International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

IV408 - January 2009 PDF

2009-02-03T08:56:36Z

January 2009's articles from International Viewpoint can be downloaded in PDF format. Click on the icon below to get that file.

- IV408 - January 2009 / PDF

A government in pandemonium

Farooq Tariq — 2009-01-31T23:57:00Z

Instability, price hikes, growing unemployment and rising debts are the hallmarks of the first nine months of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government. There are daily demonstrations across Pakistan around one or another of these issues.

- IV408 - January 2009 / Pakistan

Bailing Out Banks, Smashing Unions

Dianne Feeley — 2009-01-31T23:55:00Z

WHEN GENERAL MOTORS and Chrysler received pre-Christmas bridge loans of $17.4 billion, President Bush specified that the unionized work force had to become “competitive” with non-unionized workers in wages, benefits and work rules. This blatant attempt to destroy an already weakened United Auto Workers (UAW) illustrates how, in the midst of an economic crisis, U.S. capital is bailed out as working people are fleeced.

- IV408 - January 2009 / United States (USA)

Reading, Writing and Union Building

Steve Early — 2009-01-31T23:49:00Z

THE UNITED STATES changed forever on November 4, 2008. It will undoubtedly change even more during the next four years â€” although just how remains to be determined. There has never been such a convergence of yawning crises facing an incoming U.S. government, including a collapsing credit system and the near-death spiral of the North American auto industry. It's an entirely open question whether the sheer scale of the objective emergency might impose serious structural changes on the way capitalism is administered in this country.

- IV408 - January 2009 / United States (USA)

Radicalise the alternatives

Josep María Antentas — 2009-01-31T23:26:00Z

The World Social Forum (WSF) held in Belem is a very significant one. It's the first WSF held after the outburst of the 2008 economic crisis. This crisis made evident the total failure of neo-liberalism and the destructive character of global capitalism. Besides, Brazilian Amazon is a privileged place to highlight the link between social and ecological crisis.

- IV408 - January 2009 / Social Forum

What Obama's Victory Means About Race and Class

Malik Miah — 2009-01-31T23:01:00Z

THERE WAS EUPHORIA in every Black community household November 4. High fives and tears of joy. No one could believe it. It didn't matter Obama's politics. A Black man had won! The election of the first Black president of the United States has a dual meaning: social and political.

- IV408 - January 2009

Withdraw case against NSSP leader Chamil Jayaneththi

NSSP — 2009-01-31T11:40:22Z

Last Friday Com. Chamil Jayaneththi,the organizing secretary of the Nava Samasamaja party had been informed to summon the magistrate Court on 2nd of February.

- IV408 - January 2009 / Sri Lanka

Sources and Dynamics of the Revolt

Andreas Sartzekis , Tassos Anastassiadis — 2009-01-31T11:36:11Z

Even though it dates from a month ago, this document of the Greek section of the Fourth International remains very topical: first of all, because it gives an eye-witness description of the formidable Greek youth movement, adding a political analysis that is essential if we do not want to remain about at the stage of the “youthism” that we have seen in quite a few publications over the last few weeks; then, because in this mid-January, the movement, which no longer takes the form it did during its first week, is starting up again, with demonstrations over education and also in solidarity with the Palestinian people, although we can obviously not foresee how it will evolve.

- IV408 - January 2009 / Greece

On January 31, the Greek anti-capitalist left will launch the perspective of its convergence!

Tassos Anastassiadis — 2009-01-31T11:30:43Z

The revolt of Greek youth (see the document of the Central Committee of the OKDE-Spartakos, Greek section of the Fourth International,) upset political routine, which tended to relegate to the background the contradictions of a capitalism in crisis, in a sadly politicking spectacle, made up of scandals and corruption, of battles between apparatuses without any meaning for people's lives, which get worse every day.

- IV408 - January 2009 / Greece

Behind the Gaza Massacre

David Finkel — 2009-01-23T17:12:18Z

The horror in Gaza is not some kind of accident or unexpected disaster. It is a result of events and decisions years in the making. It cannot be understood apart from years of United States policy in the Middle East. And it is most definitely not an act of “legitimate Israeli defense against unprovoked Hamas rockets.”

- IV408 - January 2009