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The Urbanization of Labor and Its Struggle for Unionism 
in Turkish Cinema 
Hasan Yüksel, Cankiri Karatekin University 
 hasanyuksel37@gmail.com 

 

Abstract 
The main purpose of the study is to investigate the emergence of labor and its struggle for unionism in Turkey 
in parallel to the process of urbanization on the basis of a particular Turkish employee film named after The 
Blood Money (Diyet). What I am trying to argue is that labor has become a labor and unionism has converted 
into a professional and institutional background in the aftermath of the announcement of Republican period 
despite some ups and downs. In 1950s, the capital was urbanized which was the case for labor in the 1960s and 
hereafter. 
Keywords: Turkish labor; urbanization; trade unionism; movies and labor; labor markets; labor relations 

 

 
New articles in this journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 United States License. 

 
This journal is published by the University Library System of the University of Pittsburgh as part  

of its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press

Volume 8.2 (2020)  |  ISSN 2158-8724 (online)  |  DOI 10.5195/cinej.2020.239  |  http://cinej.pitt.edu 



     CINEJ Cinema Journal: The Urbanization of Labor and Its Struggle for Unionism in Turkish Cinema 

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The Urbanization of Labor and Its Struggle for Unionism 
in Turkish Cinema  
Hasan Yuksel 
 
Introduction  

Most of the research regarding labor markets has been conducted through the use of real-

life data or investigation. This study follows a different format and analyzes the dynamics of the 

formation of Turkish labor unionism by means of a particular film, The Blood Money (Diyet, 1975) 

by Ömer Lütfi Akad. 

Films, as do all other media apparatuses, display a certain image and convey a particular 

social, political, and cultural message to the audience (Agha 2007; Agha 2011: 163-170; Johnson 

and Astrid 2007; Hiramoto and Joseph 2010: 179-188). Taking into account the fact that films, 

just like other artistic creative outputs like books, novels, poems, theatre plays and songs, reflect 

the conditions of their era in which they were produced, I analyze the process of how Turkish labor 

and its struggle to establish trade unions is represented through this film. The formation of trade 

unions in Turkey is a long and intricate story and it has become an issue which was directly dealt 

with by filmmakers, especially by those who were the supporters of social realism in Turkish 

cinema.1 

For theoretical and practical implications of the research, I adapt discourse analysis 

approach and their reflections of different genres by Hodges, Kuper, and Reeves et al. (2008: 570-

572), Barton (2002: 575-594), Madichie (2011: 169-197), Walton and Boon (2014: 351-370). In 

addition, I use a professional data analysis program, MAXQDA 2018, to unravel the main 

framework for the investigation of the discursive content of the movie, which makes this study 

unique. 



 

 

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At first, I conducted a detailed research on the films that deal with purely the problem of 

unionism of Turkish labor through search engine Google. Search words such as “labor movies in 

Turkey”, “unionism and movies in Turkey”, “social realism and Turkish labor movies”, “film 

studies and Turkish labor” were utilized. I realized that the movie Blood Money (Diyet) is quite 

popular and interesting concerning the message given to the labor and to the community within 

the framework of trade unionism and the urbanization of labor. After that, I watched the film over 

and over and I examined the film script and I categorized the content of the movie based upon 

three parameters: unionism (i), labor (ii), and urbanization (iii) which are also the codes written in 

MAXQDA as well. Unionism is the first parameter as the movie mainly focuses on this issue. On 

the other hand, Turkish labor and unionism and urbanization as the reasons for Turkish labor 

emanation, are grappled in the film. Under the code word of unionism, I created ten different sub 

codes such as strike, multiply, wage increase, bargaining, unite, human right, collective, daily 

wage, law, and trade union. As for the code word of labor, seventeen sub codes were written like 

laborer, contract, weekly wage, farm laborer, order, employee, bread, overtime, compensation, on-

the-job, job accident, factory, money, Turkish lira, machine, work, and master. Lastly, penthouse, 

land, apartment, contractor, Istanbul, floor, village, city, furnace, homesickness, roof, door, 

hometown, and home are the sub codes created for the code word of urbanization.  

Moving from three essential codes, I find that the film is fundamentally centered upon labor 

unionism and the formation/urbanization of Turkish industrial labor. The urbanization is the path 

that paves the way for emergence of the industrial labor itself. The research questions of the paper 

are thus as in the following: 

RQ1. How do labor films depict the labor identity formation and labor unionism? 

RQ2. What are the sine quanon of trade unionism in Turkey?  



 

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RQ3. Is it possible that the films can be utilized for labor market studies? 

Hence, the study consists of three parts. In the first part of the study, the topic of 

urbanization within the framework of labor and its contribution to the formation of labor is 

uncovered. Secondly, the historical perspective of labor unionism in Turkey including pre-

Republican and Post Republican period is also mentioned. The methodology of the research and 

the findings obtained via MAXQDA are the issues unveiled in the third part of the study.    

 

Literature Review 

In this chapter of the research, the urbanization of labor generally as well as Turkish case 

study and Turkey’s journey towards unionism have been mentioned. As urbanization of labor and 

trade unionism in Turkey are at the heart of the empirical section of the study, it is important have 

a look at their theoretical backgrounds. 

 

The Urbanization of Labor in the World 

In this part of the research, the urbanization process and its connection with the industrial 

labor will be discussed in line with the empirical aspect of the study. Throughout history, labor has 

been exposed to some radical transformations. In primitive societies, labor was naturalized; it was 

enslaved during slavery; in agricultural economy and feudal era, it was ruralized; in the period of 

modern industry, it was industrialized, mechanized and urbanized professionally; and at last, labor 

was digitalized in knowledge societies.  

Industrialization is a way for labor transfer from agricultural areas to the industrial zones, 

which also accelerates the urbanization of the economy (Lewis, 1954: 139-191 and Bairoch, 1988). 

In many cases, industrialization and urbanization go hand in hand (for the connection between 

industrialization and urbanization see also Jiang and Lin, 2012: 608-615; Harris, 1971: 102-124; 



 

 

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Claval, 1988: 27-38; Goldstein and Goldstein, 1984: 90-110; Reiss, 1954: 27-29; Moir, 1976: 123-

135; McHale and Johnson, 1977: 210-247; Hagedom Miller and Labovitz, 1971: 177-195; Scott, 

1986: 25-37; Lewis, 1989: 628-634; Mokyr, 1980; Walton and Sween, 1971: 721-745; Bodenhorn 

and Cuberes, 2018: 47-58) because the former fosters the latter. 

The urbanization of labor, which is crucial resource for social change in emerging 

economies (Speare et al., 1988: 919), is closely connected with the process of industrialization as 

stated by Williamson (1991) in his argument: “Successful industrialization always fosters 

urbanization.” (Williamson, 1991: 241). Of course, the interconnection between industrialization 

and urbanization is to be demonstrated with economic growth in parallel to the mass production 

and mass population activities. The population is urbanized because of urbanized industry (Huff 

and Angeles, 2011: 20, 21).  

In the literature, there are a great many studies that explain the correlation between 

industrialization and urbanization as both are assessed as interdependent processes for modern 

economic development. As a matter of fact, the relationship between industrialization and 

urbanization is clarified and symbolized through the invention of steam engine that enhanced the 

shift from manufacturing from hand and hydro power to steam power. For example in the US, the 

industrialization began in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the domestic labor force 

rose from 10 to 20% between 1850 and 1880 which is in line with the share of the population in 

urban areas that went up from 15 to 30% (Sukkoo, 2005: 586). 

