IV593 - June 2024

President Joseph Biden’s disastrous failure in his televised debate with rival former president Donald J. Trump has led to a crisis in the Democratic Party as some call for the party to choose a new candidate.

On the night of 9 June, the secretary general of the Socialist Party (PS) announced that his party was the big winner of the European elections and that the PS "is now the leading political force in Portugal".

The European parliamentary elections of 6-9 June 2024 gave a picture of the political forces present in the 27 countries of the European Union (EU), which above all reflects an increase for the conservative right, the European People’s Party (EPP) group, which gained 13 MEPs with 189 seats, and the two far-right groups, Identity and Democracy (ID) and the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), which in total gained 21 seats with 141 MEPs. Despite numerous disagreements between (…)

Two leaders of major European countries have both gambled on calling a snap election. Rishi Sunak’s desperate move has merely confirmed and deepened the already existing wave of disgust and rejection of 14 years of Tory misrule in Britain. Political debate already assumes a Labour government with a big majority. Emmanuel Macron’s surprise move after his party was defeated by Marine Le Pen’s far-right, post-fascist RN (National Rally) party has detonated a bomb across the political spectrum in France.

The results of the European elections show a continuation of the relative polarisation between the two main blocs dominated by the PP and the PSOE, although the right-wing bloc in the Spanish state is strengthening, while the bloc supporting the progressive coalition government is weakening.

Recent weeks have witnessed a sharp escalation of the exchange of fire between the Lebanese resistance and Israeli forces in South Lebanon/North of the Zionist state. This escalation has been accompanied by an escalation of statements and threats between the two sides, with increasing Israeli threats to launch an all-out war on all areas where Hezbollah is deployed and inflict on them a fate similar to that of the Gaza Strip in terms of the intensity of destruction.

Joint declaration by ecosocialist, anarchist, feminist, environmental organisations, and groups in solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance and for a self-determined social and ecological reconstruction of Ukraine.

In a shocking development, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Sean O’Brien, has accepted an invitation from presidential candidate Donald J. Trump to speak at the Republican National Convention (RNC) July 15-18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The European election results illustrate, albeit in a distorted way, the serious social and political crisis that has followed decades of liberal austerity measures. It is above all the far right that is reaping the votes of the most disenchanted, who delusively believe that they can avoid downgrading by crushing those at the bottom and embracing the dangerous ideology of "national preference" and racism.

“We must stand in solidarity with workers and their unions to fight retrenchments and stand shoulder to shoulder with the women, LGBTI+ people and foreign nationals who bear the brunt of violence, misogyny, homophobia and xenophobia.”