International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

• Portugal

  “We want to be able to look further than the end of the month”

  16 May, by Esquerda.net

  Parliamentary elections will take place in Portugal on Sunday 18 May. This report on a Left Bloc electoral meeting gives a flavour of the campaign.

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• Geopolitics

  “For the Neofascists, the Law of the Jungle is the Only One That Makes Sense”

  15 May, by Gilbert Achcar , Ilya Budraitskis

  Where did the “global neofascist axis” come from, and where is it going? What destabilizing effects might Russia’s war in Ukraine have? Ilya Budraitskis and Gilbert Achcar discuss the current conjuncture

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• Ukraine

  ‘Russia’s war no excuse for attacks on trade unions’

  14 May, by Federico Fuentes

  Ukrainian workers make up the bulk of frontline soldiers defending the country against Russia’s war of aggression, but that hasn’t stopped Volodymyr Zelensky’s government from attacking trade union rights.

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• Georgia

  The fight for democracy, social justice, and equality in the Caucasus

  13 May, by Ashley Smith, Collective

  The country of Georgia, a small nation of 3.8 million people in the Caucasus, has been thrown into a profound crisis. Its people have risen up against the ruling party, Georgian Dream, over the passage of its Russia-style “foreign influence law,” homophobic anti-LGBTQ propaganda law, rigging of the recent election, and suspension of accession talks for membership in the EU.

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• USA

  What Will an American Pope Mean for the US?

  12 May, by Dan La Botz

  The conclave of cardinals has for the first time elected a pope from the USA, a man who has been critical of the policies of President Donald Trump and Vice-president J.D. Vance. What will the choice of this American to be head of the Catholic Church mean for the US?

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...and the rest of the current issue

• South Asia

  From the front line: a critical look at Indo Pak War 2025

• Ukraine

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

• Syria

  Syria: Fishing in Troubled Waters

• DRC - Rwanda

  Peace under the seal of business

• South Africa

  Climate sanctions against fossil-addicted capitalists

Recently posted Features

• Series : Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF : 70th anniversary (Part 8)

  World Bank and IMF support to dictatorships

  29 September 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  After the Second World War, in a growing number of Third World countries, policies diverged from those of the former colonial powers. This trend encountered firm opposition from the governments of the major industrialised capitalist countries whose influence held sway with the World Bank (WB) and the IMF. WB projects have a strong political content: to curtail the development of movements challenging the domination/rule of major capitalist powers. The prohibition against taking “political” and “non-economic” considerations into account in WB operations, one of the most important provisions of its charter, is systematically circumvented. The political bias of the Bretton Woods institutions is shown by their financial support to dictatorships ruling in Chile, Brazil, Nicaragua, Congo-Kinshasa and Romania.

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• Series : Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF : 70th anniversary (Part 7)

  Domination of the United States on the World Bank

  9 September 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  The concept of the World as a huge bureaucracy, gradually freed from the influence of the US, is actually a far cry from reality. This mistaken conception is revealed in particular by the North American environmentalist Bruce Rich in his insightful book on the World Bank. [1] In real terms, the institution is firmly under the control of the US government which negotiates, with the governments of other major capitalist powers, the policies to be followed within the World Bank, and under its leadership. It has frequently failed to make the effort to reach a consensus with its principal partners (since the end of the 1950s, these are Japan, Germany, Great Britain and France) and it imposes its views directly on the Bank.

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• Series: Governments submit to “Too Big to Fail” banks (part 3)

  Private banks shamefully enjoy a monopoly of lending to the public sector

  8 September 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  The eurozone banks have the monopoly of lending to the public sector. It is prohibited for the ECB and the eurozone’s central banks to grant loans to public authorities (see box on the ECB). The governments in the eurozone have the possibility of borrowing from publicly owned banks where they still exist, but they do not do so.

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• Series: Governments submit to “Too Big to Fail” banks (part 2)

  Governments make Gifts Galore to Private Banks

  8 September 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  Government aid is made up of guarantees, and injections of capital in order to recapitalize the banks. In the period from October 2008 to December 2011, €1,174 trillion (9.3% of EU GDP [2] ) worth of guarantees were underwritten by European Governments as a contingency measure. To these guarantees must be added €442 billion (3.5% of EU GDP) of public capital support to banks. During 2012 and 2013 the recapitalizations continued: about €40 billion in Spain in 2012 alone, more than €50 billion in Greece, about €20 billion in Cyprus, €4 billion more for Dexia bank in Belgium, €3.9 billion for Monte dei Paschi in Italy, €3.7 billion for the Dutch bank SNS, €4.2 billion in Portugal on top of the Portuguese bail-out of the Banco Esperito Santo in July 2014., not forgetting Ireland, Slovenia, Croatia This assistance was granted without any government supervision of the use made of the funds. [3]

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