‘New race for colonies begins in Africa’

Western ‘neo-colonial’ powers – particularly France – have started to reach back to West Africa, masking their colonial ambitions as ‘humanitarian intervention to protect human rights,’ Ken Stone from Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War stated to RT.

Earlier this week, France sent its special forces to Cameroon in search of seven French tourists who were kidnapped in the north of the country on Tuesday. Paris accused the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram of being behind the abduction. On Thursday, the kidnapped tourists were reportedly found alive in an abandoned house in Nigeria.

France – whose presence in Africa used to be rather strong – still has several military bases and hundreds of troops on the continent. In the past several years, Paris’ has intensified its activity in former colonies.

First, there was its mission in the Ivory Coast. And in January this year, France launched a military operation in Mali to help the local government fight Islamist rebels. Finally, this week its troops entered northern Cameroon. 

RT asked Ken Stone from Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War if French involvement in West Africa has become a trend.

Ken Stone: Yes, I’m afraid so. And the trend is called ‘neo-colonialism.’ It’s a part of the old colonial powers reaching back to Africa for its resources where they used to operate a century ago.

France was the colonial power in West Africa and during its many decades there it literally enslaved the people of West Africa to work in their mines, in their factories and on their plantations.  In fact, slavery wasn’t even abolished in Mali until 1905.

After WWII, the colonial powers of Africa were kicked out by national liberation movements which were somehow supported by the former Soviet Union.

However, after the Soviet Union collapsed and the US war on terror began, the former neo-colonial powers were once again flexing their muscles. And they were starting to reach back to Yugoslavia, and to Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now into West Africa.

If the main product of Mali, for example, were mushrooms, there would be no French troops there or in Niger. But the main export is uranium. And that’s very important to the French. And that’s why the French are there, that’s why NATO is there, that’s why – unfortunately – Canada is there as well.

I think the main point is this is unfortunately a trend. Like the 19th century race for colonies, we have we have the 21st century race for colonies beginning. That’s a tragic fact.

RT: With militants being active in Algeria, Mali, Nigeria, and Cameroon – what is really happening in West Africa?

KS: It’s a complicated situation. Many of the national boundaries that were drawn by the colonial powers have no parrying at all on the location of the indigenous nations of Africa. So, people are divided on different sides of boundaries. Most people don’t even recognize many of the boundaries in the Saharan region and the sub-Saharan region.

There’s a further problem. The West has introduced Al-Qaeda-type terrorists into Africa where they want them, where they didn’t exist in any significance before. So that has created a can of worms.

The main point though is that the Western powers – the European neo-colonial powers, the US and NATO – have no right to act as the police of the world.

In the 19th century race for colonies, they said that they had the white man’s burden to carry on their shoulders to civilize the people of Africa. In the 21st century they call it the “humanitarian intervention to protect the human’s rights.” Those are both frauds and the Western countries really have absolutely no say in what goes on in West Africa. They should have no say.

RT:  What are the chances the special-forces deployment in Cameroon could escalate into a full-scale operation, like in Mali?

KS: It could. But it’s not likely. Ever since their colonial rule ended, the French’s had a policy of ‘force de frappe’ – which is striking force, an expeditionary force, a special force – where they go in and they deal with a certain immediate problem and they leave. They do not have the stomach to maintain an occupation for a long period of time.

The problem for neo-colonial powers like France is that the so-called ‘rebels’ or Jihadists or whoever it may be, merely have to melt into the bush wait and out the expeditionary force. And when the expeditionary force leaves they come right back in. And the problem is that there is no permanent fix to this.

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France in Mali: The longue durée of imperial blowback

The present intervention in Mali, however necessary and well-intentioned it is, may produce its own blowback [Reuters]

The current crisis in Mali is a product of French colonialism, and their intervention will sadly create more blowback.

The dispatching of French soldiers to beat back rapidly advancing Salafi militants in northern Mali represents the convergence of multiple circles of blowback from two centuries of French policies in Africa. Some date back to the beginning of the 19th century, others to policies put in place during the last few years. Together, they spell potential disaster for France and the United States (the two primary external Western actors in Mali today), and even more so for Mali and the surrounding countries.

Only two outcomes, together, can prevent the nightmare scenario of a huge failed state in the heart of Africa spreading violence across the continent. First, the French-led assault on the north must manage to force most of the Salafi fighters out of the populated areas presently under their control and install a viable African-led security force that can hold the population centres for several years. If that weren’t difficult enough, French and international diplomats must create space for the establishment of a much more representative and less corrupt Malian government, one which can and will negotiate an equitable resolution to the decades long conflict with the Touareg peoples of the North, whose latest attempt violently to carve out a quasi-independent zone in the north early last year helped create the political and security vacuum so expertly, if ruthlessly, exploited by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib (AQIM) and its allied radical groups.

The first and largest circle of blowback returns to French colonial policy in North and West Africa, which was responsible for the creation of most of the states that are involved in the present conflict. France began deliberately to colonise large swaths of West Africa at the start of the 19th century, gaining control of what today is Mauritania and Senegal by 1815, followed by the invasion of Algeria in 1830, Tunisia in 1881, French Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and the French Sudan (which would become Mali) – in the 1890s, Niger in 1903-4 and Morocco in 1912.

Carved from colonialism

It is impossible to know how the map of Africa would have evolved without European colonialism to shape it. What is sure, however, is that the European “scramble for Africa” that dominated the 19th century – and in which local rulers played a willing part whenever it served their interests – ensured that European powers would create the territorial foundation for modern nation-states whose borders bore little correspondence to the ethnic and religious geography of the continent. Mali in particular was composed of several distinct ethnic, linguistic and what today are considered “racial” groups. Its brief and ill-fated union with Senegal at the time of independence in 1960 highlights the artificial foundation of the region’s states and their borders.

The lack of consideration for local ethnic, religious and cultural dynamics and the colonial imperative to arrogate as much territory under one rule as possible created a situation in which states with areas over twice the size of France and population groups which had little historical or cultural reason to live under one sovereignty and had few natural resources of comparative advantages to support themselves, were nevertheless forced to do just that; first, under foreign rule, whose main goal – whatever the “civilising mission” proclaimed by Paris – was to extract as much wealth and resources as possible and enforce control by whatever means necessary, then under postcolonial indigenous governments whose policies towards their people often differed little on the ground from their colonial predecessors.

Indeed, even those countries which secured independence peacefully were structurally deformed by foreign rule and the establishment of states with borders that did not naturally correspond to the political and cultural ecologies of the regions in which they were created. As epitomised by the plight of the Mali’s Touareg communities (who are spread across the Sahel much like Kurds are spread across the countries of the Fertile Crescent), most states in West, North and Central Africa wound up including significant populations who were different from, and thus disadvantaged by, the group who assumed power. At the same time, post-independence governments were riven by corruption and narrow loyalties, with leaders who were most often unwilling to pursue or incapable of pursuing a truly national, democratic vision of development.

In such a situation, religion, which might have played a positive role in shaping morally grounded public spheres and economies, became marginalised from governance, while slowly taking hold in a toxic form among many of the region’s most marginalised peoples.

Supporting the wrong team

If France’s colonial history created the structures in which the present crisis inevitably has unfolded, a more recent set of policies constitutes the second circle of blowback; namely, France’s unreserved support for the Algerian government in its repression of the democratic transition that began in 1988 and was crushed in 1992. As is well known, rather than allow the Islamic Salvation Front – a Muslim Brotherhood-inspired group not that different in its roots and outlook than its Egyptian or Tunisian mainstream Islamist counterparts – to take power after its clear electoral victory in the first round of the 1991-92 parliamentary elections, the Algerian military cancelled the next round and began a crackdown that quickly exploded into a civil war between the military government and radical Islamist groups.

Faced with the choice of allowing a new, Islamist political actor take the reigns of power, France, joined by the US, chose to support the Algerian military, with whom it had retained close relations. In allying with an authoritarian, brutal and corrupt government the French, and the West more broadly, became party to a vicious conflict that saw the emergence of a dangerous terrorist group, the GIA (Armed Islamic Group), quite possibly controlled at least in part by the military itself, and the subsequent bloody decade-long civil war that cost the lives of well over 100,000 civilians.

The GIA in turn was the kernel out of which another group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, and then al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghbrib, emerged. These groups focused their attention on North Africa for much of the last decade, but gradually moved more deeply into the Sahelian regions linking Algeria to Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Morocco.

Had France and the West not given unreserved support to the Algerian military, it is highly unlikely that these groups would have been created, never mind grown to their present position (a similar argument could of course be made about the main branch of al-Qaeda, which is so many ways was a direct product of unceasing US support for some of the most corrupt and brutal regimes in the world, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan).

As in so many other cases, France and its Western allies chose stability over democracy. In so doing it inevitably, if ironically, set the stage for the present chaos in which its troops are being forced to fight.

Supporting the wrong team… again

The third and most recent circle of blowback stems from France’s longstanding support for Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Specifically, French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered strong support for Ben Ali at the start of the crisis, specifically including, as foreign affairs minister Michèle Alliot-Marie described it, “the savoir-faire, recognised throughout the world of [French] security forces in order to settle security situations of this type”. The French president’s words embarrassed his government once the protests picked up steam to the point of creating a “crisis of credibility” that necessitated Sarkozy’s “admission of mistakes” in supporting Ben Ali against the revolutionaries.

So strong was Sarkozy’s embarrassment that when the Libyan crisis erupted, France took the lead in pressing for Western military intervention to force Gaddafi from power in order to absolve itself of its Tunisian sins. Yet it was precisely the launching of NATO’s air war and military support for the Libyan rebels that led to the exodus of well-trained fighters and significant weapons stocks from Libya into Niger, Mali and other parts of the Sahel in the wake of the crumbling of Gaddafi’s state. The chaos and spread of weapons generated by the Libya war put crucial numbers of men and arms into play in northern Mali at a particularly dangerous moment in the country’s history, when long oppressed Touaregs, who’d been recipients of Gaddafi’s largesse in the past (and some of whom in fact fought for Gaddafi), were once again primed to rebel against the central government.

This situation became even more ripe for chaos with the unexpected and apparently unintended military coup against the country’s soon to be retired president, Amadou Toumani Touré, in March, 2012, which created an even bigger power vacuum throughout the country.

The blowback’s blowback

Here we see decades, and indeed centuries, of French and broader European and American policies coming together to produce maximum chaos. This in turn was strengthened by the blowback from longstanding local conflicts, from the hostility of Mali’s military leadership to the extremely poor rank and file conscripts (which prompted the protests that sent the President to flight in March, 2012) to the inability of the broader Touareg rebel movement to set aside its tradition of violent resistance and embrace a younger generation of activists, who were advocating a revolutionary movement that was much closer to the soon to erupt Arab Spring than to the violent insurrection for which Touaregs had long been known. Almost a year later, the army has lost control over the majority of the country, while Touaregs have been largely sidelined from the revolt they started by Salafi groups aligned with al-Qaeda.

What is most interesting in this regard is that the present blowback had significant advance warning and should in fact have been anticipated by French and Western policymakers in the planning of the Libyan war. North Africa experts, such as Sciences Po political scientist Jean-Pierre Filiu, were pointing out already in 2010 that al-Qaeda in the Maghrib and other salafi fighting groups were moving away from their focus on Algeria and towards developing a strategic presence, and even “new theatre” in the Sahel, with the ultimate aim of destabilising those countries.

These jihadis “now represent a serious security threat in northern parts of Mali and Niger”, Filiu explained, because of numerous kidnappings, smuggling and other illicit activities the recruitment of a “new generation” of fighters from the many poor communities of the region. This reality of clearly increased operations by radical Islamist groups in northern Mali, coupled with the increase in Touareg agitation and Gaddafi’s well-known use of various nomadic groups as mercenaries, should have raised loud alarms among French and Western policymakers in the lead up to the decision to enter for Libyan civil war.

Indeed, on the US side, the American Ambassador to Mali warned already in 2004 that Mali is a “remote, tribal and barely governed swath of Africa… a potential new staging ground for religious extremism and terrorism similar to Afghanistan under the Taliban… If Mali goes, the rest goes”. This warning was made just as the US military was deepening its military presence across the continent, culminating in the creation of AFRICOM in 2008.

Given the clear attention being paid to the Sahel in the last decade by French and US policymakers, we can only assume that either they were utterly incompetent in failing to understand the inevitable results of Western military intervention in Libya, or saw that as a win-win situation, providing a new theatre in a strategically rising area of the world in which US, French and Western militaries could become increasingly engaged (and in so doing, keep rivals such as China further at bay).

Either way, just as previous African interventions generated the blowback that helped create the present Malian crisis, the present intervention in Mali, however necessary, well-intentioned and even wished for by the majority of Malians (to the extent the wishes of Malians can even be determined that clearly), will no doubt produce its own blowback, which will claim the lives of many more Africans, French, American and other Western citizens.

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Communist Party of the Workers of France: No to French military intervention in Mali, No to the “sacred union” to support the war!

Position of January 12

The French government has decided to send French troops to Mali.

After the Ivory Coast and Libya, now it is Mali. This is a decision that involves France in a war in a former French colony.

This option was the only one that has been used since northern Mali has been in the hands of armed Islamist groups.

Since the beginning, [French President] Francois Holland asked the UN to give the green light to an international military intervention, in which the French General Staff and diplomacy would organize the concrete arrangements.

Men like Ouattara, put in place in the Ivory Coast by military intervention in which France played the lead role, Compaore, the head of Burkina Faso, who has continued to serve the interests of French imperialism in the region, regardless of the government in Paris, or Yayi Boni, an autocrat in Benin, serve as an “African” screen for this military intervention. Who can believe that ECOWAS would be able to set up a military force independent of the French army? On the contrary, it is clear today that the whole of the French military deployed in Africa has been mobilized for this intervention.

