Greg Benton on Livio Maitan (1 April 1923-16 September 2004) “The Inventor of Big Things: A Tribute to Livio Maitan”. Peter Solenberger reviews two books on Venezuela “Venezuela’s Process & Fall: The Legacy of Hugo Chávez”.
International Viewpoint, the monthly English-language magazine of the Fourth International, is a window to radical alternatives world-wide, carrying reports, analysis and debates from all corners of the globe. Correspondents in over 50 countries report on popular struggles, and the debates that are shaping the left of tomorrow.
Greg Benton on Livio Maitan (1 April 1923-16 September 2004) “The Inventor of Big Things: A Tribute to Livio Maitan”. Peter Solenberger reviews two books on Venezuela “Venezuela’s Process & Fall: The Legacy of Hugo Chávez”.
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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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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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 (…)
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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“These struggles for anti-war peace, the defense of working people’s livelihoods, and the fight for climate justice in the face of a deepening climate crisis are unfolding in response to the multifaceted crises of the capitalist system. As these crises converge into a single unified front, our movements and struggles must likewise interconnect to form a powerful, single stream. The current situation demands nothing less.”
read article...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.
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.
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.
The political dynamics of contemporary South Africa are rife with contradiction. On one hand, it is among the most consistently contentious places on earth, with insurgent communities capable of mounting disruptive protest on a nearly constant basis, rooted in the poor areas of the half-dozen major cities as well as neglected and multiply-oppressed black residential areas of declining towns. On the other hand, even the best-known contemporary South African social movements, for all their sound, lack a certain measure of fury.
“Ortega has abolished elections. Do not deny Nicaragua the right to choose freely—the same right that could make you president of Brazil for a fourth time.”
- read article...Once again, we face a summer plagued by fire. Tens of thousands of hectares, earlier than in any other year, have already burned, and a devastating season is expected in terms of forest loss, fertile soil destruction, and above all, loss of life.
- read article...Finally the WSF has been authorised and will start today.
- read article...From July 16 to 19, 2026, the headquarters of the newspaper Almounadila socialiste hosted the first edition of “Socialist Days”, a space for political education, strategic reflection and activist exchanges dedicated to the deepening of the revolutionary socialist project.
- read article...“The future of Ukraine will not be decided by choosing between competing factions of the political elite. It will be decided by whether the country can defend itself while preserving the democratic and social foundations worth defending.”
- read article...International Viewpoint is published under the responsibility of the Bureau of the Fourth International. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect editorial policy. Articles can be reprinted with acknowledgement, and a live link if possible.
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