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.
The Mexican right, backed by oligarchic sectors and the open applause of Donald Trump, is trying to capitalize on social discontent to destabilize the government of Claudia Sheinbaum. Although their ability to mobilise remains limited, the danger is real. The only effective barrier remains the deepening of the project of transformation and the building of an autonomous social movement capable of confronting the fascist threat.
read article...“The general strike, the first since the days of the Troika, was called by the two main trade union confederations, CGTP and UGT, which has only happened in half of the ten general strikes held since the end of the dictatorship.”
read article...Belgium experienced a crescendo of strikes on Monday 24 November in public transport (trains, buses, trams, metros), Tuesday 25 November in all public services (including education and hospitals) and Wednesday 26 November, with the addition of the private sector, a day long interprofessional general strike that was widely followed in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels.
read article...Openly supremacist, colonialist and racist-xenophobic, Trump’s national security strategy includes new or reformulated threats. It is old-style imperialism , adapted to deal with the current challenges to US hegemonic power.
read article...Thousands of Starbucks workers continue their fight for a union contract with strikes and rallies across the country. The latest strike began on November 13 and continues off-and-on at stores across the country. In mid-December some 3,800 Starbucks baristas were on strike at more than 180 stores in over 130 cities. The union, Starbucks Workers United claims a total 14,000 members at about 650 stores.
read article...Jean-Michel had a sense of humour, and his passion was to play the violin. From 1948, when he joined the French Communist Party (PCF), he conducted revolutionary choirs and continued to do so unceasingly, including during the summer universities of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR). Sometimes he lost some of his humour when singers suggested modernizing the repertoire; he remained very much attached to the traditions of the labour movement. He had courage, as evidenced by the periods he spent in the maquis in Vietnam and Thailand. He participated in major events such as the Russell Tribunal against war crimes in Vietnam. He did not grudge taking on the most obscure militant tasks: right to the end, he devoted his attention to correcting the articles published in the magazine Inprecor.
“Post-Marxism” has become a fashionable intellectual posture, with the triumph of neo-liberalism and the retreat of the working class. The space vacated by the reformist left [in Latin America] has in part been occupied by capitalist politicians and ideologues, technocrats and the traditional and fundamentalist churches (Pentecostals and the Vatican). In the past, this space was occupied by socialist, nationalist and populist politicians and church activists associated with the “theology of liberation”. The centre-left was very influential within the political regimes (at the top) or the less politicised popular classes (at the bottom). The vacant space of the radical left refers to the political intellectuals and politicised sectors of the trade unions and urban and rural social movements. It is among these groups that the conflict between Marxism and “post-Marxism” is most intense today.
This article was first published on the English-Arabic blog ”Syria Freedom Forever” on 4 April 2013.
In his second inaugural address, President Obama announced that after he withdraws combat troops from Afghanistan, the United States will be “ending a decade of wars.” On the very same day, the United States conducted three drone strikes in Yemen. In reality, Washington is now in a permanent state of “low-intensity” drone wars all around the world and is preparing, through what has been called the Pivot to Asia, to contain China. Obama is no pacifist. In his second term, he intends not to retreat from American imperial assertion but to strengthen it.
“We face a deadly spiral of combined crises (the ’polycrisis’), to which the established political and economic powers are offering no response. Poverty and widespread insecurity continue to spread. However, in recent months, in the face of humanitarian disasters, protest movements have taken on a new dimension, with impressive demonstrations and uprisings. Asia is at the heart of these developments, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines, where our partners are based.”
- read article...Lyes Touati, a member of the Parti Socialiste des Travailleurs (PST), was arrested yesterday in Aokas (Algeria) and remanded in custody. We do not know the reasons for his arrest or the charges against him.
- read article...Samir LARABI, a doctoral student in the Sociology Department of Abderahmane Mira University in Béjaia (Algeria), has been subjected to repeated obstructions for 29 months, following abusive refusals by the rectoral administration to allow him to defend his doctoral thesis. Validated by his research supervisor, the validity of his thesis has been confirmed three times by the scientific bodies of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Despite validation by the faculty’s Scientific Committee of the changes imposed by the rectoral administration, the latter persists in refusing to allow him to defend his thesis.
- read article...“This is not simply a humanitarian appeal—it is a call to uphold our shared global commitment to justice, dignity, and collective care. As climate disasters intensify, international leftist solidarity remains essential to ensure that working people everywhere can survive, rebuild, and continue the struggle for a more just world.”
- read article...The organizing committee holds the first preparatory meeting of the First International Antifascist Conference.
- 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.
We need your help to get our message across! Send donations payable to International Viewpoint 10b Windsor Rd N7 6JG, Britain - or why not donate online:
Site Map
| Log in |
Contact |
RSS 2.0
