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 4)

  SUNFED versus World Bank

  6 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  From 1950 to 1960, having no Marshall Plan to promote their growth, the developing countries proposed that a new UN body be created, based on a “one country, one vote” system designed to facilitate loans to their industries: SUNFED (Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development). The industrialized countries were fiercely opposed to this move, and successfully imposed a counter-proposal, the International Development Association (IDA), a branch of the World Bank, thus effectively putting an end to SUNFED. [1]

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• Series : Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF: 70th anniversary (Part 3)

  Early conflicts between the UN and the World Bank/IMF tandem

  6 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  The World Bank and the IMF are specialized institutions of the UN, comparable in theory to the International Labour Organization (ILA) or the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As such, they are supposed to cooperate closely with the various UN bodies and the other specialized institutions to achieve the objectives set out in the Charter and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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• Series : 70 years since Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF (Part 2)

  The World Bank assists the powerful witch-hunters

  28 July 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  Contrary to common belief, the mission of the World Bank is not to reduce poverty in developing countries. The Bank’s mission, as originally conceived by the victors of the Second World War, the United States and Great Britain in particular, was to help rebuild Europe, and secondarily to promote the economic growth of the countries in the South, many of which were still under colonial rule. It was this second mission that went by the name of “development” and which constantly increased in scope. The World Bank lent money first of all to the colonial powers (Great Britain, France, Belgium) to help them more effectively exploit their colonies. Then, when these colonies became independent, the Bank made them liable for the debt that had only been contracted by their former metropolis in order to better exploit their natural resources and their population.

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• Series : 70 years since Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF (Part 1)

  Concerning the founding of the Bretton Woods’ Institutions

  28 July 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  70 years ago, July 22 1944, the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, better known as the Bretton Woods [2] Conference, that had lasted for three weeks, reached a conclusion.}} It was attended by representatives from 44 countries [3].

  In order to prevent a recurrence of economic crises like the crash of 1929, but also to ensure world leadership in the post-war era, the United States government began to plan for the creation of international financial institutions as early as 1941. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund saw the light of day at the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Initially, the Roosevelt administration was in favour of creating strong institutions capable of imposing rules on the private financial sector, including Wall Street. But noticing the hostility of the banking world Roosevelt backed down. Indeed, the distribution of votes within the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund clearly illustrates the will of certain major powers to exert domination over the rest of the world.

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