International Viewpoint

“If I were to give some general advice, I would recommend paying less attention to which abstract position is correct, and focusing more on practical action to help us climb out of the hole we are in.”

Philippe Poutou, a former candidate in the French presidential elections and spokesperson for France's Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste (NPA), will be in third place on the “Anticapitalistes” list put forward by Belgium's “Gauche anticapitaliste” (Anti-Capitalist Left) organisation in the European parliamentary elections on 9 June 2024.

Franco-Lebanese researcher Gilbert Achcar, professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, reviews the Israeli attack on April 1st against the consulate in Damascus and analyses the response of the Islamic Republic. He also examines the effects of this renewed tension on the ongoing negotiations to end the war in Gaza.
[French original published by L'Humanité]
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What was Israel seeking by striking the Iranian consulate in Damascus?
The (...)

“This is the culmination of a campaign by the German government that has been going on for months to prevent any solidarity with the people of Palestine and criticism of the German government's military and political support for Israel.”

“The Republican politicians attack on women's reproductive rights, driven by the party's white Evangelical Christian base, has led to a strong political reaction by Democrats, independent voters, and even some Republicans. ”

“The European elections should be an opportunity to strengthen a radical left anchored in social, feminist, anti-racist and ecological struggles, in popular neighbourhoods, capable of stopping the rise of the far right.” For a number of political and intellectual figures, struggles must not only be a defensive reaction, but also build “a new political force, stronger and more popular than what organizations and struggles represent today.”

Switching from a presidential to a parliamentary system is Faure Gnassingbé's latest brainwave to ensure that, like his father, he remains President for life.

“People in positions of power at German universities are in clear violation of widely held academic — and, frankly, constitutional — norms about political freedom and freedom of speech.”

The violent police occupation of the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador on Friday 5th April, attacks two basic principles of diplomacy and civilized coexistence between nations: the principle of the inviolability of diplomatic headquarters and the right to asylum for any person persecuted for their way of thinking.
The ultra-right-wing and neoliberal president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa Azín, presented two pretexts for his unacceptable action: that he acted to execute an arrest warrant against (...)

“Ethnic and religious intolerance is a routine matter and cases are reported now and then.”

The victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the fruit of popular mobilization, has created a new political situation enabling the radical left to push for a real break with the past.

In the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq, known as Bashur to the Kurds, close to the border with Turkey, war has been raging for several years now, and has intensified in recent months.

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“The Israeli attack on WCK has inflamed the opposition to Biden on the left, which in the primaries voted “uncommitted” rather than vote for the president.”

Turkey's municipal elections of 31 March 2024, contrary to all predictions, represented a genuine political earthquake where the bloc linked to the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, received its first defeat since 2002. Erdogan's victory in the 2023 elections, despite all the hopes of the opposition, had been a source of demoralization and loss of interest in politics.

“Most pressingly, there is a need for immediate expressions of solidarity with Palo Quemado and other communities resisting predatory mining on their land, and facing severe repression as a result. More strategically, as the President of CONAIE, Leonidas Iza explained in the news conference at the end of the II National Gathering, they see the need to develop as soon as possible this international network against mining and extractive industries, that can bring together all those resisiting these attacks on their communities and their environment.”

In 1994, France, under president François Mitterrand, was at the heart of the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda. Thirty years later, it is our duty to know and recount the course and responsibilities of this historic event.

“What we are experiencing in Puerto Rico is a modality that we know internationally as lawfare, the misuse of the judicial system as a political weapon, in the electoral process.”

On 30 March 1976, striking Palestinians from the Galilee and the Negev demonstrated against the theft of their land. The Israeli army fired, killing six demonstrators and wounding hundreds more. Since then, every 30 March, Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, Israel, the refugee camps and the diaspora have mobilized against this colonial state that steals their land, destroys their infrastructure, their communities, their culture and their history.
Everywhere, a movement of (...)

“This is a condemnation of all of us who organize politically in defense of democratic rights, equality, and freedom. The arrests of the Zaragoza 6 reflect the political decision to systematically criminalize protest, seeking to punish them to instill fear. It reinforces the political power of the police and judicial apparatuses, over and above the democratic rights won through centuries of struggle.”