International Viewpoint


Wakashio Four Months On: Mauritius Drenched In Oil, Health And Debt Issues
“We will never forget. We will never forgive. And we demand rehabilitation and reparations now.”
- IV551 - December 2020 / Ecology and the Environment, Japan, MauritiusWorkers Will Have to Fight to Make Gains Under Biden Presidency
“Organizing workers today raises new challenges, as many have precarious jobs and large numbers are undocumented immigrants. Our work is cut out for us.”
- IV551 - December 2020 / USA, Trade unions/workplace organizingThe gap is widening between the Royal Palace and the pro-democracy movement, which is mobilized against the danger of a putsch
“One thing is certain, however: the pro-democracy movement, by its capacity to endure and to innovate, has opened a gaping breach in the domination of the military-monarchical order. It has never ceased to amaze with its resilience and inventiveness. We can only salute it for what it has already accomplished and support it as much as we can for what it can still accomplish.”
- IV551 - December 2020 / ThailandThe Chinese steamroller in Hong Kong goes into high gear
The repressive rules in force on the mainland are being rapidly extended to Hong Kong, but a fightback continues and needs international solidarity.
- IV551 - December 2020 / China, Hong KongLabour must oppose any Brexit deal
“The left must demand that Starmer pulls back from this position and at least leave the door open for a fightback against the consequences of Brexit, which is a retrograde step of historic proportions.”
- IV551 - December 2020 / Britain, European UnionMacron and Lebanon: “reforms” again and again
While Emmanuel Macron is receiving the Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sissi in Paris, the French president is continuing to be active on the Lebanese dossier to implement the “reforms” demanded by Paris and the World Bank in particular.
- IV551 - December 2020 / France, LebanonTrump's 'Shakespearean' ploys to stay in power
“It may seem farfetched, but the crisis of the US electoral system is real.”
- IV551 - December 2020 / USATrump Leaves Biden Foreign Policy Problems; How Will the Left React?
“The left will have to rebuild an anti-war movement to resist Biden and to fight against U.S. imperialism, militarism and war when it erupts.”
- IV551 - December 2020 / USAWar and Defeat
Between the First Karabakh War and the Second Karabakh War there is a long period of 26 years, so many missed opportunities to resolve the conflict through negotiations. The failure should be found in the wrong beliefs, wrong ideas that led to wrong policies.
- IV551 - December 2020 / Armenia, AzerbaijanTime for Armenian and Azerbaijani diasporas to talk to each other
“It is time for Armenian and Azerbaijani intellectuals living abroad to assume their responsibilities, to develop another vision and discourse and break the cycle of propaganda and the threatening danger of another war.”
- IV551 - December 2020 / Armenia, AzerbaijanHow young people broke the Grand Compromise with the Church
“Young people have rejected the cultural hegemony of the Church in Poland.”
- IV551 - December 2020 / Poland, WomenNo to the mask of censorship on police violence
Protest in Martinique against the proposed new French law on “global security” which has already provoked mass protests in France, see “Hundreds of thousands against authoritarian policies: let's continue to win”.
- IV551 - December 2020 / France, MartiniquePalghar protests: ‘We won't back down today ‘
“We have protested and demonstrated so many times, but the government does not listen. The government has forced us to come out on the streets again."
- IV551 - December 2020 / India, PeasantsCovid in Calabria: an Italian parable
“Hunger and despair on their own do not necessarily lead to revolution.”
- IV551 - December 2020 / Italy, Covid-19 Pandemic“Make Amazon Pay”
“Amazon takes too much and gives back too little. It is time to Make Amazon Pay.”
- IV551 - December 2020 / USA, Germany, Economy, Trade unions/workplace organizingTrump's defeat interrupts momentum of authoritarian right worldwide
This statement was adopted by the Executive Bureau of the Fourth International on 30 November 2020.
- IV551 - December 2020 / USA, Fourth International, Covid-19 PandemicNuclear waste repository: Stay up!
“In summary, there is no safe method of disposal or “final” storage of radioactive waste.”
- IV551 - December 2020 / Germany, Ecology and the Environment, Nuclear powerSocialism will never work, it's human nature innit?
Humankind – A Hopeful History (Bloomsbury 2020) by Rutger Bregman, bestselling author of Utopia for Realists (Bloomsbury 2017).
- Reviews section / ReviewsBeethoven: The first rocker
Two hundred and fifty years after Beethoven's birth in December 1770 what is the relevance of this great composer?
- Features / Germany, Historical events and figuresEngels: theorist of war, theorist of revolution
On the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Frederick Engels we republish this appreciation.
- Features / Marxism, Historical events and figures