Final Declaration of the XIV International Seminar on Problems of the Revolution in Latin America

Despite the desperate efforts of the international bourgeoisie to put an end to the crisis of the capitalist system and in spite of "optimistic" analysis of the bourgeois economists that from months ago pointed the end of it and the beginning of an economic recovery, today we witness a new moment of further deepening of the crisis of the system, initiated at the end of 2008 in the United States which soon caught the largest economies on the planet and whose effects were felt worldwide. The course of development of this phenomenon has created the impression that this had its origin in the financial sector but this is a crisis of overproduction on consumer goods and, as noted in the previous seminar, its cause lies in the contradiction between the social character of production and private appropriation of wealth and goods, which is presented as the fundamental contradiction of the capitalist-imperialist ruling.

In countries like ours, the effect of the international crisis has accelerated a process of destruction of productive forces, capital natives of domestic industries and jobs. Thousands of our compatriots are forced to flee their homes to sell their labor in more developed capitalist countries where are victims of the super exploitation and xenophobic and racist policies

As in the past, the international bourgeoisie seeks to download on the shoulders of workers and people the mechanisms for achieving economic recovery of the system and its businesses. A Living example is the adjustment measures raised by the International Monetary Fund, Central Bank of the European Union and the governments of Greece and Spain that hitting hard to the workers in these countries.

But people do not conciliate with these measures: they fight against these. These days, more particularly, in Europe the working class plays a key role in the resistance and gets mobilized under the flag of “that the crisis should be payed by the capitalists who are the responsible, not the workers." America, Asia and Africa also are a scene of popular fighting against the crisis and its beneficiaries.

Given its size and intensity this is the most serious in the history of capitalism, however the system won´t collapse by itself. Historical experience shows that it has the capacity to recuperate but it is clear that the negative effects of the crisis causes to the people's mistrust in the capitalism grows and generates better conditions for revolutionary work, that the masses understand that there is no other solution in the frame of this decadent system and that the socialism is the alternative to develop and progress of humanity . Without doubt, this crisis is an opportunity to advance the revolutionary forces.

Alongside these developments, in Latin America there is an important process of the political consciousness developing in the peoples who, at various levels, has been able to identify and isolate the exponents and defenders of the rapacious neoliberalism. In the heat of their combat is set a democratic, progressive and left trend that has caused a change in the correlation of social and political forces in the region. Democratic and progressive governments existing here are the result and expression of this new scenario, but its limits are evident, therefore, beyond their speech, their achievements, with one exception, only serve to bolster the dominant system.

Political conditions in Latin America are good for revolution, for it is no coincidence that the bourgeoisie seek various mechanisms to stop the struggle of the masses or to derail their goals. Old theories were refurbished for this purpose and from within the popular movement and outside it (including governments regarded as progressive) has been claimed the urgent need to achieve social changes that should be made by the way of reforms in the institutional framework respecting the democratic mechanisms and channels. Of course, an institutions and democracy conceived and managed by bankers, big industrialists, landowners, ie by the exploiting classes.

Constitutional and pacifist discourse, which speaks of social and national reconciliation seeks that the conscious of the masses will not go to revolutionary levels and tries that these bet on these reforms in the frame of capitalism as a way to solve their woes. The revolutionaries without the power in the workers´ hands understand that reforms do not play a revolutionary role and it is not possible to end the exploitation of man by man and therefore it is not possible social liberation. We fight for material and political reforms as demands of the masses, circumstantially necessary to improve the living conditions of people, but certainly not as a definitive solution to their problems. limit the struggle to reforms is equivalent to trust in capitalism is to make the game to those in power, is to fall into reformism and social-policy instruments of the ruling classes. From the political point of view we fight for reforms as a mechanism to accumulate forces for revolution.

The workers and peoples must overcome the siren songs that speak of peaceful revolutions, citizens revolutions or XXI century socialism are policy approaches that are functional to capitalism, then, do not take measures to affect the cornerstone on which it stands this system: the private ownership of the means of production. We must end, so revolutionary, the power of the bourgeoisie and this implies to conquer power. To do this we appeal to all forms of struggle and work to incorporate all those classes, social strata and sectors affected by capitalism and interested in social revolution.

The development of the struggle of the masses is an important tendency in the political life of Latin American countries. Workers, youth and people in general struggle for social change, pressure to progressive governments to move forward and radicalize its programs, combat-interventionist policy of imperialism, mainly U.S., reject the presence of military bases Yankees and English object to the plundering of natural resources by foreign monopolies, demanding the recognition of national rights of native peoples, etc., actions violently suppressed by the various governments. We note that, as part of the offensive anti-Communist, is ongoing criminalization of popular protest and political and social leaders with the aim of frighten the masses and stop the struggle: Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, live this process. In other cases, the ruling classes appeal to the action of paramilitary groups and devices that strike and disappear popular leaders and fighters as in Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Brazil on our continent, Russia or the Philippines and elsewhere.

The bourgeoisie, a social or neoliberal, demonized popular fighter under the designation of terrorist acts, destabilizing or sabotage; who stands against the status quo is decried as a terrorist, in the name of peace denied the right of peoples to revolt under the pretext of rejecting violence, when in fact exercised at any time against the people. .

The native ruling classes and imperialism are responsible for hunger, unemployment, backwardness of nations, foreign dependence, so are our enemies and attack targets of the revolution. To confront and defeat them we need the wide unity of workers and peoples of the Democrats and leftists, revolutionaries and all social and political forces interested in social transformation, to end the dependency. The struggle of social and national liberations also requires an anti-imperialist unity in a great front of peoples, that especially manifest in the fight against all forms of foreign domination in the defense of sovereign rights and principles our countries.

Participants in the XIV International Seminar reiterate our internationalist vocation, we pledge to work for brotherhood and solidarity of peoples, to work to bring them to victory the triumph of the revolution in our respective countries as the best contribution to world revolution.

Converge in this event various political forces that had the possibility to present and discuss openly and frankly our views, very valuable exercise that should be replicated in our respective countries. We have many points to discuss in the future, so we convened at the XV International Seminar on Problems of the Revolution in Latin America to be held in 2011 in this same territory.

Quito, 16 de julio de 2010

Partido Comunista Revolucionario de Argentina

Partido Revolucionario (marxista leninista) (República Argentina)

Partido Comunista Revolucionario (Brasil)

Partido Comunista de Colombia (marxista leninista)

Partido Comunista Marxista Leninista del Ecuador

Movimiento Popular Democrático (Ecuador)

Juventud Revolucionaria del Ecuador

Unión General de Trabajadores del Ecuador

Confederación Ecuatoriana de Mujeres por el Cambio (Ecuador)

Frente Popular (Ecuador)

Frente Democrático Revolucionario Nacional de Filipinas

Comité Continental de Solidaridad con el Pueblo Haitiano

Frente Popular para la Liberación de Haití

Partido Comunista de México (marxista leninista)

Partido Popular Socialista de México

Frente Popular Revolucionario (México)

Partido Marxista Leninista del Perú

Partido Proletario del Perú

Partido Comunista del Trabajo de República Dominicana

Movimiento Independencia Unidad y Cambio (República Dominicana)

Justicia Global (República Dominicana)

Coordinadora Patriótica (República Dominicana)

Partido Comunista (Bolchevique) de la Unión Soviética

Movimiento Manuelita Sáenz (Sucre - Venezuela)

Movimiento Gayones (Venezuela)

Movimiento de Educación para la Emancipación (Venezuela)

Juventud del Consejo Político Obrero (Venezuela)

Centro de Formación e Investigación Prof. Franklin Giménez (Venezuela)

Partido Comunista Marxista Leninista de Venezuela

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‘Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010’

Trading Indian People’s Life for Multinationals’ Profit

--Statement by Janpaksh

Once again showing its loyalty to the multinationals and imperialist masters the Congress led UPA government is all set to bring the ’Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010’ in the coming monsoon session of the parliament. The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on May 7, 2010 which also happened to be the last working day of the Budget session. But due to vociferous opposition it was referred to the parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology for recommendation.

Though the avowed purpose of this bill is to “… define the “liability”, arising out of any nuclear accident, of an individual “operator” – independent of (and unaffiliated with) the Government of India.” But even a cursory reading reveals it’s brazenly pro-capitalist anti people bias.

The main features of the Bill are:

• It defines nuclear incidents and nuclear damage, nuclear fuel, material and nuclear installations, and also operators of nuclear installations.

• It lays down who will be liable for nuclear damage, and the financial limit of the liability for a nuclear incident.

• It creates authorities who will assess claims and distribute compensation in cases of nuclear damage. It also specifies who can claim compensation for nuclear damage, and how compensation can be claimed and distributed.

• It specifies penalties for not complying with the provisions of the Bill, or any directions issued under it.

[Source: PRS Legislative Research (PRS) website]

This government has been propagating that the Nuclear Liability bill would kick-start the process of construction of nuclear reactors thus solving the much needed energy requirement of the “growing India”. The protagonist of Nuclear energy needs to be asked one question, if nuclear energy is so efficient then why the USA for more than three decades has not installed new nuclear power reactors!

