The resurgence of self-managed workers cooperatives 5 Turkey

From Istanbul to Barcelona, the co-operative movement is flourishing as employees revive what the bosses buried

Reports from in Marseille and Thessaloniki, in Mataró, Spain, in Istanbul and in Buenos Aires for The Guardian – Original Article – http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/01/may-day-workers-of-the-world-unite-and-take-over-their-factories

At a first glance, the workshop appears to be a run-of-the-mill textile factory. Long lines of knitting and weaving machines dominate the hall, while boxes filled with garments and colourful spindles of yarn are piled up in corners.
But Özgür Kazova is not like any other factory in Turkey: the four workers perched over their tables, sewing, ironing and supervising the whirring machinery, do not answer to any bosses.

Their struggle began in early 2013, when the owners of Kazova Textiles, Ümit and Mustafa Somuncu, put all 95 workers on leave after withholding their pay for several months, blaming poor business conditions. The workers were told they would receive all back-paylater, but upon their return they were informed by the company lawyer that everyone had been dismissed without compensation for “unaccounted absence from work”.

“We were dumbstruck,” said Aynur Aydemir who worked at Kazova Textiles for more than eight years. “Up until then we had been working seven days a week, up to 10 hours a day. Business seemed to be thriving. It was hard to believe that the company was really too broke to pay us.”

What was more, the owners dismantled all working machinery overnight and disappeared together with more than 100,000 finished jumpers and 40 tonnes of high-quality yarn, leaving the unpaid and now unemployed workers with knitting machines that were almost half a century old and did not work properly.

Workers at the Özgür Kazova have a solution to a looming crisis

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Workers at the Özgür Kazova had a solution to a looming crisis. Photograph: Constanze Letsch

At the end of April, a handful of the former Kazova Textiles employees set up a tent in front of the old factory in order to prevent the owners taking the remaining valuables inside. Undeterred by what they said were threats and intimidation from the owners and the police, their reluctant struggle grew into a full-blown political movement.

“At first we were timid, because we had never been involved in any political movement before,” Serkan Gönüs, 42, explained. “We were scared, but little by little our confidence grew when we saw how much support we had from bystanders during those demonstrations.”

In the aftermath of Turkey’s protests in the spring of 2013, the workers decided to occupy and reopen the factory. A court ruled that the machines should go to the workers in compensation for their lost wages, and Muzaffer Yigit, 43, who has worked for Kazova Textiles since 1990, set out to repair them. Using the yarn that the old owners had left behind, the first jumpers, branded Diren Kazova (Resist Kazova), were produced. In September, the group hosted its first public fashion show.

But discord led to a split, and four workers decided to found the co-operative Free Kazova. “We found that it was not enough to just talk about workers’ rights and resistance in theory,” Gönüs said. “We wanted to come up with a sustainable model for fairer work, and be able to support ourselves.”

The Free Kazova workers have reached out to other self-managed factories and co-operatives worldwide in order to share experiences and expertise. Their aim is to produce high-quality, affordable garments for everyone interested in supporting a labour model that presents an alternative to exploitative wage work, with customers being told exactly how the money paid for each jumper is used.

“We don’t want to work for a profit, just enough for all of us to get by,” Aynur Aydemir said. “We work six hours a day, and we like coming to work in the morning now, because we are our own bosses.”

She added that Özgür Kazova jumpers were now sold not only in Turkey, but in France, Italy and Poland. “It’s actually hard to keep up with demand,” she laughed. “It proves that we are on the right track, and that many people agree with us and what we are defending.”

Constanze Letsch

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