Final Statement of the 22nd International Encampment of the Anti-Fascist and Anti-Imperialist Youth

Selcuk, Turkey, August 2010

We held an international meeting of youths from August 3 to 12 in Selcuk, Izmir, bringing together 3,000 young people from 20 different countries. During this 22nd international meeting we discussed the problems of youth, the peoples and all of humanity, such as the environment and the world. We shared our dreams and ideals and we debated our problems and their solutions. In the name of the participants of the camp, we thank and we greet our brothers and sisters in Turkey who organized this camp, the representatives of the working class, trade unions, doctors, nurses, engineers and our friends of all occupations who put their abilities at our service.

We are surrounded by unemployment, reactionary forces and imperialist wars.

Capitalism, as a system whose only aim is to obtain maximum profits, is again in a deep crisis on a global scale. The capitalists impose unemployment and poverty on the working youths to get out of the crisis that they themselves have created. The future of the youth is dim due to laws against labor. Pensions, social security, free education and health care have become inaccessible for the new generations. While this system is creating this kind of a world for youth, it is placing special emphasis on expanding racist, fascist and nationalist ideas, increasing the individualistic and competitive values, the degeneration of culture and drug use among the youth.

It organizes education for its own interests and needs while it keeps it under the commercial tomb of privatization. It tells the youth of working class families that they do not have the right to education if they do not have the money to pay for it. Together with general education, our possibilities to gain access to science, literature and the arts are under threat. Unscientific ideas of a medieval type are implanted to put the youth to sleep.

Parallel to the deepening of the crisis, the governments of countries with large immigrant populations continually use racist and fascist policies aimed at the worker and immigrant youths to block the common struggle of the workers and youths. While the imperialist states reinforce the racist and fascist parties, they cut back on the rights and the liberties already gained under the name of the “fight against terrorism”.

The 22nd International Encampment of the Anti-Fascist and Anti-Imperialist Youth is a meeting of the rebellion of youth against the restrictions on the right to education and the attempts to place the cost of the crisis on us.

Our camp, which was held under the slogan “For Work, Education, Peace and Fraternity of the Youths of the World”, is an international call to fight against the policies of imperialist war, racism, the reactionaries and fascism.

The youth of the world has similar problems; therefore our fight must be united.

What brought us together, young people of 20 different countries of Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Caucasus and the Middle East, are our problems and our demands. Our ten-day stay proved that we have similar problems even though we come from different countries and continents.

In order to carry out such a large meeting, we had the support of each one of the organizations of the working class and intellectuals. The fighting workers, great intellectuals who are on the side of the workers, the youths, the peasants in their fight against monopoly looters for the security of their lands and the provision of water, and the representatives of the oppressed peoples in their fight for their freedom have strengthened us. The artistic and cultural activities that we held with artists and intellectuals during these 10 days helped us to understand the importance of the need for progress and the flourishing of realist and socialist arts and culture. Women are under a double oppression and exploitation in terms of class and gender. The workshops and debates that we held during the camp are testimony to our firmness in the struggle to put an end to discrimination against women by gender and to the strength of the struggle for young women in particular. Another subject on which we focused was the fight against the destruction and contamination of the environment, nature and historic structures caused by the rapacity of capitalism to obtain maximum profits. As youth, we state that we will not ignore the destruction of our environment by capital.

The youth of the world is fraternal

The practices in the camp have shown how peace and fraternity can be achieved among young people of different nationalities. We understand that wars, with exception of those for national and social liberation, are conducted by a handful of imperialists and their collaborators.

In this meeting we debated and decided to develop a global position against the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan by the imperialist powers headed by the United States; against nationalism and racism that has been incited against the struggle for national liberation of the Kurdish people within Turkey; against the oppression of the Palestinians and the attacks on Lebanon by the Israeli Zionist government; against the imperialist blockade of Iran. We discussed the imperialist provocations in the Caucasus, the tension between Colombia and Venezuela and the preparations for war by imperialist forces such as those of the United States and the European Union in other parts of the world, together with representatives of the youths of those countries or neighboring countries. During our camp, near the coast of the Aegean Sea, we developed our fraternity and friendship in spite of the opposite policies of Greece and Turkey. We declare that we will not stand aside but we will reinforce our fight against those policies.

