It seems pretty clear now that even the leaders of the Leave campaign in the UK’s referendum on the European Union didn’t believe that Brexit could win. UKIP’s leader Nigel Farage not once but twice conceded a narrow defeat on election night before the results for Sunderland indicated a much bigger Leave vote than predicted […]
15 Jun
Labor, unsurprisingly, refuses to concede any policy mandate for a Turnbull victory. Nor do the Greens, the Nick Xenophon Team or most of the independents. The mandate theory, once applying to an elected government’s program, has been corrupted to mean every party and independent has a mandate against the government. This year’s policy contest may […]
02 Mar
GUEST POST BY SIMON COPLAND Last weekend dealt a blow to the Bernie Sanders juggernaut. Pipped at the post by rival Hillary Clinton in Nevada and crushed by her in South Carolina, Sanders’s route to the Democratic nomination is looking tougher than ever. Many will mourn this potential loss. Yet I am not feeling the […]
25 Jan
Racist … fascist … Islamophobe … a racist piece of shit … immigrant hater … a right-wing nativist populist … bigot … racist asshole … an ugly and dangerous force in American politics … full fascist —Recent descriptions of Donald Trump from various sections of the US liberal and socialist Left We’re at that stage […]
05 Oct
Following on from Part 1 and Part 2 of my analysis — which were first published in abridged form as a single article at Jacobin Magazine — I bring the Greek tragedy up to date with why the Syriza breakaway Popular Unity failed its first electoral test, as well as delving deeper into the dead-end of trying […]
02 Oct
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Left Flank’s Kevin Ovenden has just released his book on Syriza, and its rise as a key party of the European radical Left. Syriza: Inside the Labyrinth is a must-read for those interested in radical politics in Greece, and more broadly across Europe. Many of you will have followed Kevin’s posts on Greece through this blog. We were very pleased to work […]
22 Sep
This is the second of three parts of my analysis of the Greek radical Left debacle. Part 1 focused on the lead-up to the referendum in July. Part 3 will focus on the most recent developments, including the election result, and respond to some criticisms of my argument that have emerged within the Marxist Left. While my prediction that Tsipras […]
21 Sep
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The results of the Greek election, with Syriza again able to rule with the help of the hard-right nationalists of ANEL (the Independent Greeks), represents a further blow to the radical Left political project in Europe. Syriza now has an electoral mandate to implement the austerity deal it agreed with the Eurogroup, and which saw […]
17 Sep
On the occasion of the second anniversary of the murder of Greek antifascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, we are publishing a detailed account and political analysis of the crime and the neo-Nazi organisation behind it, Golden Dawn, written by THANASIS KAMPAGIANNIS, one of the lawyers involved in the trial. Left Flank strongly encourages all our readers […]
17 Aug
Let’s get something clear right away — same-sex marriage has not been and will not be the kind of issue that could destroy Tony Abbott’s prime ministership. Electorally, despite overwhelming popular support for equal marriage rights, it has consistently been a lower-order issue in terms of votes. And within the party room Abbott is on the […]
26 Jun
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