Hak-Iş as a trade union event in Turkish trade union movement

Trade unionism has been one of the factors that affected socio-politicalstructure of the society since the eighteenth century. Trade union movementsmay change from society to society and they interact with political life eitherdirectly or indirectly. The relationship betvveen social and political structures isalso mutual.Trade union fırst appeared in Engiand after invention of the "StreamEngine" that led to industrial revolution. Union movements show differences inaccordance with social, economic, historical and political development of thecountries. To illustrate, trade unions in Engiand and USA have differentstructures. Unlike United States vvhere trade unions stayed away from politicalstruggle and conflict, unions in the United Kingdom developed with politicalstruggle.Unions in Turkey have a different character from those of these tvvocountries because of the late industrialization. Turkish vvorkers establishedsome union-like organizations tovvards the end of the nineteenth century butthese organizations vvere not completely unions.After the declaration of the Second Constitutional Period, theseorganizations gained some union characteristics and began to raise their voices.Unions vvere closed dovvn or supressed with Takrir-i Sükun (Marshall Law) of1925 and didn't develop until the 1950s. After the 1950s, development policiescaused increase in the number of vvorkers; thus, the development of the unions.Türk-İş was the fırst eslablished union confederation and it was affectedtremendously by the American unions. İn parallel vvith American approach,Türk-İş has chosen labor and contract unionship. İt perceived itself above thepolitical parties. Therefore, Türk-İş has follovved a pragmatic path.The adaptation of the social state principles, the improvement of socialand political life, together with fundamentel rights in 1961, Turkish constitutionaffected union movements that adopted a leftist discourse. The İncrea.sing trendin industrialization and urbanization after that time also contributed to thisprocess. After the establishment of the Turkish Labor Party (TİP) in 1961 andthe Revolutionary Labor Unions Confederation (DİSK) in 1967, unionmovements became a political movement. Different from Türk-lş, DİSK preferreda "social class unionism" and cooperated with leftist parties.The domestic crisis that occured in mid 1970s caused a serious problemsand a separation in the politics of the unions. Hak-lş was established in thatperiod (1976). Hak-İş "protected its unique aspect and organized until 1980s. İtwas expected that Hak-İş would develop an İslamic model of unionization.Together with this fact, it began to contribute to civil society, participatory andpluralist dembcracy by producing ideas and creating public agenda. Hak-lşadopted a union model based on national and moral values, consensus andcooperation by refusing the Türk-lş model that based on wage and contract andeconomic, social class model of the DİSK. Another aspect that contributes to theuniqueness of the Hak-İş is that it accepts unionism as a part of civil society andit also tries to produce social, political, economic and educational projects andideas.