International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

In Belgium too, the virus strips away the mask

Mauro Gasparini — 2020-04-13T13:58:51Z

Belgium is no exception to the rule: here too, the arrival of Covid19 has changed social, political and daily life. The first days of March were punctuated by demonstrations and strikes by women, the stagnation of negotiations for a federal coalition and by the wrath of the PTB (radical left), pending other annual demonstrations (notably anti-racist). In a few days everything accelerated. On 10 April, Belgium officially counted 3019 deaths from the corona virus and 5610 people hospitalized, including 1268 in intensive care, out of 1900 places available in the country. So 58 % of beds are occupied, with saturation in certain hospitals in Brussels, Hainaut et Limbourg.

- IV543 - April 2020 / Belgium, Covid-19 Pandemic

The advances of the climate movement and the obstacles to overcome - part 1

Axel Farkas, Mauro Gasparini — 2019-05-14T06:17:44Z

The climate movement that has been shaking Belgium since the winter has had a big effect on popular consciousness. After months of mobilization, we propose here an initial progress report as well as elements of a response to the strategic questions for the future of the movement.

- IV532 - May 2019 / Belgium, Ecology and the Environment, Youth and student movements

Interview with Yassin Al-Haj Saleh

Matilde Dugaucquier, Mauro Gasparini — 2018-02-05T15:58:53Z

Born in 1961 in Raqqa, the Syrian writer and dissident Yassin Al-Haj Saleh spent a considerable part of his life in the jails of the Assad regime. Once again pursued by the regime for his revolutionary activity, he went into exile in Turkey shortly before his wife Samira Khalil, a tireless communist and revolutionary militant, was abducted along with their friend Razan Zeitouneh, a human rights defender and co-worker, most likely by the Islamist group Jaish Al-Islam [Army of Islam]. Yassin, however, has continued to write, to take a firm stand, and to carry the voice of Syrian revolutionaries, who have not been forgotten by the rest of the world. Matilde Dugaucquier and Mauro Gasparini interviewed him in Istanbul in July 2017.

- IV517 - February 2018 / Syria

The March 22 attacks and their shadows

Mauro Gasparini — 2016-06-11T18:15:34Z

“It has happened”. Many Brussels inhabitants experienced that feeling on March 22, 2016, when terrorist attacks struck the capital of Belgium, inasmuch as people had been prepared for it. In November 2015 already, the famous lockdown of Brussels, when the city was declared in a state of alert and under an “imminent” threat by the government and intelligence services, had halted all life for four long days, a real dress rehearsal for a state of emergency.

- Paris, Brussels, responding to the attacks / Belgium, Religion, Far Right, Debate section