Asian Style Accumulation Model and Turkey

According to the employment statistics prepared by Turkish Statistics Institution (TÜİK) on June 2010, unemployment rate decreased from 13,5% in the same period last year to 10,5%. According to these data, the number of employed persons increased by 2,324 million since January 2010. After 2nd period GDP rates, these figures caused double-delight among the public. 10,3% growth and 2,5% decrease in unemployment. When we get down to the characteristics of these figures, it can be seen that the situation is a complete disaster for the definition of welfare state and the working class. This is due to the Asian style accumulation model applications that Turkey is being dragged into and is willing to embrace. First of all we can understand this thesis based on the content of parallelism between growth and employment. In other words, the content of Asian style accumulation model, which is also labelled as Asianisation, is characterised with cheap labour and high working hours. Asianisation creates surplus value in production process by a means of a kind of exploitation which requires minimization of costs of employees consolidated its existence in Turkey by the latest growth and employment figures. Although most of it is based on base effect, 10.3% growth and 2.5 increase in employment shows how informalized, unqualified, and disintegrated are these labour markets in this Asianisation environment. In addition, another data can be seen in employment and informal employment reports. Similarly, when we examine employment increases under four headings, namely agriculture, industry, construction and service, according to the indicators compiled from workforce data, agriculture stands out as another example of Asianisation. That is, some 1,120 million of the 2,324 million increase in employment was witnessed in agriculture; this means that 50% of the increase is in agriculture. However, the most important point is in informal employment data. The formal employment in agriculture was 1,2 million between January and June, whereas informal ratio covers 1,045 million of this amount. This means that 87% is informal. To put it more openly, these people are employed without enjoying any kind of social security. This is a good example of how a typical Asian style accumulation model and cheap labour is created. For the sake of producing “surplus value”, exploitation without boundaries is declared by TÜİK as employment data; and public is happy and proud of this increase, which is presented as one of the proofs that the crisis is over; I am lost for words. These data cannot be ornaments; they can only be the proof of how the cost of getting out of the crisis is being funded by workers. The neoliberal process, which began after January 24th decisions, opened the gates for the formation of an Asian style cheap labour army with its economic prescriptions and practices. In addition, an order has been created in which the budget share of education investments decreases, people work for hours for a piece of bread, social security is disintegrated in favour of costs, and huge gaps are created in income distribution, and this process still continues.