The Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party of Greece (1918-55) organized succesfully (20/5/2011) in Athens Polytechnic University an event with its political proposal to the worker class and the movement which can be summarised to the following slogans “Unilateral entire debt suspension of payments – Greece out of Euro-EMU-European Union”
The event was propagandised with the following poster:
-Barbaric attack of Police against strikers demonstrating
-The reformist leaders of PAME
-Murderous attack of Police and nazi-fascists
-Solidarity with the workers on Foreign Languages group "Interlingua".
-May 9 - Long live the anti-fascist peoples' VICTORY under the guidance of JOSEF STALIN
Libya, on the agenda for some time now due to the people’s rebellion against the Gaddafi regime, has now become the target of heavy attacks lead by the USA, France and the United Kingdom with the support of the United Nations. These attacks are explained by the imperialist forces on the pretext of liberating the people of Libya from Gaddafi’s “atrocities”. What these “justifications” really amount to, has been previously witnessed during the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The first news coming from Libya, exposed to heavy bombardment and intense missile attacks, are that in addition to the military targets, the people are also suffering as a result of these attacks.
For some time, the peoples of Middle East and North Africa are struggling against reactionary dictators. In Tunisia and Egypt, the people's struggle has resulted in the overthrowing of the dictators but in Libya, Gaddafi has set about attacks in order to suppress the people’s revolt. Just as the tyrannical policies implemented by Gaddafi against his people are not in any way acceptable neither are the imperialist attacks against Libya. The imperialist countries and the UN, that has become a tool of these forces, have not, until today, carried democracy to any country from the ‘outside’ and the situation in Libya will be no different.
It is, at the same time, shameful that the Turkish government has given green light to and has supported this imperialist attack.
The US, attacking Afghanistan in 2001 with very similar excuses, continues its occupation of this country. It is also a well known fact that “democracy” is still far away from both Afghanistan and Iraq, occupied by the US in the same way, after all the deaths and destruction experienced in those lands. Even these examples from our recent history are indication enough that the imperialist attack towards and occupation of Libya will not be bringing any democracy to this country.
The people of Libya should determine their own destiny and the imperialist attack must be stopped immediately.
Labour Party (EMEP)
Press Statements
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government keeps lying to the peoples of Turkey. Prior to the NATO’s Lisbon meeting, AKP authorities, Prime Minister Erdogan and Foreign Minister Davutoglu both stated that they had objections to the certain articles of the Missile Defence System Project that was put on agenda by NATO. Following the Lisbon meeting, in which Turkey was represented by President Abdullah Gul, official statements said Turkey succeeded in presenting its case, as if its objections to the Project were actually put under consideration. During NATO Lisbon meeting the Missile Defence System Project was approved, NATO – EU relations were discussed with both non-NATO member EU countries and NATO member non-EU countries as well as updating the road map and making new decisions on Afghanistan occupation. The objections of the AKP government to the Project were represented as not mentioning any country name as the Project is organised against any particular country or countries (from which Iran should be understood), employing some Turkish staff members in the command echelon and specifying where exactly the enemy missiles would be shot by the Missile Defence System.
None of these objections were put on the agenda during the Lisbon summit. Despite not mentioning any particular country name, it is obvious that this Missile Defence System Project was organised against the peoples of the Middle East, notably of Iran and Syria. Certain critical issues such as where exactly the enemy missiles would be shot by the Missile Defence System, in which country the System would be located and who would push the launch button were not negotiated during the Lisbon summit. When the Missile Defence System Project is actualised, whatever are the objections of the AKP government, the United States administration would be the one, which will be in charge of decision making and pushing the launch button as the head of NATO. The Missile Defence Projects also paves the way for missile and missile hardware sales to Turkey and other NATO members. The US weapon monopolies are certainly the ultimate winners of this Project. The Missile Defence System Project caused the AKP foreign policy to collapse. The policy called “zero problem with neighbour countries,” which is so called conducted by the Foreign Minister Davutoglu, has also turned out to be a monstrous lie. Missile Defence System Project means problems with the neighbours; it means the participation of Turkey as a border gendarmerie in the threat posed by the EU and US to the neighbour countries.
It also means being a part to the conflict on Israel’s side on behalf of the US. Since the day one of its foundation, our Party (EMEP) defends the idea that Turkey should drop out of NATO membership. NATO is not a defence organisation; it is a war machine that aggressively poses a threat for the peoples of the world as well as standing as the gendarmerie of the international imperialist capital. NATO, which tried to fool the peoples of the world with the big lie that it was defending the so called World Peace against the threats posed by USSR and Warsaw Treaty for a long time, increased its power and strengthens its presence after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Treaty. When the role of NATO in the recent occupations and assaults is considered, it is clear that NATO is not an organisation which protects the World Peace, but threatening it. Turkey should immediately drop NATO membership and focus on peace and friendship policies with its neighbours.
NATO should be dispersed.
Nuclear weapons should be eradicated.
The armament race that is teased by imperialist monopolies should be terminated.
Kamil Tekin Surek
Vice President
Press Statements
Athens, 11 May 2011
Local Committee of EINAP [Association of Hospital Doctors Of Athens and Piraeus] General Hospital of Nikaia
Today we witnessed the endless and unimaginable brutality by the Greek goverment of Memorandum [austerity measures] , in order to suppress any citizens' action, who are opposed against the measures which are planning by the foreign and local capital.
Dozens of injured protesters were hit by the riot police and transfered with ambulance or came alone in our hospital. Most of them had head injuries. Among them, there is a 30 – years old protestor with heavy, antemortem condition, anisocoria and huge epidural hematoma. At this time the protestor is in surgery by our collegues who are trying to save his life.
