[fse-esf] 1st of May; victory of the working class in Turkey

[Alp Altinors]

1st of May; victory of the working class in Turkey
www.atilim.org

ENGLISH (01.05.2007)- The heart of the 1st of May Worker's Day celebrations 
in Turkey was the Taksim Square of Istanbul.

After the massacre of the 1977 1st of May, Taksim Square had been a 
prohibited area for worker and popular demonstrations. Although it is open 
to all sorts of celebrations (including Police Week, national fests, New 
Year celebrations, reactionary meetings etc.) the square remained closed to 
labourer's demonstrations. The square is located in the centre of the city.

This year the proggressive labour unions, chambers and mass organizations, 
revolutionary, socialist and proggressive political organizations and 
parties; totally 60 social and political organizations got the decision to 
celebrate the Mayday at Taksim. Taksim had been a symbol of 1st of May since 
the 1977 celebrations, in which more thar 500 thousand labourers gathered, 
and a state-organized massacre took 34 martyrs. This year, is the 30th 
anniversary of this massacre, and the killers had not been found and tried 
yet. It is named as “1st of May Square” among the labourers.

The Governorate of Istanbul, as a part of the state policy of prohibiting 
Taksim Square, applied harsh measures against the gathering. Nearly all the 
public transportation was prohibited with Governor's decision, and this 
created a total traffic chaos in Istanbul. Millions of people could not go 
to their works or schools, spent hours on the highways. This meant a general 
stopping of work and education life in the city. The people cursed on the 
Governer Muammer Guler for turning Istanbul into an open air prison.

All the people who came to the gathering place (Dolmabahce) were severely 
beaten and detained, in the first place the members of the Organizing 
Committee. Despite the open state terror, the people showed the courage to 
gather again and again after being dispersed. Totally 580 people were 
detained.

At the end, the waves of labourer masses, with their steadfastness and 
determined will, managed to gather at Taksim Square, and made the 
commemoration of the martyrs of 1977. Thousands of people, breaking the 
blockade of the police, managed to free Taksim Square from the chains of 
state terror. Groups of demonstrators, numbering thousands, entered the 
square again and again, despite the attacks of the police with battons and 
teargas.

All around Istanbul turned into a resistance field, because the busses 
carrying the people to the meeting were stopped by the police. Thousands of 
workers cut the main highway of Istanbul (at three points) and began 
walking. In labourer districts Okmeydani, Gulsuyu and 1st of May, thousands 
of people clashed with the police. 1st of May turned into a Istanbul-wide 
general resistance.

In the end of the day, it was the workers who won, and the state was the 
loser of the day. The public opinion turned furious against the Governor 
because of his crazy prohibition of public transport. The demand for his 
resign gained large public support.

1st of May was also celebrated in many towns such as Izmır, Ankara, 
Adana, Bursa, Eskisehir. In all the 1st of May events, the attack in 
Istanbul was protested and the Governor was called to resign.

The conquest of Taksim had been tried three times in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 
for the first time it is managed. Regarding the heavy repression conditions 
under which Turkey is living, and especially the hard conditions that arose 
with the memorandum of the military, the importance of this success becomes 
greater. Also the 1st of May had been a third channel of political stand, 
against the two bourgeois sectors; the government and the army. The 
labourers have opened their way with their will.

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