Large parts of the European population are trembling this week, worried about the outcome of the upcoming European elections where 350 million people across the EU are eligible to cast ballots for the 751 legislative members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

The threat of nationalists and populists winning big is real, with Euro-skepticism blossoming cross the continent, Brexit included. The predicted exponential gain of these disruptive forces, who want to make Europe great again according to Italian Deputy Prime minister Matteo Salvini, is based on an alliance of far-right parties across nation borders. Observers at the Center for European Reform hope, however, that populists, nationalist and euroskeptic parties will ultimately struggle to work together “so their influence will diminish a lot because of the lack of coordination.”

I have been thinking of alliances fron the other end of the spectrum – how a weak(ened) left or progressive movement needs to organize to develop sufficient thrust to stop the populist machine. An interesting article in the NYT from organizers in Poland provided some pointers. (Since my photographs of Poland hide somewhere in the digital universe, I am offering images of the Baltic Sea today, as close to Poland as I can get.)

In order to fight the illiberal wave crashing over Poland in the guise of the Law and Justice party, “nearly every party that opposes Law and Justice — from conservatives to Greens — united into an electoral list named the European Coalition, ahead of the elections this month. These parties have come together under the umbrella of protecting a minimum of democracy and the rule of law, as well as support for the European Union.”

The organizers stress the complications of having to compromise. Many if not all of the partners in the alliance had to give up on some of their demands. But they realize the power that comes from putting away their differences to speak in many voices expressing the same message. Something to be learned here for our own election campaigns, I suggest.

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A different alliance also caught my eye, one that stretches across an abyss deeper than anything a disunited left has ever known: the Israeli-Palestinian divide. Israeli and Palestinian members of Combatants for Peace (CFP) and the Parents Circle-Family Forum have come together to hold and alternative Memorial Day ceremony on Israel Memorial Day. “ … we stood with over 9,000 people who came to support families in mourning from (Green Line) Israel, the West Bank and—over video conference—from Gaza. Each loss is different. Some mourn IDF soldiers killed in battle; others, Palestinians who died at the hands of Israeli forces. But our message is shared: We refuse to allow our bereavement to be manipulated for nationalistic purposes and we insist that, despite all complications of asymmetry and power gaps, we have a right to recognize one another’s losses.“

It took 14 years to grow this alliance from the early 200 people to one that now numbers almost 10.000, and is vehemently, sometimes violently opposed by both the Israeli Right Wings and also by Palestinians, who accuse the CFP of normalizing relations with an oppressive government. (The article here gives details.)

But this is the message of the alliance: “Binational mourning is a sign that Palestinians and Israelis are capable of taking down the walls of fear that he works so hard to erect and maintain, and that we are able to find our own, independent moral compass, even in dark times. We know that the moral insight born of our ceremony is not enough, on its own, to change reality here; but we also know that no real change can happen without it.

As we look across the seas and watch Muslims and Jews being killed—albeit under very different circumstances—by white-supremacist terror in Christchurch, New Zealand, in Poway, California, and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, we invite mourners to join in our practice. It is imperative to remember the dead. It is transformative when we remember them together.”

Music ist by Swiss/Jewish composer Ernest Bloch who lived and composed in Oregon by 1916.