Is the nuclear energy the panacea for India’s power problem? The statistics reveals a different picture. As of now, the electricity production from nuclear energy stands at 4,120 MW, which is a little less than 3% of the total installed capacity of power plants. Even if we are to add a 100,000 MW in the next 10 years, as the Ministry of Power is assumes, what is the best-case scenario for nuclear power? According a study conducted by the Planning Commission’s entitled Integrated Energy Policy, 2006, it assumes that taking the most optimistic scenario, the electricity production from nuclear plants would be 15,000 MW by 2015 and 29,000 MW by 2021. This would be about 7% of total energy produced. That too when this highly optimistic figure is met!

What would be the cost of this? A green field nuclear plant costs about $4 billion. The technologies would have to be imported from US that too with several strings attached and a typical plant takes somewhere between 5 to 6 years, so claiming that the nuclear energy is the only viable and alternative left for Indian, sounds hollow.

The bill real intention is giving a free hand to the private companies and the international nuclear cartel to play with the life of the masses while reaping millions of dollars as mega-profits without any sting attached as demanded by the capitalist pressure group FICCI in its June 2009 Report .

The only raison d’être of private players pushing for this bill is their lust for profit maximization while being free from all liabilities. The American nuclear cartel led by GE and Westinghouse, with open support of the US government has been forcing India to adopt a legislation that would absolve them of all legal and financial liability in case of event arising out of a nuclear accident. This is a clear pointer to the kind of safety measures and standards these companies would adopt while constructing and maintaining the nuclear power plants in this country.

Deliberately, the liability to be paid by the nuclear operators (the private capitalist both multinational and Indian) has been kept abysmally low, to placate the interest of the ‘operators’.

In fact, the Clause 6 (2), states: The liability of an operator for each nuclear incident shall be rupees five hundred crores. The total liability for a nuclear incident has been kept as 300 million Special Drawing Rights (Approximately Rs 2100 crore at current exchange rates) of this the total liability of the operator would be a paltry sum Rs 500 crore or about $110 million. With the further rider, to lower it down to, even paltrier Rs. 100 crore.

If the liability exceeds Rs 500 crore, the central government shall be liable for the amount exceeding Rs 500 crore (up to SDR 300 million). If damage is caused in a nuclear installation owned by the central government, the government will be solely liable.

This means that in case of any mishap the real culprits would be only liable to damage in tune of Rs. 500 crore while the Indian people would be paying the rest of the compensation to the overall limit of 300 million SDR.

First, $110 million cap for the operator, or even higher $450 million total cap, would not cover even one-tenth of one paisa per rupee of damage in a worst case accident.

Further this bill violates the ‘Polluter Pays’ principle and the ‘Precautionary Principle’. In words of the former Attorney General of India, Soli Sorabjee, ‘the Right to Life as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India’. The bill also goes against significant Supreme Court judgments which have ruled that hazardous and dangerous industries owe an ‘absolute and non-delegable’ duty to the community to ensure safety.

A comparative analysis of similar laws in US and Canada revels the callous attitude of the multinationals and imperialist powers toward the life and property of Indians.

In the US any indemnity to be given in case of nuclear accident is governed by The Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act (commonly called the Price-Anderson Act), in the event of an accident, the first $375 million is paid by the insurer(s) of the plant. It is mandatory to insure the plant. Beyond that, up to US$ 10 billion is paid out of a fund jointly contributed by the “operators” as mandated by the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act. Beyond that, the Federal Government pays.

The Canadian government has introduced a draft legislation on April 16^th 2010 known as Bill C-15 which proposes to increase a nuclear plant operator’s liability to Rs 3,000 crores at current conversion rate (which is not only six times the cap of Rs 500 crores contained in the Civil Liability for nuclear damage bill 2010, but it also exceeds the “maximum amount of liability” of about Rs 2,300 crores set out in the bill.) The draft legislation further proposes to increase the civil nuclear liability cap from the existing $75 million to $650 million. The bill further proposes to increase the operator’s financial security of at least $650 million that they have to maintain.

Contrast this with the Civil Liability bills that Indian Government has prepared and the imperialist view of “Indians being an expendable commodity” appears to be true.

There must not be any overall "cap" on the quantum of compensation to potential victims. That is too unjust and inhumane. It has to relate to the actual damages caused. The overall “cap” of 300 million SDR, which works out to about 460 million US$, is even lower than the compensation amount of US$ 470 million ratified by the Indian Supreme Court to the victims of Bhopal Gas Disaster way back in 1989.

This reveals the extent that the Indian ruling class has mortgaged the interest of the common people to the international bourgeoisies and its Indian counterpart the comprador bourgeoisies, turning the country to a neo-colony of the imperialism.

The government of India has to answer the pertinent question: What was the need for this government that it is in such a rush to pass a bill that only favours the international capitalists and imperialists while gratuitously burdening the people of a country. A country where 836 millions (77 per cent of total population) live on Rs. 20 a day or less.

The bill in its current form is an open invitation to disaster giving a free hand to the multinational companies at the expense of the life of common masses, so they reap in maximum profit without any concern for the safety of the people. Another Bhopal is in offing.

This bill has to be opposed, it is high time that the progressive and Communist Revolutionary forces of the country unite and chalk out a clear cut agenda of action to defeat this bill and also the vicious interest of the capitalists and their lackeys. Only a united front of all the radical forces of this country in consonance with the international progressive movement can thwart this nefarious act of the international capital.

Note:

1 crore = ten million (10000000)

07/07/2010

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“Socialism of the 21st century: a new theoretical formulation of old anti-marxist ideas”

Athens, July 2010
Pages: 112
Size: A5
Language: Greek
5 euros

The Movement for the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-55 released a book entitled “Socialism of the 21st century: a new theoretical formulation of old anti-marxist ideas”.

As mentioned in the introductory note, the present edition is a collection of articles published in the party press of the members of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations (ICMPLO), in which the ideological foundations of the “socialism of the 21st century” theory are criticized. The first
article, by comrade Alejandro Rios whose title, “Socialism of the 21st century: a new theoretical formulation of old anti-marxist ideas,” this edition also bears, is the official position of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Equador on the subject that was adopted by the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations. This edition aims at clarifying the ideological basis of the political inconsistencies in this left-wing, democratic and progressive trend, reveal the social-democrat, reformist content of the “socialism of the 21st century” theory and, consequently, the reasons that make this theory harmful to the international working movement and its struggle.

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Photos from our participation to the Antirascist Festival in Athens

9-11 July in Athens took place the 15th ntirascist Festival. The Movement for Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 participated all three days.

These are some photos from our presence in the festivals

 

 

 

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Communication from the Paris June 2010 meeting of the Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations

In Europe and in the world, workers, young people refuse to pay for the crisis of the capitalist system

The crisis of the world-wide capitalist system is going on, throwing millions of people in the streets, in misery.
All sections of the people, workers, workers of the cities and countryside, small and medium peasants, craftsmen, employees, active or unemployed, young or retired ... are shaken down by a handful of rich, always richer by the financial oligarchy, its banks and monopolies. In all capitalist countries, developed or emerging, in the imperialist countries and in countries dominated by imperialism, the oligarchy wants to charge his attack on the working class, the working masses and people : eleven million millionaires in the world, growing richer on the backs of billions. Never the wealth produced has been so great, never so many women and men have been so deprived of the minimum subsistence, this wealth has never been so concentrated in the hands of a parasitic class, the bourgeoisie, class of shareholders.
After demanding states, devoted to its exclusive service, to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars, euros, yen ... to save its banks and financial institutions, the financial oligarchy now requires the payment of public debts and interests. His motto: “Let's end the deficits”, it has generated and dug itself.

The policies for the reduction of the public deficit : a pretext for imposing austerity plans

In Europe, the Greek people were the first target of these large scale attacks, jointly conducted by the European Commission and the IMF, which has resulted in mega austerity plan, allegedly to reduce the public debt.
Within weeks, throughout the European Union, the right-wing governments and social liberal governments have competed on an escalation in the amounts of "savings" they want to impose on state budgets, they can be counted in hundreds of billions, sparing no country.
The pretext: to reassure the financial markets and their "rating agencies".
The goal: make a further wide transfer of wealth, from labor to capital, to guarantee the profits of banks and the the most powerful monopolies.
The social budgets are squeezed, all the social mechanisms conquered and imposed by the working class and peoples, especially since the Second World War, are the target of this concerted offensive.
The first victims of the liquidation of the social "nets", are the poorest strata of the society, those who were already living in poverty, insecurity and fear of tomorrow. They are also those who will suffer the worst from the cuts in social budgets. In rich countries, like Germany, France ... there are millions of men and women, young people seeking employment, youth holding odd jobs, poor workers, who are threatened of falling into the blackest misery. At the other extreme of society, the rich continue to celebrate with champagne the growth of their income.

The attacks began long before this crisis, neoliberal and social-liberal policies had already caused extensive damage, privatizing major economic sectors, undertaking the liquidation of public health services, education, social protection ... Today, the oligarchy wants to use the crisis to remove obstacles to the free use of the work force, by liquidating the economic and social rights won by workers. It wants to over-exploit those who have jobs, while massively laying off : to make people work harder, longer, until exhaustion, for ever lower wages, for ever lower pensions. It wants to take advantage of the army of the unemployed to pressure on wages and working conditions.

