Greetings to the first legal Congress of PCOT from the Political Committee of the Movement for the Reorganization of KKE 1918-1955

Dear comrades,

thank you for the invitation but we won't be able to participate for financial reasons. We are sending you a short greeting to your Congress:

To the CC of the Communist Workers’ Party of Tunisia

Dear Comrades,

The Greek communists send their warm greetings to your Congress along with their revolutionary solidarity salutes to the struggle of PCOT.

Your Congress is summoned and commences its proceedings in a very critical and complicated period for the fate and the further advance of the revolutionary process in your country.

The Tunisian popular revolt, the most advanced one in the Arab countries, succeeded in overthrowing the fascist Ben-Ali regime which was, together with the rest of the reactionary forces, a buttress of the imperialist powers in your country.

The storm of the unprecedented massive popular revolts – each one with its own particularities – that shook and continue to shake all the Arab countries (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen), shattered the reactionary, oppressive regimes causing alarm to their imperialist patrons all over the world.

These popular revolts, irrespective of how much they will progress, have objectively an antifascist and anti-imperialist character, a fact that deeply worries the great imperialist powers about the future of their neo-colonial domination in these countries and the entire region.

The massive revolts managed to assume massive proportions because they escaped the control of the bourgeois and reformist parties and they have historical significance not only for the people in every country involved but for the entire region. They are also important for the struggle of the European proletariat and the European peoples because they demonstrated how strong and irresistible the power of a people can be, when the struggle attains the necessary massiveness, despite the absence of revolutionary Communist Parties.

These revolts constitute one of the most important, if not the most important, events in the 21^st century and it will be recorded as such in the history of class struggle of the peoples against fascism and imperialism and the struggle for the liberation of various countries from the imperialist bondage

We wish success to your Congress proceedings.

Long live the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations!

Long live Marxism-Leninism and international proletarian solidarity!

The Political Committee of the Movement for the Reorganization of KKE 1918-1955

July 2011

Greetings to the first legal Congress of PCOT from APK, Denmark

Workers' Communist Party of Denmark, july 2011

Dear delegates, dear comrades
On behalf of the Workers’ Communist Party of Denmark and on behalf of the Danish working class and youth we heartily greet the first congress of PCOT held in legality after the ouster of the social fascist clique of Ben Ali and consorts.
We are happy to be able to celebrate together with you this historic event for the Tunisian workers, the youth and the entire people. This is indeed a Party Congress not only of great national importance, but also of significance to the whole progressive and revolutionary global community, to the international working class and the international Marxist-Leninist communist movement.
Today Tunisia has become synonymous with its glorious revolutionary people;  it is known as the cradle of the Arabic uprisings that has begun to shake the present world order of exploitation, suppression and war.
The Tunisian people with its heroic youth and workers dared defeat a long term and seemingly stable autocratic and dictatorial regime. Even if that regime enjoyed the support of the strongest and most reactionary forces of the world, including US imperialism and the imperialist United Europe of the monopolies.
We should not forget either, that Ben Ali and his despicable Party were also members of the counterrevolutionary reformist Socialist International that hailed them as a progressive Arab figure and force.
The Tunisian people persisted and did not bend to neither the violence and terror of the regime nor to the false promises of reform from Ben Ali and his successors. It did nor listen to the sugarcoated talk of ‘democracy’ and ‘aid’ from the imperialist countries, that strongly supported Ben Ali and his clique. It persisted in the demand that Ben Ali and his party should leave the Tunesian scene completely, its institutions and organizational structures be abolished and those guilty of grave crimes against the people should be punished.
We know that you, the comrades of PCOT fighting in illegality, being the permanent target of the forces of repression, played a great role in pointing out the direction of  the revolutionary struggle and in mobilizing and uniting the people around the basic demands of the revolution at different stages in the struggle.
We rejoice in the fact that it is a genuine Marxist-Leninist party, a member Party of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and organizations that played this leading role in the struggle.
This fact is no coincidence. Only a revolutionary Party, guided by the immortal principles of Marxism-Leninism, experienced in different forms of struggle, possessing the richness of the revolutionary experience of the international working class, will be able to assume the leading role in the revolution, pushing it further forward towards its historic objectives.
No matter what difficulties and twists the Tunisian revolution has encountered and will encounter a merit of world wide significance belongs to the revolutionary people, its communist Party and all progressive forces and organizations. This is the merit of bringing to the fore the question of revolution as the vehicle of any real change. It has destroyed the agenda of the imperialist New World Order that with US imperialism at the head has shaped a world of increased mass poverty and permanent wars. It has destroyed the reformist, revisionist and religious agendas, that always end in betrayal and compromise.
The revolution is once more on the global agenda. It is a question taken up for solution. The revolution – be it democratic, anti-fascist, anti-imperialist or socialist – is the aspiration and the only possible road of the peoples, the working class and its revolutionary parties. Defeating the forces of imperialism and reaction is the primary condition for any real change. No demagogue in The White House, no populist leader or party can create this change. It is only the revolutionary people, the heroism of the mass struggles, led by the Party of the revolutionary workers that can create a better future and a more just world.
Imperialism and global reaction has been frightened by the spectre of revolution that has insisted on reappearing though they have buried it many times over. They have hastened to try to distort, strangle and lead the revolution astray. They will try to install obedient regimes, distorting the just demands of the Arab peoples against their reactionary rulers, and even launch aggressive wars to that end as has happened in neighboring Libya. No progressive regime can be born from the NATO missiles. They will try to make you suffocate in the great burden of debt. That is why we demand the annulment of the debt of Tunisia to international finance capital.
Our Party will do what it can to learn from, support and defend the Tunisien revolution. For many years of your forced illegality we have campaigned for the release of the political prisoners of the Ben Ali regime and against the persecution of Comrade Hamma Hammami and many other comrades.
Now we wish, dear Comrades, that your efforts to develop the program and the new tasks of the Tunisian revolution from this Congress will be crowned with complete success, adding new victories to those already achieved.
The entire progressive world will listen to the revolutionary signals from this historic Congress.

