Posts Tagged ‘Russia’
How well did the left go in the June 9 European election? – by Dick Nichols, Green Left (Australia)
A recommended article :
Source ;
How well did the left go in the June 9 European Election?
How well did the left go in the June 9 European election?
Provisional results of the 2024 European Elections, as at June 19. Source: results.elections.europa.eu
At first glance it looks as if the parties to the left of the social democracy held their ground against the surge of the far right and mainstream right that marked the June 9 European Union (EU) parliamentary elections (see here for results in detail).
Although the smallest of the European parliament’s seven groups, The Left managed to maintain its EU-wide vote at 5.4% and increase its seat tally from 37 to 39 in the 720-seat assembly.
In addition, left green Members of the European Parliaments (MEPs) and those representing stateless nations (part of the Greens group as the European Free Alliance) at least maintained their numbers in the chamber.
See also
Finland: Mass workers’ strike wave continues against gov’t attacks on workers, unions, welfare
Interview: Fascism and resistance in France today
Ukrainian unionists: Oligarchs, not Europe’s poor, should pay for weapons and aid to Ukraine
Workers’ Party of Belgium gains ground in European, national elections
Yet the Greens group as a whole shrank from 71 seats to 53 while that of the liberals (known as Renew) fell from 102 to 79. This drop reflected that the environmental issues that in part drove the big advance of these parties in the 2019 election were less important for many voters this time.
The campaign was dominated by insecurity about the future, the cost of living (particularly housing), the fear of war, the “immigration threat” and intolerance of difference.
In this grim atmosphere the biggest growth went to the mainstream right European People’s Party and the two far-right groups (Identity and Democracy and Conservatives and Reformists): taken together the right and far right won an extra 30 seats, bring it to 324.
Because it would take only 37 ungrouped MEPs to join them to from a reactionary majority, the June 9 result poses with new urgency two old questions about politics in the European parliament. How much, if at all, does the real balance of political forces in the chamber differ from that among its formal groupings? And how much does membership of a group represent disciplined commitment to its positions?
Left divisions over Ukraine
The questions are sharply relevant in the case of the Left group, where differences over what stance to take towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine were already pointing towards a split before June 9.
On May 31, Li Andersson, chairperson of the Finnish Left Alliance told the Helsinki Times that these differences could not be tolerated in the group in the new legislature. Referring to Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, Irish left independent opponents of military aid to Ukraine, Andersson said: “The Nordic Green Left as a whole [covering Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands] is of the opinion that if they manage to win re-election, they can’t join our group.”
For Andersson, the same went for the new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance: For Reason and Justice (BSW), a split in Germany from leading Left group member Die Linke (The Left). BSW opposes military aid to Ukraine and supports resuming the gas trade with Russia, in common with most of Europe’s far-right parties.
Read the rest of this entry »Palestine, Ukraine and the crisis of empires – Simon Pirani
Simon Pirani’s article is recommended. Unfortunately many Irish left-wing organizations and activists, such as People Before Profit and Clare Daly MEP, have adopted the policy advocated by the British Stop the War Coalition. In the conclusions section of this essay Pirani observes :
In May [2021], you wrote that Stop the War is “supporting the people of Palestine, who have a right to resist occupation”. I agree with that. But why no such statement about Ukraine?
And if Ukrainians, or Palestinians, have a right to resist, what does it mean? Does it only mean standing up to tanks with your bare hands, as Ukrainians have had to do? Does it mean throwing stones, often the only weapons that young Palestinians have? What about proper weapons? Do you think Palestinians have a right to those? And Ukrainians?
About the Author :
Simon Pirani is a British writer, historian and researcher of energy. He is honorary professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Durham.[1] From 2007 to 2021 he was senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (with a period as senior visiting research fellow in 2017-19).[2]
In 2018 Pirani published Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption, in which he portrays consumption growth as a result of world capitalist economic expansion.[3] He argues that the relationship between technological systems that account for most fossil fuel use, and the social and economic systems in which they are embedded, is paramount. His articles and presentations on this theme are collected on his website.[4] He also writes about these themes on a blog, People & Nature Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Pirani
Palestine, Ukraine and the crisis of empires
On the Easter weekend, on the latest gigantic march in London against UK complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza, a group of us took a banner that said “From Ukraine to Palestine, occupation is a crime”. We were welcomed by marchers around us, and people took up our slogan.