The justification for this French military intervention is the fight against armed Islamist groups who control part of the territory of Mali. They threaten the integrity of Mali and carry out a reign of terror in the areas they control. But their presence and the ease with which they are deployed reflect the existence of profound social, economic and political problems that the ruling regimes in Mali have not resolved, when they are not aggravated by their management of the country. This means that a military solution, let alone a foreign military intervention, will not resolve any of these problems, quite the contrary.

The Malian forces have denounced this situation and have from the beginning rejected a foreign military intervention; they stated that the question of the territorial integrity of Mali should be the responsibility of the Malian army. They were not listened to.

The military operation is complicated and can take time to mobilize the greatest resources. The victims are mainly Malian civilians caught in the crossfire.

The reinforcement of the “Vigipirate” plan is part of the strategy of tension and conditioning to convince the people of our country that they may be the target of attacks, whose perpetrators are linked directly or indirectly to Islamist groups acting in Mali. It is part of the government’s desire to create a climate of national unity, while it is carrying out an aggressive policy of austerity that strikes the masses.

Behind this intervention is the control of an area rich in strategic raw materials, particularly uranium that [the French company] Areva is exploiting in neighboring Niger and is also found in the subsoil of Mali.

For all these reasons, and because the war in the Ivory Coast, Afghanistan and Libya have amply shown that their justification by the fight against terrorism and the defense of democracy is a big lie, we express our total disagreement with the military intervention of France in Mali.

We reaffirm the need to put an end to the policy known as the “French-Africa,” a policy of economic domination and political and military intervention.

We affirm that it is up to the people of Mali, its democratic and patriotic forces, to find ways for a political solution to the crisis in their country.

Paris, January 12, 2013
Communist Party of the Workers of France

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International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations: Resolution on the West African Region and Mali

Since 2010, the West African region and particularly the sub-Saharan zone has been marked by the armed interference and intervention of the imperialist powers. The objectives of those actions are:

* Political, geostrategic and military, related to the struggle for the redivision of the world and of the African continent.

* Economic (access to the petroleum of the Gulf of Guinea and the Ivory Coast; to the uranium of Niger and the precious metals that abound in the region; to solar energy; cacao, coffee, etc.

* The struggle of the Anglo-Saxon (U.S. and Great Britain) and French imperialists to prevent the penetration into the region by new actors such as China, India, Brazil, etc.

* The will of the imperialist powers to crush any type of protest by the popular masses, who are condemned to misery and lacking in political freedom, as well as the repression that they suffer carried out by the corrupt puppet powers, and their desire to crush any revolutionary insurrectionary movement.

The military-political crisis after the military coup d’état of the National Committee for the Defense and Restoration of the State (CNRDE) of March 22, 2012, as well as the military occupation of the North of Mali, begun January 22, 2012, which covers two thirds of the national territory, an occupation carried out by the National Movement for the Liberation of AZAWAD (MNLA) and the “jihadists” (AQMI, ANSAR, DINE, MUJAO, BOKO, HARAM…) must be put in this context

The military-political crisis in Mali has grave consequences for the neighboring countries, particularly Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, etc. and the group of the countries of the west African region (destabilization of States, proliferation of arms, massive displacement of populations towards the South of Mali, and thousands of refugees in other neighboring countries).

The military-political crisis in Mali is also a threat to the interests of imperialism, particularly French imperialism, in that country and the whole region. That is why there are preparatory maneuvers for an open military intervention that the troops provided by the members countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) can carry out, with the consent and logistical support of the great imperialist powers (France and U.S.A.) and of the UN under the pretext of “making a secure transition,” of “restoring constitutional life” and of “restoring Mali’s territorial integrity.” This is a reactionary plan by the imperialist powers and their allies in the region to maintain and reinforce their domination.

Faced with this serious situation, the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO):

* Denounces and condemns the puppet powers that have opened their territories (particularly in Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Niger, Mauritania and Senegal) to the troops of imperialist aggression.

* Denounces and condemns the proclamation of independence of the State of AZAWAD by the MNLA, instrument of French imperialism.

* Denounces and condemns the crimes perpetrated against the peoples of the North of Mali by terrorist group AQMI and the Islamist groups ANSAR-DINE, MUJAO and the MNLA.

* Supports the brave resistance of the peoples, particularly of the youth, against oppression and medieval and obscurantist practices.

* Denounces and condemns the reactionary plan of the ECOWAS in Mali.

* Calls on the proletariat and peoples of the imperialist countries, particularly France, to support the Malian people in their struggle for a revolutionary solution of the military-political crisis.

* Calls for solidarity and support for the struggle of the peoples of the West African region against imperialist domination and their African lackeys.

Tunisia, November of 2012.

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International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations: Resolution on the Situation in Syria

The plenary of the ICMLPO, held for the first time in Africa, reaffirms its support for the right of the Syrian people to live under a democratic regime: a regime that guarantees freedom, equality, social justice and dignity, as well as assures the unity and total independence of the country, including the recovery of the Golan Heights occupied by Zionism since 1967.

The ICMLPO:

1. Denounces the dangerous development of events in Syria. The popular movement of protest has been transformed into a destructive civil war. The bloodthirsty repression is striking the people, and since the beginning, the Assad regime has rejected any democratic reform that would satisfy the aspirations of the Syrian people. This situation is the consequence of the foreign reactionary, imperialist and Zionist intervention, through Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which masked by the so-called “Free Syrian Army” and under the pretext of “saving the Syria people”

2. We reaffirm that this war has nothing to do with the interests of the Syrian people and their aspirations. On the contrary, it serves the reactionary forces of the country, the region and internationally. Syria is at the moment the place of confrontation between, on the one side the U.S., France and Israel and Arab and Turkish reaction that are trying to subject Syria to Western rule and make it break its ties with Iran and Hezbollah. On the other side, Russia and China are supporting the regime to preserve their strategic interests in Syria and the region, after having lost their influence in Libya.

3. We reject all intervention by NATO in Syria under any pretext, given the dangers that this represents for the Syrian people, the peoples of the region and world peace in general. The Conference calls on the Turkish people to oppose Turkey’s intervention in Syria. It sends a call to the workers and peoples of the Western countries, in the first place of the United States, Great Britain and France, whose leaders are threatening military intervention in Syria, to pressure their governments to stop them from carrying out their criminal strategy that caused disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, etc. in the past

4. It is up to the Syrian people, in all cases, to determine their own future. The ICMLPO calls on the Syrian patriotic and democratic forces to unite to save their country from the claws of the Assad regime and the armed gangs and to prevent the foreign powers from mortgaging their future and making use of a part of their minorities to undermine their unity. The ICMLPO calls on those forces to strive to build a new, democratic, secular, independent and united Syria in which the different religions and nationalities live together in freedom and equality.

5. Calls on the patriotic, democratic and progressive forces of the region to urgently mobilize and to undertake the necessary measures of solidarity to support the patriotic and democratic forces of Syria, forces that must act to end the slaughters perpetrated against the Syrian people, to stop the destruction of the country and prevent the foreign intervention, to facilitate dialogue among its inhabitants to achieve their aspirations and break with the tyranny and foreign domination.

Organisation pour la construction d’un parti communiste ouvrier d’Allemagne

Parti Communiste des Ouvriers du Danemark – APK

Parti Communiste d’Espagne (marxiste – léniniste) – PCE(ml)

Plateforme Communiste d’Italie

Parti Communiste des Ouvriers de France – PCOF

Organisation Marxiste Léniniste Révolution de Norvège – Revolusjon !

Parti Communiste Révolutionnaire de Turquie – TDKP

Parti des Travailleurs de Tunisie – PT

Parti Communiste Révolutionnaire de Côte d’Ivoire – PCRCI

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French Government Exposed in Rwanda’s Genocide

The Imperialist government of France played a heinous role in the Genocide. The painting on wall says France = Killer

By Maryam

Newly evidence documents the role of the French regime in the 1994 Rwanda genocide — and has, once again, put the spotlight on this tragic event and the role of foreign imperialists in it.

In early August 2008, the Rwandan government released a report based on eyewitness accounts that the direct cooperation between the French state and the government of Rwandan Hutus that was in power during the 1994 genocide. This report is consistent with the results of investigations performed by various other organizations, including human rights groups.

According to the Rwandan government, 33 politicians and French army officers are implicated in the infamous genocide in Rwanda, either by giving orders or by their direct actions. The late president Francois Mitterrand, his son Jean Christophe, Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, Alain Juppe and his foreign minister at the time were among the indicated responsible parties.

The background for these events (which annihilated a generation) was the country’s severe economic crisis caused by actions of the International Money Fund and the World’s Bank. For example, in the name of economic reform, the value of the Rwandan currency was sharply devalued. This, in turn, caused changes in the world trade market that triggered a severe drop in Rwanda’s export of key crops like coffee.

On April 4,1994, the Tutsis forces of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), operating with direct US support, shot a missile at a plane, causing the death of the Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana. In the wake of this, the Rwandan regime, urged on by Hutu extremists, unleaded a campaign of vendetta.

The Interahamwe paramilitary force was mobilized to slaughter innocent Tutsi tribespeople and Hutus caught protecting Tutsis. Meanwhile, the French regime sent 2,550 air and ground forces to support the Rwandan state against the RPF. The Rwandan report cites numerous instances of the French forces involved in the killing or giving orders to those who did the killing.

Tutsis and the Hutus, who allegedly were suspected of hiding Tutsis, were executed and their wives raped. From the time of Rwandan occupation, raping women prisoners has been done routinely and systemically by the French soldiers.

Based on direct testimony, some of the atrocious crimes that occurred during the Rwandan genocide had French help. French forces made their bases in the Niaroshishi area. Those foreign bases were protected by Rwandan military forces and the local pro-government paramilitaries.

In one incident three unarmed youth were chased out of a local tea farm and ran toward a French camp. The police and paramilitaries followed the three youth into camp and arrested them with the help of French soldiers and they were never heard from again.

A former member of the Hutu pro-government paramilitaries testifies:

“We rounded up the Tutsis who had exited their camps to gather some wood (including Charles, the teenager who was son of Sambaba,) and killed them. We then buried them in mass graves near guard postings. The French companies came over to check out what we were doing and praised us, gave us meals to express their appreciation and sometimes went out with us during nightly patrolling.”

This genocide went on until over 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered. Finally. Returning Tutsi forces caused over two million of the Hutu population to flee for their lives into adjacent countries.

After the publication of this Rwandan report, the French state has deceitfully denied its role and tries to ignore the report. Those French politicians named in it have counter-charged that the report authors falsified evidence. For example, Harry Maurine, (who was French Minister of Defence during the1994 genocide) declared that this report is unacceptable and that the soldiers of France have done nothing to be ashamed of.

Even after gathering the evidence and producing this report, the Rwandan state has been complacent in holding the French army accountable for their actions. Instead of making the main perpetrators liable for those crimes, the Rwandan state has busied itself arresting Tutsi villagers. Instead of highlighting the roles of imperialists in the mass killing, the country instead arrested over 50,000 people of the Tutsi tribe.

But, due to prison overcrowding, the state had to release about 40 thousand from their jails. The first group to be freed included the sick and the elderly in 2003. Though the government said that their freedom was temporary and conditional and that their final fate would be announced in their local courthouses (called GAKAKA.) Since March 2005, about 12,000 local courthouses were established in villages all over Rwanda to try the released. Most of them were declared innocent.

Historical discords among Tutsi and Hutu Tribes

Before imperialism’s encroachment, the Tutsi and Hutu were living alongside each other in villages and houses of Rwanda country. Tutsi pastoralists and Hutu agriculturalists were organized into small Bantu-speaking states. At the end of World War 1 the Belgium colonizers secured their domination over Rwanda’s people by dividing the two tribes from each other through the use of the eugenics movement in Europe and the United States. They declared the Hutus and Tutsis were two different “races” and issued them a racial identification card which defined each person legally as either Hutu or Tutsi.

By the end of the 1950s, growing political instability ensued rebellions that caused the deaths of between 20,000 and 100,000 Tutsis. By 1959, the royal regime of Tutsi tribe was overthrown and many of this tribe’s people escaped to neighboring states or were expelled to Uganda and the first Tutsi Refugee camps were established.

In 1962 Belgium let go of Rwanda, and that country supposedly became independent. But the civil wars between various imperialist-dependent groups and tribes continued for many years. These wars naturally caused citizens to flee and take refuge in neighboring countries. Uganda applied some of the most inhumane laws and regulations on those refugees. Refugees in Ugandan camps were confined in conditions with less than the basic means of survival. The status of “refugee” was bequeathed on the children that were born in Ugandan refugee camps and they were not recognized as any country’s citizens. Eventually the number of refugees in Ugandan camps had risen so much that the state was forced to let children out of the camps. And in some cases they were able to use opportunities under the United Nations refugee organization to leave Uganda and settle in other countries.

During the political crisis of the late 1960s, the Ugandan administration of Milton Obote passed a bill called the Control of Alien Refugees Act, which declared Rwandese to be a special class subject to arbitrary detention. In 1969 Obote deported all foreigners (this included the descendants of Hutus who had come as migrant laborers in the mid-1920s, and the more recent Tutsi refugees) from Uganda.

This article was originally published in Payam Fedaee #115. We Thank comrade Behrooz Navaii, for translating and telling us about this.

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Maximilien de Robespierre on Justice and Terror

“Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue; it is not so much a special principle as it is a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country’s most urgent needs. “

‎”The most extravagant idea that can be born in the head of a political thinker is to believe that it suffices for people to enter, weapons in hand, among a foreign people and expect to have its laws and constitution embraced. No one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies.”