According to Rosenberg and Trajtenberg (2004), the usage of steam engine by 

manufacturers, especially the Corliss engine, accelerated the process of urbanization due to the 

fact that it released the firms from locational limitations like topography and climate and it offered 



 

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the manufacturers to locate in the cities. With the contribution of Corliss steam engine, the 

agglomeration economies emerged (Rosenberg and Trajtenberg, 2004: 61-99).   

In his early modern capitalism, Braudel (1967) were on the idea that steam engine, that is 

to say, industrialization created steam engine towns. He compared steam engines with the clocks 

and he categorized cities as steam engine towns and clock towns to lay an emphasis on the fact 

that the cities, in which steam engines were quite dominant, were the early representations of 

capitalism since they were the places where ceaseless economic transactions took place which also 

augmented the rhythm of the city and the lives’ of men. However, clock towns are the ones which 

were “long, straight, and unbroken line across time.” (Braudel, 1967: 396, 397).  

Davis (1965) regards the commencement of urbanization with the beginning of 

industrialization. His ideas sheds light on the fact that there was no community or a society 

described as “urbanized” before 1850 and by 1900, just Great Britain was considered in this 

category although small cities appeared 5,500 years ago. Today, as everything has been in an 

ongoing and quick alteration, the concept of urbanization also changed. In this context, all the 

industrial nations were referred as urbanized. This urbanized way of life stemming from 

industrialization dictated different way of life as the urban population involves a special human 

contact that created another social confusion that has never been witnessed. Now, people were 

more crowded than any other animal community, and urban life forced people behave like 

“communal insects” rather than “mammals” (Kingsley, 1966: 4). 

 In addition, Blumin (2006) makes a reference to “urban revolution” to indicate the spheres 

of urbanization and while delineating his ideas, he gets benefit from Weber and his perspectives. 

Weber, in his American manifestation, stresses that urbanization is a universal and global event 

since urban areas occur as a result of the same reasons, and in an identical way all over the world. 

The cities are interconnected regionally, nationally, and internationally. Particularly, cities and 



 

 

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urban areas enlarged promptly during nineteenth century in the West including England and 

Wales, France and the United States. Weber referred this concentration of the population via the 

term “take off” and he tried hard to find an answer to this question: “Why did people emigrate to 

the urban areas and what were the motivational tools for these actions in all parts of the world?” 

The answer was quite simple: “Steam”. Therefore, Weberian ideology supported the notion that 

industrialization caused urbanization which forward-facing businessman were investing on smoky 

industries (Blumin, 2006: 47, 48).  

Table 1. Changing Concentration of Population in Nineteenth Century in Different Locations of the World 

England and Wales 

Living in cities greater than 10,000 1801 21% 

1891 62% 

Living in cities greater than 100,000 1801 10% 

1891 33% 

France 

Living in cities greater than 10,000 1801 10% 

1891 26% 

Living in cities greater than 100,000 1801 3% 

1891 12% 

United States 

Living in cities greater than 10,000 1790 3% 

1890 28% 

Living in cities greater than 100,000 1790 0% 

1890 15% 

Source: Blumin, 2006: 48.  

Some of the scholars like Mendels (1972) were the strong supporters of the fact that the 

labor was ruralized, or let’s say “proto-industrialized” at first, and later on, it was converted into 

an industrialized and urbanized actor with the beginning of machine industry. This view is backed 



 

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up by Sir John Hicks’ masterpiece named after A Theory of Economic History: “The Industrial 

Revolution is the Rise of Modern Industry, not the rise of industry as such.” Maybe from here, it 

can be argued that labor became ruralized initially and then urbanized. To put in another way, 

“pre-industrial industry” is the first step of industrial and modern organization. The first phase of 

industrialization was shaped by traditional, rapid growth, market centered, and rural industry. 

Therefore, it is quite obvious that the urbanization of labor goes through its ruralization (Mendels, 

1972: 241-261 and Hicks, 1969: 141).  

 

Labor Urbanization and Its Connotations in Turkey 

The urbanization of Turkish labor is identical with the trends in the world. Of course, timing 

is strikingly different as Turkish industrialization came into being virtually a century later than in 

the West, but the process is similar. In Turkey, labor has become urbanized with the emergence of 

industrial economy in coordination with the universal inclinations. Scholars have become distinct 

in their approaches to the formation of urban cities. As an instance, Ozer (2004) demonstrates the 

reasons for urbanization in Turkey in various factors such as demography (i), changes in the 

structure of the agriculture (ii), pulling forces (iii), intermediary factors (iv), law and policy 

oriented reasons (v), socio-psychological reasons (vi), and external factors (vii) while Keles 

(2010) categorizes the steps of Turkish urbanization with three components like pulling (a), 

pushing (b), and intermediary reasons (c) (Keles, 2010: 63-70 and Ozer, 2004: 49-60). 

In the literature, there are a number of studies that focus on industrialization and 

urbanization in Turkey simultaneously. All these scholars are on the point of view that 

industrialization of the capital in 1950s and particularly free market economic model suggested 

and implemented by Adnan Menderes in Democrat Party, ruling party at that time, stemmed in the 

urbanization and industrialization of the labor in 1960s and 1970s. Five year development plans 



 

 

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that commenced in 1963 paved the way for machinery industry and the concentration of the 

population as well. What’s more, the political parties of Süleyman Demirel (Justice Party) and 

Turgut Özal (Motherland Party) fundamentally with their liberal economic model also played a 

leading role for the process. Hence, without industrial economy, it is of no avail for Turkish labor 

to be urbanized (for the connection between industrialization and urbanization in Turkey see also 

Oguz, 1995: 369-371; Kepir and Sinangil, 1994: 59-66; Celasun, 1994: 41-57; Habib, 1951: 40-

51; Berberoglu, 1980: 97-121; Ceyhun, 1988: 333-357; Kurucu and Chiristina, 2008: 289-297; 

Kaya, 2008: 161-181; Penninx, 1982: 781-818; Hale, 1980: 100-117; Kavzoglu, 2008: 429-438; 

Ocü, 1988: 38-64; Yentürk and Coban, 1992: 274-289). 

 

Turkey’s Journey towards Labor Unionism 

Trade unions were formed as economic inputs for labor markets since their ultimate goal 

is to defend the rights of the workers against employers and to enhance their wages. In a way, it 

can be stated that unionism emerged as a mandatory need and a reaction to the working conditions 

of Industrial Revolution (Caya, 2015: 559-568). That’s why, trade unions are the equalizers of 

workplace and society (Western and Rosenfeld, 2011: 513-537). Moving from the definitions and 

theoretical backgrounds of trade unions, Turkish experience for unionism will be shared in terms 

of historical and legal framework in this part of the study. Indeed, there are plenty of definitions 

of trade unions, but I will mention some of them.  

Unionism means labor movement and it is a sort of solidarity among those who share 
the same idea (Hemmerijckx, 2001: 124-125). 
It is not easy to define the term of trade unions as it encompasses the freedom of 
association in terms of employees and employers, collective bargaining, strikes and 
lockout processes, and preservation of the mutual rights and interest (Budeli, 2012: 
454).  



 

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Trade unions are the democratic institutions of the labor markets, so the bigger and 
stronger unions are, the more powerful democracy will occur in a particular 
environment (Friedman, 2012: 18). 

