International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

• Brazil

  Oil Speaks Loudest: Environmental backsliding and the limits of Brazil’s energy transition

  28 October, by Subvertacomunica

  The recent decision by Ibama (the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) to grant the state-controlled oil company, Petrobras, an environmental licence for exploratory drilling along the Equatorial Margin, near the mouth of the Amazon River, represents a huge step backwards for the country’s environmental and energy policy. It shows that the logic of fossil fuel-based development continues to dominate within the Brazilian state, something that we urgently need to overcome.

  read article...
• USA

  The United States Prepares for War on Venezuela

  27 October, by Dan La Botz

  The United States is preparing for war against Venezuela. While President Donald Trump has asserted that the country’s goal is to stop shipments of Venezuelan drugs to the United States, in private conversations U.S. officials have made it clear that Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. This forms part of Trump’s goal of reasserting U.S. domination in Latin America such as it exercised in the nineteenth century by gunboats and in the twentieth century by installing friendly governments.

  read article...
• Ireland

  Catherine Connolly wins: An historic victory for the left in Ireland

  26 October, by Paul Murphy

  Catherine Connolly’s resounding victory in the Presidential election in Ireland is a watershed moment. It is the first time that the left has won a majority of votes in a national election. This was not a narrow victory either; Catherine won the largest percentage and largest total vote of any Presidential candidate in history.

  read article...
• Argentina

  Will Trump’s bail-out be enough for Milei?

  25 October, by Martin Hache

  On Sunday 26 October 2025 the mid-term legislative elections will take place in Argentina. The far-right president was in danger of suffering a major defeat. But his friend Trump came to his rescue.

  read article...
• Algeria

  Algerian feminists at the frontiers of solidarity

  24 October, by Amel Hadjadj

  “On that day, in the midst of repression, we learned that international feminist solidarity is a bulwark against barbarism, a source of hope and a weapon against oppression.”

  read article...

...and the rest of the current issue

• Greece

  The return to slavery will not pass in Greece!

• Middle East/North Africa

  Morocco’s Gen Z and the Regional Volcano

• USA

  Millions Protest Trump in Defense of Democracy and Social Justice

• South Asia

  Social revolts and environmental issues in South Asia

• Peru

  Thousands take to the streets of Peru following the fall of yet another government

Recently posted Features

• Series : Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF : 70th anniversary (Part 7)

  Domination of the United States on the World Bank

  9 September 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  The concept of the World as a huge bureaucracy, gradually freed from the influence of the US, is actually a far cry from reality. This mistaken conception is revealed in particular by the North American environmentalist Bruce Rich in his insightful book on the World Bank. [1] In real terms, the institution is firmly under the control of the US government which negotiates, with the governments of other major capitalist powers, the policies to be followed within the World Bank, and under its leadership. It has frequently failed to make the effort to reach a consensus with its principal partners (since the end of the 1950s, these are Japan, Germany, Great Britain and France) and it imposes its views directly on the Bank.

  read article...
• Series: Governments submit to “Too Big to Fail” banks (part 3)

  Private banks shamefully enjoy a monopoly of lending to the public sector

  8 September 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  The eurozone banks have the monopoly of lending to the public sector. It is prohibited for the ECB and the eurozone’s central banks to grant loans to public authorities (see box on the ECB). The governments in the eurozone have the possibility of borrowing from publicly owned banks where they still exist, but they do not do so.

  read article...
• Series: Governments submit to “Too Big to Fail” banks (part 2)

  Governments make Gifts Galore to Private Banks

  8 September 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  Government aid is made up of guarantees, and injections of capital in order to recapitalize the banks. In the period from October 2008 to December 2011, €1,174 trillion (9.3% of EU GDP [2] ) worth of guarantees were underwritten by European Governments as a contingency measure. To these guarantees must be added €442 billion (3.5% of EU GDP) of public capital support to banks. During 2012 and 2013 the recapitalizations continued: about €40 billion in Spain in 2012 alone, more than €50 billion in Greece, about €20 billion in Cyprus, €4 billion more for Dexia bank in Belgium, €3.9 billion for Monte dei Paschi in Italy, €3.7 billion for the Dutch bank SNS, €4.2 billion in Portugal on top of the Portuguese bail-out of the Banco Esperito Santo in July 2014., not forgetting Ireland, Slovenia, Croatia This assistance was granted without any government supervision of the use made of the funds. [3]

  read article...
• Series: Governments submit to “Too Big to Fail” banks (Part 1)

  Central Banks lend massively to the banking sector

  8 September 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  Since the banking bubble burst in 2007, the major Central Banks of the most industrialised countries lend massively to private banks at very low interest rates in order to avoid their failure, thus permitting the big banks that take the most advantage to save considerable amounts in interest payments.

  read article...

• 1
• …
• 128
• 129
• 130
• 131
• 132
• 133
• 134
• 135
• 136
• …
• 179