- Maximilien de Robespierre

Mark Twain on the French Revolution

“There were two ‘Reigns of Terror,’ if we would but remember and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the guillotine, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.”

— Mark Twain, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”

“New Albania: A Small Nation, A Great Contribution!” Part IV: International Relations and the Foreign Policy of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania

Albania is the only socialist country in the world today, and as such its foreign policy is different from the foreign policy of any other country. It follows an open, independent policy, guided by the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. This means that Albania constantly guards and maintains its independence and defends the interests of the socialist homeland. This also means that Albania supports the revolutionary struggles of the working class and people throughout the world, for national liberation and socialism working always to assist these struggles and to increase the fighting unity of the people against their common enemies.

In taking this stand, Albania opposes the threats and interference of the two imperialist blocs, headed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union. In contrast to the two superpowers, who dictate and dominate over the world’s people and whose rivalry for power is threatening all humanity with a new world war, Albania maintains a policy of peaceful coexistence with countries of different social systems. It develops foreign trade, cultural and scientific exchanges based on equality and mutual interest, and respect for freedom and national independence. It has always worked to strengthen sincere relations of friendship and collaboration with all the freedom-loving and peace-loving peoples, with all those who fight against the aggressive and hegemonic policy of imperialism.

Self-Reliance Paves the Way For Foreign Trade

On the basis of forty years of socialist construction, Albania has been able to build a strong and diversified economy. As a result it has increased its foreign trade, adding new products to its exports and achieving a balance of imports and exports. At present Albania has trade relations with over 50 countries and hundreds of firms. Its exports include fuels, electric power, chromium, ferrochrome, basic nickel carbonate, tobacco, fresh and canned vegetables, agricultural and artisans’ goods and other products. Machinery and some kinds of raw and primary materials for the expansion of production make up the overwhelming portion of imports. During this Five-Year Plan (the seventh), Albania is working to keep the growth of exports higher than imports. It gives priority to exports so as to ensure that the export-import balance results in the increase of their reserves for foreign currency.

In addition to foreign trade, Albania has cultural and scientific exchanges with many countries. It has always highly valued the friendship of peoples throughout the world, and their contributions to culture, science and the progress of humanity. lt has worked to extend its friendly relations on every continent. The reports of trips to and from Albania in the magazine, “New Albania”, give a vivid picture of the growing ties and friendship of Albania with the people of the world. Diplomatic relations have grown from year to year and in 1981 numbered 95 stetes and commercial and cultural relations exist with many more. These include countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as in Europe.

How Does Albania Conduct Trade Relations While Remaining Free From The Domination and Dictate of the Superpowers?

One of the problems which confront the developing countries of the world is interference and control over their economies by one or the other superpower. The newspapers have been filled with the serious difficulties faced by the Latin American countries as they suffer under tremendous debt to the U.S. and particularly the U.S.-controlled International Monetary Fund. Using these debts as a club, the U.S. is demanding even greater sacrifice by the peoples of these countries and further increasing its control over these countries.

How is it that a small country like Albania is free from such domination? The answer lies in the socialist policies of Albania, beginning with the victory of the people’s revolution and continuing today. Albania has never accepted any inequality, discrimination, exploitation and political or economic submission it rejects all imperialist attempts to gain a foothold in Albania under the guise of trade.

Speaking at the Paris Peace Conference, 1946

Albania has been able to do this by implementing from the beginning the Marxist-Leninist principle of establishing state monopoly on foreign trade. This means that the state, which is controlled by the working class, concentrates in its hands all foreign trade activity. Albania’s economy is protected from indiscriminate flow of foreign goods and from the economic crisis of the capitalist countries. Thus, imports and exports are included in the economic plan. Albania trades its surplus of mineral products and energy in order to obtain products and technology it needs to sustain its industrial growth and meet the material needs of the people.

Visiting China

Since liberation, Albania has never allowed the resources of the country to be given away to foreign companies. As its Constitution states, “…In the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, the granting of concessions to, and the creation of foreign economic and financial companies and other institutions or ones formed jointly with bourgeois and revisionist capitalist monopolies and states, as well as obtaining credits from them, are prohibited.” Albania is completely free of foreign debt and the entanglement and domination by the superpowers and other capitalist states which these debts create.

Thus Albania is living proof that even a small country and one which started out very backward economically can achieve socialist construction and maintain complete independence from the big imperialist powers, by relying on its own resources and uniting all its people in a valiant struggle.

Albania and the Struggle Against Revisionism

During World War II and after, Albania allied with the Soviet Union, then a socialist country. Under the leadership of Stalin, the Soviet Union provided assistance and fraternal aid to Albania. Based on a united struggle for building socialism and supporting the revolutionary struggles around the world, Albania and the Soviet Union had Lies of mutual benefit and cooperation.

But with the death of Stalin and rise of revisionism in the Soviet Union, a struggle broke out — not only between these two countries but between all the true fighters for socialism in the world and the traitors of the Soviet Union, who destroyed socialism and re-established capitalism. This was a just and vital struggle in the interests of the people, and the Albanians, led by their Marxist-Leninist Party, the Party of Labor of Albania, played a leading role in exposing the Soviet revisionists. They put forward for all to see that the path the Soviets had taken was against the interests of the people and would cause the Soviet Union to become an aggressive, imperialist power. Reality today proves the Albanians right.

E. Hoxha being welcomed at Moscow airport by Soviet Minister V. Molotov, 1947

After World War II, the Albanians also had relations with Yugoslavia and China. In both of these cases, a similar struggle unfolded. The Yugoslav government and party tried to make Albania an appendage of the Yugoslav economy and to hamper the socialist industrialization of Albania. They tried to isolate Albania and exploit the country through unequal exchanges and hostile interference. And here too, an ideological struggle developed, with the Albanians once again exposing that the policies and stands of the Yugoslavs reflected not socialist ideals, not Marxism-Leninism, but capitalism and service to the rich.

Albania and Yugoslavia were allies in the anti-fascist war before the Titoite deviation into the capitalist camp.

The situation with China developed at a later date. Again there was a fierce ideological struggle, with the Albanian people fighting to defend the interests of the working class and people, and the Chinese taking a stand in support of U.S. imperialism. The Chinese, like the Yugoslavs and Soviets, promoted revisionist lines and policies which harmed the struggles of the people and caused great confusion.

Stamp made to celebrate the warm relations between E. Hoxha's Albania and Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnam

In each case, the revisionists attempted to sabotage the economy of Albania, unilaterally canceling contracts and agreements. They tried to fool the Albanians into accepting their dictate and when this didn’t work they resorted to other means of attack leaving projects unfinished, providing false reports on mineral deposits and so on. In the face of this, the great strength and determination Albania has shown to oppose all forms of revisionist and imperialist attack and to continue on the socialist road is a great inspiration to all people interested in freedom and progress.

With General Secretary of the CP-Peru (M-L) Saturino Paredes Macedo

The struggle waged by the Albanians under the leadership of the PLA, has been discussed and analysed in recent works by Enver Hoxha, First Secretary of the PLA. In these books – The Khrushchevites, The Titoites, Reflections on China (on the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and China respectively), and Imperialism and the Revolution, Hoxha provides great detail and insight, while making important contributions to the understanding and analyses of imperialism and revisionism on a world scale. These books, as well as  the consistent and open policy which Albania pursues today readily show why the imperialists slander Albania. They attack Albania because it refuses to accept revisionism and the path of betrayal of the people, and because it remains independent of the dictate and domination of the imperialists. In fact, it is a great danger to the imperialists and social-imperialists and thus they do everything to silence its voice and confuse people about Albania. But day after day, Albania shows the world that it is the imperialist powers who are becoming more and more isolated, as the peoples increase their struggle against the superpowers and all their local tools of reaction.

The Foreign Policy of Albania: Based on a Marxist-Leninist Analysis of the World

In order to have a consistent internationalist stand which both safeguards the revolution in Albania and supports the struggles of the world’s peoples, the Albanians make a careful objective analysis of the international situation. They explain that imperialism is the source of all aggression and predatory wars, the source of the suffering of the world’s people. U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism are competing and maneuvering to carry out various aggressions and occupy other countries. These two superpowers, along with other imperialist and capitalist powers (European countries, Japan, China, etc.), are trying to outdo each other in gaining economic, political and military superiority and in capturing new strategic positions. This is what leads to dangerous tensions and threatens the peoples with a new world war. The superpowers make secret deals and interfere in and attack various countries and nations in order to gain markets, raw materials and other advantages.

With Gensek of CP France, W.M. Thorez, 1959

The Albanians show that imperialist war, oppression and exploitation have run into great resistance from the working class and peoples of the world. They bring out that the struggles of workers and other oppressed peoples is a cause for great optimism.

While analysing that the imperialist superpowers and their NATO and Warsaw Pact allies are powerful and ferocious, the Albanians also expose that they are in decay, suffering from all round crisis. They explain that for the world’s people to escape once and for all from the suffering they experience under capitalism, under the neo-colonialist yoke of foreign imperialists and domination by local reactionary rulers, there is only one path. This is the path of socialist revolution, to overthrow imperialism and all reactionaries. This struggle is an objective historical process that no force can stop.

Albania Supports The International Working Class and Oppressed Peoples

Albania strengthens its support for the working class world-wide while safeguarding and defending socialism at home. In every available international forum, Albania presents a Marxist-Leninist analysis of the world, which recognizes that the working class in every country is the leading force of the revolution. And as their own experience confirms, the victory of the revolution depends on the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist party of the working class on the ability of this party to unite the people in struggle against their enemies and to organize the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. For this reason, the PLA pays great attention to strengthening and increasing its unity with Marxist- Leninist parties worldwide, and on developing the unity and strength of the international communist movement. Its consistent struggle against revisionism has been a very valuable contribution to the growth and development of the revolutionary movement world-wide. The great accomplishments of Albania in socialist construction and its firm stand against imperialism and revisionism has made it the leading ideological and political force in the international Marxist-Leninist movement.

Speaking at a rally of the people, 1967.

Consistent with assisting the unity and struggle of the working class world-wide is Albania’s support for the struggle of all people for democracy, independence and socialism. The Albanians support each step in the struggles for freedom, independence and social progress won by other peoples, such as those of the Iranians in overthrowing the U.S.-backed Shah and the Nicaraguans in overthrowing the U.S.-backed Somoza. These triumphs help them and the other peoples of the world by weakening the common enemy.

With Gensec of Romanian Worker's Party, G.Georgiu Dej, 1956.

In the international arena, the Albanians work to expose the superpowers and their allies and to put forward an internationalist stand in support of the just struggles of the people for national and social liberation. For example, the consistent exposure of the phony character of the disarmament talks by the superpowers is one effort the Albanians have made to prevent the world’s people from being fooled.

E. Hoxha meeting with Kim Il-sung

The fact that Albania vigorously opposes, ideologically and politically, the stands of other countries does not prevent them from having friendly relations. Yugoslavia, for example, has taken hostile actions toward Albania and has attempted to destroy its socialist homeland. Despite the ideological differences with the Yugoslav revisionists, and their continuing plots against Albania, the Albanians aim to carry on normal diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia . At the same time, they have repeatedly warned the Yugoslav government against continuing its brutal, chauvinist policy toward the almost two million Albanians in Kosova and other parts of Yugoslavia. These people were separated from Albania during the imperialist dismemberment of the country before World War II. The Kosovars have demanded their own republic within the Yugoslav Federation, the right to develop their own national art and culture, to become acquainted with their own history and so on. The Kosovars have refused to reconcile themselves to an inferior status among the peoples of Yugoslavia, where their political, economic and national rights have been denied. Albania has never interfered in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia, but it has defended and will continue to defend the rights of the Kosovars in Yugoslavia.

With Stalin, 1947

Albania works not only for good relations with Yugoslavia, but with all the Balkan countries (Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania) and with European states in general. It aims to create a friendly atmosphere and to relax tensions. It seeks to resolve disputes by protracted negotiations rather than by threats and violence. It has called on these countries (as well as those in the rest of the world) not to ally themselves with the superpowers, saying that there is no safety under their aggressive “nuclear umbrellas”. It has also called on its neighbors to refuse to allow superpower military bases on their soil or to permit the superpowers to use their ports for refueling or rest stops.

Albania has formal diplomatic relations with China, but since 1978 when the Chinese social-imperialists lined up against the PLA and the Albanian people, there have been no other contacts. In 1978 the Chinese violated official agreements between the two countries, revealed information harmful to Albania’s security and sabotaged projects underway.

At a meeting of working in a Leningrad factory.

As for the two superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, the Albanians consider them the most savage enemies of the freedom and independence of the peoples and of peace and security in the world. They do not and will not have relations with these enemies of the people and will resolutely continue their exposure of these powers’ aggressive and hegemony-seeking policy and activity. Albania also refuses to have diplomatic relations with South Africa and Israel.

The foreign policy of Albania is an open, correct and principled policy, which defends the victories of socialism and supports the progressive struggles of people in the world. Providing a clear example of what is possible when a people rely on their own efforts, and unite under the leadership of a true Marxist-Leninist party, the Albanian people and state have won the respect and sympathy of millions of people all over the world.

Conclusion

In spite of the conspiracy of silence in all the U.S. bourgeois media the achievements of socialist Albania cannot and should not be hidden from democratic and progressive Americans. This pamphlet has been produced to help break this silence and to tell the inspiring story of this small country and its forty years of brilliant achievements since liberation and the triumph of the people’s revolution.

