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Global Left Midweek — September 2, 2026

High tide of protests worldwide

Rohingya refugees resist repatriation from Bangladesh to Myanmar, citing security concerns. | Yassin Abdumonab/EPA
  1. The Left and Ecology
  2. The International Witchhunt of Palestine Action
  3. Rojava’s Promise
  4. From Bolivia
  5. Fighting Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan
  6. High Tide of Protests Worldwide 
  7. China’s National Question
  8. German Churches Stand Against AfD
  9. Iranian Kurds: Neither Peace Nor Rights
  10. Gramsci and Fascism

The Left and Ecology

Maristella Svampa / Links (Sydney)

We must stop separating “red” and “green” demands, and integrate them into the same struggle and a single paradigm. One of the great challenges of ecosocialism is the elaboration of a new theory of the state consistent with democratic planning, without falling into the mistakes of the past (whether the old European welfare state or Soviet collectivism).

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The International Witchhunt of Palestine Action

Katherine Hearst / Middle East Eye (London)

Washingtons move to designate Palestine Action as a transnational terrorist organisation could place British activists associated with the group at heightened risk of surveillance and being frozen out of the financial system, campaigners warn. In a statement on its website, the US Department of the Treasury announced a slew of sanctions targeting “Violent Far-Left Terrorist Networks”.  

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Rojava’s Promise

Rezgar Akrawi / Z (Woods Hole MA)

On 25 August 2026, Mazloum Abdi announced in Damascus that the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had come to an end and that it was dissolving as an independent military force, along with the dissolution of the Autonomous Administration (Rojava) and of the military and civilian formations attached to it, all of them absorbed into the institutions of the Syrian state.  

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From Bolivia

Rise and Fall of Evo Morales   Pablo Stefanoni / The Ideas Letter (New York)

Political Culture and Socialist Experiments   Marek Hrubec / transform! Europe (Vienna)

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Fighting Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan

Kabous Le Roux / Eyewitness News (Johannesburg)

Afghan human rights defender Horia Mosadiq says women in Afghanistan are drawing inspiration from South Africa's decades-long struggle against apartheid as they fight what they describe as “gender apartheid” under Taliban rule.

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High Tide of Protests Worldwide

Libya   Wessam Al Jurdi / Euronews (Lyon)

Tunisia   / Al Jazeera (Doha)

Mozambique   Tirso Sitoe / Global Voices (The Hague)

Syria   William Christou / The Guardian (London)

West Papua   Susan Price / Green Left (Sydney)

Sweden   / Sweden Herald (Stockholm)

Nepal   Sagar Raj Sharma and Ashika Niraula / The Conversation (Melbourne)

Philippines   Mong Palatino / Global Voices

Bangladesh   / Al Jazeera   

West Bengal   Madhu Sudan Chatterjee / The Wire (New Delhi)

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China’s National Question

Au Loong-yu / Lausan (Hong Kong)

A basic democratic or socialist position on the nation is precisely to avoid prioritizing national unity over the value of democracy and the rights of minority or oppressed peoples. This unity must be based on full consent from the people, and respecting ethnic minorities’ right to self-determination. “National unity” as a sweeping generalization is anything but a genuinely free union of communities. 

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German Churches Stand Against AfD

Christoph Strack / Deutsche Welle (Berlin)

For many months now, warnings about the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is particularly strong in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, have been part of everyday church life. The AfD holds a commanding lead in the polls ahead of the state election on September 6.

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Iranian Kurds: Neither Peace Nor Rights

Diary Marif / Canadian Dimension (Winnipeg)

Kurds in Iran have long demanded a democratic system in which their political and cultural rights are respected. Any peaceful future for the country will have to make room for those demands, rather than reproducing the repression and exclusion that have shaped Kurdish life in Iran for generations.

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Gramsci and Fascism

Alberto Toscano and Mansa Musa / The Real News Network (Baltimore)

Imprisoned by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in 1926, the prison writings of Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci remain essential 100 years later for understanding how fascism, policing, and incarceration function to suppress political dissent and preserve unequal systems of power.