IPSC Newsletter 22nd January 2010
can be accessed online via their website
http://www.ipsc.ie
Saturday, January 23, 2010
CPI Punlic Meeting - An Economy for the common good
The next CPI public meeting is taking place this coming
Monday 25th January in
Boomers Pub, Dutch Village, Clondalkin at 8-00pm.
Come one come all
Monday 25th January in
Boomers Pub, Dutch Village, Clondalkin at 8-00pm.
Come one come all
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Submission on CFP
The Peoples Movement submission on the Common Fisheries Policy
http://www.people.ie/eu/cfp.pdf
Reclaim our resources!
http://www.people.ie/eu/cfp.pdf
Reclaim our resources!
Dehli Decleration - Communist and Workers Parties
Delhi Declaration
11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers' Parties
New Delhi
20-22 November 2009
“The international capitalist crisis, the workers’ and peoples’ struggle, the alternatives and the role of the communist and working class movement”
This meeting:
* reiterates that the current global recession is a systemiccrisis of capitalism demonstrating its historic limits and theneed for its revolutionary overthrow. It demonstrates thesharpening of the main contradiction of capitalism between itssocial nature of production and individual capitalistappropriation. The political representatives of Capital try toconceal this unresolvable contradiction between capital and labourthat lies at the heart of the crisis. This crisis intensifiesrivalries between imperialist powers who along with theinternational institutions-the IMF World Bank WTO and others- areimplementing their 'solutions' which essentially aim to intensifycapitalist exploitation. Military and political 'solutions' areaggressively pursued globally by imperialism. The NATO ispromoting a new aggressive strategy. The political systems arebecoming more reactionary curtailing democratic and civilliberties, trade union rights etc. This crisis is furtherdeepening the structural corruption under capitalism which isbeing institutionalised.
* reaffirms that the current crisis, probably the most acute andall encompassing since the Great Depression of 1929, has left nofield untouched. Hundreds of thousands of factories are closed.Agrarian and rural economies are under distress intensifyingmisery and poverty of millions of cultivators and farm workersglobally. Millions of people are left jobless and homeless.Unemployment is growing to unprecedented levels (estimated at 190million in 2008) and under the current recession it is officiallyexpected to breach the 50 million mark. Inequalities areincreasing across the globe – the rich are getting richer and thepoor, poorer. More than one billion people, that is one-sixth ofhumanity go hungry. Youth, women and immigrants are the first victims. True to their class nature, the response of the respective capitalist governments to overcome this crisis fails to address these basic concerns. All the neo-liberal votaries and social democratic managers of capitalism, who had so far decried the State are now utilising the state for rescuing them, thus underlining a basic fact that the capitalist state has always defended and enlarged avenues for super profits. While the costs of the rescue packages and bailouts are at public expense, the benefits accrue to few. The bailout packages announced, are addressed first to rescue and then enlarge profit making avenues. Banks and financial corporates are now back in business and making profits. Growing unemployment and the depression of real wages is the burden for the working people as against the gift of huge bailout packages for the corporations.
* realises that this crisis is no aberration based on the greed ofa few or lack of effective regulatory mechanisms. Profitmaximisation, the raison d' etre of capitalism, has sharplywidened economic inequalities both between countries and withincountries in these decades of 'globalisation'. The naturalconsequence was a decline in the purchasing power of the vastmajority of world population. The present crisis is thus asystemic crisis. This once again vindicates the Marxist analysisthat the capitalist system is inherently crisis ridden. Capital,in its quest for profits, traverses boundaries and tramples uponanything and everything. In the process it intensifiesexploitation of the working class and other strata of workingpeople, imposing greater hardships. Capitalism in fact requires tomaintain a reserve army of labour. The liberation from suchcapitalist barbarity can come only with the establishment of thereal alternative, socialism. This requires the strengthening ofanti-imperialist and anti-monopoly struggles. Our struggle for analternative is thus a struggle against the capitalist system. Ourstruggle for an alternative is for a system where there is noexploitation of people by people and nation by nation. It is astruggle for another world, a just world, a socialist world.
