The Left

Yearbook

    Klasse, Partei und die Herausforderung der Transformation des Staates
  • Für alle Parteien, die einen grundlegenden gesellschaftlichen Wandel anstrebten – sei es in Form einer gewaltsamen Revolution, sei es in Form von schrittweisen Reformen –, stand noch im Jahr 1917 fest, dass dies die Konsequenz hatte, den Kapitalismus zu überwinden. Bereits ein halbes Jahrhundert...
    Towards the League of the Balkan Left
  • The Balkan Peninsula has played a special role in Europe’s political imagination. For the greater part of contemporary history this region figured as a kind of barbaric wasteland. Barbaric in the original sense of the word, that is, of people speaking incomprehensible languages. Beyond this...
    New Municipalism in Barcelona: A First Attempt at a Balance Sheet
  • To undertake a full appraisal of a government one needs more time than just a third of a mandate, but given the speed of political events in Spain since 2008, it is worth having a first look at the experience of the municipal government in Barcelona in the first third of its term. The relevance of...
    The Corbyn Moment: A Dialectic of Defeats
  • I. Defeat is an under-rated experience in political life. During the US Civil War, Charles Eliot Norton wrote on the ‘advantages of defeat’, noting that an early setback at Bull Run was not only deserved but needed: it corrected a bad strategy early enough for it to be rectified. As Enzo...
    Back to the Roots?
  • How left movements and parties see themselves in society and how they behave towards people outside of them has been continually changing in the last 150 years. As a result, they have been able to reach specific social groups more successfully while others have tended to elude their reach. Left...
    Europe’s Old and New Left and Its Constituencies (1)
  • The aim of this general reflection on the transformations undergone by Europe’s social and political left is to suggest strategies and tools for promoting a more just economic and social system. For analytical purposes I see three historical steps: The first stage, is from 1989 to the present. It...
    The Left Alternative – The Search for a Subject of History
  • Globalisation is increasingly influencing us. On the one side, it opens up new forms of a networked internet civilisation; on the other side, it entails irresolvable contradictions. The events of the recent period show that today, both for the West and for Russian society, it is not the challenge of...
    The Left, the People, Populism
  • The right-left divide seems to be breaking down in current political representation. In fact this goes back some thirty years when the right turn of European socialism began to blur the boundaries between left-wing and right-wing government management. It is true that the extreme right has always...
    Euclid Tsakalotos – interviewed by Haris Golemis
  • Haris Golemis: At the time of this interview (12 December 2016), the Greek government is close to completing its second review of the third painful Memorandum of Understanding, which it was forced to agree to on July 2015. I understand that the government’s but also your view is that this evaluation...
    Europe – Quo vadis? The Left and European Integration
  • After the Brexit vote, there is a sense of cluelessness, or at least irritation, in Germany, that is, in the newspapers, in political journals, in the parties represented in the Bundestag, and certainly also in the federal government. Pre-referendum polls appeared to indicate that it was alarmingly...
    Rekindling Hope: Syriza’s Challenges and Prospects
  • Before turning to the main theme of this article it would be very useful to come to terms with at least the following preliminary observations: The left in government and especially the radical left in government has never been the subject of easy discussion among leftists. As the project of...
    When Winter Came in July: The Left Has to Rethink Europe
  • After the Paris attacks, Europe froze into a winter of icy fear. But contrary to the media’s image, the threat, which is exploited to enforce surveillance and tightened border controls, is at least as internal as it is external. The arrested terrorists’ papers were all in order, they moved about...
    More Than Ever: For Another Europe! August 2015 Theses [1]
  • The general impression one has today is of an impasse in the structure of the European Union as a democratic project benefiting its populations and contributing to a better world. As an adherent of ‘left-wing Europeanism’ [2], I want to emphasise in what follows that today, more than ever, there are...
    The Italian Vote and the Problem of a New Left Political Entity
  • The results of the recent European Parliament elections raise more questions than they answer. Almost all opinion polls and forecasts, even those based on refined socio-political analyses, have shown that people in Italy feel extremely alienated from political reality. The Italian vote is...
    The Left in the Storm: The Radical Left and the Elections in Spain
  • Six years after the beginning of the 2008 economic crisis, the 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections resulted in enlarged representation for the parties integrated in the group of the United European Left-Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL). This increase was very significant in a few countries where a...
    Some Notes on the Socialist Alternative in Post-Yugoslav Space
  • What if nobody attacks you? Stane Dolanc (1925-1999) was one of the most important Slovenian politicians in former Yugoslavia and among a few of the close trusted friends of President Josip Broz Tito. During his political career he held various high posts and argued for a strong, authoritarian...
    An Interview with Alexis Tsipras
  • Haris Golemis: Just three years ago, Syriza’s presence in Greece’s political landscape was quite small. Today, Syriza is predicted to be the frontrunner in the next elections – making you the next Prime Minister of Greece. What factors do you believe have led to Syriza’s meteoric rise in popularity,...
    The Radical Left in Europe: An Outline
  • Where does the radical left come from? To understand what unites the organisations of this new left and the nature of its radicalism we must go back to the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

