GREATEST IRISH PERSON
Vote for James Connolly.
Pass it on.
http://www.rte.ie/tv/irelandsgreatest/profiles/jamesconnolly.html
Sunday, March 28, 2010
POLITICAL STATEMENT CPI
CPI Statement
The National Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland at its regular meeting 20th March, welcomed the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Executive. The CPI acknowledges that this is an important step forward while rejecting the lack of transparency and political exclusion in reaching this agreement. It calls on all democratic forces to unite and to work for a strong Bill of Rights, one that is comprehensive in covering such areas as the right to work, to housing, to food, to education, to health, to full equality between women and men, and respect for language and cultural diversity. It must also recognise the right of women to have control over all aspects of reproduction, including abortion. It must have real teeth so as to outlaw all forms of discrimination based on gender, race, sexual orientation, or religion.
The party also restates its demand for the full transfer of fiscal powers to the Assembly and Executive. This is essential for developing the necessary economic and social policies that would begin to build an all-Ireland economic recovery strategy that is both sustainable and environmentally responsible. Such a strategy would allow for the maximum concentration of capital resources and investment priorities, which would begin the difficult but necessary process of overcoming the legacy of two failed political and economic entities.
The CPI acknowledges that while the country is experiencing a severe economic crisis, one resulting from the systemic cyclical nature of the capitalist system itself, the economic crisis has not yet translated into a political crisis for the system. The development of a strategy for building the necessary forces to mount a challenge to this system is the task before the 24th National Congress of our party later this year. Irish communists reiterate their long-held view that it is not the job of workers’ organisations to find solutions to the problems of the dominant economic and political forces in our country.
The CPI calls for the building of a fight back by workers throughout the country, which is necessary to counter the co-ordinated and intensifying attacks on workers’ rights, terms and conditions demanded and pursued by both the Irish and British governments and the European Union. The EU Commission is exploiting the crisis to further expand its domination and control over the economic policies of the member-states. This is reflected in its demanding more and deeper cuts and tighter controls on public spending, which will have most effect on workers, the unemployed, and poor families. This must be resisted by all means at our disposal.
Despite the many-sided attacks on working people by government and employers, workers have shown some signs of resistance and courage in the face of the barrage of hostile attacks from the establishment media. We again express our solidarity with those involved in struggle to defend themselves and point to the example of the Green Isle workers, the Aer Lingus cabin crew workers and public-service workers for their courage in standing up and defending themselves. These are small but hopeful signs of the potential for building resistance.
We Irish communists also express our full solidarity with the workers in British Airways as they engage in industrial action to defend themselves and their livelihoods.
The CPI calls on the trade union movement to develop its own alternative economic and social programme, one that reflects the needs of working people throughout the whole of Ireland. The trade union movement needs to grasp this central fact in order to develop a campaign for a different Ireland. It needs to begin a counter-offensive and to explain to workers that the Government and employers’ strategy is to ensure that the small elite clique—the Golden Circle—will remain in control, that the threatened cuts are intended to maintain the status quo, and that an unequal and unjust Ireland will not work.
The militant struggle of the Greek workers has shown that when workers have a clear alternative and consistent and militant leadership they will engage in the necessary actions.
No amount of appeals to the correctness or justice of one’s position or demands, or better “public relations,” will advance the interests of working people. The trade union movement’s alternative must be backed up, using its organised power to put workers’ issues on the top of the political agenda. Workers’ organisations need to have their own world view, their own economic and social priorities for a different Ireland. They need to be as clear in their alternative strategy and in fighting for it as the Government and the bosses are in pursuing their selfish interests.
The CPI acknowledges the recent statement by twenty-four economists and researchers that criticises the present economic and social strategy of the Government and that calls for a change of direction as an important contribution to building confidence among people about the possibility of an alternative direction for our country. Some of the ideas expressed are in line with our own publication An Economy for the Common Good, whose central thrust is a radical transformative strategy for the whole of the country. We again assert that the establishment of a state bank and a state development corporation, under democratic control, are the necessary building-blocks for beginning to overcome the consequences of the present crisis of the capitalist system.