* conscious of the fact that the dominant imperialist powers wouldseek their way out of the crisis by putting greater burdens on theworking people, by seeking to penetrate and dominate the marketsof countries with medium and lower level of capitalistdevelopment, commonly called developing countries. This they aretrying to achieve firstly, through the WTO Doha round of tradetalks, which reflect the unequal economic agreements at theexpense of the peoples of these countries particularly withreference to agricultural standards and Non Agricultural MarketAccess (NAMA). Secondly, capitalism, which in the first place is responsible for the destruction of the environment, is trying to transfer the entire burden of safeguarding the planet from climate change, which in the first place they had caused, onto the shoulders of the working class and working people. Capitalism's proposal for restructuring in the name of climate change has little relation to the protection of the environment. Corporate inspired 'Green development' and 'green economy' are sought to be used to impose new state monopoly regulations which support profit maximisation and impose new hardships on the people. Profit maximisation under capitalism is thus not compatible with environmental protection and peoples' rights.
* notes that the only way out of this capitalist crisis for theworking class and the common people is to intensify strugglesagainst the rule of capital. It is the experience of the workingclass that when it mobilises its strength and resists theseattempts it can be successful in protecting its rights. Industrysit-ins, factory occupations and such militant working classactions have forced the ruling classes to consider the demands ofthe workers. Latin America, the current theatre of popularmobilisations and working class actions, has shown how rights canbe protected and won through struggle. In these times of crisis,once again the working class is seething with discontent. Manycountries have witnessed and are witnessing huge working classactions, demanding amelioration. These working class actions needto be further strengthened by mobilising the vast mass ofsuffering people, not just for immediate alleviation but for along-term solution to their plight. Imperialism, buoyed by the demise of the Soviet Union and the periods of boom preceding this crisis had carried out unprecedented attacks on the rights of the working class and the people. This has been accompanied by frenzied anti-communist propaganda not only in individual countries but at global and inter-state forums (EU, OSCE, Council of Europe). However much they may try, the achievements and contributions of socialism in defining the contours of modern civilisation remain inerasable. Faced with these relentless attacks, our struggles thus far had been mainly, defensive struggles, struggles to protect the rights that we had won earlier. Today's conjuncture warrants the launch of an offensive, not just to protect our rights but win new rights. Not for winning few rights but for dismantling the entire capitalist edifice – for an onslaught on the rule of capital, for a political alternative – socialism.
* resolves that under these conditions, the communist and workersparties shall actively work to rally and mobilise the widestpossible sections of the popular forces in the struggle for fulltime stable employment, exclusively public and free for allhealth, education and social welfare, against gender inequalityand racism, and for the protection of the rights of all sectionsof the working people including the youth, women, migrant workersand those from ethnic and national minorities.
* calls upon the communist and workers parties to undertake thistask in their respective countries and launch broad struggles forthe rights of the people and against the capitalist system. Thoughthe capitalist system is inherently crisis ridden, it does notcollapse automatically. The absence of a communist-ledcounterattack, engenders the danger of rise of reactionary forces.The ruling classes launch an all out attack to prevent the growthof the communists and the workers' parties to protect their statusquo. Social democracy continues to spread illusions about the realcharacter of capitalism, advancing slogans such as 'humanisationof capitalism', 'regulation', 'global governance' etc. These infact support the strategy of capital by denying class struggle andbuttressing the pursuit of anti-popular policies. No amount ofreform can eliminate exploitation under capitalism. Capitalism hasto be overthrown. This requires the intensification of ideologicaland political working class led popular struggles. All sorts oftheories like 'there is no alternative' to imperialistglobalisation are propagated. Countering them, our response is'socialism is the alternative'.
We, the communist and workers' parties coming from all parts of the globe and representing the interests of the working class and all other toiling sections of society (the vast majority of global population) underlining the irreplaceable role of the communist parties call upon the people to join us in strengthening the struggles to declare that socialism is the only real alternative for the future of humankind and that the future is ours.
