Radical left-wing Euroscepticism in the 2014 elections: a cross-European comparison

This article examines the varied performance of radical left-wing Eurosceptic parties during the 2014 EP elections. While the performance of the radical right during this 'earthquake' election has been widely discussed, little attention has been paid to the radical left. The article examines the result comparatively, and identifies that: (1) across Europe, radical left-wing euroscepticism is limited to few countries, including Greece, Cyprus, France and Portugal; (2) the countries that have experienced the worst of the economic crisis did not experience a significant rise in far right-wing party support but did experience the rise of left-wing euroscepticism; (3) from this sample only Greece experienced the rise of both the radical right and radical left.

Left-wing melancholies

With the recent passing of the world's "best-known unknown filmmaker," Chris Marker, it is axiomatic that left-wing melancholy now includes the ongoing loss of previously lost causes – a paradox that suggests the true address of all lost causes worth defending is a strange confluence of past and futural states, as one state. This double loss as gain is also the primary mark of the "landscape" of pessimistic optimism that also denotes the foremost position to occupy today in the battles associated with capitalist End Times (Slavoj Žižek's term). Cultural ecology is no longer what it once was – that is to say, a strange amalgam of vernacular essences perpetrated in the rather forlorn 1970s and/or the insistent and incessant production of difference. Instead, cultural ecology invokes spectral civil war – arguably the very state of things today – and the return of "the dead" in the persistence of forms of high-formalist and high-conceptualist works of art and architecture. This paper examines the late works of the late Chris Marker, including the very short videos he uploaded to You Tube under the pseudonym "Kosinki" from 2007 to 2011, an event contiguous with his return to exhibiting very-still photography from 2006 to 2011. Marker's simultaneous returns to still photography and the short film-essay are both magnificent gestures toward the austerities required of present-day media to effect the necessary "return" to what is always present in one form or another anyway – the non-place between world and world-to-come.

Mérode Altarpiece, left wing, Donors

Robert Campin, workshop of; 2 ft. 1 25/64 in.x 10 3/4 in.; oil on oak

Mérode Altarpiece, left wing, Donors: detail

Robert Campin, workshop of; oil on oak

Saint John on Patmos, The Virgin and Child Enthroned, and the Death of the Virgin, left wing of a diptych

Pacino di Bonaguida; 2 ft. 3/8 in. x 1 ft. 3 63/64 in.; tempera and gold leaf on panel

Triptych with the Lamentation, Donor with St. Peter (left wing), Donor’s Wife with St. Paul (right wing)

Jan Mostaert; 2 ft. 4 15/16 in.x 1 ft. 10 29/32 in. (center); 2 ft. 4 15/16 in.x 1 ft. 10 29/32 in. (each wing); oil on panel

Inner Left Wing of an Altarpiece with the Wedding Feast of St Elizabeth and Louis of Thuringia in the Wartburg

Master of the Saint. Elizabeth Panels; 4 ft. 2 9/32 in.x 3 ft. 7 7/64 in.; oil on panel

Outer Left Wing of an Altarpiece with the St Elizabeth’s Day Flood

Master of the Saint. Elizabeth Panels; 4 ft. 2 1/8 in.x 3 ft. 7 7/64 in.; oil on panel

Tabernacle of Cherves, open position, left wing

Metalwork, French, 13C; 2 ft. 3 1/8 in.x 9 3/8 in.; copper, engraved, repoussé, gilt; champlevé enamel on modern wood mount

The Virgin and Child,center, left wing, Visitation, the Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi, right wing, Nativity, and the Presentation in the Temple

8 13/16 in.x 6 3/8 in.x 53/64 in.; elephang ivory

The Garden of Earthly Delights Triptych, exterior, left wing, Creation of the World

Hieronymus Bosch; grisaille, oil on wood

Left vs right in black and white : a review

LIKE much of the work that David Williamson is known for, Let the Sunshine concentrates on tensions between characters who operate mainly as mouthpieces for opposing ideologies. Left-wing documentary-maker Toby and his wife Ros have moved to Noosa to escape the rat race in Sydney and some bad press surrounding one of Toby's projects. Trying to make social connections in town, Ros has reconnected with high school classmate Natasha, now the cosmetically-enhanced wife of wealthy right-wing property developer Ron. The posturing and conflict between Toby and Ron come to a head when the women invite their grown children -- struggling songwriter Rick and stressed corporate lawyer Emma -- to dinner to celebrate Toby's birthday, and the results of this encounter drive the rest of the plot. The scenario of Let the Sunshine is contrived, the characters are stereotyped, and their conflicts are little more than an old clash of ideologies cast loosely across the mainstream news media's characterisation of the sides in debates about development, climate change and the economic crisis.

The paradox of nationalism: the common denominator of radical right and radical left euroscepticism

What can explain the strong euroscepticism of radical parties of both the right and the left? This article argues that the answer lies in the paradoxical role of nationalism as a central element in both party families, motivating opposition towards European integration. Conventionally, the link between nationalism and euroscepticism is understood solely as a prerogative of radical right-wing parties, whereas radical left-wing euroscepticism is associated with opposition to the neoliberal character of the European Union.This article contests this view. It argues that nationalism cuts across party lines and constitutes the common denominator of both radical right-wing and radical left-wing euroscepticism. It adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining intensive case study analysis with quantitative analysis of party manifestos. First, it traces the link between nationalism and euroscepticism in Greece and France in order to demonstrate the internal validity of the argument. It then undertakes a cross-country statistical estimation to assess the external validity of the argument and its generalisability across Europe.

World War A: contemporary anarchists and extreme left perpetrators

While there are currently very few lone actor terrorists among modern anarchists and within the contemporary extreme left, the present lack of extreme left wing lone actor terrorists does not signify a lack of interest in violent solutions within this particular milieu. As the author will show, twenty-flrst century anarchism has considerable potential for lone actor terrorism. It would be imprudent to conclude that this once important ideological source of lone actor terrorism will not reappear again.