On the other hand, we condemn the reactionary and fascist pressure and attacks against the leaders of the workers and youths in several countries, particularly Ecuador and Tunisia, and we express our solidarity with them. Once again, we call upon the youth of the world to unite and fight against the imperialist wars and reactionary and fascist oppression.

The crisis belongs to capitalism, but the future is ours!

The discussions in the camp show that the general policies of the crisis and their effects on the workers, unemployed youths and students are similar on an international level: the increase in unemployment, growth of poverty among the masses of youths, the difficulty in access to education, cutbacks to public investment in the social and cultural fields, etc. It seems that all these international problems are experienced in different regions within a single country!

Moreover, we saw in our meeting the possibility and necessity of fighting against these attempts to place the burden of the crisis on us. We have various examples of the fight against these policies of crisis, such as the mobilization of more than 2 million people in France last June to protest the pension reform and the fight of the undocumented workers, the student mobilizations in Germany against the costs of the university with some successful results, the 6 general strikes in the last 6 months in Greece, the workers of state monopoly TEKEL in Turkey who carried out a determined struggle for 78 days, the fights of the peoples of Latin America against the attacks and repression by the United States, the fight of the people of the Dominican Republic in defense of their lands and all the other struggles in the rest of the world. All these struggles and the victories achieved show us the path to follow. What this system presents to us is not impossible to change. We can solve our problems by means of an organized struggle.

Our discussions have also shown us the aspiration of the youth worldwide for a world without exploitation and wars, and that their interests demand the formation of such a world. Unless the means of production are snatched from the hands of that handful of parasites and are socialized, unless the working class and the peoples of the world establish their own political power, we, the young people, cannot get rid of unemployment, poverty, wars and massacres.

Our call is the call of all the youth around the world

Our slogan “for the fraternity of the young people of the world” appeals to our natural human aspirations. The problems against which we are fighting have a common cause: we all live in capitalist countries where profits and competition are considered sacred. And we all share the same destiny. Therefore, our common struggle, friendship and solidarity cannot be hindered by our differences in race, language, religion, culture and country. We do not have to kill or die for the realization of imperialist interests in the employ of imperialism. We do not want to pay the cost for the conflicts of interest within imperialism.

It is time to take part in the struggle for our demands and aspirations, for our right to work and education, against those who make our lives unbearable and miserable; a world without unemployment, poverty, hunger, wars and without national repressions is not possible under the hegemony of capitalism; such a world is only possible with Socialism.

The youth of the world shouts once again:

Long live the fight for work, education and peace!

Long live the fight for the liberation of the oppressed peoples!

Long live International Solidarity of the young people of the world!

Down with fascism and imperialism!

Read More »

Declaration of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional of the ICMLPO

It is not true that the present crisis of capitalism-imperialism is passing and in definitive recovery, as the spokespersons of imperialism proclaim. On the contrary, it is broadening and deepening in all the economies of the countries of the planet. This is strongly striking the productive, financial and commercial sectors. But mainly, it is attacking the lives of the workers in all continents, the dependent peoples and countries. Its most dramatic effects are seen in the tens of millions of workers dismissed, in the decline in wages and cuts in social services.

This crisis that broke out within U.S. imperialism has extended to all continents, without any country being able to escape it. Therefore, big capital and its governments are carrying out aggressive economic, political, social and military actions so that the dependent countries and people are the ones who pay for it. They are strengthening their invading armies and prepare regional wars such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, and supporting occupations such as that of Palestine by Israel.

However, in all countries and particularly in Europe, the working class and peoples are giving an important response with mobilizations and general strikes that show their rejection and their willingness to fight against the economic policies of imperialism and the bourgeois governments. The struggle of the working class and youth in Greece stands out.