We condemn the police brutality and arbitrariness.
We condemn all the members of the Greek Government and the Prime Minister for the assassination attempt against the specific citizen who is in serious condition and his life is in danger, also against all other protestors.
The violence and repression against the people who resist have no future.
The government with the brazen tactics of popular's rights rape, which are necessary for the people's survival and also with the brutal violence which directly threaten people's lives, will increase our stubbornness and our decision to fight until the end in order people have bread, education and freedom. We are not going to stop until the guilty of murder attempt will be punished. We are not going to stop until our people win!
Dear comrades!
On behalf of All-Union Communist party (bolsheviks), on behalf of the working people of Russia and other republics ex-USSR we send to you, dear comrades, fraternal greetings and congratulations on Day of the International solidarity of workers – on 1 May!
The proletariat of Russia meets this day in the conditions of accruing struggle against Medvedev- Putin's semi-fascist dictatorship which with each hour more and more exposes itself as a mode of the mafia capital and a genocide of people. Despite wild reprisals, the announcement “out of the law of Russia” that is equivalent to the death sentence, leader of AUCP(b) com. Zinaida Smirnova, despite an interdiction of our newspapers and incessant attempts of defeat of mass organizations, bolsheviks of Russia go in the forefront fighters against dictatorship.
2010 is marked black anniversary. This year 20 years since disintegration USSR and a definitive establishment in the Motherland of V.I. Lenin and I.V.Stalin are executed and the capital authorities. Experience of the first socialist state, experience of victories and socialism crushing defeats continues to keep the urgency for all revolutionary forces of the world. The ?ll-Union Communist party (bolsheviks) addresses to all communist parties and the organizations with the offer of carrying out of corresponding actions in connection with this date. We express readiness to consider the offer on participation of representatives of our party in these actions.
Communistic greetings
The Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party of Greece (1918-55) will give a speech 1 year after the bankrupt and the triple occupation by IMF-Commission-ECB explaining in public it’s position which can be summarised in the following:
Unilateral entire debt suspension of payments
Greece out of Euro-EMU-European Union
The speech will be given on Friday May 20 2011, 18:30 at the Athens Polytechnic.
See also our article in the latest issue of Unity and Struggle: Unilateral entire debt suspension of payments – Greece out of Euro-EMU-European Union [EXTENDED VERSION]
The Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party of Greece (1918-55) organized succesfully (31/3/2011) in Thessaloniki's Workers' Centre an event entitled
“The anti-Marxist positions of the XX Congress of CPSU, February 1956”
“The destruction of socialism and the dissolution of the international communist movement”
“The intervation to KKE and the 6th plenary session, March 1956”
Former DSE guerrillas as well as young people participated in the event. The speaker was c. Tasos Mpallos, member of the Political Committee of the Movement.
Parallel to the event, newspaper Anasintaxi, dvds and publications of our Movement were spread along the participants. The event was propagandized before its holding with posters in the streets and the university campus of Thessaloniki as well as on the Internet.
See also: Successfully held in Thessaloniki, the speech of the Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party of Greece (1918-55) [3/12/2010]
The Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 supports the strike and has released posters, flyers, etc. to support the struggle.
DECLARATION
International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations
The earthquake and tidal wave that struck on March 11 in Japan caused a catastrophe whose extent is still not known, since the authorities of that country lie and hide revealing data. This raises more sharply than before the problem of nuclear energy, of power plants that are being built in many countries of the world. A month after the beginning of that catastrophe, it has still not been controlled and continues to dump into the ocean enormous quantities of radioactive particles, which have ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands of human beings and the fishing on all those coasts. It is still unknown how far the contamination that the ocean waters carry can go.
This April marks the 25 anniversary of Chernobyl. An international conference on this was held in Kiev, at which the government of the Ukraine distributed a document whose data need no commentary. According to this the soil around Chernobyl is contaminated with cesium 137, strontium 90 and plutonium 238, 239 and 240. It warned of contamination with americium 241 until the year 2056, due to which “between 1,500 and 2,000 square kilometers will never be fit for life […] because there are radioactive isotopes with a period of disintegration of 24,000 years…”
Considering that the radioactive leaks in Japan are or may be much greater than those of Chernobyl, the consequences will also be much greater. All this shows that in spite of what we are regularly told, at the present time one cannot state that nuclear energy is totally controllable, with total safety. This is because the operation of nuclear power plants, financed by the States with public money, is in the hands of financial groups whose main objective corresponds to their essence: to increase their profits more and more, leaving safety in second place, that is, the costs go to the people, the profits to the capitalist, imperialist sharks.
We must insist, once again, that the governments must strive to develop “clean” energy such as water power, solar or wind energy, for example, as a priority over nuclear energy. This is a problem that goes beyond the demands of the ecologists, since it has a political basis of vital importance to the peoples.
We the workers, youths and peoples of the world, demand to make the defense and preservation of the planet a proposal forcefully integrated into the objectives of the struggle for democracy, progress and freedom.
April 2011
Coordination Committee of the ICMLPO
Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia
Communiqué
It has been two months since the glorious revolution of January 14. In this period the people have made important gains thanks to their struggle and sacrifices.
After bringing down the two governments of Ghanouchi, the Tunisian people were able to impose their demand for a constituent assembly, the dissolution of the “Democratic Constitutional Union” and of the political police. They also won great progress in freedom of expression, organization, meetings and demonstrations. But despite all this, the revolution has only gone half way and great dangers hang over it, dangers that grow day by day.
