The working class in the Khrushchev-Brezhnev period was no longer the owner of the means of production

The restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union (1953-1990).

The working class in the Khrushchev-Brezhnev period was no longer the owner of the means of production

a. Socialist production relations were replaced with capitalist production relations

It is known that “no matter what the economic forms of production are, the workers and the means of production remain always its factors” and that “for production to take place they must unite” (K. Marx). The essence of this relation in the production process, that is, the essence of the production relations is determined by the ownership relations - the form of ownership is the essential and the main feature of the production relations – which social class has the ownership of the means of production and how the union of the producers with the means of production is realized and this is precisely what distinguishes the different epochs of social organization: “the particular way that this union is realized distinguishes the different economic epochs of social structure” (K. Marx): slave-owning, feudal, capitalist and socialist-communist system (ownership is here a historical-economic, not a legal, category).

After the victorious October armed uprising, and the complete smashing of the bourgeois state machinery, the working class of Russia took the political power, established the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and, over the next years, proceeded gradually to all the necessary revolutionary changes in the sphere of economy, the socialization of all means of production abolishing the capitalist relations of production and thus making the new socialist-communist relations of production.

Upon the establishment of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, the working class became the dominant class in the socialist Soviet Union not only politically but also economically: it became the owner of the means of production. As a social class, it possessed and controlled the means of production through the Dictatorship of the Proletariat guided by the communist party: “the Dictatorship of the Proletariat is complete only if it is led by one party, the Communist Party, which does not and cannot share power with other parties” (Stalin).

In this way, the separation of the direct producers, i.e. of the working class, from the means of production was terminated – a characteristic feature of the capitalist mode of production and the proletariat – and the historically last form of exploitation, the capitalist, was eliminated.

The abolition of the capitalist ownership (private-state) in the means of production eliminated the antagonistic contradiction between production forces and production relations.

In contrast, the overthrow of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat after the death-assassination of Joseph Stalin (March 1953) and its replacement with the dictatorship of the emerging bourgeois class not only resulted in the loss of power from the working class – it was not any more the dominant class in the Khrushchev-Brezhnev period – but also in the loss of control over the means of production; the working class was not any more the owner of the means of production which hitherto controlled and possessed as a class through the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

A few years later, in the 22^nd Congress of CPSU (1961), even the soviet revisionists themselves admitted that there was neither a state of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in the Soviet Union after 1953 nor a communist party and that these had been replaced by, respectively, the “all people’s state”, that is, the dictatorship of the new bourgeoisie, and the “all people’s party”, that is, a bourgeois social democratic type of party.

The fact that the working class in the Soviet Union of the Khrushchev-Brezhnev period had lost its historical mission as a leading social force and that, moreover, had been permanently removed from the management of the economy, and, therefore, was not any more the owner of the means of production is reflected in the following:

First, in the overthrow of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat - through which the working class owned the means of production – and its replacement with the dictatorship of the new bourgeoisie, that is, from the change of the state’s class character: transformed from a state of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat to “all people’s state”, i.e. the dictatorship of the new bourgeoisie.

Second, in the change of its party’s class character: from a revolutionary communist party – that expressed, defended its interests and led the Dictatorship of the Proletariat – it became an “all people’s party”, that is, a bourgeois social democratic type of party, which no longer was guided by the worldview of the proletariat, the revolutionary Marxism, i.e. Leninism-Stalinism but by the bourgeois ideological-political current of the Khrushchevian revisionism. This party was on the forefront of the capitalist reforms that eliminated socialism-communism and brought about the restoration of the capitalist production relations.

Third, in the loss of control over the means of production that obviously deprived the working class of the capacity to “have a say” in the state and in the economy, that is, in the control and management of the production

Fourth, in the industrial units where, according to the 1965 reforms, only the manager decided what would be produced, determined the wages and, in addition, how many workers would be hired and how many would be fired, leaving the working class as simple production force, like in the traditional capitalism of the western countries

Fifth, in the appropriation and distribution of the social product which the working class also did not influence in the least.

In the process of capitalist restoration, the overthrow of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and its replacement with the “all people’s state” was unavoidably accompanied with the elimination of the socialist-communist production relations and their replacement with capitalist ones. The change in the class character of the state was the cause of the complete change in the content of the property relations – the most important element of the production relations – that is to say, the transformation of socialist to capitalist ownership that preceded the change of the other elements of the production relations like the distribution, the exchange relations etc. which were also converted from socialist-communist to capitalist relations. It could not happen otherwise since the character and the content of ownership is dependent on and determined by the state’s character (in this case by the “all people’s state”).

Of course, the state property in the economy of the Soviet Union for a number of reasons that are beyond the scope of the article was not divided in smaller parts but it retained its form. However, the content of this property had radically changed: it had lost the socialist-communist character and it was transformed to state-capitalist property.

1. The capitalist character of the state enterprises and cooperatives

1.1 State enterprises

During the Leninist-Stalinist period (1917-1953), especially after the construction of the economic foundation of the socialist-communist society, the state property constituted of the two forms of socialist-communist property (state and collective/cooperative). It was the dominant and the most advanced form of property in the socialist economy of the Soviet Union to the level of which the collective/cooperative property was developing so that they will be finally merged in the unified communist property through the tractor stations. The latter were abolished by the bourgeois-socialdemocratic CPSU in 1958 and as a consequence not only the merging of these two forms of property was cancelled but their content was radically altered.

