Elections Reflections

by Ted Glick / November 6th, 2025

Yesterday’s election results are tremendously positive and hopeful for democratic socialists, progressives, liberals and just plain democracy lovers. The Trump regime was soundly defeated in important elections all across the country. The people made history!

But I woke up this morning wanting to reflect on the issue of elections, not so much from the standpoint of winners and losers but as a cultural/political phenomenon, how important they are on both personal and societal levels.

As I’ve grown older I have been doing a lot of grassroots, person-to-person electoral work, door-knocking and talking to people for months leading up to and on election day. This year I did it exclusively in my town of Bloomfield, NJ, a small town of about 50,000 people, historically a white working-class suburb of Newark but now a very multi-racial, multi-cultural, mainly commuter town.

I saw many thousands of these sister/brother/sibling townspeople over the last five days at early voting and election day voting sites. I was outside on the street for about 30 hours observing and interacting with this beautiful mix of people of different colors, languages and ages, all taking part in the USA voting process, standing in line together, talking with one another, sometimes exchanging hugs and handshakes with those they knew. Some were MAGA supporters and others were very much on the opposite end of the political spectrum, but I didn’t see or hear of any major conflicts or fights as we all stood in line to vote or interacted on our way to and from the polls.

Then there were the parents bringing children, wonderful, energetic young children learning very experientally about democracy and election day, knowledge that will develop and deepen as long as this way, this special way of choosing government leaders, continues to be the USA norm.

There were the old and disabled making their way, some very slowly and carefully, to get into the voting site. I am always inspired as I see these folk putting themselves out because they clearly believe it is important for them to do so, important to take part in this ritual of democracy. Several people yesterday couldn’t walk, were in wheelchairs that had to be pushed by others. They were determined to get into that polling site and do their part on this one day to keep democracy alive and well.

As we know, the Trumpists want to destroy democracy, make the process of voting harder and harder, especially for Black, Latino/a and Indigenous people, students and low-income people—the working-class majority. They want to take us back to the days before Black people had the right to vote in the South, before the Voting Rights Act. They want Brown and Black people to feel so afraid and intimidated by ICE and the Border Patrol and other agents of repression that they stay in their homes on election day.

I think they’re going to fail at that, overall. There are literally millions of us prepared to take risks to defend these sisters and brothers and to defend democracy. Over time, many of us understand that this democracy is in need of serious reform to become much more democratic through public financing of elections, ranked-choice voting, proportional representation and more.

In the meantime, as we work with the democracy we have, let’s draw strength from what happened yesterday, not just on the big, national macro level—Trump Must Go!—but on the very local levels where the US American people once again showed that we, the people, not the billionaires, not the fascists, not the would-be kings, ultimately are the ultimate deciders.

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Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org. Read other articles by Ted, or visit Ted's website.

Gaza Crisis: Will Britain Ensure Peace Is Set in a Legal Framework?

And will peace moves deliver long-awaited justice?

by Stuart Littlewood / November 6th, 2025

Baroness Chapman (Minister of State for International Development) has been telling Parliament: “We all wish this peace process well and will do everything we possibly can to see it sustained.”

At the same time John Healey (Secretary of State for Defence), answering a question, said it was not the case that British troops were in Gaza to monitor the ceasefire. “A small handful of British forces personnel have been deployed to the Civil-Military Co-ordination Centre at the request of the US, and it is the US that is leading that work.”

Neither of them is questioning the legitimacy of what’s going on. Hadn’t they noticed that there is no proper peace process, no legal framework? And under what authority is the US “leading that work”?

A team of 28 independent human rights experts, appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, have said that a permanent ceasefire, a rapid release of unlawfully detained persons, an influx of humanitarian aid under United Nations supervision, no forced displacement, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and non-annexation of territory are all normal requirements of international law and shouldn’t depend on a formal peace plan.

But they argue that other elements of Trump’s plan are inconsistent with fundamental rules of international law and the 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which demands that Israel ends its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

They list no fewer than 15 serious objections including these:

Any peace plan must respect the ground rules of international law. The future of Palestine must be in the hands of the Palestinian people, not imposed on them under duress by outsiders.

The United Nations – not Israel or its closest ally – has been identified by the ICJ as the legitimate authority to oversee the end of the occupation and transition towards a political solution in which the Palestinians’ right of self-determination is fully realised.

The plan does not guarantee the Palestinian right of self-determination as international law requires, and is subject to vague pre-conditions concerning Gaza’s redevelopment, Palestinian Authority reform, and a “dialogue” between Israel and Palestine. Palestine’s future would thus be at the mercy of decisions by outsiders, not in the hands of Palestinians as international law commands.

The plan also requires more negotiations with Israel, when the Israeli Prime Minister has already declared that Israel would “forcibly resist” statehood. Fulfilling the right of self-determination cannot be conditional on negotiations.

The “temporary transitional government” is not representative of Palestinians and even excludes the Palestinian Authority, which further violates self-determination and lacks legitimacy.

Oversight by a “Board of Peace” chaired by the US President is not under United Nations authority or transparent multilateral control, while the US is a deeply partisan supporter of Israel and not an “honest broker”.

An “International Stabilisation Force”, outside the control of the Palestinian people and the United Nations as a guarantor, would simply replace the Israeli occupation with a US-led occupation.

Partial Israeli occupation continues indefinitely through a “security perimeter” inside Gaza’s borders, which is absolutely unacceptable.

Nothing is said about de-militarisation of Israel, which has committed the worst imaginable international crimes against the Palestinians and threatened peace and security in the region through aggression against other countries. Likewise, de-radicalisation is imposed on Gaza only, while public incitement to genocide has been dominant rhetoric in Israel.

The plan largely treats Gaza in isolation from the West Bank including East Jerusalem, when these areas must be regarded as a unified Palestinian territory and State. The plan does not address other fundamental issues such as ending illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), borders, compensation, and refugees.

The proposed “economic development plan” and “special economic zone” could result in illegal foreign exploitation of resources without Palestinian consent.

The International Court of Justice has been crystal clear: conditions cannot be placed on the Palestinian right of self-determination. The Israeli occupation must end immediately, totally and unconditionally, with due reparation made to the Palestinians. But there is no duty on Israel and those who have sustained its illegal attacks in Gaza to compensate Palestinians for illegal war damage.

So what exactly did Trump and his special guests sign at the peace summit at Sharm el-Sheikh on 13 October? It was called The Trump Declaration for Enduring Peace and Prosperity – Presidential Memoranda. Only around 30 of the 193 members states of the United Nations attended. Hamas and Israel were both absent. The document was sheer woffle and signed only by Trump, El-Sisi, Al-Thani and Erdogan. How representative was this charade? How legally valid?

Trump and some of his allies seem totally ignorant of their solemn duty to recognise Palestinian statehood. So, where does all this leave the near-universal pledge to recognise Palestinian as a state (and make it happen)?

Fortunately, UN Resolution 37/43 of December 1982 is there to help. It comprehensively re-affirms previous resolutions and treaties on the universal right to self-determination and the speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples in order to provide an effective guarantee that human rights may be observed. Note the words “speedy granting”. Palestinians have been kept waiting for over 100 years for a guarantee of their rights.

And 37/43 considers that denying the Palestinian people their inalienable rights to self-determination, sovereignty, independence and return to Palestine, and the repeated acts of aggression by Israel against the peoples of the region, constitute a serious threat to international peace and security. It strongly condemns those Governments that do not recognise the right to self-determination and independence of all peoples still under colonial and foreign domination and alien subjugation, notably the Palestinian people.

So nations participating in Trump’s plan, including Britain, ought to have known better. It delivers a short break in the carnage and an exchange of (some) prisoners but was otherwise formulated with ulterior motives. Genuine peace and respect for Palestinian rights are simply not on Trump’s agenda.

Why is the Palestinian Authority so ill-prepared?

