The Dynamics of Working-Class Politics in Early Republican Turkey

Language, Identity, and Experience

Bibliographic Data

ID9967585
AuthorsYiğit Akın (The Ohio State University, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume54
IssueS17
Pages167-188
Publication date2009-11-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Review of Social History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-8590 • E-ISSN: 1469-512X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020859009990289
OpenAlexW2162002988
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited11

The years between the late 1940s and late 1950s constituted a critical period in the historical formation of the working class in Turkey. During that period, Turkey experienced a number of structural transformations. It also saw the elaboration of a new discourse on the working class by labor representatives, organizations, and by workers themselves. That discourse provided the workers and their organizations with the channels necessary to articulate their demands when other forms of expression were considered ineffective and dangerous. Using the language of equality, justice, and human rights, workers appealed for improvement in their status both at the workplace and within society at large. This new political culture and language was built on the critical assessment of the corporatist construction of labor relations and the rejection of the idea that employers and workers were members of the same (national) family. Based on worker and union newspapers, the primary objective of this essay is to discuss the basic components and characteristic features of this new discourse and its place in working-class politics in early republican Turkey

Aesthetics · Critical discourse analysis · Economic Justice · Identity (music · Ideology · Newspaper · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Working class · Gender Studies · Historical Turkish Studies · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Turkey's Politics and Society

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