Page 263 - KAZOVA - ENGLISH

tions, or to seek their rights. They were subjected to attacks by the
police. They were clubbed with truncheons, they had riot gas fired
at them… But they were not intimidated, and they did not give in.
Because they were legitimate and in the right. At the end of June,
they wanted to remove scrap iron in the factory and sell it for what
was owed to them. Again the police prevented it. Although when

the bosses were leaving they had dismantled the machinery that
they left behind. They had removed the motors from machines,
they had cut the electrical and electronic circuits. They had even
reversed the controls in the computers used to operate machinery.
But the bosses, the Somuncu family, did not want the workers to
do anything even with this pile of scrap iron. And immediately
the police started a search. The police were there to protect them.

Because Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been given Ka-
zova factory sweaters knitted for him. They had even been knitted
for him with long arms because the prime minister does have long
arms.

If the police are not there to protect the Somuncus, who is it
they are protecting? 10 teams of police and an armoured vehicle
immediately found the crime and the guilty. Stealing the labour
of the workers was left to go free, but it was a crime for workers to

take the machines for scrap metal in lieu of what was owed to
them. Because of the police, the workers were unable to access
even a part of their rights.

The same day the factory was occupied by the workers. At the
same time as starting the occupation, the workers also began a
hunger strike. In this way the resistance took a significant step for-
ward. A general rule of life was once again proved to be correct.

263