The state enterprises were socialist because they constituted collective social property of the working class that controlled and managed through the Dictatorship of the Proletariat under the guidance of the communist party. It was the presence of the state of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat which determined the socialist character of the state enterprises because, as it is known, state property is not by itself socialist (due to belonging to the state) but because it is in the hands of the state of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, thus, in the hands of the working class.

Precisely for this reason, the state property in socialism-communism has a completely opposite social content and orientation than state property in the capitalist and revisionist countries being in the hands of the exploiting bourgeoisie. It is obvious that the bourgeois nationalization has nothing in common with the socialist nationalization of the means of production carried out by the state of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and results in the abolition of capitalist exploitation.

For as long as the capitalists remain the ruling class, state property is a form of capitalist property, a state monopoly property, in which exploitation of workers prevails: “as long as the proprietor classes stay in power, nationalization does not amount to elimination of exploitation but only to the change of its form” (Fr. Engels), because the bourgeois state is still the state of the capitalists, the defender of capitalist exploitative system.

The course of Soviet Union in the path of socialism-communism was halted when the Dictatorship of the Proletariat was overthrown and replaced by the bourgeois “all people’s state” resulting in the loss of the control-property of the state enterprises from the working class.

The change of the state’s class character radically altered the content of the enterprises in the economy of the Soviet Union: from socialist they were transformed to capitalist enterprises since it is the state’s character that determines the character of state enterprises, in this case the bourgeois “all people’s state” , that is, the dictatorship of the new bourgeoisie.

The anti-Marxist claim made by the Khrushchevian revisionists, that socialism was allegedly preserved in the Soviet Union after 1953 due to presence of state enterprises, does not have any basis because it was precisely the new state, i.e. the bourgeois “all people’s state” that determined the capitalist character of the state enterprises during that period. If one accepts this false and totally baseless claim, then one is obliged to regard as “socialist” state enterprises of the western capitalist countries or to regard as “socialist” even the “Bismarckian kind nationalizations” or to call socialist “the institutions like the Royal Maritime Company or the Royal Porcelain Manufacture” (Fr. Engels: “Anti-Dühring”, 1877).

Besides the fact that the character of the state enterprises is primarily determined by the character of the political power, that is, by which class has the political power and the corresponding class state, the capitalist character of the state enterprises is also reflected in how they function and the purpose of the production. The state enterprises of the Krushchevian period were fully autonomous commodity producers that worked on the basis of complete economic self-sufficiency (= «Chosrastschot» = «Wirtschaftliche Rechnungsfuehrung») guided by private-financial criteria (Profit-Efficiency) and had profit as their exclusive purpose. More accurately, the purpose of the state enterprises was the maximization of profit, like in the traditional capitalism of the western countries, and not, any more, the satisfaction of society’s ever increasing needs. The profit maximization, pursued through the price increases, was admitted by the soviet revisionists themselves: “there are enterprises the directors of which do not see only the reduction of expenses as the source of profit but also the illegal determination of prices. The directors of enterprises who set higher prices in their own orders, place their own private-business interests above those of the whole society and, in this way, they cause damage to the state” (“Soviet Science”, 8/1969).

So, after the launch of the capitalist reforms, the large enterprises of various branches in the economy of the Soviet Union and the other revisionist countries that could increase their profit not through the increase of production and the decrease of expenses but through the increase of prices “in the example of the capitalist monopolies” (O. Lange) ended up to that point correctly predicted, already from 1957, by the world famous Polish revisionist economist Oscar Lange: “in the case of the larger enterprises, it is feared that they will come to an agreement among themselves and set high prices. If this happens then the enterprise will lose its socialist character and we will have a syndicated monopoly. Every enterprise, or group of enterprises, in an agreement among themselves, would be de facto owners of the means of production and not managers of the total social product and would pursue to extract the maximum profits through the determination of prices favorable to them. In this case, production would not serve the best possible fulfillment of the whole society and the driving force of production would be the pursue of profit by these individual enterprises, of their staff or the united enterprises and this would have nothing in common with socialism” (O. Lange) (our underlining)

This development was observed, and openly confirmed and admitted after published articles in the revisionist press: “our experience shows a dangerous trend for arbitrary determination of prices” («Voprosi Ekonomikii», 6/1970) “the producer dictates the prices… and often maintains shortages of special goods to increase pressure on the consumer” («Ekonomicheskije Nauki», 11/1971).

Besides, one of basic goals of the capitalist reform of 1965 was, among other things, the establishment in various branches of the economy of the Soviet Union of large monopolistic enterprises and complexes, monopolistic unions that took the form of combines, trusts and cartels or as it was often mentioned “one combine, one trust” in «Verordnung ueber den sozialistischen staatlichen Produktionsbetrieb» (4 October 1965) and permanently repeated later in various other publications «Organizacija Upravlenija Promishljenih Objedihjenjij», p. 16, Kiev 1980), etc

1.2 Cooperatives

The cooperative and collective farm property was the second and less advanced form of the socialist-communist economy of the Soviet Union at its socialist stage in the Leninist-Stalinist period (1917-1953).

Cooperatives in socialism is not of course a new phenomenon since they also exist in capitalism where they have, however, a completely different character: they represent a capitalist form of economy, because the means of production belong to the capitalists who control the economy and exploit the farmers while, at the same time, constitute the politically dominant class organized in the bourgeois state: “in the capitalist state, cooperatives are no doubt collective capitalist institutions” (Lenin: “On Cooperation”, 1923).