The US is strengthening its role as an imperialist country, it is trying to assert its positions and continue its hegemony in Latin America. Facing the resistance of the peoples and the winning of important democratic and patriotic positions, it is strengthening its political and military offensive: in continuation of the implementation of Plan Colombia it is installing seven military bases, modernizing the Fourth Fleet and reintroducing it along the coasts of the Americas, it is implementing Plan Merida in Mexico, the coup in Honduras, the military occupation of Haiti, strengthening the blockade of Cuba, as well as the ideological and political offensive, promoting paramilitarism, anti-drug "operations," the militarization of the regimes, etc.

It is trying to recover the political and economic control of the democratic and patriotic countries and governments that denounce and confront it, using open and disguised mechanisms of intervention and aggression, the active processes of destabilization in Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

The imperialist countries of Europe, mainly Germany, England and Spain are expanding their direct investments and credits and are stimulating trade in the region. Several Latin American countries have adopted and others are discussing free trade agreements with the European Union. These relations of economic dependency transcend politics.

For several decades, Japanese imperialism has been extending its tentacles, primarily financial and commercial, in the region, making it one of the powers that is contending for domination of Latin America.

In recent years, Chinese imperialism has ventured with force into the various countries of Latin America. It is making direct investments in mining, oil, civil construction, etc. It is developing a commercial assault in all the countries and has become a creditor to the governments. The Chinese offensive in the region has grown significantly and it is contending with the United States and other imperialist countries.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the crisis has serious repercussions, mainly on the poorest and most dependent countries. It is submerging the economies of the States in a drastic reduction of productive capacity, in serious fiscal deficits, in a general reduction of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is causing an increase in the foreign debt, a rise in dismissals and unemployment, the growth of underemployment and of the informal sector. It is causing serious cutbacks in public spending and social security, and a furious onslaught against the political, economic, social and cultural gains. Although the crisis may show some fluctuations and signs of recovery, it has not yet touched bottom, it continues to sharpen and its social, economic and political effects affect the life of the countries and the conditions of the working classes, the peoples and youth of the continent.

For several years there has been a significant rise in the struggle of the masses. The popular movements are reviving, broadening and becoming increasingly politicized. The struggle in defense of sovereignty, against imperialism, for the defense of natural resources, against looting and indiscriminate exploitation is revitalizing the social movements. The confrontation against repression, the violation of human rights, the criminalization of the social struggles, the militarization and paramilitarism, coups d’état, the struggle for democracy and civil liberties are part of the action of the working masses and youth; the trade union movement is valiantly fighting against dismissals, for the right to work, for wage increases, in defense of the right to strike and collective bargaining, for the right to democratic unionization, for social security and decent pensions. The peasants are conducting vigorous struggles for land and their rights in all countries; the indigenous peoples are standing up, defending their rights and joining in the struggle for social change; the working women and ecologists are joining their actions in the process of emancipation of the workers and peoples.

The rise of the struggle of the masses is coming together with the failure and exhaustion of neoliberal policies, with the sharpening of the contradictions among the bourgeoisie and among the imperialists, creating new scenarios and conditions that are favorable to the development of class combats of the working masses, of the peoples and youth, for the work of the left-wing and revolutionary organizations and parties.

The demands of the struggle of the masses do not have only had the stamp of defense of their gains, but they have developed a content for change. This aspiration is deepening and is being projected into the electoral political struggle, expressed in the vote for the parties and organizations that propose change, for the proposals of the left, helping to elect democratic and progressive governments, some of which are holding high positions in defense of sovereignty, of the rights of the peoples and are fighting against imperialist domination and the attacks of internal reaction, such as in Venezuela and Bolivia. On the other hand, the pressure of imperialism and reaction is causing several of those governments to fall into reformist and developmental policies, of conciliation with imperialism and the oligarchies; they are moving to the right, and consequently are confronting and repressing the trade union movement, the social organizations, the indigenous peoples, the left-wing organizations and revolutionary forces, as is happening in Ecuador with the Correa government.

