Tag: Left-wing politics

And Mr. López Obrador’s current political party, the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA, whose name is an allusion to both Mexico’s patron saint and darker-skinned Mexicans whom López Obrador wants to empower) and its coalition partners (the leftist Workers’ Party and the evangelical Social Encounter Party) are poised to dominate the legislature. The disenchantment with traditional parties reflects two basic failures of the Mexican government during the past six years: first and most important, the blatant high-level corruption among the Mexican political elite, directly involving outgoing President Enrique Peña Nieto, and escalating criminal violence that Peña Nieto increasingly shoved under the rug. AMLO campaigned on all of these issues. He promises a dramatic transformation of Mexico, empowering the underprivileged. An Ambitious but Vague Agenda His populist style aside, AMLO’s key policy focus is indeed vital for the country. The country also critically needs to reduce its pervasive violence and corruption. And even though Mexican business elites vilified AMLO on the campaign trail over the past month or so, anticipating his electoral victory, they have been getting ready to work with him, and he with them. President-elect López Obrador has a long six-month transition process before taking office to work out critical policy details. Two Populists at Each Other’s Borders and Against Their Institutions López Obrador will also need to contend with a Trump administration that has picked many political fights with Mexico. Like Trump, he does not respect Mexican institutions and the need to reform but not undermine them, or the rule of law in general—he sees both laws and institutions as instruments of the power of the corrupt establishment.

Yet another populist candidate was elected to a presidency this weekend, this time in Mexico where leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, often referred to as AMLO, was elected in a landslide on Sunday night. Obrador ran on a campaign to end corruption and fight back against rampant violence, and capitalized on a pervasive feeling of disenfranchisement among many voters who felt left out or forgotten about by the political establishment. It’s the third time Obrador has run for president after unsuccessful bids in 2006 and 2012. But between the populist wave of frustration among voters with the establishment and, some would say, a collapse down the stretch by his opponents, AMLO was able to capture more than half the vote, according to early returns. Not unlike President Trump did during his campaign, Obrador called out the political establishment and its elite for failing to understand the average citizen and promised to bring a fresh perspective to Mexican government that is more closely connected to the needs of the common man. Many questions still remain unanswered, however, in the wake of the election. What will this mean for the future of relations between the U.S. and Mexico, and specifically how will Obrador get along with President Trump? What of the border wall that President Trump wants built and for which he has said Mexico will pay? And with NAFTA currently being re-negotiated, what will Obrador’s impact be on those talks? Guests: Genaro Lozano, a professor of political science and international relations at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City; he is also columnist for the Mexican newspaper Reforma; he tweets @genarolozano Rachel Schmidtke, program associate for migration at the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington D.C.

California suffers from droughts, but the state’s government is an endless well of bad ideas. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the new laws will “require cities, water districts and large agricultural water districts to set strict annual water budgets, face fines of $1,000 per day if they don’t meet them, and $10,000 a day during drought emergencies.” As some have noted, the restriction could make it difficult for some California citizens to do laundry and take a shower on the same day without going over the limit. According to The Sacramento Bee, the State Water Resources Control Board estimates California residents used an average of 90 gallons of indoor and outdoor water per day in 2017, down from 109 gallons in 2013. In addition to this legislation, the state is also considering a new tax on drinking water to pay for new infrastructure projects. That California, the richest state in the union and one which in no way suffers for lack of tax revenue, cannot find a way to manage its water resources without cracking down with burdensome regulation is telling. Droughts are nothing new in California, especially in the desert south, but the increasing inability to deal with them is. It’s roads, it’s schools, it’s an unwillingness to invest in the future because we spend all our money in government paying the pensions of employees.” And through this crisis, California has spent enormous resources to protect the delta smelt, a 3-inch fish that appears to be going extinct despite enormously wasteful environmental projects. “That would have been enough to sustain 6.4 million Californians for six years. The state may be recovering from a drought, but more are sure to come. Instead of nickel-and-diming taxpayers and creating onerous restrictions, the state should focus on getting its finances in order and prioritizing basic infrastructure needs over fruitless left-wing welfare schemes.

