International Viewpoint

International Viewpoint

May Day in America, is it now here to stay?

1 week 2 days ago

May Day is not a holiday in the United States. In most states and cities, it is not celebrated. In some places, in schools or public parks, people put up a May pole and dance around it to celebrate the arrival of spring. We did that in my elementary school in Chicago when I was a child. The official Labor Day in the United States, which is a national holiday, is celebrated on the first Monday in September and marks the end of summer and students' return to school. But maybe this year things finally changed.

- IVP604 - May 2025 / United States (USA), Historical events and figures
Dan La Botz

Nigeria: against oil industry impunity

1 week 3 days ago

The Niger Delta has been totally devastated by decades of oil exploitation in Nigeria by the major Western oil companies. Huge tracts of land and mangrove swamps have been totally contaminated by oil, destroying all living things. People's livelihoods, such as fishing and farming, have been wiped out. There is no longer any drinking water, and the air is polluted by the dozens of flares that burn continuously.

- IVP604 - May 2025 / Ecology and the Environment, Nigeria
Paul Martial

Mexico: “The right-wing parties are practically in the worst phase of their history”

1 week 4 days ago

José Luis is an activist in the Fourth International and a member of the Mexican electricians' union. He spoke to Fabrice Thomas while visiting Europe for the world congress of the Fourth International.

- IVP604 - May 2025
Fabrice Thomas, José Luis

Zambia: people are victims of extractivism

1 week 5 days ago

Despite recurring environmental disasters and the dangers to the population, the government of Zambia continues its extractivist policy. The southern African country has once again been hit by major pollution. 50 million tonnes of acidic sludge were discharged into the watercourse running alongside the Chinese company Sino Metals in Chambishi, which processes copper ores.

- IVP604 - May 2025 / Ecology and the Environment, Zambia
Paul Martial

Trump and America: One-hundred days in the waiting room of fascism

2 weeks ago

Since taking office 100 days ago, President Donald Trump has been engaged in destroying America's liberal, democratic state and its social welfare systems, taking away citizens' and non-citizens' rights, and attacking the institutions of civil society such as universities and the media. Trump's attack on our government and our society has shocked, disoriented, and disconcerted the American people. The resistance has been growing, but is still too divided, small, and weak to stop Trump

- IVP603 - April 2025 / United States (USA)
Dan La Botz

Argentina: opposition to Milei revives

2 weeks 1 day ago

After many months without a significant opposition movement to the government of President Javier Milei on the streets of Argentina, the 36-hour cross-industry strike of 9-10 April and the social reality of the country have brought the movement back to life.

- IVP603 - April 2025 / Argentina
Elias Vola

Vietnam, 30 April 1975 - 50 years ago, a historic victory, but at what price?

2 weeks 1 day ago

Vietnam's independence was first proclaimed in August 1945, and we could soon be celebrating its 80th anniversary. De Gaulle decided otherwise, sending an expeditionary force to reconquer his lost colony. Indochina had to endure two devastating successive imperial wars, first French, then American. Washington mobilised all the means at its disposal to crush the Vietnamese revolution, certain that it would prevail - and was defeated. The image has gone down in history: the staff of the US (…)

- Features / Vietnam
Pierre Rousset

Hendrik “Pips” Patroons, comrade and friend

2 weeks 1 day ago

Our comrade Hendrik Patroons, alias “Pips”, passed away in Ghent on April 17, 2025. He was active from an early age in SAP-Antikapitalisten (our organization in Flanders, then called Revolutionaire Arbeiders Liga) and the Fourth International. A convinced revolutionary right up to his last days, he and his companion Marijke Colle left a lasting mark on the organization. He took part in our last national congress in December 2024, and had volunteered to be part of the technical support team for the 18th World Congress of the Fourth International in February 2025, but was unable to do so due to illness. We publish below the tribute paid to him by Alain Tondeur at the funeral ceremony in Wondelgem, near Ghent, on April 25.

