The Decline of the Labour Movement in Turkey during the Neoliberal Globalization and the Hope for Revitalization

Abstract

ABSTRACT The 1990s witnessed a shift in the makeup of Turkish industry. Many small firms rose to fortune throughout Anatolia by finding a niche in the ever-expanding global commodity chains of the era of neoliberal globalization. The union movement, though, failed to adapt to this new pattern in industrial relations. This paper analyses the social dynamics and political mechanisms of this union inertia and argues that the traditional unions that were built during the era of state-led industrialization and then import substitution developed an ingrained inability to organize in the small industrial firms typical for the nodes of global commodity chains dispersed throughout Anatolia. However, recently a new type of labour militancy has emerged, creating sporadic opportunities for the labour movement's revitalization.