Allow the free repatriation of the Slav-Macedonian political refugees and their families

The social-democratic leadership of “K”KE: militant vanguard and standard-bearer of the nationalist reaction

During the past few weeks, Greek mass media have focused on the letters sent to the Karamanlis government and the international organizations by the ultra-reactionary and nationalist Gruevski – a puppet of American imperialism. However, two very important issues are being systematically hushed up:

1. The fact that the Slav-Macedonian political refugees and their families are forbidden to return to their homeland

2. The denial of the existence of a local Slav-Macedonian population in the Western part of Greek Macedonia

Towards both of the above issues, the reactionary bourgeois class and its parties – the nazi-fascist LAOS, the monarchist-fascist ND, PASOK and the social-democratic parties (“K”KE, SYN) – maintain a hostile attitude adhering to a chauvinist policy that often culminates in nationalistic outbursts.
Of course, the revolutionary Marxists know very well that nationalism, religion and minorities are utilized by the great imperialist powers in order to steer trouble in smaller countries; therefore, they are adamantly against such efforts and decisively fight them without any vacillations. But they are also aware of the fascist and repressing policy of the reactionary bourgeois class towards the minorities; a repression that, on one hand, precipitates their natural resistance – supported by the communists without any reservations actively standing by their side – and on the other hand “drives” these minorities to seek for unlikely protectors among the various imperialist powers. Such an attitude is a disgrace in the history of their struggle and the communists must condemn it; the reception of the NATO imperialists by the Kosovar Albanians and the Anglo-American troops by the Iraqi Kurds as saviors and liberators are some of the latest cases.
All this, of course, by no means allow to deny the reality, in other words, to declare minorities as non-existent, a practice followed by the Greek bourgeois class and its parties including “K”KE and the social-democratic leadership of Florakis-Papariga (“there is no Slav-Macedonian minority for KKE”, “Rizospastis” 16/9/1988, p.3).


A. Allow the free repatriation of the Slav-Macedonian political refugees and their families.

As it is known, the issue of the free and unconditional repatriation of the political refugees was resolved as late as 1982, 35 years after the end of the Civil War, with a joint decision from the Ministries of Interior and Public Security. This decision mentions, among others, that “only those of Greek origin (our italics) who fled abroad as political refugees during the Civil War, 1946-1949, can return to Greece even if they have been deprived of the Greek nationality”. It is obvious that formulation “of Greek origin” excludes the Slav-Macedonian political refugees, that is to say, they are not permitted to “to return to Greece”: they are forbidden to come back to the place where they were born, grew up and lived, the place for which they spilled their blood for its liberation by the invaders when the country was under the Nazi-fascist occupation. It was a crime of massive scale, without precedent in the history of the country, that has been committed by the reactionary bourgeois class against thousands Slav-Macedonian political refugees and their families.

Through this decision, the bourgeois class took – and is taking – the most brutal revenge on the Slav-Macedonians; more brutal than cutting off partisans’ heads and showing them in common view during the Civil War: it forbids them to return to the place where they were born grew up and lived; the place for which they fought under arms, sacrificing everything, against the German, Italian and Bulgarian invaders, with a view to see their country liberated from monarchism-fascism, Anglo-American imperialist dependence and capitalist oppression and exploitation.

Apparently, the reactionary bourgeois class hates the Slav-Macedonians because of their anti-fascist struggle against the foreign invaders (Germans, Italians and Bulgarians) whereas she collaborated with them. She hates them even more because of their struggle in the ranks of the Democratic Army of Greece (DAG), in 1946-1949, against herself, monarchism-fascism and Anglo-American imperialism.

In relation to the above– unacceptable from every point of view – decision a fundamental and well-timed question is raised: is the decision to forbid the repatriation of the Slav-Macedonian political refugees an act of only the bourgeois government of PASOK or of all parties that serve the reactionary bourgeois class, that is, act of an “inter-party” consensus? It is the second as it is shown below.

In connection to this issue, the honorary president of the monarchist-fascist party ND, K. Mitsotakis, is most revealing. In the foreword of the book “In the name of Macedonia” by Th. Skylakakis, he writes the following: “the citizens of Slavic consciousness (sic) who had fought together with the communists left after the end of the Civil War” and he informs us that “all the Greek parties (including the orthodox Communist Party) have agreed (our italics) that they are not going to return”.

Following this, he discloses that the issue of the Slav-Macedonian refugees had been discussed amongst all the parties since the time of the military junta’s regime having agreed not to permit the return of the Slav-Macedonian refugees to Greece: “during the military dictatorship, when I was in close collaboration with K. Karamanlis, I had discussed the issue with the Greek left and we had agreed that after the fall of the junta there was going to follow the legalization of “K”KE and the return of all the political refugees except (our italics) the Slav-Slav-Macedonians (sic)”

Having written what is above, Mitsotakis reveals that there was already since the time of the junta regime a SECRET inter-party agreement among the bourgeois politicians and the “K”KE leadership not to allow the return of the Slav-Macedonian political refugees to Greece.
Besides this most revealing disclosure by Mitsotakis, the existence of an AGREEMENT is confirmed also by the following:

First, the leadership of “K”KE never denied this particular disclosure, confession made by K. Mitsotakis.

Second, the leadership of “K”KE never vigorously protested about this grave crime committed against the Slav-Macedonian political refugees. Its “reaction” was lukewarm, at best; a demagogic, a show of reaction just enough to avoid the political cost and cover up its treason.

Third, never, until today, did they fight for the return the Slav-Macedonian political refugees and systematically avoid dealing with the issue.

Fourth, never did raise this question in the parliament.

Fifth, they did not raise it even when “K”KE participated in the reactionary Jannis Janetakis government allying with the monarchist-fascist party of ND and in the all-party government of X. Zolotas.

Sixth, the political refugees’ organizations attached to all parties (PASOK, “K”KE, SYN) did not even raise the question of the return of the Slav-Macedonian political refugees to Greece let alone fight for it.

Seventh, not only was the return of the Slav-Macedonian political refugees to Greece forbidden but the Janetakis government exempted them from the benefits of the so-called “national reconciliation” and the “final removal of the consequences of the civil war”. The only statement that H. Florakis made (for demagogic purposes), at the same period, was that the formulation in the 1982 decision deprives a certain number of Greek refugees of the right to repatriate because they have “a different origin” without daring to mention even the word “Slav-Macedonians” since according to him and his friend Mitsotakis, “there is no Slav-Macedonian minority”.

Eighth, the social–democratic leadership of “K”KE not only betrayed the Slav-Macedonian political refugees by concluding an agreement with the reactionary bourgeois politicians so that they will not return to their place but reached a point of no return: the denial of the existence of Slav-Macedonians in the western part of Greek Macedonia: “for KKE there is no Slav-Macedonian minority” (Florakis’ statement published in “R” on 16/9/1988). Such shameful and treacherous statement was, quite justifiably, praised by the whole reaction.

The above statement first confirms that the existence of an agreement between the bourgeois politicians and the social–democratic leadership of “K”KE as to forbid the return of Slav-Macedonian political refugees to Greece and second goes much further: it adopts the crude bourgeois lie that there no Slav-Macedonians today in the western part of Greek Macedonia, aligning thus with the nationalist reaction.

Given the double treason on behalf of the social–democratic leadership of “K”KE, i.e. a) the agreement with the bourgeois parties as to ban the return of Slav-Macedonian political refugees, b) the denial of the existence of a Slav-Macedonian minority in the western part of Greek Macedonia, “Rizospastis” has the unbelievable insolence to manipulate the name of the heroine Slav-Macedonian teacher Mirka Ginova, a member of the Stalinist KKE 1918-1955, who was executed by the monarchist-fascists on the 26th of July 1946, in a demagogic piece with the title “Mirka, do you hear them?” (“Rizospastis”, 20/4/2008, p. 15). This was done allegedly in order to “refute” the “Rainbow” party which claims to defend the national and cultural rights of the Slav-Macedonians living in Greece. This organization the only thing that really knows is to look for new “bosses” and imperialists-“protectors” like the US General Consulate inThessaloniki Blandford, with whom representatives of the “Rainbow” party has a meeting in late August 1992.

