Six years after its launch as an online magazine at the time of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in January 2005, International Viewpoint has once again shown its value in being able to bring to its readers timely coverage of major world events, from the point of view of those whose voices are not heard in the mass media. Thanks to a strengthened IVP team we have been able to do so more in pace with the rhythm of events. At the same time we have kept up strong coverage of the economic crisis, particularly on the question of is impact and our responses in Europe.
Resisting homophobia and occupation
13 July 2011, byHaneen Maikey from the Palestinian queer group Al Qaws was in Amsterdam in June talking about their struggles for sexual emancipation and against the Israeli occupation. Alex de Jong spoke with her about being queer and Palestinan and the queer contribution to the Palestinian liberation movement for the Dutch newspaper Grenzeloos.
Elections in Thailand: a stinging disavowal of the ruling oligarchy
13 July 2011, byThailand’s parliamentary elections on July 3, 2011 could prove to be among the most important events in the history of the country. These elections took place 14 months after the repression which led to the death of 93 persons, mostly Red Shirts. Abhisit Vejjajiva, who became Prime Minister in December 2008 supported by an alliance organised by the military inside parliament, had turned them into a test in order to win at the ballot box the legitimacy which had been previously denied to him.
Obama, Bin Laden and the Pakistani crisis
9 July 2011, byThere was much more at stake in the execution of Osama Bin Laden than a presidential re-election in the United States. The most important element in the operation carried out by US commandos US in Abbottabad, on May 2, 2011, was probably not the death of Osama Bin Laden – even if he remained an emblematic figure for Al-Qaeda – but the way in which he was killed. Washington does not want the Pakistani government to fall, nor does it want the latter to break with the USA. But in deciding to intervene thus on foreign territory, Barack Obama played the sorcerer’s apprentice.
National Conference of the NPA: a campaign faced with the crisis of the system
9 July 2011, by ,The national conference of the NPA brought together 240 delegates, elected by the 3,100 members who had voted in 92 local aggregate meetings. The purpose of the conference was to decide the NPA’s approach to the upcoming elections, presidential and legislative. The vote of the members gave a majority of 50.4 per cent to Motion A, thus deciding to launch our presidential campaign without putting our candidature in parentheses.
“The worker Poutou succeeds the postman Besancenot”
9 July 2011Philippe Poutou was designated the NPA candidate for the 2012 presidential election at the National Conference held on the 25th and 26th June. Putou is a worker from Ford’s in Bordeaux. This article was published in the regional newspaper Sud-Ouest on Sunday 26th June.
Declaration of the Executive Committee members of the NPA supporting Position B
9 July 2011At the National Conference of the NPA called to decide on the NPA’s stance in the 2012 presdidential and legislative elections, the supporters of the minority position (known as Position B) made the following statement in the closing of the conference.
Why the left should back independence
8 July 2011, byThe prospect of independence for Scotland - of a break-up of the British state is a prospect that should be supported by all socialists, as the Scottish Socialist Party’s Alan McCombes explains in this article, updated from 2005.
Declaration of the National Conference of the NPA on the presidential election
6 July 2011The NPA (New Anti-Capitalist Party, France) held a National Conference on the 25th and 26th June to decide on its stance in the 2012 presidential elections. It adopted the following statement.
A first turning point in the crisis
6 July 2011, byEvery day brings new revelations on the gravity of the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daichi and on the mendacious policies which covered the activity of the nucleocrat lobby, on the breadth of the risks imposed on the population by the choice of the atom, on the denial of democracy. The shock wave of scandal spreads across the Japanese archipelago. It could be said that the Japanese crisis has reached a turning point.