Sunday, June 22, 2008

XXI International Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist Youth Camp

The XXI International Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist Youth Camp (IAIFYC) will take place from July 24 to August 3 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event will be held at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and will host political debates, workshops, lectures and cultural activities that will be part of the program of the camp.

The camp, which is held every two years, is organized by the International Preparatory Committee (IPC), which is made up of youth organizations of various countries. The Union of Rebel Youth (UJR) is the Brazilian organization that is part of the IPC, and has the main responsibility for the 21st celebration of the event.

Held since the end of the Second World War, the XXI International Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist Youth Camp has become an important centre of debate on the actions of imperialism and fascism in the world and a vehicle for mobilizing international youth around the struggle for their rights, awakening internationalist feelings and contributing to the builing of socialism. The international camp takes place in countries of Latin America and Europe alternately. The 20th celebration took place in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Preparation for the IAIAFYC in Brazil

The IAIAFYC is already mobilizing delegations from 20 countries in addition to preparatory committees in 12 Brazilian states. The committees are open to all anti-imperialist and anti-fascist youth and involve debates and political activities in the states. Registration for delegations who want to present workshops and cultural activities in the camp is open.

Participants should bring camping equipment (tents, sleeping bags, etc.), light jackets and clothes that protect against the rain.

For more information, please contact:

Rio de Janeiro: (21) 9305-3488
Minas Gerais: (31) 9133-0983
São Paulo: (11) 9380-3295
Rio Grande do Norte: (84) 8834-7964
Paraíba: (83) 8815-8215
Pernambuco: (81) 8734-5380
Ceará: (85) 9149-1328
Alagoas: (82) 8875-0330
Bahia: (75) 8812-3109
Pará: (91) 8194-9433
Piauí: (86) 3081-9472

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Police opens fire on demonstrators in Redeyef

One killed and 25 wounded

Today, the city of Redeyef witnessed a serious escalation when the police forces deliberately shot demonstrators leaving to death a young man named Hafnawi Ben Ridha Ben Hafnawi Maghzawi and 25 other people wounded by gunshots in their legs for most of them: Ismail Rahali, Bouali khlifi, Helmi Marzouki, Khaled Rahali, Hachem Dhaouadi, Mohamed Achiri, Tarek Bedyef, Tarek Jridi, Mohamed ben Taher Khlifi, Hussain Wled Amor,Kamel Ben Mohamed Tababi, Habib Tababi, Nidhal Amaydi, Khaled Touati, Wissem Karamti, Hachem Ben Razzak, Ahmed Ahmadi, Houcine Dgaichi, Nizar Amaidi, MOHAMED Taher Ben Othman, Bouali Rahali, Mustapha Lackhem. The seriously wounded persons were taken to Regional Hospital of Gafsa.

This new escalation underlines the persistence of the regime in power in the denial of the legitimate demands of the people of Redeyef and the mine’s basin (Oum Larayiss, Mdhila, Mitlawi…) who have been uprising since last January against unemployment, poverty and marginalisation. Once again, this shows that this regime only represents the rich and is totally isolated from the people and the poor classes.

The Workers’ Communist Party of Tunisia:

- Strongly condemns this new crime committed against the defenceless people of Redeyef and denounces the falsification of facts by the official media in order to justify the repression of protesters and the description of the demonstrators as ‘rogue’ to maim and distort their demands.

- Expresses its full solidarity with the family of the martyr Hafnawi Maghzawi, added to the long list of martyrs for dignity, who fell during the elapsed half century under the rule of dictatorship, and with all the other wounded victims and their families.

- Confirms that the perpetrators of these crimes should be judged.

- Expresses again its continuing support for the legitimate demands of the people of Redeyef, Oum Larayiss, Mdhila, Mitlawi, Feryana and Megel Bel Abbas and praises their courage in the fighting for their rights despite the repression and the torture they have experienced during the recent periods (breaking into houses, assaults on people, the killing of the young Hichem Ben Jeddou Alaimi, vandalism and looting…).

- Calls on all the democratic forces composed of parties, associations, organisations, trade unions and human rights bodies to consolidate their support to the people of the mine’s basin and to put pressure on the authority to stop the repression, to withdraw the police forces from all the cities and to compensate the locals for the physical and the moral damages and to respond to their legitimate demands.

