Political Rituals and Ideological Competition: The Emergence of an “Islamic” May Day in Turkey

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the decoding of some of the many aspects of Islamism—labour relations in Turkey, based on the political rituals that historically operate as self-assertions and self-definitions of the working class. The epicentre of this article is May Day and seeks to analyse the process by which an organic part of the Islamist movement in the country, Hak-İş, dealt with it, through the effort for transformation of the symbolisms, and confrontation for the ideological meaning and social vision of this labour political ritual in Turkey. Through this framework, the study highlights three different stages in the political mobilization of Hak-İş regarding the 1st of May, within the broader framework of a process named ‘loss of proletarity’ and the Confederation’s vision about a classless society. The first stage is that of the absolute denial of the class content and hierarchies in society. The second stage is the process of the ‘reluctant adoption’ of May Day, combined with strategies to transform its material culture. Finally, the third stage is the attempt to ‘nationalise/Islamise’ this political ritual through the organization of separate May Day mobilizations in various cities in Anatolia.

KEYWORDS:

• Islamism
• May Day
• political rituals
• social vision
• social memory
• Turkey
• working class

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

[1] David I. Kertzer, Rituals, Politics, and Power (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1988).

[2] Steven Lukes, ‘Political Ritual and Social Integration’, Sociology 9, no. 2 (1975): p. 291.

[3] George Mosse, The Nationalization of the Masses: Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germany, from the Napoleonic Wars Through the Third Reich (New York: Howard Fertig, 1975).

[4] David I. Kertzer, Politics and Symbols. The Italian Communist Party and the Fall of Communism (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996), 6.

[5] Abby Peterson and Herbert Reiter, ‘Introduction: Western European May Day Rituals Past, Present and Future’, in The Ritual of May Day in Western Europe. Past, Present and Future, ed. Abby Peterson; Herbert Reiter (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. 1–13.

[6] Molly Farneth, The Politics of Ritual (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2023), 8–9.

[7] Svetlana Anistratenko, ‘Construction of Symbolic Equality in Norwegian Political Rituals’, RSC 12, no. 2 (2020): 8.

[8] Victor Turner, The Ritual Process (Chicago: Aldine Press, 1969).

[9] Steven Pfaff and Guobin Yang, ‘Double-edged rituals and the symbolic resources of collective action: Political commemorations and the mobilization of protest in 1989’, Theory and Society, no. 30 (2001): 541.

[10] Farneth, The Politics of Ritual, 9.

[11] Pfaff and Yang, ‘Double-edged rituals and the symbolic resources’, 541.

[12] Frank O’ Gorman, ‘Ritual Aspects of Popular Politics in England (c. 1700–1830)’, Memoria y Civilizacion, no. 3 (2000): 164–65.

[13] Eric Hobsbawm, ‘The Transformation of Labour Rituals’, in Worlds of Labour. Further Studies in the History of Labour (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984), 76.

[14] Eric Hobsbawm, ‘Birth of a holiday: The first of May’, in On the Move: Essays in Labour and Transport History (London and Rio Grande: Hambledon Press, 1991).

[15] Rick Fantasia, ‘Forward: The Myth of May Day’, in The Ritual of May Day in Western Europe. Past, Present and Future, ed. Abby Peterson; Herbert Reiter (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), xii.

[16] Hobsbawm, ‘The Transformation of Labour Rituals’, 76.

[17] Fantasia, ‘Forward’, xii.

[18] Peterson and Reiter, ‘Introduction’, 2.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Hasan Bülent Kahraman, ‘1 Mayıs: Mekân ve bellek’, Sabah, May 2, 2014, https://www.sabah.com.tr/yazarlar/kahraman/2014/05/02/1-mayis-mekn-ve-bellek

[21] Hobsbawm, ‘The Transformation of Labour Rituals’, 79.

[22] Herbert Reiter, ‘The First of May in Germany and Italy’, in The Ritual of May Day in Western Europe. Past, Present and Future, ed. Abby Peterson; Herbert Reiter (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), 48. In 1920 a bill was presented to the French Parliament aiming to absorb the class orientations of May Day. Among other things, it stressed the following: this holiday should not contain any element of hate. All social classes, if they can still be said to exist, and all the productive energies of the nation, should be fraternized, inspired by the same idea and ideal. Hobsbawm, ‘Birth of a holiday: The first of May’.

[23] Meagan Day, ‘The Nazis stole May Day, but Socialists took it back’, Jacobin, 2021, https://jacobin.com/2021/05/nazi-may-day-hitler-socialismfiles/120/nazi-may-day-hitler-socialism.html.

[24] Peterson and Reiter, ‘Introduction’, 4.

[25] Hobsbawm, ‘Birth of a holiday: The first of May’.

[26] Fantasia, ‘Forward’, xiii.