Focus

    Hunger for a leftist alternative in Bulgaria
  • The political frame, in which the European elections face Bulgaria is actually the struggle between the centre-right GERB, the party of the Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and the social democrats of our traditional socialist party BSP on the other side with its leader Kornelia Ninova. Biggest...
    The Greek Left before 2019 EU election
  • The forthcoming European election inaugurates for Greece a prolonged electoral period, in a highly polarised political climate. In May, on the same day with the EU election, municipal and regional elections will be taking place. And most importantly, a national election is normally expected for...
    A twofold struggle for the Cypriot left
  • In less than four months European citizens are going to the polls for the 9th time to elect their representatives for the European Parliament. For Cyprus it will be the 4th time. Going into these elections the scene is still fluid and this is mainly the result of two factors. First, the fact that...
    The Spanish scenario for the 2019 European Elections
  • These lines mean to be a brief but clear outline of what the electoral scenario is for the next European elections in Spain on May 26, 2019. First, it is worth clarifying that, unlike most UE countries, the elections in Spain will be unique, because electoral process will coincide on the same day as...
    Spanish Turmoil
  • After a period of increased electoral support to forces considered progressive, we are currently in a period of recomposition of the political landscape, marked by a new far-right party, Vox, which has entered the political scene forcefully since the last regional elections of Andalusia. We have...
    The French chessboard
  • The current balances of forces in France is worrying The left as a whole is credited around a third of the possible votes for the European elections. Such a low overall expected result demonstrates its historical weakness. The left is divided in different lists that all aim at running...
    Final Declaration European Forum Bilbao
  • Our goal is to fight for a Europe that is a fully cooperative, solidary, equal and socially advanced democracy. We call for empowering popular sovereignty by launching a new charter for sovereign democracy in Europe.
    "The Laugh of the Medusa: The Left in Europe"
  • High quality debates among people from different starting points aiming to find a common ground for a Europe of the people. A seminar that tried not to give definitive answers, but to pose at least the right questions.
    “State of Affairs in Europe”
  • transform! europe and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung staged a Workshop in Berlin under the title: “State of Affairs in Europe” in July 2016. Political scientists and actors were invited to debate the possibilities for common perspectives and action of the Left in Europe.
    Catalonia: The Left Faced with Secession
  • Identities are inseparable from political and social life, but we must learn to keep a short leash on sentiments that awaken identities and build barriers against reason in order to channel them towards an emancipatory sense of justice and solidarity.
    The Future of European Integration
  • A number of Leftist conferences recently convened in Paris, Berlin and Madrid addressed the issue of an alternative plan for Europe. We as transform! were present in all the events as we believe that an open and comeradely debate without any taboos is necessary.
    The Radical Left at the 2014 EP Election
  • The publication of the final results of the 2014 European Parliament (EP) election of 22-25 May finally permits to draw a first assessment of the performance of the radical Left.[1]
    The European Radical Left in the Long Run
  • What is the current situation of the radical Left in Europe? What political and historical events have been shaping its evolutions over the last decades? How has it responded to the challenges of Europeanization?  What role does the European systemic crisis play in the emergence of new dividing lines across the Left? Where does its political project stand?