No solution is to be found in retreating back into talks about the dead-end process of “social partnership.” That strategy has left the trade unions powerless and mere managers of Government policies.
Workers will win or advance little if disunited and prepared to see each other’s terms and conditions eroded. It is only the employers and their Government that can benefit. What is needed now is to rebuild the unity of all workers, to rebuild unity between public and private-sector workers.
The CPI once again calls on all left and progressive forces to unite to build the people’s fight back. Communists will play their part in helping to build the necessary forces for organising and mounting that resistance.
The continuing revelations about child abuse by a large number of Catholic clergy are an appalling indictment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The CPI expresses its profound sympathy and solidarity with the many victims. The Catholic Church as an institution attempted over many decades, as a deliberate policy, to cover up this widespread abuse. The policy of covering up such crimes and bullying the victims was not the policy of the Irish Catholic hierarchy alone but was one instituted and enforced from the Vatican itself. We support the call by the many victims for the prosecution of all those responsible both for the abuse and for the cover-up.
The institutional Catholic Church was for many decades one of the central pillars of the political establishment in the South. It used its power to browbeat and bully the people, not only its own church members but anyone who challenged its authority or that of the political establishment. The institutional church was a central element of the political and ideological control over the people, using its tight control over education and its content as the means of achieving this. In addition, the establishment allowed the church to control whole swathes of social and cultural life and many social services.
The institutional church as a vehicle for the ideological conditioning of the people is now severely damaged. Pressure must now be built for the removal of the church from any control or say in education and for the establishment of a locally controlled and democratically accountable education system. We reiterate our call for the complete separation of church and state.
23rd March
CPI NEC
The National Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland at its regular meeting 20th March, welcomed the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Executive. The CPI acknowledges that this is an important step forward while rejecting the lack of transparency and political exclusion in reaching this agreement. It calls on all democratic forces to unite and to work for a strong Bill of Rights, one that is comprehensive in covering such areas as the right to work, to housing, to food, to education, to health, to full equality between women and men, and respect for language and cultural diversity. It must also recognise the right of women to have control over all aspects of reproduction, including abortion. It must have real teeth so as to outlaw all forms of discrimination based on gender, race, sexual orientation, or religion.
The party also restates its demand for the full transfer of fiscal powers to the Assembly and Executive. This is essential for developing the necessary economic and social policies that would begin to build an all-Ireland economic recovery strategy that is both sustainable and environmentally responsible. Such a strategy would allow for the maximum concentration of capital resources and investment priorities, which would begin the difficult but necessary process of overcoming the legacy of two failed political and economic entities.
The CPI acknowledges that while the country is experiencing a severe economic crisis, one resulting from the systemic cyclical nature of the capitalist system itself, the economic crisis has not yet translated into a political crisis for the system. The development of a strategy for building the necessary forces to mount a challenge to this system is the task before the 24th National Congress of our party later this year. Irish communists reiterate their long-held view that it is not the job of workers’ organisations to find solutions to the problems of the dominant economic and political forces in our country.
The CPI calls for the building of a fight back by workers throughout the country, which is necessary to counter the co-ordinated and intensifying attacks on workers’ rights, terms and conditions demanded and pursued by both the Irish and British governments and the European Union. The EU Commission is exploiting the crisis to further expand its domination and control over the economic policies of the member-states. This is reflected in its demanding more and deeper cuts and tighter controls on public spending, which will have most effect on workers, the unemployed, and poor families. This must be resisted by all means at our disposal.
Despite the many-sided attacks on working people by government and employers, workers have shown some signs of resistance and courage in the face of the barrage of hostile attacks from the establishment media. We again express our solidarity with those involved in struggle to defend themselves and point to the example of the Green Isle workers, the Aer Lingus cabin crew workers and public-service workers for their courage in standing up and defending themselves. These are small but hopeful signs of the potential for building resistance.
We Irish communists also express our full solidarity with the workers in British Airways as they engage in industrial action to defend themselves and their livelihoods.
The CPI calls on the trade union movement to develop its own alternative economic and social programme, one that reflects the needs of working people throughout the whole of Ireland. The trade union movement needs to grasp this central fact in order to develop a campaign for a different Ireland. It needs to begin a counter-offensive and to explain to workers that the Government and employers’ strategy is to ensure that the small elite clique—the Golden Circle—will remain in control, that the threatened cuts are intended to maintain the status quo, and that an unequal and unjust Ireland will not work.