In these severe austerity plan, the questioning of the retirement system, based on solidarity and the social contribution, is a goal shared by all the EU governments.
Working beyond 65 years has become the norm, while millions of young people do not find work. Banks and insurance companies are rubbing their hands: they hope to sell their pension systems based on capitalisation to the few who can afford it, speculating on the fear of the bankruptcy of pension systems based on solidarity between generations and the social contributions.

To impose these massive cuts in social services, the oligarchy strengthens law enforcement, produces stiffer anti-labor and anti-popular laws and tries to divide the workers and peoples.
At the peak of the crisis in Greece, when hundreds of thousands of demonstrators shouted in the streets of Athens and all Greece cities their refusal to pay the crisis of the capital, we heard speeches of hate in the mouths of politicians (widely reproduced and amplified by the media) against the workers and peoples of southern Europe, accused of trying to "take advantage" of other countries; workers and peoples of southern Europe that should be "punished" ...
It is far from the rhetoric of European harmony, peace and understanding that the EU had to promote and that the euro would ease!

People have the right to leave euro and the EU

After several years of the Euro, the people did their maths. This  "unique"  currency  has primarily served the dominant imperialist powers in the EU, to strengthen their economic and political power.

The euro has accelerated the race to minimum wages within the EU. The "convergence criteria" of the Maastricht Treaty are an instrument of permanent social dumping. The EU governments are trying to impose them to countries, including non-Eurozone countries such as Denmark, where the people voted against Euro through a referendum.

The Euro has meant an increase of the prices, whose recipients have been the great monopolies of distribution, agro-business, at the expense of popular consumers, small and medium agricultural producers, small traders ...
The euro is an essential mechanism for building a Europe that aspires to become a major imperialist power, a neoliberal Europe who exploits the working class and participates to plundering the wealth of Africa, Latin America, etc...  participates to wars and conflicts over strategic raw materials, energy sources and their means of communication and transport to the major production centers in the imperialist countries.
The reactionary nature of this European project gets more and more visible : Fortress-Europe  protects itself against migrants expelled from their country by famine and wars fomented by imperialism. The Europe of police, implements common police forces to monitor and suppress large popular mobilizations, such as during the NATO Summit in Strasbourg or the summit "on climate” in Copenhagen.
Besides the huge deployment of police that has resulted in thousands of arrests, the Copenhagen Summit has also shown that the great powers are only concerned by their interests and that they can only conceive environment preservation issues  as a market for their monopolies.

We stand with the people of Greece and other countries where they claim the right to leave the euro and the EU.
We support the development of solidarity with all peoples of the world. We have common struggles to carry with workers and peoples of Europe, against the mechanisms of exploitation, promoting competition between workers, submission of "small" countries to the imperialist powers, of political domination, the mechanisms that organize the pillaging of the dominated countries. The construction of Europe, the EU and its currency are instruments of these policies that we denounce and fight.

Widening resistance to austerity plans across Europe

The resistance of the working class and peoples to the capital’s attacks was immediate and it grew everywhere. Several days of strike, several general strikes took place in different countries. The anger and the desire to fight to deny the payment of the system’s crisis, the debts of the oligarchy and its austerity plans, are great.
That anger alarmed the bourgeoisie and reformist parties who rallied to austerity policies and agreed to implement them. They talk about "shared sacrifice", but only to impose them to workers and peoples.

This resistance must develop and grow, in each country but also internationally. Social rendez-vous, including the labor movement, have already been taken for next fall: we will work to give them the maximum extent and success, to build a strong expression of internationalism and unity of the working class.

Working for the unity of the working class is a vital necessity. The working class produces surplus value and is the one who can exert considerable pressure on the Capital. It is the spine of the struggle against capitalism, for social transformation. In all EU countries, it is the working class that has stood first and massively against the attacks of bosses, governments, the Brussels Commission, IMF, etc..

The first instrument of resistance of the working class and the working masses in cities and countryside are the trade-unions. The labor movement has been divided and weakened by the policies of class collaboration that have been developed within it. But today, currents, trade unionists, labor unions are developing the class struggle at the base of concrete struggles.
We defend the class struggle unionism and we urge workers to organize in unions, to work for unity within the union movement on positions based on class struggle. We denounce and repudiate the attempts of exclusion of combative trade union activists. We are working to develop international solidarity for union initiatives that strengthen the struggle of workers in each country and internationally.

Migrant workers, with or without papers, "legal" or "illegal" are part of the working class in each country. It is a workforce needed by monopolies because of their lack of rights, endlessly exploitable. In the stiff competition between monopolies and in sector where the production cannot be delocalized, this workforce is essential. In this context, the successful strike in France led by undocumented workers for their regularization is of great importance and is an encouragement to all those who fight on this front. The strike, that lasted more than eight months, has been supported by trade unions, women's organizations, democratic organizations and by all parties of the left. It has demonstrated concretely that immigrants, men and women, are primarily workers, part of the working class. It generated a great movement of solidarity in the public opinion, a real antidote to the division attempts the oligarchy and the reaction won’t cease to develop. These workers, men and women will take their place in the overall battle for refusing to pay for the crisis of the system.

Workers in the public services, state offices and local authorities (municipalities, departments, regions ...) are particularly affected by the planned cuts in state budgets and all public and semi-public institutions. Tens of thousands of jobs are cut, wages are reduced in all countries, as in Greece, where the Socialist government wants to remove two months of salary. By fighting against privatization, for their wages, for jobs, public services workers are also fighting for popular users of public services. Together they struggle to oppose to policies of dismantling public services.

Let us refuse the austerity plans, the militarization and imperialist wars
The crisis of the capitalist system and imperialist world is exacerbating all the contradictions, which become increasingly violent. To impose severe austerity plans, the oligarchy strengthens its arsenal of repression and criminalization of workers' struggles and popular struggles.
The hard competition for control of markets and sources of raw materials is already reflected in conflicts and wars. The dirty war lead by the imperialist powers and their military wing NATO against the people of Afghanistan, also has as a background motivation the control of future gaspipes and minerals contained in his soil.
Therefore, we say "we will not pay for your crisis, we will not pay your wars."
We say that money should not go to war and militarization, but to the satisfaction of social needs, education, health, social protection for the greatest number.
We say “NATO troops out of Afghanistan" and " imperialist troops out of Iraq. "
We also express our solidarity with the Palestinian people and the population of Gaza, subject for months to an inhuman blockade organized by the reactionary government of Israel. With the progressive forces in the world, we condemn the criminal Zionist policy and demand the immediate withdraw of the blockade. We denounce the complicity of UE and support the struggle of the Palestinian people for the recognition of their national rights.

For an alternative to break with the imperialist capitalist system

The severe austerity plans affect all the layers of the population. The need to work to the union of all the categories victims of these policies of social regression is more timely than ever. We are working to build this unity, through ambitious front policies, which incarnate the refusal to pay the crisis of the capitalist system, the refusal of austerity policies. We say that banks, shareholders, oligarchs have to pay for their crisis and we want to work with all forces, political and social, that share this objective, to enforce it effectively, through always stronger mobilizations.

The depth of this crisis poses acutely the need to work on the development and implementation of policies to break with the system. These policies must rely on social measures and concrete policies, to be imposed immediately, in and through the struggle and the mobilization of the masses. These social requirements must be the bases of programs breaking with the system and brought by coalitions of political parties, social forces, mass organizations ... We use all political and democratic spaces, including the electoral arena, to make us heard by the greatest number and win the masses to our positions.

As parties and organizations claiming themselves from the working class, we affirm our conviction that the only effective and long-lasting way out of the imperialist capitalist system crisis goes through his overthrow and the establishment of socialism. All our struggles are in this perspective.

Hail the struggle of the working class, youth and people to refuse to pay for the crisis!
It's the oligarchy to pay its crisis
Hail international solidarity

Paris, June 2010
Workers’ Communist Party of Denmark (APK)
Communist Marxist Leninist Party of Spain (PCE(ml)
Parti Communiste des Ouvriers de France (PCOF)
Organisation for the recontruction of the Communist Party of Greece (1918-1955)
Communist Platform of Italy (Plata Forma Communista)
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP)
Marxist-Leninist Organisation “Revolution” (Norway)
Members of the International Conference of Marxist Leninist Parties and Organisations (CIPOML)

Observer: Organization for the Construction of a Workers Communist Party of Germany

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Greece's biggest union calls new strike for July 8

Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece—Greece's biggest labor union on Thursday called a new nationwide strike for next week to protest proposed reforms to the debt-hobbled country's pension and labor systems.

The GSEE private sector umbrella union said it had timed the walkout to coincide with a vote in parliament on the new reforms, on July 8.

Greece is in the throes of a major debt crisis. In May, it narrowly avoided defaulting on its loans using the first part of a European Union and International Monetary Fund relief package worth euro110 billion.

In return, the government undertook painful cuts and tax hikes, and proposed legislation that would raise retirement ages and reduce many pensions, saying the country's pension system would otherwise collapse. The draft law would also make it cheaper for companies to sack employees.

GSEE said it completely rejected the proposed reforms and "will not accept any changes that lead to new unfair and unbearable measures that hurt workers and pensioners."

