June 20, 2022

• Gustavo Petro: former M-19 member. M-19 is a Bolivarianist, democratic socialist, urban political party. The M-19 roots are in armed struggle for political power.
• Francia Márquez: from the Democratic Alternative social democratic party. A party mostly made up of former ELN and M-19 urban militia members who have given up the Che ideology of urban revolution.

This marks the first time the left have won an election in Colombia which has not been overthrown by USA-backed forces. At least not yet. It is by no means the first time the left have won an election in Colombia.

• The united left under Mélenchon (New Ecological and Social People’s Union: Nupes) has taken a significant chunk.
• Unfortunately, Macro will align with the corrupt Les Républicains to gut France's social state and increase the pension age. Two things he promised not to do in the last days of the presidential election campaign in the face of losing to Le Pen.
• The south end of Paris and Guadeloupe went left as well.

• The Peoples' Party has ousted the Socialists from Andalucía.
• Could foretell problems for the Socialist Partying going into regional and municipal elections.

Basically, if you were in power during the peak of the covid crisis and where cost of living has now skyrocketed you are not doing well politically in Europe. The only answer is for left parties to actually do something that they should have done before this: massively increase public productive processes and employment.

The problem is that they are stuck in the EU and are limited by neoclassical economic policy frames. The EU is still trying to say that their economy is "stable and robust"

Eurogroup (finance ministers of the EU) President Donohoe insisted that a strong labour market pointed to economic expansion

• Yes, the silly politicians and "economists" in the EU claim there is nothing to worry about. Meanwhile the European Central Bank is panicking to figure out "new" ways to prop-up Italy—the EU darling run by the former EU central bank president—and stop its economy from collapsing. Italy and other slower growing European countries are facing a renewed debt crisis. 10-year Italian debt yields are running at 4%.
• Just outside the EU is the UK facing its own economic crisis with cost of living running at 9%.

And there are other challenges: Strikes are likely to halt at least half of all trains for three days in the worst disruption to mass transit since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. The teachers union also is set to ballot its members on a strike, adding to the list of professions considering action.

• Easy Jet in Europe has started to scale back planned routes as it admits it cannot guarantee flights that have already been booked for this summer.

The airline did not put a number on how many flights would be lost, but said it would now fly about 87 per cent of 2019 levels in the three months to the end of June, down from the 90 per cent it forecast in May. In the following quarter this would rise to 90 per cent, down from a previous expectation of 97 per cent.

• Airlines are facing problems with employment as they cannot call back those workers laid off during the previous year.
• This is not the only industry facing issues of former poorly treated workers tell those employers to take a walk when called back. Food service and most low-waged front line workers have realized they are essential and not paid enough to do the work demanded of them.

• Employers and governments have responded—not by increasing wages for these jobs—but, by further marketizing those sectors and attempting to import international workers desperate to work.

Workers' organizations cannot rely on the current labour market tightness to increase wages. Capital and the state operating on their behalf will always intervene to drive down wage growth.

• In the USA and Canada, prices continue to outstrip wage gains even as their central bank rushes to push people out of a job.

While the central banks are unable to respond to the current crisis, the left has not found its voice. Social democrats have little to say here given that their policy responses to inflation sound blunted in the face of massive price increases, supply chain disruptions, and little to no state-control/ownership of the economy left.

The only answer would be to regulate markets and re-involve the state in production, but this has yet to be raised in any significant way by left-of-centre parties. It is a problem when the whole point of the left is to increase intervention in the economy but the leadership cannot bring themselves to say these things. Probably because most do not even believe in the socialist program in the first place.

• Heatwaves are popping-up all over the world causing some very bad situations for people and the food production process.
• The poor are more affected by heat waves as their jobs are front-line, their housing is not properly cooled, and their access to public facilities has been limited by an epidemic of lazy managers, confused economists, and broken public administrations.

Central and eastern North America is going to face a week-long heat wave that will break records and cause significant misery and a dangerous situation for much the population.

Find a cool place to be.

Canadian National Railway Co. workers have gone on strike after failing to reach an agreement on Saturday over benefits and wages, according to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers lead negotiator.

The strike of 750 signals and communications workers began at 11 a.m. on Saturday after negotiations failed, Steve Martin said by phone. The union had given a 72-hour strike notice to the company on June 15. The two sides are still in discussions, he said.