What determined the socialist character of the cooperatives in the Soviet Union of Lenin-Stalin was the working class rule, i.e. the presence of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat the state of which owned the basic means of production. In connection to this, Lenin pointed out: “the system of civilized cooperators, given social ownership of the means of production, given the class victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, the system of civilized cooperators is precisely the system of socialism” (Lenin: “On Cooperation”, 1923) “under our system, cooperative enterprises differ from the private-capitalist enterprises because they are collective enterprises, but do not differ from socialist enterprises if the land on which they are situated and means of production belong to the state, i.e., the working-class” (Lenin: “On Cooperation”, 1923)

Therefore, the element that determines the character (capitalist or socialist) of the cooperative property is the class nature of the state.

Following the prevalence of the Khrushchevian revisionist counter-revolution the overthrow of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and its replacement with the “all people’s state” in the Soviet Union, the working class and the peasants lost the power, while at the same time the character of the cooperatives changed: from a socialist form of property, cooperative property became a capitalist one, the cooperatives were converted to a capitalist form of economy and operated, too, as individual autonomous commodity producers, as the state enterprises, on the basis of complete economic self-sufficiency and guided by the private-financial criteria of Profit-Efficiency.

Besides the presence of state and cooperative capitalist property in the economy of the Soviet Union, the capitalist reforms paved the path to the development of a private capitalist sector in agriculture, small industry, services, in different professions etc. Next to the state-cooperative sector, the emerging private sector became an important part of the economy thanks to the financial support from the state (laws, credits, etc). The development of the private sector was such that the small capitalist property was formally recognized in various articles of the new Brezhnev constitution (1977). This capitalist property took much larger dimensions since: “small production engenders capitalism and the bourgeoisie continuously, daily, hourly, spontaneously, and on a mass scale” (Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. XXV, pp.173 and 189).

The private capitalist sector under the form of “auxiliary household of the collective farmers” and “workers and employees” – terms that the Krushchevian-Brezhnevites used to conceal the private capitalist businesses in agriculture, in small industry and elsewhere – was under constant expansion and development, achieving an increasingly bigger contribution in the production of agricultural goods: “according to 1970 data, 38% of all vegetables, 35% of meat and 53% of eggs were produced in the auxiliary households of the Soviet Union” (Political Economy, v. 5, p. 310, Athens 1980). According to “Liternaturnaja Gazeta” (11/5/1977), the private capitalist sector includes 3.6 million hectares of arable land which produce 31% of dairy products, 59% of potatoes etc. Towards the middle 1970’s, the arable land increased to 7.5 million hectares yielding the 64% of potatoes, 42% of meat, 40% of milk, 65% of eggs, 20% of woolen of the total production. What must be noted is the constant increase of the volume of production coming from the private capitalist sector at the expense of the production coming from the cooperatives.

In the 1977 constitution – the constitution of the capitalist restoration – despite the abundant “socialist” demagogy, it was openly formulated and, for the first time, legally established that the “soviet” state of that period was not the Dictatorship of the Proletariat but the bourgeois “all people’s state”, i.e. the dictatorship of the new bourgeoisie. In addition, all the capitalist reforms were legally ascertained including (article 16) the capitalist principles of “economic autonomy and initiative of the enterprises” (p. 47), of the “economic self-sufficiency” (p. 48), the “profit, cost and other economic levers and incentives (p.48).

Apart from the establishment of state and cooperative property as forms of capitalist property in various articles of the new bourgeois constitution, the right to forms of private capitalist property was also established (articles 13 and 17) using phrases such as “supplementary part of land”, “parts of land provided the state and the collective farms according to the law on the supplementary household for tree and vegetable growing” (p. 46), “private labor in the sphere of small industry, agriculture, services… and other forms of labor activity” (p. 48) which doesn’t include only small pieces of land but it constitutes a large private sector of the economy.

To be continued with: b. In the commodity economy of the Soviet Union, labor power had been anew converted to commodity.

Read More »

Greek unions to hold new general strike October 19 and nationwide civil service strike October 5

Greek unions GSEE (the General Confederation of Greek Workers)  - ADEDY (the Civil Servants' Confederation) on Wednesday announced a general strike on October 19 and a nationwide civil service strike on October 5 against austerity cuts designed to secure a last-minute EU-IMF debt rescue.

The Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 supports both strikes and has released posters, flyers, etc. to support the struggle.

The last general strike was on June 28-29 this year.

Archive: Greek unions call 48-hour strike June 28-29 - From our intervation to the June 15 general strike - Greek unions to hold new general strike June 15 - Mobilisations of GSEE-ADEDY on June 4 - Greek unions to hold new general strike May 11

Read More »

“The real emancipation of the peoples is the revolution and socialism”

From En Marcha, #1545
Organ of the Central Committee of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador
August 19 to 25, 2011

As part of the work that the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations is carrying out, last July a meeting of the Latin American parties took place. At the meeting were the Revolutionary Communist Party of Brazil, the Communist Party of Colombia (Marxist-Leninist), the Communist Party of Labor of the Dominican Republic, the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, the Communist Party of Mexico (Marxist-Leninist) and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Venezuela.

After evaluating the work that these parties are carrying out in each of the countries and discussing the most important events that are taking place in the region and the world, the meeting approved a Political Declaration that we reproduce below.

