Neslihan Acar: “Global chains of exploitation cannot be broken through traditional unionism; we need cross-industry organizing and practical, legitimate struggles.”

“It is impossible to break these global chains of exploitation through traditional unionism and conventional political tactics. The overwhelming majority of Turkish workers recognize this and, without exception, are striving to intervene using their own strength—however fragmented it may be—everywhere. Although we have suffered many defeats, we are accumulating rich discussions and experiences in terms of today’s unity of theory and practice. The historical task is the national and international construction of the revolutionary vanguard—which will break through the bourgeois siege and organize the working class for its own power—and the proletarian force rallying around it.”

As part of the “New Direction of the Working-Class Movement” series, we spoke with Neslihan Acar, General President of the Warehouse, Port, Shipyard, and Maritime Workers’ Union (DGD-SEN). Acar pointed out that one of the developmental dynamics of Turkish capitalism is its effort to position itself as a logistics hub at the intersection of global trade routes. Noting that a range of policies—from infrastructure investments to the tightening of labor regulations—serve this purpose, Acar drew attention to how, in this process, working conditions in her sector in particular have begun to resemble labor camps.

Acar stated that although there are unions in their sector with the authority to negotiate collective bargaining agreements, they have organized effective resistance in a practical and legitimate manner, thereby becoming a union that has earned trust. He emphasized that the traditional unionist approach, confined within legal boundaries, lacks the potential to meet the needs of the class struggle in this period. Acar noted that they view their sector not merely as an industry but as a strategic front in the class struggle. He stated that global chains of exploitation can only be broken through a struggle developed with this understanding.

The Labor Hell Encircled by Global Trade Routes

If you were to paint a general picture of your industry, what would you say? What changes have we seen in recent years regarding the working conditions, organizing processes, wages, and other rights of warehouse, shipyard, and maritime workers?

For quite some time now, Turkey has been emerging as a hub for all circulation and reproduction activities—such as transportation, warehousing, distribution, customs clearance, and supply chain management—and is being transformed into a logistics base for the global organization of capital. Located at the intersection of the Asian, European, and African continents, the country serves as the gateway for trade originating in China and Central Asia to reach Europe; through the North-South corridor, it connects the countries of the Black Sea basin to the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Africa. Despite the devastation caused by imperialist wars of partition and crises, Turkey—equipped with low-cost port, rail, road, and air transport networks—has built logistics villages, specialized centers, and logiparks and hubs integrated into organized industrial zones (OSB) to facilitate capital’s leap forward. The flow of goods is being accelerated in centers such as Konya, Samsun, Kayseri, and Halkalı; the goal is to consolidate storage, packaging, and customs clearance processes into a single hub. Crises such as the war in Ukraine, along with blockages in the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal due to conflicts, have disrupted traditional trade routes, positioning Turkey as a relatively stable alternative operational hub for global capital. Domestically, the Development Corridor and the North-South axis—which directly connect the Southeastern Anatolia industrial basin, comprising Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, and Kahramanmaraş, to the Port of Iskenderun—ensure the smooth transfer of goods from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. These strategic routes, which connect the Middle Corridor to the Eastern Mediterranean, aim to increase the turnover rate of capital and maximize profits.

However, “low cost” is not limited to the security and speed of transportation networks. The Turkish pillar of the capital accumulation regime is based on a labor hell where the exploitation of surplus value is carried out to the utmost degree. Deunionization, subcontracting, the extension of the workday, a minimum wage at the poverty line, wage theft, and mandatory overtime are the cornerstones of this regime. Fixed-term employment contracts and the transformation of universities into barracks for a reserve industrial army—combined with strict control mechanisms through which production and organization are constantly monitored by the state, capital, and yellow, bureaucratic unions—impose a despotic labor regime where work continues uninterrupted 24/7.

Due to the strategic orientation I mentioned above—such as low wages, multiple layers of subcontracting, flexible working arrangements, and a lack of unionization—conditions are rapidly deteriorating even in sectors where conditions are somewhat better than in warehouses, such as ports and shipyards, as they too are being rapidly engulfed by low wages and precariousness. To weaken the possibility of unionization, a series of stricter de facto practices—such as wages being determined through feudal relationships, subcontractor networks, and employer organizations, and agreements not to poach each other’s workers—are also being widespread. The organizing reflex among workers, which emerged in the wake of the pandemic and the 2022 wave of resistance and was reflected in union statistics, is steadily weakening. Industry Sector No. 16 is one of the least organized sectors, and all organized workplaces are affiliated with yellow unions.

