International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Notes on the General strike in Barcelona, 11 November 2026

Kit Adam Wainer — 2026-11-13T16:30:53Z

WHAT FOLLOWS ARE my own observations. I have been a member of the Sant Martí, Barcelona district committee of “Ens costa la vida,” the principal coalition of housing rights organizations and minority unions (such as the CGT) planning the General strike in Barcelona. I was on the agitation/propaganda committee, which leafletted several locations and put up posters around our district. We had between 60 and 100 in attendance at our district meetings. There were at least a dozen other district committees also operating. The housing unions seemed to be the principal movers behind the coalition

- IVP622 - November 2026 / Spanish state, Trade unions/workplace organizing

A new phase after 5 November in France

Léon Crémieux — 2026-11-09T12:01:02Z

After 5 November, the government has been weakened, but the movement faces a second phase.

- IVP622 - November 2026 / France, Trade unions/workplace organizing

The groundswell that threatens Macron and his world

Léon Crémieux — 2026-10-30T11:43:26Z

Given the massive turnout (including a multitude of young people) at the few demonstrations that were able to take place on the weekend of October 24-25 in France (some authorized, others not, such as in Bordeaux and Marseille), as well as the one organized against the National Rally congress in Orléans (20,000 demonstrators), it is clear that the social protest movement that began in September reached a turning point on October 17. With the next major event scheduled for November 5, with the call for strikes and demonstrations against all the anti-social measures of the Lecornu government, tensions continue to rise in France.

- IVP621 - October 2026 / France, Youth and student movements, Trade unions/workplace organizing

As 2027 approaches, where does class struggle trades unionism stand?

Léon Crémieux — 2026-10-27T13:46:23Z

The French trade union movement, and more particularly the trade unionism of social transformation, with which the CGT, the FSU and Solidaires explicitly identify, is today confronted with several important strategic questions.

- IVP621 - October 2026 / France, Trade unions/workplace organizing

France, October 2026: reasons to believe

Olivier Besancenot, Stéfanie Prezioso — 2026-10-24T07:13:00Z

On 17 October 2026, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across France. Starting with young people and secondary school pupils, the mobilisation brought together other sections of society around the issue of the cost of living, outside the traditional trade union and political structures.
The Macronist government responded with repression on an unprecedented scale: a number of people taken into police custody not seen since the start of the secondary school pupils' movement, (…)

- IVP621 - October 2026 / France, Youth and student movements, Trade unions/workplace organizing

Mass protests of youth and workers spread to Italy

Dave Kellaway — 2026-10-22T11:33:25Z

On the interminable political news and discussion TV programmes here in Italy the pundits are all talking about ‘catching the virus' of the huge protests in the Spanish state and France. Hundreds of thousands of students mobilized on 16 October. Tent protests have sprung up in some city squares and there were minority skirmishes with the police in a few places.
On 17 October students joined the national demonstration against the spiraling cost of living called by the General Confederation (…)

- IVP621 - October 2026 / Italy, Youth and student movements, Trade unions/workplace organizing

Workers' internationalism in action

Paul Martial — 2026-10-15T10:48:09Z

The struggle for the rights of Kenyan workers at the French multinational digital services company is being organised from Nairobi to Paris.

- IVP621 - October 2026 / France, Trade unions/workplace organizing, Kenya

A Working-Class Marxist Who Faced the Apocalypse

Duncan Chapel — 2026-10-11T08:53:18Z

“Alan Thornett, who has died aged 89, was the best-known militant in the British car industry during the decade when the industry settled the fate of British trade unionism.”

- In Memoriam - Obituaries and appreciations / Britain, Obituary, Fourth International, Trade unions/workplace organizing

Slovenian trade unions propose referendum to overturn the new government's anti-social policies

Correspondent — 2026-09-21T10:39:20Z

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.

- News from around the world / Slovenia, Trade unions/workplace organizing

Beyond the Labour Machine: Aotearoa, the Alliance, and the Question of Working Class Independence

Kyle Barrett — 2026-09-14T09:15:09Z

On October 23, 2025, more than 100,000 workers walked off the job in Aotearoa (the Māori-language name for New Zealand): 60,000 teachers, 30,000 nurses, 5,000 doctors, 20,000 allied health workers, firefighters, and public servants. It was the largest day of industrial action since the 1979 general strike—a forty-six year interregnum finally broken. 56 percent of New Zealanders told pollsters they backed the strikers.
By the end of the year, that energy had been buried. The Post Primary (…)

- IVP620 - September 2026 / New parties of the left, New Zealand, Trade unions/workplace organizing