You are here
UID-DER, a Workers’ Struggle Organisation
Our roots run deep!
UID-DER has a history going deep into the past. The period between 1960-1980 is an important period in the history of the Turkish working class. These years, when industry developed by leaps and bounds and the working class grew, were also the years of the rise of the working class movement. In these years, which witnessed a succession of mass strikes and large mass demonstrations, workers were gaining political class consciousness and the social struggle against capitalist exploitation was growing. Those who led the founding of UID-DER were socialists and militant workers of the older generation who had contributed to this rise of the working class struggle in Turkey.
Despite the military fascist coup of 12 September 1980 and the difficult years that followed, the socialists and militant workers who established the strong roots of UID-DER continued the struggle against capitalism in the ranks of the working class. After the military coup, they contributed to breaking the ice, opening the way and revitalising the working class movement. As a product of their long years of work, Workers’ Self-Education Groups were born in the mid-1990s. Workers from various sectors, unions, strikes and picket lines united under the name of Workers' Self-Education Groups.
These pioneering workers, who gained political class consciousness, discussed the situation of the working class, its problems and ways of organising. They worked with determination by organising in their workplaces and increasing solidarity with official strikes, unofficial strikes, pickets. They tried to revive the tradition of the international struggle of the working class, to pass it on to the new generations and to bring the workers into the struggle. These efforts were crowned with the foundation of UID-DER on the 36th anniversary of the Great Workers' Resistance of 15-16 June. The foundation of UID-DER on the anniversary of 15-16 June was not a coincidence. It was an indication of the tradition that UID-DER represents, of the confidence in the working class, of the perseverance and determination in the struggle.
UID-DER’s goal
Capitalism means exploitation, imperialist war, economic and political crises, unemployment, inequality, poverty, hunger, plundering of nature and the spread of violence. It means that humanity and nature are driven to destruction under the yoke of capital. The world working class has no interest in the survival of such a system. The only force that will overthrow capitalism and save humanity and nature from destruction, open the doors to a world full of freedom and peace, where man does not exploit man, where unemployment, hunger, poverty and wars end, is the world working class.
For this reason, UID-DER strives for all workers, regardless of nationality, male, female, unionised, non-unionised, white-collar, blue-collar, unemployed, subcontracted, to unite around the axis of class interests and intensify the struggle against the capitalist class and capitalism. It works in the ranks of the working class to strengthen class consciousness and historical consciousness, unity and solidarity and the will to fight against capitalist exploitation.
UID-DER supports the unity of the workers in trade unions and their struggle for their economic and democratic rights, based on the fact that the unity and solidarity of the workers can only be strengthened through struggle. While trying to improve the economic and democratic struggle of the workers, it also defends the necessity of political struggle against capitalism.
UID-DER educates the workers against the lies of the bourgeoisie and arms them with class consciousness. It works for the elimination of prejudices among the workers, for the emergence and strengthening of a real fraternity and solidarity at the international level, for the development of the international unity of struggle of the working class. It continues its efforts to develop international relations with class organisations and trade unions fighting for this cause. It raises the call “Workers of all countries, unite!” and the banner of internationalism in the ranks of the working class.
UID-DER teaches workers to view every issue from the perspective of their own class. It argues that the struggle of the working class embraces the demands of all the oppressed and is the address of the solution. It fights to develop the culture of solidarity against individualism, selfishness, nationalism, racism, fascism, the culture of hatred created by class societies and further deepened by capitalism.
UID-DER fights for a world in which all forms of discrimination are abolished, in which no human being is oppressed because of their ideas, their way of life, their religious belief or non-belief, their sexual orientation, their preferences, their culture, in which women are not oppressed and subjected to violence, in which no people is under the yoke of another, in which Kurds, Turks, Arabs, Ukrainians, Russians, all peoples will live together in peace and fraternity!
From tradition to the future: UID-DER advances the struggle
UID-DER carries on a determined work in factories and other workplaces, trade-unions, workers’ neighbourhoods, strikes and pickets. While it keeps growing through this work, it lends strength to the struggle of the working class.
- UID-DER’s website was launched in 2006 following a line of publication based on the common and general interests of the working class. The bulletin İşçi Dayanışması (Workers’ Solidarity), which contains articles, letters and news written by workers in and around UİD-DER from all sectors, has been published monthly without interruption since 2008. UİD-DER WebTV covers important experiences, current problems and struggles of the working class in the form of reports and documentaries.
- UID-DER conveys the international current and historical struggles and experiences of the working class to the workers in Turkey. It also carries the experiences and struggles in Turkey into the collective memory of the international working class through its publications in different languages, especially English, on its website. It undertakes the task of being a transmission belt for the working class from the past to the future, from Turkey to the world.
- UID-DER carries out campaigns to fight against economic problems of the working class such as low wages, abolition of severance pay, burning problems such as work accidents, as well as democratic and political problems such as restrictions on the right to strike.
- UID-DER organises training activities for the workers on different topics. In these activities, various topics related to the history of working class struggle, current political and economic developments are discussed and workers are provided with class perspective and class and historical consciousness.
- UID-DER works for the victory of militant class unionism against bureaucratic trade unionism through its activities in workplaces and trade unions.
- UID-DER promotes solidarity with workers on strike (legal or wildcat) in different sectors and carries out campaigns and activities to strengthen the national struggles of the working class with international solidarity.
- UID-DER carries out activities to eliminate nationalism and prejudices among workers. It defends the unity of workers and the fraternity of peoples. It fights for the right of migrant workers to work under the same trade union organisation, with the same rights and subject to the same laws as 'native' workers.
- The UID-DER Women’s Committee brings together women workers to promote solidarity and struggle. It addresses the problems of women workers and raises the demands of working women through struggle. It visits the pickets of striking workers to show solidarity with them. It strengthens the struggle of the workers by drawing into the ranks of the working class struggle working women who want to break the chains of double oppression and yearn for freedom and equality.
- UID-DER unites the labouring youth in the ranks of the working class and arms them with class and historical consciousness. It transmits the experience of struggle to the youth and the energy of the youth to the class struggle.
- UID-DER develops the creativity of the workers in the cultural field in order to strengthen the struggle of the working class. Working groups such as music, poetry, theatre-drama and media, consisting of UID-DER workers from all sectors, continue to produce together. UID-DER’s music band, UMUT, which is made up of UID-DER members, performs the songs it has composed at UID-DER's events, strike sites, picket lines and other points of struggle, while the videos and documentaries produced by UID-DER's media group contribute to strengthening the history and class consciousness of the workers.
- UID-DER also organises various social and constructive activities for the children of the workers’ families. It enables the children of the workers to socialise and to learn responsibility and duty. It educates them to be the militant workers of the future.
From tradition to the future, the UID-DER promotes the struggle for the emancipation of humanity in the ranks of the working class. It calls on all workers and labourers to give strength to this struggle.
UID-DER is marching, the struggle is growing!
Long live the international unity and struggle of the working class!
