ABSTRACT

The Kazlıçeşme quarter in Zeytinburnu, Istanbul is one of the production areas involving experiences significant as regards the history of labour and that leather workshops have been established approximately 500 years ago. The leather workers who work in Kazlıçeşme leather workshops, in which heavy chemicals and primitive machines, with low wages and under poor working conditions have had deeply labour movement experience as regards the working conditions, trade union rights and right to organization. The Kazlıçeşme Strike is rather important in relation with the fact that it was one of the movements of the labour that had reanimated the class movements following the September 12, which had restriction the trade union rights. The strike period constitutes one of the unique experiences of the working class as regards times, period and acquisitions. In this study, the conditions that had led to the Kazlıçeşme Strike, which had significantly contributed to the subjectivation of the labour, claims of the leather workers, strike organization mechanisms, effects of the lock-out on the process of strike, and the patterns of solidarity within the working class are examined. In this frame, the study was carried out with face-to-face interviews with the leather workers who had participated in the strike and representatives of the trade union and the union of employers and based on an archive research. As the conclusion of the study, it was seen that the Kazlıçeşme Strike in 1987 involves important experiences in the democracy in trade unions, class consciousness, patterns of solidarity within the class and mechanisms of the organization of the strike