Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey
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| Full name | Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey |
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| Native name | Türkiye Devrimci İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu |
| Founded | 1967 |
| Members | 327,000 |
| Affiliation | ITUC, ETUC, TUAC, WFTU |
| Key people | Kani Beko, Arzu Cerkezoglu |
| Office location | Istanbul, Turkey |
| Country | Turkey |
| Website | www.disk.org.tr |
The Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Devrimci İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu, DİSK) is one of the four major national trade union centres in Turkey. It was founded in 1967 as a breakaway union from the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions, and has a membership of 327,000.
DİSK is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation, and the European Trade Union Confederation.
DİSK was founded by Kemal Türkler, Riza Kuas, İbrahim Güzelce, Kemal Nebioğlu and Mehmet Alpdündar representing Türkiye Maden-İş, Lastik-İş, Basin-İş, Türkiye Gida-İş and Türk Maden-İş, respectively. All of these unions were until that time affiliated to Türk-İş, except Gida-İş which was independent.
DİSK was born at a time when relatively broader rights and freedoms had been recognized by the Constitution of 1961. The trade union acts of 1964 accepted the right of the workers to collective bargaining and strike, and revolutionary and socialist movements gained momentum on the politic arena. In fact, with the exception of Mehmet Alpdündar, the founders of DİSK were also among the founders of the socialist Workers Party of Turkey (TİP) in 1961.
The first general assembly meeting of DİSK took place in Istanbul on 15 June 1967. Among the resolutions adopted at the congress were: support to the campaign „War Against Hunger" launched by the student organizations and establishing a solidarity fund with the assistance of larger unions to help the weaker ones. By 1967, 6 other unions (Turizm-İş, Kimya-İş, Bank-İş, EMSIS, TADSIS, Gaziantep Tekstil) had joined DİSK, which reported its total membership as 65,730.
In 1970 the Justice Party (AP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP) submitted to the parliament a draft law that would endanger the existence of any other confederation than Türk-İş. The board of DİSK convened on 3 June 1970 and decided to form resistance committees in accordance with the right of resistance in the Constitution. On June 15 and 16 the workers employed at enterprises organized by DİSK stopped work and leaving the factories started to march. This action ended with the declaration of martial law in Istanbul in the evening of June 16. DİSK leaders and a large number of workers were arrested and tried at military courts. The law was annulled by the Constitutional Court on 9 February 1972. The confederation reported a total of 88,650 members as of end-1970.
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