But had Mirka survived the war and also ended up as a political refugee, she would not have been able to come back to her birthplace and she would have died in a faraway country like thousands of other Slav-Macedonians including leading members of DAG such as Dimitris Prikos (brigade commander) and, recently, Pantelis Vainas (division commander).


B. The existence of Slav-Macedonians in the Western part of Greek Macedonia.

Although the monarchist-fascist reaction in Greece, before 1945-46, was compelled to partly accept the existence of a few thousands of Slav-Macedonians, who were subjected to the most brutal suppression, the official estimate of their number was always much smaller – about a factor of 2/3 – than the actual one. Since 1950 onwards, their existence has been, one or way or the other, doubted and today it is denied altogether. This myth is being propagated by all bourgeois parties: ND, LAOS, PASOK, “K”KE while SYN avoids to express a clear opinion.
In July of 1945, an article in “Rizospastis” with the title “The truth about Slav-Macedonians”, in reply to the claims made by the then assistant Press Secretary, D. Zakinthinos, that, allegedly, there was no “national minority” and that “the people who speak the Slav-Macedonian idiom” are not more than 82,000, estimated that “145—150,000 are Slav-Macedonians” (“Rizospastis”, 8/7/1945). In the following January, in an article with the title “The barbarous persecution of the Slav-Macedonians” (“Rizospastis”, 13/1/1946), S. Grigoriades estimated them to be about 180,000, while the “People’s Voice” (12/4/1946), organ of the Slav-Macedonian Bureau of the Central Committee of KKE, estimated them at 180,000-200,000.

During the second partisan struggle (1946-1949), thousands of Slav-Macedonians decisively joined the DAG and heroically fought against monarchism-fascism and the Anglo-American imperialism and this fact augmented the reaction’s class hatred of them, a hatred that has not died out until nowadays. A part of the survivors fled to the People’s Republics, another ended up in jails and exile while the rest continued living in their places.

The fascist, repressive and fascist policy of the monarchist-fascist governments towards the Slav-Macedonians is briefly described by our party, KKE, headed by N. Zachariades: “the national minorities, and first of all the Slav-Macedonians, are subjected to an annihilating persecution. Abolition of the right to be called Slav-Macedonians, prohibition of using their native language, deprivation of the most basic national rights, forceful de-nationalization, humiliations, degradations, imprisonments, exiles, assassinations, steering of chauvinism and racial hatred – this is the policy of the monarchist-fascist governments towards the Slav-Macedonians culminating in the barbarous uprooting pursued by Papagos on the basis of the Law no. 2536 of 4/8/1953 “On the re-colonization of the border areas” with the aim of national and physical extermination of the Slav-Macedonian people” (“Draft Programme of KKE”, March 1954, p. 55).

A completely different situation was experienced by the Slav-Macedonians in the People’s Republics. Besides their deliverance from exploitation, secured employment, insurance, free medical treatment, free education etc, they could learn their native language and the party saw to the printing of primers and other books in Slav-Macedonian for the different grades of primary school: “considerable work has been done in the field of our own national matters. The potential for our national development is secured. The majority of the Macedonians learned to read and write in Slav-Macedonian. We have schools teaching the Slav-Macedonian language. In all countries where Slav-Macedonians live, there is a special supplement in Slav-Macedonian in the newspapers issued by the political refugees. For the further development of our language and the satisfaction of our needs, a Slav-Macedonian publishing house was established producing 60,000 copies of various books and planning to publish 4,000 pages within 1952. This happens for the first time in our history. Moreover, cultural work has commenced among the Slav-Macedonians in all countries (songs, dances, theatres etc)” (“Introductory speech by P. Vainas in the 1st Congress of the ILINDEN organization”, April 1952).

The last official census, in 1951, that reports “around 40,000 Slavic speakers” (K. Tsitselikis, D. Hristopoulos: “The phenomenon of minorities in Greece”, p. 376, Athens 1997) is obviously unreliable because this number is intentionally decreased compared to the real one. The secret estimates made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs according to which the number of Slav-Macedonians, referred as “slav-speaking”, is about 130-150,000. This estimate is close to earlier estimates made by “Rizospastis” in 1945-46.

After the fall of the military dictatorship, however, the bourgeois class completely denied the existence of a Slav-Macedonian minority: “it is certain, that after 1950, such a minority does not exist in our country” (Th. Skylakakis, “In the name of Macedonia”, Athens 1995), arbitrarily crossing off even the “around 40,000 Slavic speakers” reported in the 1951 census.

The reason for not recognizing the existence of a Slav-Macedonian minority was, according to Mitsotakis, “to prevent the occurrence of a second minority problem in the region of Western Macedonia” (Th. Skylakakis, “In the name of Macedonia”, Athens 1995). And in order for this not to happen, the Slav-Macedonians in the Western part of Greek Macedonia are made disappear as if by magic, first by Mitsotakis and then by the social-democrat Florakis.
But before the adoption of this bourgeois myth by the Florakis-Papariga group, it is known that the Khruschevian leadership of the “K”KE after 1956 accepted the existence of a Slav-Macedonian minority: “the 7th Plenum once again declares that, through the struggle for the rights of the national minorities and having as a premise the situation arisen in Greece and in the Balkans, KKE fights for the equality of the Slav-Macedonians that reside in Greece” (“Neos Kosmos, 3/1957).

However, in 1988, thirty years after the “7th Plenum” of “K”KE, the “SlavSlav-Macedonians” disappear: “there is no Slav-Macedonian minority for KKE” (16/9/1988) – a shameful and treacherous statement that rightfully gained a enthusiastic reception by the nationalist, monarchist-fascist reaction.

Since then, and in every opportune moment, Papariga repeats the same statement. On April 2008 she entered a new stage: she joined the militant vanguard of the nationalist reaction outdoing the nazi-fascist LAOS, the monarchist-fascist party of ND, the PASOK nationalists, the priests and others. She raised the banner of the reactionary bourgeois nationalism in the Parliament about the “non-existent” minorities in Greece, she issues warnings and she carried it inside the European parliament: the “K”KE MPs sent an “open letter” to the president of the parliament, the heads of all Political Groups and to all other MPs urging them not to “raise the issue of a Slav-Macedonian minority in Greece” (“Rizospastis”, 12/4/2008) – a nationalist campaign, of course in the name of the imperialist threats against the country, which was carried out throughout April with full-page articles in “Rizospastis” and resumed every now and then.
All this explains why the social-democratic leadership of “K”KE stopped maintaining that there is a Slav-Macedonian minority in Greece and why it came into an agreement with bourgeois politicians as to forbid the return of the Slav-Macedonian political refugees to their homes: the latter, the former partisans of ELAS and DAG, were apparently “transformed” into “agents” of imperialism posing a “threat” to Greece.

Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-55
August 2008

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A gang of ministers and mafia-type capitalists rip off and bring to destitution the working people through price and tax increases

During the last five years the monarch-fascist party of “New Democracy” is in the government, there has been an abrupt and significant decline in the living standards of great parts of the population. The cause of this is in the successive price and tax increases imposed by the Karamanlis government as a part of its extreme neo-liberal economic policy.

The attitude of the prime-minister and his cabinet to the high inflation and, the, almost daily, increases in the prices of articles of mass consumption, is all the more provocative because the only "reason" they can come up with is the increase in the price of crude oil and the so-called "imported inflation". Their claim is offensive when the food articles are much cheaper in other EU countries despite the fact that the production costs there are higher and the employees earn about three times more than the 700-900 Euros which the average salary in Greece. The bourgeois economists, as genuine apologists of capitalism, limit the economic essence of inflation by identifying it with one of its external forms expressed in the increase of prices. However, inflation is not a new or unknown phenomenon of capitalist economy. It is an inevitable phenomenon in the capitalist mode of production, in general, and in the sphere of circulation, in particular, whose channels overflow with redundant bank notes resulting in the increase of the price of the commodities.

