Category Archives: Socialism

‘Working-class New Yorkers are being pushed out of the city they built’: why Zohran Mamdani is running for mayor

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The socialist millennial, and first south Asian man in the state assembly, is entering an already crowded mayoral race

In a quiet and unassuming coffee shop in Astoria, a once affordable, diverse neighborhood in Queens where rent is skyrocketing to the heights of other parts of New York, a man in a black jacket sits against the window.

He doesn’t look the part of a large metropolitan city’s typical politician, but Zohran Mamdani represents this area in the state legislature as the assembly member for district 36 – the first south Asian man in the state assembly and only its third Muslim.

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Enrico Berlinguer: the 1970s communist hero inspiring Italy’s youth – and the far right

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Italian PM Giorgia Meloni among those admiring Berlinguer as new film and exhibitions celebrate his role as a unifier

Enrico Berlinguer was a giant of the Italian left in the 1970s and 80s, coming close to leading the Communist party into government through a “historic compromise” with the country’s Christian Democrats, and championing “Eurocommunism”, a liberal, anti-Stalinist version of Marxism that briefly swept the continent.

But his death 40 years ago, and the collapse of Europe’s communist parties in the late 1980s, eclipsed Berlinguer’s legacy, and Italy has since moved across the political spectrum, electing the far-right Giorgia Meloni as prime minister in 2022.

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Sri Lankan leftist candidate Dissanayake claims presidential election

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Second-round victory viewed as widespread rejection of the old political elite amid economic crisis

The Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has won Sri Lanka’s presidential election, in what was viewed as a widespread rejection of the old political elite who are blamed for the country’s ongoing economic woes.

For the first time in Sri Lanka’s history, the election went into a runoff on Sunday after no candidate managed to get more than 50% of the votes. However, after second-choice votes were counted, Dissanayake was declared the winner in the evening. “This victory belongs to all of us,” he said, writing on X.

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New British mayor of Mallorcan town to start work with nice cup of tea

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Teacher from west Sussex says victory was down to strong manifesto and knowing everyone in Sant Joan

The new mayor of Sant Joan, a small town of 2,000 people that sits in the centre of Mallorca, likes to joke that his main priority when he begins work on Monday will be ensuring a kettle is installed in his office.

Last month’s regional and local elections – which left the ruling Socialists with a bloody nose, triggered a snap general election and caused the conservative People’s party (PP) to forge a coalition with the far-right Vox party to rule the Valencia region – have also had unexpected consequences in Sant Joan.

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‘It’s a rubbish bin’: Parisians fight for the soul of their blighted city

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Angry residents have rallied to a campaign against the ‘trashing’ of the capital. Some blame mayor Anne Hidalgo while others see the protests as a far-right ploy

In the middle of Paris’s third Covid lockdown last March, a hashtag appeared on Twitter with a photo of a lock on the Canal Saint-Martin that runs through the north of the city clogged with litter, plastic bags and bottles.

Images of Paris looking worse for wear are nothing new but, within days, dozens of pictures of overflowing bins, broken pavements and graffiti-covered walls appeared with the same hashtag – #SaccageParis – which roughly translates as Trashed Paris.

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Splits in left are set to boost far-right TV pundit in Portugal’s snap election

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As support grows for André Ventura, Socialist party has lost ground to centre-right PSD after row over budget with its allies

Between greeting regulars at the busy Lisbon bakery where she has worked for two decades – and reaching instinctively for their orders as soon as they cross the threshold – Susana Santos offers her thoughts on an imminent, and altogether less welcome, encounter.

Like many of her compatriots, she does not relish the idea of Sunday’s snap general election, which arrives amid a stubbornly lingering pandemic and during a time of economic upheaval and political uncertainty.

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Eat the rich! Why millennials and generation Z have turned their backs on capitalism

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Nearly eight out of 10 of young Britons blame capitalism for the housing crisis and two-thirds want to live under a socialist economic system. How did that happen?

The young are hungry and the rich are on the menu. This delicacy first appeared in the 18th century, when the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau supposedly declared: “When the people shall have no more to eat, they will eat the rich!” But today this phrase is all over Twitter and other social media. On TikTok, viral videos feature fresh-faced youngsters menacingly raising their forks at anyone with cars that have start buttons or fridges that have water and ice dispensers.

So should the world’s billionaires – and fridge-owners – start sleeping with one eye open? Hardly. It’s clear that millennials (those born between the early 80s and the mid-90s) and zoomers (the following generation) are not really advocating violence. But it is also clear that this is more than just another viral meme.

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Truth about Drake’s Island ‘invasion’ | Letter

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As one of the schoolboys described as having stormed the small island off the coast of Devon in 1957, Regan Scott clarifies a few points about the incident and Plymouth’s history of protest

Good to learn about Drake’s Island developments (Mysterious Drake’s Island opens to visitors after 30 years, 14 March), but a little correction is needed about the “bunch of schoolboys” invading in 1957. And some extras about Plymouth history.

We had recently formed Plymouth Young Socialists, upsetting the national Labour party, which had closed down the Labour League of Youth. Plymouth politics was starting to stir a bit. My father, Reg Scott, a local socialist politician and journalist, had just started a speakers’ corner on Saturday mornings at Frankfort Gate, the ordinary end of the splendid new city centre. Our “invasion” of Drake’s Island was to reclaim it from the military for the people of Plymouth. We set out in comrade John Duffin’s small, leaky boat, with its spluttering outboard motor, only to be intercepted by a fast naval launch out of the dockyard. We got halfway, were “arraigned”, lectured about dangerous currents, and then kindly taken to the island, awaiting our fate on the beach.

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‘Mao inspired me in 1949, but my dreams were soon shattered’

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He Yanling, who was a journalist at the People’s Daily, recalls how his hopes for the future were wrecked

He Yanling was full of hope for a “new China” in 1949. On the eve of the ceremony marking establishment of the People’s Republic on 1 October that year, the then 27-year-old page editor at the People’s Daily worked through the night to ensure the paper would come out without a glitch. The next day he joined the celebrations with his colleagues, while his wife stayed at home with their baby.

The streets were filled with the sound of people chatting and singing. With the five-star red national flags billowing, hundreds of thousands of people waited for hours before Mao Zedong appeared on the balcony of the Gate of Heavenly Peace to announce the founding of the PRC. “We were so excited. We thought: at last, the Chinese people are united,” said He, now 97. His first article after the founding day was headlined “From darkness into brightness”.

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The Breadmaker: on the frontline of Venezuela’s bakery wars – video

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In the midst of Venezuela’s spiralling economic crisis, Natalia and fellow members of a Chavista collective have stepped in to take over production at a local bakery, La Minka. Authorities had suspended operations when the owners were accused of overpricing their loaves and hoarding flour. In March 2017, with the tacit support of the government, the collective began selling affordable bread. This is the story of their fight to safeguard the bakery’s future and keep the Chavista dream alive

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