On the global polycrisis: Speaking up for the ethical imperative of Left, socialist politics in nursing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/2291-5796.179Keywords:
Left, socialist politics, Right/alt-right politics, Big P politics, global nursing mobilizationAbstract
Nurses know how to speak up. We bring powerful voices forward for justice, historically and currently, in all manner of forums local, regional, national, and global. However, we have not coalesced in any substantive way around the current global polycrisis of growing and blatant rights violations at the hands of governments’ alt-Right promotion of unfettered capitalism and hatred of marginalized and racialized peoples. This editorial provides a description of Left, socialist politics and Right-alt-Right politics for nursing, with a call for nurses to join mobilization for Left politics to confront the global polycrisis of vast inequitable and widening global economic and social inequalities and climate emergency.
Downloads
References
Bryant, T. (2016). Health policy in Canada (2nd Edition). Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.
Cascade Institute. (n.d.). Polycrisis. https://cascadeinstitute.org/polycrisis/
Chibber, V. (2022). The class matrix: Social theory after the cultural turn. Boston: Harvard DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674269835
University Press.
Dillard‐Wright, J. (2024). Another nursing is possible: Ethics, political economies, and
possibility in an uncertain world. Nursing Philosophy, 25(3), e12484.
Dixon-Decleve, S., Gaffney, O., Ghosh, J., Randers, J., Rockstrom, J., & Stokes, P. E. (2022).
Earth for all: A survival guide for humanity. Gabriola Island, Canada: New Society Publishers.
Esping-Anderson, G. (2002). Why we need a new welfare state. Oxford: Oxford University DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/0199256438.001.0001
Press.
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (2025). First they came – by Pastor Martin Niemöller.
https://hmd.org.uk/resource/first-they-came-by-pastor-martin-niemoller/
Lay, T., & Murillo, C. (2023). Infographic: Global demonstrations in response to the Israel-
Palestine conflict. ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data). https://acleddata.com/2023/11/07/infographic-global-demonstrations-in-response-to-the-israel-palestine-conflict/
McGibbon, E. (2025). Politics of the social, ecological, and structural determinants of health.
Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press International.
McGibbon, E. (2024). Structural determinants of health: Towards a political economy of health DOI: https://doi.org/10.25071/2291-5796.164
perspective for nursing. Witness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse, 6(1), 1-7.
McGibbon, E., & Hallstrom, L. (2021). Oppression and the political economy of health
inequities. In E. McGibbon (Ed.), Oppression: A social determinant of health. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
Raphael, D. (2021). Raising the volume on the social determinants of health in Canada and
elsewhere. In E. McGibbon (Ed.), Oppression: A social determinant of health. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
Thorne, S. (2025). We were made for these times. Nursing Inquiry, 32(2), e70010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.70010
World Economic Forum. (2023); The global risks report (18th Ed.).
https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2023/
Younge, G. (2009). Archbishop Desmond Tutu: The secrets of a peacemaker. The Guardian,
May 23, 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/23/interview-desmond-tutu
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Elizabeth McGibbon
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Witness publishes under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0). Read the license terms at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. The author(s) retain copyright to their works.
