With speculation growing about a Labour leadership contest in 2026, only a decisive break with the current direction – on the economy, foreign policy and migrants – can avert disaster and offer a credible alternative, writes DIANE ABBOTT
Venezuela: Chavismo on course to another victory
While president Maduro commits his government to greater social progress from wages to housing, the extreme right-wing opposition are calling upon Washington to intervene and impose more sanctions, reports FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ
DESERVED ADULATION: A supporter dressed as ‘Super Bigote / Super Moustache’ a joyful reference to Nicolas Maduro’s ‘stash’ - the cartoon superhero appeared at a campaign rallyin Caracas, Venezuela, July 18 2024
[AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos]
Repression against left-wing, anti-imperialist and Palestine solidarity structures in Germany is increasingly aimed at undermining their economic means of existence, says LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI
Decades of centre-left accommodation and deepening inequality have opened the door to a hard-right restoration — posing stark challenges for the left, argues FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ
Despite systemic racism and far-right hostility, Britain’s migrant and black communities continue to contribute, inspire, and resist. Through education, art, and intergenerational solidarity, the next generation can help shape a future rooted in justice, understanding, and hope, says ZITA HOLBOURNE
JULIA BARD looks at the persistence of anti-semitism on the political right – and its troubling emergence on parts of the left, too
From the mainstreaming of far-right ideas to Europe’s looming conflicts, 2025 has been a year of sharp warnings. The coming year demands decisive action before these crises escalate, writes ANDREW MURRAY
VENEZUELA’S election this weekend takes place in a context dominated by Venezuela’s robust economic recovery, which, considering the calamitous situation the country found itself as late as the end of 2020, the 1 per cent rate of inflation June this year and an expected rate of growth for 2024 of between 5 to 8 per cent, is near miraculous.
This is despite the application of 930 unilateral coercive measures (aka “sanctions”) that caused havoc in the period 2015-23. A confirmation of this recovery is the return of nearly a million Venezuelans who were persuaded with false promises and as part of psychological campaign of fear to leave the country during the worst moments of the effects of the aggressive and brutal US sanctions against this South American nation.
Additionally, the high and enthusiastic levels of mass mobilisation of pro-Maduro forces contrasts sharply with the rather weak rallies of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, supported and literally handled by extreme right-wing politician, Maria Corina Machado, with people being bussed around the cities where they have been held.
Similar stories
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
The global left must be unwavering in it is support for Venezuela as Washington increases its aggression, and clear-eyed about the West’s cynical motives for targeting it, says CLAUDIA WEBBE
With its track record of leveraging cultural power for US gain and barely concealed promotion of coup attempts, the US Agency for International Development will not be mourned among the US’s southern neighbours, write JOHN PERRY and ROGER D HARRIS
FIONA SIM of the Black Liberation Alliance reports on a whirlwind week in Caracas, including President Maduro’s inauguration