Turkish trade unionism is a discrete but a long journey and it is not entirely independent 

from the other countries due to the economic priorities and the policies that the country developed 

and implemented both in the Ottoman modernization and in the Republican period. Like the other 

industrialized countries, trade unionism in Turkey commenced to emerge in parallel to the reaction 

to industrialization process, which was quite slow compared to the industrialized countries since 

Turkey quitted agriculture and began industrialization later than the others. So as to bring on a 

holistic view concerning the formation of trade unions in Turkey, it is quite essential to have a 

look at both Pre-Republican and Post-Republican period as well. The Pre-republican period will 

be analyzed on five parameters such as Akhi Organization (i), Guilds (ii), Socialist Movements and 

Ottoman Empire (iii), Ottoman Labor Association (iv), and Ottoman Strike Law (v), whereas the 

characteristics of the formation of unionism during post-republican period is to be based on four 

eras: 1923-1947 (i), 1947-1963 (ii), 1963-1983 (iii), and 1983 and today (iv) (Tokol, 2014: 87-97).  

 

a) Pre-Republican Period 

1. Akhi Organizations: While focusing on pre-republican period on the basis of trade unionism, 

it is of great significance to glance at the Akhi organizations at first. Since 13th century, Akhi 

organization or let’s say Akhism, has been the reflection of futuwwa1 tradition that connotates 

generosity, charity, and goodness all over the course of Islam geography including Anatolia during 

Seljuks as well as Ottomans (Arnakis, 1953: 233, 234). Akhism, established by the craftsmen and 

merchants, is a multidimensional thought and its ultimate aim is to maximize the societal benefit 
 

1 Futuwwa is the “detailed description of the ritual, ceremonial behaviour, and customs observed in the mediaval Islamic guilds at various stages 
of promotion […], giving an invaluable insight in the composition, structure, and social behaviour of a vital sector of Islamic urban society “ 
(Breebaart, 1972: 203), (for further information see also, Irwin, 2004: 161-170; Taeschner, 1953: 3-32; Gürsoy and Demirpolat, 2003: 203-
214; and Salinger, 1950. 481-493). 



 

 

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of the society as a whole so as to settle social order. Mamuti (2013) gives the idea that Akhi 

organizations arrange commerce and so, they are like “chambers of commerce”; they try hard to 

resolve industrial problems between capital owners and the workers and they regulate labor 

relations so, they are just like “trade unions”; they prevent the creation of the monopoly, so they 

are “authority competitions”; they protect the consumers’ rights by detecting the quality and the 

price of goods and services, so they resemble “service standard boards” (Mamuti, 2013: 241). All 

these explanations pave the way that Akhi organizations are the pioneer of trade unions in regards 

to their capability to solve industry or let’s say commerce oriented predicaments, which is in line 

with the objective and the meaning of modern trade unions.        

 2. Islamic Guilds: Islamic guilds or in other words, Ottoman craft guilds, are the other 

contributory factors for the formation of trade unionism in Turkey. Of course, they do not take 

after the modern trade unions, yet still their functions and their back up to production, and their 

collaborative and vigilant comprehension to employee relations reveal the idea that they are 

something like the seeds of unionism in Turkey. And in the literature there are a great many studies 

that analyzes the correlation between guilds and trade unionism (see also Mastboom, 1994: 57-75; 

D’Arcy, 1971: 113-127; Kirkham, 1982: 1-10; Lucassen,  De Moor and Van Zanden, 2008: 5-18; 

Tso, 1927: 16-29; Banks and Hesmondhalgh, 2016: 267-280).  

Lewis (1937) states that craft guilds are the most fascinating institutions of Muslim 

civilization during medieval age. These are such an impressive organizations that they even leave 

an impact on the urban settlement, accordingly the cities are designed so as to meet the needs of 

guildsmen, which were the benchmarks of markets then (Lewis, 1937: 20).  

Since classic era, craft guilds have been the crucial element of production in Ottoman state 

(Yildirim, 2002: 407). From their commencements in seventeenth century to their depletions in 



 

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nineteenth century, Ottoman guilds were exposed to an evolution owing to several reasons: The 

first is the fact that Ottoman guilds had to develop some certain strategies for “inclusion” or 

“exclusion” in particular for the urban centers of Ottoman Empire because of Celali rebellions 

pushing effect to migration from rural areas. Secondly, the states approach to pious foundations 

altered in a radical way because of Empire’s long lasting wars beginning in eighteenth century that 

constituted a heavy fiscal burden (Yildirim, 2008: 73). In the aftermath of Baltalimani Trade 

Agreement signed in 1838 that opens Ottoman markets to globe and that also capitalizes and 

liberalizes the guild-oriented economy, Ottoman guilds started to disappear. However, their roles 

on the production, their solidarities to protect their commercial rights, and their contributions to 

labor recruitment as well as labor relations as a whole make us contemplate on their vision for 

being a union like organizations. 

 

3. Socialist Movements and Ottoman Empire: Ideologies are notable for the evolutionary 

change of a particular society as a whole for they foster the consciousness of the people while 

acting, behaving or even pondering in a certain way. The reason is that ideologies are something 

like an “institutionalization” for organizations including the states. Therborn (1980) argued that 

ideology ascertains people’s way of life, their thinking style, and their manner of running and 

operating the world (Therborn, 1980: 2). Ideological figures which became quite dominant 

following western industrialization first, and later on, in cold war period in the aftermath of World 

War II, and this is the case for capitalist or socialist thought. 

Socialism defined by Durkheim (1895-1896) as “above all a plan for the reconstruction of 

societies, a program for a collective life which does not exist as yet or in the way it is dreamed of, 

and is proposed to men as worthy of their preference. It is an ideal. It concerns itself much less 



 

 

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with what is or was than what ought to be.” (Durkheim, 1895-1896: 39, 40) has developed as an 

antithesis to capitalism.  

There are also other statements of socialism as well. Professor T.N. Carver says “socialism 

is the public ownership and operation of all the means of production.”; Bryan utters “socialism is 

the collective ownership, through the state, of all the means of production and distribution.”; 

Professor Davis R. Dewey ascertains “it has never seemed to me possible to define the word so as 

to make it serviceable for general discussion. Socialism represents a movement. I do not see that 

it admits of sharper definition than Christianity, or barbarism, or culture ... The discussion has 

gone too far and the term is too widespread to bring down to any definition.” (Martin, 1911: 347, 

348). 

As a matter of fact, thinking about the fact that socialism emerged as a sharp criticism 

towards capitalism, there are some other social protest movements against industrialization and 

the capitalistic values it suggested and which were developed by socialists scholars like Marxists 

and Utopians. Earlier socialists are historically communists and they have revolutionary ideas 

concerning the state, society, individuals, and the economy holistically. To illustrate, Marxists 

were on the idea that workers referred as ‘proletariat’ would carry out a revolution through which 

means of production would be replaced and a classless society would appear (Hechter, 1994: 156).  

Yüksel (2018: 385-414) as cited from Elliott (1992: 25-36) laid an emphasis on the Marxist thought 

about the reasons for the appearance of socialism: 

Marx, in his works published later on under the name of Economic and 
Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, was on the point of view that socialism 
came to fore as a perfect alternative to capitalism since the system was to be 
refreshed because capitalism was creating inequality in all the spheres of life. 
In order to change the system in a radical way and capture the attention of all, 
socialism had to give some options to individuals, working classes, labor 



 

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unions, political parties, economic initiatives, in short to everyone in view of 
the fact that capitalism, by means of industrialization, granted a priceless gift 
for Western countries including Western Europa as well. The gift was 
industrialization, modernization, and democratization that presented capital 
accumulation, material wealth and technological improvement which were the 
inevitable parts of democratic, libertarian, and also egalitarian society. So, to 
compete with these notions of capitalism, socialism had to say different and 
alluring things to settle its system on working classes, labor unions, politics, 
co-operatives, governments, individual ownerships and etc. 

