Page 9 - KAZOVA - ENGLISH

the bosses’ house to expose what they were doing.

We were excited. For the first time in our lives we would carry
out an action.

We decided to carry out the first action on February 28, 2013,
in Taksim. On that date we started to gather in Taksim. We were

excited but we were also not sure what we were doing. We recog-
nised other worker friends at the action, we listened to their prob-
lems, we explained our problems to them. We asked other workers
how to shout slogans. We were a bit shy. For us, going to Taksim
in a crowd of other people was not something we had thought of
doing before. Even encountering people we knew was a little bit
frightening. We started to march. They wanted us to form into a

block of marchers. How could we do that?

We took our place behind a banner with the words “We will
not allow Umit Somuncu to take away our rights” and we began
to march. Some of us did not shout slogans, some forgot and just
looked.

We marched and arrived in front of Galatasaray High School.
After reading out a press statement as workers, we sat down with
our DIH friends and assessed the situation.

We were very happy and sure of ourselves after the action.
We had got to know workers like ourselves whose rights were taken
away and it gave us a feeling of confidence that people would sup-
port us because we had marched to expose the bosses and for our
rights and honour. We would put pressure on our bosses. We had
served them for 20, 30 years, we had come to work even when we
were ill, we had come to work even when our wives and children

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