It's early doors of course but I think that it's important to begin to open up a discussion on what looks to be a potentially very significant movement. We should have all the usual qualifications about verification of events, the heterogeneous nature of the outbursts, the lack of "direction" and so on. But we shouldn't ignore this widespread movement and wait for everything to be clarified. As internationalists it is important that we become involved in a discussion on events in Turkey from the beginning.

Overt anti-war, anti-militarisation, anti-government  protests, some of them violent, began in some Turkish border towns at least by last October. A few were reported and, knowing the ruthless efficiency of the Turkish state, many were probably not. These have grown in size and scale recently culminating in violent protests in Reyhanli and other areas in mid-May this year. This is not to say that the whole movement is overtly anti-war but the wider and deeper it gets - and it's certainly getting wider geographically -  it will have the potential of becoming a real problem for imperialism - the US State Department and British Foreign Office, with their "interests" in the region, are very aware of this and immediately called on Erdogan to ease up on the repression. But the Turkish bourgeoisie has been more and more playing its own cards so it remains to be seen how it reacts further with repression its favoured response.

There are already strikes by teachers and some hospital workers are dealing only with emergencies and injuries to demonstrators - which are numerous. There is talk from the unions about a "general strike" which is significant in itself. The wildcat strikes in the textile industry last September showed that the working class in Turkey is by no means quiescent and dumb.