International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

The battle for the beaches in Italy

Dave Kellaway — 2026-08-11T07:44:08Z

Every year people in Italy moan about the way the ‘spiaggia libera' (free access beach) is becoming smaller and smaller. At the same time the private lidos, where you have to pay for a sun umbrella and a couple of loungers, defend their privatised territory with all sorts of barriers and walls to prevent people from moving across their beach. The law says that 5 metres of the foreshore has to remain open to anybody – the privateers cannot put their sun loungers right up to the water. So often they make it difficult to walk from the free beach to the paying beach.

- IVP619 - August 2026 / Italy, Public services

Mobilizations amid water and electricity crisis in Tunisia

Akssil Tunisie — 2026-08-09T08:31:36Z

Tunisia has recently seen a wave of protests resulting from the difficult living conditions the country's inhabitants have endured for several decades, which have gradually worsened. The situation became particularly unsustainable during the month of July, with residents regularly confronted with the policy of recurrent water cuts during the summer in the central regions (governorates of Kairouan, Sousse, Monastir and Mahdia). These four governorates have experienced 31 demonstrations and road blockades in 2024, then 15 demonstrations and blockades in 2025.

- IVP619 - August 2026 / Tunisia, Public services

The Cockroach Protests Are Reviving India's Ailing Democracy

Komal Mohite — 2026-07-29T04:42:52Z

India's “Cockroach” youth movement has now forced the resignation of the country's education minister. What began as a single-issue protest mobilization has broadened into one of the biggest challenges Narendra Modi has faced in power.

- IVP618 - July 2026 / India, Public services

Feminist strike for the socialisation of reproductive labour!

Anouk Essayad — 2026-07-27T11:25:25Z

All over the world, austerity programmes are following one after another, amounting to a privatization of the sphere of social reproduction. This neoliberal phase of capitalism raises strategic questions for the feminist movement.

- Feminism / Women, Public services , Features, Switzerland

Some Reflections on the Water Crisis in Puerto Rico

Manuel Rodríguez Banchs — 2026-07-21T08:37:43Z

“Overcoming the social and environmental problems that afflict us and reversing the reversible effects of the climate crisis is impossible under the rules of this economic system. The climate crisis is perhaps the most dramatic example. It is not possible to address the climate crisis without making the energy sector—as well as water management—public property and administering it democratically with the dual objective of satisfying our needs and reducing environmental impact. ”

- IVP618 - July 2026 / Puerto Rico, Public services , Climate

“This mobilization has awakened something in the youth”

Evelyne Wyns — 2026-07-19T10:11:10Z

This spring, French-speaking Belgium has seen a sudden acceleration of struggles in the education sector, which have turned into a general revolt of young people. In this interview, Evelyne Wyns discusses the conditions in which this movement emerged, the complex role of trade unions and self-organized collectives, and the politicization brought about by repression.

- IVP618 - July 2026 / Belgium, Youth and student movements, Public services

Down with the Neoliberal Reform to ISSSTE Pensions!

MSPP — 2026-06-27T09:09:56Z

“It is a matter of basic social justice that those who have more should pay more in taxes and that workers receive higher and better wages, pensions, and working conditions. In the last year, Mexico's 24 wealthiest individuals earned US$100 billion, an astronomical figure that contrasts sharply with the stagnation of real wages.”

- IVP617 - June 2026 / Mexico, Public services

The “chalk revolution”: when a society rises up to defend public education

Aphrodite Mara — 2026-06-12T15:52:09Z

The month of June 2026 could, in retrospect, appear to be a decisive moment in Belgium's contemporary social and political history. What is at stake there goes far beyond a simple sectoral reform. It is a profound confrontation between two irreconcilable visions of the school.

- IVP617 - June 2026 / Belgium, Trade unions/workplace organizing, Public services

Public education comes to a standstill in a historic strike in Valencia

Moisès Vizcaino, Vicent Mauri — 2026-06-02T08:39:22Z

“May 11th will be etched in the collective memory of the Valencian people. The teachers, the grassroots and union movement, and the entire educational community will make history for the dignity, determination, and strength they demonstrated during weeks of mobilisation and organisation. The indefinite strike is already a moral and political victory against an arrogant, authoritarian government that is completely out of touch with the reality of educational institutions.”

- IVP617 - June 2026 / Spanish state, Trade unions/workplace organizing, Public services

Comorian healthworkers strike against wage inequality

Paul Martial — 2026-04-30T10:25:49Z

A strike of unprecedented magnitude is shaking the main hospital in the Comoros. The issue: the fight for equal pay, regardless of status.

- IVP615 - April 2026 / Trade unions/workplace organizing, Public services , Comoros