Zafer Aydın, Geleceğe Yazılmış Mektup: 1968 Derby İşgali, Istanbul: Sosyal Tarih Yayınları, 2012, 296 pp. ISBN: 978-605-4513-08-6.
Zafer Aydın’s Geleceğe Yazılmış Mektup: 1968 Derby İşgali is a detailed study of labour history examining the occupation of the Derby Rubber Factory in Istanbul from 4 to 10 July 1968 in the context of the rise of the Turkish labour movement and the social struggles of 1968. Focusing on the Derby workers’ struggle for the freedom to choose their union and their demand for a referendum, the book examines the trade-union and political conditions that paved the way for the occupation, the development of the action, and its subsequent effects through testimonies, archival documents, and the contemporary press.
A significant part of the book explores the struggle over trade-union representation underlying the Derby occupation. The rivalry between Lastik-İş and Kauçuk-İş at the factory, the employer’s position, and the problems created by the collective bargaining legislation then in force are examined in detail. The workers demanded that the question of which union would represent them be decided democratically and that a referendum be held at the workplace. When legal and institutional channels failed to resolve the issue, the factory occupation became a form of struggle through which the workers directly expressed their collective will.
During the occupation, which began on 4 July 1968, the workers took de facto control of the factory. Representatives of the employer and Kauçuk-İş officials were removed from the factory, while the entrances and telephone switchboard were placed under workers’ control. The action, however, was not limited to the issue of union choice. The workers’ demands also concerned everyday workplace issues, including preventing dismissals, securing social rights, improving food and working conditions, and regulating overtime practices. In this respect, Derby represents an important experience of direct action in which the factory space was brought under the collective control of the workers.
One of the decisive outcomes of the occupation was a de facto referendum conducted under court supervision to determine which union the workers preferred. Of the 950 workers who participated in the vote, 930 chose Lastik-İş, while only six chose Kauçuk-İş. The occupation thus made the workers’ demand to have a say and decision-making power over their own representation visible through a concrete democratic mechanism. Following the action, Lastik-İş’s authority at the workplace was recognised and an agreement was reached with the employer.
Aydın does not treat the Derby occupation simply as a successfully concluded struggle over trade-union representation. The book pays particular attention to the relationship between the practical exercise of trade-union rights and freedoms recognised by law and workers’ direct struggle. The Derby experience demonstrates how workers could challenge the limits of existing legal and institutional mechanisms through occupation and direct action when those mechanisms became blocked. The book also discusses Derby’s historical place in the Turkish labour movement through the impact of the action on subsequent factory occupations and workers’ struggles.
Geleceğe Yazılmış Mektup is an important source for examining the Derby occupation through the relationships between workers’ control, workplace democracy, trade-union freedom, and direct action. Although Derby did not develop into a lasting experience of workers’ self-management, the occupation and temporary control of the site of production by the workers, their direct exercise of the right to determine their own representatives, and their intervention in workplace decision-making make it an important episode in the history of workers’ control in Turkey. By bringing together the testimonies of workers and trade unionists with union publications, newspaper reports, and archival documents, the book makes it possible to trace both the everyday processes of organisation involved in the experience and its broader historical significance.