But beyond a slogan, what can we, in the labour movement and social movements in the UK, do about these conflicts that are transforming the world we live in, and heightening fears of bigger, bloodier wars?
Read the rest of this entry »The Irish Government and Gombeenish Elected Representatives are igniting their own bonfire by conceding to racist protests
We owe the headline to an excellent Justine McCarthy column in the January 12 2024 edition of the Irish Times :
Recent migrants found locked in a ship at Rosslare were Kurds and Vietnamese, people on the sharp end of global warming. This trend will only increase
This article, very commendably, gives us all stark truth. Here is a key extract :
When anti-migrant protesters set up their camps outside buildings designated – or rumoured to be designated – for asylum seekers, they drive to and fro, light fires and eat takeaway food, adding to the pollution that is making other people’s homeplaces in faraway lands uninhabitable. If they want less immigration, they should go home, switch off their clothes dryers, fix their leaking fridges, cancel their foreign holiday flights, eat less meat and, generally, reduce their carbon footprint.
But they won’t do that. Why would they, when they know the Government is willing to bow to their pressure? First, it caved in to protesters ensconced outside the former JJ Gannon’s Hotel in Ballinrobe, where 50 men seeking international protection had been due to reside in its 12 bedrooms. On Monday, it emerged that the Department of Integration has changed its plan and, now, the building is to accommodate families. Tánaiste Micheál Martin denied this represented a U-turn.
Two days later, there was a second Government change of heart with the announcement that 50 male asylum seekers – the same 50 men? – due to move into an old friary in Carlow town were, once again, being replaced by families. The news followed a protest outside the building.
These capitulations have sent a clear signal to protesters – and the unadulterated racists out there too – that the Government is for turning. With council elections approaching, politics is acutely local. Now is the time to turn the heat up on councillors and political parties looking for votes. Fifty men rendered roofless are reckoned to be a small price for a council seat or two. There are already more than 100 male asylum applicants with no place to stay in Ireland and no imminent prospect of finding a bed because political parties know there are no votes to be gained from that, either in the summer’s local and European elections or the looming general election.
The Government has lit a dynamite taper by rolling over for the protesters. Other communities have every reason now to expect that, if they shout “No”, the gates to their towns will be locked against people whom they deem undesirable to live among them.
The latest anti immigrant protest is happening in the Tipperary town of Roscrea and was the subject of a 24 minute RTÉ radio discussion on the January 12 2024 Today with Clare Byrne Show.
Read the rest of this entry »Learning to Swim – “an argument against a retreat from broad parties and electoral work” – Paul Murphy TD
Paul Murphy TD (People Before Profit, Dublin South-West) has written an interesting article :
Learning to Swim,;Paul Murphy; December 31 2023
It is published on the ISJ site, a British website :
“International Socialism is associated with the [British] Socialist Workers Party, but articles express the opinions of individual authors unless otherwise stated. We welcome proposals for articles and reviews for International Socialism..”
Paul Murphy is replying to a Joseph Choonara article; link here Revolutionaries and Elections
Here is Paul Murphy’s core argument :
Read the rest of this entry »The War in Ukraine: Agenda for the Left – the most serious war on the European continent since the end of World War 2 in 1945 has not gone away, you know
Here are the latest articles published on the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine website ukraine-solidarity.eu in English.
For more information, write to the network at info@ukraine-solidarity.eu.
Israel’s genocidal war against Palestine has pushed Putin’s genocidal invasion of Ukraine off the national and international headlines, but the most serious war on the European continent since the end of World War 2 in 1945 has not gone away, you know.
In a rational left-wing political ecosphere, all forces across the left would be promoting the information below, and seeking collective action in solidarity with the workers and social movements of Ukraine against Moscow’s sinister far-right invasion. It is time to step up solidarity with Ukraine, before it is too late. One of the articles linked below is reproduced at the end of this blog post : The War in Ukraine: Agenda for the Left . We also reproduce the latest news report written by the outstanding Irish Times Eastern Europe correspondent, Daniel McLaughlin.
Double-Standards: The Destroyed Kerch Bridge in Crimea, Russia’s Bombing of Civilian Targets – How will the Westplainers on the Left React?
Russia is losing the war in Ukraine – that is clear. The principled left is for solidarity with Ukraine and favours Immediate Withdrawal of the Russian military forces from Ukraine – also, clear. https://ukraine-solidarity.eu/
Two cartoons and a satirical meme sum up some options :
Two correspondents offer observations
Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 