Global News and Analysis

Source: Jacobin

Europe needs mass movements that threaten its ruling elite, not technocratic fixes and a PR makeover.

Within twenty-four hours of the Brexit vote, Sigmar Gabriel — Social Democratic Party (SPD) chairman, German vice chancellor, and minister of economic affairs — and EU Parliament President Martin Schulz published a strategy paper aimed at dealing with the legitimacy crisis of the European Union and the rise of the far right.

Brexit prompted new hopes and fears that the European Union’s market-liberal forces are weakening and forced many EU leaders and mainstream media figures alike to call for renewal. In this context, Gabriel and Schulz have adopted — some might say stolen — the left-wing demand for a “re-foundation of Europe” that “belongs to its citizens.” read more

Source: Democracy Now!

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Britain remains in a widening crisis days after voters chose to leave the European Union. British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his resignation. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is facing a coup within his own party as more than a dozen members of his shadow cabinet have resigned or been sacked. Scotland has announced it will take any steps needed to stay inside the European Union, including possibly holding a second independence referendum. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is headed to Brussels and London to discuss the political and economic upheaval caused by the Brexit vote. To make sense of what’s happening, we speak to longtime British journalist Paul Mason, who has worked at the BBC and Channel 4. His new book is titled “Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future” read more

Source: Foreign Policy in Focus

The 2016 vote may have been a disappointment to Spain’s insurgent progressives. But they’ve proven they’re here to stay.

1. The vote was a stalemate, but the political landscape has changed.

Spain voted on June 26 with polls suggesting that the populist progressive Podemos party would overtake the traditional Socialist Party, PSOE, as the main left-wing opposition to the center-right Popular Party, or PP. Some thought the electoral math might even favor a progressive government headed by Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias. read more

Source: The Nation

They’re peacefully resisting US-style neoliberal measures intended to crush the unions—a backbone of Mexico’s social-justice movements.

Update: On Sunday, June 19, federal police in Oaxaca fired on teachers and supporters in the Mixteca town of Nochixtlán, killing at least four and wounding 30 more.  Another was killed in Hacienda Blanca, near Oaxaca City, according to the press service AIPIN, which also reported that people were refused care at the hospital in Nochixtlán.  The federal government continues to refuse to talk with the CNTE.

On Sunday night, June 12, as Ruben Nuñez, head of Oaxaca’s teachers union, was leaving a meeting in Mexico City, his car was overtaken and stopped by several large king-cab pickup trucks. Heavily armed men in civilian clothes exited and pulled him, another teacher, and a taxi driver from their cab, and then drove them at high speed to the airport. Nuñez was immediately flown over a thousand miles north to Hermosillo, Sonora, and dumped into a high-security federal lockup. read more

Source: Common Dreams

A conference organized around the progressive issues that formed the cornerstone of Bernie Sanders’ presidential run has re-energized the American left, attendees said, as the gathering provoked conversations and connections that will invigorate political and social movements to come.

Coming in the wake of Sanders’ primary losses earlier this month, and after the recent murders in Orlando and in the U.K., the so-called People’s Summit became a “place of healing,” said activist and author Naomi Klein, who took part in the opening panel. read more

Source: The Guardian Unlimited

US politicians often cite Australia as providing a model of impactful reform. Here’s why such blueprints likely won’t work to combat gun violence in the US

A disturbed man with an AR-15-style rifle walked through a popular historic site in 1996, shooting up the cafe and gift shop. He left 35 people dead and 19 seriously injured.

The country’s conservative leader pushed through immediate, sweeping changes to gun laws. Chief among them was a ban and mandatory buyback of more than 600,000 semiautomatic rifles and other long guns, which were then melted down. In all, one researcher estimates, the government ultimately destroyed about a million weapons – roughly one-third of its total gun stock. read more