Not just an industry sector, but a strategic front in the class struggle

There are already unions in your industry sector that have crossed this threshold. What motivates workers to turn to you instead of those unions?

DGD-SEN is an independent class-based union in Industry Sector No. 16 (warehouse, port, shipyard, and storage workers) that views this vital lifeline of capital not merely as a sector-specific union sphere, but as a strategic front in the class struggle. Officially established in 2013 following discussions and organizing efforts that began in 2009, the union—guided by the principle of focused unionism—is evolving into a struggle and class stronghold shaped by occupations and de facto-legitimate strikes in the wake of the pandemic. It is forging a line of resistance against subcontractor exploitation, precariousness, workplace fatalities, and economic plunder through grassroots committees. Industry Sector No. 16 is an area besieged by co-optation mechanisms of the state, capital, and yellow unions (such as the forced membership of Amazon workers in DOK Gemi-İş, in opposition to the DGD-SEN organization). While class-conscious union activists are systematically targeted for criminalization through dismissals, detentions, and legal harassment, workers are condemned to 16- to 17-hour days of slave labor, workplace fatalities, and living conditions in camps that violate human dignity. This camp system, which has become widespread since the pandemic, deepens proletarianization and increases dependence on work; it is a work system without fixed working hours and is particularly favored by employers.

Established through İŞKUR and subcontractors with the promise of high wages and the elimination of housing, food, and transportation costs—and initially implemented in construction, shipyards, and warehouses—this prison-like model is now spreading to other industries as well. The camps also stand as a major obstacle to unionization in the workforce. Workers’ ability to exercise their most basic rights—such as proper nutrition, sleeping in a healthy bed, and taking one day off per week—has become synonymous with unemployment and the failure to receive wages; furthermore, their right to unionize has effectively been stripped away due to the mandatory requirement to hand over their e-government passwords to camp supervisors. Due to the strategic importance I mentioned above, this sector is being transformed into a veritable hell of slavery and disorganization. Ports and shipyards are monitored around the clock by all branches of the state; any attempt at organizing is nipped in the bud, and through yellow unions, cheap, precarious labor is maintained without conflict.

Contradictions in workplaces and living spaces are intertwined

The de facto strikes organized by DGD-SEN in warehouses have established us as a reliable and well-known union within our sector and across all sectors. Not only in workplaces but also in living spaces, the union has become a focal point—one that currently exceeds our capacity—for addressing numerous intertwined issues such as women’s rights, the environment, housing, health, and education. Partial gains have been achieved regarding occupational safety and health measures and wages in the warehouses where resistance has taken place, with these gains reflecting across the broader Esenyurt region. However, across the industry as a whole, the vast majority of workers—most of whom are young—are condemned to precarious conditions and subjected to severe exploitation.

While the material basis for workers turning to DGD-SEN lies in this deepening destitution and the theft of compensation, the subjective basis is the emergence of a consciousness of rights—forged through the struggles we have waged for many years, primarily among first-generation urban young workers—and the beginning of the development of union consciousness. In direct struggle against the “legal” boundaries set by the state, capital, and yellow unions, the bonds of trust forged through physical contact and social media networks are accelerating workers’ connection with the union. Traditional unionism and yellow unions are lagging behind and have become stagnant in addressing the sector’s problems and producing solutions tailored to today’s needs. DGD-SEN is an organization of the present—a union shaped by workers actively employed in the sector. For the past five years, it has successfully mobilized every struggle it has undertaken and brought them to a victorious conclusion. This, in turn, is causing workers to turn directly to us.

Industry Sector No. 16 is one of the least organized and most ruthlessly exploited sectors. The presence of a small number of yellow unions with collective bargaining authority in this sector is sufficient to ensure low wages, wage theft, subcontracting, and the creation of confusion among workers; they also play an active role in reinforcing the walls of insecurity, particularly in ports and shipyards. This system is clearly observed by the workers. This situation is leading workers to turn to DGD-SEN and its line of class-based and mass unionism. Workers are personally experiencing the organic link within the triangle of the state, capital, and yellow unions; the de facto deprivation of the right to strike despite Law No. 6356; and the fact that the state acts as the gendarmerie of capital. And workers are gravitating toward unions that organize strikes through actual struggle, win rights, and negotiate effective collective bargaining agreements. Contrary to the rhetoric of traditional union circles and politics, this irreconcilable class contradiction between holding companies and workers is laid bare in its most naked form in the arenas of resistance.

