As announced earlier this week in Rome, US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis are planning to launch a new alliance named Progressives International next month.
The duo aspires to promote a “progressive, ecological, feminist, humanist, rational program” for not only Europe, but for the entire world as according to Mr Varoufakis the rise of right wing ideologies “that sprang out of the cesspool of financialised capitalism” needs to be counter-balanced.
“Austerity for the many and socialism for the bankers has given rise to the present fascist moment in Italy, to the collapse of the political center everywhere, and to the reactionary, divided Europe that Mr. Trump dreams of,” Varoufakis said.
“Today, here in Rome we’re saying enough. Another Italy, another Europe is not only possible, but it is here”.
Speaking to the the Guardian, Varoufakis stressed that those who join the movement “need to do more than campaign together,” and proposed the formation of “a common council that draws out a common blueprint for an International New Deal, a progressive New Bretton Woods.”
“The financiers are internationalists. The fascists, the nationalists, the racists—like Trump, Bannon, Seehofer, Salvini—they are internationalists,” Varoufakis said slamming the tactics of immigration critics, hardcore capitalists and xenophobes that spawn divisiveness amongst people in an effort to control global wealth.
“They bind together. The only people who are failing are progressives.”
The Greek Australian economist told BuzzFeed News that the joint movement is officially set to be launched at Sen. Sanders’ (I-Vt.) state, Vermont, on 30 November.
“At a time of massive global wealth and income inequality, oligarchy, rising authoritarianism, and militarism, we need a Progressive International movement to counter these threats,” Sen. Sanders wrote in a Guardian article.
“The fate of the world is at stake,” he continued asking for an international progressive agenda “that brings working people together around a vision of shared prosperity, security, and dignity for all people”.
The alliance reportedly already welcomed incoming Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, while Varoufakis is also leading the campaign efforts of European Spring, through the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 otherwise known as DiEM25.
The pan-European political movement launched in 2015 by former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat and officially presented on 9 February 2016 in Berlin.
DiEM25 aims to reform the European Union’s existing institutions and to create a “full-fledged democracy with a sovereign Parliament respecting national self-determination and sharing power with national Parliaments, regional assemblies and municipal councils”.
