John Collins surveys some of the key perspectives within an ongoing dialogue about the present and future of Spain’s perpetually fragmented Left. Is a change on the horizon?

Gabriel Rufián’s surprising call for new thinking among Spain’s leftist parties seeks to change the conversation and spark a unified struggle against the far right. Will it work?

The “newspaper of record’ misses a golden opportunity to explain the material connections between violence “there” and violence “here.”

For the author of Our History Is the Future, the struggle against ICE is incomplete without a true anticolonial reckoning.

The far right is on the march in public discourse, but media watchdogs and grassroots solidarity provide important counterweights.

Which stories from our global network of grassroots journalists topped the list this year?

John Collins listens as the people’s voice gets louder

“They are united in their crimes, and we are united in our solidarity”

Cristina Farré: “We have to try and give it our all”

From Jose Couso to Mariam Abu Daqqa

As Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US elections continues to reverberate both domestically and internationally, it is essential to confront the complex web of authoritarian politics, resurgent racism and nativism, technological power, and so-called “anarcho-capitalism” that the second Trump administration is bringing into public view. In this context, many observers have noted that key figures such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel have deep roots in South Africa, suggesting that their influence on this new wave of authoritarianism may represent a new chapter in the story of South African apartheid.

On a day when Donald Trump, surrounded by tech titans such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, was inaugurated for the second time, a group of determined residents in northern New York took to the streets seeking to re-energize the struggle against oligarchy and predatory capitalism. 

John Collins and Derek Sherrange report from Madrid, Spain, where students are turning up the heat on universities that remain complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

To learn more about the first encampment in Valencia, I reached out to Dr. Jorge Ramos Tolosa, who teaches contemporary history at UV. In addition to his scholarship and teaching, he is a longtime activist with BDS Valencia and the Red Solidaria contra la Ocupación de Palestina (RESCOP), a network of Spanish organizations working in solidarity with Palestine.

On an ordinary Wednesday morning in the calm, well-to-do Chamberi district of Madrid, a group of about 150 Spaniards stood on the street corner opposite a large cultural center, with riot police watching on intently, and chanted:

“Murderers! Murderers! Shame! Shame!”

On March 3, more than 100 people showed up in Madrid, Spain, to hear a first-hand report from Manal Tamimi, a Palestinian activist whose family has been at the center of resistance efforts in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. In a talk that was both moving and sobering, Tamimi spoke passionately about the ongoing struggle of West Bank Palestinians at a time when the Israeli state’s machinery of violence appears to be more emboldened than ever thanks to the active and passive support of governments the world over.

On December 29, 2023, South Africa brought a case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, arguing that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza. On January 11-12, 2024, the ICJ held public hearings on South Africa’s request for provisional measures of protection for the people of Gaza and eventually ruled that Israel was responsible for taking all necessary measures to prevent “acts of genocide” in Gaza. The ongoing ICJ case has been the subject of significant debate. To explore the issue further, I reached out to Dr. Somdeep Sen, a frequent Weave News contributor and a professor at Roskilde University.

How can international governments justify continuing to maintain arms sales to and from Israel at a time when Israel is actively carrying out a genocide in Gaza? And what will it take in order to change this intolerable reality? These were the central questions animating a panel discussion held recently in Spain, where grassroots pressure for an arms embargo on Israel continues to grow.

I woke up this morning in Malaga with the knowledge that today was an important day in Spain: a day of nationwide demonstrations calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. At a time when European leaders continue to fail to meet their basic moral obligations vis-a-vis the Palestinian people, more than 70 Spanish cities from Alacant and Albacete to Zamora and Zaragoza were scheduled to host actions under the common banner of stopping the genocide, ending arms sales to Israel, and cutting off diplomatic relations with the apartheid state.