Polonez, Farplas, Temel Conta: The Declaration of the Bankruptcy of Bureaucratic Unionism

The latest union statistics published by the Ministry of Labor stand before us as a negative indicator of the current state of the union struggle. However, on the other hand, worker resistance movements that have garnered widespread attention are also making headlines. How do you interpret this overall picture?

In Turkey, the traditional understanding of trade unionism—entirely confined within bourgeois legal boundaries—has run its course. The defeats suffered by the workers at Polonez, Farplas, GMP Teknik, and Temel Conta, who resisted for 595 days, have signaled the collapse of this bureaucratic line of compromise. The scale that supply chains have reached has deepened imperialist collaboration that transcends national borders. When we examine the workplace fatalities in İliç and Dilovası within the context of all their production and political relationships, we can clearly see the most ruthless and rigid form of this collaboration. Although the Ministry’s narrow sector definitions (warehouses, ports, shipyards) attempt to exclude the entire logistics network (white-collar workers, digital units, maintenance and repair, etc.), as seen in the Migros strike, victory could not have been achieved without the unity of warehouse and supermarket workers with e-commerce and white-collar workers. New-generation militant unions—such as DGD-SEN, Independent Mining Workers’ Union, the Private Sector Teachers’ Union, and construction and textile unions—have emerged out of the struggle rooted in the working class’s own strength and grassroots organizing, in response to the urgent needs of today’s struggles against bureaucratic decay.

There appears to be a contradiction between this narrative and the membership figures, but there isn’t. We went on strike with thousands of workers at the beginning of the year. Thousands of members joined, and we surpassed the industry-wide threshold. Following the strike, due to a change in the industry sector and direct state intervention, membership numbers have plummeted to very low levels. PTT-Sen, which was previously above the threshold, has fallen below it in Bursa—its most organized region—due to the change in the industry sector; this union, whose ability to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement has been effectively blocked for years despite being above the threshold, has also lost its collective bargaining authority in the latest statistics. The direct members of Bağımsız Maden-İş were not counted, and the union was left below the industry threshold. This erosion of union membership is evident across 20 industries.

Turkey’s labor union law aimed to create a monopoly within industries—and it has achieved that goal. In a situation where union membership is equated with becoming unemployed, serving time in prison, or facing off against the police—both in theory and in practice—unions like ours, with limited resources and propaganda power, can only overcome these thresholds through many years of focused effort and hard work, only to have their collective bargaining rights effectively usurped afterward, as in the case of PTT-Sen.

Yesterday, Başaran Aksu, the organizing specialist for our union and the Independent Mining Workers’ Union (Bağımsız Maden-İş), along with the union’s general president, Gökay Çakır, were arrested for articulating the people’s poverty and the systemic relationships causing it in the clearest terms possible, and for setting a “calendar of resistance” that included marching with workers to the presidential palace. The fact that Başaran has been detained repeatedly and arrested twice over the course of his seven-month struggle is one of the most telling examples of the state of the labor movement in Turkey. While the holding company continues negotiations with the union and prepares to make payments, it believes it is paying the price for the wages it failed to pay despite being legally obligated to do so—and it is also making the resistance pay a price. Two union activists were arrested as a result of the collaboration between the state, capital, and the yellow union. This morning, the miners returned to the ministry’s headquarters and decided to continue their resistance. Since their only other options are starvation, destitution, and long-term unemployment, no alternative was discussed at the meeting they held yesterday.

Faced with this bleak picture and with no alternative but to resist, the workers have joined forces with the independent unions that have come to the forefront in this period to carry out occupations, strikes, and militant struggles, organizing and implementing de facto collective bargaining agreements. The overwhelming majority of the Turkish people are experiencing the fastest process of proletarianization, impoverishment, and deprivation in the history of the Republic. Everyone from five to eighty years old is treated as cheap labor, and a handful of holding companies—with no guarantees—have laid claim to everything, including the very lives of 80 million people. Everyone sees this reality and recognizes that there is no option other than resistance. During this period, workers are quickly rallying around whoever emerges with the most militant and authentic approach.

When you consider workers’ organizing and struggle practices across Turkey, what challenges and obstacles stand out?