U.S. imperialism and its European allies: France, England, Spain, Italy, are trying to manipulate the just struggle of the Arab peoples, to channel the indignation of the working masses and the youth towards a change of names, maintaining the economic and social structures and the weight of dependency.

After reviewing the latest events in our countries, in Latin America and the world we declare:

1. The stories told by imperialism claiming that there is a recovery from the crisis are falling apart every day, with the increasing numbers of unemployed, the decrease in production, the worsening of the fiscal deficits and the increase in the foreign debt in most of the countries of Europe, in Japan and the U.S.A., which seriously affect the supposed stability of the capitalist system and sharpening its inherent contradictions. This prolonged crisis that is affecting all the countries of the world shows not only the failure of the recovery policies implemented by imperialism, but also the decay of the system, which is mortally wounded and incapable of guaranteeing the well-being and freedom for which humanity is struggling.

2. The struggle of the working class, the working people, the youth and the peoples is spreading all over the world. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Syria, Yemen and other countries of North Africa and Asia Minor are an example of the struggle against the reactionary dictatorships and governments, who with the applause of the bourgeoisies and the imperialist powers have sunk these peoples into the deepest crisis, hunger and the cruelest misery, despite the immense wealth generated by the exploitation of oil, gas and other natural resources. In addition, with the complicity of the UN they resort to military intervention, to the bombing of the civilian population in Libya, using the pretext of the fight against tyranny, all with the aim of guaranteeing the established order and the continuity of all its profits that are the product of colonization and exploitation of these peoples. We completely reject the foreign intervention in Libya. It is up to the Libyan people themselves to resolve the problems of their country. No more military aggression and intervention in Afghanistan and Palestine! We Communists raise the banner of self-determination, sovereignty, well-being and freedom!

3. Active and valiant opposition to imperialism and the reactionary governments is also alive in Europe. In Greece, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Ireland, France, England and other countries of Europe there has been a general rejection of the reduction in wages, the pension reforms, the increase in taxes, privatizations and the reduction of the budgets for health care, education, housing and in general of all the legislative programs by which the crisis is being placed on the shoulders of the working masses. Numerous strikes and mobilizations are showing an important revival of the working class and youth that is again speaking out for unity and the political initiative to confront the recovery policies and to reject the reactionary governments. The great mobilizations of youths that are taking place in Spain and other European countries deserve particular mention, which show the exhaustion of bourgeois democracy and the search for roads to social liberation.

4. In Latin America the struggle continues, it is showing a greater advance and development. The structural adjustment policies implemented by most of the governments in the last years have not achieved their expected objectives, much less do they represent measures aimed at the well-being of the masses. The different struggles that are developing in our countries calling for higher wages, labor stability, respect for the right to association, negotiation, collective contracts and strikes, the rejection of outsourcing, the demands for health care and education, greater rights and liberties are arousing the ever greater participation of numerous organizations on the continent that do not kneel before the measures of the bourgeois governments and that struggle for political freedom for the people. The student youth in Chile together with the working masses and the Mapuche people are carrying out large mobilizations in defense of freedom, public education and democracy. The desire for change is breaking through in our various countries, large contingents of the masses are participating in the political struggle and are taking up the banner of working for the victory of democratic and progressive governments that really promote the defense of sovereignty, respect of human rights, well-being and political freedom. The democratic and anti-imperialist tendency in Latin America is an unquestionable fact that is opening the way, is growing and offering numerous possibilities for the advance of the revolution.

5. The rise through elections of several democratic and progressive governments in Latin America constitute important steps in that direction. Nevertheless today, the existence and continuity of these governments is threatened by the rightist offensive of imperialism and the local bourgeoisies that have not given up the privileges that they have enjoyed in our countries for centuries. The offensive of imperialism and the oligarchies has reversed the direction of several of those governments, which have been transformed into open defenders of the capitalist system, of foreign domination; into a form of the old ways of governing, into those who carry out repression against the working masses and the youth, into prettifiers of representative democracy and promoters of developmentalist and reformist measures. In fact, these governments and history show that real change, the social revolution and national liberation cannot be carried through to the end under the leadership of bourgeois and petty bourgeois classes and parties. That responsibility belongs to the working class, the working masses, the peoples and the youth, to the revolutionary party of the proletariat, to the genuinely revolutionary organizations and parties.

6. Imperialism, its allies and servants, the local bourgeoisies in all the countries are persisting in their reactionary policies of repressing the struggle of the working masses, of the indigenous peoples and the youth by fire and sword, at the time that they try to co-opt the social movement by means of social welfare policies and one reform or another. One expression of those policies is the presence of U.S. imperialist troops and those of their Latin American servants in Haiti. In the same way it is continuing the trade embargo against Cuba and actions aimed at subverting the Venezuelan process. The persecution, jailing and assassination of social fighters and revolutionaries are irrefutable testimony of the fact that the struggle continues and that repression, however harsh and bloodthirsty it may be, cannot do away with the ideals and the determination to fight for social and national liberation. We emphatically express our solidarity with the comrades who are suffering repression and torture in Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru. In particular we demand the freedom of the Ecuadorean student leader Marcelo Rivera, who remains in prison, accused and condemned as a terrorist by the Correa government, for defending university autonomy.