Officials at the ADEDY umbrella civil servants' union said ADEDY was also expected to call a strike July 8. That would make it Greece's sixth general strike this year. (Comment from Anasitaxi: ADEDY decided to call a strike July 8 today)

The two unions held their last general strike on Tuesday, when some 16,000 people took part in a central Athens protest that was marred by street violence. Police arrested six suspected rioters, and seven officers were injured in the clashes.

Previous protests have also been violent. On May 5, three workers died in a bank torched by rioters. The deaths shocked Greek society, and later protests were much more muted.

A new sales tax increase took effect Thursday, raising prices of basic consumer goods and services, including gas prices and highway tolls.

The center-left government imposed the increase in Value Added Tax, or VAT, from 21 to 23 percent. It was the second VAT increase this year, following a hike from 19 percent in March.

Trading associations said they would try to limit price increases despite the tax increase.

The government has not ruled out further VAT hikes if legal challenges against some of its cost-cutting measures are successful.

Also Thursday, Athens was left without buses for several hours as state-employed drivers went on strike to protest delays in their salary payments. They went back to work after the government promised to accelerate payments.

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Greek unions to hold new general strike July 8

Greece's two main unions GSEE (the General Confederation of Greek Workers)  - ADEDY (the Civil Servants' Confederation)announced a new general strike on July 8.

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

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Photos from our participation to recent festivals

The Movement for the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-55 participated in:

-- The 13th Antirascist Festival in Thessaloniki
-- Meeting of Democratic Army guerillas in Nausa.

These are some photos from our presence in the festivals:

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Greek unions to hold new general strike June 29

Greece's two main unions GSEE (the General Confederation of Greek Workers)  - ADEDY (the Civil Servants' Confederation)announced a new general strike on June 29.

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

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Stalin statue taken down in his Georgian hometown

From BBC

Stalin statue taken away

Authorities in Georgia have taken down a statue of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin that stood in the central square of Gori, his hometown.
The six metre (20ft) bronze statue was removed unannounced from its plinth in the middle of the night.
The statue will be moved to a museum in Gori dedicated to Stalin, said the head of the city council, Zviad Khmaladze.
It will be replaced by a monument for the victims of Georgia's 2008 war with Russia.
Gori was bombed by Russian forces during the brief conflict in August 2008.
A journalist told Reuters news agency that police had tried to prevent reporters from filming the removal of the statue.
"A new monument dedicated to victims of the Russian aggression will be erected" in the central square, said Mr Khmaladze.
Subject of debate
The statue of Stalin had stood in central Gori since the early 1950s, and many of the town's residents have remained proud of the former Soviet leader.
In pictures: Stalin taken down
It is thought to have been the sole large-scale statue of Stalin still standing in its original position in the former Soviet Union.
But there are several smaller busts on display, some unveiled as recently as May amid celebrations for the 65th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany.
After Georgia gained independence in 1991, crowds tore down statues of Stalin and Lenin across the country, but hundreds of people gathered in Gori and refused to let the statue there be touched.
Recently, the fate of the statue has been a subject of debate in Georgia, with supporters of the pro-Western "Rose Revolution" that brought President Mikhail Saakashvili to power in 2004 arguing for its removal.
Joseph Stalin was born to a modest family in Gori in 1879.
Though he was not a decisive figure in the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, he quickly rose through the ranks of the Communist Party after the revolution, securing his position as undisputed leader in the years after Lenin's death in 1924.
His forced collectivisation of agriculture cost millions of lives, while thousands were executed and millions sent into exile during purges in the 1930s.
Soviet authorities moved to dismantle the cult around Stalin in the period of "de-Stalinisation" that followed his death.
There are still many statues of Lenin across the former Soviet Union, as well as a mausoleum to the former leader in Moscow.

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THE IMMIGRANTS -OUR CLASS BROTHERS AND SISTERS, ARE A PART OF THE PROLETARIAT OF GREECE

CLASS UNITY OF ALL PROLETARIANS AGAINST ABJECTION

BROAD ANTIFASCIST FRONT AGAINST RACIST ATTACKS

The great deception

• “Foreigners take our jobs” – they “drop” the wages-they increase unemployment-they deepen the crisis

According to the results of the 2001 census, the number of immigrants in Greece amounted to 762.191 people, the 391.764 of which were employed, in their majority hired (88,9% in the total of employed foreigners).

The Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) claims in a 2004 research on the issue: “According to our estimations, the actual number of immigrants and repatriates is over 1 million (850.000 legal and approximately 200.000 “irregular” immigrants), corresponding to 9% of the overall population, and above 12% of Greece’s labour force.”

“Foreigners take our jobs” – they “increase” unemployment! This is one, among others, and great LIE, for foreign workers neither “take” the jobs, nor increase UNEMPLOYMENT: The local CAPITAL is the one that “takes the jobs,”, that is, it destroys “employment places” by closing down businesses because of: a) the antagonism between businesses leading many of them to bankruptcy and workers to UNEMPLOYMENT, b) the deep economic crisis – inevitable within capitalism – which, in its turn, leads to massive bankruptcies of business and as a consequence to massive UNEMPLOYMENT, C) the closing down of businesses for speculative reasons (loans, etc.) or their transfer to our countries with cheap labour, with both developments “generating” unemployment.

Therefore, it is local (as well as foreign) CAPITAL the one that exclusively and solely “takes” the jobs from local and foreign workers: the one that destroys hundreds of thousands of employment positions with the closing down of businesses, thus increasing massive UNEMPLOYMENT with many hundreds of thousands young unemployed people.

Our class brothers and sisters, who supposedly “take” the jobs of the locals and supposedly increase unemployment, in reality:

Contribute to GDP increase, in levels that during the period of Olympic works, of the great “growth”-looting by the capitalist, reached an increase owing exclusively to their own work, in levels of 2,3% (!), according to data by EKKE.

1/3 of those working to Olympic construction works were foreign. In the construction industry, in particular, they represent 4/10 of working people, with salaries and working conditions of unskilled workers, overtime not paid, despite the fact that in certain specialties (stockade, ironmongery) they are particularly skilled and experienced. They are paid cheap – with the current abjection of the proletariat as a result of the bankruptcy of capitalist-dependent Greece – they reach levels of servitude (below 30 Euros) – they do not get pension credits, their need forces them to generate additional absolute surplus value with flexible work schedules, they work without basic observance even of those rotten capitalist measures concerning work safety and hygiene.

At worksites, they are forced not to wear even means of individual protection, that is, helmets, gloves, anti-slippery shoes, etc. The result of non-providing protective equipments, the non-observance of any security measures, and exhaustion due to the extension of work schedules is the heavy toll they are taking. 70% of deadly accidents at Olympic works were immigrants, and only in 2002, 40 immigrants lost their lives at the construction field. During the period of the great looting of the Olympiad, big contractors were seeking much and cheap labour force, and they were finding, by squeezing and wiping out immigrant workers. It can be easily understood that the devaluation of work, that now is a rule for the entire working class, was initially tested and applied upon immigrant workers, as if they were guinea-pigs. Their cheap labour is certainly the result of capitalists blackmailing workers who cannot afford to live, with the joint responsibility of ALL workers’ patrons who do not accept immigrants as equivalents into the trade-union movement. Today, in the vortex of bankrupt capitalist Greece this time, immigrants “do not take the jobs of local workers.”

On the one hand, the number of so-called “illegal” workers has gradually and dramatically reduced mainly in the last two years, not so much because of their incomplete “legalization,” but mainly due to the inexistence of jobs, which forces them to leave the country. According to the research “Estimation of the mass of foreigners residing illegally in Greece,” carried out on behalf of the Institute of Immigration Policy, with professor Theodoros Lianos as scientific supervisor, in April 2008 the number of illegal immigrants ranges from 172.259 to 209.402. This number, being that of undocumented immigrants had decreased significantly in respect to the approximately 700.000 of the past decade, and has gained bursting proportions in the last two years. (This is one more answer to fascist and crypto-fascist voices that are trembling at the thought of the country’s “dehellenization”). As for those immigrants who are staying behind, capitalists push sultrily downwards their already low day’s wages (unpensioned day’s wages of even 20 Euros), leading them against their “old” comrades from Albania, former USSR, etc.

The immigrants, who supposedly “take our jobs,” are occupied at about 31% in agriculture, according to data of the reactionary 1996 research “The Political Economy of Illegal Immigration,” by L. Katseli, G. Lianos, and A. Sarris. And this is the general rule for any menial job, of intensive labour, where Greeks are not willing to do it. In the primary sector in particular, immigrants not only do not take the jobs of Greeks, but in the contrary and according to facts, their presence rescues whole backward areas from the further decrease of production, hunger and eventually the definitive standstill, and this keeps “open” the employment positions of Greek workers as well. In some cases, their work in the agricultural field generates “employment positions,” as, for example, in agricultural products light processing, regardless of the fact that the widespread capitalist crisis does not provide such prospects at the moment. At the same time, the generation of employment positions in rural areas led not only to the revival of these areas’ financial activity, but also to the increase of the income of many Greeks who exploited wildly the immigrants’ labour forces. Furthermore, in some of those areas, such as the strawberry fields of Manolada, immigrants were subjected to violent racist attacks when they demanded humane working conditions. In any case, and according to data of the last census, the economic productive position of rural areas is directly proportional to the number of immigrants being occupied in those areas. And this is happening during a period that, with the responsibility of EU imperialists and their Greek servants, “between 1996 and 2007, the agricultural income in Greece dropped at 24%, while the respective average of EU-27 is on a stable increase, and in the period 2001-2007 it increased at 5%,” as stated by the EU Agriculture Commissioner mrs. Boel.