Following the Migros strike in early 2026, the struggles at Polyak and Doruk Mining, the teachers’ resistance and their gains, the resistance of anti-mining villagers defending their land and living spaces, and the strong solidarity and the public’s instinct to fight together that have developed around these events demonstrate the shared potential of the class struggle in this period. The only way to overcome the shackles of bourgeois law—such as the Trade Unions Law No. 6356—is to make the actual, legitimate struggle a social movement. Once again, these struggles have succeeded in clearly illustrating—through the most real and current networks of relationships—that for the working class and its resistant factions, the vast majority of political tools—including parliament, unions, municipalities, courts, NGOs, and political institutions spanning the political spectrum from right to left—are merely extensions of the compromise with capital, ideological propaganda machines, and instruments of containment.

Today, just as for working people around the world, the concrete definition of the enemy for us is imperialism and its local collaborators—conglomerates, governments, and every relationship arranged around them based on class, organizational ties, funding, and self-interest—all of which serve the ruling class and are identified as the fronts that must be fought. These structures and relationships are clearly understood by the people at both the local and national levels, and they are being fought against—as seen in the peasants’ struggles against proletarianization and the commodification of land. These resistances develop reflexively, aimed at repelling the attack the moment it comes. Although peasants and workers have recently shown signs of developing a tentative alliance, they still lack the means and organizations to unite these struggles. Consequently, even when these struggles take place and occasionally capture the attention of the Turkish public, they generally end in defeat.

Uniting these fragmented acts of resistance around common demands must be identified as an urgent priority for socialists. I believe this is a fruitful and promising period in terms of organization and struggle. No matter which province or district you visit, you will see either an ongoing struggle or groups preparing for one. Aside from state and capitalist organizations, no one else is on the ground. It is critical to focus on these areas, to be present within the developing—and highly likely to develop further—struggles, and to have established connections beforehand. Looking at it from the perspective of both the capitalists and the masses, it is very clear that attacks and uprisings will continue to escalate.

“The global chain of exploitation cannot be broken through traditional unionism.”

Considering the workers’ resistance movements of recent years, how do you assess these processes of organization and resistance in the context of the crisis facing the class movement?

Especially in recent years, DGD-SEN, Tarım-Sen, militant unions, and labor-focused groups operating on the grounds of legitimate struggle have been striving to unite all sections of the people undergoing proletarianization—peasants, small producers, and the millions whose rights to housing and healthcare have been violated—around common demands and a united class front, as seen in the examples of Dilovası and Akbelen, despite facing a series of organizational and personnel challenges. For it is an imperative before us to build the revolutionary front of the working people against the front of exploitation woven by capital around transnational monopolies. Our discussions, our focus, and our practical organizational activities are all centered on establishing this strategic and political line.

The fact that DGD-SEN—whose membership was reduced to 378 in the July statistics—was able to organize actual strikes involving 5,000 workers across 10 provinces, or that Independent Mining Workers’ Union (Bağımsız Maden-İş) managed to give Yıldızlar SSS Holding and the capitalist bureaucracy a run for their money in Soma and Ankara, are practical manifestations of this correct political line. Today, there is no such thing as an independent national capital; all surplus value is concentrated at the center of the monopolies. The chasm between the value produced by the workers who lost their lives in Dilovası (for brands like Zara, H&M, Koton, and Victoria’s Secret) and the prices on store shelves lays bare the exploitation mechanism of the imperialist-capitalist chain in all its starkness. It is impossible to break this global chain of exploitation through traditional trade unionism and conventional political practices. The overwhelming majority of Turkish workers recognize this and, without exception, are striving to intervene with their own strength—however fragmented it may be—everywhere. Although we have suffered many defeats, we are accumulating rich discussions and experiences in terms of today’s unity of theory and practice.

Our discussions regarding the regime, imperialism, and the holding companies that serve as its agents—which we have been striving to clarify for many years—stem from experiences gained through this political analysis and practice. Now that the conditions exist to build a force capable of standing up to these powers, we are also striving to establish the organizational tools and resources necessary for this. The primary task facing both the working people of Turkey and the socialist movement is the construction of this political force aimed at achieving workers’ power. Today, the objective interests of the working people are diametrically opposed to the agenda of the unions and the reformist left. The historical task is the national and international construction of the revolutionary vanguard—which will break through this bourgeois siege and organize the working class for its own power—and the proletarian force gathered around it. Without this force, it is impossible to prevent the Turkish working class from being increasingly pushed back in its economic and political struggles, nor to halt the systematic regression of developments in the country and around the world to the detriment of the working class.

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