Alternating with the capitalist media’s usual silence have been lies and falsifications about Albania. But progressive organizations world-wide and many eyewitnesses to Albania’s socialist construction insist an spreading the true facts about the new socialist life being developed.

Facts show the Albanians are blazing a historic trail. Socialist Albania, the first country in the world to abolish taxes, the only country without such capitalist evils as inflation and unemployment, is a country that anyone eager to learn how these “miracles” have been accomplished should investigate. Starting as the country which was the most backward in Europe before World War II, Albania has become completely self-sufficient in feeding its people and constantly provides a better material and cultural life for its people.

Albania has accomplished all of this despite constant attacks and pressures by the imperialist powers. In particular, the United States government has been responsible for ongoing attacks against Albania, in collaboration with Britain, Yugoslavia and other European countries. These provocations continue today.

Albania deserves the support of all democratic and progressive people. It provides a shining example of how the working class and people can completely change their lives for the better. Using the experience of centuries of struggle against foreign occupation, the Albanian people rose and developed their Communist Party, the strong leadership capable of meeting the historic challenge before them. This Party, now the Party of Labor of Albania, led the people in defending their rights and waging a war of national and social liberation. Today after forty years of triumphant socialist construction the people, firmly united around the Party, are actively participating in the running and organizing of the state and economy, defending their homeland and joining with the people of the world to fight for peace, democracy and social progress.

Socialist Albania shows the reality that can be achieved when the working class and people take history into their hands and determine their own destiny.

Communist Party of the Workers of France (PCOF): No to nationalist outbidding, Yes to solidarity among peoples

The law against “denial of genocide recognized by law” causes great tension with the authorities in Turkey, which refer, not without relevance, Sarkozy and Co. for past massacres (Algeria) and later (in several countries of Africa) committed by the French army.

The tension that developed between our two countries and the bidding nationalists who meet, have nothing progressive. We deny to Sarkozy, and the French bourgeoisie in general, the right to speak for the victims of genocide.

The crude maneuver that would seek election to win the votes of the Armenians living in France, and does not serve the cause of the Armenian people who suffered a genocide by the Ottoman Empire.

The answer to this reactionary campaign is to develop solidarity between peoples and the common struggle against imperialism and reaction.

Paris, December 23, 2011

Communist Workers Party of France

Source

Communist Party of the Workers of France: Death of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Benin

We learned of the death, on April 5, Comrade Fantodji Pascal, a founding member and first secretary of the Communist Party of Benin (PCB). Such a loss is a blow comrades in Benin. We insist on showing them our communist solidarity by sending them the message below:

Communist Party of Benin

The Central Committee

To all militants

Dear comrades,

We would like to express to all the militants of PCBs our sincere condolences for the sudden death of your former secretary, Comrade Pascal Fantodji.

We did not know he was sick, and the announcement of his death surprised us. We measure the demise of this mean for your party comrade and the communist and revolutionary movement of your country. We also drove our condolences to his family, leaders and activists of the International Institute for Research and Information (In.I.RE.F), of which he was president.

We joined the call for you to release all communists, revolutionaries and patriots of Benin in order to redouble efforts to achieve the purpose for which the revolutionary comrade Fantodji fought. The people of Benin and the PCB can count on our commitment to overthrow French imperialism, our common enemy.

With fraternal greetings,

Central Committee of the Communist Workers Party of France

Source

Democratic Way – European Region (Morocco) : Press Release

Democratic Way Morocco

The international context is marred by the crisis of the world capitalist system. Nevertheless, the February 20 Movement (le mouvement du 20 février) continues to grow. It is in this background, the Democratic Way (European Region) held its meeting on October 29th, 2011 in Saint Denis (France), in the presence of comrades Abdellah El Harif and Moumen Chabri, Secretary General and Head of Foreign Affairs, respectively.

The meeting took place with frank, fraternal and enriching discussions. Democratic Way (European Region) issued the following statement to the national and international public.

The meeting:

• Denounced the dictatorship of the financial markets response to the crisis of global capitalism. Condemned the measures taken by the neo-liberal regimes, which further aggravate the social situation of very poor people.
• Note that this context of unprecedented crisis in the capitalist system is fertile ground for growth of the far right and fascism, which can drag humanity into dangerous situations for peace in the world.
• Express solidarity with the people fighting in the world against the dictatorship of stock exchanges and financial speculators. These struggles manifest essentially the refusal to pay an exhausted crisis of capitalist system that has loaded onto the workers and other strata of the people, the bill for the crisis and impose generally unbearable austerity measures.|
• Calls the Moroccan political organisations and associations abroad, and all their supporters to actively engage in the struggle, with democratic and progressive forces. The resistance in their home countries and combating liberal and ultra-liberal policies are the highest priority today.
• Wholeheartedly support the Palestinian people’s resistance for their independence and their legitimate rights and in their struggle for international recognition as an independent state in the occupied territories, the right of refugees to return and release of all detainees in Zionist prisons.
• Congratulates people who have managed to overthrow dictatorships in their countries. The Democratic Way (Europe Region) believes that the fall of dictators offers promising prospects for the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa to achieve the liberation from the despotic and dictatorial regimes that are still ruling.
• Denounces the armed intervention and policy of imperialism and its lackeys in the region and its moves to install new reactionary regimes and to prevent people to establish democratic regimes.

At the national level:

- Democratic Way (Europe Region) salutes the heroic struggle of the Moroccan people for freedom, democracy, dignity and social justice and against despotism.

It offers its condolences to the families of martyrs, in times when the last martyr of the people, Kamal Hassani, was killed brutally by repressive forces parallel (Baltajias groups). Democratic Way (European Region) strongly condemns the repressive regime of Moroccan and demands the immediate cessation of the repression and killings of our people.

The Democratic Way (Europe Region) called:

- To further expand and develop the strength and struggle of our people against the despotic power and Majzen existing in our country. Our slogan today should be the final and complete break with despotism and absolutism

- To support and engage even more in the Moroccan February 20 Movement, to achieve the legitimate claims on the basis of the independent platform February 17, 2011.

- To strengthen the dynamic launched by the Moroccan Movement February 20.

The commitment must be:

1 – To ensure the independence and, above all, the unity of this movement.

2 – Firm against the attacks of the regime and its propaganda machinery.

3 – vigilant against attempts to divide, to draw down its demands and impose a status quo or drag an obscurantist and gloomy future.

To mobilize, all free men and women, in Europe to boycott the sham election of November 25, 2011. We particularly call on the political forces who take this position to actively assume their political responsibility.

Finally, we welcome all initiatives and policy decisions of our National Secretariat starting with the demand for a constituent assembly. We declare our willingness to commit firmly for the success of our National Congress, scheduled for 13, 14 and July 15, 2012.

Democratic Way (European Region)

October 29, 2011

Annahj Addimocrati

http://www.annahjaddimocrati.org

Note:

This is a translation from French and Spanish Communication taken from the site of Communist Party of Spain (ML) the link to original article is here. For the English speakers we have attempted to translate the communique using the Google Translation software. We are not responsible for any omission and commission, if any reader/comrade want to help in improving the text, then please contact us at marxistfront[@]yahoo.co.in

Chavez brings first shipment of gold to Venezuela from foreign vaults as global economy slides

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

In August Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez announced that he would be repatriating the foreign-held gold reservesin American and European banks and they received the first shipment of gold from European countries on Friday.

The Venezuelan central bank reports that about $300 million in gold was brought in to Caracas by plane and they plan to bring 160 tons held abroad back to Venezuela. The president of the central bank, Nelson Merentes said that the first shipment came from “various European countries” by way of France and called the arrival of the gold bullion a “historic” moment for his country, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Hugo Chavez said, “Now [the gold] will go to a place from which it should have never left: the central bank vaults [in Caracas]; not those in London or in Europe, but our own land.” This is likely quite a good move as Western banks are becoming increasingly exposed to massive amounts of derivatives and sovereign debt crises that are wracking several economies.

These crises very well might be engineered by central banks and their “too big to fail” cronies just as the crash in 2008 was, and Chavez might preempting a possible gold run by demanding physical delivery of his gold now before there is no gold to deliver.

While Merentes would not give the specific number of tons of gold brought shipped to Venezuela on Friday, he said that the shipment was worth roughly $300 million.

This comes as U.S. stocks see the worst Thanksgiving drop since 1932 and all indicators show the European sovereign debt crisis continuing to worsen.

Chavez’s repatriation of gold reserves is part of his initiative to nationalize the Venezuelan gold sector, something which the Wall Street Journal says “puzzled economists.”

The Wall Street Journal published speculation that it could have to do with internal arbitration cases involving nationalizations and Venezuela seeking to prevent having their assets seized abroad.

They claim that it reduces transparency and would “raise more questions over the central bank’s declining reserves.”

How exactly they know the status of the reserves is not said, and Venezuelan figures posit a much more logical explanation for the move.eking to minimize exposure to the overly indebted Western economies of the United States and Europe, while leveraging the high price of gold that only seems to be rising.

They also said that they were seeking to invest in developing allies like Russia and China which have also been investing in the Venezuelan economy and continue to grow at rates not seen in the West.

There has also been a steady attack on Chavez coming from the United States and the West in general so his choice to demand his gold now prevents Western nations from seizing his assets held abroad as they did to Gaddafi.

The Wall Street Journal does seem to be able to pin down a number of how much gold Venezuela actually has.

First they say that before Friday, Venezuela held nearly $11 billion worth of gold, or 211 tons, out of 365 tons of reserves stored in banks in the United States, Canada and Europe.

According to the World Gold Council, Venezuela holds the 15th largest gold reserves and Chavez said, “It’s the economic reserve for our kids. It’s growing, and it’s going to keep growing, both gold and economic reserves.”

Unfortunately you’ll never hear Bernanke or one of the countless criminal Western banksters saying such things, all they care about is robbing us blind and making sure we are enslaved by debt for generations to come.

That is not to say that Chavez is a saint, but the fact that a leader would even talk about working for the well-being of his people is something wholly foreign to someone like myself in the United States.

“Venezuela is going to become an economic power, not for the bourgeois or capitalism, but for the Venezuelan people,” Chavez added.

Later, they say that the Central Bank of Venezuela holds 154 tons of gold bullion domestically, a number considerably different from the 211 tons cited earlier in the article.

Regardless, the Venezuelans seem to see the writing on the wall, with American stocks seeing the worst loss during the Thanksgiving week since 1932, Belgium getting its credit rating slashed and reports saying Greece is telling bondholders they will have to accept larger losses.

This fueled the pervasive concern that the European debt crisis is worsening and treasuries fell in response.

The S&P 500 continued to slump for the seventh straight day in a row, marking a weekly drop of 4.7% and a daily loss of 0.3%.

The euro declined as well, losing 0.9% along with the S&P GSCI commodity index dropping 0.3% with Bloomberg reporting, “The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of credit- default swaps on 15 governments lingered near a record, up 6 basis points at 386.”

The signs are not looking good and Chavez demanding physical delivery of his gold just reflects the global awareness that something is seriously wrong with the world economy and it is not getting better any time soon.

Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com

Communist Ghadar Party of India: Condemn the murder of Gaddafi and the re-colonisation of Libya!

Statement of the Central Committee of Communist Ghadar Party of India, 6th November, 2011

The Communist Ghadar Party of India condemns the cold blooded murder of the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi by the US-led NATO forces, as part of their unjust and criminal aggression and re-colonisation of that country.

The right to judge, reward or punish a political leader belongs to the people of that country and not to any foreign power. The murder of Gaddafi is an act of blatant violation of the right of Libyans to determine their own destiny.

The NATO forces rained death and destruction on Libya and its people from the air for over seven months. They have ruthlessly destroyed the economic infrastructure of Libya, — the schools, hospitals, highways, telecommunication networks, the irrigation and drinking water network. Countless people have been killed in these seven months. The imperialists of NATO armed their agents in Benghazi. They guided mercenary forces through their intelligence agents on the ground and bombings from the air to crush the people’s resistance to the capture of Libya. The final act of the murder of Gaddafi was also masterminded by the NATO forces. They bombed with sophisticated drones and fighters a cavalcade of vehicles of Colonel Gaddafi, which was leaving his home town of Serte. The NATO forces ensured the capture of Colonel Gaddafi followed by his brutal execution by their agents, without any trial of any kind.

For over seven months, Obama of the United States, Cameron of Britain, Sarkozy of France and Merkel of Germany have been calling for the blood of Gaddafi. They arrogantly rejected the proposals of the African Union and various Latin American governments to assist in a negotiated settlement of the Libyan crisis. They have now declared that the murder of Gaddafi marks a “new beginning” for a “democratic” Libya. The peoples of the world can have no illusions on this score.

The peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq have direct experience of the “regime changes” carried out in their countries in the name of promoting “democracy”, through brutal aggression, assassinations and wars of occupation. They have seen the rape and plunder of their land, labour and resources, and the murder of countless patriots in the course of the aggression and occupation. What has happened to Iraq and Afghanistan is what is being promised to the Libyan people under the signboard of democracy. What is going to be implemented is the cold-blooded colonial and imperialist plan to recolonise Libya and establish foreign imperialist control over its rich natural resources, particularly oil. This recolonisation will be carried out through the offices of a puppet regime that is being put into place.

The actions of the US-led NATO coalition in Libya confirm that these imperialist powers do not respect the fundamental premise of the foundation of the UN in the course of the Second World War in which the fascist aggressors were defeated — that the sovereignty of each people and country is inviolable, and each country has the right to follow its own economic and political system, free from outside dictate. The US-led imperialist coalition of NATO has arrogated to itself the right to refashion a new global order in which all countries and peoples must accept their unquestioned dictate.

