Sungur Savran is editor of the newspaper Isci Mucadelesi (Workers' Struggle) in Turkey. His report captures the sprit of revolt sweeping through Istanbul and other cities in Turkey against the government and its neoliberal "development" schemes--and connects the street protests to three important labor struggles that are already underway or will be shortly--a two-week old strike at Turkish Airlines, a possible metalworkers strike and a June 5 public-sector strike. 

New York, NY (May 29, 2013) - Workers at the Hi-Tek Car Wash & Lube in Queens have made history by voting to ratify the first union contract of any car wash in New York City. The three-year contract caps the workers' 10-month campaign for union representation by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). This is the first car wash contract in the United States anywhere east of Los Angeles.

This Memorial Day, I attended a service for Chris Dennis, a young man I recently met through the anti-fracking movement. A native of Ithaca, the 22-year-old had a close-knit family, many friends in the community and was preparing to move to Chicago after graduating from Cornell. On May 22, Chris disappeared while on a daybreak canoeing excursion. When I first heard, I was certain he would be okay, that he had managed to make his way to shore and would somehow reappear to everyone’s great relief.

In his 1873 afterword to the second German edition of Das Kapital, Karl Marx commented on how the conquest of political power by the bourgeoisie, or capitalist class, had "sounded the knell of scientific bourgeois economy."