IV403 - August 2008

The articles in the August 2008 issue of International Viewpoint can be downloaded in PDF format.

Already a political myth has been constructed about the plucky Georgians fighting for their national rights against the bullying power of Russia.

June 1971; the young Brazilian journalist Luiz Eduardo Merlino, militant of the Fourth International, dies from torture, 23 years old. Now, his partner and sister have decided, despite the official amnesty, to bring the man responsible for this crime, to justice.

So the Beijing games are upon us. There is no public event, other than perhaps FIFA’s Football World Cup, that is so universally approved of as the Olympic Games. An orgy of TV time and newspaper columns will whip up passions about what are, after all, minority sports.

The defeat of the Colorado Party in the 2008 presidential elections meant much more than a change of government in Paraguay. This defeat meant the fall of the last political party in Latin America that had been formed both politically and ideologically within the framework of the Cold War.

"We reject this “alliance of national unity” because it is counter-productive if we really want to advance towards socialism. It will even be reactionary if it is carried out, because it will weaken the revolutionary process".

The defeat of President Hugo Chavez in the referendum last December marks an important turning point in the Bolivarian process, which began more than ten years ago. Following this defeat a crucial choice arises: to accelerate the process towards a socialist society or on the contrary to prefer the status quo by centring the revolution solely around the image of the president.