International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

• Ukraine

  Ukrainian socialist: Five main problems with the US-Ukraine mineral deal

  10 May, by Vitaliy Dudin

  The minerals deal signed between Ukraine and the United States reflects US capital’s desire to gain unhindered access to Ukraine’s mineral resources. It also gives the US new leverage over Ukraine’s economic and political situation. In contrast, there are no obvious benefits for Ukraine, despite it ceding sovereignty.

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• Syria

  Syria: Fishing in Troubled Waters

  9 May, by Gilbert Achcar

  Israel has accustomed us to fishing in troubled waters. The Zionist state has long been interested in sowing discord and fanning its flames in striving to redraw the map of the Middle East in its image, so that the logic of sectarian and ethnic fragmentation prevails over the logic of citizenship and shared loyalty to a state that merges sectarian and ethnic groups into a single melting pot while preserving their rights. Inspired by the Roman Empire’s famous principle of “divide and conquer”, Israel has sought, since its inception, to exploit the differences it found in its immediate and distant surroundings, playing sectarian minorities against the regional Sunni majority and ethnic minorities against the Arab majority: Druze, Christians, Kurds, and others – even Shiites during the time of the Shah of Iran, before that country became a hotbed of anti-Israel hostility and contributed in turn to fuelling Shiite sectarianism in neighbouring Arab countries in an effort to expand its regional influence.

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• DRC - Rwanda

  Peace under the seal of business

  8 May, by Paul Martial

  The option of peace between the DRC and Rwanda is now becoming plausible, albeit fraught with obstacles. However, this is proving disadvantageous for Kinshasa.

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• South Africa

  Climate sanctions against fossil-addicted capitalists

  7 May, by Patrick Bond

  The implications of climate-unjust politics are ever more important to interpret and resist. United States President Donald Trump, an unabashed ‘climate denialist’, withdrew his country, the main historic emitter of greenhouse gases, from United Nations negotiations, and should now be sanctioned. But annual UN COPs (Conferences of the Parties) won’t, because the ‘climate action’ approach is dominated by the West and BRICS. They continue to deny the world long-overdue ‘climate justice’ and they won’t punish Trump’s climate crimes.

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• Britain

  Reform – Labour is feeding the monster

  6 May, by Dave Kellaway

  The centre cannot hold! In the wake of Reform’s massive gains in local elections, Dave Kellaway investigates the new political landscape.

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...and the rest of the current issue

• East Asia

  East Asia: War and revolution

• USA

  May Day in America, is it now here to stay?

• Nigeria

  Nigeria: against oil industry impunity

• Mexico

  Mexico: “The right-wing parties are practically in the worst phase of their history”

• Zambia

  Zambia: people are victims of extractivism

Recently posted Features

• European Union

  No to a bosses’ Europe – the politics of the EU and the eurozone crisis

  18 April 2012, by Alan Thornett

  The general line of this article was approved by the National Committee of Socialist Resistance (British section of the Fourth International) on the 24th of March 2012.

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• Debt crisis

  The Left against Debt-tatorship

  13 April 2012, by Françisco Louçã

  The debate on the left over how to respond to the debt crisis is fundamental for defining socialist policies. That is what this text is about. In the first part, I look at the crisis of the euro. I will argue, as many others have, that this crisis is structural and permanent, contrary to the claims of both social democracy and the right. In the second part, I look at the two options that have been put forward as alternatives to the strategy of left-wing europeanism : first the nationalist exit strategy and second the leap towards a European State. I aim to show that both these alternatives have three problems: they are profoundly contradictory, they depend on concealing their real economic and social effects, and they ignore the balance of forces in which choices have to be made. In the third part, I take a fresh look at left-wing europeanism and seek to show that an economic alternative demands a strategy of class struggle. For that, we need to go back to basics.

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• Australia

  Australian imperialism and the rise of China

  6 April 2012, by Tom Bramble

  The rise of China has been of enormous significance for the Australian capitalist class. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Ross Gittins outlines three major reasons why the East Asian giant now matters for Australian capitalism. First is its sheer size. With a population of 1.35 billion, it has 20 per cent of the world’s population and is 11 times larger than Australia’s second largest trading partner, Japan. Second, the Chinese economy has grown by 10 per cent a year for three decades, roughly doubling in size every eight years.

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• Global Justice

  Occupy America

  18 March 2012, by Cinzia Arruzza

  Movements always arrive unexpectedly. And those who have worked hardest in previous years and months to push towards an escalation of struggles and mobilizations are usually the most surprised by a movement’s arrival. In spite of the many surprises — Who would have imagined that the occupation of Tahrir Square was possible? Who would have imagined the Spanish acampadas? — Leftist activists tend to insist in thinking that movements and the specific forms the movements take can be predicted. The reality is that one can predict that there will be a struggle, for class conflict is inscribed in the capitalist relations of production. But when, where, and which form this struggle will take is impossible to predict. The impossibility of predicting the specific constellation in which those who are below decide that the situation is simply not acceptable any longer does not mean that movements explode like lightening in the sky.

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