Hail the Congress of PCOT!
Long live the glorious Tunisian revolution and its heroic youth, workers and people!
Long live proletarian internationalism!
Long live the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations!
Glory to Marxism-Leninism!

Arbejderpartiet Kommunisterne

Fascist massacre in Norway

by M-L Organisation Revolusjon, member of the ICMLPO

Updated: 26.7.2011

The fascist onslaught in Norway has killed some 80-100 people, targeting the political activism and organization among progressive and democratic youth in particular.

Norway was on July 22nd 2011 site of the worst terrorist attack in the Nordic countries since the Second World War, perhaps the most systematic slaughter of young people ever in recent history.

A unified response. At least 150.000 people brought flowers and took to the streets in Oslo on 26 July. Similar rallies were held all over the country.

The death toll is so far estimated at around 80 people, out of which 68 are mainly youth who attended the summer camp of AUF (The youth organization of the Social Democratic Labour party).

Now we know that it was not fanatical Islamists, but the blonde, conservative westside boy, business founder, freemasoner and former Progress Party member Anders Behring Breivik (32) who was responsible for the bomb in Oslo and the massacre of 85 young AUF-ers on Utøya. A crime he has now confessed to have committed.

Even if it turns out that he has carried out the misdeed by himself or only with a few aides, Anders Behring Breivik is not an isolated and random vermin. This crime has been carefully planned for a long period of time, and neither the ideas nor the methods have been invented by Behring Brevik himself. His inspiration has evidently come from a series of bloody attacks carried out by the Christian-fascist terrorist groups in the United States, actions directed at federal buildings, abortion clinics, and school massacres carried out by individuals.

Islamophobia and fascism

More and more evidence supports the fact that he has been part of an extremely reactionary and islamophobic milieu who use the internet in general and a Norwegian web site, document.no, in particular as their main breeding grounds. Through sites of this type they have spread their hatred and incited one another, besides actively using discussion forums in the "serious" online media. Breivik, although he poses as anti-Nazi and pro-Zionist, is also reported to have been a bouncer for Nazi organizations and linked to the fascist EDP; English/European Defence League.

Apart from a savage racist hatred towards Muslims and all "Marxist-humanists" who defend immigrants and refugees, this environment has constructed a conspiratorial conception of the official ”political correctness” of Norway, represented by the country's political government, which supposedly acts as a compact majority in relation to the "national" and "patriotic" hate statements of Breivik and his likes.

