Rosalux-Europa

30/08/2026

Iceland has narrowly rejected a proposal to resume EU accession talks that stalled in 2013, with the ‘No’ vote winning negotiations with the EU by a narrow margin.

Nearly 53% of voters in the small North Atlantic country rejected the proposal, after a campaign dominated less by security concerns than by economics and sovereignty - and the fishing industry in particular.

Fish and marine industries account for 40% of Iceland’s exports, and many Icelanders fear the impact of EU’s Common Fisheries Policy on the sector, and the communities that depend on it.

Turnout for the referendum was 82.5%, with 225,031 of a potential 270,000 votes cast - the highest participation rate since Iceland’s 2009 national parliament elections (85.1%).

Iceland initially entered negotiations to join the EU in 2009 amid the turmoil of the financial crisis, but ended them abruptly in 2013 under a eurosceptic government.

Because Iceland is already a member of the EEA, Single Market, and Schengen zones, supporters of re-opening talks - in both Reykjavik and Brussels - had hoped that the country could achieve full membership status as soon as 2028.

The referendum was originally planned for 2027, but was brought forward amid concerns over Trump's moves on Greenland, and fears about increasing Russian activity in the North Atlantic.

While Iceland is a member of NATO, it has no army - only a 250-strong coast guard - and is reliant for defence on its European allies and a bilateral defence treaty with US signed in 1951.

The small island nation also sits in the geostrategically important GIUK Gap (Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom), a vital naval choke point between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic.

Yet while debates around security, economics, and sovereignty all featured during the campaign, the decisive issue may have been concerns about the potential negative impact of the EU Common Fisheries Policy on Iceland’s fishing communities and its wider economy.

That a wealthy, democratic European country, which already enjoys access to the Single Market through the EEA, has rejecting even *discussing* EU membership, should give Brussels reason for pause.

The mere existence of the EU is not an argument in and of itself - the EU must become a more democratic project that people actually want to join.

Image: Arctic Falcon, CC BY-SA 3.0

30/07/2026

in 1893, Rosa Luxemburg and Leo Jogiches founded the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego, SDKP). In 1900, the party merged with the Lithuanian Workers' Union and became the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL).

Luxemburg had previously written her doctoral dissertation on capitalist development in her homeland of Poland, which was undergoing rapid economic transformation and the emergence of an industrial proletariat and a labour movement.

The new socialist party was also founded in distinction from the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), which had been established a year earlier. While the PPS placed Polish independence from the Russian Tsarist Empire at the centre of its programme, Rosa Luxemburg and her comrades argued that the struggle against Tsarism had to be waged jointly with the working class throughout the Russian Empire

The revolution of 1905 spread across the Tsarist Empire, confirming Rosa Luxemburg’s analysis. The party grew rapidly. Rosa Luxemburg returned to her homeland, from which she had been forced to flee at the age of 18 due to her political activities, and took part in the revolution. In 1906, she and her partner and comrade Leo Jogiches were arrested by the Tsarist police and imprisoned in a cell in the notorious Warsaw Citadel.

The revolution was, for the time being, defeated, but it had demonstrated that the labour movement in the economically integrated Tsarist Empire would transcend national borders. For several years, the SDKPiL affiliated itself with the SDAPR, the Russian Social Democratic Party, as an autonomous section. Following Poland’s independence in 1918, the SDKPiL merged with the left wing of the PPS (PPS-Lewica) to form the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland (KPRP).

Under Stalin, ‘Luxemburgism’ was denounced. In 1938, the Communist Party of Poland was dissolved by the Communist International on Stalin's orders. Many of its leaders, living in the Soviet Union, were executed during the Great Purge. In 1939, Poland was partitioned between N**i Germany and the Soviet Union under the terms of the Hitler–Stalin Pact.

27/07/2026

If you're a musician or part of a band and have always wanted to play at a political festival in Vienna (Volksstimmefest, 5–6 September), now's your chance – apply!

Know someone who might be interested? Please share this with your musician friends.

Musicians of the world, unite!