Power is not in the hands of the people who rose up against tyranny, exploitation and corruption, it continues in the hands of the reactionary forces, which, through the provisional presidency and the transition government, are trying to take control of the revolution and to reduce it to a simple whitewashing of the old regime. Mbaza and Beji Kaid Sebssi are not controlled, they have refused to recognize the “National Council to Safeguard the Revolution” to avoid any control; on the contrary, they have set up a consultative authority whose members they themselves have appointed.
Mbazaa and Beji Kaid Sebsso have accepted the election of a constituent assembly but it is they who have set the date of the elections without taking the interests of the people into account. On the other hand, the dissolution of RCD1 has not prevented its reconstitution under the guise of new parties and organizations linked to them, such as the “National Union of the Tunisian Woman.” It has been shown that the dissolution of the political police has been just a pure formality because they continue to exist; they carry out repression and torture, surveillance, tapping telephone calls, blocking the Internet… Some of their most notorious people are occupying high positions in the Ministry of the Interior, those responsible for murders and tortures have not been bothered in the least.
Threats as in the times of the old regime have reappeared, under the pretext of the “fight against violence and disorder.” The police have repressed “sit-ins” in the Kasbah and in Mahdia. Speeches that distort the aspirations of the citizens about security, to the detriment of social and political problems, are multiplying with the aim of turning aside the revolution.
In spite of the suspension of the Constitution, the laws against liberties are still in effect: those against the press and on associations, parties, meetings and demonstrations. Those laws must be repealed and be replaced by decrees that guarantee liberties, to avoid serious problems for the people.
The administration continues to be under the control of the members of the tyranny and corruption of the “Destur”2, and they dominate various governmental posts. They have renewed the old practices that oppress the population; they marginalize the Committees to Safeguard the Revolution on the local and regional level and try to eliminate them.
The economic and financial situation is similar; those responsible for robbing the people, the accomplices of the criminal gang, continue in power as if nothing had happened. The justice system, undermined by corruption, has also not changed, as the Magistrates Association confirms. The media are still under the yoke of the henchmen of the Ben Ali regime and continue to function in the same way. There has not been any advance in the plans to prosecute and condemn the representatives of the tyranny and corruption, including those who assassinated the martyrs of the revolution in Sidi Bouzid, Menzel Buzaiane, Regueb, Thala, Kasserine, Tunis and other regions. Members of the circle close to Ben Ali have returned and are continuing their provocative activities.
In the economic sphere, the transitional government has not shown any will to take urgent measures, in this decisive period, to benefit the popular classes. The majority of the population, particularly in the marginalized areas, feels that there has been no change in their situation, which is very critical. Unemployment and the high cost of living continue, the public services are being cut back and the government has not shown any will to face these difficulties.
The government is not making any concessions to the revolution; it does not even condemn the minority who carried out looting while relying on the despotism.
The government continues with the budget decided by the dictator Ben Ali last December, giving priority to paying back the foreign debt incurred by the old regime, and to finance its gigantic security apparatus. In spite of its provisional character, the government has not hesitated to incur new foreign debt, nor has it taken any measures to lower the prices of products and services under control of the monopolies of the members of the ruling gang. The families of the martyrs have not been compensated, and no measures have been decided in favor of the impoverished regions.
The government justifies its attitude by its provisional character under the pretext of “not having a magic wand” to fix these problems…
However, it is the government that is preventing the prosecution and judgment of the gang that plundered the public money and confiscated public property. Besides, what is stopping them from suspend the repayment of the debt for some time, and using this to solve the problems of the people, since has been done in other countries? Why are the prices of basic foods, water and electricity not lowered? Why has it not eliminated the tax on television? Why does it not give any aid to the inhabitants of Sidi Bouzid so that they can provide electricity for their wells? Why does it not implement the proposals of the teachers to hire the unemployed with advanced degrees?
The Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia emphasizes the dangers that threaten the revolution, because it assumes its responsibilities. The people have the right to use all legal means to defend their revolution and their gains, to confront the dangers that threaten them, they have the right to fight against the government that restricts their liberties and tries to reduce their activities to debates in the “high authority.”
This period demands that the revolutionary process be deepened in order to obtain its objectives:
1. – To maintain the National Council to Safeguard the Revolution, both as an instrument for control of the provisional presidency and watch over the transition period.
2. – To postpone the election of the Constituent Assembly until after the summer, to allow the people to vote conscientiously, and for the political forces to prepare themselves well.
3. – To prevent the ringleaders of the RCD from organizing themselves into new parties.
4. – The effective and transparent dissolution of the political police and the prosecution of the torturers, murderers and looters.
5. – To clean up the public and semi-public administration by eliminating corruption and the representatives of the repression.
6. – To clean up the judicial institutions and allow the magistrates to choose their Superior Council.
7. – To clean up the news media, getting rid of the elements of the regime that was eliminated.
8. – To repeal the repressive laws and respect the rights of the people to freedom of expression, meetings and demonstrations.
9. – To immediately arrest the murderers of the martyrs and those responsible for crimes against the people, to judge the representatives of the old regime, to confiscate their property and their fortunes deposited abroad.
10. – To suspend payment of the foreign debt for three years, and to use that money to create jobs and develop the marginalized areas. To refrain from incurring new loans that undermine the independence of our country.
11. - To lower the prices of basic consumer products, of water, electricity, gas and the elimination of the tax on TV.
12. To urgently compensate the families of the martyrs and the victims of repression and looting during the revolution and during the events in the mining river basin, in Ben Guerdane, etc.
Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia
March 31, 2011
1 The Party of the dictator Ben Ali.
2 Destour: Former party established in Tunisia in the 1920s that later split into the “old” and the “new.” The “New Destour” led the struggle for the independence of Tunisia, headed by Habib Bourgiba.
The Communist Workers' Party of Tunisia on Libya: "The Tunisian revolution has spread to many Arab countries. Egypt's dictator fell, while authoritarian regimes in Yemen and Bahrain are fiercely repressing popular uprisings, in Bahrain, with the help of Saudi Arabia. Our neighbour, the Libyan people, rose up against their tormentors, but events took a bad turn with the intervention of the United States and its allies, under the pretext of protecting civilians. The US administration has hardly mentioned the killing of civilians in Yemen and Bahrain, as it has also never done regarding Gaza, Lebanon or Iraq and Afghanistan, countries it occupies. And didn’t Sarkozy support the Tunisian dictator until the last moment?
"What drives Obama, Sarkozy and Cameron to intervene is the frantic race to grab a portion of Libyan oil, after the failure of its revolution. We support the Libyan people in their uprising, but we are against any foreign intervention, which not only hurts the revolution in Libya and Tunisia but also hurts all Arab countries. We oppose the use of our territory or our airspace in the aggression against Libya. The US, French and English colonialists have no interest in the triumph of the Arab revolution, given the danger it represents for them."
By the Communist Workers' Party of Tunisia/Parti communiste des ouvriers de Tunisie (PCOT) حزب العمّال الشّيوعي التونسي
Translated by John Catalinotto for Tlaxcala
March 23, 2011 -- This event [the legalisation of the the Communist Workers' Party of Tunisia] has important symbolic significance. It is the result, among other things, of the January 14 revolution that deposed Ben Ali, won the right to organise and inaugurated a new era for Tunisia and its people.
The PCOT was established January 3, 1986, the second anniversary of the glorious “bread uprising”, which was a way to show our determination to link our fate to that of the Tunisian people, to defend its interests and legitimate aspirations for a decent life, where freedom, democracy and social justice rule. The PCOT translated these commitments into its political program and its militant practices, under the slogan of "national and popular democratic revolution", which it continued to defend at the price of enormous sacrifices: Nabil Barakat died in martyrdom, among hundreds of our activists who have been tortured, imprisoned and denied their most basic rights, many of them forced into exile.
Our party stood shoulder to shoulder with our people during this quarter century, making the fall of the dictatorship a primary objective, considering that it constitutes a major obstacle to the emancipation of the people and the rebirth of the nation. The party had full confidence in our people; it fought against the reactionary thinking that underestimated them, accusing them of helplessness and resignation. It has continually worked to raise consciousness and organise clandestine action to the extent that the lack of freedom permitted. It participated in all the people’s struggles and helped unite the opposition to secure victory against the dictatorship.
The revolution of January 14 is the culmination of over 20 years of struggle and sacrifices of the Tunisian people, of its sons and daughters making up the different ideological and political opponents to the dictatorship, organised in parties, associations and trade union and human rights organisations or unorganised.
This revolution took on various dimensions: It is a political revolution against tyranny and subjugation, a social revolution against exploitation and corruption, a patriotic revolution for dignity. The revolution did not stop inside Tunisia; it has spread to other Arab countries, where people are rising up against corrupt and tyrannical regimes and making them fall one after another.
Revolution not yet complete
The revolution of January 14 is not yet complete because it has not achieved all its objectives, despite the progress it made. Reactionary forces are still lurking and trying to abort the revolution. They are supported in this by the United States and France, which want to reduce the revolution to a mere reform of the old regime, leaving its economic and social foundation intact. The fundamental issue in any revolution is power, and if the sectors of the population that made the revolution do not hold power, we must conclude that it neither complete nor victorious. This is the case in Tunisia where the people rose up but have not yet taken power.
In the first phase of the revolution, the people brought down the dictator. In the second phase for the victory against the dictatorship, the people, through its vigilance and determination, brought down the Ghannouchi government and imposed the demands for a constituent assembly, and dissolution of the RCD [ruling party] and the political police. It also significantly expanded the scope of freedom of expression and organisation.
However, power remains in the hands of reactionary forces, deployed in different units and institutions that continue to preserve their economic interests. These forces are committing crimes against people (assault, looting, riots ...). They try to break its unity through fueling regional, tribal and religious differences and sowing fear and terror in order to discourage the people from continuing the revolution and achieving its objectives.
The interim president and transitional government are bent on sabotaging the revolution’s legitimacy and reject any control over their decisions (appointment of delegates, security officials, the judiciary ...); this process serves the interests of the enemies of the revolution. They refused to deal with the "National Council to Defend the Revolution”, which they replaced by a “body” whose members they have appointed unilaterally. In the same way, the decision to dissolve the RCD can be rescinded by returning this party under a new form. This is also the case regarding the decision to dissolve the political police, which is surrounded by doubts and raises serious questions about its application.
Revolution stolen?
The masses, particularly in the country’s interior, are beginning to feel that nothing regarding their political and social conditions has changed, and that their revolution is about to be stolen. It is a legitimate feeling with understandable reasons. The old regime is still in place, with its apparatus and its administration. The interim government took no action, although an urgent action is needed to alleviate the burden of unemployment and the high cost of living, stop the deterioration of public services that hit the regions -- which have also suffered repression and looting before and during the outbreak of the revolution. This is the case of the mining region, of Skhira of Benguerdane and many other regions.
