The developments that shaped the world in the past twenty years could be listed as: the crises of capitalism; the new policies of capital developed to counter the crises; “globalization”; a new wave of labourisation; the reaction to the policies of capital; movements “against globalization”; and, the new labor movements.

The traditional forms of the means of struggle utilized by the laborers are rendered useless, and this demonstrates itself as the general crises of the labor movement. The new policies of the capital leave the laboring classes with the need to renew all the traditional tools used to raise the struggle or even to recreate them.

On the other hand, the laboring worker masses are growing in numbers throughout the world. However, at the same time, the working class is also changing qualitatively. Especially in the dependent countries (underdeveloped, industrializing, third world, periphery, etc.), a new working mass expanding rapidly in quantity is emerging in the world scene. This new workers’ mass creates with itself the germination of new experiments of struggle and organizing. At the same time, social opposition movements, external to the working class, are appearing and are being effective.

One of the most important grounds this new worldwide class struggle flourishes is the union struggle. The newly emerging transformation in the union movement provides clues and opportunities for the labor movement as a whole.

It is obvious that for the labor movement we are at a turning point. This point brings to the agenda the discussions concerning the restructuring of the historical struggle of labor at every level. These discussions continue amidst the daily struggles and will do so in the future.

The labor union movement debate is an important part of the discussions on the solution to the general crises of the labor movement. Although the labor movement as a whole contains comprehensive issues not reducible to just the union movement, the debates on the solution to the crises of the union movement provides some possibilities for the reascension of the labor movement in general.

The labor unions throughout the history, occupied an important position in the class struggle within the working class movement. Today, we are going through a process where the unions could regain this position.

This site considers itself a follower of the practices and accumulation developed in the struggle of the whole world’s working classes, but particularly of the working class of Turkey, and defends the,

•Union struggle of the 1946 which was short lived but was effective in the working class struggle;
•1960’s struggles of Kavel, Alpagut, Paşabahçe, Zonguldak where the spirit of 1946 was relived at a higher level;
•The labor struggles of the 1970’s, June 15-16 uprisings, May Day events, innumerable strikes and actions;
•The initiatives for the workplace committees and councils and the initiatives of independent labor union organizing after the 1980’s;
•The worker initiatives in the 1989 Spring Actions;
•The real, legitimate and democratic union struggles of the public workers in the 1990’s, as well as the small or large scale organizing work, the actions to secure the rights on all fronts, and the ongoing resistance being waged in workplaces, ateliers, factories, industrialized zones and in the offices;

This site is built on the practical and mental accumulation of the union cadres having a bias towards the class perspective, moving to find radical solutions for the hard issues exerting themselves upon the working class movement in the last 10 years.

We must state that, the publications of the “Workers’ Voice” (İşçilerin Sesi) that emphasized the dynamics of the workplace organization and expressed this view in the chaotic environment of the 1980’s; the ideas concretized in the book, “Crises of the Dinosaurs” (Dinazorların Krizi) that was successful in demonstrating the realities of labor-capital struggle against the new class collaborationist theses of “contemporary unionism” in the years when DISK was to start functioning again; and, the pursuit of alternative union work expressed in the “Direction in the Class Movement” (Sınıf Hareketinde Yön) in the development process of this site hold a special place.

However, we need to emphasize also that, unionization pursuits by union cadres in different positions in the same era, engaged towards similar goals have affected and contributed positively to this work. When viewed from the past to our day, these different efforts, like the waters in creeks running towards the same river, have joined and have all merged for the same goal.

www.sendika.org which feels the support of this historical accumulation aims to contribute to:

•the solution to the daily and historical issues of the laborers in our country;
•the labor unions to renew themselves and to become more democratic;
•the creation of a joint union movement;
•the building of a new labor movement which will be a part of the international labor movement.
•To fulfill the above tasks in the electronic media, it has set as its goal to become a reference, an information-document resource and a platform for all activists who wish to contribute to this process.

For this goal, this site is opening up its pages to all contributions. You can share your news, commentary, research, translation, criticism, discussion point or other forms of ideas with us, and could communicate them with others through www.sendika.org