ABSTRACT

This article is the proceeding of the presentation delivered at the conference on Labor History in the Context of Ottoman Empire and Turkey, jointly organized by Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey DISK and Turkish Social History Research Foundation TUSTAV and held on November 16 – 17, 2013. Its objective is to discuss and disseminate findings from various sources on Turkish Labor history for the period 1960-80, both generally and in connection with three specific research publications on that period. One of these studies is concerned with railroad workers and their early unionization activity in its early years, including the period 1960- 64, and Haydarpasa Labor Union more specifically. The other two focus on workers movement and its political ramifications at Karadeniz Ereğlisi from the early 1960s to the 12 September Military Coup in 1980. They comprise, respectively, a study on Yapı-İş during 1962-65, and one on Maden-İş and Revolutinary Maden-İş at Erdemir from 1964 to 1980. More broadly, the article draws from author’s experiences associated with his four-year-long study, involving research and documentation in national and local libraries, labor unions, private archives, literary works, memoirs, oral histories and other sources; and, includes his general observations on the state of Turkish libraries/archives, related government policies, and the degree of importance labor unions attach to studying their own history