Is the West Experiencing a Left-Wing Drift? (the international left politics activism, news, and strategy thread)

Hoos, here's a piece on trendy-leftist Novara Media making the case against Extinction Rebellion. NB I don't really trust Novara, but am interested in what ppl itt would have to say to it:

https://novaramedia.com/2018/11/18/5-reasons-im-not-joining-the-extinction-rebellion/

Oh look, Tabletmag has decided to cover this:

https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/276374/a-cool-kid-communist-comeback

what happened to the tribune relaunch? did it happen? has anyone seen a copy?

I've been leafing through my copy. The layout is TERRIBLE, real flashbacks to my time spent editing the uni paper. The news section feels almost like an internal newsletter for the Labour left, but the articles are interesting - Wendy Liu from the NS on Silicon Valley is one I enjoyed.

the layout really is unbelievably bad

Nomiki Konst braves it:

Tucker Carlson: "Volume is not the same as an argument"
Nomiki Konst: "You don't like opinionated women do you?" pic.twitter.com/zzSOz8sOM5

— Contemptor (@TheContemptor) December 6, 2018

has anyone made a joke about the left experiencing a west wing drift? no I did not search the thread, I refuse

have we talked about this yet?

Join the Progressive Internationalhttps://t.co/3RW9MXHqWF pic.twitter.com/o4zgiUoSHH

— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) December 1, 2018

i'm interested

saw a number of center-left'ers in the US complaining that the video only features "white men as progressive leaders" which tells me everything i need to know about what these people think about mass politics

I was just listening to his live interview on The Dig where he mentions that. I feel like I need a little more info on what the concept is than just, here is a website, join.

I see a certain mr. Texas just interviewed him as well

international cooperation between leftists seems more vital than ever, i really hope this gains some momentum (no corbyn pun intended)

I see a certain mr. Texas just interviewed him as well

― resident hack (Simon H.), Thursday, December 6, 2018 7:28 PM (fifty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

im sitting here like 'george strait interviewed this guy??'

i thought this was a great, well-considered piece that knocks down critiques of antifa from the far left:

Antifa’s critics are correct to note that this is not the Weimar era, but they don’t offer any alternative explanations or responses to today’s developments. The street battles of 2017 had their origins in our own time. Trump’s election was part of a sequence of victories for right-populist and “illiberal” authoritarians in Britain, Russia, India, Turkey, Hungary, Italy, Colombia, and the Philippines. Militarizing borders in the face of global trade and immigration, removing all obstacles to capital in the form of unions or regulation, and attacking minority groups and women, this political wave shares enough with historical fascism that some call it “late fascism” or “post-fascism.” While there is no fully revolutionary wave to which this phenomenon responds, it has emerged in response to the Arab Spring, Occupy, Black Lives Matter and other social movements. The Trumpian emphasis on “law and order,” in particular, refers to the riots of Ferguson and Baltimore. These movements and the rightwing “illiberal” reaction to them gesture, respectively, toward revolution or dictatorship–a polarization strengthened by capitalist stagnation and ecological breakdown.

Through this more global, structural analysis, antifa must reckon with its own weakness. Why are they doxing memesters and punching college Republicans while ICE stalks courthouses, police brutality is celebrated, social spending is slashed, and the bourgeoisie pushes us towards climate armageddon? This argument cuts both ways, inasmuch as antifa can always ask what, by comparison, the doubters have done. By accomplishing their short-term goal of creating a material force against street-level fascists, antifa have demonstrated a capacity and willingness to take on those tasks commensurate with their abilities. Can anything similar be claimed by the partisans of party building and radical syndicalism? Nonetheless, we still have to question how these short-term goals bring us closer to the revolution that might end fascism once and for all.

https://communemag.com/anti-anti-antifa/

By accomplishing their short-term goal of creating a material force against street-level fascists, antifa have demonstrated a capacity and willingness to take on those tasks commensurate with their abilities. Can anything similar be claimed by the partisans of party building and radical syndicalism?

promoted tweet in my TL:

Life expectancy for the less wealthy has fallen, see how Inclusive Capitalism could reverse this trend here: https://t.co/xeDNpSe8S5 pic.twitter.com/NWtRTMsRw9

— Legal & General (@landg_uk) December 3, 2018

capitalism has failed the poor! the answer? capitalism!