The Communist Workers' Party of Tunisia believes that the revolution is not over. The Tunisian people must remain vigilant to avert the dangers threatening it. The continued mobilisation, conservation and revitalisation of the "National Council to Defend the Revolution” and its committees are urgent tasks today.
Today, the people remain the only force capable of exercising control over the interim presidency and the provisional government, which it has the right to monitor and hold accountable.
The election of the "Constituent Assembly" is an important event in the coming period. Workers, toiling strata and all our people can, in conjunction with the PCOT and all democratic and revolutionary forces, make this moment a turning point to impose the will of the people and stop the enemies of the revolution in their tracks.
This cannot be accomplished without an immediate mobilisation to postpone the elections and put space between them and the dates of the examinations, to enable the people and political forces to be well prepared, given the importance of the issues that the Constituent Assembly will determine.
We must also prepare a suitable political arena, through the purging of the administration, the judiciary and the media, by the effective dissolution of the political police and the establishment of an electoral law that resolves the issue of financing the elections to ensure transparency and equality among all participants and ensure that these elections are not tainted by corruption.
The character of the transition period in no way precludes the need for urgent economic and social measures, particularly for the unemployed, or for the regions that are neglected despite their wealth and potential.
The transitional government continues to cling to the budget decided under Ben Ali, which provides a significant portion for the Department of the Interior and for the repayment of debt incurred by the dictatorship. Why should the government not cancel the debt or at least suspend it for a while, as did countries that have experienced the same conditions as Tunisia? Why not devote the full budget to improving the lives of the people? Why not revise this budget to reflect new priorities?
Libya
The Tunisian revolution has spread to many Arab countries. Egypt's dictator fell, while authoritarian regimes in Yemen and Bahrain are fiercely repressing popular uprisings, in Bahrain, with the help of Saudi Arabia. Our neighbour, the Libyan people, rose up against their tormentors, but events took a bad turn with the intervention of the United States and its allies, under the pretext of protecting civilians. The US administration has hardly mentioned the killing of civilians in Yemen and Bahrain, as it has also never done regarding Gaza, Lebanon or Iraq and Afghanistan, countries it occupies. And didn’t Sarkozy support the Tunisian dictator until the last moment?
What drives Obama, Sarkozy and Cameron to intervene is the frantic race to grab a portion of Libyan oil, after the failure of its revolution. We support the Libyan people in their uprising, but we are against any foreign intervention, which not only hurts the revolution in Libya and Tunisia but also hurts all Arab countries. We oppose the use of our territory or our airspace in the aggression against Libya. The US, French and English colonialists have no interest in the triumph of the Arab revolution, given the danger it represents for them.
* Long live the revolution of the Tunisian people.
* The revolution should go on until it achieves its objectives.
* Power to the people.
* Long live the uprisings of the Arab peoples for freedom and dignity.
The reactionary coalition of imperialist forces that is attacking Libya militarily, under the pretext of defending the civilian population and hiding behind a resolution of the UN Security Council, is carrying out one more aggression against the peoples, now of Libya, yesterday of the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, who were brutally attacked under the same false pretext. The coalition of France, Great Britain and the U.S., with the active complicity of the reactionary governments of Italy, Spain, Denmark… and the passive complicity of Russia and China, since both countries by NOT exercising their right to veto hypocritically gave approval to the aggression, this reactionary coalition has shown by deeds its true nature. Its objective is not the security of the civilian population, but the oil and the strategic position of Libya and to threaten the rebellion and revolutionary struggles of the Arab peoples.
By approving the aggression against Libya, basing itself on the UN resolution, imperialism is once again making clear that it makes no difference whether the UN resolutions are just or not; what matters are their interests, as is shown by the fact that they have always vetoed the numerous resolutions in favor of the peoples of Palestine and the Sahara.
The rebels who are fighting against the reactionary government of Muamar Qaddafi will soon discover that these are not their “protectors,” but they are cruel looters and exploiters, who will replace Qaddafi, if they manage to overthrow him, by another pawn in the service of imperialism. One must remember that the members of the coalition, and other imperialist and capitalist countries, in the past courted Qaddafi, as they also did with their satrap Ben Ali in Tunisia, and the no less reactionary Hosni Mubarak (a member of the Socialist International!) in Egypt, both of whom were overthrown by popular revolts.
The revolts that are shaking the Maghreb and the Next East (Morocco, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, possibly Algeria)… are endangering the strategic interests of the imperialist powers. This is leading to the sharpening of their own contradictions, as with the aggression against Libya, between French imperialism, headed by the arch-reactionary Sarkozy, and German imperialism with the also reactionary Merkel. The deep shocks in this part of the world, carried out by the peoples against authoritarian or dictatorial regimes, and against the great social injustices, are making the positions of the imperialist powers and their allies tremble.
The International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations energetically condemns the brutal aggression against Libya. We support the just struggle of its people against the reaction of the Qaddafi Government, to win democracy, freedom and their own dignity. We also denounced the double standard that the UN applies, and the deceitfulness and hypocrisy of all countries with supposedly democratic governments, in supporting aggression in some cases and remaining silent in others. We call for showing solidarity with the Libyan people and other peoples in struggle by all means.
Coordination Committee of the ICMLPO
March, 2011
Advertising management, we have said on other occasions, is one of the strengths of government action. Millions of dollars are spent on TV and radio spots, advertising in newspapers, on billboards, posters, etc. to shape the opinions of Ecuadorians in terms of what the government want people to think. Among political purposes that this offensive is looking to show the alleged efficiency and manageability of "citizens' revolution ", but the facts show a different reality to which the Alvarado brother´s companies shown us in television.