This social and political process, the development of the struggle of the masses, the involvement of significant sectors of the middle strata and classes, is coming together in the formation and development of a Tendency for Patriotic, Progressive and Left-Wing Change that is influencing the social and political life of all countries, to varying degrees and levels.

This Tendency is expressed in the development of the anti-imperialist consciousness of the workers and peoples, in the decision to fight for the government, for social change. Within this Tendency the revolutionary ideas, the decision to fight for the overthrow of imperialism, the destruction of capitalism and the building of socialism are expressed vigorously and in development; in this task our Marxist-Leninist parties, together with other revolutionary organizations, are fulfilling our responsibilities.

In this new scenario, the development of the social struggle, the affirmation and growth of proletarian revolutionary positions, of the Marxist-Leninist forces, are faced with the responsibility of unmasking and fighting against all sorts of theses and proposals of a reformist and diversionist character within the workers and popular movement. Some of them are exhibited by the governments; in particular, we must pay attention to the so-called "citizen’s revolution,” "Bolivarian revolution," the preaching of peaceful revolution, of the revolution by the "vote,” of "21st century socialism." These circumstances place on the agenda the ideological and political struggle between revolution and reformism.

The development of the Tendency for Change is changing the relationship of forces in Latin America, it has led to the existence of several democratic and progressive governments at the same time that, as a response of imperialism and reaction, it is building openly pro-imperialist governments such as those of Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

The momentum of the struggle of the workers and peoples, the consistent positions of several governments and the willingness of others to renegotiate dependency are giving rise to the emergence of anti-U.S. political initiatives at the level of countries and governments, such as ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance the Americas), the organization of Latin American and Caribbean States, excluding the U.S. and Canada. There is also the formation of UNASUR (Union of Nations of South America), the establishment of the Bank of the South, and a virtual currency, the Sucre, as a means of payment for trade between member countries. We proletarian revolutionaries support these initiatives, as part of the confrontation with the imperialist policies of the U.S., while we warn of their limits and we work to assert the anti-imperialist consciousness of the peoples in their struggle for social and national liberation.

We Marxist-Leninists take into account the development of the social and political struggle, their advances and achievements, we are present in all arenas; we fully support the various progressive and patriotic measures while we warn of the illusions that they can arouse among the masses. We insist that real change will come about as a result of the overthrow of imperialism, of the burial of capitalism by means of the organization of the social revolution, of the seizure of power by the revolutionary road and with the building of socialism.

To organize the revolution we must lead the working class and peoples in the struggle against the crisis and its effects. We insist that the definitive solution of the crisis, for the benefit of the workers, will only happen with the revolution and socialism. Any other alternative only means palliatives, proposals for the recomposition of capitalism. This statement in no way means to stand idly by in dealing with the effects of the crisis on the working masses. It demands that we stand up, at the forefront of the struggle of the working class, of all those exploited and oppressed by capital and imperialism to struggle against dismissals, for the rise in wages, for non-payment of the foreign debt, against the sell-out policy of the governments, for the building of a revolutionary confluence with the working class at the head, involving the peasantry, the poor, the indigenous peoples and the youth; for the affirmation of the ideas of change, for the ideals of the revolution and socialism

Let the rich, the ones responsible, pay for the crisis!

To the crisis, the only solution is revolution!

Workers of the world, unite!!

Latin America and Caribbean Regional of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations

Revolutionary Communist Party of Brazil, Communist Party of Colombia (Marxist-Leninist), Communist Party of Labor of the Dominican Republic, Marxist Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, Communist Party of Mexico (Marxist-Leninist), Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Venezuela

July 2010

Read More »

Photos from our action outside the French Embassy in Athens

Read More »

Media photos from today’s action outside the French Embassy in Athens

Today, Tuesday 10 August, the MOVEMENT for the REORGANISATION of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-55 demostrated outside the French Embassy in Athens against the Sarkozy policy of discrimination, fascization and French government’s actions against the Roma.

During the action a leaflet in Greek was distributed together with  a translated communique of the Worker’s Communist Party of France (PCOF).