The imperialist powers are trying to make people accept that the right of nations to self-determination, a principle established and agreed upon internationally in the 20th century, can be violated for “humanitarian” reasons. They use their control over the media to paint whosoever they select as being the biggest threat to humanity, so as to justify blatant aggression and violation of national sovereignty. All political parties and organisations of the working class and peoples must unite in defence of the right of nations and peoples to self-determination. We cannot and must not accept any violation of this right under any pretext.

The murder of Gaddafi and the recolonisation of Libya are a message to the African peoples that the Anglo-American imperialists and other European powers are initiating a new scramble for the recolonisation and redivision of Africa. It poses a grave threat to the freedom and independence of all the African countries.

The peoples and governments in our subcontinent must wake up to the reality and threats to peace and independence in our region, where US imperialism has violated the sovereignty of Iraq and Afghanistan, and is openly threatening Iran and Pakistan.

We must resolutely defend the sovereignty of every state, nation and people, and contribute to the struggle to stay the hands of all imperialist aggressors. An attack on one is an attack on all!

Let us demand that the Government of India must not give legitimacy to the re-colonisation of Libya by western imperialist powers in the guise of building democracy.

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Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire: The PCRCI denounces the attack against the Libyan People and the Assassination of Qaddafi by NATO

The intervention of the hawkish coalition led by France, Britain and the United States of America has just led to the assassination of Qaddafi October 20, 2011 after the overthrow of his regime. Following this plan, the authors pretend to be embarrassed. Neither the NATO command, nor the French, English, American, or their creation, the National Transitional Council (CNT) dare take on the assassination. After Jubilee October 20, 2011 with the announcement of the death of the former Libyan leader, French President Sarkozy made ​​step back in October 21, 2011 stating that no one can rejoice in the death of another . The Secretary General of the UN, meanwhile, hailed a “historic transition for Libya,” October 20, 2011. The story will assess the “history” of such an act of aggression.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN, the October 21 request for an investigation. Why this seeming embarrassment? The imperialist powers want to reduce the general feeling of disgust widespread among African people, shedding crocodile tears. Yet it is impossible to hide the fact that a mission intended to protect human lives ended in a flood of blood with a bonus, an act against the person of Gaddafi akin to a war crime. Every reason to believe that Gaddafi was captured and then coldly shot. Although people were afraid of compromising revelations certainly Gaddafi court. The Libyan people he had undertaken to get rid of its dictator, Qadhafi? This is possible, but the seizure of power by the CNT focused at arm’s length by NATO that led from start to finish the battle for the Libyan regime change is far from embodying the interests of the Libyan people who will soon not realizing it.

It is clear that the NATO intervention aimed to prevent the contagion of revolution Tunisia to Libya. If the Libyan people had really begun to take steps to make the revolution, it comes from him being stolen. The revolutionary struggle of the Libyan people is just beginning because it is misleading to call the coup revolution of NATO and the CNT, which has served as an alibi. The Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire is engaged with the Ivorian people for the democratic revolution against imperialism and is ready to provide support to similar initiatives elsewhere in Africa and the world. He denounces so this imperialist aggression against the Libyan people and condemns the cowardly assassination of Muammar Gaddafi.

Abidjan
October 23, 2011
The Central Committee

En Marcha on Libya

Gaddafi’s murder puts an end to its contradictory policy

After the siege of Sirte by rebel forces and the continuous support of the NATO bombing, dropped the last bastion of resistance to Gaddafi and with it came his lynching and death.

At the closing chapter of this macabre American imperialist intervention and its European allies, which began in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt, the brunt of the savagery of NATO, which fell to Libya UN resolution 1973 gave the green light for murder of thousands of children, youth, women and elderly innocent and the destruction of hospitals, schools and homes of poor people by planes from the U.S., France, England, Italy, Canada, Qatar and Spain 14 000 attacks carried out under the cynical pretext to protect civilians.

War of aggression that took advantage of the discontent of the masses secular and Islamist Libyan mobilized to demand the resignation of Gaddafi for his corrupt and repressive dictatorial policy in 42 years of dictatorship submitted to the people and their political opponents, the miserable conditions of life, prison and exile.

This does not justify the genocidal actions of the U.S. and its followers against the Libyan people, other than by oil, gas and water, for their benefit; impede the flow of oil to China and strategic control of northern Africa and the Near East.

Muammar Gaddafi was characterized by contradictory political and ideological position and winding with democratic reforms undertaken as dictator from 1969 to overthrow the King Idrissi, presented as experiences and examples of the third way (or socialism or capitalism), but history of the transformation of Libyan economy popular capitalism, privatization of public enterprises and foreign oil producers and distributors, such as Italy’s ENI, Austria’s OMV, Repsol of Spain, Total of France, BP of the UK, Petrobras of Brazil, more the U.S. Marathon Oil, Amerada Hess, Conoco-PHLLIPS, OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM, EXXON-MOBIL and the China National Petroleum, and the opening up and encouraging foreign investment.

The open door policy to the highest bidder and its weight would encourage authoritarian dictatorial corrupt economic ambition that would lead to rapid personal enrichment and family, with the acquisition of a fortune as gold reserves, foreign exchange and investment exceeding 200 billion dollars (Los Angeles Times), which doubles annual industrial production over Libya before the U.S. intervention.

In this position fro the imperialist governments of England and Italy and of Spain fought to curry favor with Gaddafi for their investments and oil business. He was invited to the treat-as did Berlusconi, or were “official visit” with the list of prayers and investment proposals.

All under the supervision and consent of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) neoliberal recipes applied against the economy of poor households and workers, that paid for the first turns of the Libyan people.

Muammar Gaddafi humble home in the Bedouin, formed by the English with an anti-political conception, governed, enriched and betrayed his people and from 1986 he was a partner of Fiat, the Italian companies and Infinvest, Swiss and French and strut NATO in the region.

The story of betrayal does not forget that most computers, weapons and equipment of repression that Gaddafi had at his disposal were supplied by the U.S., Britain, France and Spain, whose members, with his murder, was charged dearly for his politics and ideology contradiction in which he embarked and which he died.

Libya, imposed arbitrary arrests and torture

In Libya, things have not changed at all, at present there are cases of torture to extract confessions or simply as a punitive measure, risking that the practices of the past be repeated in the present, when the arbitrary arrest and torture was marked the whole Gaddafi.

Amnesty International (AI) accused the interim government of Libya, coordinated by the National Transitional Council (CNT), making arbitrary arrests and practices of torture and abuse against soldiers and followers of Muammar Qaddafi.

The organization claims that the majority of detainees are imprisoned without the respective orders of the prosecutor and executed by military authorities or non-competitive.

Sub-Saharan African suspected mercenaries constitute between one third and half of those arrested are also vulnerable Libyan Tawargha region, which was the basis of gadafistas troops. On the other hand a number of children are detained together with adults and women arrested in this process and put under surveillance of men who play the role of guards.

Communist Party of Mexico Marxist-Leninist (PCM-ML): Iran& the new source of imperialist war

These days it meets the security council of the United Nations Organization (UNO), consists of China, the United States, Russia, France, Britain plus Germany, who is a permanent member of this organization. Among the topics to be discussed is that of Iran, who asked to stop uranium enrichment, arguing that this is used to produce nuclear weapons.

At that, following the threat from the United States to make a military incursion “preventive”, now they call it a military invasion against Iran is preparing, under the pretext of stopping the threat, because it is speculated that the alleged weapons produced in Iran go into the hands of terrorists.

Four years after the invasion of Iraq, which has sunk further into poverty as a result of the imperialist invasion of the Americans and their European allies, where hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands fleeing to other countries in the Middle East for no be victims of the war, now plans to do the same with Iran, the argument, the fight against terrorism. To “protect democracy and world peace”, are used to war.

Since Bush has not quite been able to convince the Americans to make a military attack on Iran, which tries to do at all costs, he can not ignore the fact that Iranian territory are large reserves of natural gas and oil plus it is committed to its tendency to monopolize nuclear power, set representing a large booty, especially for a country like the United States, which depends on the hydrocarbon reserves of other countries.

Because of this, Yankee imperialism makes use of all tools available, why resort to the UN, who has always been subordinated to the interests of imperialism and has not played more than a puppet role in conflicts between countries, always safeguarding the interests of the financial oligarchy.

The UN, on the one hand criticizes Iran, Lebanon and Syria are making weapons, countries that certainly have not aligned to the American policy, so they are considered part of the “axis of evil” and hotbeds of terrorist groups , but at the same time, it is unable to criticize the military-industrial complex the world’s largest, and the use of weapons of mass destruction that have used the Yankees and their allies in Afghanistan and Iraq, or the fact that progress in Israel As military technology.

Another argument against Iran is supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents, the Afghans, the Taliban and Al Qaeda, in addition to being accused of meddling in internal affairs of Iraq and Afghanistan, which threatens peace in the region, the fact is that for years, who has interfered in internal affairs of other countries and has been Yankee imperialism. One example was the assistance they provided the government and the American army to the Afghans against the Soviets, the nod to the Iraqi invasion of Iran during the Bush administration, these, just to name a few, and that Yankee imperialism has been characterized by meddling in internal affairs of several African and Latin American countries.

One way to pressure the Iranian government to stop enriching uranium, is the threat of an economic embargo already living higher than the cancellation of credit to Iranian companies. To put pressure on other countries to line up in favor of imperialism and their clearance to a higher pressure and economic sanctions prepared to countries whose companies to maintain investment with Iran.

It would be rare for U.S. imperialism and its allies use the political conflicts in Iran, which look like they did in Iraq and Afghanistan to help opponents of the current government to unleash major internal conflicts which may allow a ‘pre-emptive raid ” or “humanitarian aid” in the way of the facts would mean the presence of peacekeepers from the UN, better known as blue helmets, as already happens in other countries in the Middle East and the Middle East.

Faced with accusations of American imperialism and the members of the Security Council of the UN, arguing that Iran defends right to use uranium to make electricity, which did not use the uranium for nuclear weapons production, arguing that it are taken as valid before the judges, since Iran does not submit fully to the designs of imperialism, although it is not an anti-imperialist and democratic country.

The threat Iran becomes dormant when one considers that the geographic region in which it is, is surrounded by countries and places where troops or peacekeepers Yankees such as Afghanistan, Iraq, the Persian Gulf and Turkey . For powerful countries with nuclear weapons, as is the case of Pakistan and countries in the region are staunch allies of American imperialism, as in the case of Israel.

Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire: The Anti-Imperialist Struggle is Still Relevant for the Sovereignty of our Country!

August 21, 2011

The anti-imperialist struggle is a patriotic struggle for excellence, remains an urgent need for the Ivorian people as it is for all dominated peoples on the planet. The Ivorian people has also endorsed this truth for many years. But his efforts were at times frustrated by the supporters of the imperialist world system and their allies and servants at home. In this role of allies and servants of French imperialism, the Houphouetists led by Alassane Ouattara just succeed Gbagbo and his power to populist fascist overtones. It is important to remember that in recent years, Gbagbo and his FPI contributed greatly to distract the popular struggle of its main objectives.

Having learned from the confusion of ideological and populist practices and to overcome their misdeeds, it is important to emphasize the nature, content and objectives of the anti-imperialist struggle. This is essential for a stronger recovery and targeted the anti-imperialist and patriotic in our country. A target of combat, even though identified can be achieved under specific conditions, one of these conditions is the unity of all components of the Ivorian people. This unit will resume found the true meaning of popular struggles of the early 90 for freedom and bread. Specifically, the objective of the fighting was and remains the conquest of power to ensure political freedom and the freedom to produce. To achieve this, the Ivorian people must refuse to be dictated to by choice and a powerful country by an imperialist country.

1) The need to preserve the unity of the sixty nationalities

Ivory Coast is populated by some sixty ethnic groups, each of which has the characteristics of a nationality, and indeed so we live in a multinational state. The development of a common national destiny in such a state requires the implementation of sound policy preventing frustrations, which the Ivorian bourgeoisie has failed to last five decades. In their desire to bar the way to the necessary unity of nationalities, those in power had fallen in April even developed a strategy of opposition from different nationalities to each other, under the old policy of divide and rule practiced by all the dominant powers in the context of colonial and neocolonial.

The power of the rebuilding has chosen to pursue a tribalist and xenophobic that favored the dispersion of the energy of the Ivorian people. Or to build a strong Ivorian nation, able to free themselves from domination and oppression, able to control his destiny, the unity of the diverse peoples of our country is an absolute necessity. Without this unity, no common effort to fight beneficial or politically or economically.

2) The necessity of the struggle for political independence and economic independence

The reactionary politics and weakening of the national will of the government led by senior citizens since 1960 has greatly hampered the progress of the Ivorian people in their struggle for the strengthening of political and economic independence of the country.

The contribution of the FPI to this policy has largely led to fade in some areas of Ivorian society the great hope of important victories over oppression and exploitation born in the early 90′s. Indeed, following the hard-won concessions to supporters of the autocratic power of taking an iron fist by Houphouet-Boigny, was to hope to win several victories on the road to the conquest of a modern democratic state. But the power of populist FPI has dampened enthusiasm for a political reactionary political and economic catastrophe. Gbagbo said “a thousand deaths on the right, a thousand deaths on the left, I go myself,” or “made Houphouët Ivory Coast rich, I’ll make the Ivorian rich.” The tone was set for political and economic crimes. To camouflage the forfeiture, the power Gbagbo has spent most of his time to take advantage of his own turpitude, has reinforced the skepticism, to develop a sense of nostalgia in many sectors of national life. The essence of revolutionary movements in 1990 which looks promising suites have been transformed into movements against Revolutionaries. Reactionary forces based on skepticism cultivated trying to convince people that it is better to look in the mirror rather than looking to the future. These reactionary forces profess that it is pointless to demand freedom, sovereignty, he should stick to concerns about “economic development”.

