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Global Left Midweek – Winter of Discontent

Reports on mass workers action in France, Italy and UK, and a hard look at the politics of climate rescue

Protesters in Reims, northeastern France on March 7, 2023. Credit, Francois Nascimbeni/AFP/Getty Images
  1. France General Strike
  2. Italy: Signs of Life 
  3. UK: Defending National Health
  4. Swaziland Communist Escapes Captivity
  5. Australia: Greens, Labor Party for a Four-Day Work Week
  6. Voices of Left Leaders in South America
  7. Anti-Netanyahu Upsurge in Israel
  8. Czech Workers vs South Korean Capital
  9. Unified Left Slates for Labour Party Elections
  10. Can the World Save the World?

 

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France: General Strike Continues

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Now Italy

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UK: Defending National Health

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Swaziland Communist Escapes Captivity

Pavan Kulkarni / Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)

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Mvuselelo Mkhabela narrated how he escaped from the police and made it to safety with the help of his comrades, following hours of torture, after being shot by the King’s police while leading a pro-democracy protest.

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Australia: Greens, Labor Party Support Four-Day Work Week

Paul Karp / The Guardian (London)

Australia should try out a four-day work week at full pay and more than double paid parental leave to 52 weeks, according to recommendations backed by Labor and Greens senators. The Senate work and care committee called for a suite of policies that would radically adjust work-life balance, to make more time for caring responsibilities and boost quality of life.

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Voices of Left Leaders in South America

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Anti-Netanyahu Upsurge While IDF and Settlers Spread Terror

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Czech Workers vs South Korean Capital

Veronika Sušová-Salminen / Cross-Border Talks (Warsaw)

After a week-long strike, the Czech KOVO trade union and the management of the South Korean company Nexen Tire, with mediation from the Czech ministry of social affairs and labour and the South Korean embassy in Prague, came to terms on an 8% increase in wages for local workers. However, the agreement is a compromise, and the end of the strike is conditional.

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UK: Unified Left Slates for Labour Party Elections

Labour Hub (London)

Momentum and other organisations in the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance have today announced unified slates for internal elections in the Labour Party this year. Following a Starmer-backed rule change to move away from one-member one-vote (OMOV) elections as part of a wider attack on member democracy, Labour Conference 2023 will be the body to decide on crucial elections.

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Can the World Save the World?

John Feffer / Foreign Policy in Focus (Washington DC)

Transforming the current system of global governance around climate, energy, and economic development is like trying to repairing an ocean liner that has sprung multiple leaks in the middle of its voyage with no land in sight. But there’s an additional twist: all the crew members have to agree on the proposed fixes.