Page 258 - KAZOVA - ENGLISH

Umit Somuncu and Mustafa Umut Somuncu. During these eight
months of resistance they have gone through very difficult times.
They were cold in the winter and went hungry as it rained. Nor
was repression absent. In Taksim they were attacked with police
truncheons and riot gas. But the workers were not intimidated.
Resistance developed without getting through to the bosses. They

put up a tent in front of the factory so as to prevent people going
inside to remove goods from it in dead of night like thieves. Fi-
nally, the workers sought to occupy the factory, with Umut So-
muncu confidently saying, “They say you are taking out the
machines. Let’s see you do it.” Before long after these talks, in fact
minutes later, his protectors arrived. The police surrounded the
area, and even put pressure on the new owners of the factory. Ar-

moured cars, rapid reaction police, the security department and
even the anti-terror squad turned up. The only thing absent from
the action movie script was air support.

The resistance was on such a just and legitimate basis that
support grew and obstacles were overcome, and it became possible
to repair broken machinery. And they started production. We
showed the whole world that a handful of workers could succeed
if they acted together. This time a new wave of attacks started.

Bedas moved into action. Three times they tried to cut the elec-
tricity. Both at midnight and using a thousand and one lies. The
strangest was that they were trying to get into the building to read
the ISKI card meter.

Later the creditors began to herd together whether they heard
production was restarting. Accompanied by police they tried to
take the machines which the workers had repaired through their

258