Global Left Midweek – July 2, 2025
- International Forum for Peace 2025
- A Communist Leads Chilean Left’s Presidential Bid
- The Struggle Against Autocracy in Asia
- Euro Parties
- Togo Youth Protest Forever President
- Mass Strikes in Panama
- Budapest Pride Defies Orban
- Baloch Insurgents vs Pakistan’s State
- Venezuela in Transition
- Can the Global South Stop Genocide?
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International Forum for Peace 2025
European Left (Brussels)
As global conflicts intensify—from Gaza to Ukraine, from the Congo to Yemen—the call for peace is more urgent than ever. In response, more than 50 delegations from around the world convened in Brussels for the International Forum for Peace 2025. Taking place just days before the NATO Summit in The Hague, the Forum served as a powerful counterpoint to rising militarisation.
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A Communist Leads Chilean Left’s Presidential Bid
Nicolás Saldías / Americas Quarterly (New York)
Jeannette Jara of the Partido Comunista de Chile was chosen as the presidential candidate of the left-wing Unidad por Chile (UC) coalition on June 29. While Chile is known for its tradition of moderate politics, Jara’s primary win and the emergence of hard-right candidates point to a more polarized run-up to the first-round vote on November 16.
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The Struggle Against Autocracy in Asia
Ross Perlin / Dissent (New York)
Young Asian activists in the early twenty-first century are using milk tea to talk about democracy and human rights. According to a sharp new report, The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia’s Struggle Against Autocracy and Beijing, the drink has become a regional symbol of solidarity shared by very different but nonetheless kindred movements.
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Euro Parties
• La France Insoumise MEP’s IDF Ordeal Filippo Ortona / il manifesto Global (Rome)
• Portugal’s Democratic Twilight Francisco Louçã / Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (Paris)
• Danish Red Green Alliance EP Report Per Clausen / Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
• Ukraine’s Sotsialnyi Rukh on Fighting Fascism Oleksandr Kyselov / Соціальний рух (Kyiv)
• Dutch Groups Talking Merger Casper Kouters / Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
• Potere al Popolo Infiltrated By Italian Police Ana Vračar / Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)
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Togo Youth Protest Forever President
Sertan Sanderson / Deutsche Welle (Berlin)
The “Hands Off My Constitution” coalition of civic groups and opposition leaders in Togo has called for further protests to oppose what it has referred to as a “constitutional coup.” Since independence from France, the country has been marked by single-party rule and a personality cult for the leader.
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Mass Strikes in Panama
Octavio García Soto / Jacobin (Brooklyn)
In a country with little left-wing politics, Panama’s nearly two-month-long strike movement has shown the power of organized labor. The government has responded with repression, acting as a rearguard for multinationals like Chiquita.
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Budapest Pride Defies Orban
Nick Thorpe / BBC (London)
Between 100,000 and 200,000 mostly young people danced and sang their way from Pest to Buda. A distance that usually takes only 20 minutes on foot stretched to three hours. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ban spurred many to attend an event they usually stay away from. Last year, just 35,000 took part. It was a peaceful revenge by those he has declared war on during his past 15 years in power.
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Baloch Insurgents vs Pakistan’s State
Roshaan Khattak and Thomas Jeffrey Milley / Red Pepper (London)
There is a war raging in Balochistan, with a spiral of violence that features appalling state terror, thousands of enforced disappearances and ongoing guerrilla warfare. While Balochistan is not a classical colony under an external European empire, many Baloch nationalists view their relationship with Islamabad as comparable to an internal colonial arrangement.
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Venezuela in Transition
John Brown and Atenea Jiménez / Links (Sydney)
Has a movement organization or party emerged with the capacity to challenge the leadership of Venezuela’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)? Interviews with figures from communes movements, leftist parties, former/current PSUV figures, and participants in popular organizations, detail the challenges facing critical sectors today.
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Can the Global South Stop Genocide?
Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla and Ken Roth / Al Jazeera (Doha)
Nine countries have come together to form The Hague Group in support of Palestinian rights. Their goal is to take coordinated legal, economic, and diplomatic measures against Israel’s ongoing actions in Gaza and beyond. The countries that came together to make up the Hague Group include South Africa, Malaysia, Colombia, Cuba, Bolivia, Honduras, Namibia, Senegal and Belize.