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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.

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Recently posted Features

  • Series: Governments submit to “Too Big to Fail” banks (part 5)

    BCE / LTRO : what’s that ?

    23 October 2014, by Éric Toussaint

    In 2010 institutional investors (including banks) and hedge funds attacked Greece, the weak link in the European chain of debt, before turning their attention to Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy. In so doing, they made juicy profits by forcing these countries to increase their interest-rate on their bond issues in order to refinance their debts. Among investors, private banks made the biggest profits, by directly obtaining funds from the ECB at 1%, while at the same time making quarterly loans at 4% or 5%. As far as securities are concerned, they only agreed to buy Irish and Portuguese ten-year bonds if the interest-rate rose to 10%.

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  • Series : Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF : 70th anniversary (Part 9)

    The World Bank and the Philippines

    8 October 2014, by Éric Toussaint

    The 1946 US decision to grant the Philippines its independence inaugurated a period of prosperity in the country. For a number of geo-strategic reasons, in the wake of the Second World War the Americans were willing to let the Philippine government pursue policies that they ruled out elsewhere.

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  • Environment

    Early Soviet Commitment to Environment Protection and its Decline

    8 October 2014, by Kunal Chattopadhyay

    This paper argues that while the environmentalist movements have often charged that Marxism has been productivist and has ignored the ecological concerns, the reality is more complex. The focus has actually been on Stalinist industrialisation and similar processes. It will be necessary to look at the early Soviet period, when a wide ranging attempt was made at conservationism.

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  • Series: Governments submit to “Too Big to Fail” banks (part 4)

    United States : the Fed Bails Out Wall Street

    29 September 2014, by Éric Toussaint

    Since 2008, the Fed has granted unlimited credit to banks at an official rate of 0.25%. In fact, as the General Accounting Office (GAO) has revealed, the Fed has lent close to $16 trillion at an interest rate below 0.25%. [1] The report shows it has not followed its own prudential rules and has not notified Congress.

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