International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Total support for the mobilizations against Lukashenko's autocracy!

Fourth International Bureau — 2020-09-30T07:11:27Z

This statement by the Executive Bureau of the Fourth International was adopted on 26 September 2020.

- IV548 - September 2020 / Fourth International, Belarus

Johnson crashes Britain towards the abyss

Phil Hearse — 2020-09-29T08:51:12Z

Less than one year after its resounding electoral victory over the Labour Party, Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government is in turmoil – and crashing the country towards a social, health and economic disaster of unprecedented proportions. Combining incompetence with neoliberal myopia, Johnson is allowing a second wave of Covid-19 to explode. The ensuing economic crash merges with the disastrous results of Britain's departure from the European Union (Brexit) and threatens economic and social meltdown by Christmas. Politically, the hard right Conservatives are responding by trying to ramp up anti-migrant, anti-European xenophobia.

- IV548 - September 2020 / Britain

For the defence of democratic and trade-union rights in Algeria

National Secretariat of the PST (Socialist Workers Party) Algeria — 2020-09-28T05:46:54Z

For the defence of democratic and trade-union freedoms! No to the referendum and the Tebboune constitution! For the election of a sovereign Constituent Assembly! This statement was issued by the Socialist Workers Party (PST) Algeria on 19 September 2020.

- IV548 - September 2020 / Algeria

Belarus: the beginning of what end?

Catherine Samary — 2020-09-27T06:30:00Z

The sixth re-election of Alexander Lukashenko as President of Belarus on 9 August, 2020 was preceded and followed by popular mobilizations fuelled by police brutality, against a background of fraud and increasing challenges to old social protections. The Belarusian autocrat, after multiple tensions with his Russian neighbour, is now asking Putin for his “help” in dealing with an unprecedented social protest.

- IV548 - September 2020 / Russia, Belarus

Pandemic, Polarization, and Resistance in the US

Ashley Smith, Joseph Daher — 2020-09-26T05:58:19Z

Joseph Daher from SolidaritéS, Swtizerland, spoke to US longtime activist and DSA member Ashley Smith about the situation in the USA in a wide-ranging interview covering the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter, social movements of resistance to Trump, the aftermath of the Bernie Sanders' movement and the prospects for the left in the USA.

- IV548 - September 2020 / United States (USA), Anti-racism and Islamophobia, Covid-19 Pandemic

Strengthening of normalization process of Israel after agreement with the UAE

Joseph Daher — 2020-09-25T08:22:44Z

On 13 August the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel entered into a US-sponsored peace accord that further deepens the process of normalization of the colonial and racist apartheid state.

- IV548 - September 2020 / Israel, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Democratic space reduced, Italian government given breathing space

Dave Kellaway — 2020-09-24T07:56:41Z

As expected the constitutional referendum to reduce the number of MPs in both houses by a third passed by 70 per cent to 30 per cent. This means an Italian MP will represent up to 150,000 voters, the highest in Europe and considerably more than here [United Kingdom]. Democratic space and access is severely reduced and it makes it even more difficult for new or smaller parties, particularly alternative left wing or ecological ones, to be represented.

- IV548 - September 2020 / Italy

US Postal Service in Crisis â€” Why?

David Yao — 2020-09-23T08:29:49Z

THE U.S. POSTAL Service, a publicly owned institution with a large (630,000) unionized workforce and a history dating to 1775, is facing a financial crisis that could present a real opportunity for the Trump administration to enact its program of privatization as well as weakening its employee unions.

- IV548 - September 2020 / United States (USA), Public services

Hong Kong in Revolt: A Conversation with Au Loong-Yu

Au Loong-Yu, Ivan Franceschini — 2020-09-22T08:40:59Z

For the past year and a half, Hong Kong has been in turmoil, with a new generation of young and politically active citizens mobilising to protest Beijing's tightening grip over the city. In Hong Kong in Revolt: The Protest Movement and the Future of China (Pluto Books 2020), prominent Hong Kong leftist intellectual Au Loong-Yu retraces the development of the protest movement in his place of birth over the past two decades, setting them within the context of broader political trends in mainland China and beyond. Published after the Chinese authorities enacted a new draconian National Security Law that effectively signalled a new stage in the crackdown, this book provides a perfect opportunity to reflect on the events of the past months, dispel some myths, and, possibly, draw a few early lessons.

- IV548 - September 2020 / China, Hong Kong

WikiLeaks: Defend Assange and Civil Liberties – History, Great Britain, and Julian Assange

Against the Current Editors, Clifford D. Conner, Dianne Feeley — 2020-09-21T06:49:56Z

BELOW ARE THE comments Clifford D. Conner made at a September 8th press conference in front of the British consulate in New York City. Conner is an historian and author of Jean Paul Marat: Tribune of the French Revolution and The Tragedy of American Science: From Truman to Trump. The court in Britain is holding hearings on the Trump administration's request to have Julian Assange, the Australian editor, publisher and founder of WikiLeaks, extradited. Assange would be tried in a Virginia court on 17 counts of espionage and one count of conspiracy to commit a computer crime. If convicted, he could face up to 175 years in prison.

- IV548 - September 2020 / United States (USA), Britain