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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.”

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...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

• Last part of the series: The Banks and the “Too Big to Jail” Doctrine (Part 9)

  The Impunity Enjoyed by the Banks must Stop

  1 September 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  We all know the saying “Too big to fail.” In managing the crisis the banks have caused, the governments of the industrialised countries have adopted a new doctrine that might be summed up as “Too big to jail.”

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• 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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