Researcher Ulus Atayurt: Organising the consumption of the working people

Yusuf Tuna KOÇ

The 2 April boycott, in which millions of people suspended consumption for a day, brought different forms of solidarity economy, from bartering to solidarity kitchens, as alternatives to capitalism back to the agenda. We talked to researcher Ulus Atayurt about examples of co-operative networks, solidarity economies and counter-markets from around the world.

On 2 April, an economic boycott took place across Turkey. In the process of organising the boycott, forms of solidarity economy such as barter markets and solidarity kiosks emerged spontaneously. What do you think about what the boycott can contribute to the struggle as a form of action?

In every era, even under the greatest oppression, solidarity economies have emerged as a form of organisation for the people. For example, during the dictatorship in Uruguay, solidarity kitchens were first established by women in neighbourhoods which later evolved into housing cooperatives based on collective ownership. This is where the most important organisations emerged in the overthrow of the dictatorship. The same applies for Argentina. The law of the solidarity economy was written in 1844 in Manchester by people living in the most difficult conditions. During the Franco era, the world's largest co-operative solidarity network was established by five workers. These are very valuable experiences. It is necessary to have a discussion on how these have been achieved in the world, but it is also necessary to think about how they can be sustained, how they can be turned into a counter-markets. Every kind of barter venues and solidarity kitchen is valuable, but we need a perspective on how historical examples can be applied in Turkey.

Let’s take courier employment as an example. In recent years, it has been one of the fastest growing sectors of employment in Turkey. There are solidarity co-operatives for software developers from Argentina to Denmark. These organisations provide services to others; therefore, when you consider both the software developing and courier resources in Turkey, it is not a huge task to co-operate all of them.

POSSIBILITIES OF ESTABLISHING A COUNTER MARKET

It is necessary to think about how to organise the continuity of solidarity networks. Returning to Turkey again, compared to our generation, students today are in a precariat situation. Time banking, which is not very common in our country, is actually a very suitable model for this situation. Therefore, it is useful to think about how to organise for the long term under these conditions. Exchange experiences are very beneficial, they strengthen the psychology of solidarity. However, we should also think about how a counter-market can be established in the long run.

The field we call solidarity economies is very extensive. In Barcelona, the Indignados movement was born two years before Gezi, and it was too formed by a vulnerable generation. It generated many different organisations, for example, architecture cooperatives, engineering cooperatives… A co-operative that started with 9 architects has today become a network where 60% of them can do business outside the market. We need to be able to imagine things that seem impossible and adapt them to the conditions in Turkey. Both in the global south and the global north, more than 6 thousand alternative currencies were used during the worst crisis conditions between 2008 and 2012. Networks said ‘I don't use the dollar anymore’ were formed and they were spontaneous movements. What was good about them was that they genuinely helped to strengthen the local economy. Their weakness was that most of them faded away when the uprising was over. Therefore, we need to think about which regions can be our reference points that we think will not be faded out, which classes, organisations and segments can be involved. Recently, the greatest gains have come from organised trade unions, such as those of mine workers. In the first stage, it is necessary to think about how such unions can be included in a solidarity economy. In the second, we need to think about how students and the working class can come together.

IMPORTANCE OF CO-OPERATIVE NETWORKS

What do you think about the consciousness that has emerged with the boycott against the capitalist networks that extend to all aspects of life?

There are valuable initiatives that have brought these networks into being, but we must now think about how they can be transformed into a counter-market. Of course, not by seeking perfection, but by small steps. For example, a courier co-operative is a very feasible form, that could be realized with an application software and good organisation. Therefore, we should look at where we can target the gaps in the market.

When we look at the history of Barcelona, Franco's fascism brought organisations to a zero point, but small cooperatives were able to form and now 10% of the economy is in the hands of cooperatives. They have really developed into structures and networks that apply co-operative principles. For example, if you want to establish a courier co-operative, there is a co-operative of software developers that will make your application, there is a co-operative that will repair your motorbike, there is a co-operative that will make your designs. This may not be something we can talk about right now, but we need to put the vision here, we need to look at examples of how a counter-market can be organised based on the data we already have. At one point in Bologna, the counter economy was equivalent to 40% of the total economy, but it has its own historical reality, and we can start by looking at our own historical reality.

For example, the time bank would be very suitable for our student population. A time bank means, let's say you offer 3-4 hours of your week to another solidarity organisation, this could be a construction workers' association or an architectural cooperative. In return, you support each other. Students should think about how we can turn to an alternative market in the future, especially in the horizons of the fields they are studying. I think this can only emerge from the very sites where the current momentum is taking shape.

ORGANISING THE CONSUMPTION OF THE WORKING PEOPLE

One of the most important motivations for taking to the streets is the economic crisis. How can this outrage be taken out of a hopeless situation and organised into an alternative?

It is necessary to discuss what each field of struggle for rights can do with medium-term goals, looking at examples from the Marxist tradition around the world. For example, the right to housing has been lost in Turkey. What can we do for the right to housing? There are many examples from South Africa to Toronto based on collective ownership. How can one of these examples be realised in a particular region? A worker organised in an industrial zone, a municipality willing to support it, and a shared fund could come together to establish cooperative models not based on ownership or the capitalist market but on the right to use—models where both workers and students can live. Establishing a consumer co-operative based on solidarity...

While thinking about these, we must also avoid paralysing our capacity for action in the name of being anti-capitalist. Therefore, practical efforts that aim organising the consumption of the working classes can also be linked with students. In the past, there were İstanbul neighbourhood association platforms. They brought together working-class neighbourhoods from Tuzla to Büyükçekmece. They wanted to defend the land rights remaining from the gecekondu (squatter settlements) period. Today, however, the young people living on the outskirts of these neighbourhoods have no connection with them—yet both groups are suffering from the housing crisis in different ways. So we need to think, in the long term, about how and under what conditions these two groups can be brought together.

Note: This text has been translated from the original Turkish version titled Araştırmacı Ulus Atayurt: Emekçilerin tüketimini örgütleyebilmek, published in BirGün newspaper on April 6, 2025.