IV366 - April 2005

Zbigniew Kowalewski analyses the formation of multiple states in Latin America as a consequence of the defeats of bourgeois democratic revolutions before these states were born, and argues that the development of the Latin American revolution will pose again the unity of the continent, in the perspective of permanent revolution.

Does the development strategy undertaken by the Alliance government after the Tsunami have any relevance to the avoidance of catastrophes, as some would want us to believe? Do their plans for radical change in the socio-economic set up really aim to resurrect the lives of the people?

Salvatore Cannavo argues that in making its turn towards a governmental alliance with the centre-left "Union", Italian Communist Refoundation has abandoned its priority to the social movements and its ambition of creating a third, militantly anti-capitalist, force in Italian politics.

A new book on the water struggle in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba casts new light on a key battle, and raises fundamental questions of strategy for popular struggles.

Claudio Katz looks at the meaning of the new governments in Latin America, especially those in Brazil, Venezuela and Argentia, and asks what they mean for the hopes and struggles of the poor and oppressed.

LCR leader Francois Sabado says that May’s referendum has the potential for a major shift in the French political terrain.

In the elections that were held on February 20th, Portugal turned left. The Socialist Party has an absolute majority in Parliament, the Portuguese Communist Party slowed down its irreversible decline and the Left Bloc made an unprecedented breakthrough, going from 3 to 8 MPs.

Thirty years after the victory of the Vietnamese national liberation struggle, IV’s sister magazine Inprecor (Paris) interviews Tuan, a Vietnamese of French nationality, who goes back every year to his native country to rediscover many friends and acquaintances.

On February 14th, 2005, Rafic Hariri, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, was assassinated in a horrible crime that resulted in dozens of innocent deaths and injuries, and huge destruction of the hotels and other buildings in the vicinity. The reverberations from the explosion are still continuing, and will probably continue for years to come.

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