Experience with the New Communication Technologies in T

Experience with the New Communication Technologies in Turkey

Onder Ozdemir & Funda Basaran

(Videotek, Turkey)

For some time now, forces that align themselves with the labor and trade unions have been using the new communication technologies such as the Internet, computers and videos. One of the important factors for this has been the eroding influence of traditional publications like the newspapers, bulletins or announcements. Another important factor has been the weakening of the labor trade unions due to the attacks against the workers of the neo liberal policies after 1980's.

The labor movement has been able to organize demonstrations and strikes with massive participation in the 1990's. For example, 100,000 public workers protested a law on collective bargaining and strikes by a sit-in that lasted for a day and night only 500 meters from the parliament. Demonstrations were held where more than ten thousand workers participated. Also, as recently as last July 24, one of the largest demonstrations in Turkey was held where more than 500,000 people took to the streets. The reason for this protest was to resist the governments efforts of dismantling the social security system and raising the retirement age to 60. Although these protests of strikes and demonstrations were massive, the government continued with its attacks and anti-labor policies. Public workers were not able to obtain a status granting them a collective bargaining power with the right to strike. Only a week after the August 17, 1999 earthquake where more than twenty thousand people died, while the country was in a state of shock and mourning, the government swiftly passed the law on retirement and social security against the workers and in line with the "orders" of the IMF.

As a result, although the labor movement in Turkey was able to advance important steps forward, it was unable to sustain this progress and in general was unsuccessful. However, the trade unions and the NGO's are trying to fulfill their new tasks of opposition against the government and the capitalist class.

I want to summarize the efforts of the labor movement in Turkey that uses the new communication technologies.

One of the first examples of these efforts is the establishment of the video group in HALKEVLERI (Peoples House) in 1998 which is one of the oldest organizations in Turkey and where revolutionaries are in power.

Second example is the fax-newsletter KIGEMFAKS created in KIGEM, the Center for Development of Public Management, which has been one of the most important opposition organizations to privatization in the last 6 years in Turkey.

The last experience I want to mention is the example of how the Internet was used in the strike in the military establishment and a US air force base in 1998.

1-Independent VIDEOTEK. Peoples House-Center for Video Documentation.

We decided to establish the Center in August 1998 to create the part of the communication network in Turkey for the forces on the side of labor; to give a voice to those who are not represented in today's media; to contribute to break the hold of the monopolized media on the people; to bring forth the problems of the people being ignored in the society and to create a discussion base to resolve these problems; and for the purpose of allowing the opposition to gain knowledge about each other and to establish support channels internationally.

Members of the Center for Video Documentation are teachers of the Communication Faculty of Ankara University TV department, experts already working in the video, TV or film sector as scenarist or director and executives of the Peoples House.

After a few months, the work group was able to establish a technical infrastructure of a video player and a video projector that would allow functioning at a minimal level. At the same time, the group contacted similar groups in different parts of the world and had access to the products of some of these groups. To name some of these groups, Labor News production from Korea, Labor Video Project from SF, Labor Beat from Chicago and Working TV from Canada. Peoples House VIDEOTEK group is extending its activities in three basic paths.

First path is to establish an archive of the documentaries on the side of the labor from Turkey and around the world. Second is organizing video shows from its archives to members of the Peoples House, who are organized in 50 districts of Turkey as chapters, or to the members of other NGO's and trade unions. Third is to produce documentaries about the labor movement in Turkey. The list of shows organized by the Independent VIDEOTEK Group in the past are below with respective dates and attendance numbers:

1. Activities around the 67th anniversary of the establishment of the Peoples House. - Ankara. "We are not alone" was shown. Date: 1998. Attendance: 150. February 19, 1999

2. Meeting of the Public Workers' Union. - Ankara. "We are not alone" was shown. Attendance: 150. Date: November 1998.

3. Educational meeting of Telecom Workers Union. - Ankara. "We are not alone" was shown. Trade union representatives from around the country. Attendance: 130. Date May 22, 1999

4. Forum held at Ankara Cayirhan chapter of Peoples House. - Ankara. "We are not alone" was shown. Representatives from 50 Peoples House chapters. Attendance: 160. Date: 7 8 A 1999

5. Mersin. "We are not alone" was shown. Attendance: 300. Date:May 1999

6. Adana. "We are not alone" was shown. Attendance: 250. Date July 1999

7. Izmit. "We are not alone" was shown. Attendance: 200. Date July 1999

8. Battalgazi Chapter of Peoples House meeting. - Ankara. "We are not alone" was shown. Attendance: 70. Date July 1999

9. Bergama. - Izmir. Movies of Yilmaz Guney were shown. First shows attendance: 400, Second shows attendance: 300. Date September 29 and 30, 1999.