The International Development Committee in its Third Special Report of Session 2024–25 published in April 2025 announced it had begun planning for the ‘next phase’ in Gaza, with the Government preparing to take a leading role in the process. “The Government must detail how it intends to take immediate action to halt the attacks on Palestinian civilians and lands, notwithstanding its respect for judicial rulings on the matter. The Government “partially agreed”, but we’re given no details on progress.

The Committee also reported: “On 15 October 2024, the Foreign Secretary announced new sanctions targeting three illegal settler outposts and four organisations that have supported and sponsored violence against communities in the West Bank.” This was a pathetic response considering armed Israeli squatters, under the Allon Plan, have been terrorising Palestinians since 1967. The squatters and those who transfer them into the Palestinian homeland and fund and supply them (i.e. the Israeli government) are all classed as war criminals. They all need slapping with sanctions. Today there are well over 700,000 of them making Palestinians’ lives a misery.

The Committee went further, maintaining:

Israel continues to decry in public any potential investigation or ruling by international courts, giving the impression that it does not pay due regard to international law.

The Government must set out immediately the steps it will take, in line with global allies, to ensure that Israel is held accountable for any ongoing breaches of international humanitarian law.

The Government must set out how it intends to work with the international community to bring an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The Government, in partnership with its allies, must demand that Israel abides by its obligations under the Geneva Conventions and customary international law and facilitates access to detainees for officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Again, the Government “partially agreed” but we’ve heard nothing more.

The Committee said it was working to support and strengthen the Palestinian Authority as it delivers its reform agenda in preparation for recognition. That was many months ago and the PA seems hopelessly unprepared. What exactly has the British Government been doing all this time?

A UN Security Council draft resolution mandating an international stabilisation force is being circulated. Have you had sight of this, and if so, what is the UK Government’s stance please? And what is the Opposition’s view? Will there be a debate? Can we expect transparency?

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Stuart Littlewood, after working on jet fighters in the RAF, became an industrial marketing specialist. He served as a Cambridgeshire county councillor and a member of the Police Authority, produced two photo-documentary books including Radio Free Palestine (with foreword by Jeff Halper), and has contributed to online news and opinion publications over many years. Read other articles by Stuart, or visit Stuart's website.

Radicalisation on right and left while centre crumbles in Britain

Tuesday 4 November 2025, by Dave Kellaway


Dave Kellaway assesses the political situation where creeping fascism is advancing, the Labour centre is not holding but radicalisation to the left is also significant.

1. Creeping fascism ratchets up a gear

The forms of creeping fascism are:

- the continued rise of Farage’s racist Reform UK
- this overlaps, including in membership, with a Tommy Robison/fascist led street mobilisations
- a disintegrating Tory party adopting increasingly hard right authoritarian policies.

Reform support still growing

The Caerphilly by-election, where Reform failed to win but went from 2 per cent in the previous election to 36 per cent shows that the national polling, consistently showing it over 30 per cent is, if anything, underestimates its support. Taking all the council by-elections since the last general election, Reform averages the highest of all parties at 30 per cent. This figure is not dependent on exceptionally low turnout. Analysts have explained how Reform are bringing previous non-voters to the poll. Caerphilly had a bigger turnout than most Senedd elections.

Reform is aiming to consolidate by forming branches in as many constituencies as possible. Its progress towards over 900 local councillors helps this base building. Funds are plentiful and it is professionalising its operation with many staff defecting from the Tories. It aims to contest many more seats than ever before in the May 2026 local, Scots and Welsh elections. Tory MP Danny Kruger, who was still on the up in Badenoch’s party, is the latest recruit and recently twenty councillors in Hampshire and Dorset have also changed camp. Voices inside the Tory Party are openly calling for an electoral agreement with Reform to save what is left of the party.

At the moment polls show there is still a majority in against having Farage as prime minister and Caerphilly shows there a potential for tactical voting to block Reform’s progress. Unfortunately for Starmer, Labour is so unpopular that it may not be seen as the fulcrum around which anti-Farage forces will coalesce. Nationalist, Green or left parties like Your Party could well be that focus. It would be a disaster for the Left, and would not even necessarily work, if the majority of movement thought the only way to stop Reform were to rally around Starmer’s bankrupt government in some vaguely progressive alliance.

Fascist current is building

Tommy Robinson certainly pulled off a political coup with the 100,000 plus demonstration on 13September in probably the biggest fascist led demonstration ever in this country. Apart from the anti-migrant, anti-Islamic slogans we also saw the emergence of the sort of Christian Nationalist sentiments we have seen in the USA. Linking all migrants and asylum seekers to sexual violence and paedophilia was another reactionary falsehood that animated the mobilisation. In the weeks before and after this mobilisation we have seen the ‘Raising of the Flags’ campaign led by fascists. Union Jacks and the flag of St George have been put up, Six Counties style, on lamp posts. Kerbs or even roundabouts have been painted red, white and blue. Robinson also presents himself as a Zionist fighting anti-Semitism and was invited by senior politicians to visit Israel. When the controversy about Tel Aviv Maccabi fans erupted he immediately said he would be calling on his supporters, many of whom are football fans, to come out in their support.

Tories still shifting right

Within the Tory Party, there is a language and developing policies which mark a total break with the historical trajectory of this hugely successful political current. One nation conservatives like Michael Heseltine have openly condemned it. Robert Jenrick, defeated leadership candidate, on the other hand has enthusiastically joined up with the fascists raising the flags and has made a video in Handsworth in Birmingham where he whined about not seeing any white faces. Just last week a junior minster, Katie Lam, has called for a retrospective expulsion of millions of people who already have indefinite right to remain in this country – because we need a ‘coherent culture’. This pivot to the right has not benefitted the Tories – they lost their deposit with only 2% of the vote in Caerphilly.

We cannot exclude an electoral deal between the Tories and Reform or an absorption or reconfiguration of both currents into one party by the time of the next election. Like Starmer, Badenoch might not make it as leader that far.

A growing shift to right internationally

Creeping fascism here is integrally connected to the shift to the right internationally. Trump leads this with his assault on bourgeois democratic institutions – using and manipulating the law to attack political enemies, witchhunting the left and even progressives from universities, media and other institutions. He has sent the military and ICE (migrant control force) into cities to mostly harass and expel Black, Latinos and migrants. It is reported that many actual fascists from groups like the Proud Boys have been recruited to ICE.

Meanwhile Le Pen’s National Rally is looking well placed to win the next French Presidential elections, Meloni is consolidating her electoral coalition in Italy, Orban continues to rule Hungary. Across the world hard right or neofascist currents like Modi in India are growing.

Key sectors of the imperialist states and of the ruling class have concluded that the relative open democracies that stood alongside the post war boom can no longer be allowed. To re-establish their profit rates, wages need to be held down and social spending further radically reduced.

They are also refusing to pay for real solutions to the climate and ecological crisis. Reform and Badenoch have followed Trump in abandoning serious targets for net zero carbon emissions. They are increasingly supporting more robust, authoritarian political parties to carry out this offensive against working people. Senior civil servants are already in contact with Reform and corporate lobbyists are paying much more attention to Farage.
2. The centre is not holding

Starmer’s Labour government elected with its hollow parliamentary landslide on barely 33 per cent of the popular vote is in a deep crisis. It lost 35 per cent of its vote in Caerphilly and its national polling has been around 12 percentage points lower than its general election score. A recent poll – an outlier no doubt – placed it neck and neck with Zack Polanski’s Greens. As the by-election showed it is losing support to its right – to Reform and to its left – to Plaid. Elsewhere the Scot Nationalists, the Greens, the left independents and potentially Your Party are winning on the left of Labour.

Strategic partnership with capital

Starmer’s poorly elaborated strategy is fundamentally to develop a partnership with private capital to build more houses, maintain the NHS and to achieve growth so that it will be seen as providing some necessary services in contrast to the Tories but without breaking with the fundamental framework of austerity. . Extending public ownership or taxing wealth have been ruled out as an alternative way of providing funds for meeting people’s needs. This strategic partnership further dilutes an already timid environmental strategy. Its £28 billion eco energy strategy has been cut back sharply, developers have successfully sabotaged regulations that protect biodiversity and fossil capital has already got Labour to row back on its 100% green energy electricity generation by 2030. It looks like Labour will cave in on the further extraction of oil and gas from the Rosebank field.

