International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Revolutionary defeatism, yesterday and today

Simon Hannah — 2025-05-08T15:33:07Z

The debate on the Left over the war in Ukraine has exposed serious disagreements on international questions, ones that have been brewing and deepening for over a decade. From 2001 to 2011, there was general unity on the socialist Left about the question of imperialism and the response to it. This was a period of explicit and obvious attacks on sovereign countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq by the United States, United Kingdom, and other imperialist forces. This naked imperialist aggression triggered global mass movements against the so-called “War on Terror.”

- Features / Marxism, Campism

The left's dilemma amid a crumbling world order: Prepare to fight or let others determine the outcome?

Oleksandr Kyselov — 2025-03-28T13:20:27Z

With a madman in the White House, all pretences have fallen away and raw power again reigns supreme. Trade wars, huge aid cuts, explicit demands to annex Greenland and depopulate Gaza — every new day brings forth another crisis that throws into question internationally recognised collective and individual rights and undermines global institutions that supposedly exist to defend them. Is this genuinely the world we were hoping for when we criticised the hypocrisy of the West? Is the internationalist left simply going to accept this new state of affairs?

- Features / United States (USA), Russia, Ukraine, Campism

Left-wing isolationism: a path to political irrelevance in Europe's defence debate

Hanna Perekhoda — 2025-03-23T05:59:23Z

The European Parliament has voted on the resolution that sets the line on defence and rearmament. The harshest criticism of the European Commission's resolution on defence and rearmament comes from the Left political group. Among them is Manon Aubry (France Insoumise), who denounces, “You find money for tanks but not for hospitals.” She sarcastically remarked, “It's as if, all of a sudden, there was no longer any global warming or poverty, and the only priority was armoured vehicles.” Similarly, Benedetta Scuderi of the Greens argues that “this arms race” undermines growth and public finances. Other voices have joined the chorus, including the Left co-chair Martin Schirdewan and Danilo Della Valle of the Five Star Movement. During Della Valle's speech, a group of representatives of the Five Star Movement held a protest waving placards such as "No more guns" or "More jobs, less guns".

- Features / Europe, Ukraine, Campism

Against Campism, for International Working-Class Solidarity

Dan La Botz, Jason Schulman — 2025-03-21T10:14:09Z

As socialists we must espouse a truly internationalist politics, one that supports democratic and working-class movements around the world. We support such movements in their struggles against tyrannical governments and the ruling classes of all countries, just as we welcome their solidarity with us. As U.S. socialists we oppose the imperialism of the United States, but as internationalists we must also oppose the authoritarianism and imperialism of other states, regardless of what those who run those states call themselves. That is, we must oppose “campism.”

- Features / Syria, Russia, Venezuela, Historical events and figures, Features, Campism