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.
A different view on the DSA convention.
read article...“The challenge for revolutionary Marxists is to build a Marxist center of DSA that can lead in the direction of principled mass work and national visibility of DSA in broader movements against Trump, in labor, and in social movements.”
read article...“Hypocritical cries of condemnation have risen, warning Netanyahu that this project will lead to massive displacement and a large number of deaths, as if the genocide and displacement perpetrated by the Zionist army over the past 22 months, and supported during several months by the same Western governments that are blaming Netanyahu today, were not already worse than what he is promising now.”
read article...“Some of those arrested were in their nineties and could barely walk to the police vans. Some were in wheelchairs and one was blind. All you had to do to get arrested was to write on a blank placard: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”. The location of the protest was well chosen. It took place in Parliament Square, in front of the statues of Gandhi and the suffragist Millicent Fawcett who took forms of non-violent direct action.”
read article...“The last bus awaits in the camp’s parking lot. Young people, most of whom didn’t know each other a week before, exchange phone numbers, social media, and hugs. Here and there, tears flow, as if to prolong the downpours that punctuated the week.”
read article...Regardless of one’s opinion on The Russian Revolution and the subsequent development of Russian society, the self-organized workers’ councils – the soviets – remain an important breakthrough. For the most part, the discussion of the centenary of the revolution has conveniently steered clear of this subject. Nonetheless, understanding the soviets and its council structure remains central to understanding both how the revolution came about, and what its goals were. “All power to the soviets”, the slogan went, but what power, and what are soviets actually? These are central questions for any future attempts to change the world.
István Mészáros, an outstanding Hungarian Marxist philosopher, died on October 1st 2017 in London. Born in Budapest in 1930 into a working-class family, brought up by his mother, he began working in industry at the age of twelve. He actually lied about his age, claiming to be sixteen, in order to be accepted by the factory. Thus, "as an adult", his pay was higher than that of his mother, a qualified employee of the US transnational Standard Radio Company. The considerable difference between their weekly earnings was his first and most tangible experience of the particularly severe exploitation of women by capital. This was in 1942...
István Mészáros is author of Socialism or Barbarism: From the “American Century” to the Crossroads (Monthly Review Press, 2001) and Beyond Capital: Toward a Theory of Transition (Monthly Review Press, 1995). This essay is excerpted from his book, The Challenge and Burden of Historical Time: Socialism in the Twenty-First Century (2009).
Since the collapse of the Berlin wall and the Soviet Union, many on the left seem to have swallowed the idea that there is no alternative to capitalism. Debate has been limited to what can (or rather cannot) be achieved within its confines. Here is a powerful book with the opposite message: What must be abolished is not only classical capitalist society but the reign of capital as such. Indeed, the Soviet example proves it is not enough to “expropriate the expropriators” if you do not uproot the domination of labor on which the rule of capital rests. An alternative exists, or more precisely, can be forged, provided it is radical and fundamental.
A unique event took place at the Kryvyi Rih branch of the Social Movement NGO — we had the honour of welcoming special guests: Senator Tanya Vyhovsky from Vermont, USA, and Nico Dix, representative of the French New Anti-Capitalist Party-l’Anticapitaliste (NPA-A). It was an inspiring meeting, filled with valuable experiences and sincere conversations!
- read article...Despite the war, despite the risks, people are taking to the streets. Because they have had enough. On 22 July, in the streets of Kyiv and most cities across Ukraine, hundreds of people took to the streets to protest against the adoption of Law 12414.
- read article...“we call on international antifascist forces to open a dialogue capable of confronting the destruction being carried out by ultraliberal conservatism – placing unity in the streets against the far right as our top priority.”
- read article...While the skies over the Middle East are once again ablaze with smoke and flames, and the media are inundated with talk of ‘Israeli precision strikes’ and the ‘promise of token vengeance of the Islamic Republic’, what is once again left out is the fate of those who do not take decisions in command rooms or hide in underground bunkers.
- read article...The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, a member of the International Trade Union Solidarity and Struggle Network, is transmitting this text, signed with other independent organisations in Iran:
- 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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