[27] Peterson and Reiter, ‘Introduction’, 8.

[28] Hobsbawm, ‘Birth of a holiday: The first of May’.

[29] Hakan Koçak, ‘İşçi Sınıfının Uzun Taksim Yürüyüşü’, Toplumsal Tarih, no. 185 (2009): 52.

[30] Kahraman 1 Mayıs.

[31] Aziz Çelik, Vesayetten siyasete Türkiye’de sendikacılık (1946–1967) (İstanbul: İletişim, 2010), 552–53.

[32] Ayşem Sezer-Şanlı, “1 Mayıs 1977: ‘İşçinin Emekçinin Bayramı’ndan ‘Kanlı 1 Mayıs’a”, in Türkiye’nin 1970’li Yılları, ed. Mete Kaan Kaynar (İstanbul: İletişim, 2020), 565–67.

[33] Petrol İş, Meclislerde 1 Mayıs tartışmaları (İstanbul: Petrol-İş Yayını, 2009), 94, 104.

[34] This particular confrontation was even discussed, a number of times, in the National Assembly. In 1952, in one of the many incidents of the time, the then Labour Minister, Samet Ağaoğlu, commented on a trade union announcement which claimed the square, stressing the following: ‘Here we are dear friends … and I justifiably ask: where are we heading? Are we heading towards a class conflict? Will there be a war between capital and labour in the squares?’. Koçak, ‘İşçi Sınıfının Uzun Taksim Yürüyüşü’, 49–50.

[35] Meltem Azdemir, ‘1950’lerden 1 Mayıs 1976’ya: Türkiye işçi sınıfının Taksim’e uzun yürüyüşü’, in DİSK Tarihi. Dayanışma, Direniş, Umut (1975–1980) (İstanbul: DİSK Yayınları, 2022), 127.

[36] Sezer-Şanlı, ‘1 Mayıs 1977’, 566.

[37] İlker Aytürk and Tanıl Bora, ‘Yetmişli Yıllarda Sağ-Sol Kutuplaşmasında Siyasi Düşünceler’, in Türkiye’nin 1970’li Yılları (İstanbul: İletişim, 2020), 307–08.

[38] Ömer Turan, ‘Alternatif tahayyüller, devingenlik, popülizm: 1970’ler için bir çerçeve denemesi’, Toplum ve Bilim, no. 127 (2013): 5.

[39] Behlül Özkan, ‘Soğuk Savaş’ta Türkiye müesses nizamı ile siyasal İslam’ın kutsal ittifakı’, in Türkiye’nin Soğuk Savaş Düzeni. ordu, Sermaye, ABD, İslamizasyon, ed. Tolga Gürakar Behlül Özkan (İstanbul: Tekin Yayınaevi, 2020), 122–23.

[40] Mustafa Ammar Kılıç, ‘İslamcılığın Emek Söylemi. İslamcı Dergilerde Kapitalizm ve Sosyal Adalet Tartışmaları (1984–97)’, in ‘Bir Başka Hayata Karşı’. 1980 sonrası İslamcı dergilerde meseleler, kavramlar ve isimler, Cilt 2: Tarih, Siyaset, İktisat, ed. Lütfi Sunar (İstanbul: İslamcı Dergiler Projesi, 2019), 640.

[41] Yeniden Milli Mücadele, ‘Yıkılmak istenen AP değil, milletin ümididir’, Yeniden Milli Mücadele, February 24, 1970, 4–5.

[42] Ibid.

[43] Yeniden Milli Mücadele, ‘Sendikalar ve işçimizin bitmeyen çilesi’, Yeniden Milli Mücadele, May 19, 1970, 4, 14.

[44] Yeniden Milli Mücadele, ‘Yaklaşan tehlike’, Yeniden Milli Mücadele, June 23, 1970, 3.

[45] Burhanettin Duran and Engin Yıldırım, ‘Islamism, Trade Unionism and Civil Society: The Case of Hak-İş Labour Confederation in Turkey’, Middle Eastern Studies 41, no. 2 (2005): 196.

[46] Kılıç, ‘İslamcılığın Emek Söylemi’, 636–37.

[47] Aykut Öztürk, ‘Islamists against the class cleavage: identity formation and interest representation in the case of Hak-İş in Turkey’, Middle Eastern Studies 54, no. 3 (2018): 460–61.

[48] Hak-İş Dergisi, ‘Arslan, Stratejik Düşünce Enstitüsü’nün “Cumartesi Sohbetleri” konuğu oldu’, Hak-İş Dergisi, September, 2019, 198.

[49] Zeynep Alemdar, ‘Turkish Trade Unions and the European Boomerang’, European journal of Turkish studies, no. 9 (2009), https://doi.org/10.4000/ejts.3774, https://dx.doi.org/10.4000/ejts.3774.