 

Socialism is the direct and ultimate protest against capitalism indicated well before, and 

trade unions are the means toward socialist ideology assisted by Lenin through his words: “Trade 

unions are the school of socialism”. Hence, socialist movements hit the Ottoman labor markets 

and therefore, several trade union-like associations and strikes 2 were put into practice. Ottoman 

Labor Association (Osmanlı Amele Cemiyeti, 1894), Ottoman Strike Law (Tatil-i Esgal, 

1908/1909) passed to interdict the strikes at the beginning of the twentieth century can be given as 

an example (Yüksel, 2017a: 122, 123). This can be interpreted in a way that the first trade union 

associations and the strikes bring the fore that socialism deeply left a great impact on the Ottoman 

modernization in 20th century.   

  

4. Ottoman Labor Association (Osmanlı Amele Cemiyeti): Ottoman Labor Association is the 

first trade union like organization established in 1894 illegally by Tophane-i Amire workers who 

had class consciousness (Toprak, 1993: 242). Before this association (1894), there is another 

worker organization called as “Labor Fraternity” established in 1871, the main aim of which is to 

proliferate the solidarity among workers. However, Labor Fraternity (1871) is something like the 

“follow up” of the Ottoman guilds; therefore, the first trade union like association equivalent to its 

western counterparts is the Ottoman Labor Association (Ekin, 1986: 39). The westernization 



 

 

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initiatives, that is to say, modernization period commenced in the aftermath of Western take off in 

parallel to the industrial attack, the announcement of the Imperial Edict of Gülhane in 1839 and 

also the Edict of Reform in 1856, and the acknowledgement of Constitutional Monarchy in 1876 

paved the way that there is not a way for Ottomans other than constitution, freedom, and individual 

rights. Taking into account in a cause and effect phenomena, these historical cornerstones led to 

the genesis of “organized labor”.  

 

5. Ottoman Strike Law (Tatil-i Esgal): Series of strikes in 1908 sparkled with the unionist 

slogans like “Liberte”, “Egalite”, and “Fraternite”, which were, at the same time, the motto of 

French Revolution in 1789. The reason behind this was the atmosphere of relative “Freedom” set 

forward by the Committee of Union and Progress and the Committee had promised to unionists to 

assist their labor rights including unionism in return for the unionists support for the declaration 

of second constitutional period (Karakisla, 1992: 171).  

1908 strike waves were not peculiar to Istanbul, in the stark contrast, it was prevalent to all 

regions of the Ottomans including İzmir, Thessaloniki, Damascus, and Beirut. However, it is to be 

noted that half of the strikes took place in the biggest three cites of Empire: Istanbul, Salonika, and 

Izmir. Unlike the studies of Akkaya (2010), according to the calculations of Karakisla (1992), 

there were around 111 registered strikes in 1908, and 39 of them were in Istanbul, 31 of them were 

in Salonika, and 13 of them were in İzmir, most majority of which related to the transportation 

sector. The costs of the strikes were gigantic as they happened in the outstanding sectors of the 

state. Nevertheless, due to the organizational deficiency, financial problems of the workers during 

strikes, companies’ employment of the new workers in the place of strikers, and the unwilling 

approach of both Ottoman government and the Committee members, 1908 strikes did not last long 



 

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except from a few of them exceeding one week (Karakisla, 1992: 175, 176) . Accordingly, 

Ottoman Strike Law passed in 1908 as a kind of enactment and then its journey towards being a 

law in 27 July 1909 was activated, and all the strikes, fundamentally in state-oriented jobs were 

forbidden (Güney and Aslanova, 2014: 261; Okcün, 1982: 1). 

 

b) Post Republican Period 

As demonstrated well beforehand, the characteristics of the formation of unionism during 

post-republican period is to be based on four eras: 1923-1947 (i), 1947-1963 (ii), 1963-1983 (iii), 

and (1983 and still). Just as making such a categorization like this, Turkey’s economic and political 

enterprises played a very common ground for the rehabilitation of the employee rights including 

unionism, collective bargaining, and the strikes. Consequently, those years between1923-1947 

reflected the period on which national capital accumulation attempts were on the rise through 

economic liberalism first, and then the activation of Keynesian economic policies in pursuit of 

Great Depression. 1947-1963 was the era referred as the initial phase of golden age of labor 

relations as well as urbanization of capital in Turkey. As for the third sphere of unionism, it began 

with the enactment of second trade union law (No: 274/275) in 1963 and this contained virtually 

twenty years of time span between 1963-1983, so this stage was called as the second phase of 

golden age in labor relations and the urbanization of labor. The developments from 1983, when 

neoliberal flows started to blow in parallel to the globalization period, up till today were the years 

of neoliberalism as well as insecure work (Mahirogullari, 2001: 161-190; Ekin, 1986: 33-51 and 

Wannöffel, 2011: 545-569).        

 

1. 1923-1947 (Attempts for Accumulation of National Capital): Other than some sorts of 

decisions for the modern labor in Izmir Economic Congress in 1923 and the enactment of first 



 

 

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labor law (No: 3006) in 1936, we do not see any labor attack in this period fundamentally on the 

idea of labor organizations. In particular, this period focused on the national capital 

accumulation on account of the fact that Ataturk, the leader of modern Turkish Republic, was on 

the idea that Turkey could not have been an independent state unless economic freedom had been 

activated. Therefore, economic liberalism was adapted in line with the world conjuncture from 

1923 to 1929. But, the Great Depression, that is to say, “Black Thursday” in 1929,  altered Turkish 

economic policies from liberalism to Keynesian economy, and the state intervention to economy 

came to fore. Public economic enterprises were the best instances of this initiative as the 

establishment of market economy, at that time, was unfeasible due to the lack of capital 

accumulation. So as to expatiate an academic standpoint, it can be argued that the keywords of this 

era are Izmir Economic Congress (1936), Liberal Market Policies at first, Great Depression (1929), 

Keynesian Economic Policies as a second, Public Economic Enterprises, First Labor Law (No: 

3006) in 1936 (Makal, 2004: 125-129).    

 

2. 1947-1963 (First Phase of Golden Age of Labor Relations and Urbanization of Capital): 

1947-1963 was the period on which legal seeds of unionism started due to the fact that one party 

hegemony gradually vanished with the foundation of Democrat Party in January 7th, in 1946 and 

Keynesian economic policies came to fore as a reaction to the catastrophe of Great Depression. 

Thus, the phase of 1947-1963 is referred as the first and foremost Golden Age of Labor Relations 

and Urbanization of Capital in parallel to the state intervention to the markets. In 1947, Trade 

Union and Trade Union Association Law (No: 6542) was passed and establishment of the trade 

unions in private sector was legalized but strikes were still prohibited. What’s more, the foundation 

of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions in 1952 (TURK-IS) and the inauguration of Turkish 



 

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Confederation of Employer Associations in 1962 (TISK) presented Turkish labor markets a 

‘confederative’ structuring. Last but not least, acknowledgement of 1961 Constitution (Article 47) 

gave the first strike right to the private sector employees. Therefore, the main keywords of this era 

are the First Trade Union Law in 1947 (No: 6542), multiparty political system, Confederation of 

Turkish Trade Unions (1952), Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations (1962), and 

following 1960 military coup, 1961 Constitution amendments through which first strike right for 

business workers was given (Wannöffel, 2011: 548 and Kocak, 2008: 77-83). 