Besides the general question of inflation, utilised by the capital as a means of income redistribution at the expense of the working class, the source of the current price increase waves lies in the fact that the monopolies themselves have determined the prices to a very high level with the obvious aim of raising their profits and, also, in the speculative determination of prices by the industrialists, the big wholesalers and retailers. All this is not much different from the mafia style capitalism of Russia and other East European countries.

The case of agricultural and diary products is quite indicative since the big traders and the supermarkets are pocketing huge profits while, at the same time, the farmers' income does not cover even the costs of production and the rest of the working people spent huge amounts of money for all foodstuff and articles of mass consumption.

Another factor that contributes to the unprecedented increase of prices is the extreme neo-liberal economic policy pursued by the Karamanlis government. This policy, among others, supports the unbound speculation and it has imposed repeated raise of the electricity (twice in 2008), water, telephone and postage rates, the doubling of bus and boat and other tickets.

The very high inflation, the huge price increase waves (mainly in the articles of mass consumption) and the successive tax raises together with the unchanged nominal wages and the greatly diminished real wages, have brought a serious and much more grave,than the previous years, decline of the living conditions of the working class and forced millions to under nourishment,hunger and utter destitution - especially those with low incomes, such as 700-900 Euros, the hundred of thousands of unemployed and semi-employed and the many thousands of pensioners.

The current reality of the country's capitalist economy disprove on daily basis the myth according to which the "prices fall through the competition" that has been hailed as absolute truth by all the defenders of capital's interests. The only advice that the ridiculous and incompetent cabinet give to the working people is to run all day from one supermarket to another seeking cheaper goods, brutally underestimating in this way their intelligence.

Shorter translated version of the main article of the newspaper "Anasintaxi", issue 277-278, 1-31 July 2008

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Hundreds Of People Showed Their Support For Hayat TV

Hundreds of people gathered for the call of the Association of Intellectuals for Democracy to protest the shutting of Hayat TV. From the Galatasaray Post Office in Istanbul, the group faxed the protest text “Turn On My Television” to the Ministry of Interior, the Supreme Council of Radio and Television (RTÜK) and Türksat A.Ş.

The Association of Intellectuals for Democracy is formed by the Turkish Writers Unions (TYS), PEN Center for Turkey, the Turkish Journalists Union (TGS), the Platform of Istanbul Branches of the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions (Türk-İş), the Platform of Istanbul branches of the Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (KESK), the Provincial Coordination of the Turkish Union of Chambers of Engineers and Architects (TMMOB). Hundreds of people, including representatives from non-governmental organizations, joined the press release organized by the Association of Intellectuals for Democracy to support Hayat TV, which is banned from broadcasting right at the centenary celebration of the end of censorship in Turkey.
“This practice reminds us the coup period”

Writer Adnan Özyalçıner read the press release, accompanied by various slogans.

Özyalçıner said that shutting of Hayat TV was an arbitrary measure.

“That Hayat TV helped another TV station by becoming its voice cannot be true, because Hayat TV does not have this kind of technical capability.”

Özyalçıner reminded that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) had said they were going to “erase the coup makers”, adding that “This practice reminds us the coup period.”

He declared they would continue their reaction until a just solution was implemented.
Bayhan: The Ministry of Transportation and Turksat are trying to form a monopoly

According to TYS’ second president Mustafa Köz, “Shutting of Hayat TV forced us to think again about our situation. This act told us to stick to each other.”

İskender Bayhan, coordinator of broadcasting for the channel, said, “The Ministry of Transportation and Turksat are trying to form a monopoly.”

Source: Bianet

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Hayat TV Is Back After Three Weeks

Hayat TV, whose broadcasting was stopped by the Turksat authorities following a warning by the Security Branch of the Ministry of Interior on the grounds that it was aiding the pro-Kurdish Roj TV, is open again.

Meeting with the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), Türksat, the Ministries of Interior and Communication, Hayat TV managed to start broadcasting again after it was taken off the air on July 15.

Çubukçu: Opening the channel was harder

Hayat TV’s Broadcasting Director Aydın Çubukçu told that it had become apparent how this banning was not based on the regulations as soon as they met with the authorities, but it was much harder to open the channel because of the bureaucratic obstacles. He also added that the public support was very helpful in the whole process, too. They are back on the same frequency.

Çubukçu thanks the media institutions, the political parties, the unions, the intellectuals and the artists which stood on their side, when their broadcasting was ended for allegedly aiding the pro-Kurdish Roj TV.

Hatay TV, which broadcasts from the United Kingdom, had started its broadcasting with the slogan of “All Colors of Life” in December 2007.

Source: Bianet

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Stop the Imperialist Escalation in the Caucasus

Communiqué of the Communist Party of the Workers of France (PCOF)

For several days, the situation in the Caucasus is again becoming dangerously inflamed.

Pushed by the US imperialism, the Georgian reactionary regime began the hostilities with a military operation whose stated goal was to retake control of the "separatist" territory of South Ossetia supported by Moscow. The Russia of Medvedev and of Putin responded with a military counter-offensive of great scope. The bombs of the two camps have fallen on the civil population in South Ossetia, but also in Abkhazia and various towns of Georgia, leading to many casualties and hundreds of thousands of refugees.
This is not a "thunderbolt in a cloudless sky," but the result of a long escalation that has as a backdrop the struggles between the great imperialist powers for control of a region rich in hydrocarbons. Georgia represents for the Caucasus what Afghanistan represents to the Middle East: a transit zone to transport Azerbaijani oil from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea. As most of the former republics of the south of the Soviet Union, it is the instrument of a policy of destabilization used by US imperialism against Russia. This policy, which has already set fire and sword on the Balkans, took a more and more aggressive and provocative turn with the installation of the infamous "anti-missiles shield" in Eastern Europe and the pressures to accelerate the integration of Georgia into NATO.
Let us not be deceived; just as with Kosovo, it is not a matter of the United States and its allies defending democracy and the rights of peoples to run their own affairs! At the bottom of the energy crisis and the economic recession, it is a matter of a war of imperialist redivision! The violence of the Russian response, called "disproportionate" by the Western powers, is a sign by Moscow of limits that it will not allow anyone to overstep.
Sarkozy and his Minister of Foreign Affairs have gone to play mediators in the name of the 27 countries of the European Union. If the positions of the governments of the EU are far from being unified, it is become some do not want an open conflict with Russia, nor a too unstable situation, where they would be on the front line.
Our Party denounces this war between two reactionary camps, of which the peoples of the Caucasus are paying the price.
This confirms, if it was need, the danger of the "Atlantist" policy developed by Sarkozy. This policy, which was recently shown by a reinforcement of the French presence in Afghanistan - in response to Bush's expectation - and by the reintegration of France into all the structures of NATO, is a aggressive and warmongering policy.
Stop the imperialist provocations! Stop the bombardments!
Work to reinforce the international solidarity of the peoples in their struggles against the imperialist warmakers!

Paris, August 12, 2008

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Meeting of European Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations in Madrid

In June representatives of the Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations of Europe met in Madrid: the Communist Party of Spain (M-L), Communist Party of the Workers of France (PCOF), Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP), Communist Platform (Italy) and the Revolutionary Organization of Norway, to deal with questions of the work of communists in the trade union movement.

In the first place the meeting analyzed the present political and economic context, characterized by a deepening of the aggressive policies of imperialism. The term “neo-liberalism” refers to the policies of imperialism today, at the exclusive service of the oligarchy, directed at guaranteeing maximum profit to the monopolies at the expense of the workers and their rights, and against the peoples. This policy could be summarized in the following terms: "Less State to defend and more State to attack the workers and the peoples."

Faced with the illusions that social-democrats and reformists preach, a so-called “protective” capitalism is not possible. This is the true face of imperialism whose attacks are being aggravated as a result of the growing crisis and the growing inter-imperialist contradictions in their fights for markets and areas of influence.

