From England to Zonguldak, the miners' struggle on the big screen
The Zonguldak Exhibition Room is organizing a program for the 40th anniversary of the UK coal workers' strike and the 34th anniversary of the Zonguldak Coal Basin mine workers' strike.
Şeyma Akcan Evrensel
Zonguldak Exhibition Room draws to a close, the new program has been announced. On December 10, 'Onur', which brings to the screen the festive solidarity of the 84/85 long strike of coal workers in England, met with the audience. On December 12, Yılmaz Güney's 'Umut' from the '70s, on December 14, 'The Last Beach' about the construction process of the Black Sea coastal road and 'The Last Horseman' about the photojournalist and journalist Ergin Konuksever who was lost two years ago, and 'Amarcord' (Fellini) on December 17 will be screened.
The 'Zonguldak Coal Basin Miners' photography exhibition, consisting of 60 photographs by Ahmet Tokyay, Alaaddin Kara and İbrahim Akyürek, will continue to accompany the events.
The events, which started on November 12, were prepared for the 40th anniversary of the 84/85 long strike of the British coal workers and the 34th anniversary of the 90/91 long strike of the Zonguldak Coal Basin miners.
IN MEMORY OF İRFAN YALÇIN AND NEDİM GÜNSÜR…
The Photography/Film Week, which spanned two months, was dedicated to the memory of coal workers’ Writer İrfan Yalçın and Painter Nedim Günsür, who is remembered as a friend of mine workers.
İbrahim Akyürek, with whom we spoke about the events, explained the scope of the program:
“November 30, 1990 is the start date of the Great Miners’ Strike. In other words, 34 years have passed. It is also the 40th anniversary of the 84/85 long strike of British (UK) coal workers. For this reason, exhibitions were opened and poetry readings were held throughout the year in a mining museum in England. It would also be beneficial to remember two separate periods of struggle together, and to get to know the political mindset that carried out privatizations and closed down mines in two separate countries.”
Regarding the “Exhibition Room” that organized the program, Akyürek said, “Zonguldak is turning 25 in its cultural environment. It shares its program and environment with cultural circles. “We have prepared events spread over the months of November and December under the title of Photography/Film Week to commemorate the strikes of coal workers in Turkey and Britain through films and photographs,” he said.
'THERE WORKERS' CINEMAS'
Akyürek, who stated that the participants were retirees, teachers, and people from the art community, said, “The most important thing is that there are few but active people who also have productions in their own fields of interest. An event last month was Alaaddin Kara's narration on Zonguldak Cinemas. Every coal production region in our city had workers' cinemas. We can also list many private indoor and outdoor cinemas. The talk was attended much more than we expected. Machinists and audiences from the period shared their memories. Alaaddin is both a retired mining technician and a veteran who turned the underground where he worked into a photography exhibition. He is also a researcher who has a book called A Handful of Coal.”
‘OUR POLITICAL EXECUTIVE WAS ÖZAL , THEIRS WERE THATCHER ’
Reminding that Zonguldak was a city of emigration, Akyürek said about the commemoration of the labor struggle in England and Turkey together, “There are those who go to Bursa, İzmit, Çorum and Soma to make a living with their long years of production knowledge. There are those who settle in other cities as retirees. This is why it is important to keep the struggle-solidarity memories of the strikes and marches alive and pass them on. We know from what happened in Britain that privatization and closure practices do not only belong to us. Our political executive was Turgut Özal, theirs was Margaret Thatcher. Both enemies of labor who were in mutual solidarity had to be commemorated together. While creating the program, we wanted to include the saying, ‘Labor is the highest value’, which was always on everyone’s lips. Thus; The Taxpayer, Five-Penny Canlar, Social Life in Santral, A Handful of Brave People documentaries; Billy Elliot the Musical, Miracle of Milan, Metropolis from 1927 and Yılmaz Güney's Hope film came together on the same screen," he said. Akyürek said , "Within six years of each other, coal miners in Britain and Turkey experienced similar struggles and solidarity. Examples of what they experienced reflected in art could have been shared in every country at the same time," and talked about his unfulfilled dreams.
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