Fortunately, contrary to the skepticism and attempt to make the economy a given independent of politics, history teaches that economic progress is linked to progress of successive releases of man and human societies. These releases are the result of successive social and political struggles which the Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire continues to call on all Ivorian patriots across the country for political independence and economic independence.

3) The recall of the meaning of popular struggles of the 1990s and following

To stifle the aspirations for freedom, power Houphouët-Boigny had pretended for years that freedom, especially the multi would create incentives to tribalism in our country. However, the popular struggle for the reintroduction of multiparty politics in the early 90s did not leave room for the expression of that feeling dread. Political parties established in the period were kept to fan tribal hatred and xenophobia. Rather the bowels of the party of Houphouët-Boigny, the PDCI-RDA, has officially emerged the idea of calling openly ivoirité exacerbation of feeling and maintained the conditions for its development.

The Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) as soon as he felt able to close in 2000, posted openly and officially, its full membership in this thesis the effects of which continue to be devastating on the unity of the peoples of Côte d’Ivoire. It is also one of the points on which the REIT must be accountable to the people of Côte d’Ivoire.

The struggles of 90 years, initially mainly directed against the lack of freedom and all forms of oppression have been misguided in their goals by Gbagbo and his party who have overused the same time progressive notions of pan-Africanism , of patriotism and anti-imperialism they abused and continued to opportunistically claim.

4) The commitment to the anti-imperialist struggle on the basis of patriotism of good quality: essential for future progress of the emancipation struggle of the Ivorian people.

For emancipation, the main peak of the struggle of the Ivorian people must be directed against French imperialism, particularly against its military presence on the national territory. A successful outcome of this struggle means that it is also directed against the internal forces supporting and justifying the occupation.

Since the dark page and confusion of the power of reshaping faces, it is possible to excite the patriotic struggle which the fiber of many Ivorians to the place, give it the strength necessary to make a factor of unity, mobilization and struggle for an emancipated Côte d’Ivoire. We now promote patriotism of good quality, we say, that is to say, the patriotism of good quality as opposed to the agitation of the advocates of xenophobia and tribalism.

It is now possible to respond more appropriately to those who, based on disability and total failure of power Gbagbo, believe that the concepts of national sovereignty, monetary sovereignty, independence, culture no longer make sense in the context of globalization. In the eyes of those who deny the relevance of the struggle for sovereignty, the failure of the REIT to prove that the people can not know for progress beyond those achieved under the previous government. The deniers of the necessity of the struggle for sovereignty, these proponents of half-truths, convey the ideas that it is better to “talk about work” than “talk about sovereignty and independence.” But, they soon realize, if not already done that work and sovereignty is conditional upon each other. Universal history has shown, human political and social freedom is more productive than the slave.

Sovereignty or independence is not opposed to work, job well done, with hard work, the culture of the effort. And no one can deny the fact that there can be a job well done with the beneficial effects are long lasting if the political and strategic options are not set by a sovereign and independent people. These developments can be better understood from a few things learned Ivorian. After more than 50 years of “military cooperation”, the Ivorian army is unable to fulfill its mission. The infrastructure created in our country have deteriorated so revolting, the road network is destroyed, the school and health infrastructure have become dangerous for the users, the elevators of public buildings are barely functioning, etc.. The lesson most plausible is that everything that is designed and built outside of the organization and national expertise is ridiculous. Indeed, under such conditions, the mind immediately is lacking for the upkeep and maintenance. This goes for all the achievements, material and cultural.

The presence of post-colonial French military base in Ivory Coast dates from the early 60s. All the powers that ruled the country struggling to justify or tolerate this presence and this surrender of sovereignty. The current president Alassane Ouattara due to the presence of foreign forces, French in particular, the keystone of his policy. Recently, the State Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Daniel Kablan Duncan, tried to justify this policy to reporters by the following facts:

“The rise of terrorism with al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which requires the development of the information; the lute against drugs, as some states in the sub-region has become a hub between Europe and America Latin and finally the border banditry and attacks by the sea with ships. Côte d’Ivoire dream of being a hub and it is not possible, if we do not fight terrorism.”

(See Ivorian daily Fraternité Matin, No. 13989 of July 13, 2011, p. 22).

And later he added:

“President Houphouet-Boigny had entrusted the defense of territory to the French army to devote the resources of the country development. “(Ibid.).

Is not this the consummate expression of the policy of the outstretched hand and the culture of self-surrender into the hands of others? Decrypted, these statements mean that the Ivorian security forces are unable to carry out their task of defending the territorial integrity of Côte d’Ivoire and that more than 50 years after independence. The logical conclusion that the Minister of State refrained from shooting, is that the Ivorian army whose missions are performed by a foreign army, is not a priority, it will remain idle and under-equipped. Indeed, why allocate resources to tasks performed by the French forces?

The government is willing to sign new agreements “military cooperation” with the French government without taking stock of past cooperation, at least, without bringing this report to the attention of the people. It is a fact that after over 50 years of “military cooperation” the Ivorian army finds itself in a deplorable state, inefficiency, indiscipline, neglect of military missions for missions of law enforcement why it did not have the training and is easy to conclude that this cooperation is a failure. This failure will normally result in the outright denunciation of the Agreement and seeking new avenues in the military. It is unacceptable to link the country again, while the probability is high that another fifty years after the same experience will be done.

The argument of the fight against terrorism to maintain a foreign military presence only serves to make it not afraid to lead the people to accept the unacceptable? It is noteworthy that the leaders of the countries where terrorism has already pointed out by AQIM attacks and hostage-taking, countries that are within the scope of direct action of this organization have not yet claimed the installation of foreign military bases on their soil. It is indefensible that a country of 20 million people like ours, which has significant economic potential, with many military experts, is unable to rely on its own human resources to ensure its security. This proves that the issue of sovereignty dear to all peoples of the world is the least of worries of our senior bourgeois leaders.

A militant anti-colonialist could write one day, something like this: aid that does not happen for help is not helpful and should be rejected. This statement is correct at all points of view. The position of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire on the question of relations between our country and the French government is that it is urgent to get out of addiction. On the military question, in particular, the agreement of “cooperation and military assistance” with the French government should be terminated and the French and foreign military bases in general, must be dismantled. Our party will continue to take such action and calls on workers, peasants, urban workers and rural, artisans, women, young people, all people across the country regardless of ethnicity or religious join the Communist Party in this fight.

The Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire invites the people in their diversity to continue to “advance the revolution” by conducting a bold anti-imperialist struggle. This is the condition of control over its destiny.

Abidjan, 10 August 2011.

The Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire

Communist Party of the Workers of France: For us, it is three times “no” to imperialist war

Afghanistan, Libya, Ivory Coast

This is the third front in the war in which French imperialism is engaged: after Afghanistan, Libya, and today, it is the Ivory Coast. The troops of the “Licorne” force are officially engaged in fighting against the forces of Gbagbo.

They are involved in a reactionary civil war that has ravaged that country for years, on one side, that of Ouattara, whose troops are responsible for mass killings. The officials of the UNOCI [United Nations Commission in the Ivory Coast], the military coalition which supports the French armed forces, have asked Ouattara’s supporters to “stop the massacres”! The fighting has already claimed hundreds of victims, mostly civilians.

We reaffirm our opposition to this reactionary war and the participation of the French army. This war may “bury” the Gbagbo regime, but it will only widen and exacerbate the divisions, and aggravate the situation of the popular masses.

With or without a UN mandate, the armies of the imperialist powers do not bring democracy, much less peace. This is true in all the countries where French imperialism is at war!

Together with many organizations, in France and in Africa, we demand that the French troops leave Africa.

Paris, April 5, 2011
Communist Party of the Workers of France

Political Resolution of the XIth of the CC of the PCMLV

After evaluating several plenary sessions during the global situation, we reaffirm our view that we move in successive cyclical crises which are expressed as economic reality, which is deepened especially in the imperialist countries, such as determining component of the general crisis of capitalism, which also of economic base of political and social, creating conditions for moving to a new stage, mixed by wars and revolutions, with high conflict and total decomposition of capitalist society. It is clear that the situation remains tense in the world, continues to deepen the crisis of global capitalism. Riots, demonstrations, war characterize the current moment of world reality.

Expression of this situation is the deepening of the imperialist war against Libya are, we see daily attacks against this country are increasing, and increasingly critical support of the international bourgeois institutions becomes more evident. The bombings are constant and assumptions are civilians who after all end up paying with their lives intemperate attacks of the imperialist forces NATO , Orphans, mothers weeping for their children, this is the scenario that world imperialism has built in this North African country. Unabashedly, the imperialists stole the Libyan people’s money was deposited in European banks, in order to put to the disposal of its interest warmongers. Use the money to strengthen a government coalition made up of reactionary pro-Yankees. About 200 billion dollars of Libya’s international reserves were blocked and placed at the service of imperialism, in addition to this stolen oil, the major facilities and fresh water reserves in this country.

This initially appeared as a political agreement between the imperialist powers to attack Libya, example of this was the position of China and Russia who did not realize their power of veto to prevent the invasion, then the situation worsened, the resistance the Libyan people are maintained over time, setting a problem to be solved by the imperialist powers who doubt the military intervention by land to stop these terrible negative balances and a high political and economic costs.

We understand that this aggression, as well as others made covertly, are part of the imperialist struggle for a new division of the world and are the basis on which to structure the new relationship between world powers, which leads to more wars. The deepening U.S. economic downturn will lead to more conflicts and even wars among the imperialist powers to resolve its economic contradictions.

Another country that is suffering the ravages of imperialist interference, it is Syria, where the imperialists operate in a different format, a little more discreet, are acting from intelligence agencies, on behalf of groups opposed to President Bashar Al Assad. The characteristics of the Syrian government suggests a family relationship in the areas of power, as in the case of the brother of the president who controls one of the divisions of the army and his brother who controls the intelligence services. Some try to locate the essence of this situation on tribal or ethnic differences, trying to hide the fact that regardless of their ethnic peoples seek structural changes that allow them a chance to get a better life. But improving the brevity of life is impossible in a system where the interests of capitalism are the ones that take precedence over the interests of the people and workers in general, it is clear that the intelligence services of imperialism have been mixed in with the riots try to work the ground for possible future interventions.

The acts of sabotage that the governments of Israel and the U.S. made in this country to seek also weaken Iran, Syria partner in oil and industry, hence the conflict to pursue the control of oil reserves and energy, not only this country, if not the entire region.

Importantly, the position taken by China and Russia to Libya with a complicit silence was modified with respect to the situation in Syria, as the worsening social conflict in this country, both exercised their weight as members of the Security Council to make it clearly did not support any intervention in Syria. This is due to a very momentous, Syria offered its territory to transport fuel to other countries, including Russia, making clear that Russia is involved when the conflict is economic interests are at stake with an intervention . Just to mention some good data to say that at the beginning of 2000 the trade exchange between Syria and Russia exceeded 100 million dollars, and for 2005 exceeded $ 300 million, and has continued to increase. Although it is noteworthy that these figures, in general trade of these countries, expressing only a small part of Syria’s debt to Russia, bringing the cumulative three billion dollars. This is complemented by a major military exchange. Syria even has a Russian military base on its territory, which of course must also defend the Russian government when assessing their positions and interests. A similar situation occurs with China in turn is carving the way to deepen political relations with Syria, which promises not only an intensification of efforts to control these countries, and another part of the imperialists, if not also possible contradictions between them.

In Europe, continues to advance the tension, we see the conflict in Greece again takes place in the international news, as workers have returned to the streets to develop their protests against economic measures imposed by international agencies. In Italy, the third largest economy in the euro area is expected to increase the impact of the crisis. France, imperialist country that currently is playing important role in the aggression worn in North Africa as some of the so-called Maghreb countries were colonies of France, so this, now try to regain influence and control as before, on these countries to try to secure their resources.

PCOF: On Tibet

For the events in Tibet

We want to take a position on the events taking place in Tibet over the juncture of the Olympic Games based on Marxist-Leninist our criteria.

Tibet is a province of China.

There is a Tibetan people which is a national minority, as there are other ethnic minorities in this vast country as China.

In Tibet many ethnicities living across the Tibetan, which should be able to continue to live peacefully and harmoniously with one another.

There are separatist movements that proclaim the independence of Tibet and the establishment of a theocratic regime around the Dalai Lama, an obscurantist regime. These movements and the Dalai Lama himself has always been supported by imperialism after them find a way to destabilize China, if not disintegration, with a view that has nothing to do with the interests of the Tibetan people, let alone the peoples of China.

The riots that broke out in the Olympic Games have nothing spontaneous. The coverage of the world media reveals the unilateralism of the past given the orchestrated block outs in games other people, particularly those of Palestinian and Iraqi people.

How it can be seen behind this campaign, the hand of U.S. imperialism, the CIA and other imperialist forces who want to weaken in any way to China, its political system to the fully opened this huge market, have unlimited access to the riches of this vast country.

However, biznes already doing in this country whose managers have been launched to get into a savage capitalism that throws large sections of the peasantry, workers, a part of the youth in the nets of the system, which we fight every day here in our country. But the imperialists managers involved in the development of capitalism in China and benefit from it, fearing both the emergence of a competitor the same size.

Find again the same conflicts in the war on the issue of boycotting the Olympic Games, while the imperialists want to make enormous profits from these games that are advertised on a global scale, and making teachers lesson in democracy. And when the North American managers who are leading that campaign, or Sarkozy, saying “no, not you!”.