 

3.1963-1983 (Second Phase of Golden Age of Labor Relations and Urbanization of Labor): 

This period is of great significance for depicting the second timeline of the golden age of labor 

relations and in this era, rural workers initiated to migrate from the rural areas to the urban settings 

and then this is the period of ‘labor urbanization’. Resettlements concerning labor relations still 

kept on between 1963-1983 with the enactment of Second Trade Union and Collective Bargaining 

Law in 1963 (No: 274/275) and the Second Labor Law in 1967 (No: 931). Second Trade Union 

and Collective Bargaining Law enacted in 1967 is structurally different from the prior ones. Unlike 

from the prior one, Second Trade Union and Collective Bargaining Law was passed in two discrete 

documents, that is to say, Trade Union Law and Collective Bargaining Law are separate. As for 

the Second Labor Law, it can be referenced that it is the shortest labor law of post-republican 

period. Apart from individual and collective labor laws, there are some other developments like 

the establishment of Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey in 1967 (DISK), 

Confederation of Nationalist Trade Unions in 1970 (MISK), and also Confederation of HAK-IS 

Trade Unions in 1976 (HAK-IS) (Millen, 1969: 31-35). 

 



 

 

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4. 1983 and Today (Neoliberal Flows and the Problems of Insecure Work): The last stage 

concerning trade unionism in Turkey is the appearance of neoliberalism following Oil Crisis in 

1973. As a matter of fact, neoliberalism in Turkey, as the reorganization of the labor markets based 

upon ‘free enterprises’, arose subsequently January 24 Decisions in 1980. These decisions are the 

formal means to legalize neoliberalism in all the compartments of the economy. With 

neoliberalism taking its strength from the globalization process, state intervention to economy has 

become marginalized and the private initiative has become dominant. In order to be in rivalry with 

their universal equivalents, Turkish private capital owners have weakened the working class in 

terms of wages and the labor rights. So, this era starting from 1983 and to today is defined as the 

one on which neoliberal flows and the problems of insecure work have been prevailing, which is 

also sustained by the deregulation (labor market flexibility), decentralization (losing the 

centralized facet of collective bargaining), and de-unionization (reduction in the number of trade 

unions and their members) process (Yüksel, 2017b: 255-268).  In spite of these drawbacks, there 

are some other reforms concerning trade union or labor laws. As an example, the enactment of 

Third Trade Union and Collective Bargaining Law in 1983 (No: 2821/2822), Constitutional 

Amendments in 1992 that gave government employees to be unionized in theory, but it was not 

activated till 2001 with the enactment of Government Employees Trade Unions and Collective 

Contract Law (No: 4688), Fourth Labor Law in 2003 (No: 4857), and the September 12 

Referendum in 2010 that legalized the collective bargaining of public workers with the state. 

September 12 Referendum did not legitimize the right to strike for government employees. All 

these things pave the way that the keywords of this era are the January 24 Decisions (1983), 

Globalization, Neoliberalism, Deregulation, Deunionization, Decentralization, Third Trade Union 

and Collective Bargaining Law (1983), 1992 Constitutional Regulation, Law of Trade  Union and 



 

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Collective Bargaining for Public Workers (2001), Fourth Labor Law (2003), and September 12, 

Referendum in 2010 (Kocer, 2007: 249-252). 

 

Research Methodology 

Discourse analysis is used as the method of the research. Discourse analysis, as a method 

used frequently in qualitative studies, is defined by Macdonald (2003) as a “system of 

communicative practices that are integrally related to wider social and cultural practices, and 

that help to construct specific frameworks of thinking” (Macdonald, 2003). In a way, discourse 

analysis is something like predicting who is behind the curtains or let’s say reading between the 

lines. This sort of method is utilized in this study so as to pick up trade union, urbanization, and 

labor market oriented issues in the movie as in line with the statement of the Mithun (2018) and 

he utters that “all discourse analysis work shares a focus on extended bodies of speech in its 

communicative context. […] Grammar provides speaker with tools for packaging information. 

And how information is packaged depends on the larger discourse context, the flow of thought 

through time, the communicative and social goals of the speaker, the presumed knowledge state 

of the audience, and more.” (Mithun, 2018: 12).   

Figure 1.  In Blood Money (Diyet), Hacer’s Luddite Initiative to Break up the Factory’s Monster Machine 

which Causes Hasan, Her Husband, to Lose His Arm 

 

 

 

 

Source:https://www.youtube.com (Accessed June 3, 2020) 



 

 

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Case Background: The Film Blood Money (Diyet) 

Blood Money (Diyet) constitutes our study’s case background. It was filmed in 1975. The 

film is closely related to the urbanization of the labor and their struggle for unionism. The first 

scene of the movie is the machines in the factory which displays the reality that it mainly focuses 

on labor markets and the dependent workers. So, it is a labor film that depicts the atmosphere of 

the urban labor markets in 1970s in Turkey. The main problem of the film is the exploitation or 

let’s says the removal of the labor by the employees. There are work assassinations in the plant 

due to antiquated machines and some of the employees are disabled, yet still the employer called 

as Mr. Salim (Salim Bey) shuffles to change the machine and to reorganize the factory in a modern 

way. Mr. Salim’s main concern is, of course, to lose money. Therefore, the factory workers decide 

to unionize but Mr. Salim does his best to disrupt the process. He even deceives the government 

officials by paying bribes to them. However, at the end of the film, it is seen that the great majority 

of the workers are unionized, but this delayed attempt of the workers does not impede another 

work accident, the accident that Hasan loses his arm. To the perspective of the film and the 

statement of Hacer, the wife of Hasan, like “It’s our fault”, it can be clearly argued that the movie 

was shot to assist unionization in Turkish labor markets.  

Figure 2. Shanty Houses in Istanbul Constructed by Earlier Immigrant Labors in Blood Money (Diyet) 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

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Casting  

The main actors of the movie “Blood Money (Diyet)” is Hakan Balamir (as Hasan), Hülya 

Koçyiğit (as Hacer), Erol Taş (as Bilal Usta), Erol Günaydin (as Mevlüt), Günay Güner (as 

Mustafa), and Yaşar Şener (as Muhsin), and Güner Sümer (as Salim), Atuf Kaplan (as the father 

of Salim) (URL 1 2018). The movie was shot from a socialist perspective in 1974 and in terms of 

industrial relations, it portrays the situation of the Turkish labor markets in 1970s. So, a great many 

of the actors like Hasan, Hacer, Bilal Usta, Mevlüt, Mustafa, and Muhsin are factory workers while 

Salim and his father are the employers, which can be interpreted in a way that employee and 

employer relationships are the main agenda of the movie. The movie suggests that employees are 

“disadvantageous” while that is not the case for employers. 

 

Data Collection and Analysis 

This study is built upon a qualitative discourse analysis. The data was analyzed by 

MAXQDA 2018 program which is commonly used for content and discourse analysis as a visual 

and technical tool as well. The interface of MAXQDA software takes after to the WINDOWS and 

basically it has four windows such as “document system”, “system code”, “document browser”, 

and “retrieved segments”. Document system provides the data from textual and pictorial items or 

video assisted sources. System code enables the researcher to write codes and sub codes depending 

upon the way that the document is wished to be analyzed. Document browser is utilized to edit 

and consult the text while retrieved segment is the tool for checking the coded material (Oliveira 

et al., 2015: 76). 

