A Turkish choir singing “Do You Hear the People Sing?” (also sometimes called “The People’s Song”) from Les Miserables.  I couldn’t help getting choked up when they began to sing in Turkish.

Of course, this employers decision to raise workers’ wages has nothing to do at all with the strikes–nothing.

Parker and Moorhouse said their decision to pay higher than average was a practical decision, not one based on current events….

“We did this because, in our mind, it was the right thing to do,” said Moorhouse, a sales and marketing consultant. “This is a too hard of a job to pay minimum wage. So far, we haven’t lost any employees and we sleep well at night knowing that.”

It’s interesting that the article, nevertheless, felt the need to clarify that this has nothing to do with the strikes at all.  Regardless, this is a positive development, in my opinion, in so far as it legitimizes–to some degree–the demands of low wage workers for a higher wage.  I hope this doesn’t have the effect, however, of tempering the movement’s demands for a $15 an hour wage and union recognition.  Likewise, I hope the movement doesn’t begin to look toward employers for a solution, and continue to rely upon workers power and the strike to win their demands.  I don’t see any reason yet to suspect this will happen, but the potential for this tendency to arise once the bosses start to make concessions always exists, and needs to be consciously countered.

Fight for fifteen and a union, and nothing less!

If you’re interested in this topic, I’ll also be speaking on a Marxist critique of prefigurative politics at this summer’s annual Socialism 2013 conference. Register today!