On the 31 January 2013 our boss, the Somuncu family, put us on the doorstep. We felt helpless. We were 94 labourers, our 4 months’ salary, seniority and termination was confiscated with fraud by Somuncu family. Some of us just went home, some found new jobs. Our boss had fled with the machines, yarns and the sweaters we had made. They left us with nothing except scrap. We were without a trade-union. Earlier attempts to be union members were suppressed by the pressure of the boss.

But our hands are producing, labourer hands. And we are not hopeless. We started to resist. We started protecting our rights, our labour and honour we’d been working to gain for many years. We were doing our first march, shouting our first slogans. We gained experience. We came out of our small worlds. Our world grew. We learnt solidarity.

Once we realized the Somuncu family was smuggling goods from the factory, we opened a tent in front of the closed factory for watch outs. Then we occupied the factory. The factory was only producing due to our labour, and we was confiscated from what we had earned. We are left 12 labourers resisting after our factory occupy.

Once we occupied the factory we realized that our boss had left us only with the scrap machines. And the main machines that were not possible to move were ripped apart and the motors taken so we could not use them.

We didn’t give up. We repaired the machines. Then we started to produce in the factory we had occupied. Our resistance carried on with many demonstrations until December 2013 when we finalized it. We had won. We managed to gain the scrap machines that we had fixed in the factory by bailiff. But our boss continued to bother us. Our boss Umut Somuncu who had stolen what was ours did anything he could to drag the bailiff period.

When we started our resistance we said we were not hopeless. And we’re still not hopeless.
Our resistance has not stopped, it is still continuing. Only the format, location and conditions have changed. As Kazova labourers we are ready to start producing. We only need MACHINES. We need weaving machines.

The store we opened DİRENKAZOVA-DİH KAZAK VE KÜLTÜR (RESISTKAZOVA- DIH SWEATER AND CULTUR) in January 2014 proved that with solidarity and resistance we can provide the machines. We Kazova workers; come all this way with the people solidarity and hope. We done all this for free whilst monopolies, companies give tens of thousands of pounds to get the job done. Our artists paved the floorboards, labourers drew pictures.
Resistance gave birth to DİRENKAZOVA-DİH KAZAK VE KÜLTÜR and this will remain the same. We preferred the streets rather than the court yards. That’s the moral of our store grounds. Our store is in the streets, the street is in our store.
Our resistance grew international as well. We manufactured the football shirts that were worn on 15 February 2014 by the Cuban Youth National football team playing against Basque national youth team. This is important in two ways, firstly it has proved our friendship and solidarity with Cuba whilst surrounded by American forces.  Secondly we have shown that whilst imperialism doesn’t recognize the national rights of Basque and whilst the Basque people are under invasion, we do recognize the Nation as a country.

We are going to remove imperialism from football where the most intense exploitation of imperialism is. Sport will only serve the public. For this we are going to get in contact with all the teams and players who support anti-imperialism. Zanetti, Maradona, Messi are some of the players we would like to firstly meet. We haven’t forgotten Livorno football team. We are going to stop sport being an area where the imperialists earn money and fib the public.
 
DİREN KAZOVA (RESIST KAZOVA) has never been a mercantile as it was created from resistance. It has carried on been in resistance. We have supported GREIF workers, we helped and preformed first aid to the injured public in Mayday march. We were mourning with the families of those who lost their lives in the Massacre in Soma coal mine. We are going to carry on be there.

How we came here with solidarity, we are now saying; we can obtain the machines we need with solidarity. With the machines we obtain we will make good quality but cheap sweaters. Also the workshop we are going to create will symbolise our resistance and solidarity. We want to be an example, to show that we can work as labourers with our honour and dignity and produce.
We are aiming to provide collective work from the hours we work, our safety at work; our social rights, our learning of cultural activities. This is why we are making an appeal here.

LET’S GET TOGETHER AND PROVIDE THE MACHINES THE KAZOVA WORKERS NEED.

WE ARE AIMING TO CREATE OUR WORKSHIP WITH 10 WEAVER MACHINES THAT COSTS 22.500 EURO’S EACH.

We promised our people whilst resisting. We are going to hold our promise. We are going to produce good quality but cheap sweaters. We are not going to imprison our public with nylon that is cheap and could cause cancer.

We are not going to have a boss. We are going to be the owners of our own work. We are going to direct and produce our own. We are going to CREATE A COOPERATIVE to prevent private property within ourselves.

Born within our resistance DirenKazova – DİH Kazak ve Kültür is our new location.
Our resistance will carry on here from now. We know there will be many obstacles in our path. We will overcome all. We are determined. We are going to win.
We are continuing our path with small winning.  ( 24.05.2014 )

BANK ACCOUNT
KAYA EMİR DÖNMEZ ( KAZOVA WORKER)
ACCOUNT NO: 213 660 302 712 50 01
ZİRAAT BANKASI İSTANBUL- ŞİŞLİ ŞUBESİ / TÜRKİYE
CONTACT NO: 0539 655 62 71