Trade unionism in Turkey: The self-understanding of Türk-İş and its role in society and politics (1950-1982)

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Siyaset Bilimi ve Kamu Yönetimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2007

Öğrenci: GÖZDE YİRMİBEŞOĞLU

Danışman: MEHMET OKYAYUZ

Özet:

The arguments concerning the trade unionism and working class movement in Turkey as well as the largest confederation, Türk-İş, in relation to the involvement in the political arena is debated in this thesis by underlining the lack of class identity among the workers. The main argument is that Türk-İş was not established by the will and efforts of the workers. Another major discussion point of the thesis is the nonpartisanship policy of Türk-İş. It has been found that Türk-İş participated quite actively in the political sphere until the 1980 military intervention. However, the limits of this participation were widely drawn by the major political parties of the country. The thesis defends that there are problems stemming from the lack of class consciousness among the Türk-İş workers, the hierarchal structure of Türk-İş and the profit oriented approaches of the political parties towards Türk-İş.