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.
The policies pursued since 2022 have been among the most reactionary, racist, and repressive in modern Swedish history. Examples include restrictions on the right to asylum, attempts to retroactively revoke residence permits, significantly stricter requirements for obtaining Swedish citizenship, stop-and-search zones in working-class suburbs, repressive legislation that allows 14-year-olds to be imprisoned, deportations of young people separated from their families, legislative changes that threaten democracy, and welfare reforms that severely worsen conditions for the poorest and for those without citizenship.
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The Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL) and the anti-capitalist left have two gigantic challenges to face simultaneously in the coming Brazilian elections: to contribute to the broader struggle against the main Brazilian expression of global neo-fascism, and to build a radical and independent left pole.
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On Wednesday, 23 September, the police evicted Maricarmen in Madrid. Maricarmen is an 87-year-old woman whose rent was gradually increased by a vulture fund, until the fund decided it wanted the flat for new business ventures. In that sense, her case is not so unusual: in Spain, there are thousands of evictions every year. The housing movement fights against them every day, often in the face of a media blackout that looks the other way when it comes to a tragedy that is part of everyday life in working-class neighbourhoods.
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Hundreds marched in three separate demonstrations to protest the mass murderers—President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian—speaking at the United Nations General Assembly held in New York last week. The event became a kind of macabre circus with these monsters in the big ring as some delegates walked out while others protested outside.
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IN AUSTIN, TEXAS an ICE agent shoots a food delivery driver after he was rammed and pulled over by an unmarked van. Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, from Venezuela, entered the United States legally and is seeking asylum. He is now in ICE detention with his serious gunshot wounds inadequately treated.
read article...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.
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.
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]
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.
Secondary school pupils are taking action; the government is cracking down. The situation in the national education system has been deteriorating for years. Successive governments and various ministers, led by Blanquer [Minister of Education 2017-2022], have accelerated the destruction. The lack of resources is becoming increasingly unbearable.
- read article...The parliamentary elections held in early 2026 in Slovenia resulted in a narrow majority for the right, thereby enabling the formation of a radical conservative government. This government wasted no time in taking steps to undermine the welfare state.
- read article...The Pakistani military establishment had launched an attack on the online Jeddojehad. Its editor, Farooq Suhleria’s, home was raided. He could not be arrested as he was not in the country. But it means he cannot return to his job. Another member of the Editorial Board was also raided. The website has been shut down.
- read article...“Ortega has abolished elections. Do not deny Nicaragua the right to choose freely—the same right that could make you president of Brazil for a fourth time.”
- read article...Once again, we face a summer plagued by fire. Tens of thousands of hectares, earlier than in any other year, have already burned, and a devastating season is expected in terms of forest loss, fertile soil destruction, and above all, loss of life.
- 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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