Regarding the fact that the summer camp at Utøya (an island some 50 km off Oslo) was the main target, it is fairly obvious that this is related to the distinct anti-racist profile of the AUF [the largest and most influential political youth organization in Norway – translator’s note], alongside with the AUFs close ties to the political center of power.

A Templar against Islam and Marxism

Breivik has recently published his detailed plans on the web, according to (the daily newspaper) Dagbladet and TV2. Freemasoner member Breivik regards himself as a Templar Knight and crusader who is spearheading the struggle against Marxism and Islamism. Nevertheless -- or precisely for that reason? -- Breivik has never been on the radar of the police intelligence agency PST, which for years has been so tightly focused on the Islamist groups in Norway that the simmering racist networks have been more or less ignored. Police and military terror experts present the islamophobes as "something quite different" than the violent Nazi groups, claiming that the distance between Breivik hateful statements and actions he has committed was so great that there was no need to suspect him. That is an explanation that has little bearing, especially as everyone with minimal knowledge of these reactionary communities know that part of the Nazi community have restyled their appearance in order to make themselves more pallatable; they are even willing to "distance" themselves from Nazi ideology if deemed necessary in order to cooperate with or infiltrate other so-called "national" groups.

Although Breivik's views are on the most extreme side, it is also a sad fact that Norwegian "patriotism" and hateful statements about Muslims commonly are spewed out also amongst ”main street Norwegians", especially when in party mood after a number of pints. We should not cover up the fact that there exists a strong undercurrent of racist and xenophobic attitudes that systematically are amplified and inspired by the media and politicians from most parties. This has been the reality every day since the "war on terror" began in 2001. The pretty words of "inclusion" and "tolerance" are of little help when the reality shoes that particularly refugees, but also well-established immigrants, are encountered by the police and authorities by means of criminalization and harassment. For a number of refugees the ”tolerance” is experienced in form of forced displacement and expelment from the country, frequently in violation of UN humanitarian principles.

The attitudes of the Norwegian society is built more on what the political elite and its bureaucracy actually does in practice, than by what they say in their speeches and their formal addresses.

The massacre should be an awakening

Non-European immigrants and refugees in Norway can now breathe easier. During the afternoon of July 22nd, in the first hours after the explosion near the Government complex, but before the shooting on Utøya became publically known, an ominous atmosphere was mounting. In the media's editorial boards, the conclusion was already on the desk, but not yet printed, that this was a terrorist act committed by extreme Islamists. The spin-doctors of the Progress party (Fremskrittspartiet) were polishing their media strategy for how to sledgehammer asylum seekers and Muslims in general, and thus reverse their declining opinion polls. Hate messages directed against Muslims flourished in thousands on Twitter and Facebook throughout the afternoon this fateful Friday. We hope that these ”twitterers” are strangled by their own false words and are vomiting in shame of themselves.

Considering the fact that this unimaginable tragedy actually has happened, it is, after all, better that the misdeed was committed by a Christian, Norwegian fascist and racist rather than that some insane jihadists were the culprits. This might be an awakening call for ordinary people, a backlash for prejudice and everyday racism, and perhaps it can also provide the basis for a political pressure to finally ban these fascist groups and communities who camouflage their criminal racism as a "national ideology".

If racism and nazism are not crushed wherever they show their ugly face, the ground will continue to be fertilized for political fascist Templar Knights and mass murderers of Behring Breivik's caliber.

---

Revolusjon has in another article, and in a letter of condolance, expressed our sympathy with the AUF and the families who have lost so many of their young and loved ones. Today we stand beside AUF also because this is a direct attack on all political youth organizations, on all anti-racists and anti-fascists, on all young people who engage themselves politically and utilize their democratic rights and liberties to discuss and express themselves.

Final Declaration of 15th International Seminarium “Problems of revolution in Latin América”

The world still quivering as result of the economic crisis of the capitalist system that broke out just over three years within American imperialism, manifestations and effects spread rapidly, first to the more developed economies and, then, to the entire planet. Small and short demonstrations of partial recovery, enhanced by financial groups and economists defenders of the system as evidence of the crisis came to an end, did not do more than confirm the cyclical nature of them, within the framework of the general crisis of capitalism.