 

 

 



 

 

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Figure 3. Code Matrix Browser Analysis of the Codes (Using MAXQDA) 

 

The film script was put into analysis depending upon three main codes written such as 

“urbanization”, “unionism”, and “labor” which is also in coordination with the theoretical aspect 

of the study. In addition, 14 sub codes for “urbanization” (e.g. penthouse, land, apartment, 

contractor, Istanbul, floor, village, city, furnace, homesickness, roof, door, hometown, and home), 

10 sub codes for “unionism” (e.g. strike, multiply, wage increase, bargaining, unite, humanright, 

collective, daily wage, law, and trade union), and 17 sub codes for “labor” (e.g. laborer, contract, 

weekly wage, farm laborer, order, employee, bread, overtime, compensation, on-the-job, job 

accident, factory, money, Turkish lira, machine, work, and master) were written. In total, 246 

codes were formed all through the text. For these categories, 48 codes for “urbanization”, 73 codes 

for “unionism”, and 125 codes for “labor” were determined accordingly.3 These codes were 

written depending upon the thematic overview of the study. The codes were generally assigned to 

the words, phrases, sentences or paragraphs that overlap with the contextual meaning of the main 

codes (Figure 3). 



 

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Figure 4. Hierarchical Code Sub Code Model for “Urbanization”, “Unionism”, and “Labor” (Using 

MAXQDA) 

According to the hierarchical code sub code model for “urbanization”, “unionism”, and 

“labor” (using MAXQDA), it is illustrated that 48 sub codes for “urbanization”, 73 sub codes for 

“unionism”, and 125 sub codes for “labor” were determined. Most of the sub codes belong to the 

main code of “labor” (n=125). As for second, “unionism” comes to prominence (n=73) and at last 

“urbanization” (n=48) is on the ground. This weighting also functions to the particular issues that 

the film deals with. Then, this means that the main issue of the film is the unionization problem of 

the Turkish labor markets in parallel to the urbanization process in the aftermath of 1963 when the 

labor migration from rural areas to the urban settings acutely commenced. As soon as the labor 

migrants stepped in the cities, they were quite vulnerable and open to exploitation due to their 



 

 

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illiteracies. The landowners of agrarian society are the factory owners in urban districts and they 

dominate the production, so they manipulate the labor and the capital, which is the case for its 

Turkish equivalents (Figure 4).  

Findings 

The thematic content as well as the discourse analysis of the movie Blood Money (Diyet) 

was carried out through document portrait analysis in MAXQDA. Through the document portrait 

analysis, one can comprehend the main context of the study. Here, the main colors like pink ( ), 

orange ( ), and deep red ( ) symbolizes that the movie is basically grounded on three themes like 

“labor”, “unionism”, and “urbanization”. Also, “master” ( ), “trade union” ( ), “work” ( ), 

“factory” ( ), “machine” ( ) are the other colors to portray the general framework of the text. 

Within this framework, Figure 5 demonstrates that the film was made to give particular messages 

to labor markets in regards to employees’ assistance to be unionized which became mandatory 

because of bad working conditions in urban areas and the hegemonic role of the employer who 

hesitated to take initiatives to reform in the factory (Figure 5). 



 

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Figure 5. Document Portrait of the Movie Blood Money (Diyet) (Using MAXQDA) 

 

Looking at the frequency of the core codes for “urbanization”, it can be referenced that there 

are actually 14 sub codes (e.g penthouse, land, apartment, contractor, Istanbul, floor, village, city, 

furnace, homesickness, roof, door, hometown, and home) and 48 categories for the “urbanization” 

itself. The frequency of the sub codes are distributed n=1 (2,08%) for “penthouse”, n=1 (2,08%) for 

“land”, n=1 (2,08%) for “apartment”, n=1 (2,08%) for “contractor”, n=2 (4,17%) for “Istanbul”, 

n=2 (4,17%) for “floor”, n=3 (6,25%) for “village”, n= 3 (6,25%) for “city”, n=3 (6,25%) for 

“furnace”, n=3 (6,25%) for “homesickness”, n=3 (6,25%) for “roof”, n=4 (8,33%) for “door”, n=7 

(14,58%) for “hometown”, and n=14 (29,17%) for “home”. Under “urbanization” main code, the 

most commonly used sub codes is “home” while the least ones are the “penthouse”, “land”, 



 

 

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“apartment”, and “contractor”. These percentages unveil the fact that “home” is the sinequanon to 

symbolize the urbanization process in the film (Table 2). 

Table 2. Frequency of Sub codes for “Urbanization” (Using MAXQDA) 

Sub codes of Urbanization Categories/Codes (n) Frequency (%) 

Penthouse 1 2,08 

Land 1 2,08 

Apartment 1 2,08 

Contractor 1 2,08 

Istanbul 2 4,17 

Floor 2 4,17 

Village 3 6,25 

City 3 6,25 

Furnace 3 6,25 

Homesickness 3 6,25 

Roof 3 6,25 

Door 4 8,33 

Hometown 7 14,58 

Home 14 29,17 

TOTAL 48 100,00 

As for the frequency of the core codes for “unionism”, it can be revealed that there are 

actually 14 sub codes (e.g. strike, multiply, wage increase, bargaining, unite, human right, 

collective, daily wage, law, and trade union), and also 74 categories for the “unionism” itself. The 

frequency of the sub codes are distributed n=1 (1,35%) for “strike”, n=2 (2,70%) for “multiply”, 

n=3 (4,05%) for “wage increase”, n=4 (5,41%) for “bargaining”, n=6 (8,11%) for “unite”, n=6 

(8,11%) for “human right”, n=7 (9,46%) for “collective”, n= 7 (9,46%) for “daily wage”, n=10 

(13,51%) for “law”, and n=28 (37,84%) for “trade union”. Under “unionism” main code, the 

most commonly used sub codes is “trade union” while the least one is the “strike”. These 

proportions pave the way that the film is fundamentally formed on the basis of “trade union” issue, 



 

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which is one of the most problematic areas of Turkish labor markets in 1970s when neoliberal 

breezes flew slowly and the hegemonic power of employer became relatively authoritative (Table 

3). 

Table 3. Frequency of Sub codes for “Unionism” (Using MAXQDA) 

 Sub codes of Unionism  Categories/Codes (n) Frequency (%) 

Strike 1 1,35 

Multiply 2 2,70 

Wage Increase 3 4,05 

Bargaining 4 5,41 

Unite 6 8,11 

Human right 6 8,11 

Collective 7 9,46 

Daily Wage 7 9,46 

Law 10 13,51 

Trade Union 28 37,84 

TOTAL 74 100,00 

 

Concerning the frequency of the core codes for “labor”, it can be referenced that there are 

17 sub codes (e.g. laborer, contract, weekly wage, farm laborer, order, employee, bread, overtime, 

compensation, on-the-job, job accident, factory, money, Turkish lira, machine, work, and master), 

and also 125 categories for the “labor” itself. The frequency of the sub codes are distributed n=1 

(0,80%) for “laborer”, n=1 (0,80%) for “contract”, n=1 (0,80%) for “weekly wage”, n=2 

(1,60%) for “farm laborer”, n=2 (1,60%) for “order”, n=3 (2,40%) for “employee”, n=3 (2,40%) 

for “bread”, n= 3 (2,40%) for “overtime”, n=4 (3,20%) for “compensation”, n=4 (3,20%) for 

“on-the-job”, n=8 (6,40%) for “job accident”, n=10 (8,00%) for “factory”, n=11 (8,80%) for 

“money”, n=11 (8,80%) for “Turkish lira”, n=14 (11,20%) for “machine”, n=15 (12,00%) for 

“work”,  and n=32 (25,604%) for “master”. Under “labor” main code, the most widely utilized 

sub code is “master” while the least ones are the “laborer”, “contract”, and “weekly wage”. 