[50] Duran and Yıldırım, ‘Islamism, Trade Unionism’, 231.

[51] DİSK, ‘1970’lerin ikinci yarısı: Zamanın akışının hızlandığı yıllar’, in DİSK Tarihi. Dayanışma, Direniş, Umut (1975–1980), ed. Aziz Çelik (İstanbul: DİSK Yayınları, 2022), 48.

[52] Bilge Yabanci, ‘Populism as the problem child of democracy: the AKP’s enduring appeal and the use of meso-level actors’, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 16, no. 4 (2016): 602.

[53] DİSK, ‘1970’lerin ikinci yarısı’, 48.

[54] Gülçin Karabağ, ‘Sınıf Meselesi (25): Dünden bugüne Türkiye’de 1 Mayısların anlamı ve önemi’, Medyascope, May 1, 2022, https://medyascope.tv/2022/05/01/sinif-meselesi-25-dunden-bugune-turkiyede-1-mayislarin-anlami-ve-onemi/.

[55] DİSK, ‘Türkler’in 1 Mayıs 1977 konuşması’, 207.

[56] Sezer-Şanlı, ‘1 Mayıs 1977’, 574.

[57] Petrol İş, Meclislerde 1 Mayıs tartışmaları, 73.

[58] Ibid. 141.

[59] Ibid. 137.

[60] Ibid. 159.

[61] Sezer-Şanlı, ‘1 Mayıs 1977’, 574.

[62] Rauf Kösemen, Sabahın Sahibi var: 2004’ten 2010’a 1 Mayıs Alanını Geri Alma Mücadelesi (İstanbul: DİSK Yayınları, 2011), 42–43.

[63] Meltem Azdemir, ‘İstanbul: Emeğin kenti, kentin belleği, belleğin mekanları’ (Masters Thesis, Kocaeli Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Entitüsü, 2017), 140.

[64] Sezer-Şanlı, ‘1 Mayıs 1977’, 574–75.

[65] Reiter, ‘The First of May’, 55.

[66] Kayhan Delibas, The Rise of Political Islam in Turkey. Urban Poverty, Grassroots Activism and Islamic Fundamentalism (London and New York: I.B Tauris, 2015).

[67] Kılıç, ‘İslamcılığın Emek Söylemi’, 639–40.

[68] Salim Uslu, ‘Kimliğimiz ve Hak-İş’, Hak-İş Dergisi, Ekim, 1999, 2.

[69] Salim Uslu, ‘Dağınıklık ve toparlanma’, Hak-İş Dergisi, May, 1998, 2–3.

[70] Aydın Ünal, ’21. yüzyıl ve sendikalar’, ibid., Ekim, 1999, 7.

[71] Hak-İş Dergisi, ‘Yusuf Engin: Sendikacılık yalın bir hak arama mücadelesidir’, Hak-İş Dergisi, Kasım, 1999, 25.

[72] Ünal, ’21. yüzyıl ve sendikalar’, 4.

[73] Aydın Ünal, ’21. yüzyıl ve Hak-İş’, Hak-İş Dergisi, Kasım, 1999, 6.

[74] Hak-İş Dergisi, ‘Genel Kurul Kararları’, Hak-İş Dergisi, Ocak, 2000, 45–46.

[75] Hak-İş Dergisi, ‘Salim Uslu: Ülkemizde demokratik söylemle demokratikleşme arasında bir boşluk vardır’, Hak-İş Dergisi, Kasım, 1999, 10–11.

[76] Hak-İş Dergisi, ‘1 Mayıs kronolojisi 2016’, Hak-İş Dergisi, Mayıs, 2016, 39.

[77] Ibid.

[78] Kösemen, Sabahın Sahibi var, 59.

[79] Petrol İş, Meclislerde 1 Mayıs tartışmaları, 498.

[80] Ibid. 556–7.

[81] CNN Türk, ‘Erdoğan’ın 1 Mayıs tepkisi’, CNN Türk, May 2, 2010, https://www.cnnturk.com/2010/turkiye/05/02/erdoganin.1.mayis.tepkisi/574507.0/index.html.

[82] Cansu Karagül, ‘Sokağın Belleği Üzerine: Uzam, Bellek, Direniş, 1 Mayıs, Taksim’, Bianet, May 3, 2014, https://www.bianet.org/biamag/kultur/155397-sokagin-bellegi-uzerine-uzam-bellek-direnis-1-mayis-taksim.

[83] TCCB, ‘1 Mayıs Emek Ve Dayanışma Gününde Yaptıkları Konuşma’, TCCB, May 1, 2019, https://www.tccb.gov.tr/konusmalar/353/105217/1-mayis-emek-ve-dayanisma-gununde-yaptiklari-konusma.

[84] Mahmut Arslan, ‘Referandumdan 1 Mayıs’a Hak-İş’, Hak-İş Dergisi, May, 2017, 3.

