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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

The Strike Against Fear

David Broder Jacobin
On this day in 1943, a strike in Italy’s FIAT company marked the beginning of the end for Mussolini.

John Oliver | Italian Elections

 
Italy is in the throes of a turbulent race to elect a new prime minister. John Oliver discusses the colorful contenders and introduces an equally ridiculous candidate.

What Happened to Europe’s Left?

Jan Rovny LSE 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.

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Saggio da San Frediano # 8 – Lost in Translation – Strike at Amazon in Italia

Peter Olney The Stansbury Forum
Amazon has become a symbol of the new economy in Italy and the unions are determined to make these new workplaces, union fortresses. While Italian labor law has many advantages compared to our own, patient worker based organizing remains the fundamental building block of organizing.

Donna Leon: Why I Became an Eco-detective Writer

Susanna Rustin The Guardian
On the 25th anniversary of her first crime novel, the Commissario Brunetti author reveals how she is responding to dark times "I'm interested in why people do things. Crime in itself isn't interesting, it's just horrible. The convolutions of greed are more interesting intellectually than passion, because with passion the name is the answer. What happens once you open the door to temptation and to possibility, that's what fascinates me - how people worsen."

These Are the Elections That Will Decide Europe's Fate

Conn Hallinan Foreign Policy in Focus
While France teeters on the brink of the far right, left parties elsewhere are showing surprising strength. Predicting election outcomes is tricky these days, the Brexit and the election of Donald Trump being cases in point. The most volatile of the upcoming ballots are in France and Italy. Germany's will certainly be important, but even if Merkel survives, the center-right will be much diminished and the left stronger. And that will have EU-wide implications.

Enforcement is Not the Answer to Europe's Migrant Crisis

David Bacon The Reality Check
The migrant crisis in the Mediterranean has captured the global spotlight. The EU response has focused on enforcement and a crackdown on traffickers. Some European political leaders propose using their navies to stop boats, returning the refuge-seekers to their points of origin, and then sinking the craft. This enforcement-based approach ignores the primary drives of migration but also jeopardizes millions of people who are seeking refuge from repressive regimes.

The Wretched of the Sea: An Algerian Perspective

Hamza Hamouchene Middle East Eye
In Algeria, as elsewhere in Africa, economic neglect and despair at corrupt authoritarian regimes compels the continent's young people to risk death to escape to Europe.Due to the restrictions on freedom of expression and association and also because of the lack of space of entertainment, art and creativity, young people feel suffocated, humiliated, without dignity - foreigners in their own country and the only horizon they can see is the one beyond the sea.
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