Measures tested by Governments and international agencies to overcome the problems have resulted in their intensification. Effect of the logic of the operation of capitalism the working classes, youth and people in general become major victims of the crisis, but they do not face it with resignation: they resist, fight, and flying the proposals marked with the requirement that the crisis pay her the capitalists who are responsible for and not workers in key sectors.

Today highlights that in several parts of the world to fight for wages, employment, education, health, have joined the banners of democracy, freedom and political rights. We live a period of rise of the struggle of the masses and its stream has shot down regimes authoritarian and dictatorial as Ben Ali (Tunisia) and Hozni Mubarak (Egypt) and kept in check to others. The questioning of bourgeois institutions is present in these struggles, the demands of the "indignant" of Spain, in strikes by workers in England, or Greece in the mobilization of youth in America, among other cases. It is obvious political expressions of the crisis to take precedence.

Latin American States and qualifies in more advanced sectors the democratic, progressive and left-wing tendency. Time back we see that the region was a change in the political and social forces correlation: the neo-liberal bourgeoisie and its parties suffered político-electorales defeats in several countries and lost spaces in the administrative apparatus of the State; some progressive Governments as a result of the search for change by our peoples from the fighting against Governments openly given to foreign capital and the interests of the native ruling classes emerged.

No doubt this new Latin American scenario marked a positive step for the people, democratic, progressive forces and left-wing because it fueled the desire to change existing among the masses, affirmed its confidence in the ability to overcome a system that has only brought hunger and hopelessness for the workers and peoples. Transcendent aspect, the new time set on the table for discussion the prospect of socialism as an alternative to the decadent capitalist system.

However, over the years, we have seen the political boundaries that affect those Governments. Some faster than others initiated turns right betraying the expectations of the beginning of new times for those who have always lived in oppression. Free trade agreements with countries or imperialist blocs, neo-liberal laws of cutting anti popular, processes of criminalization of social protest, delivery of natural resources to foreign capital, Ridge economic measures have been signed by almost all those Governments that offered change.

Regimes that encouraged the prospect of implementing profound economic, political and social changes, and therefore opened spaces for the leftist organizations forward in the process of accumulation of revolutionary forces, most have been altered in ditches for the advancement of the struggle of the masses, the perspective of the revolution and socialism, are, as, Governments which underpin the same capitalist system.

The travel to rigth operated in most of those Governments, in spite of expectations by the dominant classes and imperialism, has not led to the discouragement or frustration among the peoples. The yearning for change is still present, manifests itself in protest against unemployment, by education, by land, by water, against taxes, by democracy, because it will listen to your voice when making decisions in the areas of Government.

The prospect of the triumph of the revolution and socialism is maintained, does not depend on what do opportunism, reformism or any leftist bourgeois pseudo faction; It is in the hands of the workers and peoples, the truly revolutionary forces. For the triumph of the revolution, it is essential to use and combine all forms of struggle, according to the features present in each of the countries.

Now, in order to put an end to the contradiction that mark the nature of the era in which we live, the contradiction itself, we can not ignore the fight against the policy of social democracy in power is running in the name of social change but for the benefit of the ruling classes and the imperialist financial capital.

For the advancement of the revolutionary struggle is essential to move away from the nefarious bourgeois ideological influence in its different expressions to the workers ' movement, the youth, of women, the movement in general; in that purpose we must combine the momentum of the fight of the masses by its physical demands and political rights with the ideological debate to expose the functional character capitalism embody these proposals. The unmasking to opportunism, social democracy is part of the ideological struggle that revolutionaries got up against capitalism and their supporters in general.

Organizations of revolutionary left are the most advanced trend democratic, progressive and left-wing sector, it is their responsibility to work to ensure that set the trend and people in general to see and understand the political boundaries that have progressive Governments and the nature of neo-liberal nature and over all, to ensure that they take the flags and the program of a revolution that would lead to socialism.

The policy of unity with the sectors and forces involved in the defence of the aspirations and rights of workers and peoples and to defend the sovereign interests of the country is essential in this walk.

