By Ali Cevahir in Istanbul
May Day has practically been banned in Turkey under the guise of Covid-19 regulations, despite the fact that the congresses of ruling AKP party were held in large auditoriums (picture above) without full Covid-19 restrictions in place. People were brought to the congresses by bus and in the meetings hundreds of people were packed in close together, violating norms of social distancing.
After those events, the number of Covid cases increased dramatically in every single city, including small towns.
Meanwhile the government and big corporations have been fighting, not against Covid, but the workers. Relying on the Labor Act and its so-called “code-29” sub-article, the capitalist class have begun a programme of dismissing workers. To put it simply, “code-29″ allows the capitalist class to fire their workers on the ground that they have acted against their code of “morals and ethics.”
No rights to unemployment benefits
On this basis, in 2020 alone, 176,662 workers were laid off, which amounts to on average of 491 workers every single day. Those sacked workers are not paid compensation, let alone have the right for unemployment benefits. Besides these, hundred thousands of workers are suffering from an indefinite period of unpaid leave.
Working conditions in Turkey are almost worse than in a dystopian Hollywood movie. In those movie plots that are associated with pathogenic viruses, people in cities are at least in lockdown, in that no one is able to go to their workplace. However, in our Turkish dystopia, the mutant pathogenic virus seems to be so ‘merciful’ that it is not expected to infect people on workdays.
Turkey is turning into a slave labour camp. The restrictions put by the government are regulated by and for the capitalist class. To give an example, those workers who protested against unpaid leave and code-29, and who asked to be represented by a labour union, have been detained by the police.
Yet workers and their family members are dying in hundreds every day. Covid-19 is a class disease in this sense. Conversely, Erdoğan claims to be proud of the latest export figures of Turkey, that is to say, he puts profits over his own people.
Detained for demanding a trade union
To give other examples, in TOFAŞ, an automobile factory, the number of Covid cases were 300 per week. The workers of Migros, which is of the biggest supermarket chains in Turkey, are laid off and many have also been detained by the police because they asked for union.
What is more absurd is that the government is waging this war against its own people by way of police enforcement of Covid restrictions. The police fine people £80 for not wearing masks, and even by freezing people’s accounts.
This president and his government are totally corrupted. Lately, it has been revealed that the Minister of Commerce bought sanitizers from his own company. Before the Turkish government was transformed into a presidential system, Erdoğan was calling in meetings for the state to be run “like a company”.
Reserves of the National Treasury have vanished
Now the “company” is going bankrupt, and they are asking the workers to pay the bill. The reserves in the National Treasury have vanished and those dissidents who have asked where all that money had gone are being terrorized. Even the political posters that are being put up, questioning the missing money, are being removed by the police in the name of Covid measures.
Turkey is a big business as things stands, and not only the Minister of Commerce, but also Ministers of Health and Education are also running their own businesses. They all have big investments in their fields.
Last but not least, the measures against Covid-19 were issued not only by the Ministry of Health, but also by the Directorate of Religious Affairs. Worship in mosques was found to be a ‘risk’, not by the Ministry of Health, but by the Directorate of Religious Affairs. This is what “New Turkey”, governed by Erdoğan looks like: a religious, authoritarian, regime working against the poor people.
