International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

• France

  Political instability in France: act before it’s too late

  27 November, by Elsa Collonges

  The global crisis of capitalism and its ecological dimension are provoking a major political crisis. In the countries of the Global North, and in France in particular, the bourgeoisie is seeking to settle accounts with the post-World War II social compromise, violently and rapidly.

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• Denmark

  The Unity List remains Copenhagen’s largest party

  26 November, by Jonathan Simmel

  Local and regional elections have been held in Denmark, and the Unity List [known internationally as the Red Green Alliance] has once again become Copenhagen’s largest party. The Social Democrats lost the mayoralty to the Socialist People’s Party and lost ground in 86 of 98 municipalities. The results clearly reflect the national political scene, where the Social Democrats chose to form a majority government with two bourgeois parties in 2022.

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• USA

  Six Lawmakers Tell U.S. Troop: Don’t Obey Illegal Orders

  25 November, by Dan La Botz

  “ The six Democrats by making their video have challenged Trump and they have done a great service to our country, to those in the military, and to those at home or abroad who might be victims.”

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• Britain

  Britain – difficulties and opportunities...

  24 November, by Veronica Fagan

  The last weekend of November will see a major conference take place in the city of Liverpool in the north west of England. Fronted by former Labour MP Zara Sultana and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and with more than 50,000 sign ups, this will formally launch a new political party. The proto-formation currently has the clumsy, name of Your Party but the membership will at some later point decide whether and how to rename it.

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• Ukraine

  Ukraine Faces an Unbearable Choice

  23 November, by Oleksandr Kyselov

  Exhausted by over three years of Russian attacks, Ukrainians are increasingly ready to accept unfair political compromises and harsh territorial concessions to end the war. Yet it’s far from clear that this hard choice will actually bring lasting peace.

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...and the rest of the current issue

• Britain

  Notes on the historic rise of the far right in Britain

• Venezuela

  Between Trump’s imperialist offensive and Maduro’s repression

• Portugal

  The bromance between André Ventura and Luis Montenegro in Portugal

• Tanzania

  Tanzania: When bullets replace ballots

• COP 30

  Social movements and COP 30: transnational alliances against the global extractivist offensive

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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