The Guardian has revealed how the big corporate donors to Labour have got an early payback with many contracts:


The Autonomy Institute identified a total of 125 companies that were awarded central government contracts worth £28.8bn after previously making £30.15m of donations to a political party. About £2.5bn worth of those contracts were awarded within two years of the donation.

They include consultancy firm Baringa Partners, which donated £30,061.50 to Labour in January 2024 and received £35,196,719 worth of government contracts between July 2024 and March this year. Grant Thornton donated £81,658.37 between March 2023 and July 2024 and has since been awarded £6,541,819 in contracts.

Labour isn’t working

Certain limited, positive reforms such as extending nursery provision, increasing breakfast clubs, giving renters a few more rights and improving the labour laws are meant to keep its MPs and unions onboard and show electors it can bring real change. However these crumbs do not in any way balance the continued cost of living crisis, the dramatic housing crisis, the ecological crisis, devastating poverty with food banks still flourishing, the deficiencies of the NHS or the crumbling infrastructure such as water supply.

Growth is still weak, food inflation is still above 5%, sewage is still being spewed into our rivers and seas while profits flow to the shareholders and a lot of the other proposals are still having no effect.

Housing plans are in complete disarray as specialists say the 1.5 million target for houses built by the end of this parliament is a joke. Worse the response to this setback is to double down on the strategic partnership with the private developers. The latter will be allowed to build even fewer ‘affordable houses’ and the number of social rent houses will make hardly a minor dent into the homelessness figures. In any case, the housing crisis is not a crisis of supply or red tape but fundamentally one of affordability and the eradication of local authorities ability to build significant number of homes.

Labour is out-Reforming, reform – with little success

During the general election campaign Labour’s response to the threat of Reform was to practically ignore it because it was eating into Tory support. Since then it has desperately tried to mirror its anti-migrant narrative. Each week the Home Secretary, first Cooper, now Shabana Mohammed have searched for new ways of showing it is as tough on migrants and asylum seekers as Reform. So the period before you can claim permanent leave to remain has been doubled to ten years and new reactionary conditions imposed like A level English and volunteering. Predictably none of this has stopped Reform’s progress.

Labour has continued the Tory offensive against the right to protest and democratic rights. Mass arrests of people holding up cardboard signs continue. Starmer is said to be considering banning certain slogans on pro Palestine marches. Despite this, hundreds of thousands – mostly people who were more likely to vote Labour – are continuing to turn out regularly on the streets. Labour still does not recognise Israel is carrying out a genocide and is fully behind the Trump plan that is a colonial mandate rather than even a small step on the way to Palestinian self-determination.

Incompetency of Starmer and his team

Another reason for Starmer’s poor ratings is his faltering political leadership and management of his team even in delivering his own policies:

- failure to check out Mandelson’s relationship with the paedophile Epstein
- the regular loss of ministers like Rayner and others for infringements of the ministerial code of conduct
- the flop of the digital ID cards launch
- exaggerating the impact of smashing the gangs or the one in, one out plan
- the attempt to smear a Your Party MP with anti-Semitism over the ban of racist Maccabi football hooligans.

Of course a week after Starmer made it a national controversy these Islamophobic fans, whom he defended against the opposition of the local Birmingham communities, rioted in Israel at another match. The club is now not even organising away tickets. As the chant says, it has all gone quiet over there. It seems now Starmer is not even bothering to overturn the ban imposed by police, council and safety groups.

Starmer’s response to the government unpopularity is on show at the Labour conference is to step up verbal attacks on Reform while continuing the anti-migrant messaging and to make a few tweaks ever so slightly to his left. Labour looks like (partially?) ending the two child benefit gap and taking some tax measures that will to a minor degree hit the pockets of the wealthy. But this is all relative, since plans to further slash disabled people’s entitlement to benefits, cut motability allowances and ‘reform’ special needs support show that cuts to public spending will continue.

Deputy Leadership won by Powell

As expected the candidate of the loyal, ‘constructive’ opposition, Lucy Powell, duly won the deputy leadership by eight points, scoring 54%. Given she was the official Starmer candidate, Phillipson did better than the polls indicated.

Although Labour is deliberately not providing a breakdown between the membership vote in the constituency parties and those of affiliated trade union members who bothered to vote polling organisations have roughly calculated that perhaps 43% of the former voted. Survation estimates a party membership of 280,000 – well down of the last official declaration on membership and probably an over-estimation.

For those on the left still in the Labour party this was a small encouragement. Many are banking on this being a sign that someone like Andy Burnham could win a leadership challenge after the predicted electoral disaster of the May 2026 elections.

One thing you can count on after this vote is that Downing Street Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney and his team will be working flat out to prevent Burnham being allowed to get a seat anytime before May next year. More in the shadows they will be assessing which candidate on the right and centre of the party will be best placed to replace Starmer if he cannot be saved.

Labour left weakened

The small number of meetings and attendance at hustings during the deputy leadership campaigns suggests that party activism is very subdued. If Your Party successfully organises branches and does not score any more own goals we could see a combined Green/YP membership approach and perhaps overtake LP membership. In terms of activists on the ground those to the left of Labour will have the upper hand.

Those on the left of the party hope that Powell will somehow be able to apply pressure to get the apparatus to stop its war on the left. Recent candidate selections up and down the country seem to be following the McSweeney slogan of putting the left into the tomb. At the same time the fall off in members and unpopularity of the government means even finding people willing to stand has not been easy. For Starmer, one positive consequence of the Powell win will be prominent left MPs will not be jumping ship, at least for a while.

We should not write off what remains of the left inside Labour. The inept launch of Your Party and Powell’s win has meant they are staying in a wait and see mode and are not yet making the step to break with Labour. Their number is much reduced but Your Party should not ignore them and activists should work alongside them in the campaigns and trade unions.
3. A radicalisation on the left

All is not doom and gloom in today’s political situation. There is a counter offensive against creeping fascism. In the USA the No Kings mobilisations are big and getting bigger. In Italy and France the left has successfully brought millions out on the streets.

The Palestine solidarity campaign here and elsewhere has become a true mass movement. Hundreds of thousands demonstrated in London just a couple of weeks ago directly after the government and the mainstream mass media have mounted a narrative that the Trump ceasefire is a great step forward towards a two state solution. Palestine has been one of the key reasons so many activists and voters have abandoned Starmer’s Labour. Many people, particularly younger activists are joining left of Labour groups as a result of getting involved in Palestine solidarity. We are in a different position to the demoralisation we experienced at the defeat of the Corbyn project inside Labour.

Greens surge with Polanski

The Greens are also benefitting from all this mobilisation on Palestine but also from continued protests to defend our environment. Zack Polanski’s leadership victory on a platform that included socialist demands as well as a radical green agenda has had a huge impact. Today the Greens have more members than the Lib Dems and the Tories.

Zack is a good communicator on the media and has not backtracked on his progressive policies on migrants, Palestine or the wealth tax. He defends common ownership and reducing the dizzying levels of inequality in Britain. We see him on the streets on protests for Gaza and against fossil fuel corporations.

Importantly he is open to electoral arrangements between the Greens and Your Party. Already in Hackney for example there is cooperation between Green and independent Left councillors, not just on electoral arrangements for next May, but in action bringing disinvestment campaigns into the council chamber.

In the discussions around setting up Your Party some sectarian and ultra left voices have denounced the Greens and opposed electoral deals with them. Many of those who have joined the Greens are ex-Corbyn supporters and some who have joined recently could well have joined Your Party if there had not been all the missteps along the way. Sneering (often inaccurate) about the whiteness or middle class character of the Greens is just unhelpful.

