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| Terence Manus |
The Marshall Plan was the economic recovery plan employed to stabilise Western Europe after World War Two, which also laid a foundation for constructing public institutions, formulating pro-worker economic policies and constructing a social security system which could reduce extreme poverty in the case of structural labour market changes. Chang (2014) frames it as the plan which laid the foundation for the ‘golden age of capitalism’.
Analysis of the role of trade unions in formulating recovery plans and the impact of these policies on the international trade union movement is often lacking. On the other hand, trade unions in Africa, and their role in the liberation struggle, are often mentioned by researchers analysing political, economic and social developments in post-colonial Africa – but usually only briefly. The development of working class institutions in the early post-colonial era under the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) and how SAPs influenced trade union development have enjoyed very little attention.
Structural Adjustment Programs
African decolonisation is analysed in two phases, the late 1960s and 70s, and the 80s and 90s when SAPs were implemented without considering countries’ different political, economic and social development stages. Without referring to SAPs, the BMZ (the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in Germany) recognises this weakness by mentioning that the Marshall Plan for Africa will not take a blanket approach, additionally appealing to institutions to prioritise research and data collection (BMZ 2017).
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| Gaye Yilmaz |
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| Tolga Tören |
Workers and their unions in Turkey have been systematically attacked by their rulers over many years. But these attacks have sharpened recently, especially following the attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2016, after which large numbers of public servants were sacked and imprisoned. The president has used the subsequent state of emergency to intervene in workplaces where strikes are threatened; this has become a marketing strategy to woo business. We will discuss the repression of Turkish workers and ask why this president and his policies seem so popular.
From bad to worse
In the last 15 years, the AKP (Justice and Development Party) has passed numerous regulations against workers and their trade unions. Even more savage has been the President’s response to events harming working people. For instance, in May 2014, an explosion at a coal mine caused an underground fire, which burned for two days. It was Turkey's worst ever industrial accident: 301 miners died, some burnt alive, and others suffocated. Families of victims and also thousands of workers from other sectors were shocked when Mr. Erdoğan, on the evening after the disaster, said ‘These types of incidents are ordinary things’ (The Guardian, 2014).
