In my part of North London we have a large Turkish and Kurdish community, with a whole host of very visible political and community organisations .
Over the past few years I have had the privilege of working quite closely with one of them. They have unfailingly taken the position of working in a non-sectarian way with any section of the Left - or anyone else come to that - who shares their broad aims when it comes to local campaigns, and they have put their enviable facilities and resources at our disposal.
Very occasionally you get from them just a hint of exasperation at the sometimes pathetic nature of the British Left. Whilst we are arguing about the number of revisionists who can balance on a pinhead, and sometimes struggle to mobilise two men and a dog, they regard any turnout of less than about fifty to a meeting as something of an embarrassment.
And they are quite right. In so many ways their organisation is a microcosm of what a healthy new movement could and should be like in this country - part cultural, part social, part educational, wholly inclusive and none the less wholly political for it.
And I'm writing this because right now I am awe of their mobilisation of solidarity for what is going is Taksim Square. Frankly, they make the rest of us look like we are in a coma.
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Someone - not on the left - sent this link to me from Turkey. I found it very moving, and have sent it to friends, calling it Last Tango in Turkey. If you think it is politically incorrect please delete, as I cannot speak the language. But I can emphasise with a dignified protest which draws attention to the fact that men and women dancing together is likely to be illegal in a future Turkey. I should point out that left/anarchist blogs have not allowed the video. Perhaps it is not 1970s punk music which grandad thought was radical. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEcy-4ZJ_V8&feature=player_embedded
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