We have an historic opportunity of seriously weakening the hegemony of Labourism on the labour movement but that cannot be done if we fail to get unity in action and in elections with the Greens. Some on the left just do not see the importance of Your Party adopting a clear eco-socialist programme which connects all issues threatening our planet with inequality and the class struggle. What we have seen of Zack Polanski so far is somebody is pretty good at making those links.
Potential and problems with Your Party

Your Party has its problems no doubt. There does seem to be a group around Jeremy – we could call them his courtiers – who are not that keen on Sultana overshadowing their leader and who are extremely wary of losing their position in the leadership of the project. To a degree their reluctance to adopt a delegate type structure for the assemblies and conference seems to arise from a concern that activists opposed to their views (maybe in the organised left groups) would have too much of a platform. The line in the proposed constitution about not having dual membership of YP and another current could be used to stop the intervention of left formations.

Despite all this we need to focus on to the big picture. Up to 300 meetings of ‘proto’ local YP branches have been held. Some big rallies and meetings have produced positive feedback from participants. Some meetings so far have successfully brought people together, some have not.

The revolutionary left has to understand that if YP is going to be a mass left party then they have to tread carefully and not see all the members just as people they can recruit to their group. To be successful, we need tens of thousands of activists who do not define themselves as Marxist or who do not currently see their priority as smashing the bourgeois state.

Hopefully the fact that lots of left groups will be working inside the new party will help their members reflect on how to work with new activists in an open and friendly way which does not lead them to vow to never return for another local meeting with all those paper sellers. Sometimes it is about language and presentation. For example if you have 10 of your group in a meeting they don’t all have to speak and when they speak they should not all sound like the same article in that week’s newspaper.

Fighting back for the planet and all our futures

Another positive by product of different left currents working in the same environment may be a less antagonistic approach between them. Working together to steer the new party could encourage militants to question the need for so many left groups given they often have agreements over about 80 to 90% of their policies.

We should not allow the difficulties of having to organise at this stage through the sortition mechanism hold up the progress for the establishment of strong branches in every area. Sometimes goodwill and positive attitudes can work wonders, even in politics.

In Britain and internationally we are involved in a race between creeping fascism producing further defeats for working people and an uncertain future for our planet and the development of a socially progressive alternative that could lead to a truly eco-socialist future. If our side loses the results would be catastrophic.

30 October 2025

Source: Anti*Capiralist Resistance.


Attached documentsradicalisation-on-right-and-left-while-centre-crumbles-in_a9248.pdf (PDF - 934 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article9248]

Britain
Gaza and Global Neofascism
Anti‑militarism without pacifism
Labour, tough on Grannies, easy on genocide
Palestine Action ban is an attack on fundamental freedoms
Building grassroots trade unionism – Troublemakers

Dave Kellaway is a Socialist Resistance and Fourth International supporter within Anti*Capitalist Resistance.


International Viewpoint is published under the responsibility of the Bureau of the Fourth International. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect editorial policy. Articles can be reprinted with acknowledgement, and a live link if possible.

Tunisia

The Gulf of Gabès between pollution and successive policies of marginalization

Wednesday 5 November 2025, by Collective


The Gabès chemical complex was created in 1972 to transform raw phosphate extracted from the Gafsa mines into manufactured chemicals, ready for use in industry and agriculture, such as "phosphoric acid", ammonite, ammonium phosphate and ammonium diphosphate fertilizer.


What the Gabès governorate is experiencing today is not so much a surprise as a continuation of the struggle waged by the region’s inhabitants for their right to live in a healthy environment. The first demonstrations date back to 2011 in the municipality of Ghnouch , where this complex is located. This region was, and remains, to put it mildly, a disaster zone due to the scale of the damage caused by the phosphogypsum discharge .

It is estimated that 14,000 tons of this chemical were dumped near the complex, rendering the beach uninhabitable and leading to the accumulation of a thick layer of the chemical. Numerous heavy metals, such as platinum (a radioactive substance), mercury, and lead, are also deposited there. Thousands of tons of sulphur dioxide are also released into the depths of the sea. This has made the waters of neighbouring beaches highly acidic. The beach sand has been transformed into an acidic clay, most fish species have disappeared, and the number of pollution-resistant species has decreased in areas far from the chemical complex. At atmospheric levels, thousands of tons of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) are released daily, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of people suffering from respiratory illnesses, particularly cancer.

Most of the residents living near this complex also suffer from osteoporosis… That is why one of the main demands of the region’s inhabitants at the time was the creation of a university hospital. This demand was postponed at every stage of government that followed… But it was perhaps in 2013 that this demand was strongest, when a group of regional executives presented a series of studies, as well as a project aimed at recycling some of the chemical waste and using it industrially to reduce pollution, according to the authors of the studies. But the decision-makers did not respond seriously to these studies and did not seek to find concrete solutions through their official institutions.
Chronology

October 2016: A wide-ranging debate erupted following the announcement of the death of a worker asphyxiated by gases at the Gabès ammonia plant, and the subsequent official denial of any ammonia leak. This event remains a stark indicator of the fragility of industrial safety in the region.

Year 2017: According to archived local publications, a gas pipeline explosion was recorded at the entrance to Ghnouch, which revived residents’ fears about gas-related risks in the industrial zone.

But these protests took a decisive turn in 2017, when they ceased to be the preserve of an elite and pf some associations and became a grassroots movement. Policies of procrastination, ignorance, and indifference may have allowed the region’s inhabitants to become aware and convinced that they had the right to fight for a clean environment and that there was no other way to improve their situation than to struggle and protest against the authorities. This led the government of Youssef Chahed to open a dialogue with the region’s inhabitants and to decide to dismantle the Gabès chemical complex in 2019.

2019: Repeated protests in Ghnouch due to "suffocating gas" emitted by units of the complex, according to documents collected on the terrain and videos shot by activists, and complaints reporting isolated cases of suffocation.

March 2020: Fire in the ammonia plant of the Gabès chemical complex, according to local records, with renewed discussions about the dangers of emissions to public health.

2021-2024: Complaints about suffocating odours and emissions in the vicinity of Ghnouch, Bouchema and Chatt al-Salam continue, and press articles and civil organizations confirm repeated exposure to gases irritating to the respiratory tract, although official figures on the number of cases are not available.

September 2025: A wave of suffocation cases in Gabès is dubbed the "month of suffocation" by the media. Multiple reports document dozens of cases in Ghnouch, Chatt el-Salam, and Bouchema over several consecutive days, including schoolchildren. Documented examples include 36 cases in two days according to Tunisie Numérique, 50 cases transported to the hospital according to Al-Ain Al-Akhbar, and other isolated cases recorded at the Ghnouch hospital .

September 30, 2025: 14 students hospitalized after a toxic gas leak in the complex.

October 10, 2025: Cases of asphyxiation among students at Chatt Al-Salam College, some of whom were taken to hospital, with confirmation of the repetition of similar incidents in the same establishment during the week.

October 10-14, 2025: Intensification of protests and dozens of additional cases of suffocation and breathing difficulties. Local authorities report more than 120 cases requiring emergency intervention or hospitalization in early October.

October 16-22, 2025: Mass demonstrations and a general strike in Gabès due to a wave of suffocation incidents. International agencies document the increase in cases of poisoning and acute respiratory distress, as well as clashes with security forces. Reports confirm the age of the facilities and the increase in emissions of ammonia and nitrogen dioxide.

The demands of the region’s inhabitants, initially limited to improved safety conditions, the treatment of polluted gas and water, and the establishment of medical facilities, have evolved into a demand for the implementation of the decision to close the chemical complex, scheduled for 2019. However, like all government decisions that affect the interests of capital, this measure has been postponed. On the contrary, under the current administration, production has doubled, in blatant disregard of all safety standards. The complex has also decided to create a new manufacturing unit for DAP18-46, which is in high demand on the global market.

