Revolusjon: The Arab Masses Have Had Enough!

The popular revolts for bread, democracy and national self-determination create despair among the imperialists and their Arab puppets.

The revolt in Tunisia was the spark that started a fire that is now spreading across North Africa and eastward into the core Arab countries. The popular masses and the youth in the more or less despotic Arab regimes have overcome their fear of state violence, and they will not settle for empty words and promises.

Now the battle is centred on the very pivot of the U.S. strategy for control of the Middle East region; Egypt.

The Tunisian people’s revolt against the regime of President Zine El Abidin Ben Ali has already harvested the first fruits; the old regime’s supporters at home and abroad are being pushed from bulwark to bulwark. Through the establishment of ‘Front of January 14th’, which consists of a number of progressive and national forces, including the Tunisian Communist Workers’ Party, the national and democratic Tunisian revolution has advanced its offensive.

Mubarak shaking

As these words are being written, the masses in Egypt are defying President Mubarak’s web censorship and curfews. Demonstrators have attacked police stations in Cairo, and Mubarak has warned that he will involve the army. That could be a serious mistake. Egypt practises universal conscription. The 340,000-strong Egyptian army is made up of the sons of the people. For the people in the streets it is mainly the police, not the army, they consider to be the enemy.

In the cities of Alexandria and Suez, thousands went into the streets after Friday prayers, and confronted a huge police presence. The mobilisation has been possible despite the fact that the regime has shut down the internet and mobile networks, frightened of the ‘twitter effect’.

Previously, people have poured into the streets of Algeria, Morocco, Yemen and in the Jordanian capital, Amman. All these regimes have been and are instruments of imperialism. They have been assured by the United States that they are safe if they put the neo-liberal dictates of the IMF and the multinational companies into effect, and as long as they openly or secretly contribute to the US-dictated policy of normalisation of relations with Zionism.

The Monetary Fund (IMF) and neo-liberalism

But it is precisely the hunger and mass unemployment that the neo-liberal policies have led to that has angered the masses, the youth in particular, and triggered the rebellion in Northern Africa. In Egypt, 75 percent of the population is under 30 years of age, and they are mostly unemployed – and without bread. Both demographic and social conditions are typical for countries in the Maghreb belt. Young people see no future and no hope without radical social change. Their despair makes the fear of the authoritarian regimes evaporate.

The IMF argues that Tunisia, by following the IMF prescriptions of structural adjustment and free market reforms, is showing ‘tremendous progress’ and prosperity, with only seven percent of the population living below the poverty line – far less than in the U.S. and Europe! This apparent manipulation of data falls to the ground when faced with reality. If 93 percent of Tunisians had a fairly good standard of living, of course there would not have been a popular uprising.

Price hikes and declining subsidies

The soaring price hikes on food and fuel result from a combination of speculation on the commodity exchanges and the elimination of government subsidies. In September 2010 an agreement between Tunisia and the IMF was signed, the latter instructed that the remaining subsidies must be abolished, as a means to achieve budget balance, and as a condition for new loans.

Paradoxically, the IMF dictates and structural adjustment plans have removed the regimes’ opportunity to reintroduce subsidies as a measure to ease the simmering discontent. This option the IMF has overruled, and riots in Algeria and Tunisia were recently sparked by the announcement of the removal of subsidies on bread and necessities.

The imperialists are looking frantically for a way out

The despair among the Arab youth has its counterpart in a growing desperation among perpetrators and supporters of the reactionary Arab regimes.

NATO is a threat to liberties and national sovereignty

Revolusjon Norway

60 years with NATO are 60 years too many

The formation of NATO in 1949 was aimed directly at socialism, at the Soviet Union and the people’s democracies in Europe that had emerged victorious in the aftermath of the anti-fascist WW2. It was aimed at infringing the influence of the strengthened communist parties all over Europe, and simultaneously subduing all the European member countries and curtailing their sovereignty under the thumb of US imperialism. The Marshall plan was the main economic and financial instrument of US imperialism to subdue the «beneficiary» countries to US tutelage. In 1955, West Germany was included in the NATO alliance, thus breaching all agreements between the WW2 allies on never accepting the remilitarization of Germany.