The consequences of this policy in Europe are: attacks on the social and labor gains, degradation and privatization of public utilities, an increase in police measures and militarism and armed aggression against the peoples. The European Union is trying to reinforce its role as an imperialist power in the international context of the politics of aggression of the United States. In this new conjuncture, a revival of the workers movement is taking place, the social mobilization is growing and the trade union struggle is acquiring a greater importance. For that reason the discussion centered particularly on the question of the work of the communists in the trade union movement. The trade union movement should propose its demands on the offensive, in accordance with the concrete situation and to develop the struggle for the trade union unity of class.

We communists believe in the need to work within the large mass trade unions that group the organized sectors of the proletariat and to politicize the trade union struggles to orient them in a revolutionary sense. We M-L Parties and Organizations call for the defense of the rights of workers and particularly of immigrants to unionize; to advance in the coordination of the struggles on a European level, for support and solidarity with the concrete struggles and the reinforcement of unitary actions, and the calls for coordination meetings among the class struggle trade unions.

SOLIDARITY WITH THE WORKERS OF THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY AND OF SEAT. The Parties participating in the European Meeting of M-L Parties and Organizations show their support and solidarity with the mobilizations taking place against the Employment Regulation Procedure [which allows a company to solicit the labor authority to cancel a contract providing workers with their labor rights – translator’s note] proposed by the bosses of SEAT, which affects 8,800 workers at the plant, and other enterprises of the automobile sector in Spain, with the excuse of the recent strike of transport workers.

The present crisis of capitalism is striking with particularly intensity at the workers sectors (fisher folk, peasants, transport workers, etc.), at the working class in general, on whose backs it wants to place its consequences and on the popular sectors that are suffering from the scarcity of basic products, the housing crisis and the attacks on their social rights. Given the aggressiveness of the bosses and the connivance of the Governments there can be no other response than unity and struggle.

Madrid, June of 2008

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Hundreds Of People Showed Their Support For Hayat TV

Hundreds of people gathered for the call of the Association of Intellectuals for Democracy to protest the shutting of Hayat TV.  From the Galatasaray Post Office in Istanbul, the group faxed the protest text “Turn On My Television” to the Ministry of Interior, the Supreme Council of Radio and Television (RTÜK) and Türksat A.Ş.  
The Association of Intellectuals for Democracy  is formed by the Turkish Writers Unions (TYS), PEN Center for Turkey, the Turkish Journalists Union (TGS), the Platform of  Istanbul Branches of the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions (Türk-İş), the Platform of Istanbul branches of the Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (KESK), the Provincial Coordination of the Turkish Union of Chambers of Engineers and Architects (TMMOB). Hundreds of people, including representatives from non-governmental organizations, joined the press release organized by the Association of Intellectuals for Democracy to support Hayat TV, which is banned from broadcasting right at the centenary celebration of the end of censorship in Turkey. 
“This practice reminds us the coup period”  
Writer Adnan Özyalçıner read the press release, accompanied by various slogans.
Özyalçıner said that shutting of Hayat TV was an arbitrary measure.
“That Hayat TV helped another TV station by becoming its voice cannot be true, because Hayat TV does not have this kind of technical capability.”
Özyalçıner reminded that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) had said they were going to “erase the coup makers”, adding that “This practice reminds us the coup period.”
He declared they would continue their reaction until a just solution was implemented.
Bayhan: The Ministry of Transportation and Turksat are trying to form a monopoly
According to TYS’ second president Mustafa Köz, “Shutting of Hayat TV forced us to think again about our situation. This act told us to stick to each other.”
İskender Bayhan, coordinator of broadcasting for the channel, said, “The Ministry of Transportation and Turksat are trying to form a monopoly.”

Source: Bianet

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The Youth Movement in Turkey

An interesting article found in http://www.emep.org

Unemployment, poverty, no social security, a reactionary education with fees, deprivation from basic rights and freedoms and the oppression and terror that accompany all this shape the circumstances that Turkey’s ruling classes present to the youth and hold them in.

The exploiting ruling classes want a youth that does not think, discuss or rebel, that is individualistic, indifferent, indolent and agnostic, running after instant “happiness”. That is why they use all the tools and opportunities at their disposal, from the media and press organs to sports, fashion, music etc. in a very systematic way. Already struggling with a bulk of multi-dimensional problems, the youth is at the same time held under an ideological-cultural bombardment in the real sense of the word.

Parallel to the increase in over-working, unemployment, poverty and doubt of the future; drug abuse, prostitution and all kinds of tendencies towards degeneration and corruption are also specifically encouraged among the youth. Research shows that the level of drug abuse among the youth has reached such horrifying numbers as 25-30 per cent. 

The youth of Turkey is waging a fight for their today and tomorrow surrounded by all these problems and under these circumstances.

Below; we will try to summarise the state and the problems of the youth sections of Turkey as well as the past and present of the youth movement.

The student youth

Universities and the higher education institutions in Turkey are almost held under a siege. Both the reactionary-chauvinist content of the education policies and the arrangements made for physical control have reached striking levels. There are textbooks the contents of which have not been updated for decades and hence are the projection of the scholastic understanding of the Middle Ages. Education is based on elimination and on a parrot-like understanding. Academic life is practically ran under a martial law, with all the plainclothes and official police forces, security cameras and special security units. Investigations and prosecutions on students, ‘disciplinary’ actions such as exclusion from school for a definite or indefinite period of time continue to be common practices.

While the education system is being “restructured” according to the needs of the day, steps are being taken in order to transform the universities, already hand in hand with the business, into companies and to surrender education to the private sector completely. While the right to free education is being liquidated step by step, the field of education is gradually being dragged entirely into capital relations, in other words, into relations of exploitation and profit.

There are a total number of 14 million students in Turkey in primary, secondary and higher education. Education’s share in the budget is continuously decreasing every year. In the 2004 Budget this proportion has receded to 2.3 per cent. On the other hand, a huge amount of money is flowing into private education institutions under the name of incitements and donations. Even as of now, students’ families cover important portions of the education expenses.

According to official figures there is a shortage of 366 schools, 15 thousand classes and 74 thousand teachers in secondary education. 30 per cent of secondary school students leave their education for various reasons. Average number of students per class differs from 50 to 94.

Only 15 per cent of students attain the right to go on to universities.

The working and the unemployed youth

The total number of young workers in Turkey is about 7 million, 1 million of which is comprised by children aged 5-14. The number of young workers who benefit from apprenticeship training is around 250 thousand.

Those employed in industrial sites and Organised Industrial Regions (OIR) constitute an important section of the young workers who are commonly employed in all sectors, such as agriculture, industry and the services. The industrial sites and the OIRs, which are based on the exploitation of the labour of young workers, have become very widespread in Turkey especially throughout the last 10-15 years. Hundreds of thousands of workers are employed in some of these industrial areas where hundreds and thousands of small and medium size enterprises are gathered together. All these areas can literally be called as “young workers’ hell” due to extremely long hours, very low wages, drastic working conditions and prevention of trade unions from these areas.

Only 15 per cent of young workers have social security. The number of unionised workers in Turkey is about 800 thousand, and the rate of unionisation among young workers is much below the national average, with even lower rates among those who are employed in the industrial sites and OIRs where joining a union is a reason for an immediate dismissal.

A great majority of the young workers work for even less than the minimum wage, which is 210 dollars a month. Their average working hours is 12-13 hours a day. However, it is not an exception for this to increase to 16 hours a day or 36 hours non-stop as they often are forced to do so in the textile sector. Flexible working has become a rather common practice.

The other side of over-working is the high rate of unemployment, which is the direst problem for the youth in Turkey that has a very young population. Official statistics put the rate of unemployment 22 per cent. The youth forms the main body of the reserve army of the unemployed. An extremely intense circulation of workers takes place especially in the industrial sites and the OIRs. It is common practice to work for a few months of the year and be unemployed for the rest.

