Page 75 - KAZOVA - ENGLISH

rights, they had been on hunger strike since 30 June and would
not finish their resistance until they got what was owed to them.
After shouting slogans, they ended the action.

Artists Support The Kazova Workers

On Monday 8 July on the 9th day of the Kazova textile work-
ers’ hunger strike, the theatre actor Mehmet Esatoglu visited. Dur-
ing the three or four hour visit they had a pleasant conversation
with him. The following day Erdal Bayrakoglu, an important name
in Black Sea music, and the poet Ibrahim Karaca visited, serving
as a good example of artistic solidarity with the oppressed. The
artists were supporting the honourable struggle of the Kazova
workers who for months have been struggling with their bosses

Umit and Mehmet Somuncu over unpaid wages, seniority and no-
tice, who occupied their factory on the 28th of June and started
a hunger strike on 30 June.

Kazova Workers Visited In Their Hunger Strike Tent By
Gulsuyu And May 1 Neighbourhoods…

On the 10th day of the hunger strike by Kazova workers, their

tent was visited by Halk Cephesi supporters from Gulsuyu and
May 1 neighbourhoods on the Anatolian (Asian) side of Istanbul.
Halk Cephesi supports chatted to the workers during the visit.
During the visit of about two hours’ duration, the tyranny of the
Somuncu families towards the workers was described. The workers
talked of the vile exploitation that had been practised for years.
The bosses had even fixed the lunch break at different times to
prevent the workers from organising and demanding a reckoning.

Besides tyranny, the workers had been condemned to be disorgan-

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