Workers’ Communist Party of Tunisia
Tunis, 6th of June 2008
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Lithuanian ban on Soviet symbols

Moscow says the Soviet army freed the Baltic states from the Nazis


Lithuania's parliament has passed the toughest restrictions anywhere in the former Soviet Union on the public display of Soviet and Nazi symbols.
It will now be an offence in the Baltic state to display the images of Soviet and Nazi leaders.
This includes flags, emblems and badges carrying insignia, such as the hammer and sickle or swastika.
Correspondents say equating Soviet and Nazi symbols in this way is certain to infuriate Russia.
The new law also prohibits the Nazi and Soviet national anthems but does not specify if this extends to the modern-day Russian national anthem, which uses the Soviet music with different lyrics.
BBC Russian affairs analyst Steven Eke says these are the toughest bans on symbols from the Soviet past adopted in any of the 15 countries that emerged from the USSR.
'Blasphemous'
The measures go further than neighbouring Estonia's ban on Soviet symbols, he says.
Estonia's decision to put the swastika and hammer and sickle on an equally prohibited footing was described by Russia as "blasphemous", and an attempt to rewrite history.
Moscow's official interpretation of history is that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were liberated from Nazi Germany by, then voluntarily joined, the Soviet Union.
This account is rejected by those three Baltic States and most other European nations, says our correspondent.
They believe the Soviet Union illegally occupied the Baltic republics as a result of a secret agreement - the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
The occupation continued until the collapse of the Soviet state itself at the end of 1991.

Taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7459976.stm

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Sunday, June 08, 2008

The "K"KE leadership in the congress of the social-fascist "C"PI (M), slayers of the Indian people

The congress of the revisionist “Communist” Party of India and the “Communist” Party of India (Marxist) were held in Hyderabad, Central India, from the 23rd of March to 2nd of April. The delegate of “K”KE was Nikos Seretakis, member of the department of International Relations of the CC. Of course, we are not surprised by the participation of “K”KE in congresses of other parties which, while – like “K”KE itself – shamelessly present themselves “communist” they bear no relation whatever to Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism and they are guided by Khrushchevian revisionism or other versions of bourgeois ideology and they have defected to the reaction camp. This is true for both “C”PI and “C”PI (M). However, what is indicative of the complete ideological degeneration and bankruptcy of “K”KE, is the fact that it participates in congresses of parties such as C”PI and “C”PI (M) which are not only on the right of the, already anti-communist ideology of Khrushchevian revisionism, but they are on the fore front of promoting and propagandizing neo-liberal policies.

The “C”PI (M) is the leading party in the so-called “Left Front”, the government coalition which includes other smaller opportunist and pseudo-left parties besides “C”PI (M) and which is in power in the state of Western Bengal since 1977. The policies of the “Left Front” not only have nothing to do with socialism whatever but they are identical with the reactionary, neo-liberal policies of any bourgeois government. The land redistribution promised by the “C”PI (M) simply never took place. At the turn of the 21st century, only 15% of the total arable land has been distributed. Even so, 13% of all those farmers who received once a plot, by 2001, ended up landless again while at the same time the feudal production relations remain virtually untouched. Following the instructions from the WMF, the government of the “Left Front” has proceeded to the establishment of the infamous Special Economic Zones (SOZ) by expropriating, in favor of local or foreign monopolies, the land upon which the survival of thousands of poor peasants depends. The local textile and engineering industry, stranded in a long-term crisis, are handed unconditionally to the foreign and multinational capital. One of the oldest leaders of “C”PI (M) didn’t mince his words: “We want the local and the foreign capital. After all we are working in the capitalist system, socialism, for the time being, is not feasible.” After 30 years of “C”PI (M) government, the working conditions in W. Bengal are characterized by miserable salaries, labor intensification and flexible forms of employment. The workers’ insurance funds are embezzled without any pretext. Every time the workers embark on a struggle, they confront state violence and terror that is always in the service of the industrialists. Nevertheless we read in “Rizospastis” that: “the Congress approved of the tactical political line of the party for the next three years and confirmed the party’s fighting position against the government’s neo-liberal policies” (“R”. 6/4/2008). In addition, the statement made by the general secretary of “C”PI (M), Prakash Karat in his concluding speech at the party’s Congress is utterly provocative: “the party is standing by the side of the working class and the oppressed strata” (“R”. 6/4/2008).

The fascist deviation of the “Left Front” government takes the form of blatant violation of the most fundamental human and political rights. The arrest and the abuse of all those who fight for political, social and national rights has become a frequent event. There have been many incidents of sexual abuse and humiliation of women by policemen “in the line of duty”. Apparently, the police have been authorized by “C”PI (M) to make uncontrolled use of violence against any “suspect” or “trouble-making” element. The murder of nine people in North Bengal and one young activist in the South – in both cases after their arrest – is indicative. In 2003, police officers killed two tea workers. However, the massacre in Nandigram on the 14th of March 2007 was the limit.

At the end of 2006, the government decided the building of a petrochemical complex in Nandigram following an investment by the Indonesian Selim group in the local SOZ. As a result many families faced the threat to lose their land and expelled out of their homes. Having seen the government’s determination to move on with the project, the people of Nadigram revolted. On the 3rd of January they blocked the access to the area erecting barricades, digging trenches and destroying bridges. This situation lasted until the 14th the day when the police forces launched their attack opening fire against the crowd and beating indiscriminately whoever was on their way. Many cadres and armed thugs of “C”PI (M), disguised in police uniforms, took also part in the operation. The final toll was 14 dead and tens of seriously injured by bullets all of them from the side of the peasants.