11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers' Parties
New Delhi
20-22 November 2009
“The international capitalist crisis, the workers’ and peoples’ struggle, the alternatives and the role of the communist and working class movement”
This meeting:
* reiterates that the current global recession is a systemiccrisis of capitalism demonstrating its historic limits and theneed for its revolutionary overthrow. It demonstrates thesharpening of the main contradiction of capitalism between itssocial nature of production and individual capitalistappropriation. The political representatives of Capital try toconceal this unresolvable contradiction between capital and labourthat lies at the heart of the crisis. This crisis intensifiesrivalries between imperialist powers who along with theinternational institutions-the IMF World Bank WTO and others- areimplementing their 'solutions' which essentially aim to intensifycapitalist exploitation. Military and political 'solutions' areaggressively pursued globally by imperialism. The NATO ispromoting a new aggressive strategy. The political systems arebecoming more reactionary curtailing democratic and civilliberties, trade union rights etc. This crisis is furtherdeepening the structural corruption under capitalism which isbeing institutionalised.
* reaffirms that the current crisis, probably the most acute andall encompassing since the Great Depression of 1929, has left nofield untouched. Hundreds of thousands of factories are closed.Agrarian and rural economies are under distress intensifyingmisery and poverty of millions of cultivators and farm workersglobally. Millions of people are left jobless and homeless.Unemployment is growing to unprecedented levels (estimated at 190million in 2008) and under the current recession it is officiallyexpected to breach the 50 million mark. Inequalities areincreasing across the globe – the rich are getting richer and thepoor, poorer. More than one billion people, that is one-sixth ofhumanity go hungry. Youth, women and immigrants are the first victims. True to their class nature, the response of the respective capitalist governments to overcome this crisis fails to address these basic concerns. All the neo-liberal votaries and social democratic managers of capitalism, who had so far decried the State are now utilising the state for rescuing them, thus underlining a basic fact that the capitalist state has always defended and enlarged avenues for super profits. While the costs of the rescue packages and bailouts are at public expense, the benefits accrue to few. The bailout packages announced, are addressed first to rescue and then enlarge profit making avenues. Banks and financial corporates are now back in business and making profits. Growing unemployment and the depression of real wages is the burden for the working people as against the gift of huge bailout packages for the corporations.
* realises that this crisis is no aberration based on the greed ofa few or lack of effective regulatory mechanisms. Profitmaximisation, the raison d' etre of capitalism, has sharplywidened economic inequalities both between countries and withincountries in these decades of 'globalisation'. The naturalconsequence was a decline in the purchasing power of the vastmajority of world population. The present crisis is thus asystemic crisis. This once again vindicates the Marxist analysisthat the capitalist system is inherently crisis ridden. Capital,in its quest for profits, traverses boundaries and tramples uponanything and everything. In the process it intensifiesexploitation of the working class and other strata of workingpeople, imposing greater hardships. Capitalism in fact requires tomaintain a reserve army of labour. The liberation from suchcapitalist barbarity can come only with the establishment of thereal alternative, socialism. This requires the strengthening ofanti-imperialist and anti-monopoly struggles. Our struggle for analternative is thus a struggle against the capitalist system. Ourstruggle for an alternative is for a system where there is noexploitation of people by people and nation by nation. It is astruggle for another world, a just world, a socialist world.
* conscious of the fact that the dominant imperialist powers wouldseek their way out of the crisis by putting greater burdens on theworking people, by seeking to penetrate and dominate the marketsof countries with medium and lower level of capitalistdevelopment, commonly called developing countries. This they aretrying to achieve firstly, through the WTO Doha round of tradetalks, which reflect the unequal economic agreements at theexpense of the peoples of these countries particularly withreference to agricultural standards and Non Agricultural MarketAccess (NAMA). Secondly, capitalism, which in the first place is responsible for the destruction of the environment, is trying to transfer the entire burden of safeguarding the planet from climate change, which in the first place they had caused, onto the shoulders of the working class and working people. Capitalism's proposal for restructuring in the name of climate change has little relation to the protection of the environment. Corporate inspired 'Green development' and 'green economy' are sought to be used to impose new state monopoly regulations which support profit maximisation and impose new hardships on the people. Profit maximisation under capitalism is thus not compatible with environmental protection and peoples' rights.