Plus other thing, the unit must exceed national borders, thus being the revolution a process which should materialize in each of the countries by their essence is an international movement. The work to set up a Grand anti-imperialist front of peoples, which is expressed in struggles and specific actions, is our commitment. The active solidarity with all those peoples who are fighting for social and national liberation and independence is part of our work. Today we express our support for the struggle of the Palestinian people against the criminal Israeli Zionism to the village of Puerto Rico in their struggle for independence, reject the established imperialist blockade for five decades against Cuba and the presence of troops of occupation in Haiti, we condemn all acts of aggression and military intervention led by the imperialist powers against the peoples.

With collective effort we have arrived at the 15th International Seminar who, year after year, has done a follow-up of the core problems that circumstances impose revolutionary organizations. We rescue the validity of such events to summarize and share experiences, that is why we commit ourselves to give continuity to this work and to disseminate the agreements and resolutions made on this occasion. We call for a similar event next year.

15Th seminar international problems of the revolution in Latin America

Quito, july 15th of 2011

Comunist Revolucionary party of Argentina

Revolutionary Marxist- Leninist party (Argentina)

Women Movement Olga Benario (Brasil)

Comunist Revolutionary party (Brasil)

Minga Sur Palmira – Polo Democrático Alternativo (Colombia)

Comunist party of Colombia (marxist-leninist)

Comunista party of España (marxist leninist)

National Democratic Front (Filipinas)

Comunist Party of México (marxist leninist)

Revolucionary popular front (México)

Coordinator Caribean and Latinoamerican (Puerto Rico)

Comunist party of work of República Dominicana

Caribe youth (República Dominicana)

Universitary revolutionary Socialist front (Venezuela)

Woman movement Ana Soto (Venezuela)

Movement of Education for emancipation (Venezuela)

Gayones Movement (Venezuela)

Marxist Leninist Comunist party of Venezuela

Comunist party (bolchevique) Rusia

Revolutionary youth of Ecuador

Ecuadorian Confederation of woman for the change

Popular Democratic Movement (Ecuador)

Marxist Leninist Comunist Party of Ecuador

Toufan: The worker-activists must be released immediately and unconditionally from the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran !

To : The International Conference of the Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations, labour-activists, progressive organisations, and freedom loving people of the world

The worker-activists must be released immediately and unconditionally from the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran !

Dear comrades,

The criminal regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran has recently intensified the repression of the labourers and worker-activists. In the past few months, many labour-activists have been detained, imprisoned, and tortured by the security forces of the Islamic Republic.

Shahrokh Zamani, a house-painter and decorator has been in detention since June 7, 2011. He was arrested while traveling from the city of Tabriz to the Capital Tehran by a public bus. Shahrokh was involved in establishing the independent trade union “Painters’ Syndicate” and he is a member of the “Committee to Form Independent Worker Syndicates”. Shahrokh Zamani was kept in solitary confinement for more than a month. He went on hunger strike for a week to protest his detention and mistreatment. The regime of the Islamic Republic has transferred him to Tabriz prison. No official warrant for the arrest of Shahrokh was issued and no charges are filed against him.

The capitalist regime of the Islamic Republic is fearful of the formation of independent worker-organisations and of the unity of the workers with other sections of the society. The Islamic regime sees its end by the united and nation-wide strikes and protests of the labourers and is trying to suffocate any attempt to build independent and democratic workers' organisations. Following this policy, the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran has harassed, tortured and imprisoned Mansour Ossalou, Ali Nejati, Ebrahim Madadi, Torabian, and other prominent trade union activists for several years. Shahrokh Zamani, together with his comrades, Mohammad Jarrahi and Seyed (both are labour activists), and two university students Nima Pourhemmat and Sassan Vahhabi are the latest known victims of this criminal policy.

Our Party believes that repression of the workers and toilers by the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran also serves the interests of imperialism and the world reaction. We strongly condemn the repressive actions of the Iranian regime.

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) supports the just struggles of the labour-activists for a better working condition and we praise their attempts to form independent trade unions. We call on all fraternal Parties and the Marxist-Leninist Organisations, all worker-activists, and all progressive minded individuals of the world to express solidarity with the struggles of the Iranian worker-activists. The people of the world should be outraged over the imprisonment and treatment of the Iranian masses and labour activists and to demand the regime of Islamic Republic to free all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally. Only the intensification of the just struggle of the Iranian labourers and of the genuine international support for masses can force the Islamic regime to retreat and to stop the repression of the Iranian people.

