The Establishment of Centralized Control Over Labour in Turkey, 1950 - 1960

The object of this paper is to present an inner view of centralization trends and their implications within the labour movement in Turkey. It is argued that the establishment of centralized control over labour between 1950 and 1960 precluded the formation of an independent labour movement in more recent years. This was, in fact, the aim of those in power to control a crucial social force above, and their successful manipulation of the organization of the labour force through various mechanisms arrested the development of common working-class goals and interests. Consequently, the investigation of those mechanisms and devices for control, as well as the serutiny of the relationships between differing units within the labour movement, constitute the core of this article.