* notes that the only way out of this capitalist crisis for theworking class and the common people is to intensify strugglesagainst the rule of capital. It is the experience of the workingclass that when it mobilises its strength and resists theseattempts it can be successful in protecting its rights. Industrysit-ins, factory occupations and such militant working classactions have forced the ruling classes to consider the demands ofthe workers. Latin America, the current theatre of popularmobilisations and working class actions, has shown how rights canbe protected and won through struggle. In these times of crisis,once again the working class is seething with discontent. Manycountries have witnessed and are witnessing huge working classactions, demanding amelioration. These working class actions needto be further strengthened by mobilising the vast mass ofsuffering people, not just for immediate alleviation but for along-term solution to their plight. Imperialism, buoyed by the demise of the Soviet Union and the periods of boom preceding this crisis had carried out unprecedented attacks on the rights of the working class and the people. This has been accompanied by frenzied anti-communist propaganda not only in individual countries but at global and inter-state forums (EU, OSCE, Council of Europe). However much they may try, the achievements and contributions of socialism in defining the contours of modern civilisation remain inerasable. Faced with these relentless attacks, our struggles thus far had been mainly, defensive struggles, struggles to protect the rights that we had won earlier. Today's conjuncture warrants the launch of an offensive, not just to protect our rights but win new rights. Not for winning few rights but for dismantling the entire capitalist edifice – for an onslaught on the rule of capital, for a political alternative – socialism.
* resolves that under these conditions, the communist and workersparties shall actively work to rally and mobilise the widestpossible sections of the popular forces in the struggle for fulltime stable employment, exclusively public and free for allhealth, education and social welfare, against gender inequalityand racism, and for the protection of the rights of all sectionsof the working people including the youth, women, migrant workersand those from ethnic and national minorities.
* calls upon the communist and workers parties to undertake thistask in their respective countries and launch broad struggles forthe rights of the people and against the capitalist system. Thoughthe capitalist system is inherently crisis ridden, it does notcollapse automatically. The absence of a communist-ledcounterattack, engenders the danger of rise of reactionary forces.The ruling classes launch an all out attack to prevent the growthof the communists and the workers' parties to protect their statusquo. Social democracy continues to spread illusions about the realcharacter of capitalism, advancing slogans such as 'humanisationof capitalism', 'regulation', 'global governance' etc. These infact support the strategy of capital by denying class struggle andbuttressing the pursuit of anti-popular policies. No amount ofreform can eliminate exploitation under capitalism. Capitalism hasto be overthrown. This requires the intensification of ideologicaland political working class led popular struggles. All sorts oftheories like 'there is no alternative' to imperialistglobalisation are propagated. Countering them, our response is'socialism is the alternative'.
We, the communist and workers' parties coming from all parts of the globe and representing the interests of the working class and all other toiling sections of society (the vast majority of global population) underlining the irreplaceable role of the communist parties call upon the people to join us in strengthening the struggles to declare that socialism is the only real alternative for the future of humankind and that the future is ours.
Forward Issue 16 - CYM
Connolly Youth Movement
Latest edition of our magazine, Forward, can be viewed online at:
http://cym.ie/3-forward.htm
Latest edition of our magazine, Forward, can be viewed online at:
http://cym.ie/3-forward.htm
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
CYM on Facebook
Connolly Youth Movement Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=66877671279
Become a friend of CYM!
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John Hobbs 1948–2010
With deep regret the Communist Party of Ireland learns of the death of John Hobbs, husband and comrade of the late Madge Davison. We send our condolences to his sons and to his family and friends. Funeral on Friday 15 January at 10 a.m. to Roselawn Cemetery, Belfast.
Tá dúbhrón ar Pháirtí Cumannach na hÉireann faoi bhás John Hobbs, céile agus comrádaí Madge Davison, nach maireann. Déanaimid comhbhrón lena chlann mhac agus lena mhuintir agus a charide. Cuirfear é Dé hAoine ag 10 r.n. i Reilig Phlásóg na Rósanna, Béal Feirste.
Tá dúbhrón ar Pháirtí Cumannach na hÉireann faoi bhás John Hobbs, céile agus comrádaí Madge Davison, nach maireann. Déanaimid comhbhrón lena chlann mhac agus lena mhuintir agus a charide. Cuirfear é Dé hAoine ag 10 r.n. i Reilig Phlásóg na Rósanna, Béal Feirste.
