International Viewpoint, the monthly English-language magazine of the Fourth International, is a window to radical alternatives world-wide, carrying reports, analysis and debates from all corners of the globe. Correspondents in over 50 countries report on popular struggles, and the debates that are shaping the left of tomorrow.
“At a time when left parties in Europe have been losing ground to their rivals on the Right and center, the Irish election bucked the trend. Whatever Sinn Féin does next, this was clearly a left-wing vote. The exit poll showed that health and housing were by far the most important issues for voters. Two-thirds wanted investment in public services to be prioritized over tax cuts. 31 percent agreed with the statement that Ireland ‘needs a radical change in direction’.
“It’s possible that this opportunity for change will be squandered. But right now, the momentum in Irish politics is with the Left, and the traditional conservative parties are on the back foot. An election that was supposed to call time on the political turbulence of the last decade has had the opposite effect.” [Daniel Finn “Ireland’s Left Turn”.]
read article...Throughout these sixty days of mobilisation, the popular revolt in Chile has advanced three fundamental demands: a social agenda to immediately fight against the precariousness of life; a new Constitution through a constituent assembly; and justice and the punishment of human rights violations. These demands have been advanced both in the spaces formed in the heat of the struggle such as the territorial assemblies and in the social spaces organised before the explosion of 18 October.
read article...Since late January, the social and political situation in France has remained marked by popular opposition to the government’s counter-reform targeting the pension system. And, even if it has weakened in recent weeks, the mobilization has had a direct political effect of weakening and destabilizing President Emmanuel Macron and his party, “La République en Marche” (LREM).
read article...Chilean president Sebastián Piñera declared on television on 8 October 2019 that “Chile is a real oasis in a convulsed Latin America”. In fact, Chile has been presented to the world for almost thirty years as a model to be exported and an example of neoliberal stability. The key to “success” was the commitment of all parties, whether for or against Pinochet, to the management of the institutions and the economic model set up during the dictatorship (1973-1990). This “oasis”, based on a programme of crushing and super-exploitation of the working class, exploded ten days later, dramatically highlighting the increasingly unbearable living conditions of large sections of the population. The immediate result of this uprising was to break the conspiracy of the democratic transition, supported by the left and the right, against the class struggle. The class struggle came back to the fore in earthshaking force of which October was only the first attempt.
read article...On January 28 in Washington, a so-called Middle East peace plan was presented by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in the notable absence of the Palestinian side. The outlines of the project were put together by Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and advisor. He is also a big supporter of Israel and a defender of the Israeli colonial settlements, for which he even funded “educational institutions”. This plan constitutes a veritable program for a new attempt to liquidate the Palestinian question, and is in violation of all the international resolutions passed by the United Nations and of international law.
read article...In a welcome sign, the recent revitalization of the socialist left, particularly the spectacular growth of Democratic Socialists of America, has revived debate about the road to socialism. Also, fortunately, the discussion, which has partially played out in the pages of Jacobin, has gone beyond a simple revisiting of the old “reform versus revolution” argument of early twentieth-century social democracy. Vivek Chibber “Our Road to Power,” Jacobin, 5 December 2017) and Eric Blanc (most recently in his debate with Charlie Post, “Which Way to Socialism,” Jacobin, 21 July 2019) have raised important problems with applying a revolutionary model from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to modern industrial countries with parliamentary systems. Blanc’s observation that “a government elected by universal suffrage has vastly more popular legitimacy than the tsarist autocracy” is particularly valid and important.
In 1941, at Hitler’s military apex, Bertolt Brecht wrote The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, wherein he reduces Hitler the politician and his lackeys to a vulgar band of bandits from 1930’s Chicago.
The Left Bloc was formed about twenty years ago in Portugal, by the fusion of forces from the anti-capitalist left and the social movement. Today, together with the Communist Party, it is the main formation of the combative left in the country. Based on the Bloc’s experience, Francisco Louçã gives an overview of the still problematic relationship between parliamentary opposition work and investment in social movements and mobilizations.
Should ecosocialists reject a program that includes carbon pricing? Ian Angus and John Bellamy Foster reply to Daniel Tanuro’s criticism of their approach “The right’s green awakening”.
This open Letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres was sent by Nazneen Habib and Jahan Ara, sisters of Baba Jan, on the eve of his visit to Lahore.
- read article...The trial of seven Russian antifascists accused of terrorist offences ended today in Penza, western Russia.
- read article...The following statement, published on 30 January 2020, explains the Moroccan judiciary’s threat to close the revolutionary socialist newspaper and website, al-Mounadil-a (“the Militant”). As the al-Mounadil-a editorial board suggests below, such threats are parts of a wider attack by the state against the the left and progressive forces in the country.
- read article...While the historic strike movement at the SNCF has been going on for almost 60 days, senators and the SNCF are hand in hand to try to break this movement by any means necessary.
- read article...Russian Socialist Movement’s Statement on the Proposed Constitutional Reforms and the Change of Russian Government
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