In general, our class brothers and sisters are occupied in positions where no job offer, and consequently no antagonism with Greek workers, exists, such as in cleaning services, where the case of the fighter Kouneva illuminated the sordid/mafia-like working conditions (medieval “worker hiring”), and also in watching the elderly and the sick, filling gaps that the average working family could not have handled without help, in the current and ever-worsening “healthcare” of the insurance funds that are deep in debt due to capitalist looting (again with unpensioned work, without insurance and 14 salaries). It is still relevant to mention what even reactionary technocrats-lackeys of capital admit regarding the positive effect of immigrants on the insurance system, not only because of their numbers, but also with the fact of their small average age, since they contribute financially, without still taking advantage of it in the least.

The importance of the immigrants’ young age in relation to the aforementioned appears also in researches proving how much they―young people―contribute to an aged country by providing age “oxygenation”:

NATIONAL STATISTICAL SERVICE OF GREECE 2008: CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS, PERSONS OF FOREIGN NATIVITY 540.345 PERSONS (6.5% OF GREEK POPULATION), EARLIER RESEARCH OF THE INSTITUTE OF GREEK DIASPORA EDUCATION AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIED (IPODE) 123.839 FOREIGN STUDENTS IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Regarding so-called “illegal immigration,” on the one hand the fact that first and foremost immigrants are political refugees uprooted by the imperialists’ “rush to war” in the conditions of the decay of capitalism, and certainly that our particular class  brothers and sisters certainly do not increase unemployment by selling CDs and handkerchiefs in corners and traffic lights. The Greek state’s participation in the imperialist slaughters of NATO and the Americans, by sending troops to Afghanistan and former Yugoslavian regions ought to be mentioned here. This participation makes the Greek state responsible as well for forcing human beings to become refugees (“illegal immigrants), and compels it, due to its real aid to the imperialists’ atrocities, to legalize all humans who were forced to be uprooted from their homelands.

Fascists, who accuse untruly immigrants of the criminality characteristic of themselves, force people to live without water, toilets, basic healthcare, and along with the fascist persecutions, they “forget” one detail revealed by the UN High Commission and UNESCO – compelled to do so by the self-evident case and macabre findinds – the sudden disappearance of “traffic light kids” shortly before the atrocious fiesta of the Olympics. The massacres in Epirus and Albania were discovered along with warehouses of children’s organs in Italy. What happened to this crime? Did an investigation ever take place for this 21^st century Dachau?

Regarding the criminality of all those that force immigrants to that direction, the truth has an objection concerning fascist psychoses. Data according to a recent research entitled “Immigration and criminality: Myths and reality” by the Institute of Political Sociology of the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE) (2007, supervised by Ioanna Tsinganou) shows that in 2007, 80.2% of crimes of every nature were committed by Greeks and 19.8% by foreigners, and actually mentions word for word that “the general rule, however, is that [immigrants] are being arrested for crimes such as thefts or robberies, the impact of which is strong in civilians’ every day life, reinforcing the sense of insecurity.”

The immigration bill and the nationalist atrocities of the social democratic “Communist” Party of Greece (“K”KE) – The necessity for the unity of the working class

The working class is uniform. When you want to confront the drop of day’s wages constantly sought by the capitalists, when you want to confront the new measures of the absolute abjection of the whole working class, you do not separate and, most of all, suppress the weakest part of the working class that can become the victim of capitalists and work for a slice of bread. On the contrary, you unite the class, Greek and foreign workers, as well as the unemployed, who are remembered by social democrats of any kind only in order to get involved in politics, you accept them in united trade unions, so that the attack against the whole of the class in confronted commonly, militantly and decisively.

The very imperfect and completely “dismembered,” relating to the solution of certain problems of proletarian immigrants, immigration bill was eventually passed: “the bill was approved by PASOK and SYRIZA, while it was killed by ND and LAOS” (“R” 11/3/2010) and “K”KE stated its “presence” (!!!), which means that the bill was approved ONLY by the MPs of PASOK and SYRIZA.

Thus, the social democratic leadership of “K”KE, despite any of its unsuccessful, but also ridiculous, manoeuvres it attempted mainly during the period from the first “Statement” of the Politburo onwards (“R” 24/1/2010, p. 2-3), appearing to the immigrants with a “pro-immigrant” mask, eventually threw this mask, did what had been expected by revolutionary Marxists, that is Leninist-Stalinists, and what the leadership had already pre-concluded and projected in the front page of “Rizospastis”: “KKE” will not approve the government’s immigration bill” (R” 9/2/2010, p. 1), revoking itself with this action, which was justified through a nationalist-racist oration, the unrestrained and most base demagogy against our class brothers and sisters, the proletarian immigrants who live and work in our country.

“K”KE did not approve this bill on the “issue of immigration” not because it is “imperfect and deficient,” incomplete and completely “curtailed,” but on the contrary because this very imperfect and curtailed bill creates “an issue of minority for immigrants as well” (“R” 9/2/2010, p. 15), as stated – twice – by the head of the nationalist-racist leadership, social democrat A. Papariga, during her speech in the Parliament, also put forward for a third time in the full-page “Statement,” due to the danger “of creating stirring minority and nationalist issues, leading as far as the change of borders” (“R” 7/3/2010, p/ 7).

These are the traitors of the proletariat, who are constantly camouflaging and help the frontline of nationalism, racist, and obscurantism, ND and LAOS, who are being congratulated by Chrysi Avgi and nazi blogs for this policy for years now and are pretending to not listening, who surpassed even monarch-fascists, since they were the only ones daring to link the granting of some basic rights to immigrants, in fear of a future dispute of national sovereignty!

The struggle continues beyond the incomplete law, for the FULL and without nationalist ostensible screams granting of complete rights to the proletarian immigrants who wish for it, and certainly with the immediate granting of nativity to their children, who are a part of this country. Against reformist workers’ patrons, the workers’ movement ought to be with the immediate, equivalent and unconditional acceptance of immigrants, the first de facto “CLASS LEGALIZATION,” of all our class brothers, without exceptions.

We, Communists, Marxist-Leninist-Stalinists, in co-operation with every antifascist co-militant, struggle in the context of a broad Antifascist Front, for the class unity of the proletariat. We believe that today the immigrants are our class brothers and sisters who experience just first and more cruelly the “collective pain” of the class, and fight together with them, both in today’s defensive struggles against fascisticization, racist and nationalism, and “tomorrow’s” revolutionary struggles for the proletarian revolution. The inevitable social evolution which will sound again the passage of humanity from its prehistory to History.

June 2010

Movement for the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-15

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Crisis and the bankruptcy of Greek economy

In the last five years, a steep deterioration in the condition of the Greek economy has been observed – a destructive course that has eventually led to bankruptcy, contrary to the completely unsubstantiated claims of both the big bourgeois and the Khruschevite parties.

Side by side with the objective economic laws, the implementation of the most extreme neoliberal financial policy by the reactionary government of Karamanlis intensified even further the already existing problems of the Greek economy, aggravating basic economic indicators.

In 2009, the condition of the Greek economy became aggravated to the very extreme point that the government of Karamanlis was not able to work out the state budget – an economic situation characterized by very high inflation and successive waves of high prices, rise in mass unemployment to around 15% and rising rapidly, a drop in industrial and agricultural production, a tremendous deficit increase to over 14% of GDP (more than 30 billion Euros), an increase of the external debt to an overwhelming level, around 120% of GDP (more than 300 billion Euros).

The problems of the Greek economy have deepened even more with the outbreak of the global financial crisis. However, it has to be noted that the crisis of the Greek economy preceded the global financial crisis, since it had already hit, first and foremost, the construction sector, which, as it is known, is linked to a series of industrial branches.

The overwhelming external debt and the very large deficit led the Greek economy to bankruptcy, resulting in the country becoming the “weak link” of the imperialist European Union (EU) and the object of concerted attacks of international speculative and usurious capital – attacks related not only to the Greek economy, but also to the Euro, in the context of the Euro-Dollar antagonism.

In 2009, the terrible financial condition and bankruptcy of the Greek economy led to the “changing of the guard,” initially the removal of Karamanlis’s government and subsequently the defeat of his party in the elections as well as the entry of the country into supervision, initially by the organs of the imperialist EU, and subsequently by the triple austerity plan of the Commission-European Central Bank (ECB)-International Monetary Fund (IMF), that is, it led the country to a new occupation, without military presence.

The new measures consisted in unprecedented decrease in wages and pensions, increase in indirect taxes, etc. and attack on social security rights (an increase in retirement age limits, low pensions, etc.) by the “troika” of the Commission-ECB-IMF, in agreement with the new social-liberal Papandreou government, which deepened the proletariat’s absolute degradation to the extreme and annihilated in one night all the gains of the working class. In response, the working people participated in strikes and massive demonstrations, even though the reformist leaders of GSEE-ADEDY (General Confederation of Greek Workers-Civil Servants’ Confederation) declared the first general strike very belatedly, the first on May 5, and the second one on May 20.

