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The small but densely crowded European states of Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg have a long common history, in which they were sometimes united and later separated again. Linguistically, they are divided: 23 million of their inhabitants in the Netherlands and in the northern Belgian sub-state of Flanders use the Dutch language, five million in the south-eastern Belgian sub-state of Wallonia speak French, and half a million in Luxemburg and eastern Belgium have a German dialect.

The currently reigning economic model in Portugal is based on accumulation via expropriation. There is no investment. Instead, profit is increased by reducing wages. Wealth is not being created but rather is being destroyed – by closing factories, by eliminating jobs, and by cutting a huge portion of wages and public services. Four mechanisms are involved, all imposed by the coercive power of the State: taxes, privatization of public goods, cutting wages, and erosion of the welfare state.

The Irish radical left is an uneasy and somewhat contradictory assemblage of Marxist-republican, Trotskyist, and anarchist thought. This is not purely by choice, of course, but rather a reflection of the history of the island itself.

Nordics, historical and present

Reflections on Bowling for Columbine (2002) in the wake of the Charleston massacre

Introduction and overview

In order to understand the present perspectives of the radical left in Germany today, five main considerations are needed:

The sociopolitical context of post-2008 Europe is ripe for the revival of the radical left as a viable force against the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism and the politics of austerity. Political space on the left has been opened up owing to extreme electoral instability and to a significant decline among centrist parties, which, in violation of their principles, have been instrumental in imposing austerity policies. The polarization has led also to a dangerous rise of the far right. These developments need to be examined in the context of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.

2008:

January 1: Cyprus and Malta join the Eurozone, bringing the total number of members to fifteen.

February 3: Dimitris Christofias of the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) wins the second round of the Cypriot presidential election with 53.4% of the vote, becoming the first communist to hold a presidential position in the EU.

Italian Left, European Left

Introduction: What is the Post-Yugoslav ‘new left’?