IVP - January 2025

Nearly two years after Lula’s return to power as President of Brazil, Israel Dutra, a member of the leadership of MES (Socialist Left Movement) and PSOL (Socialism and Liberty Party) of Brazil, provides us with an overview of the social and political situation in an interview with the NPA-Anticapitaliste Latin American Commission.

Donald J. Trump’s returns to the White House on January 20 promising to bring radical and fundamental change to every aspect of the American economy, society, and politics. His election is an expression of the exhaustion of the liberal (and neoliberal) order and the initiation of a new regime and a new system in the United States. His promises and plans threaten not only the world order, such as that is, but the planet itself.

“The aim of further tightening xenophobic and anti-minority measures is to divert discontent onto supposed scapegoats (refugees, migrants, the unemployed, welfare recipients, LGBTIQ+ people or even socially critical artists).”

The agreement may reduce the intensity of Israel’s killing spree, but it is likely to usher in a grueling new phase of ethnic cleansing with Trump’s full support.

The events that have unfolded in Lebanon between the election of a new president of the Republic on Thursday 9 January and the appointment of a new prime minister on Monday 13, constitute a major upheaval in the country’s political situation. The fact is that these events are themselves primarily the result of a major upheaval in the actual balance of power that determines Lebanon’s political situation. This is because, in key stages of the country’s history since its independence in 1943, the Lebanese government was subject to an agreement between two rival external powers, and whenever this agreement and the equilibrium accompanying it were disturbed, the situation has become tense to the point of explosion when the tension reached its peak.

Turkey’s mediation in the Sudanese conflict could help peace but would marginalize revolutionary forces.

The new government in Syria has received European ministers and seems to have won the goodwill of Western states. The situation of the Kurds who are fighting for their rights remains complicated. Berivan Firat of the CDKF (Kurdish Democratic Council in France) gives his point of view. This interview was conducted b by Fabienne Dolet, on January 4, 2025

Cyclone Chido ravaged Mayotte on December 14, 2024. This island in the Comoros archipelago was established as the 101st French department on March 31, 2001.

A catastrophic fire is sweeping through Los Angeles, destroying entire neighborhoods and global warming with its extreme weather, in this case extremely high wind velocity, is the principal cause. Since they began last Wednesday and as I write on January 12, the fire has swept over 37,000 acres, destroyed more than 12,400 homes, businesses, and schools,16 people have been killed and 13 people are missing, while 153,000 people have been forced to evacuate. Some communities look like they have been bombed. The city has declared a health emergency because of the dense and dangerous smoke.

It would be easy to analyse Trump’s victory as the result of a slow and inevitable progression of ultra-reactionary and fascist ideas among American voters. We must also analyse Harris’s defeat, which ultimately results from the fear of running a campaign in defence of workers.