Communist Mayor [komünist başkan]
Fatih Mehmet Macoglu is a Turkish politician of Zaza descent of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP). He was elected mayor of Ovacık in 2014, where he was known for implementing initiatives like free public transport and agricultural projects such as bee keeping and cultivating…
What went wrong for the municipalists in Spain?
Four years after the first wave of municipalist governments in Spain, many of the so-called cities of change have failed to renew the results obtained in the elections that placed them in power. While the Catalan independence movement has radically changed the political landscape, thus…
Spain’s fight to take back the city
Four years ago progressive platforms won power in some of Spain’s biggest cities, including Madrid and Barcelona. The international left can learn a lot from their successes – and failures. Photo: Alex Wong
Spanish municipal elections: What happened with the new municipalist projects?
The article analyses the results of the 2019 municipal elections in Spain in different cities. According to the author, in order to understand the situation it is useful to pay attention to what happened to “the three souls of the movement”: traditional “left” forces, grassroots…
Turkey’s sole communist mayor promises small steps to socialism
Fatih Macoglu, from the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), took over as mayor of the central district of Tunceli this month after victory in March 31 local elections, which saw President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party lose control of the capital Ankara and Turkey’s…
Messina: Municipalism beyond the Municipio
The outcome of the municipal elections held on 10 June 2018 held in Mesina marked the end of Renato Accoriniti’s stretch in office and shut the City Council’s door on his three connected party lists, including Cambiamo Messina dal Basso (CMdB) – Messina’s new municipalist…
‘Dark municipalism’ – the dangers of local politics
Even as anti-authoritarian, anti-racist movements all over the world are working to take power where they live, self-described localist movements have also won elections with racist, and frankly fascist, platforms. New right movements like the Lega Nord have even adopted the more typically leftist, anti-authoritarian…
The “Preston Model” and the modern politics municipal socialism
The local elections in 2018 showed some advances in the modification of the once-called ‘the oldest and toughest plutocracy in the world’, but the mixed results underscored the difficulty of mobilisation around a stale and sterile managerialist model of local government, as embodied in all…
What’s it like for a social movement to take control of a city?
We can chart a new path forward by grounding that vision in the lessons learned from past struggles and an understanding of how hierarchy is the shared root of oppression. But this can all feel a bit intangible without clear examples. To get an idea of what…