Reagan's Show and shouts "no givebacks, " "more workers, "35 hours this year." the Repression of Turkish Workers
In general, the actions were short walkouts involving almost all the workers. The massive character of these protests achieved the broadest possible unity in action, often against the wishes of the union leaderships.
In a lot of factories, the union leaderships backpedalled very quickly. This was especially true in the big industrial complexes. The leadership initially wanted to give back extra leave for seniority that had been provided for for a long time in the framework of a "fifth week" of vacation. It was decided not to give anything back, and that the fifth week should be without quid pro quo.
In some cases, one hour of a general assembly was enough for the union leadership. At Lockheed in Beauvais, for example, the workers declared by a three-fourths majority that they would not accept anything less than a 35- or 36-hour week. The leadership fell back to 39 hours, with no quid pro quo.
In other cases, where the union leadership felt stronger or did not want to give any sign of weakness that would encourage a resumption of struggles, the
The mass-circulation West German weekly magazine Der Spiegel began a major story in its February 8 issue with a reference to the Reagan government's hypocritical TV spectular on the Polish
"Charlton Heston with a giant candle, Frankie Boy's sultry croonthe Polish national anthem, Orson Welles ("Let Poland be Poland"'). There was no lack of both comical and repulsive aspects to Ronald Reagan's TV show on Poland.
"But the most intolerable--seen in its entirety only in the U.S. and Spain--was the appearance of a Turk.
"Included in the show was Admiral Bulent Ulusu, Premier of Washington's much appreciated military junta in Ankara, who expressed his 'distress' about military rule in Warsaw.
"The Turkish military seized power on September 12, 1980, with the declared aim of suppressing terrorism. Since then, however, a delegation from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions came to the conclusion in Copenhagen that 'the military rulers may be quietly pursuing another goal, ideological repression....
"A clearer judgement came in a report by the jurist Pierre Mertens of the Free University of Brussels in a report to the Council of Europe. He wrote that there could be 'no doubt' that 'the main target of the restrictions imposed by the military regime is trade-union rights.'
"Evidence for Merten's thesis is the giant trial against the officers and members of the left trade union DISK that began on December 24. in a reconditioned sports stadium in Istanbul-Topkapi. accused are and 51 other top officers of the confederation. More than 200 unionists are awaiting trial.
"The trade unionists have already been held in prison for up to fifteen months. been victims of torture and mock
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