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Social movements from around the world are in Geneva this week to push the United Nations to adopt a binding treaty on corporations and human rights.

Last year, a group of Global Justice Now activists went to Barcelona to see how movements for food sovereignty, energy democracy and housing rights had created significant infrastructure and fed into the historic win by Barcelona En Comú (Barcelona in Common) in the city council elections the previous year.

As expected and based on numerous pre-election polls, Angela Merkel has secured her fourth term as German Chancellor. Yet despite the relatively strong performance of the German economy, the result of Sunday’s election shows a sharp swing to the right. It is part of the growing political and social polarisation overtaking Europe, created by anti-migrant and anti-establishment sentiments.

‘Let’s Debate, Resist, Act - The Time Is Now!’ was the rallying slogan of the European Summer University for Social Movements that took place from 23 to 27 August in Toulouse, France. The conference, organised by the Attac Network, brought together thousands of alter-globalist, ecofeminist, anti-capitalist and pro-migrant activists from all over Europe and beyond.

Our friends at Another Europe is Possible have issued a new report today, which suggests that ditching EU free movement rules will be bad for British workers. We agree – and think the same arguments apply globally.