This government has failed, and loudly in several areas. The most notorious is the economic field. Last year the country's economic growth was just 3.3%, well below the government's aim to reach 6.8%, and most serious was that occurred in 2009, in which the growth was only 0, 34%. Regarding the trade balance results are negative, while in 2007 it had a surplus of 1.414 billion, in November 2010 showed a deficit of 1,460 million dollars. That is government efficiency!
And of course, these elements are expressed in the social sphere. The lack of employment, growing unemployment, low wages are problems that affect to millions of Ecuadorians. According to specialized research the pace of poverty reduction in the period 2007 - 2010 is lower than in previous years and that is due government policy does not affect the structural elements of the capitalist system. This explains, in turn, that migration is maintained, and talking about this serious problem, we can see that the advertised "Plan Return" for migrants also failed.
On issues such as insecurity and crime control, the government loses the year, to the point that to justify their inefficiency Correa, a few months ago, candidly acknowledged that he does not know about these aspects. Also the facts show that unknown how to handle the economy.
The previous week about his ruined meeting with mayors, referring to environmental issues verbatim Correa said that "in this four years of the government this is one of the things we've failed. " The same is true in health (the untimely death of newborns at a hospital in Guayaquil is a clear example) or for corruption jumping everywhere.
Anyway ... this is a government that is going from failure to failure, of which the people are the most affected
By Jan R. Steinholt, Revolusjon
Friday 28 January 2011
The popular revolts for bread, democracy and national self-determination create despair among the imperialists and their Arab puppets.
The revolt in Tunisia was the spark that started a fire that is now spreading across North Africa and eastward into the core Arab countries. The popular masses and the youth in the more or less despotic Arab regimes have overcome their fear of state violence, and they will not settle for empty words and promises.
Now the battle is centered on the very pivot of the U.S. strategy for control of the Middle East region; Egypt.
The Tunisian people's revolt against the regime of President Zine El Abidin Ben Ali has already harvested the first fruits; the old regime's supporters at home and abroad are being pushed from bulwark to bulwark. Through the establishment of "Front of January 14th", which consists of a number of progressive and national forces, including the Tunisian Communist Workers' Party, the national and democratic Tunisian revolution has advanced its offensive.
Mubarak shaking
As these words are being written, the masses in Egypt are defying President Mubarak's web censorship and curfews. Demonstrators have attacked police stations in Cairo, and Mubarak has warned that he will involve the army. That could be a serious mistake. Egypt practises universal conscription. The 340,000-strong Egyptian army is made up of the sons of the people. For the people in the streets it is mainly the police, not the army, they consider to be the enemy.
In the cities of Alexandria and Suez, thousands went into the streets after Friday prayers, and confronted a huge police presence. The mobilization has been possible despite the fact that the regime has shut down the internet and mobile networks, frightened of the "twitter effect”.
Previously, people have poured into the streets of Algeria, Morocco, Yemen and in the Jordanian capital, Amman. All these regimes have been and are instruments of imperialism. They have been assured by the United States that they are safe if they put the neoliberal dictates of the IMF and the multinational companies into effect, and as long as they openly or secretly contribute to the US-dictated policy of normalization of relations with Zionism.
The Monetary Fund (IMF) and neo-liberalism
But it is precisely the hunger and mass unemployment that the neo-liberal policies have led to that has angered the masses, the youth in particular, and triggered the rebellion in Northern Africa. In Egypt, 75 percent of the population is under 30 years of age, and they are mostly unemployed – and without bread. Both demographic and social conditions are typical for countries in the Maghreb belt. Young people see no future and no hope without radical social change. Their despair makes the fear of the authoritarian regimes evaporate.
The IMF argues that Tunisia, by following IMF prescriptions of structural adjustment and free market reforms, is showing "tremendous progress" and prosperity, with only seven percent of the population living below the poverty line – far less than in the U.S. and Europe! This apparent manipulation of data falls to the ground when faced with reality. If 93 percent of Tunisians had a fairly good standard of living, of course there would not have been a popular uprising.
Price hikes and declining subsidies
The soaring price hikes on food and fuel result from a combination of speculation on the commodity exchanges and the elimination of government subsidies. In September 2010 an agreement between Tunisia and the IMF was signed, the latter instructed that the remaining subsidies must be abolished, as a means to achieve budget balance, and as a condition for new loans.
Paradoxically, the IMF dictates and structural adjustment plans have removed the regimes' opportunity to reintroduce subsidies as a measure to ease the simmering discontent. This option the IMF has overruled, and riots in Algeria and Tunisia were recently sparked by the announcement of the removal of subsidies on bread and necessities.
The imperialists are looking frantically for a way out
The despair among the Arab youth has its counterpart in a growing desperation among perpetrators and supporters of the reactionary Arab regimes.
The U.S. and the European Union fear the development and see that they may need to replace some of their puppets in the Middle East if they shall pull through the storm. Obama, Sarkozy and the remaining bunch of imperialist ministers have all of a sudden taken interest in democracy and respect for human rights. The French Foreign Minister, who offered Ben Ali assistance from the French security forces to quell the uprising in Tunisia, is now paddling desperately to dissociate from the old regime and explains that she has been "misinterpreted". The U.S. ambassador to Cairo is "concerned" about the use of brute police force. EU, and for that matter Norway, are sending fervent calls to Mubarak & Co. asking him to let the people demonstrate and express themselves. In this way they hope at a later hour to appear as if they were "on the right side", crossing their fingers that people have short memories.
