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New York Times
13-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Progressives Need a Global Movement
It's a strange irony that in recent years the nationalist right has gotten much better at international organizing than the ostensibly cosmopolitan left. The Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, went global during Donald Trump's first term; it's held gatherings in Israel, South Korea, Hungary and Argentina, among other countries. American conservatives have a growing pantheon of international leaders they take inspiration from, including Hungary's Viktor Orban, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele and Argentina's Javier Milei. This right-wing internationale trades ideas and memes. Its members support one another across borders. A steady stream of American conservative operatives, including the influential strategist Chris Rufo, has passed through Hungary's government-aligned Danube Institute, learning from the country's successful record of using the state to crush liberal institutions. Earlier this year members of the MAGA movement from Alex Jones all the way up to Vice President JD Vance rallied around an ultranationalist Romanian presidential candidate who'd been disqualified due to charges of Russian interference. This week, the nationalist group Patriots for Europe Foundation held a conference at the European Parliament with members of India's right-wing government, aimed at building an alliance based on 'civilizational sovereignty' — as opposed to universal human rights — and the fight against Islamism. There is nothing comparable to this global network among progressives, which is one sign of the left's deep crisis. Partly, progressives' problem is one of inertia. For decades now, when people on the left have coordinated across borders, they've often done it through liberal institutions: international bodies like the United Nations, international NGOs, academic conferences. These institutions tend to favor styles of communication that are highly specialized and bureaucratic. (To be part of the U.N.'s orbit, for example, grass-roots feminist groups often must learn its jargon: 'gender mainstreaming,' 'S.H.R.H.,' 'duty-bearers.') 'The progressive forces, the left and socialist forces, lost the way of communication with the people,' Alexis Tsipras, a leftist former prime minister of Greece, told me. They became, he said, 'more systemic.' And now the systems that sustained the left — particularly academia and nonprofits — are under concerted attack. 'The left basically depended on a fantasy view of the stability of institutions,' said Subir Sinha, a scholar at the University of London who has studied the links between far-right movements in India and Europe. Progressives, he said, neither anticipated nor planned for how they might answer a central question of our time: 'How would you do politics when the ground has shifted so dramatically from under your feet?' Some of that planning has now begun, however belatedly. This week, Tsipras convened a conference in Athens of progressives from Europe, Turkey, Latin America and the United States to discuss the global crisis of liberal democracy. It was the second such gathering he's organized, and the first since Trump was re-elected. Among the speakers was Senator Bernie Sanders, joining remotely. 'Right-wing extremists all over the world have been organizing effectively, and I think that it's time that we built an international progressive socialist movement, and this is a step forward,' he said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Target Ends DEI Initiatives, Becoming Latest Company to Bow to the Right's Moral Panic
Bloomberg/Getty Images Them' Target is the latest corporation to cave to conservative pressure and scale back its diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) programs aimed at benefiting marginalized communities. On January 24, the Minneapolis-based retailer announced via a fact sheet that it would conclude 'our three diversity, equity, and inclusion' goals; shift its 'Supplier Diversity' team to a 'Supplier Engagement' team; and end all external diversity-focused surveys, including the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, a national benchmarking tool that measures benefits, practices, and policies pertaining to LGBTQ+ employees. Additionally, Target stated that the company would conclude its Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiatives in 2025, 'as planned.' These initiatives, which were introduced in 2020, included pledges to source and design 'significantly more products' from Black creators and institute anti-racism training and education for all employees. 'Many years of data, insights, listening, and learning have been shaping this next chapter in our strategy,' Target's chief community impact and equity officer Kiera Fernandez said in a memo to staff, per CBS News. 'And as a retailer that serves millions of consumers every day, we understand the importance of staying in step with the evolving external landscape, now and in the future.' Target joins at least 12 major corporations that have announced rollbacks to DEI programs aimed at communities of color and the LGBTQ+ community, including Amazon, McDonald's, and Walmart. These changes follow a series of right-wing anti-DEI campaigns that have gained notoriety in recent years, aided by propagandists like Chris Rufo, who engineered the anti-LGBTQ+ 'grooming' panic; and Robbie Starbuck, who rose to prominence as an anti-mask advocate in 2020 and later allegedly deceived drag performers into appearing in the 2023 anti-trans documentary The War on Children. Starbuck took credit for Target's policy changes in a January 24 X post, claiming that the company did so after finding out that Starbuck was 'doing a story on wokeness there.' President Donald Trump has also prioritized dismantling DEI during his second presidential administration, issuing an executive order to 'revoke federal DEI requirements' shortly after taking office on January 20. Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that Trump's 'Department of Government Efficiency' (DOGE) — a presidential advisory commission led by Elon Musk — is considering cutting over $120 billion in annual DEI spending. As for Target, the company has a history of wavering on its commitments to LGBTQ+ in the face of conservative pushback. In 2016, Target stated that trans employees and customers could use bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity, becoming one of the first major retailers to speak out amid national debates over trans bathroom accessibility. However, after some customers threatened to boycott Target in response, the company announced it would spend $20 million to add single-toilet bathrooms with lockable doors to more stores. In 2023, Target removed some of its Pride merchandise due to right-wing backlash and threats of violence toward employees. The following year, the retailer opted not to stock Pride-themed items at half of its 1,956 U.S. stores. Target has already faced plenty of public backlash for its decision to scale back its DEI initiatives, perhaps most notably from the Twin Cities Pride festival, which operates in the same city where the company is headquartered. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Target has historically been a major donor to Twin Cities Pride, donating between $50,000 and $70,000 to the organization each year. In a January 26 Instagram post, Twin Cities Pride announced that it had made the decision to part ways with Target as a sponsor, 'standing firm in our commitment to LGBTQIA+ inclusion and equity.' 'In a time where it's been a really, really rough week for our community given everything that has come down from the new administration, this was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back,' Twin Cities Pride Executive Director Andi Otto told the Star Tribune during a January 26 interview. '[...] Our community does not want to see someone who has rolled back [DEI] policies in a place where they want to celebrate and feel empowered.' Get the best of what's queer. Sign up for Them's weekly newsletter here. Originally Appeared on them.
