22.05.2014

Lack of democracy, lack of safety

Soma exposes the double brutality of Turkey’s crony capitalism, writes Esen Uslu

May 13 2014 will be remembered for years to come as the worst disaster in Turkey’s long history of mining disasters. No fewer than 301 miners died at Soma, but in view of the widespread lack of credibility in the Turkish state many refused to take the official figure at face value, including the people of the disaster-stricken area.

Any death in a workplace accident is one too many. However, the enormity of this loss of life is deeply shocking - even in Turkey, where accidental deaths at work are numerous. The botched attempt at a rescue played out before their eyes on TV screens across the country infuriated viewers, and thousands of people - not least the youth - took to the streets. True to form, the state once more resorted to brute force to suppress the up swell of anger.

In a nutshell, the Soma mining disaster has exposed the double brutality directed at working people inherent in Turkey’s crony capitalism: on the one side, the repressive security apparatus; on the other, the apathy and incompetence of the state in all its glory.

History

When mining began in the mid-19th century the Ottoman coal industry depended on foreign companies that had gained the sultan’s franchise operating around Zonguldak on the Black Sea coast - on the basis of the unpaid, compulsory labour of the local male population. It was an extension of the feudal corvée, or statute, labour of pre-capitalist times.

After the formation of the republic in 1923, the old system was abolished and coal mines were run by the state. However, during World War II, a form of compulsory labour was reinstated and between 1940 and 1947 local males were once more forced to work in the mines. It was only in 1957, when the coal industry was reorganised and nationalised, that the provisions of Turkey’s labour laws regarding health and safety, working hours and holidays were applied to the mines - previously aspects of Ottoman practice still continued.

Nevertheless, from the sultan’s franchise to the current day the lot of the coal miners has not changed much. Fatal accidents due to flooding and explosions have been commonplace. Of course, workers have organised, but always in the face of repression. In March 1964, for example, troops opened fire on striking miners and two were killed. The image of mineworkers carrying the coffins of their slain brothers inspired revolutionaries in the late 60s and still remains powerful in workers’ minds today.

As a result of trade union activity, miners grew in confidence and they managed to win substantial improvements. However, those gains were gradually lost, as state mines were starved of investment and declared uncompetitive. Job losses, closures and privatisations were the order of the day.

In 1991 an epic march of tens of thousands of mineworkers and their families from Zonguldak to Ankara was a high point in the struggle. They demanded an immediate halt to closures and privatisation, but they were stopped by the army and forced to turn back.

In the second half of the 20th century lignite began to be mined and Soma is one of those areas where lignite supplies the local power plant. Such mines were initially concentrated on the Aegean seaboard, but later lignite reserves in central and eastern Anatolia were opened up. The miners were often former impoverished farmers and former agricultural labourers, and the mines were state economic enterprises run by ‘civil servants’, who seemed able to implement any arbitrary decision or practice without fear of constraint or prosecution. That reality set the stage for low wages, terrible working and living conditions, and scores of accidents.

But those mines brought working class struggle and organisation into the heartlands of Anatolia. Yeni Çeltek mine, for example, became the centre of revolutionary trade union activity. And the struggle of the miners reached such a level that just before the September 12 1980 coup, workers occupied and ran the mine for six months.

During the fascist regime of the 80s, state economic enterprises were blamed for the inefficiency and high accident rate in coal and lignite mining. However, the Turkish-owned private sector was not powerful enough to take over and make the required investment without the backing of international finance capital. ‘National’ finance capital could not be sure that any mine in which it invested would be competitive in the face of imports.

So a new form of ‘partnership’ was introduced, whereby losses could be charged to state economic enterprises and profits skimmed off by the private sector - in 2005 a legal framework was put in place to allow private companies to operate in the coal industry. The so-called ‘royalty system’ was introduced, where the state still retained ownership of the mines, but operating rights were transferred to private companies. Of course, the state guaranteed to purchase all coal mined at a set price.

The private companies claimed that the mines they ran were far more efficient than those of state economic enterprises employing unionised workers. The company operating the Soma mine boasted that it had reduced the production cost of a ton of lignite from $140 to $26, including the royalties paid to the state, and it was now profitable. It had merely put into practice the basic principles of private enterprise to achieve such productivity (ie, profitability). But it had been achieved either by employing non-union labour or by ‘organising’ miners in sweetheart unions acting as the employment agency and political arm of the concession holders.

