Some of the unions have already declared that they are willing to cooperate with the governor and celebrate the event in Kadıköy or other places. DİSK and its allied unions insist on walking to Taksim Square because they see this "right" as based on May Day celebrations that took place in this square in 1977 and turned bloody.This reference to the '77 May Day as the source of legitimacy for further use of Taksim Square creates a misperception about the history of May Day celebrations in Turkey. The '77 May Day was not the first May Day celebration that took place in Turkey, and Taksim Square was open to labor unions for a mass celebration at least once after that date. The square was opened to limited meetings and commemorative visits of the leaders of labor unions in recent years. More important than this, the '77 May Day is not the first May Day celebration to take place in İstanbul.
May 1 was declared the common workers' festival in 1889. It was celebrated in Turkey for the first time in 1909. The celebrations gained an anti-imperialist tone in 1922 and '23. During those years İstanbul and İzmir were under occupation by "imperialist" forces and their allies. Soon after independence was gained and the republic was declared, the new regime wanted to limit or cancel -- if possible -- the celebrations for Workers' Day. In 1925 the new regime declared May 1 a "Spring Festival" so as to prevent a surge of communist ideologies among the workers. The republican regime regarded May Day as a representation of dissemination of communist ideas within the public.
The irony was in the fact that the Republican People's Party (CHP) presented itself as a left-wing party while at the same time blocking any real working-class movement from emerging in the country. There was relative freedom for labor unions during the rule of the Democrat Party (DP). As soon as the military intervened in 1960, it not only outlawed May Day celebrations, it also substituted it with a fake Workers' Day. July 24, the day the Law on Collective Bargaining, Strike and Lockout was passed, was imposed upon the working class as their new "Workers' Day."
Taksim Square was opened to May Day celebrations in 1976 and the following year a grave provocation led the workers and the police to clash. While the president of DİSK was giving a speech, several shots were fired from above the buildings around the square. In the consequent clashes and panic, 37 people were killed. The workers saw Taksim Square for one more time the next year. In 1979 there was already martial law in İstanbul and the Martial Law Command did not allow celebrations to take place in Taksim. Workers had to go to İzmir's Konak Square.
The 1980 military coup prohibited Workers' Day celebrations and other human rights. In İstanbul, Kadıköy Square became an alternative site for gathering in unofficial May Day celebrations. In 1996 there was another provocation in Kadıköy Square, but the police managed to control the crowds and kept fatalities to only four.
In 2008 the labor unions wanted to celebrate in Taksim Square. They were informed by the state security establishment that there were preparations by terrorist organizations to provoke a clash during the celebrations and repeat the scenario of the '77 May Day so as to create panic in the square. DİSK didn't give up on the idea to be in Taksim Square until the very last moment. Clashes ensued between workers who gathered around Taksim Square. No one was killed, but the police had to use pepper spray and other violent means to disperse the crowds.
Tomorrow is May 1, International Workers' Day. DİSK is still insisting on its right to celebrate the day at Taksim Square but the security situation of the country does not allow half a million people to pour into that small square. To regard the taboo of Taksim celebrations as a Justice and Development Party (AK Party) product does not do justice to the government. In Turkey, the history of skepticism and rejection concerning Workers' Day is as old as the day itself.
