In the wake of his recent humanitarian visit to Cuba, RICHARD BURGON points to the now urgent need to defend the island’s political sovereignty and its right to self-determination
THE German and French governments have fallen, and in South Korea, there has been a coup. The G7 countries, the club of major industrialised nations in particular are struggling with numerous internal political problems.
In France, the government fell in December 2024 after failing to pass a budget. Although a new prime minister has been appointed, the issues persist, and some observers speculate that President Emmanuel Macron will step down before the end of his term in 2027.
In Germany, the government has been virtually rudderless over the past year. In December, Olaf Scholz’s “traffic light coalition” finally collapsed, paving the way for new elections.
Italians reject controversial judiciary reforms in a referendum that boosts the left, reports NICK WRIGHT
From Reform UK to Trump, Orban and beyond, the far right is organised across borders and growing. Waiting for it to collapse is a fatal error – building an international, locally rooted left alternative is now an urgent necessity., argues ROGER McKENZIE
Far-right forces are rising across Latin America and the Caribbean, armed with a common agenda of anti-communism, the culture war, and neoliberal economics, writes VIJAY PRASHAD
STEPHEN ARNELL casts a critical eye over the sudden rash of challenges to the two-party system on both sides of the Atlantic, noting that today’s performative populist politics sadly lacks Roosevelt’s progressive ‘Bull Moose’ vision of the early 20th century


