{"id":1596,"date":"2026-09-10T16:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T16:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/?p=1596"},"modified":"2026-09-10T16:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T16:34:22","slug":"book-topraksizlar-metin-yegin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/?p=1596&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Book: Topraks\u0131zlar \u2013 Metin Ye\u011fin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Metin Ye\u011fin, <em>Topraks\u0131zlar: Brezilya\u2019da Topraks\u0131z K\u00f6yl\u00fc Hareketi: MST<\/em>, Istanbul: \u0130leti\u015fim Yay\u0131nlar\u0131, 2004, 221 pp. ISBN: 978-975-05-0202-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Metin Ye\u011fin\u2019s <em>Topraks\u0131zlar<\/em> is a field-based account of <strong>the struggles, collective production, and forms of social organisation developed by Brazil\u2019s Landless Rural Workers\u2019 Movement (MST) around land occupations<\/strong>. Drawing on Ye\u011fin\u2019s observations and interviews in Brazil, the book was conceived as a \u201cfilm-book\u201d together with the documentary of the same name. It begins with a foreword by James Petras and a text by Monica Dias Martins that situates the MST in its historical and political context, before moving into Ye\u011fin\u2019s direct field narrative. At the centre of the book is not simply the demand for land, but <strong>the organisation of an alternative social life<\/strong> on occupied land, extending from collective agriculture and education to solidarity and healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The MST\u2019s approach to struggle takes shape in the book through the principle of <strong>\u201cOccupy, Resist, Produce.\u201d<\/strong> The organised occupation of large areas of unused or underused land, the defence of these occupations, and the subsequent organisation of production constitute fundamental practices of the movement. For the MST, however, agrarian reform is not simply a matter of redistributing property. Access to land is addressed together with needs such as credit, housing, education, healthcare, and technical support, as well as with the broader reorganisation of production and social relations. Occupation thus becomes not merely an instrument for claiming a right, but <strong>a starting point for new forms of collective organisation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the aspects of the book that is particularly important for the Workers\u2019 Control website is the way it makes visible <strong>the everyday practices of collective production, cooperativism, and self-management<\/strong> in MST settlements. Ye\u011fin describes through examples from the field how production is organised in different settlements, how individual and collective forms of work can coexist, how cooperatives operate, and how decisions concerning production, investment, credit, and technical needs are made. In the MST experience, economic organisation is not conceived separately from democratic decision-making: local organisations, mass assemblies, and collective discussion occupy a central place in the movement\u2019s functioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another important dimension of this organisation is <strong>education and the development of collective capacities<\/strong>. The MST regards political and social education as a fundamental element of the movement\u2019s continuity, developing various forms of education ranging from the training of local organisers and schools to seminars and programmes conducted in cooperation with universities. In the book, education appears not simply as the transmission of knowledge, but as part of a process through which people become actors capable of organising their own lives and struggles. In this respect, the MST experience also demonstrates that self-management is not merely an economic model of management, but <strong>a social practice that is collectively learned and reproduced<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Topraks\u0131zlar<\/em> does not present this experience solely as an idealised success story; Ye\u011fin\u2019s narrative also addresses tensions concerning the functioning of cooperatives, possible divisions created by administrative responsibilities, market relations, and the movement\u2019s own organisational problems. The establishment of collective production therefore brings with it <strong>economic, political, and organisational problems<\/strong> that cannot be resolved simply by gaining access to land. A distinctive feature of the MST experience is its attempt to address these problems not merely at the level of individual settlements, but within a broader social movement and network of solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From this perspective, <em>Topraks\u0131zlar<\/em> is <strong>an important Turkish-language source that explores self-management, collective production, cooperativism, solidarity, and democratic decision-making through the everyday experience of a social movement<\/strong>. Although the book centres on land struggle rather than the factory and wage-labour relation, the MST\u2019s attempt to collectively reorganise production and social life after occupation makes it possible to consider workers\u2019 control and self-management within a broader social framework. The book thus offers a field-based account of an important experience in the struggle to establish <strong>collective and democratic control over the conditions of production and life<\/strong>, extending well beyond the occupation of land itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Metin Ye\u011fin, Topraks\u0131zlar: Brezilya\u2019da Topraks\u0131z K\u00f6yl\u00fc Hareketi: MST, Istanbul: \u0130leti\u015fim Yay\u0131nlar\u0131, 2004, 221 pp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1597,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions\/1597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}