The TEKEL resistance movement: Reminiscences on class struggle

Abstract

This study presents some theoretical considerations of the TEKEL workers’ resistance movement in Turkey, focusing on four points. Those are: working-class formation in tension with identity formation; precariousness, which is examined by employing analytical distinctions between forms and modes of employment; the struggle for rights as a new pattern of class struggle; and the neoliberal citizenship regime, which implies sweeping labourers as a class away from the ‘political society’ in favour of engagement with their cultural identities.

The Shape of ‘Rising Powers’ to Come? The Antinomies of Growth and Neoliberal Development in Turkey

“…Likewise, the amended law on mining investments resulted in the approval of 9,132 new permits in 2005 (up from 2,625 in 2004) for 'exploration and extraction in forests, around sources of water and in other previously protected zones' (Buğra and Savaşkan 2014: 83). he corollary of these expanding spheres of privatisation has been (1) a steady transformation and weakening of the regulatory and administrative bodies responsible for environmental protection, particularly with regards to urban planning (Doğan and Stupar 2017), and (2) an increase in the scope and intensity of concentrated state violence against communities and trade unions resisting privatisation plans, displayed most nakedly in the case of Yatağan thermal plant's contested privatisation (Yörük 2014, Hürriyet Daily News 2014 and the privatised tobacco monopoly TEKEL workers' 78-day long occupation in Ankara (Özuğurlu 2011(Özuğurlu , Tait 2010.…”

Private Security Work in Turkey: A Case Study of Precarity, Militarism and Alienation

“…Experiences of unemployment and temporary employment tends to scatter unskilled labour from one job to another. As a matter of fact, such cyclical experiences have become one of the characteristic features of the Turkish labour market, subjecting workers to a structural discipline based on their inability to hold a permanent job (Ozugurlu, 2011, 2009; see also Celik, 2015; Ercan and Oguz, 2015; Kosar and Muftuoglu, 2015). In this light private security becomes a desirable option within a much broader strategy of escaping from the unemployment trap.…”

The Continuity and Ruptures of Mobilization Waves in Turkey in the Axes of Tekel-HES-Gezi Parkı Protests.

“…Bu eylemde farklı şehirlerde farklı seviyede yaşanan sorunlar bir araya gelirken işçiler aileleriyle birlikte bu direnişin içinde yer aldılar. Dolayısıyla her fabrikanın ve ailenin yaşadığı sorun diğeriyle bir ilişkisel sürece girdi; sorunun kolektifliğiyle tekilliği birlikte yansıtıldı (Özuğurlu, 2010;Bulut, 2010). Tekel işçileriyle yapılan söyleşilerde görüldüğü gibi, işçiler ve onların destekçileri farklı hayatlar ve kültürlerle temas kurarak yeni bir öğrenme ve iletişim deneyimi yaşadılar (Yıkılmaz ve Kumlu, 2011).…”