International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Health from Below in a Global Pandemic

Alan Sears — 2020-05-04T05:58:47Z

The fact that the current coronavirus pandemic has spread conditions of dystopia tells us a great deal about the politics of health. A virus may be a natural phenomenon, but the destruction wrought by this pandemic is a product of the way our society is organized. The scale of suffering and dislocation created by a health emergency is the result of human actions and inactions, just as the differential impact on various communities follows along the lines of prevailing social inequalities, disproportionately hitting people who are racialized or Indigenous, with specific devastating consequences for those who are homeless, incarcerated, elderly, living with disabilities and migrants without status.

- IV544 - May 2020 / Canada, Covid-19 Pandemic

Anti-Capitalism & Queer Liberation

Alan Sears — 2015-12-02T14:56:50Z

Foe many, Pride Day 2015 turned into a celebration of the June 26 announcement that the U.S. Supreme Court had recognized lesbian and gay marriage rights. This decision marks an important step towards the elimination of legal discrimination against lesbians and gays. The Supreme Court decision served as a gift to mark the 46th anniversary of the Stonewall Riot that launched the contemporary lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement.

- Reviews section / LGBT, Reviews

A tipping point?

Alan Sears — 2014-11-03T08:00:44Z

Omar Barghouti wrote in December 2013 that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign "may well be reaching a tipping point." Barghouti is one of the founders of this movement to pressure Israel to recognize fundamental Palestinian rights. This may be the breakthrough moment for BDS, shifting from the slow accumulation of modest victories to major successes and widespread support. He described this as the "South Africa moment," where BDS organizing would reach the critical mass of anti-apartheid solidarity in the 1980s.

- IV478 - November 2014 / Palestine

Queering Anti-Capitalist Organizing

Alan Sears — 2014-07-01T07:31:32Z

These are challenging times for the anti-capitalist left. Despite the enormous attacks being waged in the name of austerity, there is little in the way of sustained resistance in the streets, workplaces, neighborhoods, or schools. The Left's limited resources are being strained to the limits in struggles to organize against the tide.

- IV474 - July 2014 / LGBT

Austerity U: Preparing Students for Precarious Lives

Alan Sears, James Cairns — 2014-02-04T12:04:13Z

Almost everywhere you look around the world, policy-makers are introducing big changes to university systems and pondering deeper transformation. It isn't surprising that these changes take different forms on campuses in countries as different as Canada, Britain, the United States, Chile, Greece, and India, but there are also important common themes in the change agenda globally. These include rapid increases in tuition fees, new models of university governance, new ways of teaching, a significant shift in subject matter, an attempt to depoliticize campuses, and major alterations in employment relations.

- IV469 - February 2014 / Canada, Youth and student movements

An Interview with Alan Sears

Alan Sears — 2013-12-29T19:58:48Z

We're at an interesting (and terrible) moment where we're witnessing attacks on most every gain working people have made for at least the last half century. The curious exception to that has been the advance of marriage and civil rights for gay and lesbian couples in many U.S. states and core imperialist countries. But while we can celebrate the dismantling of many of the legal barriers to equality, we need to be mindful of the cost assimilation has had on “gay” communities, the movement's relationship to other progressive causes, and lastly how it measures up to radical ideas of gender and sexual freedom.

- Sexual politics / LGBT, Sexual politics, Features

Campus Fightbacks in the Age of Austerity: Learning from Quebec Students

Alan Sears, Xavier Lafrance — 2013-02-16T09:59:21Z

The 2012 Quebec student strikes delivered one of the few victories we have seen in anti-austerity struggles in the Canadian state. The mobilization, which at its high point saw over 300,000 students on limited or unlimited strike, and demonstrations of hundreds of thousands, was a crucial highpoint that has a great deal to teach radicals. The attempted clampdown by the Jean Charest government through Bill 78 [1] that attempted to outlaw the movement, unleashed a new and innovative round of resistance including the casseroles night marches.

- IV457 - February 2013 / Canada, Quebec, Youth and student movements

Red Square, Everywhere: With Quebec Student Strikers, Against Repression

Alan Sears, Xavier Lafrance — 2012-06-20T10:54:05Z

The Charest government has turned to repression to try to break the largest and longest student strike in Quebec history. Students had already endured heavy-handed policing, including hundreds of arrests and brutal attacks by riot cops on campuses and in the streets. The new strikebreaking legislation, Bill 78, is a brutal clampdown on the right to organize collectively and on freedom of expression. The protest plans for any demonstrations of more than 50 people must be cleared with the police in advance of any gathering, or the action will be considered illegal. Individual students, staff or faculty members who advocate the ongoing strike action risk harsh penalties, and student unions or university employees unions who organize or support ongoing strike activity will face heavy fines.

- IV449 - June 2012 / Quebec, Youth and student movements