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The Mayors and the Movements

Eoghan Gilmartin Jacobin
In 2015, a wave of social movements lifted left-wing mayors to power in Spain. Their experience in office shows the importance of linking institutional power to bottom-up mobilization.

Barcelona’s Experiment in Radical Democracy

Masha Gessen The New Yorker
Issues that Barcelona en Comú is tackling come up against limitations set by Catalan and Spanish law. The city lacks authority to regulate housing, although the city has created new affordable housing, has successfully limited the reach of Airbnb...

books

Cursing Cortes

Álvaro Enrigue The New York Review of Books
The simple story of Cortés's evisceration of the the Aztecs is not so simple. In letters to Spain's King Carlos I, justifying morally Mexico’s occupation, Cortés distorted what was in fact a messy and confusing war involving several armies from already competing European nations. His lies linger.

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.

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.

Tidbits - December 28, 2017 - Reader Comments: Poverty in the U.S.; Refugees; Coates and West; Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers; AI Jobs; Russia and Korea; Catalonia and Spain; Chicago and HUAC; and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: Poverty - Running thru the U.S.; Refugees; Ta-Nehisi Coates and Cornel West; Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers; AI Jobs Revolution and nature of work and workers; Russia and Korea; Catalonia and Spain; Portside's New Look; Subversive Involvement: Chicago and HUAC - Tribute to Dr. Quentin Young - Chicago - January 12
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