Portside

World crises demand groundbreaking strategies

Mass protests confront governments, police and employers in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe

Don’t imagine that anything truly began at the Capitol on January 6th. Admittedly, a coup attempt was indeed launched for the first time in this country. Donald Trump ran for president already focused on turning the American system upside down.

Violence and defiance in Palestine, the return of Austro-Marxism, and more reports and analysis from five continents

Portugal * Mexico * Swaziland * Greece * UK * Ecuador * Iraq * Colombia * Russia

Movements, Parties, Strategies, and the Nicaragua Debate

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

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.

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.