- In Memoriam - Obituaries and appreciations / Belgium, Obituary, Fourth International
Alain Tondeur

Greece: anger in the streets

2 weeks 2 days ago

The nationwide mobilization in Greece on 9 April, called by GSEE (the only private-sector confederation), ADEDY (the only public-sector federation) and the entire trade union network, was the measure of social anger, even if the huge rallies of 28 February (at least 1.5 million in the streets across the country) were a long way off.

- IVP603 - April 2025 / Greece
Andreas Sartzekis

Trump reinvents war capitalism

2 weeks 3 days ago

Believing that the United States is being mistreated in international trade, Trump, speaking before an audience of auto union members gathered at the White House, announced measures that would amount to nothing less than a declaration of economic independence...

- IVP603 - April 2025 / United States (USA), Economy
William Donaura

We need to talk about Gaza more than ever

2 weeks 4 days ago

The images keep coming, one after another, more of the same. Explosions, screams, cries and tragedies. Starving people who have had to survive displacement and bombardment. Access to drinking water is once again becoming a problem because Israel has destroyed Gaza's second desalination plant. It feels like we are reliving the horrors of a year ago.

- IVP603 - April 2025 / Palestine, Israel
Édouard Soulier

The Other Catastrophe: Genocide and Famine in Sudan

2 weeks 5 days ago

Two years have passed since the war broke out in Sudan between the two sides of the military regime that the country inherited from the infamous Omar al-Bashir. While the situation in Sudan does not get even a tenth of the global media attention that the ongoing Zionist genocidal war in Gaza receives, the scale of the human catastrophe there is equally horrific. The death toll from the military-on-military war is estimated at more than 150,000, while the number of displaced people stands at approximately 13 million, and the number of those threatened with severe famine reaches 44 million—a record number that makes the war in Sudan the greatest humanitarian crisis in today's world.

- IVP603 - April 2025 / Sudan
Gilbert Achcar

Trump's New Cuba Policy: Bad for Cuba and Migrants

2 weeks 5 days ago

On his return to the presidency on January 20, Donald Trump rescinded his predecessor Joe Biden's short-lived removal of Cuba from the State Sponsor of Terrorism (SSOT) designation. The SSOT designation will further isolate Cuba diplomatically and economically.

- Features / United States (USA), Cuba
Dan La Botz

Radical Socialist Statement on Civilian Killings in Pahalgam

2 weeks 6 days ago

At least 26 civilians, mostly tourists, have been brutally and callously killed by militants in Pahalgam on April 22, 2025. Radical Socialist mourns the death of every single civilian, and condemns this terrorist act perpetrated by The Resistance Front that has claimed responsibility for it. It is a senseless attack which is morally unjustifiable and is completely counterproductive politically because it can further stoke and strengthen existing currents of Islamophobia in Indian society and in state apparatuses.

- News from around the world / India
Radical Socialist

The Netherlands and the 1965 mass killings in Indonesia

2 weeks 6 days ago

The military coup d'état in Indonesia in 1965 was the beginning of one of the 20th century's greatest crimes: the killing of over half a million of people and the torture and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands more. Much has been written about the involvement of Western powers such as the United States in the military coup. Less is known about the response of the Netherlands. Declassified documents show that Dutch authorities regarded the military coup with sympathy and sought to support it.

- Features / Netherlands, Indonesia, Historical events and figures
Alex de Jong

Agriculture: Our proposals for small-scale farming

2 weeks 6 days ago

It's essential to change the production-based agricultural system, which is driven by petrochemicals, destroys jobs and exacerbates the ecological crisis. We need small-scale farming on a human scale, that creates jobs and generates income, produces high-quality food and supports living organisms. This alternative is a bulwark against bio-aggressors and climate change. To achieve this, we recommend:

- IVP603 - April 2025 / Ecology and the Environment
NPA Ecology Commission
Checked
3 hours 32 minutes ago
International Viewpoint
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.
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