Yet, despite the massive participation of working people in the strikes, there has not been UNITY on the level of gatherings and demonstrations during strikes, resulting in the obstruction of their MASSIVENESS and the undermining beforehand of the working people’s struggle against these unprecedented measures. The UNITY of strike rallies is a presupposition of MASSIVENESS. MASSIVENESS cannot be achieved without UNITY, an issue directly connected to the strikebreaking role of the reformist leaders of PAME (the trade union controlled by the “Communist” Party of Greece-“K”KE).

The strike-breakers-reformist leaders of PAME – through the permanent fragmentation of strike rallies with their separate gatherings – in the past helped the government of the monarcho-fascist party of Nea Dimokratia, with C. Karamanlis as prime minister, to promote and implement all the anti-popular and anti-worker measures; today, by continuing the same disruptive tactic in strike rallies, they are in the service of the government of the big bourgeois PASOK, and they are helping-enabling it to pass the present annihilating measures. For it is not possible for the reformist leaders of PAME to not understand that with their disruptive tactic they immediately break the UNITY of strike rallies, obstruct their MASSIVENESS and thus render the strike rallies INEFFICIENT beforehand.

The new, even more annihilating measures, that were taken and “sucked dry” the poor, that it are being planned to be passed for the social security slaughter of workers’ rights with the further looting of THEIR OWN MONEY, with the elimination of provisions in health and pensions (the class callousness of cutting two pensions per year had already preceded this), those that the extortions of the imperialists will continually demand, cannot be repelled by the working people if there is no MASSIVE UNITY, which are the qualities that can make strike rallies EFFICIENT, that is, capable of defeating or holding back the attacks of capital. This was evident in the case of the great strike rally of the reformist GSEE-ADEDY, which was the only efficient one, forcing Simitis’s government to withdraw the draft of the bill for Social Security in 2001. Now, the messages of the spontaneous worker and popular response are the same. The great strike of May 5, with a gathering of 250.000 people in Athens alone, smashed in practice the rationale of isolationism, disruption of unity and strike-breaking. The participation en masse of working people within the union blocs, the gathering was UNIFIED and showed the way for the working class to win demands: the way of militant unity. The militant voice and action of the working people, the unemployed, the youth, the pensioners, was overshadowed by the throwing of a Molotov cocktail into a Marfin Bank branch office, which, regardless of the intentions of those who threw it, caused the death of three young working people: this is a reactionary criminal act, completely alien and hostile to the workers’ movement. The responsibilities of the banker Vgenopoulos and Marfin Bank, who must be brought to court, are also tremendous (since they blackmailed the workers to go to work, they “locked” the door of the bank while the workers were inside, etc.).

The working people showed once more the way to confront the crisis:

• Capitalist industrialists and bankers must pay from their fabulous profits, along with all tax evaders
• Business taxation must be increased from 20-25% to 35-40%, with a further increase in taxation when businesses fire workers and do not invest productively
• The fabulous landed and other property of the Church, which does not belong to it, must be taxed in its entirety
• Indirect taxes hitting exclusively the broad lower masses must be decreased
• Direct taxation must place the burden on the capitalists, also natural persons, without affecting the tax exemption of the poor
• Military expenses must be decreased drastically

We demand unilateral suspension of usurious debt payments – Withdrawal from the EMU-EURO with an immediate prospect of withdrawing from the EU

In contrast to the fabrications of the government and bourgeois politicians that “the country has not gone bankrupt, along with the Khruschevite social-democrats “K”KE (Khruschevite-Brezhnevites) and SYN (Coalition of the Left of Movements and Ecology – Euro“communists”), who are also disputing the existence of bankruptcy (Papariga – “K”KE: “they are bringing back the scarecrow of bankruptcy,” “Rizospastis” April 23, 2010, p. 6, Tsipras – SYN: “the tale about the dragon of bankruptcy is nice,” “Eleftherotypia” March 14, 2010), bankruptcy is a concrete and painful fact.

An analysis of the relevant economic data can only reach the conclusion that the figures show indisputably the bankruptcy of Greek economy:

1. an overwhelming external debt of more than 300 billion Euros, or about 120% of GDP (with a minimal to nonexistent industrial production, while even the “production” of waiters decreased with the fall in tourism since last year),
2. a huge deficit of more than 30 billion Euros or 14% of GDP,
3. a usurious 7-10% interest rate with spread of 500-700 bps (an interest rate that only bankrupt countries borrow at),
4. inability to service the external debt,
5. the triple austerity program by the Commission-ECB-IMF and designation of financial politics not by the elected government but by the delegations of the imperialist organizations, and
6. recourse to the so-called EU-IMF “support mechanism” for a further loan of 5%.

The ND was the party that had been leading and led the country’s economy to bankruptcy with mathematical precision, by doubling the external debt (more than 300 billion Euros) and multiplying the deficit by five (more than 30 billion Euros), leading to the country’s triple supervision by the Commission-ECB-IMF, and has the first and major responsibility for this reason. But the then-opposition parties, the big bourgeois PASOK, and “K”KE and SYN (the Nazi-fascist LAOS had identified with the politics of ND), are tremendously responsible as well for not revealing to the Greek people this destructive financial course, which, for at least the final two years of ND’s governing, was completely clear to the naked eye.

The condition of the bankrupt Greek economy of today is bleak, and its prospect within the framework of EMU-EURO is at an impasse. The current bleak condition of the Greek economy has obviously led to the exposure of a series of bourgeois and revisionist myths (old and new) about the relationship between Greece and the EU, regarding 1) “equal participation in the EU,” 2) “permanent growth within the EU,” 3) “convergence of the EU member states’ economies,” 4) “permanent prosperity,” 5) “decrease in interest rates,” 6) “safeguard from bankruptcy,” etc.

With these negative developments in the Greece-EU relationship, the current complete deadlock of the bankrupt Greek economy, along with the fact that the big bourgeois PASOK government will not only multiply the annihilating anti-popular and anti-worker measures, but with the “gospel” of neoliberal financial politics in its hands, it intends to satisfy even more the lust of the speculators and loan-sharks and the IMF for the total looting of any remaining profitable sectors and savage looting of the country’s overall wealth with the proportional destructive consequences, known to tens of other countries that fell into their clutches. The working class and the people must fight for the country’s withdrawal from the EMU-EURO and the declaration of unilateral suspension of external debt payments (an issue discussed in “ANASYNTAXI” No. 313, January 1-15, 2010), in combination with the general struggle for Greece’s withdrawal from the imperialist EU, a withdrawal that for the social-democrat Papariga (general secretary of “K”KE), at this moment “is not a solution in itself” (“Rizospastis” March 5, 2010, p. 10) (it is the first “unwary”(?), but delightful and characteristic strip-tease by Papariga in favor of Greece staying in the EU, since the leadership of “K”KE claimed until now, of course for reasons of demagoguery, that they were in favor of the country withdrawing from it).

The working class, the youth, the city and village poor, must fight everywhere, in each workplace, each space of education, residential area, and gathering place against the awkward Khruschevite social-democrats “K”KE-SYN, who deny the existence of bankruptcy and say not even one word about the tasks that derive from it, for the creation of a broad antifascist and anti-imperialist front, which will unite in the aforementioned goals of confronting the anti-worker whirlwind and in the struggle against suppression, the curtailment of democratic gains, the fascistization of public life, which are the necessary “tools” of capitalists and their political representatives in order to pass the measures of sordidness.

June 2010

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

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The fatal 20th congress of the CPSU

In February 1956 – fifty years ago – the Communist party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) convened its first congress after the death of Stalin. This ill-famed 20th congress has since been deemed the symbol of the victory of the peaceful  counter-revolution in the USSR.

To this very day, the international communist movement, the working class and the peoples in the former socialist countries are suffering from the disastrous consequences. This victory of revisionism in the fifties systematically prepared the ground for the unveiled and complete counter-revolution that took place in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe around 1989-91.

In his memoirs The Khrushchevites, Enver Hoxha summarized as follows: “All the distortions of the major issues of principle, such as those about the character of our epoch, the roads of transition to socialism, peaceful coexistence, war and peace, the stand towards modern revisionism and towards imperialism, etc., etc., which later became the basis of the great, open polemic with modern revisionism, have their official beginning in Khrushchev's report to the 20th Congress.” ⁽¹⁾

This congress was to impel the split within the international communist movement. The fierce ideological polemic became quite open when the Party of Labour of Albania helmed the criticism of Khrushchev & Co. at the Moscow meeting of 81 communist parties in 1960. Reidar T. Larsen, who later became chairman of the Norwegian communist party (NKP), was present at the time. In his memoirs ‘Directed from Moscow?’ he confirms that Enver Hoxha spoke out against Khrushchev “so the sparks went flying”. The leaders of the Communist Party of China restrained themselves, according to Larsen: “In the plenary proceedings they left it to the Albanian leader Enver Hoxha to launch fiery attacks aimed at the Soviet leadership.” ⁽²⁾ The CPC did not enter into its “great polemic” until 1963.

