Last week, the release of the long-awaited Forde Report totally vindicated Jeremy Corbyn regarding the tirade of bigotry accusations he endured as leader—cold comfort, of course, given that his opponents in the political and media class long ago neutralized any chance that Corbynism would bring even minimal social, political, or economic progress to the United Kingdom.

Rebuilding a left that can confront contemporary challenges will be an enormous task, and if there are hopeful and positive features in LFI, there is still a very long way to go. But the left around the world can take some encouragement from a small but real victory. As we used to say in 1968, Ce n’est qu’un début; continuons le combat. It’s only a beginning; the struggle goes on.

States seek status, and those who have risen to the top feel a need to put anyone who might challenge them firmly in their place. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is such a challenge. Ever since the Maidan revolution of 2014, the West has determined that Ukraine lies within its own sphere of influence. By arguing otherwise, Russia is challenging the West’s honour. The West feels that it must respond or lose face.

There are no good options available at this point in the Ukraine-Russia war. Except to warmongers and war profiteers, a negotiated solution with unpleasant compromises appears preferable to prolonging the fighting for years or risking the unthinkable. Millions of Canadians support peaceful solutions to the Ukraine war. A left wing party should be their voice. Heather McPherson is making that impossible.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the arms industry that depends on it for billions in profits, has become the most aggressive and dangerous military alliance on the planet. Created in 1949 to thwart Soviet expansion into eastern and central Europe, it has evolved into a global war machine in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

This is the full text of a speech given on June 16 by John J. Mearsheimer at the European Union Institute and published by The National Interest under the headline “The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine Crisis.” Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and a regular commentator on European geopolitics.

Fertilizer prices are extremely high, contributing to the ongoing global food crisis that has worsened in the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the short-sighted imposition of sanctions by Western countries. In particular, production of potash has been severely impacted by the war in Ukraine and the West’s stubborn aversion to negotiation and compromise in eastern Europe.

Ottawa’s policies have aggravated tensions in eastern Europe, writes author, activist and Canadian Foreign Policy Institute director Bianca Mugyenyi. To help ensure the conflict doesn’t escalate even further we need to start asking tough questions of our political leaders. At a minimum we should be told by our government if Canadian forces are on the ground in Ukraine.

The real Zelensky is an anti-hero who has degraded whatever democracy existed in Ukraine, writes Dimitri Lascaris. He instituted a profoundly unpopular program of neoliberalism. He has deep ties to a shady oligarch who funded Ukrainian neo-Nazis. Perhaps worst of all, he betrayed his promise to seek peace with Russia by pursuing policies that greatly heightened the risk of war.

That’s where the actual inflection point lies today—whether the structural contradictions in the Western economies have matured into disorder. Putin sees the West’s future as bleak, hit simultaneously by the blowback from its own imposition of sanctions, and the resultant spike in commodity prices, but lacking agility to deflect the blows due to institutional rigidities.