Here are some photos (faces hidden) taken by the Greek mass media:

Read More »

CALL: ALL AT THE PROTEST GATHERING, OUTSIDE THE FRENCH EMBASSY TUESDAY, 10TH AUGUST, 7AM THE POLICY OF DISCRIMINATION, FASCISTIZATION, "CLEANSINGS" WILL NOT PASS

 

ALL AT THE PROTEST GATHERING, OUTSIDE THE FRENCH EMBASSY IN ATHENS
TUESDAY, 10TH AUGUST, 7AM
THE POLICY OF DISCRIMINATION, FASCISTIZATION, "CLEANSINGS" WILL NOT PASS

Read More »

The monstrosity of the abolition of the last social security rights “passed”

Article from newspaper “Anasintaxi” issue 325-326, 1-31 July 2010, pp. 1-2

The working class, against workers’ patrons of every kind, has to answer decisively: without a united, massive, militant trade union movement in workplaces, without first-degree trade unions in firms, without the common struggle of the workers, the unemployed, and the immigrant workers, the absolute abjection cannot be confronted.

On 8^th July whatever was left from the so-called “social security” was wiped out. It is a joke, to say the least, to speak of whether the bill was exactly in accordance to the “memorandum” and the demands of the triple occupation of Commission-ECB-IMF, or surpassed them. What is certain is that the essentially semi-colonial position that the country is in after its financial bankruptcy enables imperialists and their underlings to abolish even the most basic rights, which had been established through struggles, since it is the working class and the city and village poor that have been continually paying the destructive policy of those who, by stealing them continually and for years, are now burdening them with all the consequences of their crimes and looting.

The question is different: How this issue, which the capitalists had not been able to finish off completely all these years, despite multiple attempts, now passed with just a few “shots in the air?” How do a heavily hit working class and the numerous poor popular layers seem unable to express their anger in action and resist, turning despair into a force of punishment, and giving an answer to the robbers of their pains. How does another bill that leads to poverty and absolute abjection passes, without the whole country trembling from the workers’ militant reaction. Is it because of the heat? Of the fatigue because of demonstrations? Of the absence of transportation means? No more alibis…

Apart from the worker patrons of all kinds’ line of class collaboration, which prevented the workers from resisting to the great annihilating storm, there is also the absence (intense weakening) of the trade union movement, the fact that every worker, immigrant or local, unemployed, or half-employed, IS ALONE, without the inter-feeding of struggle to partial struggles giving strength and making I into WE. The fact that not only the “class unions.” but trade unions in general, are absent, and moreover the Khruschevite quasi-left (“K”KE), with its disruptive tactic makes the trade unions’ mess even more comfortable for the bosses, helps capitalists by hiding reality in the passing of all anti-worker measures, while it fails to articulate a discourse that will make workers realize the position they are in, perceive the priorities, fight in the context of concrete and elaborated political goals, so that the theories of “only-ways” are written off and the required in today’s condition militant OPTIMISM that takes and takes again people out in the streets more and more massively emerges.

This specific statute that was passed, surpassed all previous monstrosities: Giannitsis’s bill, Sprau Committee’s reports, Sioufas’s and Petralias’s bill, and so on. It enacted the pension right at 65 years of age with 40 years of work (with ridiculous regulations of mutual fulfillemt of the two unnatural limits and even more ridiculous transitional clauses), for both men and women, anticipating that the age limit might rise in the future due to the increase of life expectancy (!). All these in a country, which, according to its specific structure, those that are hit are not only the veteran toilers, who are not allowed to rest after their productive contribution, even for a few years. The working future of the youth is also hit, with the unemployment levels at 30%-35%, since this will render impossible their entry in the labour market, in conditions of extended recession. And of course, women are hit, who faced for years an “embargo” in relation to their entry in production, and today are paid 20% less for equal labour, and of course there is no provisional policy for aid concerning the bringing up of children and work at home. In order for the age and work limits to be secured, heavy penalties for reducing the pension wages at 6% each year, in the case of “early retirement,” are established.