As a possible Egyptian transitional figure, it appears that the imperialists pin some hopes on Mustafa Mohamed ElBaradei, Nobel laureate and former head of the IAEA. But ElBaradei is far from America's first choice: he warned, together with Hans Blix, against attacking Iraq, he has also said that military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities would be pure madness. Moreover, he declared in 2009, according to Xinhua, that the Israeli nuclear arsenal represents the greatest threat in the Middle East. But ElBaradei has lived in exile for the past 30 years and the country's young people barely know who he is. Only in recent days has he been sharp and directly against Hosni Mubarak in judgmental terms.
Main sponsor: the U.S.
The Egyptians know of course that the main sponsor of the regime of Hosni Mubarak has been and is the U.S. No state in the world, apart from the favourite pet Israel, has received similar massive military and economic support from Washington. Thus, Egypt has become a militarized police state. Without these billion dollar transfers Mubarak's regime would never have survived for 30 years.
Funding has remained at around two billion U.S. dollars (12 billion Norwegian kroner) each year, but has been somewhat reduced over the last few years because of U.S. budget deficits and increased transfers to the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mubarak has been paid well to continue the great treachery from Camp David in 1973 when Egypt, the most important Arab state, signed the peace treaty with Israel and drove a sword into the backs of the Palestinian people. For this the former President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin received the Nobel Peace Prize. Of course.
Egypt's key role
While the Royal family of Jordan has traditionally played a key role as the main agency of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East, this role was gradually taken over by Egypt under Sadat and Mubarak. With its 80 million inhabitants, control of the vital Suez Canal and the border to the Palestinian territories annexed by Israel, Egypt is a main cog in U.S. imperialism's Middle Eastern strategy.
The Egyptians’ struggle for genuine democracy and the recovery of national sovereignty may thus be even tougher and require even greater sacrifices than we have seen in Tunisia. The imperialists might "tolerate" losing their grip on Tunisia, at least temporarily. They will, however, never accept a free and independent Egypt in covenant with the people's will, and will definitely resort to all means to force Egypt to its knees and into the West's 'humanitarian' stranglehold. If the US loses Egypt, the Middle East stronghold as a whole might fall apart.
Since 1981, Operation Bright Star has taken place as a series of annual military exercises where U.S. forces practice how to "defend" Egypt. Direct military intervention – for example, under the pretext of protection of passage of maritime traffic through the Suez Canal – is in other words a fully realistic possibility. Unless the West succeeds in installing a compliant regime to replace Mubarak by means of backdoor diplomacy, flattery and bribes.
Not an Islamist uprising
As in Tunisia, we speak of a youth dominated insurgency where the demands for bread and work, freedom and democracy have been and are pivotal. The people also demand an end to the fraternalization with Israel and the "policy of normalization" in relation to the Zionist state. Up to this point, we are not witnessing anything resembling an Islamist insurgency, neither in Tunisia nor in Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been a semi-illegal political opposition in Egypt, but the Brotherhood has hardly played any role in the first phase of the rebellion. They have been strikingly invisible. This might be due to internal dissension and paralysis, but also that the young people’s demands are social and political, far less religious. Currently there are no obvious political or religious forces playing a leading role in the Egyptian revolt.
Which political or religious forces that eventually will appear on the scene, remains to be seen. But if they follow the example of their Tunisian brothers to the west, things look promising for the Egyptian workers and youth. Conversely, the outlooks are extremely bad for imperialism and Zionism, who are now working frantically to regain control and fear that Gamal Nasser and the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 might haunt them again.
Esperanza Guevara
In Venezuela as in some other countries of Latin America we are experiencing a bourgeois-democratic process, with patriotic, nationalist governments that say they are “anti-imperialist,” which is only expressed in being anti-Yankee. We communists know that these bourgeois-democratic processes do not go beyond reforms within the framework of capitalism. But we also understand that historically these processes allow us to advance up to a certain point, to prepare ourselves, accumulate and organize the forces for the crucial struggles, to create the necessary conditions that allow us to organize the working class and its allies for the seizure of political power, thus advancing towards the real social revolution, the proletarian revolution.
These bourgeois-democratic processes are being interpreted by the opportunist, revisionist currents, representatives of the government bureaucracy, as the “Transition to 20th Century Socialism,” as the synthesis of the best of all the revolutions carried out in the world, as a “modern expression” of the road to a “new socialism” corresponding to this historic moment. This thesis defends building socialism by the “peaceful road,” without class confrontation, without touching the fundamental element that sustains capitalism and imperialism, private ownership of the means of production. Therefore they proclaim that one has to develop other means of production with new relations of production that “little by little” in a “gradual” way would displace the capitalist relations of production, or that would “hegemonize” over capitalist relations, that is, to create a kind of competition between one “model of social production” as they define it and the model of the bourgeoisie, or even to create a hybrid economy. In this way they try to show the “democratic” character of the State, in which bourgeois exploitation and workers self-management coexist, hoping that this will arouse the good will and sympathy of the pro-imperialist bourgeoisie given the exploitation to which it subjects the working class every day.
Thus, the opportunists and revisionists deny the class struggle, deny that the historical subject of the revolution is the proletariat, in order to put in its place the so-called social movements, which represent people’s power and thus deny the organization of the working class, deny and refuse to accept the fundamental role of the unions and even more, the highest organization of the proletarian class, the vanguard party of the working class. They speak about the working class to give themselves a touch of radical leftism to their revisionism before the masses. This is what the working class is to them; in their speeches they specially emphasize that violent revolutions have passed from history, and have given way to peaceful revolutions that hold up peace among the citizens, that they can achieve peaceful coexistence between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, making the bourgeoisie fulfill some laws that provide certain benefits to the working class so that it can improve its conditions of life and avoid confrontations.