This measure is considered a provocation by the region’s inhabitants and a direct attack on the environment, not only in the affected area but throughout the region, particularly in the fishing and agricultural sectors (whose incomes have declined due to decreased profitability and the shrinking of areas suitable for these activities). These policy choices aim to maximize production by 2025 so that the state can gather as many financial resources as possible to repay its debts to the International Monetary Fund and international lenders.
A mass struggle

The environmental struggle in the Gulf of Gabès has shifted from a minority movement to a popular one, as evidenced by the general strike on Tuesday, October 21, 2025. The strike was 100 per cent effective, with over 135,000 citizens participating in the protest march, meaning the entire population of the region took part. This reflects both a growing awareness of the severity of the environmental crisis and the extent of the pollution, which has reached an intolerable level.

Moreover, the increase in the volume of stored materials, according to testimonies from workers inside the complex, is accompanied by a glaring lack of safety conditions, particularly in the storage stations, making an accident similar to the Beirut port explosion the greatest threat to the region.

It is also ironic that farmers in the region, like all Tunisian farmers, are suffering from a decline in agricultural production due to supply problems with ammonia (DAP18-46) and its persistent shortage in distribution channels, which allows speculators and monopolies to manipulate prices. On the one hand, this product is imported from Russia in lower quality in some years to meet farmers’ needs, while at the same time, Tunisia supplies the European market with most of its ammonia requirements, with France perhaps being one of the largest importers of these chemical products.

This environmental crisis merely reflects capitalism’s desire to exploit the environment as a source of quick profits, even at the expense of local populations’ lives and the future of generations to come. The choices made by the chemical complex necessarily reflect the political and economic choices of the authorities in power, who, through successive governments, defend the interests of the local bourgeoisie. This bourgeoisie profits from the production of these hazardous substances for its various chemical industries, perhaps the most important of which are energy storage industries. Global capitalism also profits from these materials to develop its industry and agriculture and meet the needs of the global market, even if this is at the expense of the local market. This essentially translates into direct economic colonization, on the one hand through economic agreements and, on the other hand, through the use of debt, particularly the directives of the International Monetary Fund. And even if Kais Saied [1]. denies any bias in favour of policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, practice clearly reveals that all the governments that have succeeded one another during his term of office have adopted external financing policies and focused exclusively on eliminating subsidies and raising funds to free up as much liquidity as possible to repay IMF instalments. The current government’s desire to maintain full production at the Gabès chemical complex undoubtedly falls within this logic, and the fact that the army is being tasked with protecting the complex during this period is the most blatant proof that this policy reflects not so much the government’s policy as Kais Saied ’s own, which consists of serving the interests of global capitalism.

October 26 , 2025

Translated by International Viewpoint from Inprecor.

Attached documentsthe-gulf-of-gabes-between-pollution-and-successive-policies_a9250.pdf (PDF - 900.2 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article9250]

Footnotes


[1] Kais Saled has been President of Tunisia since 2019.


Collective


International Viewpoint is published under the responsibility of the Bureau of the Fourth International. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect editorial policy. Articles can be reprinted with acknowledgement, and a live link if possible.

Italy

Three years of Meloni: A model for the international far right

Thursday 6 November 2025, by Fabrizio Burattini



Wednesday 22 October marked exactly three years since Giorgia Meloni took office at Palazzo Chigi, the seat of the Italian Prime Minister. Her appointment was the result of the predictable but nonetheless disastrous election results of September 2022, when the right-wing coalition (of which Fratelli d’Italia was by far the largest party) won thanks to a significant abstention rate (36%) but above all thanks to an anti-proportional representation law passed by previous centre-left governments and the deep division between the other political forces that formed the diverse opposition front in parliament.


The right, with its 12 million votes (out of an electorate of around 46 million), with less than 44% of the votes cast, and therefore with only 26% of the electorate’s support, elected almost 60% of the deputies and senators. As we said at the time in a commentary article, ’the victory of Giorgia Meloni and Fratelli d’Italia has a symbolic value unprecedented in the history of the Republic: Italy ends up in the hands of a coalition dominated by the heirs of Mussolini, Almirante and Rauti’.

Of course, we must not overlook all the other factors that influenced the result and paved the way for the success of the party that is the direct heir to fascism:
• the cultural and institutional transformations already imposed on the country by Berlusconi’s governments
• the gradual disappearance of a left wing capable of representing an alternative for the working classes
• the institutional constraints imposed on politics by left-wing and ’technical’ governments
• the heavily ’social-liberal’ choices of these same governments
• the stubborn acquiescence to these choices by the majority trade unions
• the failure of the illusions created in the country by the demagogy of the Five Star Movement.

The fact remains that Giorgia Meloni’s victory appears much more solid and ’project-oriented’ than Silvio Berlusconi’s success almost thirty years earlier, which was continually marked by the mixing of the political objectives of the right with the personal and business interests of the prime minister. Unlike Berlusconi, Giorgia Meloni presents herself and, to a certain extent, is, as a ’pure politician’,. She was born in 1977 and was raised in the shady circles of the Roman far right, a neo-fascist youth activist since the age of 15 and since then always involved in political activities. Meloni was elected to increasingly powerful institutional positions, from councillor of a municipality in the capital to an MP, then minister and now prime minister. Her response to an interview made headlines when, shortly after her appointment, a controversy arose between her and Berlusconi. She replied curtly, ’I cannot be blackmailed’, thereby asserting that, unlike the elderly leader of Forza Italia, she had no interests to hide other than political ones.

It must be said that she has never wanted to hide her fascist political roots either. Faced with the ineffective insistence of the opposition and certain media outlets that she declare herself ’anti-fascist’, she has consistently managed to sidestep the issue. Her distancing of herself from historical fascism has always been tactically limited to relatively minor issues. She has even managed to consolidate a relationship with the Jewish community, particularly in Rome, once a bastion of the left, by putting its spokesperson, Ester Mieli, the granddaughter of a deportee to Auschwitz, on her Senate slate. This is despite numerous media investigations that have revealed how the base and nomenklatura of Fratelli d’Italia continue to cultivate the Mussolini myth, fascist ideology and even anti-Semitic hatred.
The balance sheet she claims and the real one

The balance sheet for these three years of government is marked by the generally depressed economic situation, with the budgetary constraints that Italy has been experiencing for years due to its abysmal public debt (€3,053 billion in July 2025, equal to almost 140% of gross domestic product). The government’s fiscal policy, mainly based on tax cuts mostly in favour of its social base among small businesses, commerce and the liberal professions,, has also caused the debt to increase by almost €300 billion over the three years.

Despite this, the government can boast a significant reduction in the spread between the interest rate on Italian government bonds and that on German bonds, which has fallen from 244 to 86 between 2022 and today. Of course, the economic crisis that has been troubling Germany for some time and, therefore, the increase in interest on its government bonds, has contributed greatly to lowering the spread. Nevertheless it is certainly true that the yield on Italian treasury bonds has fallen from 4.79% to 3.57% in three years, which indicates that the ’markets’ have significantly increased their confidence in the Italian economy... because it is in the hands of a government considered ’more reliable’ by the ’markets’. This has also translated into a slight improvement in the rating defined by the main financial rating agencies, which Giorgia Meloni has presented as ’confirmation that the government is on the right track’.

GDP at constant prices has been essentially flat during Meloni’s three years in government, with growth between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2025 of just under 1.5%. Despite this, the government boasts a growth trend in the employment rate, which is expected to reach 62.80% this summer (in 2013 it was 54.70%).
These results, which are very modest, even in a depressed global context marked by a slowdown in international trade, are largely ’inflated’ thanks to the 194 billion euro provided by the European Union as part of the post-Covid Next Generation EU programme. This comes partly as grants (€71.8 billion) and partly as subsidised loans (€122.6 billion). These are enormous sums that are pouring into Italian businesses, clearly supporting GDP and employment by at least one percentage point, it is said.

