When fires are raging in a country, not only the flames are visible, but also the truth.
Inside a factory in Dilovası and in a container in Antalya... Two different geographies, two different industries, but the same end: Workers and children burned to death.
In this country, fires are no longer a natural phenomenon, but a class indicator. Refugees are also part of the Turkish working class. They produce and die together. Therefore, the ways to fight together must be shared with political goals.
The events in Dilovası have once again shown us the dark side of production. Workers working in the midst of flammable chemicals without taking the necessary precautions... A working order without escape routes... And the most painful: Deaths, including children.
In Antalya, there was another fire. But this time not in production, but in living space. A fire broke out in a container housing greenhouse workers, taking the lives of a mother and her children. This is not just a fire; this is a photograph of the life that this country has given to agricultural labor and migrant workers.
At a time when we are all witnessing the forced migrations caused by wars and the imperialist occupation attempts in the Middle East, the burning death of a refugee family in Antalya is a continuation of the savagery created by bombs. Refugee child workers are the invisible ones of the working class. They die in workplaces, in containers and their names are not remembered for a few days. They are not included in the data on occupational homicides or child labor.
There is no distance between these two events.
Because both are the product of the same political choice.
Labor policies in Turkey have long been based on three pillars:
flexibility, lack of control and cheap labor.
This triad determines not only working conditions but also living conditions.
The worker is not safe at work.
The worker is not safe at home.
Children are nowhere safe.
That is why the fire in Dilovası is not a “work accident”.
The fire in Antalya is not a “misfortune”.
These are the results of a system in which the state has withdrawn from control, capital calculates costs and the poor are abandoned to their fate.
Today in Turkey, occupational safety exists mostly on paper. Inspections are either inadequate or for show. Especially in small-scale enterprises and agricultural areas, they are almost non-existent. Refugee workers and children are the most invisible victims of this gap.
The question to be asked is this:
Why do the same people always die?
The answer is clear:
Because this system considers some lives less worthy.
If workers are burning to death in a country,
children are dying while working,
families are condemned to live in containers,
The problem there is not technical, it is political.
And the solution is political, not technical.
For a real solution:
- Occupational safety inspections should be made independent and stringent,
- Child labor must be virtually and completely eliminated,
- Migrant workers must be provided with decent housing and working conditions,
- And most importantly, the understanding that labor is a cost must be abandoned.
In fact, in order for these four topics to be realized, the working class must be organized, it must be able to determine and govern in politics. There is no other solution.
Otherwise, we will continue to say the same sentences after every fire.
“Negligence”, “fate”, “investigation”...
And each time we will forget after a few days.
But the reality will not change:
Some people in this country are not living, they are trying to survive.
The burning factory in Dilovası and the burning container in Antalya are actually two mirrors of the same country.
One shows production, the other life.
And what we see in both is the same:
Devalued lives.
So it is not about putting out fires,
is to change the order that makes those fires possible.
Otherwise this country will burn a lot more.
And with every fire, we lose a little more.