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...At last count 900 U.S. cities have joined the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. Five hundred other cities and towns on every continent have joined the mushrooming mobilizations in solidarity. With each repressive blow, the movement comes back stronger—more inclusive, more confident, and more clearly focused.
I was able to attend the meeting of the Syrian opposition that was held on October 8-9 in Sweden, near the capital Stockholm. A number of male and female activists operating in Syria and abroad joined with prominent figures from the Syrian Coordination Committee (SNC - who had come from Syria for the event) in the presence of the most prominent member of the Syrian National Council – its president, Burhan Ghalioun.
Capitalism in China is rapidly uprooting and throwing into the market-place all that seemed fixed and fast frozen since the revolution in 1949 but, as with all other forms of capitalism, this market is all but free. The bureaucracy holds in place systems of authority necessary for capital accumulation, and the Chinese state is a key player in the enrichment of a new bourgeoisie. There are particular political-economic and ideological conditions for this transition, of course, and one of the most important is the legacy of Maoism, and how the claim to be a socialist country is squared with the rapid abandonment of each and every tenet of socialism.
Where does the tremendous power of the occupation of city spaces, particularly the square, come from? The occupation of Tahrir Square in Cairo brought down the Mubarak dictatorship, the indignados in assembly in the plazas shook the Spanish authorities, and Occupy Wall Street and its offspring across the United States have frightened city and state governments setting off a wave of police repression and state violence. The pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989 led the Chinese Communist Party to send in the army, killing hundreds, perhaps thousands. What is the threat and what is the power inherent in the occupation of city spaces?
“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