The dominating Social Democratic party (Labour Party) in 1948 played the primary role in paving the road to Norwegian NATO membership through attacking and pursuing the Communist party (which had won great authority throughout the war of anti-fascist resistance and published the second largest newspaper immediately after the war). By ways of lies, intimidation and persecution, the protests and resistance from communists and democrats and a large section of opponents within the Labour party itself were silenced, and the way was paved for NATO and US.

For almost half a century Norway has been a potential battleground and manoeuvre area for thousands of NATO troops, and has been a hub of espionage. The North and Arctic Sea has been NATOs playground, with Norway playing an important role in surveillance and intelligence. Although Norway pretended to have official «objections» to the NATO nuclear strategy, supposedly not permitting nuclear weapons to be stationed on its territory, this was a hoax. In the 60′ies NATO had actual plans of devastating most of Northern Norway by use of nuclear mines as a measure of «defence»!

NATO is an instrument to suppress internal unrest and opposition in any member country. Years ago, it was revealed that NATO exercises in Norway were targeted at handling social unrest among workers and students. Tens of thousands of progressive citizens, including their children, have been under surveillance from the 1950′ies onwards. NATO is sure to give a helping hand to imperialist governments fearing the increasing rage of their own workers and peoples who are victimized by the consequences of the evolving grave economic crisis.

The «new concept» adopted by NATO in the 90′ies has corresponded to a grave and aggressive change in the foreign and military policy of Norway. As a small, but ambitious imperialist country, Norway is eager to defend its assets and investments in energy resources in the Caucasus and the Middle East. The war on Yugoslavia in 1999 was the first time Norwegian soldiers were involved in external military operations not sanctioned by the UN. Since 1999, Norway has been active in several illegitimate wars. Currently some 6-700 troops are taking part in the murderous occupation of Afghanistan. This is occurring under a government coaliton calling itself «red and green», consisting of the Labour party, a rural party and the Socialist Left Party (SV). The latter originated from and has been founded on opposition to; yes, NATO!

Nowadays there is much talk of a closer Nordic Defence Cooperation between Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. While the two first countries are not members of NATO, the two latter are not members of the EU. The main intention of this plan, presented as a positive bolstering of the traditional Nordic cooperation, is in effect quite different. The intention is to pave the way for Swedish and Finnish integration with the aggressive NATO alliance on the one hand, and Norwegian and Icelandic integration with the EU on the other. If the Danish prime minister Fogh Rasmussen becomes new general secretary for the NATO, this plan will be sustained.

NATO and EU both threaten the sovereignty and the freedoms of our own peoples and of other peoples and nations worldwide. Both of them must be rejected and defeated by the peoples and the working class.

KKE (1918-55) & Revolusjon: We owe nothing and we will not pay!

KKE (1918-55) calls for Greece out of the EU

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– How about the other leftist forces?

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

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

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

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

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

1) The fall of the living standards and the drop of the wages in Greece will definitely result in similar harsh austerity policies in their own countries.

2) There will be the legal precedent of the bankers abolishing national sovereignty that can be used to do the same in other countries.

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

Communist Platform – Marxist-Leninists have held annual meeting

Norway and the West are still in the middle of the economic crisis that has acceptable for out differently in different countries. U.S. is one of the worst affected countries, while Norway has fared relatively well so far, largely thanks to the oil economy and control over its own currency policy. Greece is an example of how the euro countries slit when fall comes and they do not have normal measures made available. Capitalism has played bankrupt, but it is not enough for a complete breakdown of reaction is not strong and organized.

Unemployment is high in Europe and also increases here at home. Capitalism applies the crisis to attack the academic and social rights. We see, for example, everything now how pensions and sickness salary be cut. The result can become a radicalized and more conscious working class, and it is therefore viktug that communists are the assignment say adult. We also look prohibitions against communist symbol and organizations in some countries. “A crisis is coming back, and the banks only on a worker dies,” called it in song. If it is not where the banks first, she banks at least the hardest workers say die.

The imperialist powers, including Norway, the drive still in the war including Iraq and Afghanistan. Antiimperialistar As we stand on the oppressed’s side in the fight against “our” soldiers. Responsibility is the Norwegian Government’s, which act through NATO as U.S. mercenaries.

