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TWO new trials have just started before. the Military Court in Istanbul. The death penalty has been demanded against ten trade unionists and senior members of democratic associations. Others risk a punishment of fifteen years in prison.

Six members of the Executive Committee of the DISK labour confederation are being prosecuted for having upheld "Marxist-Leninist" ideas - e.g. unifying the Turkish trade union movement.

The defendants are Sukru Ozbayrak, Frol Yalgın, Mustafa Cengiz Acar, Ali Ozarkaloglu, Sabahattin Topuz and Cetin Uygur, chairman of the Miners Teoman_Ozturk, chairman of the Union of Turkish Architects and Engineers, Ethem Erhan Taneri, chairman of the Federation of Social-Democratic Associations, Ercan Eyupoglu, secretary general of the Association of White Collar Workers, and Senator Ahmet Tildiz, chairman of the People's Cultural Organisation (an institution set up by Ataturk), are accused of trying to change the constitution by force.

Former senior officers of DISK, who were responsible for managing the various departments of the confederation Yucel Yaman, Gunaydin Erdogmus, Argun Muceldili, , Mete Sonmez, Faruk Pekin, Ibrahim Sadun Aren, Zafer Kutlu and Mehmet Erhan Gomuo face similar charges.

Many others are being tried in their absence.

The second trial is aimed against the printers' trade union, BASIN-IS, the chairman of which, Burhan Sahin, is being tried in his absence at the trial of the 52 major DISK leaders. (He has been given asylum in Sweden). Many defendants are still to be brought to trial.

Punishments of between 1l and 20 years in prison have been demanded. for them. And the military prosecutor is calling for the final dissolution of this trade IN 1959 a shop steward belonging to DATA (now TASS) was sacked by the British Oxygen Company for his refusal to give up being a steward. He decided to return to the country of his birth, South Africa, and join the struggle there for democracy and an end to apartheid.

In 1964 he was committed to trial with several others for 'sabotage', 'terrorism' and 'communism'. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and is now in an example of the many ways in which the British authorities work hand in glove with their South African counterparts. Their common purpose, he said, stemmed from their mutual need to preserve the profits of British investment in South Africa, whatever the consequences for black workers there or British workers here.

Representatives from several unions and from the Labour Party have attended the picket (NUJ, TASS, Reg Race, etc). It shows again "I SEE 1983 as being just as tough as 1982' 'We are operating on the assumption that there will be no upturn next year" "We had a false spring. If things don't improve, we shall have to reduce capacity further"

When bosses surveyed by the Financial Times read their order books this way, then the prospect for the working class is that the dole queues will cont-

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