 

 

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These frequencies bring out in a holistic way that labor relations, and its components such as 

“master”, “work”, “machine”, “factory”, and so on are the basic issues conversed about through 

the film. The film attempts to unionize the labor by means of crashing and questioning the ultimate 

role of employer. The intensity of the categories in the “labor” which is the highest among the 

others, in addition, assists the genuineness that the labor is the ‘core’ of the text (Table 4). 

Table 4. Frequency of Sub codes for “Labor” (Using MAXQDA) 

 Sub codes of Labor Categories/Codes (n) Frequency (%) 

Laborer 1 0,80 

Contract 1 0,80 

Weekly Wage 1 0,80 

Farm Labourer 2 1,60 

Order 2 1,60 

Employee 3 2,40 

Bread 3 2,40 

Overtime 3 2,40 

Compensation 4 3,20 

On-the-job 4 3,20 

Job Accident 8 6,40 

Factory 10 8,00 

Money 11 8,80 

Turkish Lira 11 8,80 

Machine 14 11,20 

Work 15 12,00 

Master 32 25,60 

TOTAL 125 100,00 

Depending upon the discourse analysis for the film script, it can be viewed that “urbanization” 

main code is closely connected with other sub codes. As stated beforehand, these are “penthouse (1 

code)”, “land (1 code)”, “apartment (1 code)”, “contractor (1 code)”, “Istanbul (2 codes)”, “floor 

(2 codes)”, “village (3 codes)”, “city (3 codes)”, “furnace (3 codes)”, “homesickness (3 codes)”, 



 

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“roof (3 codes)”, “door (4 codes)”, “hometown (7 codes)”, and “home (14 codes)”. As witnessed 

from Figure 6 named after code sub code categories model for “urbanization”, it is quite clear that the 

sub code frequently coded under the main code “urbanization” is the code of “home”, which directly 

indicates the fact that “urbanization is home”, or let’s say “it is the collection of homes”. In other 

words, “urbanization is rebuilding new houses for new residents coming from rural areas of the city”. 

To put in another way, Figure 6 covers a strong relationship between the main code of “urbanization” 

and sub code “home” (Figure 6).   

Figure 6. Code Sub Code Categories Model for “Urbanization” (Using MAXQDA) 

 

 

 

 

 

According to Figure 7 called as 

code sub code categories model for 

“Unionism”, it can be demonstrated that “unionism” main code is in close relationship with the 

other sub codes like “strike (1 code)”, “multiply (2 codes)”, “wage increase (3 codes)”, 

“bargaining (4 codes)”, “unite (6 codes)”, “humanright (6 codes)”, “collective (7 codes)”, “daily 

wage (7 codes)”, “law (10 codes)”, and “trade union (28 codes)”. In this figure, sub code 

commonly coded under the main code “unionism” is the code of “trade union”, which gives the 

message that “unionism implies trade unions by multiplying the strength of employees through 

collective action and via the implementation of the union and the labor laws”. Figure 7 gives these 

hints by verifying intense correlation between unionism and trade union as well: “trade unions are 

legal for human right”, “trade unions are the apparatuses for collective action in order to render 



 

 

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the disadvantages employees to advantaged masses within the presence of capital owners” (Figure 

7).   

Figure 7. Code Sub Code Categories Model for “Unionism” (Using MAXQDA) 

 

Moving from Figure 8 called as code sub code categories model for “labor”, it can be 

debated that “labor” main code is in close relationship with the other sub codes such as “laborer 

(1 code)”, “contract (1 code)”, “weekly wage (1 code)”, “farm laborer (2 codes)”, “order (2 

codes)”, “employee (3 codes)”, “bread (3 codes)”, “overtime (3 codes)”, “compensation (4 

codes)”, “on-the-job (4 codes)”, “job accident (8 codes)”, “factory (10 codes)”, “money (11 

codes)”, “Turkish lira (11 codes)”, “machine (14 codes)”, “work (15 codes)”, and “master (32 

codes)” (Figure 8).  

Figure 8. Code Sub Code Categories Model for “Labor” (Using MAXQDA) 



 

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In figure 8, sub codes commonly coded under the main code “labor” are the codes of 

“master”, “work”, and “machine” in a consecutive way which gives the message that “labor 

markets are characterized by labor, work, and machines”. Figure 8 gives these hints by verifying 

intense correlation between labor and master as well: “industrialization prepares the ground for 

machine/factory oriented production and a new class of work called as employee” and 

“industrialization forms particular places for mass production where work life balance is 

problematic due to the employees’ overtime work sustained by employers pressure for high 

profits”, “The only protective shield for these socially, economically, and politically excluded 

group is the union that is a collective voice for all of them”   (Figure 8).   

Table 5. The Most Commonly Used 20 Words in the Film Script (Using MAXQDA) 

Word Word Length Frequency (n) % 

Usta (Master) 4 192 3,58 

Hasan (Employee) 5 122 2,28 

Bilal(Master of Employees) 5 109 2,03 



 

 

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Hacer (Employee) 5 99 1,85 

Salim (Employer) 5 73 1,36 

Mevlüt(Employee, Member of 

Trade Union) 

6 51 0,95 

Bey (Mr.) 3 46 0,86 

Muhsin (Representative of Trade 

Union) 

6 36 0,67 

Hacer’in (Hacer’s, Employee) 8 32 0,60 

Yunus (Hacer’s Father) 5 32 0,60 

Mustafa (Disabled Employee) 7 31 0,58 

Var (available) 3 31 0,58 

Mustafa’nın (Mustafa’s) 11 30 0,56 

Babası (Father) 6 29 0,54 

Iş (Work) 2 29 0,54 

Yok (Unavailable) 3 29 0,54 

Zehra (Mustafa’s Mother) 5 25 0,47 

Gibi (Like) 4 24 0,45 

Bi (A) 2 23 0,43 

Ha (Huh) 2 23 0,43 

 

 The most commonly used 20 words in the film script is distributed 3,58% (n=192) for “Usta 

(master)”; 2,28% (n=122) for “Hasan (Proper Noun, Employee)”; 2,03%  (n=109) for “Bilal 

(Proper Noun, Master of Employees)”; 1,85% (n=99) for “Hacer (Proper Noun, Employee)”; 

1,36% (n=73) “Salim (Proper Noun, Employer)”; 0,95% (n=51) for “Mevlüt (Proper Noun, 

Employee, Member of Trade Union)”; 0,86% (n=46) for “Bey (Mr.)”; 0,67% (n=36) for “Muhsin 

(Proper Noun, Representative of Trade Union)”; 0,60% (n=32) for “Hacer’in (Hacer’s, 

Employee)”; 0,60% (n=32) for “Yunus (Proper Noun, Hacer’s Father)”; 0,58% (n=31) for 

“Mustafa (Proper Noun, Disabled Employee)”; 0,58% (n=31) for “Var (available)”; 0,56% (n=30) 

for “Mustafa’nın (Mustafa’s)”; 0,54% (n=29) for “Babası (Father)”; 0,54% (n=29) for “Iş 



 

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183 

(Work)”; 0,54% (n=29) for “Yok (Unavailable)”; 0,47% (n=25) for “Zehra (Proper Noun, 

Mustafa’s Mother)”; 0,45% (n=24) for “Gibi (Like)”; 0,43% (n=23) for “Bi (A)”; and 0,43% 

(n=23) for “Ha (Huh)” (Table 5). In the text, the most frequently used word is “master” which is 

in line with Table 4 (Frequency of Sub codes for “Labor”) and Figure 8 (Code Sub Code Categories 

Model for “Labor”) (Table 5). 