7. The betrayal by the government of Rafael Correa and the struggle of the Bolivian workers against “the gasolinazo” in Bolivia are making clear not only the real limitation of these governments, but also the need to make clear to the working class and the social and mass organizations what is the real road to social change. Experience shows that neither reformism nor class conciliation can lead to change. Real change, the genuine emancipation of our peoples is the revolution and socialism, which is only possible if there is a revolutionary political vanguard capable of pushing through a genuinely revolutionary program at the head of the struggles of the working class, the working masses and the peoples.

8. The continuity and development of the struggle of the workers, the peoples and the youth in the countries of Latin America is guaranteed by historical tradition and the present combats, the perspective is the developing along the road of the social revolution. Our Continent is and will be the scene of great liberating struggles and we Marxist-Leninist communists will fulfill and affirm our position as shock troops of the revolution and socialism.

9. The strengthening of the right-wing, corporatist and social welfare policies in most of the governments of Latin America will not make us back down from the search for true social and national emancipation. We Marxist-Leninist parties of Latin America reiterate our commitment to link ourselves boldly and decisively to the struggles that the working class, the working people, the peasantry, the youth, the women and the peoples in general are developing, as well as our irrevocable decision to advance in the unity and leadership of their struggles, winning them for the revolution and socialism.

10. We make the words of Lenin ours: “If in the course of the struggle we win the majority of the workers to our side – not only the majority of the exploited, but the majority of the exploited and oppressed – we will really win”.

July, 2011

Read More »

Danish elections ends 10 years rule of the right - installing a coalition government led by Social Democrats

By Kommunistisk Politik International

Ten years rule of warmongering, racist and reactionary policies has been rejected, paving the way for another neoliberal government led by social democrat Helle Thorning Schmidt, the first woman to become prime minister
The general elections to the Danish parliament on September 15th finished a ten year old government coalition of two bourgeois right parties, led by the right liberal party Venstre (V), together with the Conservatives (K)

Pia Kjærsgaard, leader of the Danish People's Party, with the defeated prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen

This so called center-right VK-government was for almost 8 years led by the international war criminal Anders Fogh Rasmussen, presently general secretary in NATO, and for the last two years by Lars Løkke Rasmussen It has all along been supported by the extreme right party Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People’s Party- O), that has set an anti-immigrant, racist and islamophobic agenda, that has made Denmark infamous as a front runner for reactionary politics.
For the past decade Denmark has pursued a so-called ‘activist foreign policy’ – which basically means being in the front rows of the imperialist wars, initiated by the US and NATO: Afghanistan, Iraq and now also bombing Libya.
The neoliberal economic policies of tax reductions for the rich and the monopolies and social cutbacks for the rest, boosting an artificial boom of the housing market, that greatly increased the indebtedness, has caused a severe and prolonged economic crises since 2008. Since 2008 tens of thousands of industrial work places have been closed down or moved abroad.
The crises policy of the VK-government has been massive economic injections for the speculative banking sector (four ‘bank packages’ since 2008, the last one less than two months ago), combined with a great number of social cutbacks and austerity measures. This includes increasing pension age and reducing the period of unemployment support to two years from four.  
By September 2011 the Danes have had enough of the racist and warmongering polices and the capitalist crises policy of making the poor pay. They rejected new neoliberal reforms such as a new retirement reform,  that would mean a progressive increase in working years, so that the ypung generation today will be expected to work until they are well past 70 years old!
The crisis in Denmark is  very deep, and the transition of government power was also facilitated by the fact, that the Social Democrats several times before have been called to be in charge in times of crisis by the ruling bourgeoisie. This should guarantee the active cooperation of the trade unions and prevent serious mass mobilizations of the workers and youth.
There are 8 parties in the Danish parliament, four of them constituting the so called ‘Blue Bloc’, led by Fogh and Løkke Rasmussen, four others making up the ‘Red bloc’, with the social democrats (S) led by Helle Thorning Schmidt as the biggest. The ‘Red bloc’ includes two other social democratic, reformist parties – The People’s Socialist Party (SF) and the Unity List, originally an alliance of left wing socialists, soviet revisionists, Trotskyites and Maoists, now a more or les unified parliamentary party.  

Right now negotiations of a platform for the new government of Thorning Schmidt are taking place. Besides the close alliance of S & SF the next government will presumably include Det Radikale Venstre (Danish Social Liberal Party), while the left Unity List will play the role as parliamentary support for the government – and thus be termed ‘a center-left’ coalition.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, leader of teh Social Democrats and new prime minister, with coalition partner Villy Søvndal, leader of the People's Socialist Party

The core of the new government – the Social Democrats and Socialist People’s Party - also suffered defeat in the elections. With 24,8 % of the votes the Social Democrats had the worst electoral results since 1906. Adding the votes of the partner party they claim 34 % of all votes.
The voters did not subscribe to the ‘Fair solution’ crises plan of the two parties, that a.o. envisaged an increase of the working time with one hour a week, - ’12 minutes a day’ – from 37 to 38 hours.
The two other coalition parties, which have been vocally opposing the anti.immigration policies and the dominant influence of the Danish People’s Party triumphed.
The Social Liberal Party with 9,5 % almost doubled their number of representatives, while the Unity List with tripled from 4 to 12 with 6,7 % of the votes.

