For an International Left

Steve Bannon is running around Europe organizing right-wing groups into The Movement. In response, Senator Bernie Sanders warns against "the rise of a new authoritarian axis".

While these regimes may differ in some respects, they share key attributes: hostility toward democratic norms, antagonism toward a free press, intolerance toward ethnic and religious minorities, and a belief that government should benefit their own selfish financial interests. These leaders are also deeply connected to a network of multi-billionaire oligarchs who see the world as their economic plaything.

He doesn't call it socialism, but it's clearly not enough to simply defend the status quo.

In order to effectively combat the rise of the international authoritarian axis, we need an international progressive movement that mobilizes behind a vision of shared prosperity, security and dignity for all people, and that addresses the massive global inequality that exists, not only in wealth but in political power.

We must look honestly at how [the post-second world war global order] has failed to deliver on many of its promises, and how authoritarians have adeptly exploited those failures in order to build support for their agenda. We must take the opportunity to reconceptualize a genuinely progressive global order based on human solidarity, an order that recognizes that every person on this planet shares a common humanity, that we all want our children to grow up healthy, to have a good education, have decent jobs, drink clean water, breathe clean air and live in peace.

Our job is to build on our common humanity and do everything that we can to oppose all of the forces, whether unaccountable government power or unaccountable corporate power, who try to divide us up and set us against each other. We know that those forces work together across borders. We must do the same.

Update (October 8):  Walden Bello examines the rise of right-wing movements around the world. He argues the "right has now married ... traditionally left-wing concerns to a vicious racist, chauvinistic, and anti-immigrant agenda".

Call it a welfare state, but only for members of the dominant racial and cultural group.

Update (October 26):  Brazil is on the brink of electing a far right candidate to be president.

Update (December 2):  The Progressive International has issued an "Open Call".

The time has come for progressives to form a grassroots movement for global justice: to mobilize workers, women and the disenfranchised all around the world behind a shared vision of democracy, prosperity, sustainability, and solidarity.