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT OF THE YOUTH MOVEMENT

The period of 1960-80

The mass-based organisation and struggle experience of the youth in Turkey -Turkish, Kurdish and other ethnic minorities- actually falls to the second half of the 20th century. The period from the mid-1960s to the military coup in 1980 holds a special place in the organisation and struggle of the youth. This is a period when democratic, anti-imperialist and socialist ideas have become widespread among the wide sections of the youth. It can be said that the youth created an independent and democratic mass organisation and tradition of struggle within this period. This is the period when professional and academic mass organisations became important centres of the anti-imperialist and anti-fascist struggle. It is also in this period that opposition to the repression on the Kurdish people, the demand for their ‘right to self-determination’ and the slogan ‘the unity and brotherhood of the peoples’ have been appropriated by a relatively wide section of the youth.

The youth also took progressive steps in this period in uniting its struggle with the struggle of the working class, and became an important dynamic of the popular movement.

Despite all its deficiencies and weaknesses, some characteristics of the youth movement of that period continue to set an example and be the source of inspiration to the youth of today: characteristics such as determination to struggle, solidarity and the commitment and devotion to the cause of the people.

The aftermath of the 1980 coup

The military coup of 12 September 1980 dealt heavy blows on the youth movement as well as the workers’ and the mass movement. Fascism and the junta eradicated all the de facto and legal rights and freedoms that the youth had gained to that day through their struggle, and dispersed all the mass-based professional and political organisations of the youth. Thus, the youth had their share of this dark period of terror during which hundreds and thousands of people were taken under police custodies, crammed into dungeons, tortured and murdered.

The workers’ actions and acts of resistance began to appear as of the mid-1980s, which also led to mobilisations among the university youth. Though in the beginning it was limited to the awakening sections of the university youth, actions for demands such as ‘autonomous and democratic university’ and ‘freedom to organise against the uniform association law’ began to take place at universities. Thus, the veil of “silence” hanging over the universities due to the dark fascist terror was torn to pieces.

It is necessary to underline the militant attitude of the Kurdish youth that constituted the main body of the developing Kurdish national movement throughout this period.

The efforts of the youth to struggle and get organised spread among the various sections of the youth, especially the working and the unemployed youth. These efforts became widespread around different demands and forms of organisation, and have come to the present day, laying the foundation of a new era of struggle.

Today, many student organisations with different functions and characterisations, such as research-investigation groups in the fields of literature, philosophy, economy, etc., culture-art and sports clubs and student unions-councils are present in the universities and in secondary education. A great part of these kinds of organisations are, as necessitated by the law, under the control of the school-university administrations. Parts of the student youth have clustered around such organisations. The progressive and socialist sections of the student youth also take part in these organisations. These sections of the youth are making every effort to turn these organisations into platforms of discussion of the problems and demands of the youth, and activities along these lines are held despite all their anti-democratic and controlled structures. In fact, such organisations in question are in the position of carrying out this function in spite of the laws-regulations and all the pressures. However, an overwhelming majority of the student youth is still unorganised.

At present, ‘free, scientific and democratic education’ is the most important demand of the student youth. Among other slogans that summarise the central demands of the student youth are ‘no to the commercialisation and privatisation of education, an autonomous and democratic university, abolishment of all bans on the Kurdish language and the right to education in the mother-tongue, and the abolishment of all the bans on the freedom of thought and organisation’.

As a fundamental base of the youth movement, the working and the unemployed masses of the youth bear a great potential of struggle today. Revolt against the conditions they are forced to live in and the inclination to surge into the struggle for their own problems and over their own demands is consolidating by each passing day. In the period we have left behind, many actions have taken place for the improvement of the working conditions, unionisation and for better wages, especially in the sweatshops and factories in the industrial sites and the OIRs, that are in the situation of being “exploitation havens”. More and more of such strikes and acts of resistance, a great majority of which are illegal, are being witnessed. The youth form the main body of these actions demanding the right to get unionised with thousands, tens of thousands of workers from the weaving, textile and the metal sectors participating in many cities around the country, from Istanbul to Ankara, Izmir and Usak. 

Besides the situation in their working lives, the working and the unemployed youth masses are also orientating towards organisations rising from solidarity, social, cultural and sporting needs, within the districts and the suburbs where they live. These places also serve as environments in which the young people gather together and discuss their common problems, their demands and the ways of finding solutions or search for ways of acting together.

Among their prominent demands are the ‘demand for jobs, the eradication of all obstacles for unionisation, the shortening of working hours and an income sufficient for leading a humane life’.

The anti-war and anti-imperialist struggle and the youth

Following the September 11, there are plans to make Turkey one of the fundamental bases of the “restructuring” operation led by the US imperialism and centred on the Middle East. This is the reason why the US and its collaborators have been running various manoeuvres in order to drag Turkey to the forefront of the occupation, both before and after the occupation of Iraq.

If US imperialism and the collaborating capital circles and government have not been able and are not being able to drag Turkey into the Iraqi occupation and the process of the restructuring of the Middle East as befitting the interests of the imperialists; the anti-US and anti-war reactions of the people and the youth of Turkey lie at the foundation of this.

Before the occupation of Iraq, the youth held demonstrations and actions in many provinces around the country against the occupation and Turkey dispatching troops to Iraq. At the same time, it was the youth that formed the great majority of the participations in the general protest manifestations that were organised at the time. And it was this reaction put forward by the wide masses of the people and the youth that played a determining role in the “dispatch of the Turkish troops to Iraq” not being approved in the Parliament.

Boycotts with 100 per cent participation and massive protests took place around many universities and high schools on the first day of the Iraqi occupation. Demonstrations on the streets and universities protesting the occupation continued throughout the first year of the occupation, with a bigger manifestation held on the 1st anniversary of the occupation. Preceding the ‘NATO Summit’ held in Turkey in June 2004, an extensive campaign was held on a national scale which aimed to protest this summit and the occupation, and which helped the promotion of demands such as the eradication of all US military bases around the country and Turkey getting out of Nato. Protests were organised by the youth especially in the suburbs. And the youth took part in great numbers in the demonstrations that were held in many places around the country, especially in Istanbul as the Summit approached. It could easily be said that this was the first time Turkey witnessed anti-imperialist youth demonstrations in such masses after 1980. This period has been one in which anti-imperialist struggle and demands have become more widespread and gained strength among the youth sections.

THE LABOUR YOUTH AS THE ORGANISATION OF THE SOCIALIST YOUTH

The Labour Youth is the youth organisation of the Party of Labour (EMEP), which is the party of the workers and labourers, fighting for the abolition of all kinds of exploitation and oppression. The Labour Youth was been established in 1996 and has been a resolute advocate of the interests and demands of the working and the unemployed youth, and the student youth sections since then. It organises in universities, secondary education institutions, industrial sites, suburbs and villages, in all areas of production, education and settlement, and among all youth sections, taking the working youth as its basis.

Having held three Conferences since its formation, the Labour Youth organises by electing all its administrating organs on the basis of democracy from the base to the top. Having groups and organisations at different levels in around 60 cities, including the Kurdish regions, the Labour Youth is an important force with significant influence with its thousands of members and the broadness of its organisations.

The Labour Youth encourages the professional, academic and trade union organisation of the youth in all the fields it is organised and holds activities to establish mass organisations among the sections of the youth and to expand the anti-imperialist and anti-fascist mass struggle of the youth.

The bourgeois liberal, religious orientated, nationalistic and chauvinistic currents and their extensions among the youth have no alternative, other than the dark scene offered by the ruling classes, to present to the youth which is surrounded by ever growing and deepening problems in relation to their present and future. The Labour Youth sees the emancipation and the future of the youth linked with that of the working class and the labourers. Thus, it acts with the understanding of uniting the youth struggle with the working class struggle for political power. The Labour Youth, is the mass organisation of the youth that is inclined towards struggle for their demands, that is searching for a way out and an alternative to the one offered by the system, and who want to struggle for a world without exploitation and oppression, where it is possible to live a humane life. 

The Labour Youth, holding a daily and broad educational and organisational activity according to the demands and needs of all the working, unemployed, student youth sections, Turkish and Kurdish, has become a fundamental dynamic force of the youth movement ever since its formation.

The Labour Youth publishes the bimonthly magazine Genc Hayat (Young Life), a supplement of Evrensel (Universal), the only daily workers’ newspaper in Turkey. It is also working to render the publications that come out from universities and secondary education institutions to have certain qualities so they can serve the struggle along the lines of the demands and needs of the youth.

