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

• 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. [1]
  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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• Series: The banks and the “too big to jail” doctrine (Part 3)

  Drug and Bank Lords

  30 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  The British bank HSBC, which employs 260, 000 people worldwide, is present in 75 countries, and claims to have 54 million customers [2] is another example of the “Too Big to Jail” phenomenon. [3] Over the last ten years, HSBC has laundered $881 million [4] for Mexican and Columbian drug cartels that are responsible for tens of thousands of firearm related assassinations. These relations continue in spite of dozens of warnings from different US government agencies including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The profits from this business are so important that not only does HSBC continue, but it has also opened specialized services in its Mexico offices where drug dealers may simply hand in stocks of cash for cleaning. [5]

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• Series: The banks and the “too big to jail” doctrine (Part 2)

  Bank abuses in the real estate sector and illegal foreclosures in the United States

  30 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  From 2010 to 2013, US authorities made agreements with banks, not to prosecute them in the home mortgage and illegal foreclosures scandal. Instead, they merely had to pay a small fine. Since the outbreak of the crisis in 2006-2007, more than 14 million families have been evicted from their homes — at least 500,000 illegally. With help from social movements such as Strike Debt [6], many victims have become organized to resist the sheriffs and refuse these evictions. In addition, thousands of lawsuits have been filed against the banks.

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• Series: The banks and the “too big to jail” doctrine (Part 1)

  Banks and the New “Too Big to Jail” Doctrine

  30 August 2014, by Éric Toussaint

  We all know the saying, “Too big to fail”. The way governments have managed the crisis caused by the banks has given rise to, “Too big to jail,” [7] which is equally poetic! [8] Although the US government let Lehman Bros. go to the wall in September 2008, no other bank has been closed or broken-up, no directors have been condemned to prison [9]. The only exception in the western world is Iceland, where the courts have put three bank directors in prison. Larus Welding, the CEO of Glitnir, Iceland’s third biggest bank at the time, which went bankrupt in 2008, was condemned, in December 2012, to nine months in prison. Sigurdur Einarsson and Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson, the two principal directors of Kaupthing [10] were condemned to five years and five and a half years in prison in December 2013. [11]

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