We all have identities. But there was no comment to Prime Minister Narenda Modi about human rights in India. Canada should have a childcare plan that gives women choices about work and redistributes wealth to young working families. But politicians like Trudeau who toy with identities play a dangerous game. For Liberals, identity politics is a distraction from economic policies that are very hard on many people. So it should be no surprise if Canadians — especially poor and working class people who are most affected — now reject Trudeau and, with him, the empty identity politics he uses as cover. The hollowness of liberal identity politics has Trudeau recognizing the wrongs of colonialism, sexism and racism — then letting the people who have all the power and money keep all the power and money. But liberal identity politics also empowers the most enduring form of identity politics — conservative identity politics. If we are all essentially different and stranded on our little islands of identity, then the point of the alt-right is proven: we are all just tribes in a constant state of war. Visit any schoolyard to see this use of power.

Image RIO DE JANEIRO — A new Netflix series about a sprawling corruption investigation has muscled its way into Brazil’s heated politics, outraging supporters of a leftist former president who is trying to make a comeback and stirring debate about how closely a docudrama should adhere to the facts. “I think this is very serious for them.” The show’s creator, José Padilha, a Brazilian based in Los Angeles, said the furor had only benefited the series. Three successive presidents have been implicated: Mr. da Silva, who was convicted of corruption and money laundering; Ms. Rousseff, who was impeached and removed from office over unrelated charges of violating budgetary rules but also faced criminal investigations; and the incumbent, Michel Temer, who has faced charges and remains under investigation. Mr. da Silva wants to stand as a candidate in the October election, although he was convicted last year of corruption and still faces charges in six other corruption cases. The title of the Netflix series comes from Mr. Padilha’s theory, expounded in columns, that only the corrupt can get ahead in Brazilian politics. Some critics have called him a reactionary, a charge he denies; he has made donations to a smaller left-wing party that has not been embroiled in the corruption investigation. On the left, the response to Mr. Padilha’s show has been outrage. “I think he did it well, though reality is richer.” In a speech during a rally last Wednesday, Mr. da Silva said he might sue Netflix. “The series fuels already existent points of view,” he said. “A lot of what is in there is very well known to Brazilians.” But the series has found some fans among Brazilians.

Historically, left-wing forces in Puerto Rico have split over the national question. Labor leaders, scholar-activists, pro-independence leaders, feminists, the Christian left, environmentalists, lawyers, and other sectors seized the opportunity, forming a coalition of thirty-five organizations called Todo Puerto Rico por Puerto Rico. They aimed to ride the momentum built by University of Puerto Rico (UPR) students while preparing for the widely anticipated neoliberal attack on public higher education. Thanks to this wave of activism, the Puerto Rican left scored important victories during the Fortuño administration (2009–2013). These sectors eventually came together at a massive People’s Assembly, where they organized an island-wide work stoppage and mobilized tens of thousands at marches. The government’s efforts to privatize Puerto Rico’s Public Power Authority (PREPA) and public education prove that the Puerto Rican right feels strong. Now debate centers on electoral participation, on mutual-assistance projects, and on diversification. This group is further divided between those who support the PDP in order to defeat right-wing candidates and those that who support the more left-wing parties, the PIP and the Working People’s Party (PPT). Puerto Rican feminists argue that the Left’s vitality will also depend on its ability to build more inclusive leadership groups. The upsurge that it experienced in the 1960s came when leaders focused on organizing marginalized groups and workers, fostering unity in diversity, strengthening youth and student groups, opening dialogue across different sectors of the Left, and developing international relationships of solidarity.

After receiving thousands of complaints, Daily Squat launched an extensive investigation into whether or not the image was created or altered using Photoshop. The news website found itself ‘not guilty’ several seconds later. We also believe this was a matter of public interest that needed to be reported. Why did Mr Corbyn meet Freddo? Was it, as he claimed, to discuss a price freeze? Or was it, as others claim, to sell state secrets?’ said Jake Rhodes, the founder of Daily Squat. ‘They’re constantly mocking Jeremy for his love of jam and knitwear. The website features a lot of blue. I’m not going to say they’re Tory stooges, but something smells to me,’ said left-wing journalist Owen Jones. We were able to track down the man who works in the Daily Squat graphics department and he too denied that the image had been Photoshopped.