There is no doubt that their concessions were gained thanks to underhand deals with the government of the day - massive illegal paybacks were made to the ruling political party. And obtaining employment in such mines also came at a cost for workers, in the shape of support for that party, including on political demonstrations. Trade unions became enforcers for the company and party.

Anti-worker legislation, the lack of democratic rights and the state security apparatus have all combined to prevent workers organising in genuine fighting unions. Many miners still maintain their links to subsistence farming in order to make ends meet. Basic health and safety regulations, and legislation prohibiting the employment of subcontracted or agency labour, of children and young workers, have all been bypassed. And the state offers the companies immunity from proper inspection - just four months ago the Soma mine passed a ministerial inspection with flying colours!

The government had also blocked the proposed inquiry into the mining industry sought by opposition parties in parliament. In March MPs from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) unanimously voted against a motion to initiate a parliamentary investigation into Soma itself. Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last week attempted to defend their action by claiming that the opposition motion had only been moved as a time-wasting manoeuvre to stop the passing of an important government bill - unlike legislation to protect workers’ safety, of course.

It is sufficient to point out that the International Labour Organisation’s 1997 Safety and Health in Mines Convention has remained unsigned by successive Turkish governments.

Miners’ lot

Under these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the fatality rate for workers in Turkey is 8.5 times greater than the European Union average. Between 2002 and 2013 there were 880,000 workplace accidents, causing 13,442 deaths. No fewer than 61,270 workers have died in such accidents since 1946 (up to 2013). For miners alone, deaths from workplace accidents numbered 3,098 between 1955 and 2013.

And what facilities are there to treat injuries sustained at work? The type of lignite mined at Soma is notorious for its seam fires, but the local state hospital has no burns unit. Victims of the frequent Soma fires are regularly sent to hospitals in neighbouring counties and many do not survive the journey. Approximately 15,000 workers are employed in mines, but there is no specialised unit dealing in diseases associated with dust aspiration and other occupational hazards. Last year, an average of 50 workers were dismissed every week without compensation after medical confirmation of an occupational disease.

In Soma the six coal-burning units at the new power plant had no stack scrubbers for gas and dust. Two units from the old plant that had been phased out in the early 90s were brought back into operation without any stack gas control. Consequently air pollution in Soma is six times higher than in neighbouring counties, and the town is ranked sixth in Turkey for high sulphur dioxide concentration. The rate of cancer incidence in the population of Soma is four times greater than the world average.

The chamber of mining engineers is a toothless body, just like those of the architects and engineers, when it came to the maintenance of standards. Management regards safety training as a waste of time and safety precautions as an unnecessary expense. The state’s inspectors are hand-picked for their ‘reliability’ - ie, their dependence on a cosy relationship with the companies and loyalty to the AKP.

As for the unions, AKP anti-worker legislation and company bribes have ensured they have been kept under strict control. And if anyone should protest, the government can rely on local law enforcement. The police may turn a blind eye to the thuggery of gang masters, but they are ruthless against anybody showing dissent.

There is only one expert deep coal mine rescue team in the whole Zonguldak region and it took eight hours to reach the Soma mine. Much quicker on the scene were the stalwarts of the state religious affairs department, who were ready to come to the graveside preaching trust in god and the acceptance of one’s lot to mourning relatives.

Unity

This is the background to May 13. There are many technical explanations to explain those 301 deaths, and indeed almost all of them contain at least a grain of truth.

But the heart of the matter lies in the fact that the company operating the mine is one of the crony capitalist firms favoured by the AKP government, and that government ensured it could operate without the inconvenience of effective trade unions and health and safety investigations. In return for financial and other support the AKP obtained an electoral base in a region where it has never had a strong footing.

In a nutshell, the Soma disaster is the direct result of the lack of democracy and working class rights in a country run by an all-powerful, centralised state. The working class needs democracy for its very survival, to stop this kind of mass murder at work. And the fight for democracy is hampered by a low level of consciousness and organisation within the working class. The unity of our movement without regard to nationality, creed or religion is desperately needed. Unity in the struggle for political as well as economic demands is the prerequisite for making gains.

Until the working class unites in the struggle for democracy - a struggle to uproot the current state and replace it with a democratic one - many more disasters like Soma will be waiting to happen.