Never before has international solidarity been more necessary — and more absent.
The COVID-19 crisis is deepening everywhere, hitting hardest among the world’s poor. Meanwhile, disaster capitalism is on the rise, as financial speculators and transnational corporations seek to profit from the pandemic. Standing behind them are the forces of the far right, who exploit the crisis to advance an agenda of bigotry and xenophobia.
And yet, at this historic juncture, internationalism has gone missing in action.
The pandemic has laid bare the fatal flaws of “hyper-globalization”: the breakdown of just-in-time production — coupled with diminished state capacity and a public sector eroded over a half-century of privatization — has ravaged domestic responses to the health crisis.
Yet the widely heralded return of the nation-state will neither end the pandemic nor prevent its political fallout from strengthening the hand of the far right. After all, most countries around the world not only lack basic medical equipment; they also lack the currency to acquire it. Internationalism, for the vast majority of humanity, is not a privilege, but a basic necessity. “The most dangerous illusion,” writes Mike Davis, “is the nationalist one: that a global depression can be avoided by a simple sum of independent and uncoordinated national responses.”
Only a common international front can match the scale of our crises, reclaim our institutions and defeat a rising authoritarian nationalism.
That is why, on 11 May, we are launching the Progressive International, a global initiative with a mission to unite, organize and mobilize progressive forces around the world.
In December 2018, the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25) and the Sanders Institute issued an open call to form a common front in the fight against the twin forces of fascism and free market fundamentalism. “It is time for progressives of the world to unite,” proclaimed the open call. The year that followed has been described as a “Wave of Global Protest.” From Delhi to Paris, Santiago to Beirut, citizens rose up to defend democracy, demand a decent standard of living, and protect the planet for future generations.
2020 is the year that we unite these disparate protests in a Progressive International, bringing together activists and organizers, trade unions and tenant associations, political parties and social movements to build a shared vision of democracy, solidarity and sustainability. The May launch brings this platform to life, inviting individuals and organizations around the world to become members of the PI and build the movement together.
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