Class and ethnicity interaction: Kurdish question and trade unions in Turkey

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1606900 (Table of Contents)

This study aims to contribute to the discussion of class and identity politics through highlighting the interaction of the two dimensions of identity: class and ethnicity. More specifically, it intends to underline the intertwined nature of class and ethnic oppression through analyzing the views of the economically oppressed on the ethnically oppressed. The two trade unions, Petrol-Iş and Hava-Iş, are chosen as data in order to explore how the members of these class-based organizations interpret an ethnic conflict: the Kurdish question. The main conclusion of the interviews with the union managers and the workers is that class identity may help to interact with other forms of oppression in the socialization processes. These processes are differently experienced by the members of the two trade unions. While the Petrol-Iş workers’ individual politicization processes in line with the unionist movement are influential in being emphatic to the oppression of Kurds, the Hava-Iş workers’ mobilization with the Turkish Airlines strike plays a determining role for the formation of the class identity and developing an empathy to the oppression of Kurds. Moreover, our findings show that workers who have not experienced these politicization and mobilization processes, and those workers lack the class identity possess discriminative attitudes to the demands of the Kurds and the Kurdish movement.