Release Shahrokh Zamani and other worker-activists immediately and unconditionally!

Long live the struggles of the Iranian working class!

Down with the capitalist regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran!

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)

July 16, 2011

www.Toufan.org

Toufan@toufan.org

Interview to Revolusjon! - We owe nothing and we will not pay!

Original link: - We owe nothing and we will not pay!

INTERVIEW

Greece is at boiling point. People are furious. The economic crisis has turned into a political crisis for the social democrat prime minister Papandreou and the bourgeois political institutions. The weeks ahead are piled with crisis meetings and sessions, in the parliament and with the EU, in order to "cope with the crisis".

The bourgeois media are giving the impression that the greeks are lazy money-wasters and that the EU is in an awkward position having to consider whether or not to "allow" Greece to get even more indebted. In reality this debt has already been paid off by the Greek people, while on the other hand, Germany for example still has not paid war damage compensation to Greece …

Revolusjon has put some questions to a comrade from the Movement for the reconstruction of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE 1918–1955) in order to get a more precise understanding of the current situation in the country.

– More than half a million people took to the streets in Athens recently against the austerity measures of the government imposed by the EU and IMF. What are their main demands?

– The number of people who went out in the streets, reached half a million on June 15 and tenths of thousands have been on the streets and the squares for more than three weeks in Greece. The main demands can be summarised by the slogan: WE DO NOT OWE – WE DO NOT SELL – WE DO NOT PAY.

In a recent opinion poll 47.5 percent of respondents said they want parliament to reject the reform package. The vast majority of the demonstrators agrees with the debt write-off, that the the troika should go. Moreover, over the last days, more and more people question the country’s membership in the EU.

– There are many similarities to the protests in Spain, however it seems that in Greece the whole population is involved, not only the youth. Is this a correct observation?

– Yes, not only young people participate but, also, older ones who offer all kinds of help; from making photocopies to preparing food. They are trying to balance the enthusiasm of the younger ones and convey their own experience from the struggles of the Greek people, under the guidance of the Communist Party, in the ranks of the National Liberation Front during the Second World War, the Greek Democratic Army and, later, the United Democratic Left. However, it is the youth that is in the first line. Everybody wants the youth to lead and there is hope in them. The movement has a great potential to spread even more.

– Would you say that the situation has led to a radicalization within the trade union movement, or is it still being controlled by reformist and revisionist bureaucracy?

– The trade union movement is still under the control of social-democrats and reformists. But it is the first time that the local trade unions pressed the reformist leaderships to call a 48-hour strike – the first in decades – and joint rallies around the risen squares.

– The Greek public opinion used to be in favour of the Euro and the EU. Now this has changed. Do you believe it possible that Greece might leave the EU and reinstate the Drachma?

– From the middle of the last decade, due to constant price rises, the request to return back to the Drachma (the former Greek currency) was maturing. Now the request is supported by the majority of Greek citizens. Also, shortly before the outbreak of the demonstrations, polls showed that 27 per cent of the people questioned the abidance of Greece in the EU. Through these demonstrations and the discussions that have developed, this demand also is gaining momentum. Already in recent resolutions of the squares the EU is clearly disputed.

– In Greece you have a strong party posing as "communist", even "orthodox communist", the KKE. What role does this party play in the protests, and does it support withdrawal from the EU?

– This party immediately distanced itself from the protests. Not only did it not support them, but leading KKE cadres spoke with derogatory words about the movement; they said, for example, that it is not politically mature, that it does not pose a threat to the political system etc. KKE does not support withdrawal from the EU, even if sometimes they claim the opposite in foreign media, because it has totally accepted the strategic decision of the Greek capital to keep the country within this imperialist union. The KKE General Secretary, A. Papariga recently stated that: "A solution outside the Euro and return to the drachma in the present circumstances would be catastrophic” (Rizospastis 31/5/2011, p.6., can also be found here).

– How about the other leftist forces?

Only the Marxist-Leninists demand that Greece immediately must withdraw from the European Union.