Despite the right wing’s proclamations about the dangers of ’ethnic replacement’, the demographic decline remains unresolved. In 10 years, the Italian population has fallen from 60.2 million in 2016 to 59.0 million this year. The decline would be even more striking if it weren’t for the significant influx of foreign residents in recent years, which has gone from around 500,000 in the early 1990s to over 5 million today, of whom 4.3 million are registered with the Social Security Institute . This comprises 3.8 million workers, just over 300,000 pensioners and around 250,000 recipients of income support benefits: redundancy payments, disability or unemployment benefits. In addition to the sharp decline in births (no more than 340,000 births are expected in 2025, 8% less than in 2024), it should not be overlooked that every year around 100,000 young people (generally university graduates) emigrate to other EU or non-EU countries.

The situation of the working class is easily illustrated by consumer prices, which have risen by around 17% over the last five years (2021-2025), while average wages have risen by only 9.6%, resulting in a loss of 8 points of purchasing power, equivalent to the loss of an entire month’s salary. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has repeatedly highlighted that Italy is one of the few G20 countries where wages are now lower than in 2008.

Poverty, particularly in certain areas of the country, is a real chronic emergency. Between 2022 and 2024, households in absolute poverty rose from 8.3% to 8.5% of all resident households. This is equivalent to approximately 2 million 234 thousand households; they were ’only’ 6.2% in 2014). Individuals in absolute poverty will rise from 9.7% to 9.8% (over 5.7 million people). The phenomenon is getting worse, both because of inflation, which is impoverishing households that were just above the poverty line, and because of the elimination of the Citizenship Income benefit in 2023, which has left many already poor households without any income support. According to the Institute of Statistics, the rate of the population at risk of poverty will be 23.1% in 2024.

Absolute poverty particularly affects minors, who are more numerous in poor families: minors under the age of 18 in absolute poverty account for 14% of the total (1.3 million). It also affects a significant portion of the working population (the working poor). Households with a person in employment living in absolute poverty increased from 8.3% to 9.1% between 2022 and 2023. The opposition to the government,in all its forms, has called for the introduction of a ’minimum wage’ law. The position of some trade unions, such as CGIL and UIL, which were previously opposed has even changed. However the government has managed to scupper every proposal to this effect.

Italy has been the second largest manufacturing power on the European continent for many years, but its industry remains heavily characterised by low labour productivity :in 2024, it represented €65 per hour worked: in France it was €75.12. This data also contributes to reducing, if not cancelling out, the government’s triumphalist data on employment growth and its quality. In 2023, for example, hours worked grew by 2.7%, while value added grew by only 0.2%, indicating that most entrepreneurs, especially small and micro businesses, prefer to hire low-wage employees rather than make innovative investments. It is no coincidence that the European Commission ranks Italy only 14th among the most innovative EU countries in 2025 in its reports.

However, the small increase in employment, which the right-wing government boasts about, shows signs of fragility. In fact, the number of people in employment in the over-50 age group is growing, while the number of younger people is falling, demonstrating the employment consequences of the extension of the retirement age, decreed in 2011 by Mario Monti’s ’technical’ government and never changed by subsequent governments. Older people are staying in work longer, skewing the employment statistics, to the detriment of a more significant rejuvenation and turnover in the workforce.
The deindustrialisation of Europe’s second largest manufacturing sector

The phenomenon of so-called ’deindustrialisation’ began in Italy (as in much of the Western world) in the 1970s and accelerated in the 1990s, with a gradual reduction in the importance of the manufacturing sector in favour of services. However, in recent years, the Meloni government, with its economic policy and in an attempt to raise cash in order to balance the public accounts, has facilitated a further process of divestment of ’strategic’ companies. The state has sold off companies that were once essential to the country’s economic development. These divestments have had a significant impact on employment.

The steelworks in Taranto (formerly Italsider, formerly ILVA, now ’Acciaierie d’Italia Spa’) have been struggling since their privatisation in the 1980s with a serious environmental and employment crisis. Now the government is essentially planning to give them away to the US financial company Bedrock Industries, which is asking for the sale to be accompanied by €700 million in non-repayable public funding to proceed with the ’decarbonisation’ of the plants. Bedrock also plans to make sweeping job cuts, laying off 7,000 of the 10,000 workers currently employed.

Just a year ago, the government sold the telecoms network of TIM (formerly Telecom Italia) to a consortium led by the American fund KKR, resulting in a reduction in TIM’s workforce from 37,000 to 17,300. Already in 2022, the national airline Alitalia (now ITA) was privatised, and a few months ago, the Meloni government decided to sell it off completely to Lufthansa, with the latter refusing to reabsorb the 2,000 workers currently on furlough. The IP (Italiana Petroli) oil brand, once part of the ENI group, is in the process of being sold to the Azerbaijani group Socar for £3 billion, as part of the ’diversification of energy sources’ following the Russian war in Ukraine.

The former Fiat (now Stellantis) production facilities have been in the process of being decommissioned for years, and the crisis in the car market has only accelerated this trend. The former Fiat IVECO factory (industrial vehicles) has already been sold in part to India’s Tata Motors and the military vehicle sector to a partnership between Leonardo and Germany’s Rheinmetall. In total, this puts more than 10,000 additional jobs at risk. The government also plans to convert Italian automotive production to military production by providing new public subsidies to Stellantis. Despite this, the company has continued to distribute dividends to shareholders, thanks to production relocation, wage compression, generous public subsidies and the transfer of profits to ’tax havens’.
The growth of inequality

In the banking sector, the case of Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) stands out. One of the oldest banks, once largely publicly owned (more than 60% of the capital) and in financial distress for a long time, it was ’restructured’ a few years ago thanks to a €5.4 billion bailout from the public purse. Now that the bank has become ’attractive’ again, the government wants to sell off the remaining 11% of shares still held by the state. In the meantime, MPS has acquired the country’s leading ’investment bank’ (Mediobanca), earning its main shareholders (the Del Vecchio and Caltagirone families and the American fund BlackRock) over £1.5 billion in profits, on which nothing will be paid to the tax authorities as they are all residents of tax havens.

In 2024, Italian banks recorded a new high in terms of net profit, amounting to €46.5 billion, an increase of €5.7 billion (+14%) compared to 2023. The total profits made by banks in the Meloni three-year period (2022-2024) reached €112 billion, clearly thanks in part to the high interest rates set by the ECB. In its financial manoeuvres in recent years, the government had repeatedly proclaimed its intention to levy a tax (albeit a very modest one, no more than €2 billion) on these extraordinarily high profits. However, opposition from bankers, ’authoritatively’ delegated within the government to the Forza Italia party, quickly led the executive to abandon the idea. Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti (Lega) seems to want to try again this year, but it appears that the difficulties will remain the same as in previous years.
Laws to consolidate consensus

As for the government’s legislative activity, this has been particularly limited. Despite pressure from the EU and the EU’s policy of ’protecting competition’, the Meloni government has chosen the path of ’protection from competition’ and has continuously renewed the monopolistic concessions and rents of certain corporations from which the right wing draws significant electoral support (beach resorts, taxis, notaries, etc.).

Furthermore, since his first budget at the end of 2022, which he renewed and expanded in subsequent budgets, he has chosen to pursue a blatantly favourable fiscal policy towards certain categories of income earners. Consequently, employees and pensioners continue to be taxed at progressive rates (23% for incomes up to €28,000, 35% for incomes up to €50,000, 43% for incomes above €50,000). However, freelancers and sole traders are subject to a so-called ’flat tax’ of 15%, which is reduced to 5% for five years for ’new entrepreneurs’. As a result, for the same income, an employee can end up paying three times as much tax as a freelancer. The electoral advantage that the right wing has gained from this move is quite clear, especially in Italy, where the proportion of ’self-employment’ and small businesses is well above the average for developed countries.

