- Palestine, Ukraine and Self-Determination
- Labor Buzz
- African Visions of Democracy
- Cuba’s Uncertain Future
- Israeli Left’s Junction
- EP Thompson’s Tradition
- Furious Farmers
- Left Candidate for Euro Commission
- The Cultural Contingent of the Argentinian Resistance
- How Free is Free Trade?
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Palestine, Ukraine and Self-Determination
Frank Hansen / Labour Hub (London)
While much of the left supports a ceasefire and Palestinian self-determination, some are reticent and even opposed to linking this with the struggle of the Ukraine people against oppression. The left needs to unite against the aggression of Putin’s reactionary, kleptocratic regime, which justifies its actions using lies, half-truths and Great Russian chauvinist ideology.
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Labor Buzz
- Guinea France 24 (Paris)
- Belize Bijay Laxmi / BNNBreaking (Hong Kong)
- Czechia IndustriALL Global Union (Geneva)
- Egypt Beesan Kassab / Mada Masr (Cairo)
- South Africa Takudzwa Pongweni / Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
- Germany Kate Connolly / The Guardian (London)
- Nigeria Africanews (Lyon)
- Vietnam Francesco Guarascio / Saltwire (Halifax)
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African Visions of Democracy
Daniel Paget / Africa is a Country (New York)
For many, the question of what democracy means has been a closed one. In academia, it has taken insurgent scholars not least from the Global South to insist that we can re-envisage what democracy is and what is achieved in it. This exercise is taken up not only by scholars, but also through the evolving political thought of democracy activists in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, and elsewhere.
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Cuba’s Uncertain Future
Danny Valdes / The Indypendent (New York)
The blockade has created a situation unique to Cuba in both the way it has worked to strangle the Cuban economy but also in the way it has shaped Cuba by isolating it from foreign capital. Would Cuba be as committed to its vision of socialism had American capital been allowed to wield its influence and create its oligarchs on the island?
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Israeli Left’s Junction
Sally Abed, Yael Berda, Eli Cook and Joshua Leifer / Dissent (New York)
The new Israeli left that we need to build from the ashes has a completely new mission. October 7 has created a historic junction, where the main question will be peace or no peace. I don’t think “peace” is going to be the word, but the next elections are going be on this issue. And it hasn’t been the issue for so many years.
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EP Thompson’s Tradition
Owen Dowling / Tribune (London)
On E.P. Thompson’s centenary, left leaders Jeremy Corbyn, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s Kate Hudson and John McDonnell talk about the author of a foundational classic of radical history-from-below, The Making of the English Working Class (1963). Thompson was also a leading champion and protagonist of popular protest in his own time.
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Left Candidate for Euro Commission
Max Griera / Euractiv (Brussels)
The European Left party elected its President Walter Baier as their candidate to lead the European Commission following the June elections, while pledging to put working classes at the heart of the fight against the climate crisis. Member of the Communist Party of Austria, Baier has been the president of the European Left party since December 2022.
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The Cultural Contingent of the Argentinian Resistance
Daniel Cholakian / NACLA Report (New York)
The resistance of the cultural sector in the streets was overwhelming from the moment the first measures of the new Javier Milei government were announced. This prompted them to join the march as a sector identified with a large banner that read “CULTURE,” something that had never happened in Argentina before.
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What’s Free About Free Trade?
Kate Yoon / Boston Review
Progressives should reject the escalating zero-sum competition with China and instead support remaking the global economy through creating demand in the Global South. The realities of global commerce demand serious thinking about what a liberatory vision of free trade could look like.
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