“The war on terror” gives itself also resulted in increased racism and Muslim safety here at home. Freedom of speech is abused by the newspapers Clicking the Muhammad drawings with no other purpose than to provoke Muslims, and reactions to a few are used to make harassed even stronger. Comment fields in online newspapers overflow of racism, without neither the editors or the government responds. “Freedom of expression is fundamental in Norway”, says foreign minister of drawings, before the next day he says about a Muslim’s statement about gays: “- It is in my opinion, a despicable statement. He moves right at the borderline of what it should be possible to say. “Moves, we find again throughout Europe, and attacks on Muslims and their customs come from both government and the media. As we atheists criticize religion to make klassemotsetnadene unclear, but we have to be equally critical of racism as a midel flipped to the downtrodden classes and groups within the classes against themselves instead of against borgarskapen.

Climate Problem is another area where capitalism gives the wrong answer. Restriction of their freedom of consumers, high taxes and taxation of common usage is to help the least. Meanwhile, Norway pumps up so much oil and gas as possible. The sale of medical (and partially free) carbon offsets is a new product that is misuse of the rich countries so that they can continue their high emissions while the third world be held back. The world and the working class organized communists need more than ever.

“Unity & Struggle” No. 22 Released

Issue #22 of “Unity and Struggle” has been released. Unity & Struggle (Unidad y Lucha in Spanish) is the theoretical organ of the ICMLPO, or the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties & Organizations.

The 22nd edition numbers 166 pages in the Spanish version and has been published in Spanish, English, French, Turkish, Portuguese and Arabic.

Download this issue (in Spanish)

TABLE OF CONTENTS OF ISSUE 22:

Brazil
Long live 140 years since the Paris Commune!
Revolutionary Communist Party of Brazil (PCR)

Burkina Faso
Questions regarding the situation in South Africa and Côte d’Ivoire
Revolutionary Communist Party of Upper Volta (PCRV)

Chile
The potential for confusion is constantly narrowing
Communist Party of Chile (Proletarian Action) PC (AP)

Denmark
Greetings from Copenhagen, Denmark at the World Conference on Women’s Day in Caracas, Venezuela
Communist Workers’ Party of Denmark (APK)

Ecuador
The responsibility for organizing and carrying out the revolution is the work and the main objective of PCMLE
Marxist Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador (PCMLE)

Spain
The popular front: A tool for the current situation
Spanish Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) PCE (ml)

France
The peoples of the Maghreb and the Middle East
Communist Workers’ Party of France (PCOF)

Greece
Unilaterally stop payment of the entire debt outside Greece by Euro-EMU-EU
Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party 1918-55

Italy
Today, like yesterday, break with reformism and opportunism to set up a real Communist Party
Communist Platform

Mexico
The Soviets (workers councils), their role and their contribution to the proletarian revolution
Mexican Communist Party (Marxist Leninist)

Norway
The popular uprising for a living, democracy and national self-determination in Arabia is problematic to the imperialists and their stooges
Marxist-Leninist Organization “Revolution”

Dominican Republic
The Left is a minority
Communist Party of Labour of the Dominican Republic (PCT)

Tunisia
Interview with Hamma Hammami, spokesperson and member of the Workers Communist Party of Tunisia
Communist Party of Tunisian Workers (PCOT)

Turkey
Turkish Foreign Policy: Illusions and Reality
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (PCRT)

Venezuela
Amid the crisis, spread our theory, a project of great importance
Marxist Leninist Communist Party of Venezuela (PCMLV)

KPML: Good Commitment to 1 May

In Oslo, it was brilliant morning of 1 May. About 8500 were gathered at the Young Market, which is one of the best showings ever. KPml was present and handed out our magazine, both on and off the Youngstorget Grünerløkka solidarity event in Birkelunden earlier in the morning.

Special pensions were naturally the focus of the union’s slogans this year. Postkom highlighted strong opposition to EU 3 postal directive, a directive that paves the way for full liberalization and threatened einskapsporto in Norway. From the slogans, it is clear that the services directive is considered as the biggest threat to the academic rights today and it will open up even more social rollbacks. This is in contrast to the so called “guarantee” from Stoltenberg, who simply can not guarantee what the EU and the EFTA Court will add to the service directive.

In the international section, the Tamils​was by far the largest group, about 2000! Many Europeans also supported the slogans of their national rights and the genocide that the Sri Lankan government now finally leads. The same was the case with slogans against the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

KPml handed out its free magazine in several places in the country, and the impression is that the audience around 1 May was good not only in Oslo.