Meanwhile, the old bolsheviks in the leadership of the CPSU, like Molotov and Kaganovich, had woken up from their daze and attempted to defeat Khrushchev from within the presidium of the CPSU. Khrushchev fell in minority, and was in fact removed in 1957. However, he mobilized his lojal marshals and used the majority he had ensured in the CC to topple the meeting of the presidium and to confront the ‘anti-party group’ with Molotov at the head.

The roots of the problem are not to be found in Khrushchev's personality

A mechanical and leftist dogmatic tendency argues that the 20th congress made the Soviet Union change colour more or less overnight. This is a subjectivist approach, reducing the counter-revolutionary process to a matter of rotten personalities and traitors. Khrushchev, originally a Trotskyite, was no doubt a rotten element, as can also be said about Mikoyan and other personalities in the leadership. But this does not explain how these elements could obtain support from the congress delegates and within few years put into effect a number of capitalist reforms that step by step undermined the economy and the socialist order in the USSR.
It is clear that these forces could count on a social base for their power, that they could exploit several unhealthy tendencies. Such tendencies would include the idea that “the leadership is always correct” and a self-satisfaction that grew strong in the aftermath of the victory over fascism in World War II. Adding to this were tendencies of reconciliation towards social democracy and initiatives to merge communist and social democratic parties in several countries, something that undoubtedly gave rise to different reformist ideas on “peaceful transition to socialism” even before Khrushchev laid this down as a general line at the 20th Congress. In East (Soviet occupied) Germany the Communist party of Germany after the war was amalgamated with the Social Democratic party under the name of the United Socialist Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands – SED). Both the Communist Party of Norway (which immediately after the anti-fascist war entered into negotiations with the Norwegian Labour Party) as well as the Communist Party of Britain laid down the thesis of peaceful transition to socialism in their programmes in 1953, that is to say three years prior to the 20th Congress of the CPSU. The efforts for economical reconstruction after the war gave room for different types of “productivity theories” in the economic area, to a certain degree in the USSR, and even more so in post-war Norway, theories that in practice had the effect that they underestimated and dwindled the importance of the ideological and political struggle.
The 19th Congress of the CPSU, the last Congress attended by Stalin, strongly warned against a number of these inclinations. Several precautions and motions in order to prevent bureaucratism were projected by the 19th Congress, but few, if any, of these were to be put into effect. It was in this unsound situation that the Khrushchev clique was able to mobilize and exploit these weaknesses, while they for a while pretended to cuddle for Stalin and shed crocodile tears when he died. When the 20th Congress was due, they had gained sufficient strength to consolidate the victory of revisionism.

Giving revisionism legitimacy

Enver Hoxha was present at the congress representing the PLA, together with Mehmet Shehu and Gogo Nushi. Below, he describes what came to pass on the final day of the Congress proceedings, where among other things the elections of the leading bodies took place, and the foreign delegations were not present.  On this occasion a second report was presented by Khrushchev.

“It was the notorious, so-called secret report against Stalin, but which had been sent in advance to the Yugoslav leaders [who had been condemned by the Cominform in 1948 – note by Revolusjon], and a few days later it fell into the hands of the bourgeoisie and reaction as a new ‘gift’ from Khrushchev and the Khrushchevites. After it was discussed by the delegates to the congress, this report was given to us and all the other foreign delegations to read. […] After we had read it we immediately returned the terrible report to its owners. We had no need for that package of filthy accusations which Khrushchev had concocted. It was other ‘communists’ who took it away to give to reaction and to sell by the ton in their book-stalls as a profitable business. […] Only a few days later the black smoke of the ideas of the 20th Congress began to spread everywhere.” (The Khrushchevites, p 183)

(1) Enver Hoxha: The Khrushchevites, Tirana 1980, Eng. ed. p 178.

(2) Reidar T. Larsen, Directed from Moscow?, Norw. ed. p 34.

First published in Revolusjon no 32 , April 2006

Published in Unity & Struggle, no 15, October 2007

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Against the barbarity of the fascist state of Israel! Solidarity with the Palestinian people!

International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO)

The brutal aggression carried out by the Nazi-Zionist army against the so-called "freedom flotilla" deserves the merciless condemnation, rejection, and general denunciation. The State of Israel, which has carried out a systematic genocide against the Palestinians, with the complicit silence of the misnamed democracies, has subjected the people of Gaza to famine and has prevented any kind of humanitarian aid, food, medicine, material to rebuild houses destroyed by Israeli bombing, school supplies, etc. from reaching the suffering population (more than a million and a half people in a strip that is 40 kilometers long by 6 kilometers wide).
The "freedom flotilla" was carrying tons of aid, but the State of Israel stopped it by the bestial force of its troops. That State does not respect any of the resolutions of the United Nations Organization, nor any international agreements; it knows no reason other than brute-force and the support of U.S. imperialism and others.
The ship "Mavi Marmara" of Turkish nationality and flag was attacked by military speedboats, by special commandos in helicopters who fired on people of different nationalities who were bringing aid to the Palestinian people. It was a military operation against unarmed civilians, soldiers trained to kill people who fight with words and solidarity, for peace and justice. With total impudence, the Tel Aviv Government declared that its soldiers "acted in self-defense" against the arms of the civilian activists. The confiscated weapons were screwdrivers, a multi-purpose knife, tools appropriate for a boat, hammers, a pair of tires, etc. This action was carried out in international waters, that is, it was an act of pure and simple piracy with total contempt for international law. But NATO, to which Turkey belongs, has just spoken words "regretting the incident", just like the United Nations Organization in which the United States vetoed an explicit condemnation of Israel by the Security Council. Once again, U.S. imperialism is preventing the condemnation of this fascist State, of which Washington is the principal supporter and protector.
The indignation of the peoples of the world has broken out in many demonstrations in major cities, particularly in Europe, in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Portugal and, with particular combativeness, in Turkey. Faced with this popular indignation there was the cool hypocrisy of the governments, which merely "condemned and asked for explanations", when the Zionist State should be expelled from international agencies and have its preferential agreements with the European Union cancelled for its criminal activity.
Even today, June 2, it is not known exactly how many people were killed (assassinated) or how many were wounded in the operation. With the greatest cynicism, the Israeli Ambassador to Spain stated to the media, besides the refrain of self-defense, that there were only a dozen dead among more than 700 people on board, which "is a very low proportion".
President Obama, the "democrat" who is sounding war drums against Iran and North Korea, who is maintaining the criminal embargo against Cuba, who is continuing the attack on Afghanistan, and Iraq, has limited himself to regret for what happened, nothing more.
The passiveness towards the continuous aggressions and crimes of the State of Israel has allowed it to enjoy total impunity so far. It is time to put an end to that situation. This fascist, reactionary, racist State must be condemned and fought. The Palestinian people have the right to form their own State within secure borders, to recover the territories occupied by the Zionists and to be compensated for all the barbarities of all kinds that they face.
We must increase solidarity with the Palestinian people and, at the same time, denounce and fight Zionism and all that protect it. Israel has the fourth most powerful army in the world, it has an atomic arsenal and weapons of mass destruction which is a real powder keg, not only for the Middle East.
The International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations expresses its total solidarity with the Palestinian people and their just struggle, which must be expressed in concrete actions. Our solidarity with the victims of Israeli piracy.
Long live the struggle of the Palestinian people. Against imperialism and reaction, a fight to the finish!

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EMEP: Not to be Indifferent Against the Attack of Israel

Public opinion of our country is now in a "puzzle" and anger with the attack, which was made to the aid ship for Palestine by Israel.

According to the first news, 10 people from Turkey died. This shows the dimension of the banditry of Israel. Who does Israel, who conducted this lawless treachery against an humanely aid, pluck up this courage from? It is clear that Israel State is responsible for the deads. On the other hand, what kind of measures did Turkish Government take, although the attack was guessed? To tell the truth, it just passed over and observed the anticipated events passively.

The Israel tyranny on the Palestinian people headed for the solidarity forces, who are not unlooker to the Israel brutality. Not only USA, who is the shield of Israeli occupier politics, but also the government in our country who has agreements with Israel is responsible for this attack. So, now, the responsibility of the government in this issue is evident: It should carry out what is needed avoiding the abuse of internal politics by the show "One minute".

Turkey has been pulled into the Middle East questions and imperialist plans and policies. Unfortunately, the government is willing to take a part in these plans with the profound strategies like "regional power", "active foreign policy". Acting in a competition with Israel, with the ambitions to become a big power is not a policy which is responsible and serves for the peace. What happened so far dreadfully prove this.

People of Turkey will be by the side of the Palestinian people in this day as they were before and will response to this attack which was directed to the aid ship, from all points of our country. AKP government should immediately draw away from the imperialist plans and ambitions, quit the agreements which will bog down our country and put an end to the bases and nuclear arms of the USA in our land.

