Nakliyat-İş goes on strike on DİSK's 59th anniversary: Nakliyat-İş President speaks to 12punto

News: Cenk BAŞBOĞAOĞLU-12punto

‘DİSK WAS FOUNDED WITH THE WILL OF THE WORKING CLASS FROM THE GRASSROOTS’

Nakliyat-İş President Ali Rıza Küçükosmanoğlu spoke to 12punto. Küçükosmanoğlu made statements drawing attention to the history of DİSK and the historical responsibility of leading it: 

"The current management of DİSK has moved away from the struggle principles, history, and traditions of struggle expressed in DİSK's founding declaration. Because DİSK was founded with the will of the working class from the grassroots against American-style yellow unionism and conciliatory yellow unionism. And after it was founded, that is, within a very short time after its establishment on February 13, 1967, DİSK was targeted to be shut down by a legal regulation in 1970 because it carried out a struggle based on class unionism that responded to the economic and democratic demands of hundreds of thousands of workers. DİSK was wanted to be shut down by domestic and foreign capital and the government of the time, the Justice Party government. Against this, the glorious 15-16 June resistance emerged, in which hundreds of thousands of workers participated, primarily from Istanbul and other provinces, and at the end of this resistance, this legal regulation had to be withdrawn.

When we come from that day to today, as I said, DİSK has reached a point where it leads social opposition, as well as trade union and social democratic opposition, with the struggle principles and understanding of struggle expressed in its past founding declaration. For this reason, it was shut down during the September 12 fascist period, its administrators were arrested and spent years in prison. Again, as a result of this struggle, Founding President Kemal Türkler was murdered by fascists on July 22, 1980, in preparation for fascism. In fact, all these processes are processes aimed at punishing DİSK's struggle."

‘DESPITE OUR OBJECTIONS…’

Küçükosmanoğlu emphasized his reaction to the DİSK management's decision to move the headquarters to Ankara and stated that the legal process is ongoing: 

"But when we look from that day to this, the current DİSK management is a management that has completely moved away from the class struggle and the understanding of struggle contained in its founding principles. And as a continuation of this, a process has been entered into to move DİSK's Headquarters to Ankara. The DİSK management is trying to implement this move to Ankara despite the current objections of all 15 unions affiliated with DİSK and the objections of three former presidents, following a General Assembly decision taken as a fait accompli and a subsequent decision taken by the Board of Directors. This is actually a concrete indicator of how far DİSK has moved away from its founding principles and understanding of struggle today.

Essentially, as Nakliyat-İş, we oppose this move by looking at it from a class perspective, in line with DİSK's true understanding of struggle. At the same time, we have also filed a lawsuit because it is unlawful. Because according to legal rules, there is also illegality. In that respect, we have filed a lawsuit."

‘WE ARE SETTING AN EXAMPLE OF STRUGGLE THAT UPHOLDS DİSK’S TRADITIONS’

Küçükosmanoğlu explained that they uphold DİSK's tradition of struggle and are setting an example for it: "In this process, we have always put forward a struggle that upholds DİSK's name, history, struggle principles, and traditions from the very beginning. As an indicator of this, we held an event today for the 59th anniversary at the Esenyurt Inspection Stations of the TÜVTÜRK enterprise, where we have been on strike for 63 days. The Founding President's dear daughter, Nilgün Türkler Soydan, also attended this event. And one of the former DİSK presidents, Rıdvan Budak, was with us and also gave a speech. In that respect, when we look at this process, as I said, we are facing a DİSK management that has moved away from class struggle and founding principles. Furthermore, I would like to share this: Especially in this process where the working class is increasingly impoverished, the distribution of national income and wealth is becoming increasingly unjust, and millions of laborers and workers are condemned to misery, there are objective conditions for DİSK to wage a much more effective struggle. But unfortunately, the DİSK management is not there right now.

‘WHAT IS ESSENTIAL IS A QUALITATIVE STRUGGLE’

Küçükosmanoğlu emphasized that DİSK's numerical growth does not mean anything without quality: “Although the number of members in DİSK has increased numerically, the numerical increase in members does not mean anything; what is essential is a qualitative struggle. Because DİSK ensured that May 1st was celebrated again in Taksim with its struggle in 2008 and 2012. There was one-third of the current number of members at that time, but there was a management that upheld its past history and struggle principles. In that respect, with that struggle, May 1st celebrations, which hundreds of thousands attended, began to be celebrated again with the struggle of DİSK, primarily, and other left-wing revolutionary socialist forces, and it became a paid holiday.

In that respect, as a union, we will continue to uphold DİSK's name, struggle principles, history, and traditions under all circumstances. The struggles of DİSK's Founding President Kemal Türkler, Rıza Kuas, and Kenan Budak, and Abdullah Baştürk's defense of DİSK's struggle in all courts during the September 12 process—these are all actually DİSK's history, its struggle, its past. We will continue to uphold all of them.”

News Source: 12punto