– Most of the left forces do not seem to grasp the political importance of the developing popular movement. Some of them take an openly hostile attitude to it, others try to undermine it using various means and others don’t do anything essential to support it. No left political organisation agitates for the withdrawal of Greece from EU and Euro. There are forces such as SYN/SYRIZA sowing illusions about transforming EU into an institution that supports peoples’ interests. Others, like the Maoist revisionist parties relegate the question of the country’s withdrawal from the EU into the future. We are the only left political organization that has put forward the slogan “IMMEDIATE EXIT FROM EU-EMU-EURO”.

– Until 1974 Greece was a military NATO-dictatorship and the reactionary forces are still active. Do you see any danger coming from the right and the fascist elements?

– It is important to point out that, during the last decades, there has been a process of fascist transformation of the Greek society, promoted by the state through all possible means and tolerated, or even, supported by the bourgeois and revisionist parties. This process has made certain progress because of the absence of massive popular movements. It is impossible that the people demonstrating in the squares have not been affected. Significant parts of the population are influenced by racist views. In the beginning, some worried that fascist-racist views will prevail in the rallies. But the people’s meetings adopted the clear-cut position that the fascists and the racists do not have any place in the squares. Now and then, small groups of fascists make their appearance, but they are immediately excluded from the crowd. Anyway, it is quite difficult for them to gain any ground in the rallies because the Nazi-fascist party, the Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS), of the parliament has voted for the Memorandum which abolishes the country’s national sovereignty.

– Is there any way the working class and progressive forces elsewhere in Europe could support the current struggle of the working people of Greece?

– Yes. Initially, they must make clear that the demonstrations in Greece are against the anti-popular measures the government puts forward. In addition, they need to organise campaigns to inform the other peoples that the money given to Greece has been returned to their countries many times and that the terms and debt imposed on the country threaten its sovereignty and its prospects for economic development. Finally, all people have to realise that if the new measures pass and the loan treaty is not annulled, they will face a two-fold threat:

1. The fall of the living standards and the drop of the wages in Greece will definitely result in similar harsh austerity policies in their own countries.
2. There will be the legal precedent of the bankers abolishing national sovereignty that can be used to do the same in other countries.

A more detailed analysis of the Greek situation and the positions of the Marxist-Leninists can be found here.

Karl Marx: A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Preface, excerpt)

The first work which I undertook to dispel the doubts assailing me was a critical re-examination of the Hegelian philosophy of law; the introduction to this work being published in the _Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher_ issued in Paris in 1844. My inquiry led me to the conclusion that neither legal relations nor political forms could be comprehended whether by themselves or on the basis of a so-called general development of the human mind, but that on the contrary they originate in the material conditions of life, the totality of which Hegel, following the example of English and French thinkers of the eighteenth century, embraces within the term "civil society"; that the anatomy of this civil society, however, has to be sought in political economy. The study of this, which I began in Paris, I continued in Brussels, where I moved owing to an expulsion order issued by M. Guizot. The general conclusion at which I arrived and which, once reached, became the guiding principle of my studies can be summarised as follows. In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or -- this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms -- with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto.

From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure. In studying such transformations it is always necessary to distinguish between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic or philosophic -- in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out.

Just as one does not judge an individual by what he thinks about himself, so one cannot judge such a period of transformation by its consciousness, but, on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained from the contradictions of material life, from the conflict existing between the social forces of production and the relations of production. No social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed, and new superior relations of production never replace older ones before the material conditions for their existence have matured within the framework of the old society. Mankind thus inevitably sets itself only such tasks as it is able to solve, since closer examination will always show that the problem itself arises only when the material conditions for its solution are already present or at least in the course of formation. In broad outline, the Asiatic, ancient, feudal and modern bourgeois modes of production may be designated as epochs marking progress in the economic development of society. The bourgeois mode of production is the last antagonistic form of the social process of production -- antagonistic not in the sense of individual antagonism but of an antagonism that emanates from the individuals' social conditions of existence -- but the productive forces developing within bourgeois society create also the material conditions for a solution of this antagonism. The prehistory of human society accordingly closes with this social formation.

