struggling for any of your rights, raising your voice, being unionized, etc. My mother and my father always used to tell me to keep away from the leftists. 

They opened 30 lawsuits and hundreds of investigations against me because of my trade union struggle. In one hearing the prosecutor told me, "Pray God, you are from Yozgat." So if I was from Van, if I was from Diyarbakır, I would be arrested. How on earth can this be said? Supposedly,they tried to distance me from the struggle, as they see it. Do you know what happened next? A terror case was opened against me in 2009. 

And I told them that the real terrorists are those who steal our labor, those who seize the sweat of our brow, those who become rich over the workers. 

I told them if workers who demand their rights are terrorists, then I am a terrorist. The case continued for three to four years. I was acquitted. I received my seniority indemnity. Why have you paid me my indemnity if I am a terrorist?

The "Kurd" of Yozgat

So did you not keep away from leftists from then on?

I was living in the Gazi neighborhood anyhow. There were the Kurds, the Alevis, revolutionaries, socialists in our neighborhood. We tried to get unionised, working for the subcontractor company. Because there were those who were civil servants and who were unionised, doing the same job as we did. But they had better social rights, personal benefits, etc. They were receiving higher salaries, they had their yearly leaves, they could make use of the nursery, they had meals, they had service buses, they had indemnity payments. We only had our plain salary.

We were not able to have meals in the hospital? We did not even have cabins to change our clothes, can you believe that? Maybe you know, there is some room in fire-escape stairs, we used to change our clothes there. We the men can do it maybe, but it was the same for the women. 

I remember that some doctors with whom we talked about this asked "so what is the problem about it?"

So we were working under these conditions when we started the struggle for unionisation. And we saw that not only us, but 80% of the Çapa Hospital employees were working for subcontractor companies. The cleaners, the caregivers, the security personnel, the nurses, the laborants, the technical personnel, the human resources personnel, all of us...

And in this prosess we met socialists and revolutionaries. And I became the Kurd of Yozgat. 

How come?

If you wage a struggle, if you confront the authority, you are either a traiter or a terrorist. You are a persona non grata. However it was so exciting and so good when we started to gain some of our rights and this bore through us. We started to have our meals together with the other personnel. Everyone was surprised. Because we were the blacks of that place. We did not mind being black but we were disturbed by the discrimination. 

Our purpose was to get unionised when we started the actions. And in the end three unions affiliated to the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK) reached the stage of making a collective agreement in the Çapa Hospital for the first time. We discovered at that stage that the hospital would collapse if it was not for us. And the university management, the physician in chief, everybody saw this, they experienced it. Becasue we saw that hundred thousands of rich people have been created using the subcontracting system. These people became rich directly stealing from the workers labor, from their sweat of brow. This is also theft, this is corruption. This is a sin. Our religion also says that you should give a worker his due before his sweat of brow dries up. So where is Islam? Where is nationalism in this?

I experienced and I saw that you could not be with the rightists either in trade unions or in politics, that we should not be members of those unions. Because they themselves were living like rich people, their children were going to private schools, studying abroad. With whose money? With the money of the workers. They discourse on nationalism, they try to turn people into their all time supporters, always to vote for them. Just like the shopkeepers in Tahtakale. 

Why Green Left party?

Because they were with us, they supported us. And today we will be next to those who defend the oppressed people in politics. When we were in difficulty, when we were waging a struggle, it was always the socialists, the revolutionaries, the People's Democratic Party (HDP) MP's, who were with us. And they did not ask us anything. They never asked about our religion, our language, our identity or our political opinions. 

Therefore they became my friends, my relatives. 

Yozgat is a nationalist, conservative and religious province. The rightists have 65 percent of the votes. This has to change. The left and the political parties defending the rights of the oppressed people are not present in Yozgat. Our purpose is to change this, to open that door. We have planted this seedling to that soil now. All seedlings planted in the soil have to grow. We will do the caring for that seedling as the workers, the laborers, the villagers, and farmers. This struggle will grow here.

Me being elected an MP, yes it may be important and it may make me feel very happy. But there is something more important: We have to grow this unity, this togetherness, this fraternity, equality, justice, freemod in Yozgat also. This is a first tree that we plant. Now this tree will grow in Yozgat.

And there is one more thing; look at the political parties other than HDP/Green Left Party.None has a worker as a candidate for MP on the first rank. 

"I am the child of this country"

How were the reactions to your candidacy in Yozgat?

First the workers, my colleagues called, then we also met them. Most asked me why I was not a candidate from the list of another party, like the Good (İYİ) Party, or the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). I would not, because they stole our labor, they seized the sweat of our brow. It is because of them that we are in this situation. We are desperate. How could I be with them? Of course they are worried. Why are you worried? I am a child of Yozgat. I am a child of Turkey. I am one of you. I am here. 

It is the first time that a candiate of HDP/Green Left Party in Yozgat is campaigning. Telling the struggle for the rights, the labor struggle, the rights of the oppressed people. The people in HDP are people like us, they are workers, laborers, villagers, they are construction workers. This is the reason I am here. This is the answer I give to my family, my relatives, confidently, sincerely, honestly. They do not say you are a traitor, you are a terrorist because they know me from the labor struggle we have waged against the subcontractor companies. 

The Republican People's Party (CHP) could not be an option for me either, it has also changed format, made a deal with the state. They are pursuing the same policy since a 100 years. CHP will come to power now, yes, but will they stand by the workers, the laborers or the oppressed people when they come to power? Will the defend the rights of the non-Muslims?

Isn't it difficult for you to organize an election campaign in Yozgat?

There are no negative reactions from my friends, or from the workers, but there is great pressure from the state. People even tell me, when we take a photo together, not to post it on Facebook or other social media. I come accross this very often. But what did I do, I took my photos with the signboards, we have a very beautiful forest, I took photos there and I posted these photos. So I told everyone, we are here. Now the specter of Green Left is really haunting each part of Yozgat.

The working class, the workers, the laborers, in fact they do not have an identity. We have to make this identity visible in all parts of Turkey. This is what we want to do. We want to create a united, pluralist, massive politics of the laborers and the oppressed. 

"We are not obliged to a victory, but to the crusade"

What else would you like to say?

I believe that the power of labor politics to unite and when it is our labor that is the subject matter, believe me many of those doors open. We also have to be MPs. Those who are oppressed have to be in alliance. We have to be strong. 

I meet with everyone in Yozgat for my campaign. The villagers in Yozgat plant either wheat, or lentil or sunflowers. Without receiving any support from the government, they do it on their own. None of these are being discussed in Yozgat. I am telling the other candidates, let us come together and talk about the problems of Yozgat. Let us discuss. Who promises better things for the people, for the workers, for the citizens?

Let us not forget that if we want to send this government away we have to struggle all together, as Turks, as Kurds. And if we want to gain our rights we have to know, the road to the rights of the Kurdish people passes from Yozgat; and the road to the rights of the Turkish people passes from Diyarbakır. We are all dignified people and we are responsible for what we do. That is why we say that in Yozgat we are not obliged to a victory but we are obliged to the crusade. 

There is the May Day before the elections. The day for the united struggle of the workers. And the night of May 14 will be the festival of the people. 

(TY/PE)