Marx on Copenhagen
Written by W.T. Whitney, Jr.
"Goodbye Africa, goodbye South Asia; goodbye glaciers and sea ice, coral reefs and rainforest; it was nice knowing you." Such was UK Guardian writer George Monbiot's dismay as the recent Copenhagen Climate Conference ended without a binding agreement.
Mexico's La Jornada newspaper blamed the meeting's failure on "a web of interests that are the main obstacle to reaching a serious accord," including "governments and their accomplices in the corporate and financial world." The profligate burning of fossil fuels has accompanied corporations' economic expansion, accumulation, and incessant quest for profit. In the course of this quest, capitalism "imposes what is in effect a scorched earth strategy," writes Monthly Review editor John Bellamy Foster.
The Copenhagen debacle may well go down in history as a turning point in capitalist development, much as the 1914 war over empire, for example, or the Great Depression in 1929. This time, capitalism is putting the whole of humankind on the road to hunger, migrations, rampant disease, and die-off. Harking back to Karl Marx, Samir Amin asserts, "The accumulation of capital destroys the natural bases on which that accumulation is built: man...and the earth."
Before the Copenhagen meeting, the United Nations issued guidelines accepting a temperature rise of 2 C. By 2020, industrialized nations were to have reduced greenhouse gas emissions to 45 percent of 1990 levels, to 80 percent by 2050. The European Union had promised a 20 percent cut; the United States, in effect, a 4 percent cut. China, exempted from Kyoto requirements, offered an ambiguous plan tying emissions cuts to units of GDP rise.
No agreements were in sight when world leaders arrived at the meeting's end. President Obama met with Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, and South African representatives, later with those of 25 industrialized nations. He then issued a press conference announcement of an "agreement" affecting 194 nations. Participants learned of it via television.
Legal commitments under the Kyoto Protocol morphed into a political agreement lacking commitments and time tables. Reaching out to nations individually, not collectively, it focused on monitoring and backed the 2-degree limit on global warming.
A leaked UN scientific report predicting a 3 C global temperature rise under UN-recommended emissions limits was ignored. "Shock Doctrine" author Naomi Klein saw bribery in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's $100 billion offer from unspecified sources to help underdeveloped nations cope with climate disaster.
Meanwhile, outside the meeting, Danish police arrested over 1,000 peaceful protesters under a new "pre-crime law." The protesters were demanding swift and effective action to reduce emissions.
Speaking for the G-77 group of 134 underdeveloped nations, Sudanese diplomat Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Pping demanded a 1.5 C limit on global warming and 60 percent emission reductions by 2020. "I will not accept the total destruction of my continent, her people, in Copenhagen," he declared.
That's where a Marxist approach comes in. The struggle, defined by class interests, continues. And just as the labor theory of value sheds light on the need for unified struggle by industrial workers, Marx's distinction between use value and exchange value does likewise for victims of natural resources pillage.
Use values in the natural environment, taken together, constitute the public's wealth that, in abundance, benefits all. In contrast, the sum of exchange values – commodities produced from these resources for exchange on the market – constitute the basis for private riches, promoted through scarcities.
Capitalists want use values to be absorbed into the exchange value category, opening them up to engineered scarcities and accumulation. Or, according to Marx, quoted by Bellamy Foster: "The earth is the reservoir from whose bowels the use values are to be torn."
Climate change sets the stage for profiteers to look covetously at food and fuel shortages, high technology energy fixes, and carbon trading. Working people, inhabitants of small islands, and poor African farmers - among others - fight to protect wealth held in common.
Samir Amin advocates waging this fight under a socialist banner: "Socialism is designed in terms of a society founded on use value, not exchange value," Amin says, adding, "Socialism should be ecological, indeed can only be ecological."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales came to Copenhagen with a message from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). "We cannot consider climate change without thinking about changing the system," the message said. "The capitalist production and consumption model is taking life on the planet to a point of no return."
Chavez reminded assembled leaders of "socialism, the other specter Karl Marx spoke about, which walks here too. ... Socialism, this is the direction, this is the path to save the planet."
