International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

An activist from the Neskonlith band of the Secwepemc people in British Columbia is preparing for what she believes is the next Standing Rock, with a unique project aiming to block the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline on Indigenous territory.

On 20 September 2017, the Civil Guard and the Spanish National Police arrested 14 senior officials of the Generalitat (the Catalan government) and carried out 40 searches of public buildings and private homes. A police operation then seized propaganda material of the CUP (Candidatura de Unidad Popular, the main party of the pro-independence left) and, without any legal authorisation, surrounded its headquarters for the whole day, for no reason other than provocation. Following the prosecution of more than 700 Catalan mayors who support the referendum on October 1st and after repeated complaints against the Bureau of the Catalan Parliament, these actions represent a qualitative leap in the escalation of repression by the Spanish state institutions against the referendum on self-determination.

While OBOR is an outbound development strategy that is expected to significantly expand China’s political and economic reach overseas, it also potentially has significant domestic implications. On the one hand, as highlighted above, OBOR is in part intended to solve domestic problems such as overcapacity issues, while on the other hand it should result in profits flowing back to China from overseas investments made by Chinese companies. Along with additional trade opportunities and investments made in China, according to some narratives of development, this should also contribute to improving prosperity domestically. Indeed OBOR is also intended to support the development and reform of all provinces and regions within China [1], with different provinces and regions intended to have different functions within the plan and many also passing their own development plans in relation to this.

There will be once again elections for the Bundestag on 24 September. Have we only the possibility of choosing “which assassins will give us orders, what thieves will do over our pockets?” as Ton Steine Scherben sings? If voting was for something, would not it be forbidden? Has that not already happened? On what criteria can a leftist know whether they should “make their small cross”, and if so, where?

In early August the UAW’s union recognition campaign at the Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi ended in a disastrous 63% “no” vote — 10% greater than the loss at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee three and a half years earlier.

US President Donald Trump has just announced that he is considering the “military option” to remove President Nicolas Maduro from power. The threat of a possible military operation against Venezuela has been preceded by the adoption of unilateral economic sanctions. It would not seem likely that a direct military invasion will take place, even if the government is blackmailed to give more; but it is clear that there is an escalation. What Trump really wants to crush is the irreverence of the Bolivarian revolution.

The imperial president of the United States, Donald Trump issued a statement on 11/08/17 in which he threatened the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with military intervention and promised to oust President Nicolás Maduro. This coarse and threatening statement has been rejected by all the countries of the world and most of their governments.

A group of individuals and organisation in June signed a first Joint Decelaration for the statement in Castilian to condemn imperialist and media aggression against Venezuela, to reject the coup policy from the rightwing in the MUD and affirm the election of a national constituent assembly was the best way to ensure the participation of the workers’ and popular movements in the crisis. This time they have come together to congratulate the Venezuelan people for their massive civic participation on Sunday 30 July. 5 August 2017

Boaventura de Souza Santos, the Portuguese academic and activist, was a leading figure in the anti-globalization movement in the early years of this century. He has been a strong, if critical, supporter of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution. Earlier this year, he caused some controversy when he signed a declaration launched by a group of left intellectuals from Argentina, which was very critical of the Venezuelan government.