The Labour Youth sees itself as the inheritor of the progressive, revolutionary and socialist struggle accumulation and tradition of the youth on the national and international scale. We believe that strengthening the relations and solidarity between the youth struggles of different countries and between the professional-academic, democratic, anti-imperialist youth organisations with socialist characteristics have gained even more importance in this period we are going through. And while we declare our readiness to act with this consciousness and fulfil what is required from us, we also call upon all concerned and progressive forces to have a more active role along this direction.

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Hayat* can not be silenced

TURKEY

The broadcasting of Hayat TV was cut off by Turkish government. Hayat TV, which started its life last year with the slogan “Life’s all colours”, found itself unable to broadcast suddenly on Wednesday.

Hayat TV did not receive any legal warning about the interruption. But, the letter to the company from which Hayat TV rent the frequency band was clearly threatening. Turksat general manager’s letter to Turkovizyon, from which Hayat TV rents its frequency band, states that the demand to cut Hayat TV’s broadcasting came from the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK): “In order that Turkovizyon’s broadcasting activities are not shut down completely by our company, we request that you interrupt Hayat TV’s broadcasting immediately and be more sensitive about the channels you will include in your digital platform.”

But we know that, this is an indication of the impatience of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). However, since we experienced similar experiences in the past, Hayat is still on its job. They cannot shut Hayat up, we will not shut up.”

We trust the viewers of Hayat, who are the real force behind it.

We call all of our class brothers and sisters, intellectuals and artists struggling for a better world around the globe to claim Hayat as their own channel and support it.

For support

You can send protesting letters to the Internal Affairs Ministry of the Turkish Republic (Fax: 0090 312 418 795), Radio and Television Supreme Council (Fax: 0090 312 499 5115) and Türk-Sat (Fax: 0090 312 499 5115)

Also, we wait for your solidarity messages.

What is Hayat TV?

Hayat TV, the pro-people and pro-workers television is, as an alternative to the existing mass media, broadcasting on Turksat 2A Satellite. In addition to Turkey, it can also be viewed all over Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the Caucasus.

Hayat TV is also a different alternative in terms of its organisational formation within the field of television broadcasting where monopolies dominate. Announced to the public with a declaration signed by hundreds of people, among whom were trade unionists, representatives of the mass organisations and many workers and labourers; Hayat TV aims to carry the ignored sections of the society to the screen with its participatory organisational model.

Hayat TV follows an increasingly enhanced broadcasting line with various documentaries, news programmes, street interviews as well as music and entertainment.

Hayat TV, setting out with the principle of “revealing the genuine colours of life”, claims to be a television channel through which life, truth, objective broadcasting and everything non-alien to people will be reflected. It is stated in the organisation manifesto of the channel that; “There are a lot of voices and images but when all of these come together, they do not constitute multi-vocality and they appear to be mono-vocal. We, the millions of workers and labourers, are obliged to watch whatever is presented on the television that we put in the key place of our homes. We are either alienated to ourselves, our problems and culture or identified with a different world which by no means resembles us. Let us be neither alienated nor identified with phenomena outside of ourselves. Let us be ourselves, protect our own existence.”

Hayat TV is a channel in which all sections whose existence has been ignored until now will not only find themselves but also call themselves into being. Hayat TV is the channel of the Kurds, the Laz people, the Arabs, the Circassians, the Armenians and the Surianis as well as of the workers, labourers and the impoverished masses.

Hayat TV had set up its cameras just in the midst of life and catch its visual richness in the rhythm of life flowing. Hayat TV calls itself into being as the channel of women whose lives have been caught between the kitchen and the bedroom, children targeted in advertisements as future “consumers”, the handicapped people, the environmentalists, the defenders of human rights and of course the art and artists.

Hayat TV is the voice of all sections struggling for a more liberated and more democratic world around the world. It conveys all lives and struggles from all corners of the world via broadcast to be viewed in the Middle East, the Caucasians and North Africa besides all Europe.

* “Hayat” means “Life” in Turkish

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Lift the sanctions on Freedom of Thought and Press! Oppose Hayat TV being silenced!

We were terrified and shocked to learn on 16th July that Hayat TV, a TV station found on 3rd December 2007 as a result of the support provided by hundreds of intellectuals, trade unionists and democracy and human right campaigners in Turkey and Europe, has been put off air as a result of a letter sent by the TURKSAT authorities to the enterprising company. 
According to the information that we have received thus far, no material evidence or factual information has been provided by Turksat as to why Hayat TV should be put off air. Without a legal process taking place or, in other words, with a court decision Hayat TV has been put off air based on the accusation of `broadcasting divisive footage`.   
We have never promoted hatred amongst people. On the contrary, as it is evident with the way in which we have been promoting cohesion and integration vis-à-vis the migrants from Turkey living in Europe, we have opposed nationalism and have been advocates of cohesion and fraternity. Thus we strongly oppose the interruption of Hayat TV, which since the day it has started broadcasting it has opposed war and aimed to be a voice of democracy, peace and freedom. We will like to contend that to silence a TV station based on it not thinking alike or having an alternative viewpoint does not only injure the freedom of thought and press but it also goes against International laws and treaties.   
We the undersigned call the authorities of Turksat and AKP government to renege on an unlawful decision that injures freedom of thought and press and urgently lift the decision to put Hayat TV off air.
We also call upon all individuals, organisations and institutions that are sensitive on the issue of freedom on thought and press to act in solidarity with us and oppose Hayat TV being silenced.

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Communiqué from the Marxist-Leninists Parties and Organizations from Europe’s meeting

In June 2008, delegates from the Marxist-Leninists Organizations and Parties from Europe have met in Madrid in order to discuss some questions related to communist’s work in the trade union movement.

Discussion has focused on the politic and economic context, which is characterized by a raise of the aggressive politics of the imperialism. With “neoliberalism” we do mean imperialism’s politic of nowadays, a politic that only serves to the oligarchy and are destined to guarantee the highest benefit for the monopoles, in detriment of the workers and their rights and in detriment of the peoples. A politic that can be resumed like this: “Less state to protect and more state to attack workers and peoples.”

In front of the illusions propagated by the social-democrats and the reformists, we declare that a « protective » capitalism is impossible. The actual politic is the true face of imperialism which redoubles its aggressions due to the intensification of the crisis and the contradictions between imperialists foreign powers, in their struggle for the markets and the influence zones.

In Europe, the consequences of this politic are: the questioning of social conquests of the working class and labor legislation: the degradation and privatization of public services; the reinforcement of repressive state, the militarization and the armed aggression against countries. The European Union is working on reinforcing its nature of imperialist foreign power in the international context of the politic of aggression of the USA.

In this new juncture, the working class movement is getting reactivated, social mobilization is growing and the trade union fight is getting more and more important. The discussion has also focused on the question of communist’s work into trade union movement.

Trade union movement has to fight for its demands in an offensive way, having into account the specific situation and developing the fight for class-conscious trade union’s unity.

We communists insist on the necessity of working into the big masses’ trade unions which organizes the essential part of the organized sectors of the proletariat and of making more politic the trade union fights in order to give them a revolutionary way.

We call for defending the right of workers to be in trade unions, in particular for the immigrants and we call for going forward in the coordination of the fights in Europe, to develop the solidarity and the support to the specific fights and to support the united initiatives and the callings for meetings for coordination gathering together the class-conscious trade unionists.

Madrid, June 2008

Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE (ML) ;
Workers Communist Party of France – PCOF ;
Workers Communist Party of Denmark – APK ;
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey– TDKP ;
Communist Platform (Italy);
Marxist-Leninist Organization Revolution of Norway

Note: Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 cosigns this communique.

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Irish people said NO to the Lisbon’s treaty !

With great happiness we welcome the victory of the « No » in Ireland. This is a victory for the Irish people and for all the peoples from the UE who have massively opposed to a text that takes the essential content and objectives of the constitutional European treaty.

