Transform! Europe

As the recess of the European Parliament begins, this article reflects upon one of the most dramatic achievements of the far right in Europe of the past year: the return regulations for migrants and asylum seekers. How come it was supported by the Christian Democrats and what can be done to end what is now brazenly called “the age of deportations” by the far right. This decade, we have regularly witnessed scenes reminiscent of the darkest chapters in European history.

Part one of this two-piece analysis looks at a radical geopolitical shift: the era of US nation-building in the Western Balkans has given way to a strategy of naked, transactional deals. While this first part maps Washington’s commercial and security interests, part two will examine Brussels’ response and the broader EU perspective. In May, the State Department sent Congress a short report on US policy toward the Western Balkans.

In this text, Lithuanian philosopher and doctoral researcher Domas Junelis explores the relationship between Marxism, nature, and ecological crisis. Engaging with debates on value, abstraction, and capitalism, he offers a critical perspective on how the logic of capital shapes our understanding of the natural world. From ecosocialism to… Marx? Nature is spoken about less and less in ecological discourse, but in my view, speaking about it is becoming increasingly meaningless.

Digital capitalism is reshaping work through exploitation and surveillance. Marga Ferré analyses these structural shifts and outlines a path towards regulating and democratising the digital era.

The notion that so-called Artificial Intelligence technologies are destined to degrade human labour, if not destroy it altogether, has become a commonplace. In a report published in 2023, Goldman Sachs even claimed that 300 million jobs could disappear in the coming years! One might well doubt the scenario of widespread automation put forward by these investment banks. It is even refuted by (real) economists and by the capitalists themselves, when they are among themselves.

We now know that algorithms not only reflect existing discrimination but also reinforce it. For example: A married couple in the U.S. applied for two credit cards; both had the same net worth, yet the wife received a credit limit twenty times lower than her husband’s. The algorithm had ‘learned’ from previous data that it is primarily men who take out large loans. Thus it is not the AI itself that discriminates, but rather the data it mines, which reflects societal inequalities.

Big Tech has amassed extraordinary power and now exerts control over the entire economy. Europe can no longer afford to remain captive to Big Tech networks. According to economist Cecilia Rikap, the solution lies in building an alternative digital ecosystem. Today, US tech giants increasingly capture and profit from knowledge, research, and technologies produced in European universities and public institutions.

On the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, tens of thousands of IT workers ‘annotate’ the data required to run the algorithms owned by the global leaders in AI. Their highly precarious working conditions reveal an exploitative industrial system on a global scale. Editor’s note: While AI technology has advanced at a breakneck pace since this report was first published in late 2024, the human cost behind the algorithms remains largely unchanged.

Driven by Gen-Z, Albania’s “Flamingo Revolution” has rapidly evolved from an environmental protest into a powerful, autonomous movement challenging systemic neoliberalism and oligarchy. Young Albanian political scientist and social activist Ariela Zeneli shares her reflections on the rising protests and the generational shift challenging the country’s political status quo.

Together with CLACSO and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Mexico, we are launching a new joint long-term exchange project and we warmly invite your active participation through essay submissions as well as your support in circulating this call within your networks. This open call for essays by individual authors or collectives, “The Future in Dispute.