The very popular Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen, figurehead of the Unity List

The Danish press has been stressing the fact that three of the party leaders of the ‘Red Bloc’ are women as a factor in the electoral victory.
The Thorning-Schmidt government will undoubtedly pursue  a neoliberal crisis policy, as demanded by the European Union and the Europact – in spite of illusions created by the Unity List and other left forces, that the change of government will been a totally new course in favour of the workers.
Thus the new government will not roll back the ‘reforms’ of the last ten years, including the immigration laws, terror laws and the participation in colonial wars.
Most likely the new retirement ‘reform’ will be decided by the parliament and carried out by the Thorning-Schmidt government. The increase of work hours may be dropped, as suggested by the new prime minister, stating: “The working people should not be forced to pay for the crisis twice”.
The fact is that the workers have already paid twice, and more, while the rich have grown richer.
Thor Workers’ Communist Party APK called for ‘voting blank’ at the elections, as a vote for any of the parties would be a vote for a neoliberal bloc.
The participation in the elections was quite massive – 87,7 %. Almost one percent voted blank.
APK now appeals to progressive trade unions, movements and organsations to start from Day One to mobilize against any implementation of neoliberal policies at the expense of the workers and the majority of people.
September 20th 2011

Read More »

Anasintaxi, issue 353 (1-15/9/2011)

- The fascist bill that cancells  the University Asylum was voted by PASOK - ND - LAOS – DHSY

-IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF SIMOS SEISIDIS – SOLIDARITY WITH ARIS SEIRINIDIS

- Anna Seghers – «Rizospastis» – «Stalin Price»

- The existence of socialism in the Soviet Union's Khrushchev-Brezhnev period: Myth of the socialdemocrat Khrushchevits

- International news

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

-- Tunis Declaration

Read More »

Anasintaxi, issue 351-352 (1-31/8/2011)

-New EU decisions of neocolonial character against our country

-Fascist massacre in Norway

- Norway: action against fascist organisations by Communist Platform (m-l)

- Nikos Zachariades in poetry and songs

- The “brutal” politics of EU leads million of women in deadend, in and ouside the Union

- Correspondence from the Meeting of the Women of the Base in Venezuela

- World Meeting of the Women of the Base in Caracas (4-8 March 2011)

- 1st legal congress of PCOT

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

- Greeting of the ICMLPO to the Congress of the PCOT, presented by Comrade Raul Marco

Read More »

APK: 12 Demands to a New Government

Translated by: The Espresso Stalinist

12 demands to a new government (1)

1. Stop the wars NOW! Welfare to ALL!

2. Jobs to the unemployed, places for interns/trainees/apprentices without places! Start environmentally friendly work: climate friendly energy, renovation of schools, homes, roads, sewerage etc. Places for trainees/interns/apprentices to all – now!

3. The working time must go down, not up! Scrap the lies about shortage of labour power and burden of old people! (2) Right to unemployment benefits in minimum four years – with right to education! Defend the real wage!

4. Right to a life after work! Hands off the “afterwage,” (3) retirement age, and pensions! Restore ”afterwage” from 60 years, state pension from 65 years! Full regulation and equality on transfer payments!

5. Free education to all, equal rights! Drop the reductions of the state educational grants, (4) educational grants to live on! Drop the cuts in education! Abolish users fees! Housing, that can be paid! No to youth unemployment!

6. More hands to welfare, not fewer! Stop the undermining of the public sector! Equal pay now! No privatization of health, the social sector, and public administration! Equal access to medical treatment! A well functioning eldercare! Better conditions for the children families! Stop the cuts on the weakest of the society!

7. Love and solidarity know no borders! No to discrimination, xenophobia and racism. No “point systems” (5) or “24-28-years rules”! (6) Abolish “starthelp” (7) and unpayable fees! Asylum seekers out of the [asylum] centres!

8. Stop the criminalization of political, social and labour struggles. Abolish the terror-laws, (8) the “lout package” (9) and other special laws that have undermined the legal rights of the Danes.

9. Stop the neoliberal EU! No to the union of the monopolies! The Danish exceptions (10) must be maintained! Away with the Euro Plus Pact! Referendums on all changes of the EU treaty! Denmark out of EU!

10. Danish troops out of Afghanistan NOW – Stop the war against Libya! Stop war and occupations: Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine! End Danish war participation NOW! Stop the millitarization! Bring the guilty for participation in illegal wars to justice! Drop the purchase of new fighter jets! Denmark out of the war alliance NATO!

11. Stop climate talks without action! Transition to renewable energy now! Stop the trade of carbon credits! Phasing out of fossil fuels, no to nuclear power! No to gmo-crops! Stop military and wars – the biggest polluters.

12. Stop the tax cuts on the rich, tax them! Tax the multinational corporations! Stop the grants to the capital and the support to the large
agriculture! Drop expensive privatizations and outsourcing [of public services]! Cut down on the apparatus of violence, bureaucracy, and control!

We want neither cuts nor longer working time!
There is another way: Let the rich pay the crisis!

Young, old, men, and women:
It affects us all! Stand together against the slaughter of welfare! Community and solidarity!

Worker´s Communist Party of Denmark

Footnotes

1 First time published 21. January 2011 in ”Kommunistisk Politik” (Communist Policy, the paper of APK).
i.e. dependency ratio

3 Efterløn – a form of early retirement, 5 years before retirement age. Is at 60 years (65 years retirement age), but
it is planned to change it in 2019-2022 to 62 years, with 67 years retirement age. To get it, you must pay a special
contribution for 30 years.

4 SU – “Statens uddannelsesstøtte” (Educational support of the state).

5 http://universitetsavisen.dk/node/8196

6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_year_rule, there is a proposal to lift it to 28 years.

