May Day

The government’s move has to be appreciated, and we have to be thankful to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but we have to mention as well that over the past six years and particularly last year, it was the same Erdoğan who rejected similar demands of the labor, declared that the "cost of a one-day holiday to the Turkish economy is $2 billion. Turkey is already a holiday paradise. Annual working days in Turkey are as low as 200 days because of the excessive number of holidays. The cost of a one-day holiday to industry is $2 billion. On one hand, we will seek better pay for labor, but on the other hand, we will demand additional holidays. That cannot happen. May Day is not a holiday everywhere in the world. There are places where it is a holiday, and there are places which it is not."

Furthermore, as it is this year, Turkish labor was demanding last year to have a May Day rally at Istanbul’s Taksim Square and commemorate the 1977 bloodshed staged there by some "dark figures" within the Turkish state. As has happened this year, the Istanbul governor turned down the workers’ requests to stage a rally in Taksim Square on May Day, citing security concerns. The refusal of the governor to give permission for a Taksim rally, as is apparently brewing now again, resulted in an escalation of tension between the government and labor. At the time, Erdoğan told the media: "The end of the world will come when feet start to administer the heads. At every province, it is up to the governors to decide where rallies can be held and where such events cannot be held."It was, of course, a controversial statement and did not help at all to defuse the tension. When the governor and the government refused to issue permission for a Taksim rally, workers insisted. Some labor groups eventually tried to walk to Taksim on May Day and were suppressed by police, who used excessive force. The siege of the headquarters of the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Unions, or DISK, headquarters, the bombardment of the building with water cannons, and police entering the building for the first time since the 1980 coup were some of the sad developments of the May Day last year that we remember today.

Empathy please!
Now, labor is still insisting on celebrating May Day and commemorating the victims of the 1977 violent May Day at Taksim Square, and the government remains as determined as ever not to give Taksim Square to workers. The governor is again citing security concerns for his refusal to have a crowded rally at Taksim Square, and the government is asserting again that it is up to the governor to decide in which square the city labor can mark the day.

Obviously, having the May Day rally at another location in Istanbul would not make much difference regarding marking the day. After all, we have to appreciate the government’s reinstitution of May Day as an official holiday. But the governor and the government must overlook the notion that there could be violence if a rally is allowed to be held in Taksim Square and understand the symbolic importance of holding a rally in Taksim. The governor and the government must understand the importance for the Turkish labor to have a celebration and a commemoration at Taksim Square 32 years after the 1977 state-sponsored (or sponsored by some element of the state) violence on labor. A May Day rally in Taksim Square would also mark progress in Turkish democracy. Furthermore, there is of course security risk irrespective of where the May Day rally is held because of the participation of hundreds of thousands of workers. There could be provocation by some terrorist groups or some other elements irrespective where the rally might be held. The duty of a state is to take the required security precautions and prevent such things from happening. Banning rallies at a square because of security concerns is nothing less than closing down schools because of problems in the primary schools.

Perhaps May Day is a byproduct of the depreciation in AKP votes in the local polls. Perhaps the AKP is trying to win back the hearts and minds of the disgruntled. Then, it should walk the extra mile and declare Taksim as the center of May Day rallies and order the governor to undertake adequate security measures. Such a move will definitely produce a win-win result.