Published in Greek in Anasintaxi issue 134 15-31 May 2002, issue 181 1-15 May 2004, issue 249-250 1-31 July 2011

Anasintaxi, issue 349-350 (1-31/7/2011)

- The socialdemocratic parties “K”KE-SYN ask for elections – A political stance in the service of the interests of the big capital
- Ernesto Sabato – Fascist dictatorship of Videla and its defenders socialdemocrats of “K”KE
- Karl Marx: A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Preface)
-The second volume of Dimitris Vagias’ book is released
- Soviet Union – A capitalist state and an imperialist power (Radio Tirana 20/27.2.1976)
- Felix Dzerzhinsky (article from “Democrates” 20/7/1952 and photos)

On the revolt in Tunisia and in the other Arab countries

The storm of the unprecedented massive popular revolts – each one with its own particularities – that shook and continue to shake all the Arab countries (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen), shattered the reactionary, oppressive regimes causing alarm to their imperialist patrons all over the world.

These popular revolts, irrespective of how much they will progress, have objectively an antifascist and anti-imperialist character, a fact that deeply worries the great imperialist powers about the future of their neo-colonial domination in these countries and the entire region.

The massive revolts managed to assume massive proportions because they escaped the control of the bourgeois and reformist parties and they have historical significance not only for the people in every country involved but for the entire region. They are also important for the struggle of the European proletariat and the European peoples because they demonstrated how strong and irresistible the power of a people can be, when the struggle attains the necessary massiveness, despite the absence of revolutionary Communist Parties.

These revolts constitute one of the most important, if not the most important, events in the 21^st century and it will be recorded as such in the history of class struggle of the peoples against fascism and imperialism and the struggle for the liberation of various countries from the imperialist bondage.

Anasintaxi, issue 342 (15-31/3/2011)

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See also:

- SOLIDARITY WITH THE STRUGGLE OF THE ARAB PEOPLES! (ICMLPO)
-The Arab masses have had enough! (Jan R. Steinholt, Revolusjon)

Anasintaxi, issue 348 (15-30/6/2011)

-The "Midterm Agreement" and the "implementation" law were voted under the big pressure of the EU imperialists
-Aris Seirinidis was found innocent. An important popular victory in a period of class struggle sharpening
-Meeting of DSE guerillas in Naousa (July 26, 2011)
-Let us prepare for the sharpening of the class struggle
-Turkey We will not go to the Parliament
-The leaders of "K"KE and "C"P Iraq

Anasintaxi, issue 347 (1-15/6/2011)

 

- On the June 15 strike
- Regional European meeting of the International Conference of Marxist Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO)
- SOLIDARITY WITH THE STRUGGLE OF THE ARAB PEOPLES!
- Nuclear power and capitalism are a lethal combination!
- Labour, Democracy and Freedom Block gained a victory at general elections
- May 9
- On a provocateur and agent of the class enemy

Amnesty International: Tear gas fired as Greek police clash with Athens protesters

29 June 2011

Greek riot police must not use excessive force in their handling of violence during protests in Athens, Amnesty International said today amid reports protesters were hospitalized as police fired massive amounts of tear gas.
The clashes came amid two days of protest in Syntagma square against an unpopular austerity bill, approved by the Greek Parliament today.
“The largely peaceful demonstrations of the past two days have been marred again by a minority of rioters clashing with the police,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia.
“Police have a duty to stop the violence and arrest those responsible, but they must ensure the use of force is proportionate and directed only at violent demonstrators. They must not curtail the legitimate right of the vast majority of peaceful demonstrators to gather and protest in Syntagma square.”
Trade Unions yesterday declared a 48-hour general strike in Greece to oppose government plans to introduce new austerity measures. Syntagma square in Athens, opposite the Parliament, has been the rallying point for thousands of demonstrators during the strike.
The Greek movement of “the indignant” (indignados) have also peacefully occupied the square for several weeks.
Video footage and witness testimony points to the repeated use of excessive force by police in recent demonstrations, including the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of tear gas and other chemicals against largely peaceful protesters.
Amnesty International representatives present in Syntagma square have witnessed incidents of peaceful protesters being beaten by police officers.
Clouds of tear gas around the square today forced a large number of demonstrators to retreat inside Syntagma square’s metro station and nearby streets, where they continued their protest.
Many protesters have reportedly been hospitalized with breathing problems caused by inhaling the tear gas and a number of protesters and riot police officers have been injured

Amnesty International

Riot policemen throwing rocks against demonstrators during (Athens, 29 June 2011)