New left party’s polling a wake-up call for LabourOf course, it is only an opinion poll. And it is four years until Starmer next has to face a general election. But the findings are consistent with other polls, showing Labour support dropping still further and potential backing for a new socialist electoral option swelling. The new party has no formal existence or name. Its policies on many issues can be readily inferred but it has no agreed platform or manifesto. Nor is its strategy clear. That there is nevertheless so much enthusiasm for so ill-defined a project speaks both to the yawning gaps left by Starmer’s stampede to the right and to the legacy of Corbyn’s own leadership of the party, which inspired so many. The warnings from Unite of union disaffiliation if there is no change in government attitudes compounds the sense of crisis around Labour and of possibility around a new party. One way to address Labour’s crisis is therefore obvious. Cease the degrading and futile pursuit of Reform and Tory voters by pandering to their presumed prejudices and remake the government around a consistently progressive agenda. That would entail abandoning welfare cuts and other austerity measures and, at the same time, discarding the fiscal rules which are strangling the economy. If such a turn requires buttressing by capital controls, so be it. There should be a sustained programme of state intervention to address inequality and corporate abuses — start with nationalising Thames Water without further prevarication. It would also require a complete halt to all forms of support for Israel and real pressure to secure freedom for the Palestinians, as well as disengaging from Nato’s futile war in Ukraine, while restoring the eye-watering cuts to the overseas aid budget.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/new-left-partys-polling-wake-call-labourOn Trial for Solidarity: Germany Targets Palestine ActivistBaki Devrimkaya, a nursing student and activist in solidarity with Palestine in Germany, is on trial for alleged assault. The plaintiff is one of Berlin’s most well-known Zionists. The lawsuit for alleged assault is based on a lecture hall occupation on December 14, 2023, at the Free University of Berlin. There, Baki nonviolently defended access to the occupied lecture hall against counterprotesters who shouted genocidal quotes from Israeli politicians as they tore down posters and pictures and harassed activists at the entrance to the lecture hall. The lecture hall occupation was one of many occupations in Berlin that were met with massive police violence and broken up. The authorities continue to criminalize protests in solidarity with Palestine by different means. In the fall of 2023, demonstrations were often prohibited entirely. The baseless lawsuit against Baki is therefore not an isolated case, but part of a massive campaign of repression against activists in solidarity with Palestine. Since October 7, 2023, hundreds of students and demonstrators have faced lawsuits because they were reported to the police in connection with lecture hall occupations and demonstrations. Internationally, the Palestinian movement has also been persecuted with baseless accusations, such as the recent case of railway worker and member of Révolution Permanente, Anasse Kazib, who was charged with “apology for terrorism” for tweets in solidarity with Palestine, or European Parliament member Rima Hassan (LFI). Nevertheless, the Palestinian movement continues to bring millions onto the streets around the world and has staged progressive actions such as the blockade of arms deliveries by port workers, which offer a perspective for an end to the genocide.
https://www.leftvoice.org/on-trial-for-solidarity-germany-targets-palestine-activist/After the coupsIn the early morning of July 26, 2023, Niger’s Presidential Guard stormed the Presidential Palace in Niamey and detained the democratically elected head of state, Mohamed Bazoum. What followed was a high-intensity standoff between Niger’s coup leaders and the regional bloc of which it was a member—the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The leadership of ECOWAS threatened a military intervention to restore democratic rule if President Bazoum was not reinstated by August 6. Yet the deadline passed without incident, and over the months that followed a historic split emerged as Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, all coup-afflicted ECOWAS states, formed a mutual defense pact dubbed the Alliance of Sahel States (Alliance des États du Sahel or AES) in opposition to ECOWAS’ mandate. In January 2024, the three countries announced their intent to formally withdraw from the bloc. After a mandatory one-year transition period, the AES countries finalized their withdrawal from ECOWAS on January 29 of this year. Despite long-term ambitions, the AES as a regional bloc faces an uncertain future. All three member countries are battling terrorist insurgencies in addition to severe climate threats and various levels of isolation from regional partners like ECOWAS, the African Union, and former allies in Europe. The bloc recently created a joint military force of 5,000 troops, yet it remains significantly smaller than the 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission that left the region in 2023. To fill the gap, the AES countries are partnering with mercenary corps such as Russia’s Wagner Group——an approach that has yielded mixed results at best. Moscow recently subsumed the Wagner Group’s regional operations into the more integrated Africa Corps, a division under more direct supervision of the Russian Ministry of Defence—but reports from June 2025 indicate the Africa Corps continues a pattern of mass atrocities associated with the Wagner Group’s operations in Mali. Nevertheless, an effective response to the terrorist threat permeating the borders of the AES is urgently needed. At the same time, AES leaders cannot lose sight of the institutional frameworks required to entrench the alliance and ensure longer-term regional stability. Striking the balance between these two priorities is a task that will test the alliance’s cohesion, political will, and ability to deliver security and governance where previous regional efforts have fallen short. Failure to balance security and structural priorities will undermine the very metrics the AES regimes use to legitimize their own rule and cast the survival of the alliance into doubt.
https://africasacountry.com/2025/07/after-the-coups/