December 31, 2009
Taken from the online journal MLToday
http://mltoday.com/en/welcome-to-marxism-leninism-today-329.html
"Goodbye Africa, goodbye South Asia; goodbye glaciers and sea ice, coral reefs and rainforest; it was nice knowing you." Such was UK Guardian writer George Monbiot's dismay as the recent Copenhagen Climate Conference ended without a binding agreement.
Mexico's La Jornada newspaper blamed the meeting's failure on "a web of interests that are the main obstacle to reaching a serious accord," including "governments and their accomplices in the corporate and financial world." The profligate burning of fossil fuels has accompanied corporations' economic expansion, accumulation, and incessant quest for profit. In the course of this quest, capitalism "imposes what is in effect a scorched earth strategy," writes Monthly Review editor John Bellamy Foster.
The Copenhagen debacle may well go down in history as a turning point in capitalist development, much as the 1914 war over empire, for example, or the Great Depression in 1929. This time, capitalism is putting the whole of humankind on the road to hunger, migrations, rampant disease, and die-off. Harking back to Karl Marx, Samir Amin asserts, "The accumulation of capital destroys the natural bases on which that accumulation is built: man...and the earth."
Before the Copenhagen meeting, the United Nations issued guidelines accepting a temperature rise of 2 C. By 2020, industrialized nations were to have reduced greenhouse gas emissions to 45 percent of 1990 levels, to 80 percent by 2050. The European Union had promised a 20 percent cut; the United States, in effect, a 4 percent cut. China, exempted from Kyoto requirements, offered an ambiguous plan tying emissions cuts to units of GDP rise.
No agreements were in sight when world leaders arrived at the meeting's end. President Obama met with Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, and South African representatives, later with those of 25 industrialized nations. He then issued a press conference announcement of an "agreement" affecting 194 nations. Participants learned of it via television.
Legal commitments under the Kyoto Protocol morphed into a political agreement lacking commitments and time tables. Reaching out to nations individually, not collectively, it focused on monitoring and backed the 2-degree limit on global warming.
A leaked UN scientific report predicting a 3 C global temperature rise under UN-recommended emissions limits was ignored. "Shock Doctrine" author Naomi Klein saw bribery in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's $100 billion offer from unspecified sources to help underdeveloped nations cope with climate disaster.
Meanwhile, outside the meeting, Danish police arrested over 1,000 peaceful protesters under a new "pre-crime law." The protesters were demanding swift and effective action to reduce emissions.
Speaking for the G-77 group of 134 underdeveloped nations, Sudanese diplomat Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Pping demanded a 1.5 C limit on global warming and 60 percent emission reductions by 2020. "I will not accept the total destruction of my continent, her people, in Copenhagen," he declared.
That's where a Marxist approach comes in. The struggle, defined by class interests, continues. And just as the labor theory of value sheds light on the need for unified struggle by industrial workers, Marx's distinction between use value and exchange value does likewise for victims of natural resources pillage.
Use values in the natural environment, taken together, constitute the public's wealth that, in abundance, benefits all. In contrast, the sum of exchange values – commodities produced from these resources for exchange on the market – constitute the basis for private riches, promoted through scarcities.
Capitalists want use values to be absorbed into the exchange value category, opening them up to engineered scarcities and accumulation. Or, according to Marx, quoted by Bellamy Foster: "The earth is the reservoir from whose bowels the use values are to be torn."
Climate change sets the stage for profiteers to look covetously at food and fuel shortages, high technology energy fixes, and carbon trading. Working people, inhabitants of small islands, and poor African farmers - among others - fight to protect wealth held in common.
Samir Amin advocates waging this fight under a socialist banner: "Socialism is designed in terms of a society founded on use value, not exchange value," Amin says, adding, "Socialism should be ecological, indeed can only be ecological."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales came to Copenhagen with a message from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). "We cannot consider climate change without thinking about changing the system," the message said. "The capitalist production and consumption model is taking life on the planet to a point of no return."
Chavez reminded assembled leaders of "socialism, the other specter Karl Marx spoke about, which walks here too. ... Socialism, this is the direction, this is the path to save the planet."
December 31, 2009
Taken from the online journal MLToday
http://mltoday.com/en/welcome-to-marxism-leninism-today-329.html
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