JINHA

AMED – Women workers, saying classic union organizing no longer works against gendered attacks, have founded a women's workplace assembly of educators' union Eğitim Sen in the Northern Kurdistan city of Diyarbakır (Amed). Eğitim Sen educators' union Diyarbakır co-chair Dilek Atsan says the new assemblies are an experiment in radical democracy and in women's self-defense.

 "As public workers, the number one problem we face is mobbing," said Dilek, referring to the widespread practice of bullying by superiors against public sector workers.In Turkey, where many public officials throughout the country belong to theruling AKP, public workers like teachers often face harassment from superiors for political views that do not fit the party line. Gendered bullying is widespread.

At the same time, the state widely uses the practice of hiring teachers without tenure or contracts—"getting 10 workers for the price of one," as Dilek puts it.

"Because of the two-part training cycle for workers, teachers are separated from each other. They're divided in the workplace into those with and without union membership," she explained. "Our main goal was to bring these women workers who have been separated together into one place."

 Faced with the problem of developing practical, socially feasible unionism for these hyper-exploited education workers, union activists have started "women's workplace assemblies" in a number of schools in Diyarbakır. If the model succeeds in these pilot schools, the union of educators hopes to bring it to others in September, when the new school year starts.

The union is engaged in a struggle for recognition for all educational workers, childcare for their children and an end to the violence and mobbing targeted at workers based on their identities—especially their identities as women. The new model, says Dilek, aims to provide a space for women to develop their grassroots demands together, in spite of management's attempts to separate them.

"Unions are being blocked on a worldwide scale," said Dilek. "Arguments from the 19^th century are not effective. We need to find a way to get our work recognized and develop different organizational models against the exploitation we see today.

"Solutions to these problems can only come from below, from women engaging with the problem," said Dilek, explaining that the workplace assemblies are a step towards radical workplace democracy. "You can't have someone coming from above and telling you what to think, what your problems are."

(sg/fk/cm)