National News Flashes - Turkey

31 trade unionists will be tried in the city of Ismir, Turkey from the 19th – 20th November, in what the Confederation, federation and trades unions concerned denounce as a clamp down of trade union rights for civil servants (most of them teachers) and an effort to terrorise them. Among them are 22 activists (10 women and 12 men) who are already in prison awaiting this trial.

Four of the women on trial are members of the World March of Women: Elif Akgul, former women’s secretary of the Teachers Union, and Yuskel Mutlu, retired teacher and member of the Human Rights Association and the Turkish Peace Assembly; Songul Morsumbul, women’s secretary of KESK (Confederation of Public Employees Trade unions of Turkey) and Gulcin Isbert, member of Egitim-Sen, the Teachers Union. Many of the other imprisoned women are Women’s Secretariat leaders, particularly concerned with women’s rights. These unions have been present in all the European Social Forums during the last 8 years, and we are therefore interested to safeguard their freedom of activity through international feminist and trade union solidarity, particularly since the European Social Forum will be held in Istanbul in July 2010.

This is the first trial since the arrest of 34 trade unionists in 28th May 2009 and the imprisonment of many of them up to the present time, in contravention of Turkish State law and of relevant international conventions ratified by Turkey. On the 9th June, the World March of Women released a declaration of solidarity, while many trade unions and social movements across Europe have done the same.

In the European Coordination Meeting from the 23rd – 25th October in Thessaloniki, Greece, we, the delegates made the decision to upgrade our solidarity, respecting the values of our Women’s Global Charter for Humanity: Equality, Freedom, Solidarity, Justice and Peace…

Freedom, Affirmation 2:
All individuals enjoy collective and individual freedoms that guarantee their dignity, in particular: freedom of thought, conscience, belief and religion; freedom of expression and opinion; freedom to associate, meet, unionise and demonstrate…

Justice, Affirmation 1:
All human beings regardless of their country of origin, nationality and place of residence are considered to be full-fledged citizens, with fair and equal entitlement to human rights (social, economic, political, civil, cultural rights, sexual, reproductive and environmental rights), within an egalitarian, fair and genuinely democratic framework.

Justice, Affirmation 4:
An accessible, egalitarian, effective and independent judiciary is put in place.

Solidarity, Affirmation 2:
All human beings are interdependent. They share the responsibility and the intention to live together and build a society that is generous, just and egalitarian, based on human rights; a society free of oppression, exclusion, discrimination, intolerance and violence.

Peace, Affirmation 3:
All forms of domination, exploitation and exclusion, of one person over another, one group over another, of a minority over a majority, of a majority over a minority, or of one nation over another, are excluded.

We have committed ourselves to organising public activities (picketing or demonstration) outside Turkish embassies and consulates all over Europe on the 18th November at 6 o’clock in the afternoon. We have also decided to send European observers to the trial (as well as a member of the International Secretariat who will be there) as requested by the concerned trade unions. Many social movements in Europe will follow our call for this action on the 18th.

For every action that takes place on this day, please write a short report and send it, with photographs, on the same day to info@marchemondiale.org, so that we can communicate our solidarity around the world.

In this statement of support and in our action we demand:

•    The immediate release of all those in prison, their acquittal in this trial and the dropping of all charges against them.
•    The end of the repression of opposition movements, including the women’s movement, trade unions and human rights associations.


The European Coordination
5th November 2009


You can send your messages of protest by fax to:

- Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan: 0090 312 417 04 76
- Turkish President: 0090 312 418 4183
- Women’s Minister, Selma Aliye Kavaf: 0090 312 417 39 87

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For further informatoin on the case, read the text "Worldwide protest against the arbitrary imprisonment of activists in Turkey", published in the July number of the WMW Liaison Newsletter (http://www.marchemondiale.org/bulletin_liaison/2009/200902/200902-html/en) and other information sent in May an dJune by the Turkish sisters (http://www.marchemondiale.org/structure/cn-groupes/europe/turquie/solidarity053009/en)