ABSTRACT

Established in 1967, the Progressive Trade Union Confederation of Turkey DİSK has completed its 50 years. DİSK was by virtue of the 1960s which is known as the exceptional years of working class of Turkey. Its foundation occurred at a time when Turkey was undergoing a tremendous social transformation from agrarian society to industrial capitalism and from the rural to the urban, within the democratic possibilities of the rule of law of the 1961 Constitution and in the mid of great political turmoil of the time. Contrary to Türk-İş trade union confederation which organised at public enterprises, DİSK may be evaluated as a result of newly emerging industrial capitalism. In this sense, what makes DİSK unique is that it came into existence as a competent representative of class unionism against Türk-İş which was the leading but government-controlled confederation of the time. Just after its foundation, DİSK was attacked by the establishment including government and mainstream trade unionism, and big business circles. Nevertheless, in a couple of years following the foundation it was comprehended that DİSK was persistent and permanent. The favour of workers in the private sector for DİSK affiliated unions on the one hand and DİSK’s reliable attitude during workers right struggles on the other were key in its survival. Despite the limited membership level it had at the beginning, DİSK achieved a permanent ground in trade union movement in the following years and has become a longstanding example of class unionism in Turkey. The first years of DİSK coincided with a turmoil period both in Turkey and across the world socially and politically. The most of DİSK’s founders were also founders of Labour Party of Turkey TİP in 1961. Unfortunately, shortly afterwards DİSK was founded, the rise of TİP became reversed. It was the irony of history, while DİSK was emerging, TİP was losing its power and vote popularity. DİSK suffered from not only troubles of Turkey’s general political conditions but also internal severe problems of TİP and the left with which it had close connections. In this article I intend to examine the first years of DİSK – from the foundation to the resistance of 15-16 June 1970- based on primary sources some of which will be referred for the first time, and to discuss the effect of the less known foundation years of DİSK on its trajectory