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Germany: Resisting the Nazis on the Shop Floor

Frederik Blauwhof Morning Star
Social deprivation following neoliberal austerity economics have fed the rise of the extreme right – a development which fascist elements in Germany are keen to exploit. The right-wing Afd won 15% of the union vote in the last elections.

Global Left Midweek - August 1, 2018

Portside
Total Shutdown in South Africa; Euro Left and Migration; Activism Under Duterte; Argentina vs IMF; Reproductive Rights Victories; Young Activists Go Electoral

As Trump consolidates his power, the history of 1930s Germany repeats itself

Sasha Abramsky The Sacramento Bee
I have been reading about what follows when institutions that are supposed to moderate extremist, demagogic leaders default in their role. And how easily those institutions are swept aside, at best complicit in their own irrelevance, at worst full partners in the brazen agenda of the demagogue.

Germany’s 28-Hour Workweek

Klaus Dorre, Loren Balhorn Jacobin
Jacobin’s Loren Balhorn sat down with German labor sociologist Klaus Dörre to find out more about the strike, what the workers really gained, and what it might say about the German labor movement’s future.

Why Europe's Center-Left Keeps Losing Elections

Conn Hallinan Foreign Policy in Focus
Voters can't tell the difference between the center left and the center right, and they don't want either. As the center-left accommodated itself to capital, it eroded its trade union base. Where center-left parties embraced unabashedly progressive policies, on the other hand, voters supported them

What Happened to Europe’s Left?

Jan Rovny The London School of Economics and Political Science Blog
Only a handful of European states are currently governed by left-wing governments, and several of the traditionally largest left-wing parties, such as the Socialist Party in France, have experienced substantial drops in support. Jan Rovny argues that while many commentators have linked the left’s decline to the late-2000s financial crisis, the weakening of Europe’s left reflects deep structural and technological changes that have reshaped European society, leaving left-wing parties out in the cold.

As Germany Honors Those Who Fought Fascism, We Must Honor Those Who Fought White Supremacy

David Bacon Truthout
Graves form part of a collective memory of socialism. They force an acknowledgement of the ideas those revolutionaries died to defend. Fascism's armies sought to bury those ideas forever, along with the people who held them, in the Nazis' "thousand-year Reich." Learning lessons from Germany for our struggle against those that fought against racism, slavery, the Confederacy and white supremacy.

A Subversive Bull: Robert Lawson and The Story of Ferdinand

Philip Kennedy Illustration Chronicles
Published by Viking Press in 1936, the release of Ferdinand came during the era of the Great Depression. That year also saw the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. In light of these events, Ferdinand started to take on a much greater significance. Ferdinand, the bull presented a Spanish character who stood out from society and refused to fight. Those who supported the violent uprising that was led by Francisco Franco viewed it as pacifist propaganda and they banned its publication.

Crisis In Germany?

Victor Grossman Portside
The impasse in forming a government in Germany has dragged on since election day, September 24th – often like a traffic gridlock, hardly moving forward. But Germany is Europe’s main central power – and with no proper government! Angela Merkel still acts as boss, the old ruling cabinet holds on as caretakers, but it’s all on borrowed time, with no legitimacy.
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