“We will see tomorrow whether this state is bigger or the conglomerate is bigger.”
This sentence uttered by the miner resisting in Beypazarı is actually a political diagnosis that summarizes the last two decades of labor struggle in Turkey.
Because today the issue is not only about the wages that Doruk Mining workers or Özşen Mining workers cannot get.
The issue is who produces and who governs in this country.
The issue is whose coffers the value created by the sweat of the miners working hundreds of meters underground is being transferred to.
The issue is why the bosses' wealth is growing while the workers are getting poorer day by day.
And most importantly, the question is why the state stands against the worker when he tries to claim his rights.
Today in Turkey, the capitalist class can turn every economic crisis into an opportunity. Inflation rises, wages erode. The exchange rate skyrockets, the purchasing power of the worker falls. The tax burden is placed on the backs of the laborers. But the profits of big companies continue to grow.
This is not called a market.
This is called class relations.
Because in the capitalist order, workers do the production and the owners of capital amass the wealth.
The miner strikes the pickaxe.
The boss makes a fortune.
The worker dies underground.
The company gains value in the stock market.
Then, when the same worker asks for his wages, he is confronted by the police.
That is the whole story.
The barricades set up in front of Özşen Mining workers as they march for their rights are no coincidence.
It is no coincidence that the march of the Doruk workers to Ankara was blocked.
Because even though the state is portrayed as an impartial arbiter over classes, in practice it shows which side it stands on in every crisis.
The boss doesn't pay wages.
The worker waits.
The boss doesn't keep his word.
The worker waits.
The boss usurps rights.
The worker waits.
But as soon as the worker starts to march, the state takes action.
So the problem is not public order.
The problem is for working people to stop being silent.
That is why today the miner in Beypazari is not alone.
There are unseen millions beside him.
There are workers trying to live on the minimum wage.
There are subcontractors.
They have armies of couriers.
There are laborers working in factories, warehouses, construction sites.
Because the miners' struggle is not only for their wages.
This is a struggle over who will have a say over the wealth created by labor.
The government has been saying “we are growing” for years.
So who is growing?
Workers in the mines?
Retired?
Minimum wage?
Or conglomerates, banks and big corporations?
The answer to this question lies not in the TurkStat tables, but in the police barricades set up at workers' demonstrations.
Because the true class character of a state is revealed not in the election squares, but in strikes.
Who a state protects is understood when the boss and the worker face each other.
Which side the barricade is set on says it all.
Today, laborers in Turkey are not only struggling for wages.
At the same time, she is fighting against invisibilization.
They are constantly preached sacrifice.
Patience is preached.
They are told to wait.
But the same advice of patience is never given to conglomerates.
No boss is being told to “earn a little less”.
There is no call for “austerity” for any company.
Sacrifice is always demanded of labor.
The profits are left to capital.
This is why the question “Greater the holdings or greater the people?” is not an ordinary slogan.
This is Turkey's fundamental political question.
Because in any system where the wealth produced by the people is concentrated in the hands of a small minority, sooner or later the same question is asked again:
Are those who sustain this country great, or those who grow with their labor?
Today the miners are not only asking for their wages.
They also want the answer to this question.