[85] Hak İş, ‘Arslan: Kayseri’de örnek 1 Mayıs kutlaması yapacağız’, Hak-İş Konfederasyonu, April 25, 2014, https://hakis.org.tr/haberler.php?action=haber_detay&id=713.

[86] Hak-İş Dergisi, ‘1 Mayıs kronolojisi 2019’, Hak-İş Dergisi, Mayıs, 2019, 38–39.

[87] Hak İş Arslan: Kayseri’de örnek.

[88] Mahmut Arslan, ‘1 Mayıs’tan 24 Haziran’a Yeni Türkiye’, Hak-İş Dergisi, May, 2018, 2.

[89] Arslan, ‘Referandumdan 1 Mayıs’a Hak-İş’, 3.

[90] Cansu Karagül, ‘Sınıf belleğinin mekânı: Taksim Meydanı’, BirGün, February 11, 2014, https://www.birgun.net/haber/sinif-belleginin-mekani-taksim-meydani-70788.

[91] Öz Gıda İş, ‘Hak-İş 1 Mayıs’ı Adana’da kutlayacak’, Öz Gıda İş Sendikası, February 26, 2018, https://www.ozgidais.org.tr/haber/827/hak-is-1-mayis-i-adana’da-kutlayacak.

[92] Hak İş Arslan: Kayseri’de örnek.

[93] Imran Pasha, Muhammad Shakeel Ahmad Siddiqui, and Saira Akram, ‘Religion as a Deterritorialization and Re-territorialization Mechanism: Reconfiguring Pakistan’s Nation Building and Islamization Process’, Global Social Sciences Review VII, no. 1 (2022).

[94] İbrahim Tenekeci, ‘Anadolu insanı’, Yeni Şafak, March 30 2016, https://www.yenisafak.com/yazarlar/ibrahimtenekeci/anadolu-insani-2027882

[95] Hak İş, ‘Hak-İş üyeleri sel oldu Tandoğan’a aktı’, Hak-İş Konfederasyonu, May 2, 2012, https://www.hakis.org.tr/haberler.php?action=haber_detay&id=372.

[96] Özgür Müftüoğlu, ‘1 Mayıs 2012’den yansıyanlar!’, Evrensel, May 10, 2012, https://www.evrensel.net/yazi/28732/1-mayis-2012den-yansiyanlar.

[97] Hak İş Arslan: Kayseri’de örnek.

[98] Hak-İş Dergisi, ‘Arslan, dünyanın bütün emekçilerini selamladı’, Hak-İş Dergisi, Mayıs, 2016, 15.

[99] Mahmut Arslan, ‘1 Mayıs’ta taleplerimizi haykırdık’, ibid., May, 2.

[100] TRT Haber, ‘Hak-İş 1 Mayıs’ı Erzurum’da kutladı’, TRT Haber, May 1, 2017, https://www.trthaber.com/haber/turkiye/hak-is-1-mayisi-erzurumda-kutladi-312146.html

[101] Hak-İş Dergisi, ‘Arslan, dünyanın’, 15.

[102] Hak-İş Dergisi, ‘1 Mayıs Taksim dayatmalarına hayır dedik’, Hak-İş Dergisi, May, 2017, 14.

[103] Hak-İş Dergisi, ‘Sakarya’da tarihi 1 Mayıs’, ibid., 2016, 1.

[104] Hak-İş Dergisi, ‘Arslan, dünyanın’, 7.

[105] TRT Haber Hak-İş 1 Mayıs’ı Erzurum’da kutladı.

[106] Hak İş, ‘Konya’da tarihi 1 Mayıs’, Hak-İş Konfederasyonu, May 1, 2015, https://www.hakis.org.tr/haberler.php?action=haber_detay&id=990.

[107] Aişe Hümeyra Bulovalı, ‘Mehmet Ali Aslan: Grup Yürüyüş 28 Şubat’a karşı gösterilen tepki sürecinde ortaya çıktı’, Anadolu Ajansı, February 2, 2021, https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/28-subat/mehmet-ali-aslan-grup-yuruyus-28-subata-karsi-gosterilen-tepki-surecinde-ortaya-cikti/2158991.

[108] Cumhuriyet, ‘Yandaş sendikalar 1 Mayıs’ta Saray’a selam gönderdi’, Cumhuriyet, May 1 2018, https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/yandas-sendikalar-1-mayista-saraya-selam-gonderdi-967267.

[109] İl Gazetesi, ‘Kayseri’de tarihi 1 Mayıs’, İl Gazetesi, May 1, 2014, http://www.ilgazetesi.com.tr/kayseride-tarihi-1-mayis-243119h.htm.

[110] Hobsbawm, ‘The Transformation of Labour Rituals’.