Blog

    China and Central Europe – As the Left Sees It
  • Information on the proceedings and results of the international conference “China and Central Europe. Political, Economic and Geopolitical Consequences – Standpoint of the Left”, organised by the transform! europe member organisation SPED (Society for European Dialogue) with significant support from the RLS’s Prague office.
    Building Bridges. Neighbourhood Central Europe?
  • To mark the 100th anniversary of the Austrian Republic, transform! europe and the Jahoda-Bauer Institute held a conference about the prospects for a common strategy for the Danube region and Central Europe. The event was supported financially by the Republic of Austria’s Fund for the Future and the Party of the European Left.
    Centre for the Politics of Emancipation
  • In autumn 2018, transform! europe could welcome the Centre for the Politics of Emancipation (CPE) as new observer organization. Read about the CPE presenting itself.
    Poland and the Left After the Local Elections
  • The recent local elections in Poland have once again been dominated by the country’s two main right-wing parties: Law and Justice Party (PiS) and Citizens’ Platform (PO). They have also underlined the present weakness of the Polish left, which was further marginalised during these elections.
    The Communist Party of Austria – A European Case Study
  • On 3rd November 1918, the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) was founded in Vienna. To mark this occasion, transform! europe is publishing an illustrated book in Vienna which documents the KPÖ’s development throughout the 20th century.
    Why it’s Worth Fighting for the Collective Movement
  • A new attempt from the left to challenge the neo-liberal ‘more-of-the-same’ status quo has emerged from the socio-political Left – the collective #aufstehen movement. There are many very valid reasons to stay away from it. Consider the words of poet Erich Fried: “Because I do not wish/ to get my...
    The Variable Geometry of the Left
  • Despite moderate growth rates, the EU isn’t well. While the social disparities within and between the individual states continue to grow, it has opted for an increase of its military expenditures and tries to make up its obvious lack of internal cohesion with an ever more aggressive policy against migrants and refugees.
    #Power to the People
  • The reconstruction process of the left in Italy has indicated a new benchmark. But to better understand the path, we must start out once again from the last European elections in 2014.
    A Question of Class. A New Class Politics – A Connective Antagonism
  • It’s not that the class question could ever be pushed aside totally. It preserved a shadowy Marxist existence. Sometimes, however, it surfaced surprisingly in the feature pages of newspapers, only then swiftly to disappear again. At this point, hardly anyone denies it: we are living in a class society (again).
    Polish Left: Mistakes of the Past and Challenges of the Future
  • When we observe the current political scene in Europe, we get the impression that something has gone very wrong. We can see that we – the left – have made many serious mistakes and that our weakness has given new opportunities to right-wing movements and parties.
    The Left Under Macron
  • An interview with Elsa Faucillon, the newly-elected Communist MP on France’s divided Left and the way forward in the fight against Macron.
    ‘Europe – what's left?’
  • A seminar in Rome provided space for discussing the numerous crises in Europe and their potential solutions. While the participants did not share all points of analysis put forward, they agreed on the need to break free of the existing framework and the necessity for a reinvention of the left on our continent.
    The Left: Dialogue and Identity
  • transform! is the think tank of the Party of the European Left (EL). Both EL and transform! are, in historical terms, relatively young organisations that were created to achieve something never before attempted: together and in our respective fields, using our individual methodologies, we aim to help create unity among the left in Europe as well as develop a common political culture of the left.
    Individual membership in the EL
  • I am an individual member of the Party of the European Left, of which I had already been a member as a Member of the European Parliament, and a PRC (Communist Refoundation Party) activist. It was the PRC, one of the founders of the European Left, that pushed this form of membership provided for by the Charter and, at the beginning of the 21st century, supported the creation of an association of individual members.
    Refoundation Means Discontinuity With the Past*
  • Nobody, of course, can deny the significance for Europe of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. However, my view is that this historic event with its unknown consequences for the future of European integration is only a symptom of the general turmoil prevailing in Europe since the outbreak of the systemic crisis in 2008.
    Hello, This is Capitalism
  • Talk at the Summer University of PCF. – The dilemma of Europe is real. On the one hand, it is clear that Europe cannot continue in the same track, something that Britain’s referendum has underscored; of course, the No targeted not only the EU but also Britain’s political class, thus demonstrating that the failure of the neoliberal model threatens not only the European Union but also its Member States.
    The Radical Left in Slovakia: Possibilities of recovery at the national and European level
  • The radical left is not only witnessing the global strengthening of the free market imperative at the expense of human rights – it is also suffering from it. This is most evident in the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe region in which traditional political subjects professing the ideals of socialism keep failing, owing to a whole range of specific factors that are both external and internal.
    Will the Left revive themselves while facing the civilizational challenge?
  • The Left today is justifiably worried about their future. Currently there is an impression that the public debate is sliding on a left-right axis towards the political extremes. But we know that the world cannot be changed with the help of false prophets, this can be done only by the society-wide action. Hence The Left has to search together the way forward.
    Europe under scrutiny
  • It is true that the European Union, or rather its predecessors, the European Coal and Steel Community, the EEC and the EC, have never been the projects for peace and human rights as which they were introduced to us. Those have to be disappointed now who allowed themselves to be deceived.
    The Radical Left at the 2014 EP Election
  • The publication of the final results of the 2014 European Parliament (EP) election of 22-25 May finally permits to draw a first assessment of the performance of the radical Left.[1]

Publication

    Thinking Europe as a Commons
  • As the German playwright Bertolt Brecht once noted, ‘Thought is something that follows from difficulties and precedes action’. The European Union is in difficulties. So too is the Left.
    Survey on the European Left Party II
  • The present survey on the Party of the European Left is based on the answers given to the questionnaires by the delegates on the 4th Congress of the party of the European Left, held in Madrid between 12 and 15 December 2013.