International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

• Syria

  Syria and the Dangers of Playing with Fire

  17 July, by Gilbert Achcar

  Whatever is the origin of the recent bloody clashes in the Suwayda Governorate—whether they were merely the result of the chaos prevailing in post-Assad Syria, or a manoeuvre by Israel in order to escalate its hypocritical intervention in the region, or a manoeuvre by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to extend its control over southern Syria—what is unmistakable is that the first factor, the prevailing chaos, provided the conditions for the explosion.

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• Kosova

  Remembering Srebrenica 30 Years On

  16 July, by Geoff Ryan

  11 July marked the 30th anniversary of the genocide in July 1995 of over 8,000 largely Bosniak men and male children by Bosnian Serb forces under the command of Ratko Mladic. They were buried in mass graves. Many thousand more fled into the forest and embarked on a harrowing journey lasting up to 7 days before reaching the eastern Bosnia village of Nezuk. What led up to the massacre and how it has been treated compared to two other wars: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians..

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• Chile

  Communist Party triumph and opportunity in an adverse electoral scenario in Chile

  15 July, by Javiera Manzi, Karina Nohales

  Jeannette Jara swept the country, displacing the former Concertación and Frente Amplio (Broad Front or FA) parties. If she were to win the November 16, 2025 presidential elections, it would be a milestone that would run counter to the current political climate in Latin America.

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• Iran

  Islamic Republic and state racism: we must put an end to this regime!

  14 July, by Babak Kia

  Since 1 June 2025, nearly 450,000 Afghans have left Iranian territory. This estimate, provided by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), is staggering. For the whole of 2025, the number rises to 906,326 according to the UN agency.

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• USA

  Cracks in Trump’s MAGA Movement

  13 July, by Dan La Botz

  A few months ago, President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again or MAGA movement seemed to be a solid monolith from Republican Party legislators at the top to rank-and-file activists at its base. Today MAGA is riven with fissures caused by personal rivalries, and the increasingly visible incompetence of cabinet members, and while MAGA is not yet splitting or crumbling, it is clearly cracking.

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...and the rest of the current issue

• Togo

  A wave of bloody repression hit the demonstrations in Togo

• Kenya

  Renewed protests in Kenya

• Greece

  Anti-racist festival in Athens a great success against a backdrop of state racism

• Serbia

  Student revolt becomes everyone’s in Serbia

• Ukraine/Palestine

  Free the Children! End the Starvation and Genocide!

Recently posted Features

• Series: Banks and the “Too big to jail” doctrine (Part 8)

  Complicity of Dexia in very serious Human Rights violations in the Israeli occupied territories

  1 September 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  In 2001, the Dexia Group (Dexia SA) took over the Israeli bank Otzar Hashilton Hamekomi. It has been disclosed that this subsidiary – now called Dexia Israel – finances Israeli colonies in the Palestinian territories [1]which means Dexia is involved in the occupation of Palestine. As the platform “Palestine occupée – Dexia impliquée( Occupied Palestine - Dexia Involved)” says, “financing these colonies contravenes international law, in particular article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention, which states, ’The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territory it occupies.’” [2]

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• Series: The banks and the “Too Big to Jail” doctrine (Part 7)

  The Big Banks Organise Massive Tax Evasion on an International Scale

  31 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  Another example of the “Too Big to Jail” doctrine: International tax evasion and fraud organised by UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank.
  UBS, which had to be saved from failure in October 2008 by massive injections of Swiss public money, was involved in the LIBOR manipulation scandal, the currency markets manipulation scandal (UBS is the subject of several inquiries by controlling authorities in Hong Kong, US, the UK, and in Switzerland) and the abusive sale of structured Mortgage-Backed (…)

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• Series : The banks and the “too big to jail” doctrine (Part 5)

  Big banks’ tampering with interest rates

  31 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  The extremely tolerant approach to the manipulation of interest rates by the governments of the main industrialised countries shows the extent to which the ’Too Big to Jail’ principle is applied. In 2010 the media revealed that a group of eighteen banks had been manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) from 2005 to 2010. LIBOR is a benchmark rate used for a market of $350 trillion, in assets and financial derivatives, which means it is the second most important benchmark rate in the world after the dollar exchange rate. The rate is based on information provided by eighteen banks about their funding costs in interbank markets. In 2012 evidence was provided of collusion among big banks such as UBS, Barclays, Rabobank, or Royal Bank of Scotland in order to manipulate LIBOR in their own interests.

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• Series : The banks and the “too big to jail” doctrine (Part 4)

  HSBC: the bank with a shameful past and scandalous present

  31 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  The British bank HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) employs 260, 000 people, has offices in 75 countries, and 54 million customers. [3]
  From its earliest days, it has been involved in the international narcotics trade. It was founded in the wake of the British victories in the Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860) against China. These two wars were very important to the strengthening of the British Empire and the century and a half waning of China. Through the Opium Wars, the British Empire forced China to accept opium importations coming from British India. China tried to oppose this commerce, but British arms, backed by Washington, proved stronger. London established a colony in Hong Kong in 1865, where HSBC was created by a Scottish merchant specializing in the opium trade— the basis of 70% of Hong Kong trade with the Indies.

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