Giorgia Meloni ‘s government, in perfect continuity with Berlusconi, has persevered with a policy of leniency towards Italy’s colossal tax evasion (around €100 billion per year) and equally significant tax avoidance - in 2024, there were around 23 million taxpayers in debt to the tax authorities, with debts amounting to the colossal figure of almost €1.3 trillion. This policy was expressed through demagogic and propagandistic operations, such as the Prime Minister’s statements in 2023 in Catania. Here is a region in Sicily where tax evasion reaches record levels and where the mafia still reigns supreme. There she compared the fight against tax evasion to ’state protection money’, i.e. the ’contributions’ that organised crime extorts from citizens through violence. But it has also and above all been expressed through numerous and repeated amnesties (condone) - about twenty measures during the three years of government, that have wiped out or reduced to negligible amounts the tax debts of evaders or defaulters.

Therefore, with all citizens on fixed incomes such as employees and pensioners being penalised, inequalities continue to grow in Italy. Italian real estate and financial wealth, which has exploded in recent years, amounts to 11.7 trillion (five times GDP) and places the country eighth in the global ranking for financial wealth. There are 517,000 millionaires in the country, i.e. people who hold at least one million dollars in financial wealth, less than 1% of the population. There are 2,600 individuals in Italy who hold more than $100 million in financial wealth. This profitability of financial assets and the fact that they are lightly taxed triggers a ’rent-seeking spiral’ that diverts investment away from the productive economy.

The government, with other demagogic and propagandistic operations, also aims to entice important sectors of business and finance to organise themselves to speculate on areas of the world that are victims of war and devastation. In January 2024, Giorgia Meloni organised an ’Italy-Africa summit’ in Rome, attended by representatives of 45 African states, at which the prime minister outlined the ’partnership’ proposals set out in the so-called Mattei Plan. But that’s not all. In July this year, she organised the ’Conference on the Recovery of Ukraine’ in Rome, in collaboration with the Kiev government, proposing major investments in the reconstruction of the country devastated by the Russian invasion. In the coming days, we can be sure that the government will work to involve Italian industries in the ’reconstruction of Gaza’, if the fragile agreement between Netanyahu and Hamas holds.
Racism, security crackdowns and the distortion of the Constitution

The government’s activity, therefore, has been more explicit on the political level than on the purely legislative one. For example, the numerous and important initiatives aimed at ’preventing illegal immigration’ have not produced any significant concrete results. It just reinforces the image of a government that is ’strong with the weak’, an image that is useful for safeguarding the political and electoral support of large sections of the electorate infected with racism. A barrage of decrees in 2023 served this purpose, such as the one that severely hampered the activities of NGO ships engaged in rescuing shipwrecked migrants in the Mediterranean, the one passed after the Cutro massacre (with over 100 drownings) or the one that extended the maximum stay in the hell of the ’Repatriation Centres’ (CPR) to 18 months.

A separate story concerns the memorandum of understanding with the Albanian government in February 2024, which led to the construction of two CPRs on Albanian territory, a very expensive project that has so far remained largely unused.
The whole affair that saw a clash between the government’s desire to define the countries to be considered ’safe’ for the repatriation of asylum seekers and the contrary initiatives of numerous Italian judges (and the European judiciary) was also useful for the government’s racist propaganda and its campaign against the independence of the judiciary.

In economic policy, in addition to decisions to pardon tax evaders, the government has adopted important measures to facilitate business, such as the establishment of a single ’special economic zone’ (SEZ) covering the entire south of the country. It has relaxed tax and regulations both contractual and environmental, for companies operating in the Mezzogiorno (South). To the benefit of employers, it was also decided to extend the reduction in the so-called ’tax take’, which did indeed add a few dozen euros to employees’ pay packets at the expense of the public budget. Its explicit aim is to reduce wage and trade union pressure for the renewal of collective agreements and wage increases.

Furthermore, the possibility for companies to use subcontractors and fixed-term employment contracts, even without a valid reason, has also been extended.

Important and disturbing laws have been adopted on the repressive front. The government had already made its debut in 2022, just one week after taking office, by adopting the so-called ’Rave Decree’, which penalised ’unauthorised’ gatherings of more than 50 young people with heavy fines and imprisonment. But the most significant law in this regard is the one adopted last April by decree, thus bypassing a vote in parliament, despite the government’s large majority in both chambers. This is the so-called ’security decree’, which introduces new offences relating to public order:
• road blockades
• occupation of buildings
• revocation of citizenship for foreigners who have obtained Italian citizenship and who have been convicted even for minor offences
• compulsory imprisonment even for women with children under one year of age
• more flexible use of weapons, including firearms, by the police
• greater repression of all protests in prisons,

This decree manages to worsen the repressive nature of the penal code inherited by the Italian Republic from the fascist regime.

The government’s intentions, however, go much further. A year ago, parliament approved the law on so-called ’differentiated autonomy’, strongly supported by Matteo Salvini’s Lega party. This law aims to eliminate all forms of fiscal solidarity between the richer and poorer areas of the country and to give greater and almost unlimited powers to the leaders of the richer regions. This law, passed with the support of the entire right-wing majority in June 2024, was positively, albeit partially, weakened by a ruling of the Constitutional Court in December 2024, but it continues to represent a significant distortion of the constitutional structure adopted in 1948 by the Italian Republic.

A further constitutional reform law, particularly desired by Forza Italia, was recently adopted by the government majority on the subject of justice. It separates the careers of defence lawyers from those of public prosecutors and heavily modifies the system of self-government of the judiciary. The explicit intention is to subordinate it to the power of the government and thus undermining the separation of powers also provided for in the Constitution. The latter has already been heavily compromised by the abuse of emergency decrees; the Meloni government has adopted 91 decree-laws in three years. This abuse is undermining the role of parliament by subordinating it to the executive. In accordance with constitutional rules, this reform of the judiciary will be put to a confirmatory referendum next spring. However, polls currently predict a favourable outcome for the right.

However, the main point of the constitutional reform programme proposed by the right wing is the ’premierato reform’, a complete redesign of the country’s institutional functioning. This proposal has been described by Giorgia Meloni as ’the beginning of the Third Republic’ (the ’second’ being the one governed by Berlusconi) and the ’mother of all reforms’. This is a proposal for a very serious and heavy-handed tampering with the institutional architecture adopted by Italy after the twenty years of Fascism. It is a blow that Giorgia Meloni intends to inflict on the parliamentary institutional structure of our country, with no justification other than the ideological fixation of Italian post-Fascists on the centralisation of power.

The proposal is presented as a remedy for the governmental instability that characterised the country in the second half of the last century. But today, particularly in this legislature, that instability no longer exists. So much so that to all observers, Giorgia Meloni’s Italy seems a model of stability in a Europe where many countries are in the throes of deep crisis, first and foremost Macron’s France.

The Meloni government is, in fact, set to be the longest-lasting in the country’s history. Therefore, the reform of the premiership has nothing to do with so-called ’governability’ but, in the intentions of the prime minister and other promoters, aims to politically and symbolically mark the definitive overcoming of the anti-fascist and democratic roots of the 1948 Constitution. It aims to create, among a much broader populist electorate, the illusion of a renewal that promises to lead the country out of the difficulties of recent decades.

The abstruse institutional mechanism identified by the drafters of the bill effectively nullifies the role of parliament’s assemblies, reducing them to mere venues for ratifying decisions made by the government and its prime minister. It would be, even formally, the ’dictatorship of the majority’, a majority which, under the new electoral rules, could have at least 55% of parliamentarians even with only 30% of the vote, and moreover only of the electorate that votes, in a context in which abstention is constantly growing. The executive power (i.e. the government) would become independent of parliament, because the proposed direct election of the prime minister makes him or her the central power, heavily prevailing over all other institutional bodies (the president of the Republic and parliament), which are structurally weakened. This would be a ’democracy’ similar to that of many of Giorgia Meloni’s ’friends’, particularly Hungary’s Viktor Orban.