We welcome the forces that have leaded the campaign to give to this « No » a progressive content and that have played a decisive role in this victory.

Peasants, workers and the people have defeated the great coalition of political and social forces, the employers, the Medias, which have mobilized in favor of the « Yes ». They have tried to make the Irish people guilty and menaced it with « taking reprisals ». Merkel, Sarkozy, Barroso and company have multiplied the pressures and the intimidations. This is a serious political defeat for them.

Just like the French and Dutch people did in 2005, the Irish people has put its bit into this « hideous » neoliberal machine, synonym of social dumping, of competition between everyone, of the priority for the agro business in spite of the little peasants. It has said « No » to the militarized Europe, at NATO’s rear.

In spite of this popular rebuff, the UE and the spokesmen from the anti-democratic government and the European commission… have proclaimed that they will « continue ». For them, a vote is only democratic if it ratifies their decisions. This is like the whole process of construction of the European Union, a process made against the peoples, behind their back, and who never accept their sanctions. A process that is built against the peoples of Europe and Africa, to put in place a European Union, a big imperialist foreign power that compete with the other foreign powers for the markets and the control of resources. A European Union that has just legalized the 65 hours a week of labor and replaced collectives negotiations by the « one-to-one » relation between the employer and the worker and finish with all the social conquest, the right to the work. A European Union that is making a hunt with the paperless workers, that puts them in retention camps, expulses them and at the same time want to « choose » the brains and arms that it needs. A European Union that promotes the reactionary « values » of the church and wants to question the right to abort.

In front of the antisocial and reactionary attacks from the UE, the mobilizations of the workers haven’t stopped developing.

This political victory for the peoples encourages us to develop even more the links of fight and solidarity for fighting together against the politic that exclusively serves to the monopolies and the financial oligarchy.

The vote of the Irish people has to be respected and the process of ratification of the Lisbon’s treaty.

Madrid, June 2008

Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE (ML) Workers Communist Party of France – PCOF
Workers Communist Party of Denmark – APK
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey– TDKP
Communist Platform (Italy)
Marxist-Leninist Organization Revolution of Norway

Note: Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 cosigns this declaration.

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Solidarity with the paperless workers on strike for their regularization

Since the 15 of April 2008, hundreds of « paperless » immigrant workers are on strike in Paris region after the CGT and associations’ calling, to obtain a title of stay in a good and proper way.

Since many years these workers are engaged in sectors like catering, building, cleaning… The great majority of them have salary leaves and pay to the different social security boxes and a big number of them pay taxes.

Because they have no papers, they are real « modern slaves » in the hands of the employers who in many cases have engaged them with complete knowledge of their situation.

After two months of strike, French government has been forced to begin the regularization’s process for 400 of them.

A vast movement of solidarity has developed around these strikes. The withdrawal of the government is a gap that must be enlarged.

We support this courageous fight for the regularization of all paperless workers.

We make the slogan that sounds in every mobilization our slogan:

« ils bossent ici,
ils vivent ici,
ils restent ici »

« Lavorano qui
Vivono qui
Restano qui ! »

« Trabajan aqui
Viven aquí !
Se quedan aquí ! »

“They work here
They live here
They stay here !”

“Burada, çalisiyorlar
Burada yasiyorlar
Burada kalacaklar”

Madrid, June 2008

Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE (ML)Workers Communist Party of France – PCOF
Workers Communist Party of Denmark – APK
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey– TDKP
Communist Platform (Italy)
Marxist-Leninist Organization Revolution of Norway

Note: Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 cosigns this declaration.

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We condemn the “shameful” immigration guideline

The guideline adopted by the Parliament of the European Union, last 18^th of June, is a clear demonstration of the imperialist and repressive nature of the EU, herald of neoliberal and anti people policy.

This guideline which permits to jail for 6 to 18 months any “illegal” immigrant, that’s to say an undocumented immigrant, is in contradiction with all the international agreements about human rights ; it’s a measure of discrimination, a racist one, marked by xenophobia against the people, especially the people of Latin America, Africa and Asia.

They show a total lack of any historical memory, those European governments, like Berlusconi, Merkel, Sarkozy, Zapatero, etc. who forget that the Europeans cruelly colonized the American continent, India and a great part of Asia; that during the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th centuries millions of Spanish, Italians, Germen, English, French, Swedish, Portuguese, in other words, people all over Europe were forced to emigrate to America, seeking a better life, a workplace, some security that were denied to them in their own country because of the local and civil wars (remind the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939).

They have been welcomed and accepted everywhere. Their integration in these countries is a plain reality. Europe denies the same right to the people of America that these had generously granted to the European immigrants.

The African people have been plundered, slaughtered, their native economy has been destroyed, they have been submitted to slavery by the European capitalists (of Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain) and today, after having plunged them in poverty and endemic famine, they impeach them to work in Europe. The immigrants risk their lives in fragile canoes or wrecked ships in trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, the Detroit of Gibraltar or the Atlantic Ocean.

Today, neo-colonialism and the penetration of military and economic powers continue the plunder and the ruin of the African continent, they maintain in power the reactionary and bloody governments and support them against their own people, as does the Tunisian autocrat Ben Ali, or the autocrat of Morocco who subdues his own people and the Sahraouian people.

In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been signed, in which it is said (article 13) : “everybody has the right to circulate freely and to choose his residence in the territory of a State”. The immigrants, because they are without protection, must have the right to this article. Unless the human rights are only for rich countries, for colonialists or imperialists ?

Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, immediately after having been informed about the content of this infamous decree of the EU, wrote a courageous and accurate text which has been rapidly supported by many prominent leaders of Latin America, as Corréa, Chavez, and others. Morales states with accurate reason “the immigrants are not responsible for the problems of social cohesion which affect Europe ; they are the results of the model of development imposed by the North which destroys the whole planet and which dismantle the societies of the human beings.”

Even if we doubt of their capability to do it, because of their capitalist interests and because of their neoliberal policy, we ask claim for the UE to elaborate a policy which respects the immigrants, their rights, does not stigmatize them; which does not segregate them. As president Morales says that its time for the European governments repair “ once for all, all the tremendous historical, economical and ecological debt that the European countries towards the Third World (…) You cannot fail today with your “policies of integration” as you failed with their so-called “mission of civilization” in the times of the colonies…”.

The workers of Europe and all over the world must unite in order to stop with this criminal policy of discrimination of the European Union, similar to the policy of the US imperialism and of the other imperialisms all over the world. The slogan shouted in those days in the streets of Paris by French workers and their immigrant brothers, must sound with force in all the countries where workers of other countries and continents are living; it’s a slogan of solidarity, of fraternity, of resistance to the mechanism of exploitation of capitalism.

“They work here, they live here, they remain here!”

June 2008

Signatures

Latin America and Caribbean countries
Revolutionary Communist Party of Brazil – PCR
Communist Marxist Leninist Party of Ecuador – PCMLE
Communist Party of Mexico (Marxist Leninist) – PCM(ML)
Communist Party of Labour of Dominican Republic – PCT
Communist Marxist Leninist Party of Venezuela – PCMLV
Chilean Communist Party – PC(AP)
Avanzar Group of Argentina
Communist Current Gustavo Machado of Venezuela – CCGM

Europe
Workers’ Communist Party of Denmark – APK
Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE(ML)
Communist Youth of Spain (Marxist-Leninist)
Proletarian Union (Spain)
Platform of Citizens for the Republic (Spain)
October 17 Publications (Spain)
Republican Associations of Coslada (Spain)
SODEPAZ (Spain)
Workers’ Communist Party of France – PCOF
Group Che Guevara (France)
Collective of the Communist Circles: Circle Henri Barbusse, Communist Coordination 59/62, Communist Circle of Alsace, Communist Circle of the Region of Paris
Union of Communist Revolutionaries of France
Editions Democrite
Movement of the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-55
Communist Platform of Italy
Editorial Board of Land and Liberation (Italy)
Marxist-Leninist Organization Revolution of Norway
Communist Platform (Marxist Leninist) of Norway – KPml
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey – TDKP
Organisation for the Construction of a Workers’ Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany – KPD)
Communist Party of Germany (Roter Morgen) – KPD
Communist Party of Germany Marxist-Leninist) (Roter Stern) – KPD(ML)
Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany – MLPD
Association of the Worker Trade Unions of Russia “Defence of Labour” (Russia)
Working Youth Organization "Red Kommuna" (Ukraine, Kharkov)
Marxist organization of the workers "Orion" (Latvia)
“Proletarskaya Gazeta” (Russia, Leningrad)
The Communists (Switzerland, Geneva)

