International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

• Brazil
  

  Dispute in the Supreme Court disrupts elections in Brazil

  17 September, by Luís Leiria

  On one side is Alexandre de Moraes, the judge who led the investigation into and prosecution of the Bolsonaro-led coup against President Lula; on the other is Judge André Mendonça, appointed during Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency. Both are suspected of having ties to the banker responsible for the biggest financial fraud in Brazil’s history.
  With less than a month to go before the presidential elections on 4 October, Brazil finds itself plunged into a crisis that, for the first time, has (…)

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• Democratic Republic of Congo
  

  Constitutional tampering in DRC

  16 September, by Paul Martial

  Officially, the second and final term of Félix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), ends at the end of 2028. But the latter, in several of his statements, has said he is ready to run for a third term if “the people want it”. The opposition is calling for a large demonstration on 15 September 2026 against a third term for Tshisekedi, who is retaliating with a tailor-made national dialogue.

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• Turkey
  

  ‘My family is safe’: the Turkish regime’s crackdown on LGBTI+ people

  15 September, by Uraz Aydin

  A new milestone was reached in the Erdoğan regime’s homophobic crackdown on Sunday 13 September. Police forces launched a large-scale operation against LGBTI+ organisations and activists, as well as organisations campaigning against HIV/AIDS. Raids were carried out in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, amongst other places. The Ministry of Justice states that the operation, dubbed “My family is safe”, involves a total of 162 people, nine organisations and thirteen premises across fifteen provinces.

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• New Zealand/Aotearoa
  

  Beyond the Labour Machine: Aotearoa, the Alliance, and the Question of Working Class Independence

  14 September, by Kyle Barrett

  On October 23, 2025, more than 100,000 workers walked off the job in Aotearoa (the Māori-language name for New Zealand): 60,000 teachers, 30,000 nurses, 5,000 doctors, 20,000 allied health workers, firefighters, and public servants. It was the largest day of industrial action since the 1979 general strike—a forty-six year interregnum finally broken. 56 percent of New Zealanders told pollsters they backed the strikers.
  By the end of the year, that energy had been buried. The Post Primary (…)

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• Latin America
  

  Latin America: Patterns and Pendulum

  13 September, by Marc Becker

  RECENT ELECTIONS ACROSS across Latin America appear to have placed the hard right firmly back in power. While the landscape may appear to be dim for the left, other factors signal glimmers of hope.

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...and the rest of the current issue

• Situation in East Asia and Japanese Politics/Economy

  Oppose the Takaichi Administration’s Military Expansion and Constitutional Revision

• “War on Terror”

  9/11: A Quarter Century of Imperial War

• Germany: regional elections in Sachsen-Anhalt

  The AfD just short of an absolute majority

• USA

  Gloria Steinem, prominent American feminist, 1934-2026

• Germany

  Eastern elections and Die Linke: anything but an all-party government

Recently posted Features

• 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. [1]
  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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• Series: The banks and the “too big to jail” doctrine (Part 3)

  Drug and Bank Lords

  30 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  The British bank HSBC, which employs 260, 000 people worldwide, is present in 75 countries, and claims to have 54 million customers [2] is another example of the “Too Big to Jail” phenomenon. [3] Over the last ten years, HSBC has laundered $881 million [4] for Mexican and Columbian drug cartels that are responsible for tens of thousands of firearm related assassinations. These relations continue in spite of dozens of warnings from different US government agencies including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The profits from this business are so important that not only does HSBC continue, but it has also opened specialized services in its Mexico offices where drug dealers may simply hand in stocks of cash for cleaning. [5]

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• Series: The banks and the “too big to jail” doctrine (Part 2)

  Bank abuses in the real estate sector and illegal foreclosures in the United States

  30 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  From 2010 to 2013, US authorities made agreements with banks, not to prosecute them in the home mortgage and illegal foreclosures scandal. Instead, they merely had to pay a small fine. Since the outbreak of the crisis in 2006-2007, more than 14 million families have been evicted from their homes — at least 500,000 illegally. With help from social movements such as Strike Debt [6], many victims have become organized to resist the sheriffs and refuse these evictions. In addition, thousands of lawsuits have been filed against the banks.

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