This reform is still under discussion in Parliament, and the government will probably choose to let it mature over time (unless unforeseen opportunities arise), perhaps postponing its final approval until the next legislature, which will be elected in autumn 2027. This is because it is entirely predictable that the reform will be put to a confirmatory referendum, and confirmatory referendums on constitutional reforms have often turned into a resounding rejection of governments, as shown by the 60% ’No’ vote that overwhelmed the Renzi government in 2016. But this time, the test will be particularly tricky for the opposition as well, because in order to prevent the reform, it will be necessary to ’defend’ a Constitution which, thanks to repeated tampering, is no longer based on the anti-fascist ’social compromise’ of 1948. Also because, in any case, that Constitution has painfully demonstrated its formal,demagogic character over the decades, betraying in practice all the commitments to equality and justice promised in the text.

International reliability...

Among Giorgia Meloni’s successes, we must not overlook her ability to effectively insert herself into European Union politics, even if this choice blatantly contradicts her demagogic stance against the ’technocrats of Brussels’ adopted when she was still in opposition. It must be said that, after some initial scepticism, even the European Commission and its president, Von Der Leyen, have largely opened the door to collaboration with the Italian prime minister. This collaboration has resulted in:
• the Italian government’s contribution at EU level on immigration
• the revision of the Dublin Regulation
• new rules on the right to asylum and rules on repatriation
• on the environment, the rewriting of the European Green Deal
• on the economy, the relaxation of certain rules of the Stability and Growth Pact.

This collaboration led the Italian right-wing government to differ in its vote on the new commission, with Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia voting in favour of Ursula Von Der Leyen while the Lega voted against her along with the rest of the European far right. In return, Fratelli d’Italia secured the appointment of its Raffaele Fitto as executive vice-president. Taking stock of the European policies of other right-wing leaders (such as Matteo Salvini), Giorgia Meloni realised that a confrontational ’sovereignist’ and anti-European approach does not pay off. She has therefore implemented and continues to implement a policy of gradual integration into the EU institutions, with undeniable results so far.

In foreign policy, there are still some differences between the parties in the right-wing coalition, with Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia more clearly Atlanticist with regard to Ukraine, but Trump’s activism seems to be unanimously supported, and Giorgia Meloni is certainly best placed to take advantage of the rise to power of the American far right.

Given that the Italian government was the first among the major Western countries to fall into the hands of the far right, it must be acknowledged that Giorgia Meloni has succeeded in normalising the presence of a fascist (or at least post-fascist) far right at the helm of Europe’s third largest economy, becoming an international reference point for all right-wing parties.

She has skilfully managed to surround herself with an aura of respectability, to project an institutional and ’moderate’ image, and to establish herself as a key player in addressing the main challenges facing the EU, not only on Ukraine but also on other issues. She has managed to establish and display an explicitly cordial and symbolically significant relationship with the President of the Commission. She even organised a joint visit with her to the island of Lampedusa, the main destination for migrants arriving from North Africa, precisely to demonstrate harmony and collaboration on the sensitive issue of immigration. This is an issue on which European politics as a whole seems to be shifting towards the xenophobic and racist positions of the Italian right. At the same time, she has managed to combine all this with an ostentatious harmony with the Trump administration, which in some ways reciprocates by presenting her as a privileged interlocutor.

Despite the largely ineffective criticism levelled at Giorgia Meloni from the right by Matteo Salvini’s Lega and neo-fascist General Roberto Vannacci, it must be said that Meloni, with her pragmatism, has managed to win over more and more of the business community, even the most powerful, once perplexed by the ’sovereignty’ of the far right, to her government and her policies. It should also be added that her ’model’ contributes to the ’rise’ to power of other far-right parties at the international level, because it leads increasingly broad sectors of the ruling classes to say: ’Well, you see, in the end there is no need to be afraid of them; on the contrary, as Giorgia Meloni demonstrates, they can do useful work for us’.

... and reactionary aggression towards those who disagree
In contrast to this ’institutional’ image, at the national level the prime minister is increasingly using aggressive and contemptuous tones towards the opposition. She recently described the timid solidarity of the institutional opposition towards Palestine as ’complicity with Hamas’. Although until a few weeks ago he was a totally unknown figure in Italy, she immediately used the assassination of Charlie Kirk to attack both the ultra-moderate and extreme left, going so far as to organise a grotesque commemoration of the pro-Trump reactionary activist in the Italian parliament.

The reactionary stance of the right continues to dominate its actions within the country. We have already mentioned the ’security decree’. Other measures have been taken against ’rainbow’ families, i.e. non-binary families, preventing the regularisation of adopted or heterodox children, and it has done everything possible to impose strict control over the media, particularly television.

Giorgia Meloni’s tactic is to exploit and try to deepen as much as possible the crisis of credibility of the entire opposition in all its nuances, from Matteo Renzi’s vacuous centrism to the impotent residual demagogy of the Five Star Movement to the shaky late-Labour approach of Elly Schlein’s PD. The entire opposition continues to pay the price for:
• its long and disastrous season in government - between ’political’ governments led by the PD or the Five Star Movement and ’technical’ governments supported by the PD, this lasted from 2011 to 2022,
• its anti-social policies,
• its perverse institutional reforms,
• its pandering to racist and security-driven forces,
• and its contribution to the definitive pulverisation of what was once the unity of the working class.

This translates into a gradual but inexorable decline in active voters. In the last regional elections, the figure remained around 50%, if not below, a decline that penalises the opposition significantly more than the forces of the right-wing government. An interesting analysis based on the percentage of votes cast not only for the slates but also for a specific candidate shows that this abstention is much lower for the right-wing vote (especially for Fratelli d’Italia) while it is very high (sometimes reaching or exceeding 70% for the PD) for the opposition. This phenomenon indicates the persistent ability of the right to ’speak’ to the public, to those who are less organised and less tied to parties, while the opposition is unable to attract the votes of the undecided electorate.

This is enough to describe the impotence of the political and institutional opposition, with the crisis and decline of the Five Star Movement, miraculously kept alive after the death of Gianroberto Casaleggio and the ’betrayal’ of Beppe Grillo by Giuseppe Conte’s leadership. The PD is currently forced to put a good face on Elly Schlein’s ’movementist’ management but continues to be totally infested by a nomenklatura of administrators nostalgic for the moderate Matteo Renzi. All this has facilitated some growth in the left wing of the opposition, the ’red-green’ wing of Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli’s AVS (Green Left Alliance), but it is a wing that continues to scrape by in total subordination to the PD and others.

As for the ’radical left’, one would prefer not to talk about it in order to draw a ’veil’ over its ’existence’. However, it must be said that the extraordinary movement that has developed in recent weeks to condemn the genocide perpetrated in Gaza by Netanyahu and his government and the complicity of many governments (including the Italian one) is allowing a new displacement of forces in the field, significantly marginalising what remains of the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC). It is pushing to the forefront the more openly ’campist’ wings of the Italian radical left:the USB trade union and the political organisation Potere al Popolo. Their political and social activism and also thanks to some tactical choices that have proved to be far-sighted, have meant they have taken on a leading role in that movement.

The demonstrations that have swept across Italy (as in other countries) during the Global Sumud Flotilla action show the potential that still exists in the country. A cold political assessment shows that there are no political and social actors in the country capable of channelling this potential, except in the dead end of dangerous factionalism. However, the new mass mobilisation and the new willingness to engage in political militancy are creating new spaces for political work, so that a consistently internationalist option can challenge the hegemony of the factionalists in the radical left.

Meanwhile, Giorgia Meloni, with her tactical pragmatism, combining verbal arrogance and simulating moderation, is waiting for the ’Trump effect’ to spread around the world, for other European countries (France? Britain? Germany?) to fall into the hands of other far-right comrades, and is offering them a model for action.

25 October 2025

Translated by International Viewpoint from lRefrattario e controcorrente.

Attached documentsthree-years-of-meloni-a-model-for-the-international-far_a9251.pdf (PDF - 956 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article9251]

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Fabrizio Burattini is a trade unionist in the CGIL and has been active in the Italian section of the Fourth International since 1968.


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