The militant struggle of the Greek workers has shown that when workers have a clear alternative and consistent and militant leadership they will engage in the necessary actions.
No amount of appeals to the correctness or justice of one’s position or demands, or better “public relations,” will advance the interests of working people. The trade union movement’s alternative must be backed up, using its organised power to put workers’ issues on the top of the political agenda. Workers’ organisations need to have their own world view, their own economic and social priorities for a different Ireland. They need to be as clear in their alternative strategy and in fighting for it as the Government and the bosses are in pursuing their selfish interests.
The CPI acknowledges the recent statement by twenty-four economists and researchers that criticises the present economic and social strategy of the Government and that calls for a change of direction as an important contribution to building confidence among people about the possibility of an alternative direction for our country. Some of the ideas expressed are in line with our own publication An Economy for the Common Good, whose central thrust is a radical transformative strategy for the whole of the country. We again assert that the establishment of a state bank and a state development corporation, under democratic control, are the necessary building-blocks for beginning to overcome the consequences of the present crisis of the capitalist system.
No solution is to be found in retreating back into talks about the dead-end process of “social partnership.” That strategy has left the trade unions powerless and mere managers of Government policies.
Workers will win or advance little if disunited and prepared to see each other’s terms and conditions eroded. It is only the employers and their Government that can benefit. What is needed now is to rebuild the unity of all workers, to rebuild unity between public and private-sector workers.
The CPI once again calls on all left and progressive forces to unite to build the people’s fight back. Communists will play their part in helping to build the necessary forces for organising and mounting that resistance.
The continuing revelations about child abuse by a large number of Catholic clergy are an appalling indictment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The CPI expresses its profound sympathy and solidarity with the many victims. The Catholic Church as an institution attempted over many decades, as a deliberate policy, to cover up this widespread abuse. The policy of covering up such crimes and bullying the victims was not the policy of the Irish Catholic hierarchy alone but was one instituted and enforced from the Vatican itself. We support the call by the many victims for the prosecution of all those responsible both for the abuse and for the cover-up.
The institutional Catholic Church was for many decades one of the central pillars of the political establishment in the South. It used its power to browbeat and bully the people, not only its own church members but anyone who challenged its authority or that of the political establishment. The institutional church was a central element of the political and ideological control over the people, using its tight control over education and its content as the means of achieving this. In addition, the establishment allowed the church to control whole swathes of social and cultural life and many social services.
The institutional church as a vehicle for the ideological conditioning of the people is now severely damaged. Pressure must now be built for the removal of the church from any control or say in education and for the establishment of a locally controlled and democratically accountable education system. We reiterate our call for the complete separation of church and state.
23rd March
CPI NEC
Solidarity with the Spanish comrades – for democracy and freedom!
Solidarity with the Spanish comrades – for democracy and freedom!
WFDY denounces that two members of the Collectives of Young Communists (CJC-Spain, WFDY memberorganization) and a member of the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain are facing a trial in which each of them could be sentenced to three years and ten months in prison.
The state prosecution claims three years and ten months in prison for three Spanish Communists, members of PCPE and CJC. The prosecutor bases his request on the events that took place in Barcelona on 14 November 2007, on the occasion of the demonstration to protest against the murder of a young anti-fascist in Madrid on
November 11, brutally repressed by the Spanish police in an action that caused several injured people.
The comrades that face charge of being the promoters of disorder are accused of a crime related to an event in which not even all of them attended, since the accusation was formed only when they went to the police station with some lawyers to know what was the situation of two other members of CJC Spain that had been
arrested in the demonstration.
It is remarkable that all the defendants involved that are not communists are being target of legal action in one process, and all the communists are being target of a different process – this second one counts with one evidence only: the statement of the police.
WFDY denounces this situation and calls upon all its member and friendly organizations to widespread the news and solidarity towards our comrades of CJC Spain. This attack is a part of the attack that has been taking place in the whole world against the democratic rights and freedoms of the peoples, having as main target the anti-imperialist consequent forces in a clear attempt to shut down the struggling capabilities of the youth and peoples.
