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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.

International Viewpoint Online magazine

  • USA

    Trump Takes Food from the Poor Poor during Budget Crisis

    3 November, by Dan La Botz

    President Donald Trump has taken advantage of the current budget crisis, which has lasted more than a month, shutting down the federal government, to stop funding food programs that affect tens of million. Trump said the shutdown provided an opportunity to close “Democrat programs that we want to close up or we never wanted to happen.” By “Democrat programs” he means social welfare programs that provide food and education to low-income people.

    read article...
  • Indonesia

    “We Are The Working Class”?: Indonesia’s Labour Party and the Limits of Reformist Politics

    2 November, by Mark Johnson

    When more than 50 Indonesian labour unions gathered in Jakarta on 5 October 2021 to establish the Partai Buruh (Labour Party), it appeared to mark a historic moment: workers organising their own political vehicle to challenge an oligarchic system that had stripped away their rights. Yet from its inception, the party embodied a contradiction. Led by union bureaucrats with histories of elite collaboration, the Labour Party promised working-class independence whilst its president courted the very politicians who had passed anti-worker legislation. It claimed to represent the marginalised whilst maintaining "deafening silence" on human rights abuses and democratic backsliding.

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  • Venezuela

    Venezuela’s authoritarian turn and the repression of its Left

    1 November, by Edgardo Lander

    Since Venezuela’s disputed 2024 elections, Nicolás Maduro’s government has escalated its authoritarian turn. More than 2,000 people were detained in the days following the vote, and targeted persecution has widened to include journalists, trade unionists, academics, and human rights defenders. Human rights activist Marta Lía Grajales was disappeared for two days after denouncing the brutal beating of mothers demanding freedom for their imprisoned children. María Alejandra Díaz, a Chavista lawyer and former Constituent Assembly member, was stripped of her license and harassed after calling for transparency in the vote count. These cases illustrate a broader strategy of intimidation and criminalization.

    read article...
  • Serbia

    The streets against the regime in Serbia: one year of mobilization in review

    31 October, by Gaëlle Guehennec

    For a year now, young people in Serbia have been continuing their fight for a democratic society in the face of Aleksandar Vučić’s authoritarian regime. On both sides of Serbia, student marches are criss-crossing the country in the direction of Novi Sad to commemorate the collapse of the railway station, responsible for the deaths of 16 people on 1 November 2024. This tragic event triggered a political protest on an unprecedented scale.

    read article...
  • Ukraine

    Bruised but determined, the Ukrainian people fight on

    30 October, by Dominique

    While diplomatic manoeuvres take centre stage, the Ukrainian people, in an increasingly difficult context, continue to resist, including in the occupied zones.

    read article...

...and the rest of the current issue

All articles

Recently posted Features

  • Stragic thinking

    Revolutionary defeatism, yesterday and today

    8 May, by Simon Hannah

    The debate on the Left over the war in Ukraine has exposed serious disagreements on international questions, ones that have been brewing and deepening for over a decade. From 2001 to 2011, there was general unity on the socialist Left about the question of imperialism and the response to it. This was a period of explicit and obvious attacks on sovereign countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq by the United States, United Kingdom, and other imperialist forces. This naked imperialist aggression triggered global mass movements against the so-called “War on Terror.”

    read article...
  • Strategic thinking

    Dreaming as internationalist materialists

    8 May, by Alexis Cukier , Franck Gaudichaud, Théo Roumier, Vincent Gay, Yoletty Bracho

    “We will begin with a statement: yes, we dream, and we desire! We dream of emancipation, and we desire equality (individual, collective, between peoples).

    And we are on the left, a radical and revolutionary left at that. What should be troubling us today is not changing our dreams and desires. Certainly not going poaching on the side of those opposed to us, claiming that “only the far right dreams”.”

    read article...
  • Vietnam

    Vietnam, 30 April 1975 - 50 years ago, a historic victory, but at what price?

    29 April, by Pierre Rousset

    Vietnam’s independence was first proclaimed in August 1945, and we could soon be celebrating its 80th anniversary. De Gaulle decided otherwise, sending an expeditionary force to reconquer his lost colony. Indochina had to endure two devastating successive imperial wars, first French, then American. Washington mobilised all the means at its disposal to crush the Vietnamese revolution, certain that it would prevail - and was defeated. The image has gone down in history: the staff of the US (…)

    read article...
  • Obituary

    Hendrik “Pips” Patroons, comrade and friend

    29 April, by Alain Tondeur

    Our comrade Hendrik Patroons, alias “Pips”, passed away in Ghent on April 17, 2025. He was active from an early age in SAP-Antikapitalisten (our organization in Flanders, then called Revolutionaire Arbeiders Liga) and the Fourth International. A convinced revolutionary right up to his last days, he and his companion Marijke Colle left a lasting mark on the organization. He took part in our last national congress in December 2024, and had volunteered to be part of the technical support team for the 18th World Congress of the Fourth International in February 2025, but was unable to do so due to illness. We publish below the tribute paid to him by Alain Tondeur at the funeral ceremony in Wondelgem, near Ghent, on April 25.

    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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