It is obvious that Chinese managers would not let the insurgency grow and destabilizing movements supported by imperialism without reaction. The reaction is consistent with their class nature: that of a middle class which usurps the name of communist and defending tooth and nail to its interests.

I will not stir our view with that of the international response: we condemn the maneuvers to destabilize China.

We do not support the claim of secession of Tibet posed by reactionary circles.

We support the rights of all Tibetans and people of China should be respected, the issues raised be resolved by political means, and the suppression does not solve any problem.

March 31, 2008

The Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire: “the downfall of Gbagbo does not solve the issue of development”

The fighting of the Ivorian people for freedom and bread rose despite the various obstacles encountered since the popular movements of 1990 that led to the concession by the proponents of multi-party rule. The experience of twenty (20) years since 1990 indicates that the acquisition of multiple parties does not mean the end of all obstacles to the emancipation of the people.

Soon after we acquired a multi-party system it served as a mere instrument in the hands of upper-bourgeois politicians Ivory Coast to create the conditions for the challenge of recognizing the Ivorian people’s right to self-determination whose first act was the accession our country’s political independence in 1960. This questioning of the right to self-determination is symbolized by the systematic use of Ivorian leaders to the former colonial power, France, when problems arise at the national level. For example, since the introduction of multiparty advocates succession of state power have not been able to hold multiparty elections transparent and that all sovereignty over fifty years after the country attained independence policy. Despite the potential of the country, its leaders are upper class so far failed to establish credible institutions and financing necessary to enable the people to rely on its own forces. Dependence on outside results in a deficit of sovereignty manifested acutely over the past ten years. This lack of sovereignty was further revealed at the last post-election crisis whose outcome has highlighted the role of the UN and France.

So despite its accession to political independence there is a nearly fifty years, Côte d’Ivoire remains a weak country, subject to the domination of strong countries. Côte d’Ivoire is therefore a neo-colonial country subjected to imperialist domination, especially that of French imperialism. The necessary future developments in Côte d’Ivoire on the path of his release require its release from the shackles of neo-colonial system. Countries rulers have no interest in a move towards more freedom for the Ivorian people. To hinder this development, they put in open political means, economic, cultural and military.

Pro-Gbagbo Militia

Of domestic political forces pose conscious or unconscious actions contributing to impair people’s struggle for emancipation. For twenty years, these interior reactionary political forces, based on their theory of the “Ivorite” have made every effort to keep the unity and diversity of the people of Côte d’Ivoire. For immediate electoral interests of certain high-bourgeois leaders, the opposite view to the necessary unity of the people of the components has been developed and propagated. Yet history shows that all people weak and dominated the world who have managed to fully self-determination took first steps as their awareness and unity. Chinese and Indochinese peoples have provided clear examples in the last century. Closer to home, the people of North Africa and the Middle East engaged in revolutionary processes are about to provide examples to inspire the revolutionaries of our country. For several years, due to the absurd thesis mentioned above, most political debate has focused on the knowledge which is true Ivorian and who is not. The real problems have been overlooked. It is hoped that the outcome of the latest clashes is the beginning of the end of this thesis harmful to that priority be given to the cohesion of the Ivorian people and the best interests of its struggle for emancipation.

For this, the revolutionary forces and patriotic interest in continuing their fight against the policies violate the people’s unity and national sovereignty. So the conditions are met to end the presence of demeaning the French armies of the 43rd BIMA and the Unicorn and the forces of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire. In line with our aspiration to sovereignty, the Ivorian territory will be freed from the presence of all foreign armed forces.

Chaos in the Ivory Coast killed over 1,000 civilians

The real anti-imperialist and patriotic is looking for important objectives. In flights of nationalist and patriotic people often focus on the greatness of the Cote d’Ivoire and the Ivorian people. Or a great country or a great nation is the one who is among those who decide for themselves and for the whole of humanity. It is not possible to reach to take our country or our people on a pedestal as if it relies solely on others to solve their basic problems. Our ability to move in the right direction should lead us to believe that we are struck by a curse if, say, five years, France and the United Nations should organize new elections in Côte d’Ivoire. Any revolutionary energy deployed to snatch a multiparty system in 1990 will have been wasted in vain. It is true that this energy was gradually dissipated as the negative impact of power REIT to such an extent that it was insufficient to fully defend and independence of the popular will expressed at the ballot box November 28, 2010. If this energy was sufficient air strikes UN and French planes were not needed. These strikes have taken place and hastened the end of confrontation and unnecessary tragedy that took place. But now arises the question of legitimate pride that the people should get out of an act, an act intended to contribute to his release but was not entirely due to his creative genius, that the issue of pride is the issue of what should the Ivorian people to get in position to use to advantage and lasting achievements of the victory obtained under these conditions are not adequately controlled.

The thousands of dead, missing and injured not to mention the massive destruction of infrastructure and property of any kind are the testimony of the sacrifices made by the Ivorian people to get rid of power pro-imperialist and tyrannical Gbagbo. But the only downfall of Gbagbo does not solve the issue of development of Côte d’Ivoire, the slogan of “Ivorian revolution” which was punctuated by areas during the post-election struggles should not be abandoned. The people must pursue actions leading to better control the levers of emancipation that is sovereignty. In this perspective, the Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire invites the people to continue to “advance the revolution” to hasten the terms of the control of their destiny. Advancing the Revolution means so conduct battles on different fronts:

i) seek the repeal of the current constitution that created the war and replace it with a democratic constitution devoid of the ideological background of the Ivorian;

ii) deepening the freedoms of expression, assembly, organization and event;

iii) to effectively end impunity for criminals and political and economic to disgorge these criminals in this regard, the people must exercise extreme vigilance to ensure that the commission “dialogue-truth – reconciliation” announced by the government government’s emphasis on truth and justice as a prerequisite for any reconciliation between Ivorians and generally between the victims and their executioners;

iv) improving the living conditions of the people.

Abidjan, May 15, 2011.
The Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire

PCOF: Enough with the anti-democratic drift of Sarkozy in the name of security!

Roma being deported from France, 2010

Demolishing the forces of repression, a Roma settlement in Bordeaux

Enough THE DIVERSION undemocratic Sarkozy IN THE NAME OF SECURITY!

This is a “reactive” auction that creates a mixture anakato stigma of “foreign” in orbit, the Roma within a demagogic populism around the “social insecurity.” Especially this time you wish to remove the citizenship of those French (s.m foreign origin) are accused of violent reaction against the forces of repression. They want to review the legislation relating to French citizenship for anyone born in France, especially for those who will in future any problem with justice.

The goal of the President and all right-wing MPs are shameless: they want to target and stigmatize as criminals, large population groups, poor wretched people who disappeared from daily living under the regime of fear and insecurity to accept invasion and attack where they are, from the riot. The Hortefeux (s.m government’s interior minister) announced that dozens of “illegal” settlements will be evacuated by the police in the coming weeks.

Roma being deported from Vichy France, 1942

It is a policy of discrimination want to agkathidrysoun singles purebred “French” from everyone else. It is a policy that brings back the memory of the period of Vichy (s.m is the treacherous filonazistiki government ownership of Petain): Since a number of”bad”French lost their citizenship!

Deep hidden essence of this policy appears in the following:”The root cause of violence is tolerated and even”parents”who have been negligent (s.m to”supervise”their children) will suffer the consequences in the form of legal sanction”

Sarkozy and the right supports him being a dead end crowd management problems, wants to establish a society of fear, a society of discrimination against foreign-hungry home aspazomenos once racist positions of FN (s.m party of Le Pen) ​​on measures to be implemented. These measures will not solve any particular problem and of course the problems of those living in working-class neighborhoods, unlike a cause of tension, establish a atynomiko state. The forces of repression are those more often now, attempting YOU”hunting”people and their families who refuse napodiochthoun the living room, as in the case of Courneuve (s.m region near 4 kilometers away from Paris for years with the Roma camps of)

The EU did not react at all to such a policy towards Roma, permanent victims of discrimination in all countries, culminating in the situation in Romania.

And during all this done, the covert machinations of the perpetrators to trial Bettencourt-Woerth & Co. (s.m is the famous case of the heir to L’Oreal and the scandal that reaches Sarkozy), continued.

The police are against poor people, absolute protection for the bourgeois.

There is only by mobilizing the people to retreat by the government, this government of discrimination, this kyvenisi serving the megalokapitalistes. Is that popular mobilization is unitary and massive. We must act before its too late.

Paris, July 31, 2010
Communist Workers’ Party of France

Political declaration of the European Regional Meeting of the ICMLPO, Copenhagen, May, 2011

Let us prepare for the sharpening of the class struggle

In the capitalist world still in deep crisis, the wind of popular revolts and of revolution is coming from the Maghreb and countries of the Middle East. The people of these countries have risen up, one after the other, against regimes of tyranny, often sold out to imperialism. They are struggling for democracy; they want to live in dignity, to work, study and contribute to the development of their country and to get rid of the corrupt regimes that have enriched themselves at their expense by selling the country and its wealth to the imperialist powers.

The revolution began in Tunisia. The resistance of the working class, of the youths, peasants, democrats and popular sectors was organized in spite of the ferocious repression of Ben Ali’s regime, supported until the last minute by its imperialist godfathers.

In this fight, the Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia (PCOT) has played an essential leading role. Together with other forces, it is struggling today in order for this revolutionary process to continue to its end. It is the Tunisian revolution that expelled Ben Ali. It encouraged other people of the Maghreb and the Middle East to rise up. From Egypt to Yemen, from Morocco to Syria, movements have developed, provoking a large movement of sympathy among the workers, youth and peoples all over the world.

The imperialist powers that consider this region as their private hunting ground have been taken by surprise. They pretend to support these popular movements, in order to try to make use of them for their own interests. In Libya they have found forces ready to collaborate with them, and Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama launched a war that is plunging this country into chaos. For the first time in its history, NATO is intervening militarily in this region, to show the will of the imperialist powers to halt the popular movements and to establish their total control of all of Libya’s resources, especially oil, gas and water. They are also interested in Libya’s geostrategic position on the African continent and in the Mediterranean region.

As the G-8 summit has shown, the big imperialist powers are speaking of “helping” these people, but they are trying to enchain them with debts. Today the debt mechanism is an essential instrument of the neocolonial policy of imperialism. We denounce this policy of enslavement and say that on the contrary, these people do not need new debts.

It is not over yet, but with these movements, the class struggle has taken a new dimension, a new scale internationally. These people are standing up and are giving a new breath to the revolution, to the fight for national and social emancipation. They have shown that it is the people who make history and that a people united can overturn the imperialist order, can overthrow dictatorships.

The idea of the revolution is again on the agenda

The working class, the toiling people, the youth and the peoples of the world are in solidarity with this fight that inspires and stimulates them to reinforce their struggle against the capitalist imperialist system that makes them pay for its crisis. Far from being over, much less overcome, a new crisis is threatening to explode: the state debt crisis, especially in the EU. The financial oligarchy, the monopolies have put the States into debt in order to save the financial system, the banks and big monopolies. For this, billions in public money, taken from the social budgets, have been used. At the same time, wages have been lowered, and misery and precariousness have struck ever larger sectors of the masses.

The financial markets are speculating on the bankruptcy of States; they are demanding more austerity, new privatizations and new cutbacks in social rights. In order to save Euro, the leaders of big powers in the EU, the IMF and the ECB [European Central Bank] want to impose a mega-austerity plan; the so-called “stabilization plan”, which, in reality, will push even more workers of the cities and the countryside, the youths and working women into misery and insecurity, and will increase the super-exploitation in the companies. To impose such a policy of social regression, the governments of the right, social democrats and social liberals are reinforcing the reactionary laws in order to criminalize the developing social struggle. They do not hesitate to copy the racist themes of the extreme right parties which are developing a populist propaganda. We denounce the reinforcement of “fortress” Europe and say: “it is not the immigrants who should be expelled, but Sarkozy, Berlusconi and company!”

The working class, popular masses and peoples are resisting, refusing to pay for the crisis of the capitalist system.

In several countries, the youths, who are the first victim of mass unemployment and precariousness, are taking to the streets and occupying public places in cities, shouting their anger at a society that has no future to offer them. In all the countries, from Greece to the United Kingdom, from Portugal to Italy, from Ireland to Spain, the working class and popular masses are demonstrating; resisting, expressing their refusal to pay for the crisis of the system.

We are working to develop this resistance, to develop the international solidarity and to merge these fronts of struggle into a general challenge to the capitalist system, which is responsible for the crisis, wars and accidents, as the one at the Fukushima nuclear plant. It is the race for maximum profit that is sacrificing the security of the workers and peoples. We support the struggles of the workers and peoples of Europe who refuse to pay for the debts of the capitalist and we say that it is the rich, the speculators and big shareholders who must pay for them.

We support the struggles against privatization and liquidation of public services, in health, education, social protection…

We support the strikes and struggles of the workers for higher wages, the mobilizations against layoffs, against lowering of wages and worsening of social conditions.

We appeal to reinforce in each country and internationally the combat against the “pact of stabilization”.

We denounce and combat racism and struggle for equality of rights, between all the workers, which permits to struggle together against our common enemies.

We denounce imperialism’s war policy and call for solidarity with the struggles of the peoples in the Maghreb and the Middle East.

We call for a large movement of solidarity with the revolutionary process in Tunisia and for support to our fraternal party, the PCOT.

We are working to unite the forces that oppose the policy of the bourgeoisie and reaction, the policy of imperialist war, for building fronts in the struggles, among the rank-and-file, in action.

The class struggle has accelerated in a few months

We appeal to the working class, the youths, the toilers of the city and countryside, the women of the popular sectors, to intensify their struggles to defend their social and political rights and gains.