The elements described above form part of the state bureaucracy, they assume that the electoral struggle is enough to eliminate reaction, but such naiveté of the petty bourgeoisie and opportunism is revealed in its vacillating attitude to the difficult situations or electoral reverses in the process of struggle. Others who call themselves communists, but are no more than fossilized revisionists, overcome by the diversions and laziness caused by the comforts they have achieved throughout their history, accustomed to live vegetating; they also accommodate their theses of “alliance with the bourgeoisie to develop the productive forces and to advance to socialism, without obstacles or clashes between classes or sectors.”
These theses, which are deprived of all objectivity and are anti-scientific, devoid of dialectical and materialist vision of historical reality, are not new, they have not been born now in the light of these processes. The theses that these currents proclaim were raised centuries ago, by the reformist social-democrats (mainly Bernstein) and the revisionists of the Second International, and later by other currents harmful to the international workers movement. They claim the absurd merit that they are creating the theory of a new socialism, but we communists know that similar speculations can only come from opportunist, petty-bourgeois tendencies. These theses were very well refuted from the theoretical point of view, and taken apart in practice by comrade Lenin who denounced before the proletariat their mistaken and diverted vision of the historical development of the society and its outcomes.
These revisionist, reformist postulates and petty-bourgeois conceptions hide the fear that the working class will organize itself into a powerful instrument, to undertake the fight to demolish the existing state of things. We Marxist-Leninists must be clear in the fight against these tendencies that only confuse, demobilize and hold back the fight of the proletariat. Thus, for example, today in Venezuela this struggle is being waged ideologically and politically, and our Party is advancing firm in the orientation and the leadership of the working class, the peasants, the youths, students and women, for the conquest of political power, knowing that within the framework of this nationalist and patriotic government, we can advance up to a certain point which we mentioned in the beginning, in the winning of some demands. But we are clear that this is not enough, we work firm in our principles, with a clear political line, with the most correct tactics and in realization of our strategic objective, the seizure of political power. The Venezuelan proletariat needs to subject the minority to the majority, to be able to impose its will, the will of the majority that is nothing other than the building of a just society, towards a society without classes, without the exploitation of some men by others. This is obtained by eliminating the privileges of the minorities (putting an end to private ownership of the means of production), overcoming the contradiction between the social character of production and the private character of the appropriation of wealth generated by the workers’ labor power.
Let us advance without hesitation, taking advantage to the maximum of the conditions of this bourgeois democracy, to raise the levels of organization, education and combativeness of the proletariat.
Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Venezuela
On Sunday, January 23 250 immigrants living and working for years in the country, arrived in Athens at the Law School, and another 50 in Thessaloniki Labor Center, to begin a hunger strike demanding unconditional legalization and equal political and social rights with the Greek citizens. After the fascist terroristic operation of the mechanisms of state repression, violating the asylum of the Law School, the hunger strikers in Athens continue their just struggle in the building of Hypatia.
The hunger strikers are workers who live and work in Greece, deprived of any political, social or labor rights, and in general terms in much worse conditions than those currently imposed by the troika of the imperialists of EU and IMF leading the broad masses of the people to absolute immiseration.
We denounce the racist and fascist attitude of the Government and the whole bunch of reactionary and bourgeois-revisionist/reformist political forces supporting the government, which aims to perpetuate the brutal exploitation, oppression and extermination of immigrants – our class brothers and sisters – with the increasing refusal to legalize them immediately by giving them permission to reside and work.
The choice of the Greek state to suppress the just struggle of migrant workers' hunger strike - a fight for the entire working class and people, of which migrant workers are an integral part - is another nail in the coffin of even formal bourgeois democracy, after the repeated persecutions of immigrants by the repressive state mechanisms in cooperation with Nazi-fascist gangs, such as in St. Panteleimon district and Attica Square in Athens, the new anti-immigration measures, culminating in the fence of shame in Evros, the intensification of state repression and terrorism, with the increasing presence of the police in the streets, the curb of democratic freedoms. Today, the attack of the state against immigrant hunger strikers has become murderous after leading them to physical extermination with the government's refusal to meet the fair demands. The hunger strike counts 44 days already and over 100 immigrants have been transferred to hospitals with heavy and even irreversible, damage to their health.
This upsurge of fascistisization of social life and the reactionary turn of the state stands alone against the immigrants, who experience the greatest exploitation and oppression by the capitalists, but is also targeted against the entire working people, the anger of which is boiling within the conditions of crisis, collapse of the economy, immiseration and intensification of imperialist dependence and will inevitably explode with severe class conflicts.
The pursuit of government and all the reactionary parties that support the class policy, which deepens the absolute immiseration of the working class, is to turn the emotional appeal of those battered by the crisis against those who they insist naming "illegal immigrants".
The only answer to fascistisization and the systematic extermination of immigrants and overall of the laboring masses can only be the internationalist solidarity between migrant workers and locals in order to repel the attack of capital against the most basic rights to life and democratic freedoms. Today, it is more critical than ever to raise the class unity of the whole working class - locals and immigrants - against the totalitarian fascistisization of social life which aims at the strangulation of the already impoverished labouring and popular masses, against imperialism. The solidarity and protection of the struggle of our immigrant hunger striker brothers from state repressive mechanisms is now a matter of life and death for the working class and the people.
March 2011
Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party of Greece (1918-55)
http://anasintaxi-en.blogspot.com/ - http://anasintaxi.blogspot.com/