As per request of our comrades, as one of several expressions of solidarity, you can sign an online petition they are organizing at: http://pcpe.es/formulario2010/index-en.php
The CC/HQ of WFDY
Budapest, March 22, 2010
WFDY denounces that two members of the Collectives of Young Communists (CJC-Spain, WFDY memberorganization) and a member of the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain are facing a trial in which each of them could be sentenced to three years and ten months in prison.
The state prosecution claims three years and ten months in prison for three Spanish Communists, members of PCPE and CJC. The prosecutor bases his request on the events that took place in Barcelona on 14 November 2007, on the occasion of the demonstration to protest against the murder of a young anti-fascist in Madrid on
November 11, brutally repressed by the Spanish police in an action that caused several injured people.
The comrades that face charge of being the promoters of disorder are accused of a crime related to an event in which not even all of them attended, since the accusation was formed only when they went to the police station with some lawyers to know what was the situation of two other members of CJC Spain that had been
arrested in the demonstration.
It is remarkable that all the defendants involved that are not communists are being target of legal action in one process, and all the communists are being target of a different process – this second one counts with one evidence only: the statement of the police.
WFDY denounces this situation and calls upon all its member and friendly organizations to widespread the news and solidarity towards our comrades of CJC Spain. This attack is a part of the attack that has been taking place in the whole world against the democratic rights and freedoms of the peoples, having as main target the anti-imperialist consequent forces in a clear attempt to shut down the struggling capabilities of the youth and peoples.
As per request of our comrades, as one of several expressions of solidarity, you can sign an online petition they are organizing at: http://pcpe.es/formulario2010/index-en.php
The CC/HQ of WFDY
Budapest, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
March Socialist Voice - CPI
Comrades/Friends
Below link to March Socialist Voice
http://www.communistpartyofireland.ie/sv/index.html
CPI
Below link to March Socialist Voice
http://www.communistpartyofireland.ie/sv/index.html
CPI
CHILEANS DO NOT TREMBLE
*Tomas Borge*
*Nicaraguan Ambassador to Peru*
This article is almost the report of a journalist.
I was in Chile, representing President Daniel Ortega, in the
swearing in ceremony of the new head of state, Sebastian Piñera. I
greeted President Michel Bachelet, whom I embraced in Daniel's name,
and asked her if she would run in the next elections. She did not
say no.
We were in the Hall of Honor of Congress where Mister Piñera
received the presidential sash. During that ceremony, the earth
trembled with the energy of an earthquake. I was in the line where
the Heads of State were and was a privileged witness to their
reactions. They all maintained an air of flawless dignity.
All except Alvaro Uribe, President of Colombia, who turned as pale
as a white sheet of blank paper, when he tried to greet Rafel
Correa. He could not shake his hand with dignity. Terrified,
Uribe exited, running with the speed of a well trained /marine/, as
was shown in pictures by the right wing newspaper,/ La Tercera/,
that I send, so that no one may think that I say this only because
of political antipathy. The serenity of Evo and Correa was worth noting.
As a tsunami alert was immediately posted, Piñera suspended lunch
and greetings, so that I could not give him Daniel's greetings of
protocol. Piñera immediately left, flying his own plane to Rancagua,
the epicenter of the quake, an act that was very well received.