Africa
Revolutionary Communist Party of Upper Volta – PCRV
Revolutionary Communist Party of Ivory Coast – PCRCI
Workers’ Communist Party of Tunisia – PCOT
Democratic Party of Labor (Tunisia) – PDT
Communist Party of Benin – PCB
Cultural Committee for Democracy in Benin – CCDB
Collective of Militants of Morocco, of Immigration, Action and Struggle
Fernent – Movement of Pan African Workers of Senegal – Fernent/MTP-S
Sanfin, the Cloud, of Mali
Democratic Front of the Comoros
Collective of Associations and Friends of the Comoros – CAAC

Asia and Middle East
Party of Labour of Iran – PTI Toufan
Revolutionary Democracy (India)
New Trade Union Initiative (India)
Workers’ Front of Pakistan (Pakistan Mazdur Mahaaz)
Communist Party of Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party
Socialist Party of Malaysia – PSM

International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations

This text exists in French, English, Spanish, German, Danish, Farsi and Greek.

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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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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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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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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 23^rd of March to 2^nd 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 21^st 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 14^th 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 3^rd of January they blocked the access to the area erecting barricades, digging trenches and destroying bridges. This situation lasted until the 14^th 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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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)

2^nd June 2008

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Who is Francisco Caraballo (video in Spanish)

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May Day Celebration was Tarnished in Lefkosia

We republish the following article written by Yusuf Alkim, GS of the Socialist Party of Cyprus.

As in all countries, May Day, the day of unity, struggle and solidarity of the international working class, was also celebrated in Cyprus. One of the celebrations took place in Elefteria Square in Lefkosia where Greek and Turkish Cypriot workers celebrated May Day together.

The workers, laborers and the revolutionaries first assembled in front of the headquarters of the All Cyprus Workers' Union (PEO) in Lefkosia, before the May Day procession. As the procession started AKEL Central Committee member Yorgos Lukaidis approached the General Secretary of Socialist Party of Cyprus (SPC) Yusuf Alkim and demanded that SPC remove the banners of our comrade, the leader of the world communists and proletarians, the Great Leader of the USSR, Stalin, which were carried by the SPC members. He claimed that the demonstration was not a political one and that this May Day demonstration was also not related to Stalin. When Yorgos Lukaidis was asked if this was the decision of AKEL, he informed SPC that it was his personal opinion. General Secretary of Socialist Party of Cyprus informed Yorgos Lukaidis that his personal demand to remove Stalin posters could not be accepted since this was his personal wish, that the 3 banners of Stalin in question were not being carried by individuals as personal choice, but by the Socialist Party of Cyprus as an ideological choice.

Having received such a reply, Yorgos Lukaidis left SPC group, but than returned with another reply. This time he said that the decision to ask SPC to remove Stalin's banners was AKEL's decision. On hearing this, and determined not to give up Stalin due to AKEL's pressure, and having to abide by the decision of the organizers of the demonstration (AKEL and PEO), the group of members of Socialist Party of Cyprus stayed well behind the procession, thus ensuring that Stalin banners were carried during the procession all the way to Elefteria Square.

As the Socialist Party of Cyprus group entered the Elefteria Square after everybody else took their place in the square, it was welcomed by the applause of the worker comrades who were present in the square-this was a large section of those who were present at the square. Socialist Party of Cyprus group in return saluted them with \"Zhito Stalin\" (Long Live Stalin) and \"Long Live Red May Day\" slogans and left the Eleftria Square rather than give up comrade Stalin and accept the suppression of their communist ideology by AKEL and PEO.

Socialist Party of Cyprus fights for independence of Cyprus, for an anti-imperialist Cyprus, for the elimination of all foreign military presence and getting rid of the three imperialist guarantors (oppressors) of our island. It believes that the solution of Cyprus question can be achieved not by appeasing the imperialists but by destroying them, kicking them out of our island. It demands the nationalization of all big lands and private companies, and that the bourgeois nationalism and the bourgeois nationalist propaganda should be outlawed so that the working people of Cyprus can live without the interference of the so called "motherlands" and the UK and NATO and thus the traitorous local bourgeoisie and thus in peace.

The decision of AKEL to ban the banners of Stalin being carried by SPC procession at the May Day celebrations was an insult not only to Socialist Party of Cyprus but to world communism and to world proletariat, and thus to all the Cypriot patriots, For a Cypriot patriot can only be either a communist or a close friend of communism. Who else is left to fight world imperialism and reaction?

Socialist Party of Cyprus strongly protests this decision taken by AKEL leadership at the beginning of the May Day procession. This action of AKEL was an anathema to the spirit of the day, the Day of Unity, Struggle and Solidarity of the International Working Class.

Long live Stalin!
Long Live Communism!
Long live independent and free Cyprus!
Down with the traitors to the Soviet Motherland!

Yusuf Alkim
General Secretary of Socialist Party of Cyprus
On behalf of the Central Committee

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Turkey: “Proportional Fascism”

May Day was celebrated in Turkey like in many other places all over the world. The Turkish workers planned to gather in Taksim Square in Istanbul and hold a peaceful demonstration. All the main labor unions of the country participated including the Turkey Labor Unions Confederation (Turk-Is), the Revolutionary Labor Unions Confederation (DISK) and the Confederation of Public Employees Labor Unions (KESK). Among the participants there was also the Labor Party of Turkey (EMEP) and other left-wing parties and organizations. But they all confronted the government’s stern will to prevent the demonstration through brute force and violence. For a second consecutive year, worker’s demonstrations were not allowed in Istanbul. The authorities have banned May Day celebrations in Taksim Square after 36 people were killed on May 1, 1977; a date since referred to as the "Bloody May 1." This event is seen was a turning point in Turkish history and an important factor that paved the way for the military coup in 1980. As in last year, the Erdogan government tried to prevent the rally of thousands workers and youth in the Taksim Square in Istanbul. Over 30,000 policemen along with military forces were in and around Taksim completely blocking the access to the square. They were there to terrify the masses of the workers, trade unionists and youth.

A group of demonstrators were repeating slogans like "Resign, Governor!" against Istanbul Governor Muammer Gόler, who had declared the government would use "proportional force" against protestors. What this actually meant became clear from the early morning. At 8:00 am, the police raided and looted the DISK union offices. At 10:00 am, police and security forces launched their main attack. Using copious amounts of tear gas, pepper spray, as well as water cannons, they managed to disperse the crowd of demonstrators marching towards Taksim. The police chased the retreating workers in the surrounding streets, continuing to throw tear gas and beating with batons almost everyone that was on their way. No distinction was made between demonstrators and passers-by. Citizens without the power to resist were beaten while falling to the ground and helpless women were kicked. The police did not hesitate to throw tear gas canisters into the Şişli Etfal Hospital where injured demonstrators were brought to receive first aid. Thirty-eight people, including eight policemen and one journalist, were injured and, in total, 530 demonstrators were arrested. According to the Anatolian Agency, 519 were released the following day, and the remaining 11 sent to the office of the public prosecutor.

The way “Rizospastis”, the newspaper of the Greek revisionist party “K”KE, covered the May Day events in Istanbul was totally misleading. For example, it mentioned that “among the 500 detainees there were 130 members of TKP while 30 others suffered serious head injuries”. Not even TKP itself makes such “heroic” claims in its official website. What in reality happened was that the TKP bloc approached the Taksim square almost unchecked whereas the EMEP bloc and other demonstrators were confronted by strong police forces. As a matter of fact, the people in the TKP bloc faced the least of police violence compared to all others.

Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55
May 2008

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