A Bottom-Up Approach to the Combined Development of Working-Class Capacities in Turkey: Privatization, Flexibilization, and Union Responses

Abstract

What has been the impact of Turkey’s neoliberal restructuring on the combined development of working-class capacities since the 1980s? Based on interviews with traditional union activists, this chapter reveals that the 1980 military coup and its aftermath have seen a heavy suppression of the labour movement, which ended up paralysing union organizing for decades. In this environment, unions have failed to build a common front coherent enough to stop neoliberal privatizations. Moreover, this chapter documents how privatization has rendered union organizing more difficult and initiated a wave of widespread de-unionization. In regard to the combined effects of labour flexibilization, the authors examine how this situation has affected union organizing in view of the unions’ semi-concessional attitude to cope with flexibility.