LEVENT TUZEL
PRESIDENT

Labour Party (EMEP), Turkey
www.emep.org
international@emep.org

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Toufan: Condemn the Murderous Regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Dear Comrades,
The criminal regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran executed 5 political prisoners on early hours of May 9, 2010. Farad Kamangar, Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, Mehdi
Islamian, and Shireen Alam Hooli (female) who were kept in the dungeons of the regime for several years were given death sentences under fabricated charges. The Islamic
Republic of Iran carried out the death sentences despite domestic and international protests and campaigns for their unconditional release. These political prisoners were sentenced to death because of their opposition to the regime of the Islamic Republic.
Their executions were carried out in secret and without their families or lawyers being informed.
The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) strongly condemns this hideous crime committed by the medieval regime of the Islamic Republic. We call upon our fraternal Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations, political activists, democratic organisations, labour
activists, and progressive-minded individuals to protest any form possible these barbaric crimes committed by the Islamic Regime against the sons and daughters of the Iranian people, and to demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisonersin Iran.
The killings of the political prisoners are part of the Iranian regime's vain attempts to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation with the hope of preserving the political power. The mass protests of the Iranian people in the past year have frightened the regime and have further isolated it domestically and internationally. The latest crimes of the Islamic Republic will only deepen the anger, hatred, resolve and the democratic movement of the Iranian masses. In the past three decades, tens of thousand of communist, revolutionary, and progressive Iranian have fallen victims to the killing
machine of the Islamic Republic, but today a stronger generation of lionesses and loins are on the streets of Iran to demand their just rights for freedom, democracy and social justice, and to end suppression, poverty, political crimes, embezzlement, stealing, and
exploitation.
We support the rights of the Iranian masses to defend themselves in the face of the violence crimes committed against them by the brutal regime of the Islamic Republic.

Down with the Criminal Regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran!
Long Live Socialism!

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)

May 12, 2010
www.Toufan.org
Toufan@toufan.org

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Greek unions to hold new general strike May 20

Greece's two main unions on Wednesday announced a new general strike on May 20 -- the fourth since February -- and warned of more protests against austerity cuts imposed by the debt-hit government.

"We are calling for a general strike on May 20," the GSEE and Adedy unions, who together represent over 1.3 million private sector employees and civil servants, said in a joint statement.

"After this general strike the boards of the two organisations will decide on the continuation of the struggle," they added.

The unions are strongly opposed to a wave of tax hikes, spending cuts and a sweeping pension reform imposed by the government to clinch a badly-needed loan from the EU and the IMF whose first instalment is expected today.

GSEE chairman Yiannis Panagopoulos said the pension reform was a "socially unjust bill" coming in the wake of "unfair and antisocial fiscal measures."

"This bill enforces harsh austerity on pensioners and future pensioners, transferring a major load on the new generation," said Panagopoulos, who also blasted the IMF's involvement in the Greek rescue package.

(From AFP)

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For a Mayday of struggle and unity all over the world!

Workers of all over the world

After three years of profound economic crisis, unavoidable consequence of the capitalist mode of production, we are celebrating Mayday in a context of increasing unemployment, of increasing exploitation, of lowering of wages, of extension of misery and hunger;
The reactionary offensive of the Capital become more acute. In order to defend the interests of big firms and to make the workers pay for the crisis, massive firings, anti social reforms have developed; the collective bargaining is denounced by the big bosses, the repression against the workers is increasing in order to lower to the utmost the price of labour force and increase the power of the bosses.
Bourgeoisie is in the offensive in order to liquidate the economic and political rights, gained by the working class through years of struggle. After having supported banks and big firms with huge amounts of public money, they want to pay the debts of the states by reducing the pensions, by dismantling social services, by increasing the taxes paid by the people.
Therefore, the social conditions of the majority of the workers are aggravating, while the privileged strata of the society go on living in luxury and as parasite. When bourgeois newspapers speak of recovery, they speak in fact of a recovery for the shareholders who distribute big benefits.
While the contradictions and the economic imbalance proper to capitalist economy are deepening, we can see the growing contradictions between monopolies and imperialist states in order to control the markets and their sphere of influence, to take the control of raw materials and to take advantage over their concurrent.
We witness the growing aggressiveness of the decaying super power, the USA, the intensification of the war of plunder in Afghanistan and Pakistan, growing menaces against Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, coups in Honduras and in Africa, support to the criminal Zionist policy of Israel, military occupation of Haiti, preparation of aggression against Iran, installation of military bases in Columbia, menaces against progressive and revolutionary forces in all continents.
At the same time; contradictions are increasing with the other imperialist powers, especially with China and Russia and the tendencies inherent to imperialism that will lead to new wars are also increasing. Behind the smiles and the mask of pacifism we are witnessing a new militarist offensive, like the installation of anti-missiles that the US want to impose in Europe, whose costs will, as usual, be paid by the workers and the people.
All the attempts of bourgeoisie to overcome artificially the economic crisis, to cover the social, environmental and moral pleas of capitalist mode of production are vain. In this context, the struggle between capital and labor will intensify. Submitted to a fierce attack, the proletariat does not want to step back and will not remain inactive. His class interests will force him to struggle in a organized way against the dominant class.
In Europe, Asia, in America, the struggle of working class is increasing: the working class is refusing to pay for the crisis of capital and begins to gain self confidence again. It is important to stress the development of the struggle of young workers, who suffer from precarious conditions, who are over exploited; the immigrant workers without any rights, unemployed people without any kind of compensation, millions of exploited that have hardly enough for covering their needs. Poor peasants and other strata of people hit by the policy of big monopolies are mobilizing with them.
People and oppressed countries participate with their legitimate demands to the struggle against the domination of financial capital and are uniting with the revolutionary movement against their common enemy, imperialism.
In front of the reinforcement of the workers’ and people’s movement, bourgeoisie seeks an issue in the reactionary policy and the most brutal repression. Capitalists and their governments try to weaken and attack the mass organizations in which workers are uniting and struggling. They develop broadly the poison of racism and xenophobia in order to increase the concurrence among workers. Thezy mobilize on a reactionary base their petit bourgeois allies, they use fascist terror as a weapon against the workers’ and trade union movement and harass the leaders of the struggles of the workers and of the people. In thei reactionary context, we must add the attempts to illegalize communist forces and of the symbols of liberation of the workers’
This situation impose to the workers of all the countries to organize a vat unique front of struggle against the offensive of the capital, political reaction and danger of war, in order to accelerate the inevitable end of capitalist system of exploitation.
It is necessary to develop in each country a policy of unity against capital, in order to oppose the lay offs, to combat flexibility and precarious working conditions, in order to impeach the liquidation of social rights and acquisitions, for the respect and development of collective bargaining, to say “no, we shall not pay the foreign debt and no to privatizations”, to struggle for the reduction of working hours, with two days of rest per week, without diminishing of salary, for a minimum wage and social support for basic needs for the unemployed, against military budgets, for public services in health, free education for the people, for legal papers for the undocumented people, for the retreat of foreign troops in occupied countries.
Through his unity and his participation in struggle, the working class is able to smash the capitalist block, to push away the attacks of bourgeoisie and to make capitalists, rich people pay for the consequences of the crisis, pawing the way to revolutionary transformation of society.
The main obstacle to the construction of the united front is the policy of class collaboration of the social democrat and reformist parties. The policy of betrayal of the interests of the exploited, developed by the social democrat and reformist leaders, the trade union leaders who are collaborating, appears more and more openly. This policy, through “social dialogue” disarms and divides the workers and pushes them to capitulate.
But these forces who are installed for years in the bourgeois institutions have lost their credibility among the workers who criticise more and more firmly their lack of coherence and their weakness, their role as liquidators of the struggles and their support to the reactionary forces.
In the struggle against imperialism and bourgeoisie, it is not possible to make steps forward without defeating opportunism, without breaking passivity and the policy of division waged by social democracy, opportunist and other chauvinist forces.
In the development of the struggle between social classes, always broader sectors of workers and exploited people grasp the reality of imperialism and abandon their reformist illusions and convince themselves of the necessity of the social revolution of the proletariat in order to build a new and more advanced system.
The capitalism of monopoles, imperialism is a parasitizing system condemned to death whose only objective is maximum benefit for a minority of exploiters and therefore, it is impossible to reform it. Bourgeoisie has shown her incapacity to be the ruling class of society and it is more and more evident that bourgeoisie is not compatible with society and nature.
The only way to put an end to the devastating consequences of economical crisis, to unjust wars, to destruction of environment, to the extension of corruption, to the endemic troubles of capitalism, is to develop revolutionary action for the conquest of political power by the working class and its allies, in order to abolish the bourgeois relationships of property and to build socialism.
We call the best elements of the proletariat, the young revolutionaries to participate in eah country to the construction of true parties of the working class, to reinforce those which exist yet, because the communist party basing himself on Marxism Leninism is the warranty for conducing the struggles of the workers’ movement and popular movement to the victory.
Let us make a mayday of class struggle, expressing itself through demonstrations, mass strikes with a higher revolutionary spirit.

Let us reinforce the struggle in unity against capitalism, let us create and consolidate workers organizations, first of all the communist parties and organizations!
Let us make the monopolies, the rich and the bourgeois pay for the crisis, for which they are responsible.
Let us prove that million of workers consider revolution and socialism as their cause.
Let us develop international solidarity among workers and people.

1st of May 2010

International Conference of Marxist Leninist Parties and Organizations

http ://www.cipoml.org

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