ABSTRACT

The period between 1946, the year of Turkey’s transition to multiparty political life and 1950, the year when Democratic Party came to power was a period when the ruling Republican People’s Party had to engage in new relationships with different sections of society under the new conditions of political competition. During this period, the Party tried to show interest in the problems of these sections on the one hand and tried either to organize them in professional organizations under its control or take control of existing organizations on the other hand. During this period, while the CHP headed in the direction of controlling the worker unions and the world of labour within the legal framework provided by Trade Union Act dated 1947 and numbered 5018, as well as through different channels exceeding this legal framework; another important social section that the Party tried to take control of had been the tradesmen and their representative organizations. Earlier periods of the CHP history was also not unfamiliar to attempts aimed at organising the tradesmen under the Party control. Starting from the 1930s, activities were conducted in this direction; the experience of Izmir Union of Labour and Tradesmen Institutions, carrying corporative traces, had taken place in this context. In the period subsequent to the transition to multiparty political life, while the idea of taking the workers and tradesmen under the Party control again came to the fore, yet this time under the new conditions of political competition, the CHP in addition to practices in this direction, tried to create the related legal infrastructure. CHP, enacting the Trade Union Law for the workers and using the opportunites afforded by this Law in controlling the world of labour, aimed to take control of the tradesmen by the Law on Tradesmen Associations and Tradesmen Unions, numbered 5373 enacted in 1949. Within the Party, Bureau of Social Affairs and Economicy Third Bureau was the organizational tool of this control and CHP using every opportunity including financial means through this Office, tried to get the workers and tradesmen organizations under its control. In our study, this issue, which is extremely important for the social history of Turkey, but yet inadequately studied is explored through original archive documents