Well-Being of the Political Activists in Turkey and Organizational Empowerment

Political Well-Being Working Group carried out by the Association of Equity Studies in Turkey published a new report titled “Well-being of the Political Activists in Turkey and Organizational Empowerment.”

Political Well-Being Working Group carried out by the Association of Equity Studies in Turkey published a new report titled “Well-being of the Political Activists in Turkey and Organizational Empowerment.”

The main body of the report consists of sections that evaluate the impact of the political and economic conditions on the activists, personal/organizational empowerment of the activists and the individual or
collective solutions to the problems they come up with in relations in organizations.

Besides other issues, problems related to moralism and sexism are also included in their specific contexts both in the part where the political and economic effects are discussed and in the part where the well-being of activists and their inter-organizational relations are discussed.

The main results of the report are as follows:

• 82% of the activists state that polarization in the country negatively affects them and their activism and 65% of them state that they have to carry out political activities by risking their social relations at various levels. Despite the negative atmosphere created in Turkey by polarization, the activists think that they are individually producing an effect for the struggle they are involved in.
• The percentage of those among the activists who think that the social movement they are a member of is able to follow a policy which is at least partially influential for finding solutions to political problems in Turkey is also quite high.
• More than 80 percent of the activists that researchers have met are working, however the number of those who are able to work in a secure job is limited to half of them. This statistic is very important since it shows that almost half of the activists who are in a fragile position due to their political activities are under precarious working conditions. Again one third of the activists are having problems concerning their working periods due to their positions within the social struggle.
• Moralism and sexism which are getting stronger and more widespread in social life along with the authorization are among the factors that put the most pressure on the well-being of the activists other than the political and economic conditions. There are especially personal strategies used in order to cope with these issues. Options that lead to distancing from the society are preferred among prevalent personal responses such as continuing to be oneself, reading and avoiding dealing with sexist people. On the organizational level were listed influencing policy makers, workshops and studies carried out within associations in order to correct the language used.
• Concerning the psychological problems the activists are facing, the most frequent were the problems pandemic caused and especially the feeling of loneliness they had to cope with in this period. They have to struggle with feelings such as anger and hopelessness, depression and pessimism very frequently. They are citing the year 2015 as a milestone concerning the intensification of negative feelings, in parallel with the recent history of Turkey and development of authorization.
• Almost two thirds of the activists express that they are suffering from putting on or loosing weight, dysmnesia or unhealthy nutrition. It is observed that following the political agenda and thus being subject to the results of the authorization did harm to the mental well-being of the activists.
• An overwhelming majority of the activists are thinking that the political parties were still significant institutions for solving the problems of the country but that they were not successful in fulfilling this function. 30 percent of them are a member of a political party at the moment, this is striking in terms of showing that trust in current political parties is low.

The report concludes by emphasizing that hope for activists is a principle that is still preserved, that in fact continues to exist independent from any concrete expectations:

“It brings along with it the feeling that there are still things that can be done, that one should not be beyond caring other people. This is in clear contradiction with the desperation, the exhaustion and the search for individualization that we observed in many samples. So we have drawn the conclusion that this contradiction may constitute a starting point for regermination under post-fascism conditions and for re organizing the organizations in a way to vivify the well-being of the persons in physical, mental and psychological terms. In this sense, the fact that the activists envision being organized associating it with hope, despite all macro conditions and despite the criticism they have towards the functioning of organizations, is itself encouraging for the future, for well-being, positive feelings such as solidarity, being/acting/learning together, getting stronger, not feeling alone, feeling oneself as serving a purpose, developing goals, being able to make a change, sharing and knowing that one is working for the benefit of society continue to be experienced thanks to such hope.”

You can read the full summary of the report here.