lmao love this latest rebrand, surely this will be the one that sticks

Why are they doxing memesters and punching college Republicans while ICE stalks courthouses, police brutality is celebrated,

errr...I can think of a few reasons

i mean the author's kinda strawmanning deliberately there right, it's practically sotto voce

wHy ArE tHeY dOxXiNg MeMeStErs

just saw a picture of Bhaskar's "Socialist Manifesto" book and died of mortification

promoted tweet in my TL:

Haha, mine too

very legal and very general

hamno...........................today i say hamyes

https://splinternews.com/bernie-dont-run-1830983072

Here is what Bernie Sanders should do: endorse a Democratic presidential candidate who will best carry on his own ideas. I don’t really give a damn who it is. Warren, or Kamala Harris, or Sherrod Brown,

has there been a decent profile of sherrod brown somewhere

yeah i think he's picking bad names out of the hat but the thrust of 'i am legitimately afraid of democratic politics coming apart at the seams if we have a 2016 10x' is one i agree with

yeah, Bernie's lack of a clear political heir who's anywhere near as interested in building a robust international left is my only hesitancy with respect to Nolan's sentiment here

buddy can we worry about the international left in maybe the next election cycle after this one

I know you're technically the international left but one thing at a time ffs

ty

yes, if there’s one thing we have wrt to building an international left coalition, it’s time - and lots of it

I think the point might be that there isn't much use in an intl left coalition of parties that aren't in power

I mean like "will convene the Fourth International" is just not realistically on my list of requests for a nominee for president of the United godforsaken States in 2020, I'd happily accept a whole lot less

sure, best not to try at all and instead offer a limp centrist alternative that offers no solutions to crippling systemic problems, that’s definitely not a strategy that had all but doomed the planet xp

when one of the two or three most popular and consistently, broadly liked politicians in the country wants to do this very thing, it's really not that huge a demand

lol I am not arguing for centrism...those aren't the only two options here! I just more or less agree with Nolan's take

maybe a more constructive and sincere way to put this: Simon, what the hell can we (not that I can vote) do in Canada to establish an intl left?

that's a very good question that would be easier to answer if we had any elected representatives who cared at all about doing that. (I did join the NDP just to vote for Ashton, but she went nowhere.) I think in many ways we're actually more politically backwards than the US tb, it says a lot that many younger Cdn leftists I've spoken to were spurred on by Sanders or Corbyn, and seemingly none by...any Canadian figures

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-46510776 Anti-Deportation protestors found guilty.

ugh

their offences (‘offences’) carry a maximum sentence of life in prison btw

yeah i think he's picking bad names out of the hat but the thrust of 'i am legitimately afraid of democratic politics coming apart at the seams if we have a 2016 10x' is one i agree with

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, December 10, 2018 1:33 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

word. i know people say it's going to be a brokered convention and it's never a brokered convention, but didn't something about the primary setup change to increase the likelihood of this in 2020? something like california giving their delegates proportionally?

superdelegates were effectively abolished, is that maybe what you're thinking of

great critical view on the GND

http://inthesetimes.com/article/21632/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-climate-cooperation-jackson-capital?fbclid=IwAR0tMIFumEGsgDJnu1CQ6mePX13lHioPM4HOBAccvXXUKKHAkPf1OMHbllE

democrats are genetically incapable of passing/producing anything better than "green capitalism" and all the interventions in the world won't change that

i suspect cooperation jackson would quibble with you about what's possible

loved this last piece:

Sarah: To what extent were front-lines environmental justice groups consulted about the Green New Deal?

Kali: As an individual I was not consulted, but I think it’s a two-way street, because I also didn’t do much to help her get elected. The natural inclination is you’re going to listen to the folks who support you. The political trade off, whether we like it or not, is that you listen to those who put skin in the game to help you. That’s a reality we need to start with. Whether or not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reaches out, we have an obligation to tap her on her shoulder and say some of these ideas are terrible, here’s why, here are alternatives, here are examples of what the alternative looks like in practice—you can elevate them and use them as a model. That’s our task on the left—to intervene in that particular way. It’s not a question of whether or not she will listen: She’s an elected official, and we have move her to listen through the force of our organizing initiatives. We have to struggle with her to make sure she votes in the broadest interests possible, since she’s trying to lead this on a national level.

also i hadn't seen this posted in here, really valuable comparative look at the competing approaches to changing medicare in the house that left me pleasantly surprised with where the CAP draft approach lands:

https://www.vox.com/2018/12/13/18103087/democrats-universal-health-care-sanders-jayapal