Pensions, after the new measures of imposing taxation (LAFKA) on them at 3-9% when they are surpassing the “luxury limit” of 1400 euros (!), and after the 13^th and 14^th pension has already been abolished, have already suffered a decrease reaching 30%. With the imposition of the new mode of calculating pension (multiplying pension wages with a compensation percentage of 1.2%), the worker will merit 48% of the pensioned wage (40 years of work X 1.2%), having a decrease the class of 40% at least, since the overall work life will be calculated through the average salary during the complete work life duration (whereas until today it was calculated according to the last 5 years of work life). It is understood that due to the inflation, this average will be constantly adjusted. But even these pensions cease to be fully guaranteed – as it is constitutionally defined – by the state. A shameful allowance of 360 euros is defined as “basic pension,” when no readjustment rate is provide for it, and it remains as just that, a guaranteed pension, while in reality it will be given according to criteria of income. All subsidiary pensions, and whatever is mentioned as “compensative pension,” cease to be guaranteed (because of the “deficits” of the robbed security funds), and therefore, in the name of a real or by pretext financial circumstance, the workers’ money is in the air and it might not be given to them. Let capitalists and their political servants answer here: When for decades they placed the security funds’ reserves as investments to the Bank of Greece with a rate of interest at 1% and an overwhelming inflation (so that they return as free money back to the capitalists), when the same reserves were being gambled, in order for lootings to take place, in the stock market and structured bonds, had the state – which then guaranteed the pensions fully – ever compensated the insured workers?

The already essentially cut “hazardous” occupations are cut down conclusively at 10% of all professions, since a committee, which will define them unilaterally and irreversibly, is appointed from a zero basis. And we are talking about an abolition of the very few occupations that were left, when nurses are still not included, when workers at cleaning services at Organizations of Local Self-Government entered the list only 3 years ago after strikes of decades. As a result, at least 5-8 years of labour will be added in a great number of occupations that have significant grind and high danger.

The treatment of disabled insured people is being intensified, rather than being humanized. With the pretext of the “tweedlers” that bourgeois parties have been giving and will continue to give to the disabled, on the one hand all – even the obviously disabled from the beginning – are being submitted to re-examination through a central body, intensifying the disgrace of forcing people on wheelchair to be examined each year, to see if they “have been healed.” Furthermore, it is stated barefacedly that the criteria will be stricter, replacing medical conclusions with financial directives, and giving the signal: generally less pensions for the disabled.

In a racist crescendo against immigrant workers, instead of establishing the state’s obligation to grant them, when it is needed, a lawyer and translator to fight back the bureaucracy of pension-giving, a prerequisite of pension-receiving is set with the conditions of staying in Greece for 35 years, regardless of their age upon arriving to Greece and their age when they were registered in the social security bureau. There is no need to mention more about the meaning of this regulation.

We also choose not to mention other partial issues concerning the attack on widows’ pensions, the pensions of parents of heavily disabled children, for the list is endless. It is only worth mentioning that regarding the capitalists’ contribution evasion, the statute does not mention anything specific with a program and with a requirement of regulating the data that first and foremost torpedoed the social security system against the workers. It is a hoax as to how the only specific thing mentioned is the imposed of a pseudo-contribution on the part of civilians employing workers at domestic occupations (servants, gardeners, etc., as it is mentioned).

The specific security monstrosity “was passed earlier,” as the government-servant of the troika is boasting about. It was passed at the same time when the respective bill concerning labour has not been submitted, and yet is being implemented for months now, and with the de facto abolition of collective bargaining, as this was ratified with the “collective agreement” signed by the workers’ patrons and sellouts of GSEE, in an essentially full acceptance of all demands of the capitalists. The “class” paternalistic PAME condemned them in a verbalistic fashion, but only with words and until that point. PAME was reminded by the similar departmental work agreements it is signing when it controls Federations, the anti-worker policy the Khruschevite follows in “party businesses,” invoking the collective agreements in the work departments they belong to. And all workers’ patrons quiesced guiltily.

Movement for the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece (1918-55)

Read More »