[WSMDiscuss] Progressive International Launches 'To Form a Common Front' in Global Struggle for Justice and a Better World

Tue May 12 14:25:54 CEST 2020

Thankyou!

Finally an open space answer to the corona crisis has emerged. The global
simultaneous crisis makes more or less all of the WSF declaration
relevant. But the social forum process have shown its weakness in
responding to the situation with the exception to my knowledge of Europe
and especially Central and Eastern Europe. The model of the so called
European/Prague Spring 2020 was organized contrary to the open space
formula explicitly as an assembly of social movements with no
selforganized side activities. There will be an evaluation meeting later
today so i can come back to the outcome of this event with two webinars
organized by 8 organizations that did not cooperate before.

With the Progressive International (PI) for god and bad the tendencies in
the open space concept as it has been carried forward by WSF has been used
to address covid19. Officially WSF was not for parties, peoples movements
and NGOs only as well as individuals was the formula- But the sneakdoor was
opened for political parties by inviting politicians "in their personal
character".

This opening towards political parties, and then in general not the more
radical, becomes with the PI dominant. Most of the council members comes
from political parties, the rest from radical single issue campaigning and
media. Very few from peoples movements.

It will serve as a good complementary function to the several peoples
movement initiatives.

I will come back with some more analysis

Tord Björk

email: tord.bjork at gmail.com, skype: tordbjork, tel: +46 (0)722 15 16 90
address: Götgatan 7 A, 29133 Kristianstad, Sweden

On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 2:36 AM Jai Sen <jai.sen at cacim.net> wrote:

> Monday, May 11, 2020
>
> *Viruses in movement…, The Left in movement…, Resistance in movement…*
>
> [It certainly has some big names there, but how and where this new-old
> initiative fits into and relates to what else is already happening – and in
> particular with local, national, and issue-wise initiatives and struggles
> on the ground, and what it thinks it can do - is not clear from this
> article, however, and – with all due respect - some of its rhetoric
> positively worries me :
>
> "It's not easy," Chomsky continued. "There are forces fighting back. The
> International is going to be facing similar attacks. To overcome them, it
> depends on the peasants with the pitchforks."
>
>
> Published on Monday, May 11, 2020 by
>
> Common Dreams <https://www.commondreams.org/>
>
> *Progressive International Launches 'To Form a Common Front' in Global
> Struggle for Justice and a Better World*
>
> "Nothing less than the future of the planet is at stake."
>
> Eoin Higgins, staff writer
> <https://www.commondreams.org/author/eoin-higgins-staff-writer>, Common
> Dreams
>
>
> https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/11/progressive-international-launches-form-common-front-global-struggle-justice-and?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email
>
> [image: "There is a global struggle taking place of enormous consequence,"
> said Progressive International on Monday. "Nothing less than the future of
> the planet is at stake." (Image: Progressive International)]
> "There is a global struggle taking place of enormous consequence," said
> Progressive International on Monday. "Nothing less than the future of the
> planet is at stake." (Image: Progressive International)
>
>
> A coalition of left-leaning thinkers, activists, organizations, and
> political leaders from around the world on Monday officially launched the
> Progressive International, a new global effort aimed to provide the world
> with an alternative to the ravages of neoliberal capitalism in a world
> gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, gross economic inequality, and
> corporate domination.
>
> "The time has come for progressives everywhere to form a common front,"
> the group declared
> <https://twitter.com/ProgIntl/status/1259737897755971589> on Monday as it
> called on people around the world to sign on for the effort
> <https://progressive.international/join/>.
>
> In 2018, Yanis Varoufakis of the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25) and
> Jane O'Meara Sanders of the Sanders Institute issued
> <https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/30/it-time-progressives-world-unite-sanders-varoufakis-issue-open-call-new-global>
> an open call for a new global progressive grassroots efforts that would
> help unify international pro-democracy movement.
>
> In an official statement announcing
> <https://diem25.org/the-progressive-international-an-open-call-to-all-progressive-forces/>
> its formation on Monday, the Progressive International said it was now
> taking up that call and would act as an "institution for the world's
> progressive forces, with a mission to make solidarity more than a slogan."
>
> "There is a global struggle taking place of enormous consequence," the
> group said. "Nothing less than the future of the planet is at stake."
>
> Linguist Noam Chomsky, in an interview with the *Guardian *on the launch
> of the group Monday, said
> <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/11/donald-trump-is-culpable-in-deaths-of-americans-says-noam-chomsky>
> that the urgency created by the outbreak was due in part to the two
> approaches to the crisis being promoted by policy makers around the globe.
>
> "One is let's take the savage, Reagan, Thatcher approach and make it
> worse. That's one way," said Chomsky. "The other way is to try to dismantle
> the structures, the institutional structures that have been created; that
> have led to very ugly consequences for much of the population of much of
> the world, [and] are the source of this pandemic."
>
> "It's not easy," Chomsky continued. "There are forces fighting back. The
> International is going to be facing similar attacks. To overcome them, it
> depends on the peasants with the pitchforks."
>
> The group's council <https://progressive.international/council> includes
> big names in the left-wing sphere from around the world, including Naomi
> Klein, Arundhati Roy, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, among others.
>
> Varoufakis told the *Guardian *Monday that a left coalition had "been
> urgent for quite a while now" and that he hoped the crises brought about by
> the coronavirus had not made the left "late to the party."
>
> The bankers and the fascists have so far been the only ones to have
> organised internationally. It is now the turn of progressives. The
> Progressive International is now in full flight. Our new web site went on
> air a few minutes ago. Watch this space. https://t.co/TFClVsAIc4
>
> — Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) May 11, 2020
> <https://twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1259713531861184517?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
>
> The Greek economist added that he was skeptical the E.U.'s economic zone
> would survive the outbreak and warned the one percent would take as much of
> the subcontinent's wealth as possible in the decline.
>
> "I don't think the eurozone can survive it," said Varoufakis. "But it can
> survive long enough to deplete huge amounts of wealth and social capital.
> Europe is rich enough, it can pretend and extend."
>
> Former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell, a member of the group's
> council, said to the *Guardian* that he had hope the coalition could do
> some good for the world.
>
> "This initiative comes at just the right time," said McDonnell. "It's
> about the nature of society we want."
>
> ____________________________
>
> Jai Sen
>
> Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of
> International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of
> Ottawa
>
> jai.sen at cacim.net
>
> Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on
> unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900)
>
> CURRENT / RECENT publications :
>
> Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – *The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our
> Dance*. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
> <http://www.pmpress.org/>
>
> Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – *The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us
> Move ?* (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration
> with OpenWord and PM Press.  Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN
> <https://www.amazon.in/dp/9387280101/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522884070&sr=8-2&keywords=movements+of+movements+jai+sen>
> , MOM1Flipkart
> <https://www.flipkart.com/the-movements-of-movements/p/itmf3zg7h79ecpgj?pid=9789387280106&lid=LSTBOK9789387280106NBA1CH&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_1&otracker=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=ff35b702-e6a8-4423-b014-16c84f6f0092.9789387280106.SEARCH&ppt=Search%20Page>,
> and MOM1AUpFront <http://www.authorsupfront.com/movements.htm>
>
> Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – *The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us
> Move ?*.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and
> hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
>
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