in september 2018, "the guardian" published two op-ed pieces talking about the need of a progressive cooperation to challenge the rising threat of globalism and authoritarianism, one of which sanders wrote and another by european progressive yanis varoufakis. in late october, varoufakis announced the upcoming launch of progressives international on november 30 in vermont alongside sanders. former 2018 brazilian presidential candidate fernando haddad joined the movement.