7 Starthjælp -– social benefit given to immigrants from outside the Nordic countries, EU, and Lichtenstein, aswell
to people with Danish citizenship, who have lived more than one year, of the last 8 years, outside of Denmark, the
Nordic countries, EU, and Lichtenstein. It is given to people who are without work and other possibilities to support
themselves.

It is very low, 2668 DKK for persons under 25 years, living with their parents, 5367 DKK for persons under 25 years,
living without their parents, 6472 DKK for persons, who are living alone and are at least 25 years, and 5367 DKK for
persons who are married or have cohabiting partners and are at least 25 years.
They are all before tax.

8 Gives the authorities extended right to survelliance of the people. Anton Nielsen, resistance fighter under nazi occupation and leader of the “Horserød-Stutthof association” for resistance fighters, was sentenced to 2 months prison the 16. June 2011, for supporting PFLP and FARC. The organization was forced to pay 20 day-fines on 500 DKK / day. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighters%2BLovers.

9 ”lømmelpakken”, a law package created before the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, december 2009. Preventive detention was raised from max 6 hours to 12 hours. The punishment for preventing the police doing its job was raised from a fine to 40 days prison. If there was a “gross disturbance of peace and order” on the place, it would be an aggrevating circumstance, when the punishment will be handed out.

10 i.e. Edinburgh Agreement

Read More »

Greeting of the ICMLPO to the Congress of the PCOT, presented by Comrade Raul Marco

Dear comrades of the Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia; dear comrades of the Marxist-Leninist parties, the revolutionary parties, the democratic and anti-imperialist parties and organizations present here:
Through you, comrades of the PCOT, we salute the working class, the youth, the peasantry and the Tunisian people in general, who have risen up to expel the tyrant and his clique, pushing forward the revolution in your country, the Maghreb and the Next East.

We thank for allowing us to take part in the tribune of your Second Congress, the first one of the revolutionary era; if you can celebrate this event openly, it is because you have managed to impose your presence in the struggle, through the constant activity of your militants for years: from the years of the most bloodthirsty dictatorship to the months of the fight for its overthrow.
As you write on your banners, on your posters, in your newspaper, in pamphlets, it is necessary to complete this revolution, to obtain the many political and social demands of your people. Yes, one must push forward this revolutionary process to the end, which fully confirms the historical truth: it is the peoples who make history go forward. The peoples never accept submitting to the dictatorship; they resist and, when conditions are right, they rise up and are prepared to make all the sacrifices necessary to free themselves from abuse, domination and exploitation.
The revolutionary process in your country has fueled and inspired the peoples of the region to revolt, to free themselves from the ferocious dictatorships that maintain them under the control of imperialism. Not all the revolts and the movements of what has been called “the spring of the Arab peoples” have had the same force nor have they achieved the same results, but one thing is certain: the domination of imperialism in this region has been shaken; all over the dictatorships are trembling and fear that new movements will arise shouting “dégage” (“Get Out!”).
Imperialism was surprised by the process that arose in Tunisia, from where it spread. Even the governments of the imperialist countries that were the most committed to support the Ben Ali clan were surprised. French imperialism, which was among the first imperialist powers to sink its claws into Tunisia, and very many of whose politicians in charge had very close relations with the clan in power, were not at all prepared, and did everything possible to try to save the Ben Ali regime. That is something the Tunisian people will never forget!
Imperialism was surprised; however it was not prepared to let go of its prey, to give up the raw materials, the oil, the water, which abound in the countries of the Maghreb and the Next East. It wants to preserve control of this strategic region, to maintain and reinforce its military presence, especially to protect its ally, the Zionist State of Israel. An ally that, once again, is showing its ultra-reactionary policy, its policy of repression against the Palestinian people, of the denial of their national rights, even imposing a dirty blockade on the Palestinian people of Gaza. And this time it has been the countries of the EU, especially the Greek government, that is playing the role of assistant in the policy of repression against the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla”
The military intervention of the imperialist coalition against Libya is part of the policy of maintaining its control over the region. Making use of the aspirations of the Libyan people, who would like to get rid of an oppressing regime, imperialism has launched a war that is destroying the country, in order to impose a regime that is totally faithful to it and that allows it to take control of the wealth of this neighboring country of Tunisia.
Dear comrades and friends:
We have said that the wind of the revolution is blowing in the Arab countries: today, the peoples of this region have taken their place in the movement of the struggle against imperialism, for national and social liberation, which is rousing the Latin American continent to rebellion, which is awakening the peoples of Africa, which is making rise up the working class, the popular masses and the youth of the countries of Europe who refuse to pay for the crisis of the imperialist system.
To conclude, we would like to salute once again the PCOT, its leadership and all its members, represented here by you, delegates in this congress.
Your party is a tenacious, brave party, a very brave one; it is a party that has always shown proof of its political clarity and ideological firmness, even at the harshest moments of the dictatorship and of the repression.
The comrades of the PCOT long ago told us that the storm is brewing, that sooner or later there would be a social explosion, and that they were preparing for it.
As Marxist Leninists, your party has always remained faithful to your people; it has always fought, even under the most difficult conditions, to defend the interests of the workers, to defend democratic rights; it has always worked for the unity of the political and social forces, to fight the Ben Ali regime, to present an alternative to the working class, the youth and the popular masses.
In this fight, your leadership has been tempered, acquiring a rich experience that is useful to all our Marxist-Leninist parties, who know that, without the clear and decisive leadership of the communist party, a revolutionary process will not come to a good end.
Comrades, in name of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations, in name of the Marxist-Leninist parties that are present here, we say to you:
We are sure that this congress will make the correct decisions to advance the revolutionary process in your country, to advance your party, to root it in the masses.
You may be sure, comrades, that we are at your side in this fight.
Long live the Congress of the PCOT!
Long live proletarian internationalism!
(Tunisia, July 23, 2011)
Statement signed by those present:
PCOF of France, TDKP of Turkey, APK of Denmark, Communist Platform of Italy, PCE (M-L) of Spain, revolutionary Communist Party of Volta (Burkina Faso), Party of Labor of Iran (Toufan), PCMLE of Ecuador, Democratic Way of Morocco, Organization for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of the Workers of Germany.

