As the economic crisis deepens in Turkey, 1 May Worker's Day is met with a series of problmes such as labout exploitation, low wages and precarious working conditions. While all segments of society are experiencing these problems deeply, especially young women and students are facing a lack of future. According to a 2023 United Nations (UN) research report, the rate of men in the 18-29 age group in Turkey who are not in education and employment is 24.4 percent, while this rate is 50.5 percent for women. 

 

In the same survey, the most prominent reasons for young women not continuing their education were "education being costly for the family", "responsibility for housework" and "family's disapproval", while the most prominent reasons for young women not continuing their working life were "low wages", "employer not providing insurance" and "responsibility for housework".

 

'WE ORGANISE FOR FREEDOM'

 

Gunes Aksahin, General Respresentative of the Federation of Young Feminists, emphasised that one of the most important agendas on the way to May Day is to oppose the family-oriented policies of the government and said, "Young women come together mostly because they raies the idea of freedom, fight for this idea, organise and come together. In order to break this, the government is trying to imprison young women in the family. And it does this in two ways; the first is family-oriented policies and the second is the economic crisis."

 

Expressing that they will go to May Day with the slogan "Free education, free future, democracy for all", Gunes Aksahin stated that free education is related to the struggle for freedom. "We will surely remove the current government, democratise Turkey and build a country where women are not subjected to inequality and gender equality is achieved through our struggle," she added. 

 

In the days approaching May Day, Zeynep Tekin, member of the Central Coordination of Free Young Women (ÖGK), stated that it was important that the movement on the streets and the spontaneous development of this movement was important and that young women took to the streets as a result of their discomfort with this order. Zeynep Tekin said, "Today, there is a reality where we actually combine the power of solidarity with the power of resistance and call young people, women, queers and workers to Taksim, the real site of May Day, and we make this call with the power we get from street movements."

 

 MA / Yeşim Tükel