Strikes in Istanbul expose CHP, Turkish unions and pseudo-left parties
Recent strikes in Istanbul in the municipalities controlled by Turkey’s opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have strikingly exposed the CHP and the reactionary role played by the nominally “opposition” trade unions and pseudo-left groups that support it.
The Genel-İş union affiliated to the DİSK federation brazenly betrayed the Maltepe municipality workers strike. As the strike exposed the CHP’s anti-worker orientation and threatened to spread to broader sections of workers angered over the ruling elite’s homicidal response to the pandemic, Genel-İş rapidly moved to shut it down. Union leaders signed a sellout deal with employers behind the backs of the workers and against their will.