In the “C”PI (M) congress the “need for an all-sided strengthening of the party as essential prerequisite for the setting of a course in people’s interests” was stressed (“R”. 6/4/2008). How much more “strengthening” “C”PI (M) hopes to achieve when it is already participating in state governments in Bengal and Kerala? And when it is obvious that by “course in people’s interests”, it means the most unpopular and brutal neoliberal policy. The events in Nandigram shocked the public opinion in India and the rest of the world showing what the “Left Front” government and C”PI (M) really are: a fascist gang of murderers in the service of the Indian and foreign capital. Let anybody judge the relations between “K”KE and the criminal scum of C”PI (M).

Published in Greek in newspaper "Anasintaxi" issue 273, 1-5 May 2008

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Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Tens Of Thousands rally for Peaceful Solution To The Kurdish Problem

03.6.2008

“Democratic Solution to the Kurdish Problem” demonstration by the Peace Assembly, a civil society organization consisting of academics, journalists, trade union representatives, intellectuals and political parties, was held on Sunday (June 1) at Kadıköy with tens of thousands of people. There was a single banner at the demonstration both in Kurdish and Turkish: “Enough, we want solution”. “Edi Bese!” in Kurdish, meaning “Enough is enough!” was the slogan for the gathering. People also chanted other slogans, including, “Peace, not war.” The crowd also chanted against Erdoğan.

In addition to the Peace Assembly speakers Murat Çalikkan and Ayhan Bilgen, DTP (pro-Kurdish party) MP’s, and our president Levent Tuzel, many writers, trade unionists and intellectuals were there for support as well.
Greeting the people in Kurdish, Çelikkan said, “We know that the operations, the skirmishes, emptying the villages forcefully, isolating the people in their houses, their villages, the cities where they seek protection and shelter and the prisons are not solutions.”
“First of all, we want the state institutions to take up a political stance that does not put war in the center, but life. We want all the cultures and the Kurdish identity, language and culture to take part in all aspects of public life, and therefore demand the removal of all the legal obstacles in front of this goal. We want the ending of regional discrimination.”
Çelikkan addressed Turks as well: “The responsibility of ending the losses of the Turkish and Kurdish families is on our shoulders. We cannot be equal, free and proud unless we furnish the conditions of  equality, freedom and pride for Kurds as well.”
Following Çalikkan, who ended his speech with “Biji aşiti”, which means ‘peace right away’ in Kurdish, Bilgen said that the Kurdish problem was not only a Kurdish problem, but also, and even more, of a Turkish problem.
“We have to face the question ‘What do Kurds want?’. We will not answer this question for Kurds, but we must find a way to solve the problem before much more blood is shed.”
Mentioning the GAP action plan, which is devised by the Turkish state, Bilgen said, “Trying to explain everything away with impoverishment and reducing the solution to the development projects is an attempt to solve the whole problem with only a small part of the reality.” Furthermore, Bilgen said “So far the governments have taken action with the understanding that ‘if Kurds need to be represented then we will do that too’, adding that the Peace Assembly is ready to take active responsibility in removing society’s prejudices regarding peace.
Demanding that a dialog must start with all the elected representatives of the Kurdish people, Bilgen said that it was now in our hands to start implementing the project of living together in place of forced togetherness.
“You cannot remove the fragmentation, falling into pieces, unless a new constitution, a new social contract, a new determination for liberation is developed.” Ayhan Bilgen, called on the government to create a new constitution that would secure the institutional equality of Turks, Kurds and all citizens. Bilgen also said it would not be possible for Kurds and Turks to live together without allowing Kurdish language and literature to be freely presented in the public sphere.
People at the gathering danced and sang to the music of well-known folk singers, despite the hot weather.

www.emep.org

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Solidarity to the struggle of the PEOPLE in LEFKIMMI, CORFU

PRESS RELEASE

Down with the fascist violence of riot police

Solidarity to the struggle of the PEOPLE in LEFKIMMI, CORFU

NO to the construction of a landfill site in Lefkimi

We denounce to the working people of the whole country, the fascist – murderous attack of the riot police (MAT) against the residents of Lefkimi in Corfu, an attack that was authorized by the government of the monarch-fascist party ND.

Riot police countered the residents’ protests against the construction of a landfill site with baton beatings, use of tear gas and other chemicals resulting in the transfer of three people to hospital including a 43-year old woman, mother of two children, who suffered from serious head injuries and finally succumbed to her injuries.

The Movement for the Reorganization of KKE (1918-1955) stands by the struggle of the residents of Lefkimi and calls upon them as well as the whole people of Corfu not to give up their resistance and to prevent, through their struggle, the construction of another landfill site which will be disastrous not only for Lefkimi but for the whole island of Corfu.

Movement for the Reorganization of KKE (1918-1955)

2nd June 2008

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