We call on the political and social organizations that want to break with this system, for social change, to prepare themselves for the new developments in the class struggle, for the battles and confrontations at a higher level.

Copenhagen, May 2011

Solidarity With the Struggle of the Arab Peoples!

We, the parties and organizations of Europe that are members of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO), affirm that the popular uprisings in North Africa and the Near East have been caused by the terrible material conditions of life of the popular masses and the imposition of despotic regimes in those countries.

These conditions have objectively gotten worse as a result of the worldwide crisis of capitalism.

There are deep problems related to the question of democracy, and above all to the social question, the exploitation, poverty and inequality, created by the imperialist policy of looting and oppression of the peoples of the dependent countries.

These democratic and revolutionary processes are continuing, fighting to overthrow the despotic regimes and reactionary forces, to completely eliminate the privileges of the oligarchies, to win political liberties, to break the dependence on imperialism and to open the perspective of a new society.

These events demonstrate the revolutionary abilities of the peoples of the dependent countries, of the oppressed young people, who are the real protagonists of the process in motion.

These are very important for the proletariat, because they weaken the positions of capitalism; they can transform the dependent countries from reserves of imperialism into reserves of the proletarian revolution.

These movements in general have a progressive nature and offer precious lessons for the international proletariat, because they educate the exploited through struggle, and they instill confidence in their own one force and again put the idea of the revolution on the agenda.

We resolutely support the revolutionary and liberation movements of the oppressed peoples, which strengthen the international front of struggle against imperialism. In particular we must support the democratic revolution of the Tunisian people against the dictatorship of Ben Ali, a revolution in which the Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia (PCOT) is playing an important role, acting with decisiveness and clarity of ideas in this revolutionary process.

Imperialism is trying to crush or control these revolutionary processes by various means, among others economic suffocation. Therefore we propose to carry out a broad campaign of international solidarity to demand the cancellation of Tunisia’s foreign debt. This debt is an important weapon in the hands of imperialism to strangle the peoples and maintain the countries in conditions of dependency.

From the beginning of the popular revolts, imperialism, particularly U.S. imperialism and the European powers such as France, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Spain, etc., have intervened in the region, directly or indirectly, to regain control and take advantage of the situation.

The war that the imperialist powers are carrying out in Libya through their military arm, NATO, is a reactionary, imperialist war of looting of the dependent countries, of social and national oppression, to suffocate the revolutionary movements.

Its objectives are: to install a puppet government in Libya that will allow them to obtain advantageous prices of petroleum, gas and water; the appropriation of Libya’s financial wealth; to take control of a strategic area, preventing and drowning the popular revolutions; and to expel other rival capitalist powers from the region.

This is the first time that NATO has intervened in this region, and this is part of its new strategy to control the region and the continent. We must unmask and reject NATO’s criminal policy of war and terror, in which the EU is also taking part.

We demand the immediate end of the war, the withdrawal of the imperialist armed forces from Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq; we demand withdrawal from NATO and the EU, the closing of U.S. military bases, the use of public money for social service and assistance and not for war. We will pursue a policy of peace and solidarity with the peoples in struggle.

We support the development of the popular movement and defend the sovereignty and national independence of every country. We denounce the interference and threats of new imperialist interventions especially in Syria.

We reaffirm our solidarity with the Palestinian people and the population of Gaza who are suffering from a cruel blockade, organized by the racist State of Israel, and we demand its immediate end. We support the fight of the Palestinian people for effective recognition of their full national rights. We condemn the criminal Zionist policy and at the same time we denounce the complicity of the EU with Israel on the political, economic and military level.

We demand the end of the racist and xenophobic policy against immigrants, a policy that extends across Europe; we denounce the militarization of the Mediterranean by the imperialist powers that at the same time speak hypocritically about human rights.

We denounce the parallel that the reactionary forces are making between Islam and terrorism.

We say No to the maneuvers of the European Commission in its relations with the African countries, to the policy of free markets, to privatization and the destruction of public services!

Long live the struggle and international solidarity of the peoples!

Copenhagen, May 2011

Nuclear power and capitalism are a lethal combination!

The Fukushima meltdown disaster proves once again that our environment and the safety of the workers and people may be sacrificed because of the greed for maximum profit that reigns under the capitalist mode of production.

The nuclear lobby has consistently told lies, claiming that nuclear power is “entirely safe”. Fukushima, Chernobyl and Harrisburg prove the opposite. This proof is emphasized by the fact that the financial insurance monopolies themselves refuse to insure nuclear plants.

Even if the plants were “safe”, this still would not solve the problem of toxic radioactive waste. This waste is poisoning oceans and rivers every day. Uranium and plutonium lie unprotected in contaminated areas, and inside the nuclear plants themselves.

Nuclear power is expensive and a limited source of energy.

The safety of the workers in the nuclear power plants and of the people in the nearby areas is ignored. They are forced to work in contaminated areas, and are the first to suffer when accidents occur.

Because of the first strike strategy of the NATO alliance, Europe is also being polluted by hundreds of missiles with nuclear warheads belonging to different atomic powers, mainly the USA. These are a potential disaster for all, friend or “foe”. The peoples should demand that such weapons be banned from their territory, as some countries already have done.

The civil use of atomic energy originated as a by-product of military production. Even today, the civilian and military sectors are intertwined. The military and police are always involved in safeguarding the nuclear energy plants, making them into semi-militarized zones. In this way, faults and accidents can also be kept secret from the public, totally undermining democracy.

Our immediate demands are therefore:
1) Immediate start of renewable and sustainable energy production.
2) Immediate closure of all old nuclear plants.
3) No to new nuclear plants.
4) Existing plants must shut down as soon as possible

These demands are entirely just and reasonable. The peoples do not want to be dependent on nuclear power. The people of Italy have demanded a referendum to reject construction of new nuclear plants in their country; in Sardinia 97 precent of the voters said no to nuclear power in a recent consultative referendum.

We demand that the monopolies responsible for the pollution and contaminated waste resulting from the nuclear industry be compelled to pay all costs of the devastation and of dismantling of old power plants.

We still do not know the long-term consequences of the disaster in Fukushima. When a catastrophe of such a dimension occurs in a highly advanced country like Japan, similar disasters may occur anywhere. Capitalism and imperialism are incompatible with safeguarding our environment; this system is incompatible with a sustainable future.

Copenhagen, May 2011

Long live the combative youth!

The youth in Spain are continuing their action in Madrid, Barcelona and dozens of other cities in that country. In Spain, where more than 40% of young people are unemployed, the youth are in the streets for their essential and vital demands. The youth are calling for jobs, a sufficient income, housing, the right to training and education for all, etc.

The youth have united around the slogan “Real Democracy Now!” which expresses their dissatisfaction with the destruction caused by the capitalist system of exploitation and are launching a cry of revolt against it.

The capitalist system is experiencing one of its deepest crises in a century. As always, the bill is presented to the workers, who are in no way responsible for the outbreak of this crisis, while the monopolies and the banks are filling their pockets and coffers. The weight of the crisis is being placed not only on the backs of the oppressed peoples and nations of the world, but also on the backs of the workers and peoples of the advanced capitalist countries. The youth are particularly subjected to these attacks and, as such, they have taken their place at the forefront of this struggle.

By their dynamism, the youth are in the front ranks of the fight, to defend their own demands and contribute their strength, energy and enthusiasm to the previous generations.

The youth of Spain and of all Europe, ready to follow that example, wish to have the best conditions of work and life; they do not want to be condemned to more precarious conditions than those of their parents.

We, as Marxist-Leninist parties of Europe, members of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO), highly value and warmly salute the fight of the youth of Spain. We think that the demands of this movement. in which the communist youth are playing an active role, are very reasonable, achievable and necessary.

We call on the youth of all Europe, and particularly those of Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Great Britain, who have been the object of virulent attacks by capital, to be inspired by the example of the youth of Spain, by their rebellion against exploitation, against reaction, against social injustice, and bring this movement forward.

Since the youth are condemned to live “without work, without a roof, without a future,” they will prove, through their mobilization, that they are able to live “without fear!”

Long live the combative youth!

The youth are the future, the future is socialism!

Copenhagen May 2011

European Regional Meeting of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO)
Workers’ Communist Party of Denmark – APK
Communist Party of the Workers of France – PCOF
Organization for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Greece (1918-1955)
Communist Platform of Italy
Marxist-Leninist Organization Revolution of Norway (Revolusjon)
Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE(m-l)
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey – TDKP
Organization for the construction of a Workers’ Communist Party of Germany (Arbeit Zukunft)

2010 presidential election in Côte d’Ivoire: Yes to popular sovereignty! No to reactionary civil war! No to foreign military interventions!

The Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PCRCI) is a revolutionary party in the Ivory Coast. It participates in the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations and claims the line of Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour of Albania. As such, it is non-revisionist and fights for a proletarian revolution. Since 1990 it has been led by Achy Ekissi. Its militants have kidnapped, tortured and killed over the past ten years by the national-chauvinist “Young Patriot” militia organized by Gbagbo. The PCRCI called for a boycott of the elections between Gbagbo and Ouattara.

We have already written, Laurent Gbagbo has lost the presidential election on November 28, 2010 and must leave. But he is holding onto it despite the widely expressed popular will against him. He tries to present itself as a “resister,” a “patriot” that imperialism wants to “unfairly” deprived of his “office.”

All this is pure gossip to stay in power and perpetuate the interests of the mafia clan. It is even an insult to the Ivorian people to consider that Gbagbo is anti-imperialist and patriotic.

In October 2000, thanks to the support from the French government that has put him in a “safe place,” by lending him a powerful media (Radio France Internationale), he managed to win over General Robert Guei, one of his accomplices in the coup of 1999, and then rose to power under conditions described by himself as calamitous.

Power acquired with the strong support of French imperialism and which has always been devoted to the French Government cannot be described as anti-imperialist.

That French imperialism influenced the Ivorian election in 2000 (preferring and imposing Gbagbo) and then in 2010 (preferring and imposing Ouattara) simply means that the Ivorian people still have heroic struggles to be taken to achieve self-determination and to be a true sovereign state.

These are the depravities of the Gbagbo system which now imposes a threat of external military intervention, namely that of ECOWAS, with at least logistical support from French and U.S. imperialism. This depravity is the result of signing agreements against national sovereignty hoping to discard them when the time comes in a clear act of bad faith (call for foreign troops to settle the conflict with rebels, then request their departure because they do not support his electoral hold-up, signing of international agreements trampling on the Ivorian laws such as the certification of election results by the UN, etc.). The depravity is also going to accept an election to allegedly “end the crisis of identity” and reject the results from polls by the cancellation of the votes in all departments concerned with the basics identity problems to solve. This means the externalization of the populations of these areas compared to the national community and the electorate in particular. This is a snap back to square one, after 10 years of hard struggles against Ivoirité.

For PCRCI, Gbagbo is primarily responsible for the reactionary civil war that started since the announcement of election results. This reactionary civil war is already underway as the praetorian guard, the militias and mercenaries of Gbagbo have been at work since the first round of the presidential election.

People suspected of opposition to the camp of the incumbent president or belonging to specific groups are being hunted, taken from their homes in advance, marked with a cross and summarily shot. Hundreds of dead and missing were recorded to date with hundreds of people arbitrarily detained.

Faced with popular resistance, Gbagbo and his cronies who can no longer claim any legitimacy or legality of any more are forced to disclose the nature of civil-military fascist type of system.

In the face of external military intervention, Gbagbo opposes a call for a “civil war” with direct threats against certain national communities and abroad. In fact, Gbagbo called for the deepening of civil war with its emphasis on inter-communal conflict.

This military action is specifically requested by the Alassane Ouattara camp, opposed to popular struggles, and thus unable to mobilize the masses to a victory over the sham. The clan expects international imperialism to come to install it. Thus, French imperialism and U.S. imperialism prepare themselves through ECOWAS aggression, to act against Gbagbo in order to install Ouattara in power.

Aggression of imperialism will exponentially aggravate the suffering of the masses and imperialist domination. Gbagbo will excuse this intervention to enforce his threats against citizens of ECOWAS. This war will not give the people of Ivory Coast popular and national sovereignty — on the contrary, it will install senior bourgeois who will go with the imperialists to trample sovereignty even more.

Historically this is a textbook case of the imperialists in the political struggles in the country to hunt down the powers that do not please them and install their favorite.

For the Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire, the crisis was born from the 2010 presidential elections in Côte d’Ivoire, and has taken a dangerous step for the democratic and revolutionary movement. Under the guise of enforcing the people’s sovereignty, imperialism wants to install an armed intervention by the winner. This is unacceptable to the people. The liberation of the Ivorian nation from the impostors, fascists and torturers can only be the work of the masses themselves. People in this struggle must not put their fate in the hands of imperialism that they are ultimately fighting against.

Therefore, the Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire:

• denounces the menaces of foreign military interventions from wherever they come.
• denounces the use of mercenaries from Liberia and Angola by the Gbagbo clan.
• denouncing the demagogy of the Gbagbo clan, who want to call the masses to serve as human shields for a sauverson military fascist-type regime.
• calls on the peoples of Côte d’Ivoire to oppose by all means the abettors of reactionary war.

To give the best chance possible to win over the deceptions and to avoid reactionary civil war, the PCRCI calls for the formation of a united front directed against all those who want to use violence to impose Laurent Gbagbo and against foreign armies.

No to the reactionary civil war in which those bourgeois factions want to drag the people!

No to foreign armed intervention, no to imposing the sham of Laurent Gbagbo!

 All united for democracy, freedom and independence! 

Done at Abidjan, December 27, 2010.

Revolutionary Communist Party of Côte d’Ivoire