International Viewpoint

The worst possible response to the local council elections at the beginning of May in which UKIP won 25% of the vote would be complacency. For this result is shameful for both Labour and for the left-of-Labour left. While it's true that the mainly rural areas and small town being polled are the heartland of sections of the petty bourgeoisie and not at all representative of the electorate in general, for all that the result is dispiriting and frustrating.

The situation of the "lefts" cannot be understood without starting from the crisis, its multiple dimensions and its effects on the social and political field. Hitting head-on all the organizations and parties linked to the history of the workers' movement, precipitating ruptures, it obliges political forces to recompose around new axes. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet bloc announced a new era: the current upheavals give this era its content. The present crisis is global: in economic terms, it is the consequence of an over-accumulation of capital, an overproduction of goods and commodities and an under-consumption of the masses. The “real economy” of the imperialist centres is settling into a long-term recessive logic, and none of the "orthodox" economic experts ventures onto the theme of a "way out of the crisis”.

A right wing wave swept Pakistan general elections on 11th May 2013. At Federal level, conservative A right wing wave swept Pakistan general elections on 11th May 2013. At Federal level, conservative Muslim League Nawaz will form the government with 35 percent of votes at federal level. Pakistan former cricket captain Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf came second with 19 percent of vote and surprised many. Pakistan People's Party, the Bhuttos' ruling party for the last five years came third with only 15 percent of votes, thanks to Sindh where it was able to fetch most of the votes. Muslim League Nawaz will form the government with 35 percent of votes at federal level. Pakistan former cricket captain Imran Khan Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf came second with 19 percent of vote and surprised many. Pakistan People's Party, the Bhutto's ruling party for the last five year came third with only 15 percent of votes, thanks to Sindh where it was able to fetch most of the votes.

1. The Portuguese problem is democratic. This problem is the democratic answer to the blackmail of debt and the austerity that results from it, with social effects that destroy Portugal. This is the problem of problems.

Greetings from Michaël Lowy to the Founding Assembly of the Ecosocialist Network in Quebec, followed by an interview datelined 12 March 2013.

“Post-Marxism” has become a fashionable intellectual posture, with the triumph of neo-liberalism and the retreat of the working class. The space vacated by the reformist left [in Latin America] has in part been occupied by capitalist politicians and ideologues, technocrats and the traditional and fundamentalist churches (Pentecostals and the Vatican). In the past, this space was occupied by socialist, nationalist and populist politicians and church activists associated with the “theology of liberation”. The centre-left was very influential within the political regimes (at the top) or the less politicised popular classes (at the bottom). The vacant space of the radical left refers to the political intellectuals and politicised sectors of the trade unions and urban and rural social movements. It is among these groups that the conflict between Marxism and “post-Marxism” is most intense today.

The commune of Barbacha (with around 30,000 inhabitants) near Béjaïa was the only one in Algeria led by a mayor from the Parti socialiste des travailleurs (PST – Socialist Workers' Party), our comrade Sadeq Akrour. During the municipal elections of November 2012, the Wali (prefect) of Béjaïa tried to prevent the presentation of a PST list but finally had to give way. This list came first with more than 30% of the votes but control of the town hall was lost to an unprincipled alliance of municipal councillors from three other lists.

No one who reflects seriously on the changing economic and political world developments can over-estimate the importance of China. It seems to have suddenly emerged as the second biggest economy in the world. Many project it to overtake the US economy by 2020 or 2030 depending on how one values the Chinese GDP. China has become one of the most important factors in geopolitics. It affects everyone on the globe.

The impact of austerity has thrown politics in Britain into turmoil. Both parties of the ruling coalition government (the Tories and the Liberal Democrats) lost heavily in local elections in England last week to UKIP (the United Kingdom Independence Party) – a right wing, populist, anti-immigration party which is pulling all the main parties to the right. Labour's performance was better but poor; since its answer to austerity is its own brand of austerity and it has pandered to anti-immigrant sentiment.

On Saturday, April 20, at Barnard College in New York City, a coalition of Ecosocialists hosted a conference whose purpose was to call together [groups and individuals fighting ecological destruction from an anti-capitalist perspective]. The coalition evolved from a group of organizations originally calling itself the Ecosocialist Contingent, who held a public forum and rallied against the Keystone Pipeline in Washington on February 17.

This article was first published on the English-Arabic blog ”Syria Freedom Forever” on 4 April 2013.

This manifesto was adopted by the meeting of progressive organisations from the Mediterranean, held just before the World Socialis Forum in Tunisia.

The South African magazine Amandla spoke to Gilbert Achcar about the implications of the uprising in Syria within the country and in the region.

“I think we can hold on for a long time until we get what we want, otherwise we won't stop” explained crane worker Adrian.

On 24 April 2013 in the morning a tragic incident took place in Savar near the capital of Dhaka that claimed around 293 lives of garment workers, most of whom are women.

In Kashmir, the scale of human rights violations—from collective punishment and assassinations, to custodial deaths and disappearances—is staggering. Yet little of what goes on in that Himalayan region reaches the outside. Those who resist Indian rule, the Indian government tells the world, are fundamentalist jihadis backed by Pakistan. But the reality is quite different. Kashmir is an unsettled issue, dating back to the disastrous 1947 British partition plan to divide the subcontinent in two: a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. Today, Kashmir is one of the most volatile places on the planet.

The depth of the capitalist crisis poses the question of power in general terms – to break with austerity requires a radical change of policy and another government - but the Greek crisis, combining as it does socio-economic collapse, political crisis and social resistance, thrusts it directly in the forefront of the social and political scene.

Newly elected Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro set as his objective equalling and even exceeding the vote scored by Hugo Chávez by getting 10 million votes, but he succeeded in obtaining only 7,505,338, losing 600,000 votes in relation to Chavez's vote at the last election and winning by only 300,000 votes, with 50.6% against 49.07% for his opponent Capriles. Abstention was only a little higher, rising from 20 to 22%, which shows that the majority of votes lost by Maduro went directly to the opposition which, imitating Chávez and disputing his heritage, succeeded in winning over a sector of the previously Chavista middle class and even some working class sectors.

On 23 April the second vote in the National Assembly passed this proposal into law. The radicalisation of the opponents to “Marriage for all” had continued apace since the article below was written. Demonstrations saw the “parliamentary right” alongside leading members of the far-right National Front, although not Marine Le Pen herself. Homophobia became frighteningly visible, including in attacks on people leaving gay bars in a number of cities. The demonstrations by partisans of the draft law, although supported by the Socialist Party and the other parties to its left (Front de Gauche including the Parti de Gauche and Communist Party, the NPA...), did not mobilise as broadly. This is no doubt due to the general disillusion with the Socialist Party government. International Viewpoint will publish more in the future on the polarisation around this question. [International Viewpoint]