30. Assemblies Emerging in Turkey: A Lesson in Democracy

Something quite amazing happened in Turkey during the months of May to September 2013. In addition to the silent “standing man” actions around the country, people’s assemblies emerged in different neighborhoods across the city. As in Spain, Greece and the Occupy encampments before, the protesters in Turkey counter-posed their own form of direct democracy to the shame of a democracy proposed by Erdogan’s authoritarian neoliberal state. If there was ever any doubt, this shows how deeply intertwined the global struggles truly are.