International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

• Ecuador

  Solidarity with Leonidas Iza, the Ecuadorean Indigenous leader – Against the far-right’s plans to reform the constitution and destroy rights

  18 May, by Iain Bruce

  Since the re-election of Daniel Noboa as President of Ecuador on 13 April, his hard-right, Trump-like administration, and most of the Ecuadorean establishment, have launched a ferocious campaign against Leonidas Iza, the President of CONAIE (the Confederation of Ecuador’s Indigenous Nations), and former presidential candidate of the Indigenous and plurinational movement, Pachakutik. They see him, and the communities, movements and struggles that he represents, as the main obstacle to their plans for a radical neoliberal reform to the constitution.

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• Ukraine:

  3 years into war, Ukrainian leftists fight for labor rights under martial law

  17 May, by Theia Chatelle , Ana Babić, Vitaliy Dudin

  Ukrainian leftists face a double bind, caught between anti-labor governance in Ukraine and military attacks from Russia.

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• 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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...and the rest of the current issue

• Georgia

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

• USA

  What Will an American Pope Mean for the US?

• 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

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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