Switzerland Votes Down a Xenophobic Initiative — Thanks to the Unions!

On 14 June 2026, Swiss voters went to the polls on a xenophobic popular initiative bearing the title “No to a Switzerland with 10 million! (Sustainability Initiative)”. In this guest post, Roland Erne argues that 55 per cent of voters rejected the constitutional initiative put forward by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), partly thanks to a trade-union campaign spanning several decades.

 

Germany – The Genocidal State!

In an online seminar on 5 March 2026, the Palestinian academic Abdaljawad Omar reflected on several universal insights, which have come to light as a result of the ongoing Genocide perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. His second universal insight focused on a truth, which has always been there, but has only now come to light for everybody to see. Israel's brutality against the Palestinian people has, of course, always been there at least since the Nakba in 1948. It is now that it is openly permitted to act like a monster, attacking indiscriminately schools, hospitals, universities and locations of worship. However, it is not only permitted by the international order to carry out these heinous acts considered by organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to constitute genocide. Israel is actually supported by Western countries. The liberal order committed to universal human rights has always only been partial. What many observers always knew can no longer be denied. While the liberal order pretends, the authoritarian order underneath the liberal mask does not. In view of the ongoing genocide, pretending is no longer possible. The mask has been removed and while the language remains the same, is still the language of the mask, everybody can now see through it. What does this imply for Germany and its continuing support of Israel?

 

Divisions in the Core of Global Capitalism? Italian Labour and ‘Free Trade’

The global labour movement has been divided over ‘free trade’. Many unions in the Global North, especially in export-oriented sectors, supported such agreements to secure markets and jobs, while unions in the Global South opposed them having experienced job losses and deindustrialisation. In my new article, ‘Divisions in the Core of Global Capitalism? Italian Labour and “Free Trade”’, published in the journal New Political Economy, I demonstrate that a split has opened up in the core of global capitalism. Against the background of drastic deindustrialisation, Italian trade unions have moved to an explicit anti – ‘free trade’ position, while especially the export sector German and Scandinavian trade unions continue their support.