 

Concluding Remarks 

Based on a particular Turkish labor/unionism themed film called as Blood Money (Diyet), 

this essay has examined the urbanization of Turkish labor and their struggle to find a way for 

unionization. Discourse analysis as a sort of qualitative study was used as a method of the research. 

In the research, the film script of the film named after well beforehand was analyzed through 

MAXQDA 2018 qualitative analysis program. This program has enabled us to create some certain 

codes and sub codes. Three main codes like “urbanization”, “unionism”, and “labor” which is 

also in coordination with the theoretical aspect of the study was composed in the aftermath of 

detailed analysis of the film script. In addition, 14 sub codes for “urbanization” (e.g. penthouse, 

land, apartment, contractor, Istanbul, floor, village, city, furnace, homesickness, roof, door, 

hometown, and home), 10 sub codes for “unionism” (e.g. strike, multiply, wage increase, 

bargaining, unite, human right, collective, daily wage, law, and trade union), and 17 sub codes 

for “labor” (e.g. laborer, contract, weekly wage, farm laborer, order, employee, bread, overtime, 

compensation, on-the-job, job accident, factory, money, Turkish lira, machine, work, and master) 

were formed.   

The unionization of Turkish labor is tough and a fluctuating process because of political 

interventions and economic handicaps. So, Turkish trade unionism is not extremely independent 

from political initiatives as well as economic drawbacks. Political attempts are OK for the 



 

 

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184 

formation of trade unions not only in Turkey, yet still all over the world, since unionism is 

socialism oriented ideology in origin and it is an upheaval against capitalism, therefore, those 

governments, adapting these viewpoints radically or social democrat standings in a way, are quite 

eager to restructure their labor markets in line with the unions. On the other hand, economic crisis 

are the other factors for the establishment of trade unions, which push the policies to change as 

well. As an example, the Great Depression in 1929, Oil Crisis in 1973, and acceleration of 

neoliberalism with globalization in 1980s have caused some ups and downs for trade union 

associations. 

These political and economic turning points in a global manner have left a great impact on 

Turkish labor markets as well. To illustrate, in pre-republican period, socialism as a political action 

has brought about “awakening” in Ottoman labor markets which resulted in the effectuation of 

Ottoman Labor Association (Osmanlı Amele Cemiyeti) in 1894 and Ottoman Strike Law (Tatil-i 

Esgal) in 1908/1909 in spite of restricted number of industrial workers and factories compared to 

the West. In addition, the economic hassles like Black Thursday in 1929 shifted the economic 

policy of Turkish state from liberal to Keynesian one till 1973 Oil Crisis on which neoliberal 

perspectives came to the fore.   

In overall, as a result of the study, it can be debated that labor films actually depict the labor 

formation and unionism (Answer to RQ1), the sine qua non of trade unionism in Turkey are “wage 

increase”, “collective action”, “legal rights of labor”, “strike”, “unite”, and “bargaining” (Answer 

to RQ2), and the movies can be used for labor market studies (Answer to RQ3). Also, the study 

contributes to relevant literature in some specific ways. First and foremost, the sine qua non of 



 

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185 

labor markets like “unionism” and “labor” are put into analysis on the basis of a fundamental film 

which has strengthened the idea that movies can be used as supplementary items for social 

sciences. Second, the study contributes to the relevant literature through its qualitative nature, 

which has been built on MAXQDA 2018. Last but not least, the study underlines and X-rays the 

typical creation of Turkish labor and their professional marketization process. The sole limitation 

of the study is the analysis of a “single” film. For future studies, several Turkish labor films like, 

“Ayrilan Yollar (Departing Ways, 1962), Karanlikta Uyananlar (Those Waking up in the 

Darkness, 1964), Maden (Mine, 1978), Demiryol (Railway, 1980)”, and Cark (Mill, 1987) can be 

examined. 

 

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ENDNOTES 

 
1 Theoretically, socialist realism is defined in various ways such as “the essence of which lies in true, historically concrete reflections of reality, 

taken in its revolutionary development-in the movement of society toward Communism” (Fizer, 1975: 327), “the signifier of a domain 

assembled by force and legitimized by a myth of a modernizing ‘mission civilisatrice’ that was reflected in the reform of the built environment” 

(Castillo, 1997: 33),  “a truthful reflection of life in its entirety: not only of its empirical facts, but also of the ideal, inner links between Life’s 

various phenomena” (Terras, 1979: 445), “requires, first and foremost, an extensive re-examination of its cultural and historical roots” 

(Rogachevskii, 1997: 36), “cultural revolution from 1928 to 1931 […] as it affected literature, theater, cinema, music, and the fine arts and 

have uncovered general trends involving culture as a whole” (Pouncy, 2005: 172). 

2 According to the Akkaya’s (2010) views based upon his analysis on the Ottoman formal documents, there were 28 strikes determined in Istanbul 

in 1908 ranging from bakery workers to the mining ones. For example, Balatkapisi Bakery Workers Strike (17 April 1908), Pasabahce 

Workers Strike (10 May 1908), Rihtim Coal Workers Strike (12 May 1908), Sirket-i Hayriye Hasköy Factory Workers Strike (9 June 1908), 

Reji Workers Strike (10 June 1908), Halic Coal Workers Strike (12 June 1908), Reji Workers Strike (12 June 1908), Harbor Workers Strike 

(12 June 1908), Rihtim Workers Strike (12 June 1908), Rihtim and Harbor Workers Strike (12 June 1908), İstinye Linerdop Cement Workers 

Strike (19 June 1908), Reji Workers Strike (20 June 1908), Coal Workers, Carrying Coals to Ferries, Strike (20 June 1908), Beyoglu Bakery 

Workers Strike (23 June 1908), Pasabahce Workers Strike (24 June 1908), Anatolian Simendifer Workers Strike (26 June 1908), Bakery 

Workers Strike (26 June 1908), Bakery Workers Strike (26/27 June 1908), Istabl-i Amire Workers Strike (27 June 1908), Cooks Strike (28 

June 1908), Anatolian Simendifer Workers Strike (29/30 June 1908), Rumelia Simendifer Workers Strike (30 June 1908), Bakirkoy 

Basimhane Workers Strike (1 July 1908), Rumelia Simendifer Yedikule Factory Workers Strike (1 July 1908), Rihtim Company Strike (3 

July 1908), Kazlicesme Debbaghane Workers Strike (3/4 July 1908), Anatolian Simendifer Workers Strike (13/14 July 1908), and Tramway 

Company Workers Strike (15 July 1908) can be included as the strikes taking place mainly and solely in Istanbul (Akkaya, 2010: 48). To my 

perspective, these strikes possess three characteristics: Ottomans do not have capital accumulations in western standards owing to the fact 

that industrialization is meagre and state oriented (i). Limited industrial initiatives also hampered the crystallization of mass workers (ii). 

These strikes also unveil the fact that Ottoman trade unionism is not institutionalized and organized, rather it is local, sectoral, or regional.    

3 See Figure 4 for Codes and Subcodes of the Study.