Video productions of Peoples House Independent VIDEOTEK group are listed below:

1. With the help of Labor Video Project SF, "We are not alone", a 40 minute video on the resistance against the privatization efforts around the world.

2. Video documentary of the August 17 1999 Earthquake in Turkey and the relief efforts of the Peoples House was prepared by the members of the Independent VIDEOTEK group.

3. 3 part, 40 minute long production is in the works about the history of the Peoples House and opposition in Turkey. The documentary will bring a different analysis from the official history on the history of democracy in Turkey.

2- FAX NEWSLETTER- KIGEMFAKS

KIGEM is an organization formed by support from the trade unions and other democratic organizations to stop the privatizations by legal means in 1994. It has brought many privatization efforts to trial and because of these legal challenges, the state was not able to complete many of its planned privatizations. For example, Turk Telecom Company (State Owned) is still not privatized due to KIGEM's efforts.

The members of KIGEM are the heads of member Trade Unions, professors of economics and constitutional law and researchers.

KIGEM has published many books, newsletters and reports that have discredited or proved the thesis of the privatizers were lies. However, mostly due to economic reasons, KIGEM was not able to produce a periodical publication.

The need for such a periodical on the one hand and the lack of funds to support preparation, printing and distribution costs in KIGEM on the other, required a search for alternate methods of publication. As a result of this search, and starting from the experiences of Nah, Eunkyung presented in an article, "Fax Newspaper-The Trade Union News" in Labormedia '97 conference, work started on a fax newsletter. We proposed using the fax machine to publish a newsletter to KIGEM, which we were activists in. KIGEM executive committee resolved to establish a monthly periodical called Kigemfax.

Kigemfax is published monthly via fax as a total of four pages, which devotes two pages to privatization news from Turkey and two pages to privatization news from around the world. The world privatization news in Kigemfax is prepared from labor sites such as Labornet@igc, labornet-UK or labourstart. There are more than 400 fax numbers of individuals and organizations that receive the fax newsletter each month. Labor Unions, or trade associations also redistribute the Kigemfax to their chapters using fax. Some daily newspapers in Turkey are using the information from Kigemfax in publishing labor news and are giving credit to the newsletter. Kigemfax published its first issue on August 1 1998 and came out with its 12th issue last August on its first anniversary. It is continuing its publication to this day.

3 - The usage of Internet in Trade Unions in Turkey. - Harb-Is Experience.

The trade unions in Turkey are not able to utilize the Internet as much as they should. One of the reasons for this is that generally the Internet is still not used very broadly. Today, there are only between 500,000 or 800,000 Internet users in the population of 65 million in Turkey. But, only those researchers or managers in trade unions or NGO's who can speak English can use the Internet for their research or international relations.

Only Islamic Hak-Is labor union confederation and Harb-Is (Union of workers working in Military sector) which opposes privatization within the Turk-Is labor confederation have their own domain names or web sites. Other trade unions mostly use the Internet as users. A discussion forum called "Trade Union Educational List" has been created for the managers in trade unions.

The experience of Harb-Is strike and the Internet.

Harb-Is is a trade union under Turk-Is labor confederation organized in military installations and in the American bases in Turkey. In a strike that started on July 23 1998 and lasted for 69 days, the bosses in the US airforce base used the Internet heavily on their local network for disinformation. The "unfairness" of the strike was published to the workers in the Incirlik Air Force base and to the US public by using the Internet. Reacting to this, the Harb-Is trade union managers created a web page explaining why they had gone on strike to the Americans working on the base, US public and to the people of Turkey.

In a short while the web page created in both Turkish and English language appeared on www.harb-is.org.tr Under the headings of "Why Strike?", "Our Demands", "Employers' Intentions" and "Strike News" information about the strike was published daily as well as all the announcements of the union management.

The web pages relating to the strike on the US base had links in labornet@igc.org, labornet-UK, laborstart pages. The address of the page was published in one of the most highly circulated daily newspaper Milliyet under the heading of "Digital War". The page soon took thousands of hits. The access to the page was analyzed and given to the union management. It was observed that a great number of visitors to the page was from the US base in Incirlik. The success enjoyed by the workers of Incirlik US air force base after 69 days of strike was due to the belief of the workers that they had the right to strike against unfair practices of the US air force base bosses and their persistence and continuation in struggle. Internet, on the other hand, became a moral support and caused the strike to be publicized internationally.