148. Today in 1920s Turkey: 30 April 1927 (A Worker’s Paradise: Celebrating May 1, Labor Day)
Türkçe
Yarın Bir Mayıs’dır, baharın ilk gününde bütün işçiler gezecek, eğlenecek, zevk edeceklerdir.English
Tomorrow is One May, on the first day of spring all workers will stroll about, make merry, and enjoy themselves.
Comments:
On the day before Workers’ Day the bi-weekly journal Karagöz ran a full-page illustration in anticipation of the fast-approaching holiday on May 1. Karagöz would have been an especially strong proponent of workers and workers’ rights as the paper was a self-proclaimed “people’s gazette” (halk gazetesi). First established internationally in the 1880s, Workers’ Day (Amele Bayramı, later 1 Mayıs İşçi Bayramı in Turkish) was celebrated unofficially and sporadically during the second constitutional period (İkinci Meşrutiyet) under the Ottomans and in the earliest years of the Republic. The new state was reluctant to wholeheartedly embrace the holiday and lukewarm responses to public celebrations in 1924, 1925, 1926, and 1927 resulted in warnings, arrests, and other deterrents aimed at participants and promoters such as the Society for Elevating Workers (Amele Teali Cemiyeti). In fact, 1927 would be the last year of its “celebration” in Turkey for almost 50 years until 1976 — the year before the infamous and tragic Taksim Square Massacre or Kanlı 1 Mayıs which took place on the Workers’ Day of 1977.
Karagöz’s cover illustration presents a lush, idealized, and dreamy landscape occupied by laborers engaged in leisure activities such as lounging, eating, drinking, conversing, and strolling. This image represents a day off for the working-class man (expressly so, as there are no women in the picture, reflecting the predominantly male workforce of 1920s-Turkey). Of course, this is a day that was earned and thus deserved by the oft neglected and underappreciated worker, without which modern life, civilization, and amenities would be impossible. Today’s issue of Karagöz was published on a Saturday. As such, May 1 fell on a Sunday in 1927. But since Friday was the week’s “holiday” in Turkey until 1935, Sunday of 1927 would have been a full workday, thus the time off would have been savored that much more, especially when spring is in full bloom.
Other sources referenced: Bolat, Bengül Salman. Milli Bayram Olgusu ve Türkiye’de Yapılan Cumhuriyet Bayramı Kutlamaları (1923–1960). Ankara: Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi, 2012. (pp. 45–46)
Originally published at https://steemit.com on May 1, 2018.
