Spain: Left parties call for referendum on monarchy

The withdrawal by its publishers of the front cover of the latest Jueves, provoked the resignation of the satirical magazine’s most longstanding cartoonists.

Netherlands: Deckchairs quietly shuffled in EU poll fizzer

Socialist Party protests against European free trade treaty.

Spanish state: ‘We must continue to widen the cracks that have begun to open up’

By Josep Maria Antentas, translated by Federico Fuentes for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal.

First published in Spanish at Dominio Publico.  More analysis of politics in the Spanish state.

May 26, 2014 -- Six years have passed since the “official” start of the crisis, when Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008. Four years since [then president Jose Luis Rodriguez] Zapatero announced the first big package of cuts in May 2010. Three years since 15M (the May 15 Movement) exploded onto the streets. Two years since the large demonstration for independence in Catalonia on September 11, 2012.

Ukraine: New president escalates austerity, civil war; popular resistance deepens

Ukraine troops and fighter aircraft launch attacks on rebellious eastern Ukraine.

Mike Marqusee: A level playing field? Global sport in the neoliberal age

The idea of sports competition as a mirror or metaphor for capitalist competition is misconceived.