International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

IV452 - September 2012 PDF

robm — 2012-09-29T11:27:00Z

IV452 - September 2012 PDF available to download here

- IV452 - September 2012 / PDF

Rio Spring - Left fights local elections in next Olympic capital

Iain Bruce — 2012-09-29T11:09:25Z

On 7 October Brazilians vote in local, municipal elections that will be an important barometer of the political balance in the country. In spite of the popularity of President Dilma Rousseff, her governing Workers Party (PT) is not set to do well. Mostly it is expected to lose ground to other parties of the centre and right, several of which take part in the governing coalition alongside the PT. But the main party of the left that opposes the Brazilian government's social liberal policies, the PSOL (Party of Socialism and Liberty), could see a notable improvement in its position, especially in a few important cities.

- IV452 - September 2012 / Brazil, New parties of the left

Bernabe for Governor!

Antonio Carmona Báez — 2012-09-29T10:35:48Z

After years of strategic dialogue and an arduous process of electoral inscription, Puerto Rico can now count on an organised alternative, a political party that is committed to defending the interests of the working class and marginalised sectors of the island's population. On 6 November 2012, the new Working People's Party (Partido del Pueblo Trabajador-PPT) will run 71 candidates, from Governor to members of the municipal legislative assembly. “Breaking the electoral barrier” and “Puerto Rico should be governed by those who sweat for it” are the slogans that the PPT brings to the 2012 elections.

- IV452 - September 2012 / United States (USA), New parties of the left, Puerto Rico

25S: the salvaging of democracy

Esther Vivas — 2012-09-29T07:30:55Z

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Madrid on Tuesday September 25, 2012 to protest against the sequestration of popular sovereignty by the banks and “markets”. Repression was once again brutal, leaving dozens of people wounded, and there were numerous arrests. In this article, Esther Vivas reviews the motivations for this mobilisation and the causes of an ever more brutal police repression.

- IV452 - September 2012 / Spanish state, European Union

The Syrian people will not submit, nor the permanent popular revolution

Joseph Daher — 2012-09-29T07:20:33Z

The resistance of the Syrian people has continued to grow since the beginning of the revolutionary process in March 2011. Its struggle is taking place in the context of the popular struggles in Tunisia and Egypt and has extended to other countries in the region.

- IV452 - September 2012 / Syria, Arab Revolutions

“We are part of the different trenches emerging in every corner of the country”

Franck Gaudichaud, Marco Alvarez Vergara — 2012-09-27T09:47:13Z

An interview with Marco Alvarez Vergara, an activist in Chile's “Libres del Sur” movement, conducted by Franck Gaudichaud of France's Nouveau Parti Anti-capitaliste.

- IV452 - September 2012 / Chile

Electoral fraud and struggle

Héctor Márquez — 2012-09-26T16:20:10Z

In early September, the Federal Judiciary Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) validated the Mexican presidential election of July 1, 2012. Faced with the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to government, the organisation of a workers' political force is more urgent than ever.

- IV452 - September 2012 / Mexico

Freedom To Criticize Religion Is A Touchstone Of Free Expression

Farooq Sulehria, Gilbert Achcar — 2012-09-26T15:10:54Z

Muslims should â€˜simply ignore the crazy provocations,' Gilbert Achcar says. He thinks that those who engaged in violent protests against the â€˜Innocence of Muslims' video did exactly what the video's production team were hoping for as a result of their provocation. While Achcar strongly condemns Islamophobic hate material, he rejects any curtailment of free speech in the name of preventing blasphemy. â€˜Freedom to criticize religion is a major touchstone of the right to free expression,' he says in an interview with Farooq Sulehria for Pakistan's Viewpoint Online.

- IV452 - September 2012

Biodiversity forgotten

Yves Dachy — 2012-09-17T08:24:59Z

And they sawed the branches on which they were sitting, all the while shouting their experiences to one another so as to saw more effectively. And they fell into the depths. And those who watched them nodded their heads and continued sawing vigorously. (Bertolt Brecht, 1954)

- IV452 - September 2012 / Ecology and the Environment

Right victorious as socialist illusions are shattered

Willem Bos — 2012-09-14T11:11:40Z

The right-wing, neoliberal VVD of prime-minister Mark Rutte won the parliamentary elections of 12 September. His party won 41 of 150 seats, beating the social democractic PvdA that won 38 seats. Among the losers is the christian democratic CDA – for decades the dominant party in Dutch politics, now reduced to 13 seats. The Greens lost 6 seats, falling to 4, and Geert Wilders right-wing, anti-Muslim, anti-European Union party retained only 15 of its 24 seats. The Socialist Party (SP) gained a disappointing 15 seats, the same number it already had.

- IV452 - September 2012 / Netherlands