International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Remembering Srebrenica 30 Years On

Geoff Ryan — 2025-07-16T13:46:00Z

11 July marked the 30th anniversary of the genocide in July 1995 of over 8,000 largely Bosniak men and male children by Bosnian Serb forces under the command of Ratko Mladic. They were buried in mass graves. Many thousand more fled into the forest and embarked on a harrowing journey lasting up to 7 days before reaching the eastern Bosnia village of Nezuk. What led up to the massacre and how it has been treated compared to two other wars: Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Israel's genocide against the Palestinians..

- IVP606 - July 2025 / Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo

Nationalists push the logic of the worst in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Catherine Samary — 2022-01-22T09:17:38Z

“A war seems unlikely, because no one has an interest in it, but also because the country is being emptied of its population. ”

- IV564 - January 2022 / Bosnia-Herzegovina

A last farewell to Mick Woods

Lone Degn, Ulf B. Andersson — 2018-09-16T18:16:11Z

Mick Woods, a comrade from Britain who had lived in Denmark for more than twenty years, died at the too young age of 64 in July. But its not only in Britain and Denmark that Mick is mourned - the proudest achievement of his political life was his involvement in International Workers' Aid, a campaign of practical solidarity with multi-ethnic Bosnia. The tribute below, from Ulf B Andersson from Swedish Workers' Aid, was read at his funeral by former Danish MEP SÃ¸ren Sondergaard who first met Mick through the campaign. The second piece was written for his memorial meeting in London, also addressed by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell by Danish comrade Lone Degn. Establishing a proper archive for IWA would be the best tribute we could pay to Mick - Eds

- In Memoriam - Obituaries and appreciations / Obituary, Features, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Srebrenica 20 years after: From commemorations to interpretations

Catherine Samary — 2015-07-21T10:35:38Z

All the diplomatic posturing surrounding the commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre (whether they are for or against the resolution proposed by London characterizing the massacre as genocide), fail to question the essence: what were the causes and authors of these crimes, in the areaÂ and on the ground where the conflicts took place and on the international level where they were “settled”? Homage to the victims of Srebrenica and the full respect of their memory means not mitigating the condemnation of what were certainly war crimes and crimes against humanity, but also giving them a political meaning.

- IV486 - July 2015 / Bosnia-Herzegovina

An Appeal to the international labour community from the workers of DITA factory, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina

2015-04-18T21:26:54Z

We, the workers of Tuzla-based detergent factory DITA, have been fighting a wave of corrupt privatisation, exploitation and asset stripping that is destroying the industry of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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

Plenums, power, politics

Jan Malewski — 2014-06-16T19:01:46Z

For more than two months, in all the cantons of the Croatian-Bosniak Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina [1] hundreds, sometimes a thousand people have been meeting regularly, discussing, taking decisions by simple majority, forming working groups responsible for producing proposals for discussion, ensuring the rotation of their own "moderators"... These popular assemblies - "cantonal citizens' plenums" – represent a new form of popular self-organization, with the aim of controlling the authorities, of dismissing them, of imposing their political choices without aspiring - until now at least - to exercise power themselves. All residents are welcome in these plenums, all of them have the same right to speak and nobody has the right to “represent" a plenum. The interventions are rapid and the moderators have the right to intervene so that the intervention does not deviate from the subject under discussion. The desire to seek unanimity does not interfere with people expressing themselves in a resolutely critical manner.

- IV473 - June 2014 / Bosnia-Herzegovina

Tuzla, the unknown capital of the Europe of workers and peoples

Olivier Besancenot — 2014-03-19T15:54:42Z

Why does Bosnia-Herzegovina inspire so little interest and curiosity in the media and the political class when, on the contrary, Ukraine is front-page news? Is it because of its non-membership of the European Union? Is it because its name evokes the war that, twenty years ago, claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of men and women – more than 200,000 dead and 600,000 exiles – in the face of virtual indifference in the West as to what was happening one and a half hours by plane from Paris ? Or because it often wakes up to the call of the muezzin?

- IV470 - March 2014 / Bosnia-Herzegovina

List of Demands by Sarajevo and Bihac Protestors

2014-03-10T10:20:32Z

This list of demands was published by the site LeftEast on 8 February. We publish it as an addendum to our coverage in the February issue.

- IV470 - March 2014 / Bosnia-Herzegovina

Tuzla: building solidarities

2014-03-06T15:44:22Z

On 5 February, people set fire to the government building of Tuzla Canton, rebelling against criminal privatization, unpaid wages, and the corrupt ruling oligarchy. Violence was deemed necessary for people to finally get their voice heard, and overcome poverty. Ministers have resigned, and people have been taking control over political life. Soon after, more than 700 citizens gathered in Plenums, where they practice direct democracy. This “Tuzla effect” has spread throughout other towns in Bosnia Herzegovina… and this blast of anger has gained the streets in Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, in such a way that we're already speaking, in France and in Europe, of a Balkan “spring”.

- IV470 - March 2014 / Bosnia-Herzegovina

All power to the plenums?

Mate Kapovi? — 2014-02-26T21:47:38Z

One of the most positive developments in the Bosnian protests has been the birth of direct democratic assemblies â€” but some major challenges remain.

- IV469 - February 2014 / Bosnia-Herzegovina