Find all the details on our website: rosalux.eu

14/07/2026

The Marxist Summer School was a tremendous success! Read our report on our website (link in the comments 👇)

03/07/2026

This July 10–12, the Marxist Summer School returns for its second edition to the Université du Travail in Charleroi. Three days of courses, debates and encounters for anyone committed to understanding the world in order to change it. The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Brussels Office is proud to support the school as a partner, and this year we're bringing several of our own workshops to the program, with colleagues and comrades from across Europe and beyond.

Here's where you'll find us:

Friday 10th, 14:00–17:00
Marxist Philosophy: Understanding the World to Change It with Michael Brie (board member, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung). An introduction to dialectical materialism as a tool for action, not armchair theory. (Note: this session is fully booked.)

Saturday 11th, 10:00–13:00
China's Concept of "Ecological Civilization" from a Marxist Ecological Perspective With Qingzhi Huan, professor at Peking University. Can China's "red-green" transition really reconcile ecological transformation with socio-ecological justice — and what challenges lie ahead?

Saturday 11th, 14:00–17:00
What Future for Industry in Europe? With Matteo Gaddi and Valentina Orazzini (FIOM-CGIL), Federico Tomasone (RLS Brussels). Europe's industry is in crisis while profits flow to shareholders and militarisation is sold as the fix. A frank look at deindustrialisation and the working-class response.

Sunday 12th, 10:00–13:00
The Voice of the Working Class in Parliament A conversation with Nadia Moscufo (PTB) and Cem Ince (Die Linke) — two former shop-floor union reps now sitting in parliament, on bringing workers' struggles into bourgeois institutions.

Sunday 12th, 14:00–17:00
Rosa Luxemburg: The Story of a Communist and Peace Activist with Michael Brie. A look at Luxemburg's life and thought through the lens of anti-militarism — and what her example still teaches us today.

Adresse : Université du Travail, Bd Gustave Roullier 1, 6000 Charleroi

29/06/2026

The results are in: Elke Kahr (KPÖ) has been re-elected as mayor of Graz, Austria’s second-largest city. She is well known for listening to the people of Graz during public consultation hours, and for insisting that housing is not a commodity.
But the KPÖ has also managed to reduce public debt, while investment in social policy, healthcare and care services has even increased.

The KPÖ’s victory goes well beyond its stronghold of Graz. Recent years have seen the rise of the Communist Party in Salzburg, Innsbruck and other cities. What’s more, the KPÖ’s ideas and methods are being exported to other European countries. The election results bear this out.

Follow the link in the comments to read our full analysis (in English and German) 👇

26/06/2026

🇦🇱🦩 What began as a protest against the destruction of a protected ecosystem in Zvërnec has rapidly evolved into something much bigger: a generational challenge to oligarchy, neoliberalism, and the political status quo in Albania.

✒️ Ariela Zeneli, a young Albanian political scientist and activist, examines how the "𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐨 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧" transformed from an environmental struggle into a broad social movement, led by Gen-Z, that is demanding not only accountability from those in power, but a fundamentally different future.

"A New Albania is possible!"✊

Full article 🔗 below in the comments 👇

25/06/2026

In our newest article, Lora Verheecke looks at the EU-US trade deal that was approved by the EU Parliament. How did the EU allow itself to be bullied across all its institutions? And what comes after globalization as we know it?

Link in the comments below 👇

23/06/2026

"Reclaiming Steel" translated into German and French
In their study, Alexandra Gerasimcikova (RLS Brussels), Max Wilken (founding member of communia) and Justus Henze (communia) explore the roots of the continuous crises of the European steel industry. They argue for public, democratic ownership and socio-ecological planning of the steel industry. The study is now translated to German and French and can be found here:

„Reclaiming Steel“
In ihrer Studie untersuchen Alexandra Gerasimcikova (RLS Brüssel), Max Wilken und Justus Henze (communia) die Ursachen der anhaltenden Krisen der europäischen Stahlindustrie. Sie plädieren für eine öffentliche, demokratische Eigentumsform und eine sozial-ökologische Planung der Stahlindustrie.

Die Studie liegt nun in deutscher und französischer Übersetzung vor und ist bei Rosalux-Europa als PDF-Download zu finden:
https://rosalux.eu/2026/reclaiming-steel-a-public-path-for-europes-green-industrial-strategy