Read More »

Messsage to the Congress of the Workers' Communist party of Tunisia by M-L group “Revolution”

Dear comrades of the Workers' Communist Party of Tunisia (PCOT)

After years of suppression, imprisonments, torture and martyrdoms of many courageous cadres, the PCOT has won ever more respect and authority among the Tunisian workers and youth. The party and its leadership, where comrade Hamma must be mentioned in particular, has played an important role in the Tunisian uprising and the ousting of dictator Ben Ali last winter. We are proud to belong to the same international movement as the PCOT.

Your Congress is taking place at a time when the Tunisian uprising is at a serious crossroad. The internal and external cronies of Ben Ali, the imperialists who backed the old regime, are desperately working to put an end to the revolutionary process and to bring things back to the imperialist and neocolonial «normality». The cowardly NATO-bombing of neighbouring Libya and the imperialists’ active infiltration and utilization of the Benghazi «rebels» is for sure a warning to the other peoples in Northern Africa, threatening them to obey the imperialist «New world order».

We hope and believe that the Tunisian workers, youth, women and peasants will not yield to the imperialist plots, and that they will continue and fulfil the revolutionary national and democratic process they have embarked upon. The stronger the influence and leadership of the PCOT, the more certain the victory will be.

If there is anything we can do in our country in the way of practical solidarity with the PCOT and the Tunisian revolt, we will respond as best we can with our very limited resources.

Wishing you all success in the proceedings of the congress, which most certainly will give new energy and mature guidance to the working peoples of Tunisia.

• Long live the Tunisian example!
• Long live the PCOT!
• Long live proletarian internationalism!

Our revolutionary fraternal greetings,

Marxist-Leninist Organization Revolusjon – Norway

Oslo, July 22nd 2011

Read More »

“Red camping” in Norway by the end of August

The Communist Platform (m-l) (Kpml) organises a camping in an area near Oslo, Norway on August 25-28.

The Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 has been invited to participate in the camping. A comrade will talk on the situation in Greece, the crisis in the country and the EU.

See also:

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

- Contribution to the “Revolutionary Summer Camp 2009” in Denmark

Read More »

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

Dear comrades,

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

To the CC of the Communist Workers’ Party of Tunisia

Dear Comrades,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We wish success to your Congress proceedings.

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

Long live Marxism-Leninism and international proletarian solidarity!

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

July 2011

Read More »

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

Workers' Communist Party of Denmark, july 2011

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

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

Arbejderpartiet Kommunisterne

Read More »

Fascist massacre in Norway

by M-L Organisation Revolusjon, member of the ICMLPO

Updated: 26.7.2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

Islamophobia and fascism

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

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

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

A Templar against Islam and Marxism

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

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

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

The massacre should be an awakening

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

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

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

---

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

Read More »

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15Th seminar international problems of the revolution in Latin America

Quito, july 15th of 2011

Comunist Revolucionary party of Argentina

Revolutionary Marxist- Leninist party (Argentina)

Women Movement Olga Benario (Brasil)

Comunist Revolutionary party (Brasil)

Minga Sur Palmira – Polo Democrático Alternativo (Colombia)

Comunist party of Colombia (marxist-leninist)

Comunista party of España (marxist leninist)

National Democratic Front (Filipinas)

Comunist Party of México (marxist leninist)

Revolucionary popular front (México)

Coordinator Caribean and Latinoamerican (Puerto Rico)

Comunist party of work of República Dominicana

Caribe youth (República Dominicana)

Universitary revolutionary Socialist front (Venezuela)

Woman movement Ana Soto (Venezuela)

Movement of Education for emancipation (Venezuela)

Gayones Movement (Venezuela)

Marxist Leninist Comunist party of Venezuela

Comunist party (bolchevique) Rusia

Revolutionary youth of Ecuador

Ecuadorian Confederation of woman for the change

Popular Democratic Movement (Ecuador)

Marxist Leninist Comunist Party of Ecuador

Read More »

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

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

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

Dear comrades,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Long live the struggles of the Iranian working class!

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

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)

July 16, 2011

www.Toufan.org

Toufan@toufan.org

Read More »

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

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

INTERVIEW

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– How about the other leftist forces?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read More »

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

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

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

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

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

Read More »

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

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

Read More »

On the revolt in Tunisia and in the other Arab countries

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

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

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

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

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

---

See also:

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

Read More »

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

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

Read More »

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

 

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

Read More »

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

29 June 2011

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

Amnesty International

Read More »

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

Read More »