International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Austerity or Raising the Minimum Wage: Catarina Martins on Portugal's Experience

Catarina Martins, Denys Pilash — 2025-03-09T07:59:22Z

Catarina Martins was the national coordinator of the Left Block, a democratic socialist political party in Portugal, from 2012 until 2023. She was elected a Member of the European Parliament in the 2024 European election and sits in the Left group in the European Parliament — GUE/NGL. Catariana has a training in linguistics and a theatre occupation.

- Features / Portugal, Ukraine, Debt

8 March: Solidarity with women in Gaza, the DR of the Congo, and of the world at large

CADTM International — 2025-03-08T08:10:29Z

On this international day of struggle for the rights of women, the CADTM reasserts its commitment to feminist movements that fight systemic oppressions everywhere in the world: patriarchal capitalism, neocolonial exploitation, and militarized violence.

- IVP602 - March 2025 / Women, Debt

In Sri Lanka, the new government's policy: a lost historic opportunity

Éric Toussaint — 2025-02-19T11:53:35Z

Éric Toussaint looks back at the situation in Sri Lanka since 2022. From popular revolts to the new centre-left government elected at the end of 2024, including negotiations with creditors, this overview provides a better understanding of the situation, rich in lessons, in a country whose social, economic and political situation is largely unknown. Éric Toussaint compares what is happening in Sri Lanka with what happened in Greece in 2015 and in Argentina between 2019 and 2023, putting into perspective the risk of a hard right-wing government in the future.

- Features / Sri Lanka, Debt

World Bank and IMF — Keeping Pakistan in shackles

Farooq Tariq — 2025-01-28T09:31:00Z

On 11th December 2024, while replying to a question in Pakistan's National Assembly, the federal finance minister admitted for the first time that since 2019, and while under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, gas prices increased by a record 840% and electricity tariffs rose over 110 %.

- IVP600 - January 2025 / Pakistan, Debt

In memory of Patrice Lumumba, assassinated on 17 January 1961

Éric Toussaint — 2025-01-27T21:19:11Z

On 17 January 2025, we commemorate the 64th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961).

- Features / Belgium, Historical events and figures, Debt, Congo, Imperialism

Ukraine's Debt: an instrument of pressure and spoliation in the hands of creditors

Éric Toussaint — 2025-01-26T17:39:27Z

In the present article the author focuses on Ukraine's debt since the 1990s and more particularly in the years after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022. It provides answers to several questions. Who are Ukraine's creditors? How much are they owed? What do they demand in exchange for their loans? What part does the European Union play? Why does Ukraine's integration into the EU go against the Ukrainian people's interests? What is done with frozen Russian assets? Why should Ukraine's debt be cancelled? Why does Zelensky oppose any cancellation? What are the alternatives to current indebtedness? Some questions are not addressed for want of space such as the stage the conflict has reached, the provision of weapons, the debates within the Left.

- Features / Ukraine, Debt

G7: Whether or not to maintain the suspension of Ukrainian debt payments

Éric Toussaint — 2024-05-25T05:21:00Z

"Confiscation of oligarchs' assets, extraordinary taxes, and debt cancellation instead of new debts."

- IV592 - May 2024 / Economy, Ukraine, Debt

Under the yoke of the IMF

Éric Toussaint — 2023-10-21T19:06:00Z

Regarding the new debt crisis and the results of the Counter-summit in Marrakesh, in face of the World Bank and the IMF, CADTM translated an article from Le Courrier, a Swiss daily based in Geneva, in the issue published on Tuesday 17 October 2023. The article and the interview that follows were written by the journalist Bénito Perez.

- IV585 - October 2023 / Sri Lanka, Morocco, Debt

Debt Abolition Activists Gear Up for Countersummit as World Bank and IMF Meet

Ashley Smith, Éric Toussaint — 2023-10-08T11:30:35Z

“At the same time, abolition of debt alone is not enough if domestic ruling classes maintain private ownership of the economy and natural resources. So, abolition of debt must be a key component of building a radical, anti-capitalist movement for system change in each country and globally.”

- IV585 - October 2023 / Economy, Morocco, Debt

The IMF deal and its critics

Sushovan Dhar — 2023-08-09T17:03:26Z

“According to Oxfam, the country's top 1% is wealthier than the bottom 70% of the population. This wealth disparity has far-reaching ramifications for the country's economic and social development. ”

- IV583 - August 2023 / Economy, Pakistan, Debt