/The following morning I had breakfast in the hotel with ambassador
Maria Luis Robleto Aguilar and, by coincidence, at the next table, a
handful of Chilean senators and major Antonio Ledezma, from
Venezuela, had coffee and juice. They were talking in loud voices of
conspiracies and other possible mischief to isolate Cuba, Venezuela,
Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua./
/One of them recognized me. They lowered their voices and looked at
me with hatred and mistrust. Hotel workers gave us the names of some
of the participants: senator Sergio Romero Pizarro, senator Patricio
Walker (their looks were caustic and were it not that nothing scares
me, I would say annihilating), who belong to a family of
millionaires. Supposedly he descends from William Walker, Antonio
Sandoz (Venezuelan-Chilean, advisor to the Venezuelan major) and
Antonio Ledezma, ferocious enemy of Hugo Chavez. There were others
but I do not know their names. What was most interesting about their
conversation was the joy in their commentaries about the future of
their enterprises, as a consequence of the destruction caused by the
earthquake./
The next day I accompanied President Rafael Correa to Concepcion,
the city devastated by the recent quake. Correa brought several tons
of medicines and the help of many Ecuadorian physicians. I had the
opportunity to exchange information of interest to Nicaragua and
Ecuador and even to joke around with the cordial and charismatic
leader. Besides some declarations we made in the popular, /"Radio
Biobio,"/ (where I made a well commented phrase: /"In Chile the
Earth trembles but, in no way, do the Chileans tremble!"),/ the
right wing mass media, (there is no left leaning means of
communications), did not report the important and generous visit of
President Correa, who, among other measures, has sent around 400
citizens from Ecuador, victims of the earthquake, back to their
homeland.
I got together with scores of Chileans who fought in the Nicaraguan
war of liberation, (now organized in, /The Salvador Allende Brigade,
BRISA/.) I spoke to them about the old theme of unity, warning them
of the risks of ideologic vanity and sectarianism. Men and women
extremely /solidarian/. They are collaborating with energy among the
sectors most affected by the earthquake. Having been in that sister
country, with whom I shared the anxieties of a magnitude 7
earthquake, was for our delegation a reason for pride and true
solidarity with the people of Salvador Allende and Pablo Neruda.
*Nicaraguan Ambassador to Peru*
This article is almost the report of a journalist.
I was in Chile, representing President Daniel Ortega, in the
swearing in ceremony of the new head of state, Sebastian Piñera. I
greeted President Michel Bachelet, whom I embraced in Daniel's name,
and asked her if she would run in the next elections. She did not
say no.
We were in the Hall of Honor of Congress where Mister Piñera
received the presidential sash. During that ceremony, the earth
trembled with the energy of an earthquake. I was in the line where
the Heads of State were and was a privileged witness to their
reactions. They all maintained an air of flawless dignity.
All except Alvaro Uribe, President of Colombia, who turned as pale
as a white sheet of blank paper, when he tried to greet Rafel
Correa. He could not shake his hand with dignity. Terrified,
Uribe exited, running with the speed of a well trained /marine/, as
was shown in pictures by the right wing newspaper,/ La Tercera/,
that I send, so that no one may think that I say this only because
of political antipathy. The serenity of Evo and Correa was worth noting.
As a tsunami alert was immediately posted, Piñera suspended lunch
and greetings, so that I could not give him Daniel's greetings of
protocol. Piñera immediately left, flying his own plane to Rancagua,
the epicenter of the quake, an act that was very well received.
/The following morning I had breakfast in the hotel with ambassador
Maria Luis Robleto Aguilar and, by coincidence, at the next table, a
handful of Chilean senators and major Antonio Ledezma, from
Venezuela, had coffee and juice. They were talking in loud voices of
conspiracies and other possible mischief to isolate Cuba, Venezuela,
Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua./
/One of them recognized me. They lowered their voices and looked at
me with hatred and mistrust. Hotel workers gave us the names of some
of the participants: senator Sergio Romero Pizarro, senator Patricio
Walker (their looks were caustic and were it not that nothing scares
me, I would say annihilating), who belong to a family of
millionaires. Supposedly he descends from William Walker, Antonio
Sandoz (Venezuelan-Chilean, advisor to the Venezuelan major) and
Antonio Ledezma, ferocious enemy of Hugo Chavez. There were others
but I do not know their names. What was most interesting about their
conversation was the joy in their commentaries about the future of
their enterprises, as a consequence of the destruction caused by the
earthquake./
The next day I accompanied President Rafael Correa to Concepcion,
the city devastated by the recent quake. Correa brought several tons
of medicines and the help of many Ecuadorian physicians. I had the
opportunity to exchange information of interest to Nicaragua and
Ecuador and even to joke around with the cordial and charismatic
leader. Besides some declarations we made in the popular, /"Radio
Biobio,"/ (where I made a well commented phrase: /"In Chile the
Earth trembles but, in no way, do the Chileans tremble!"),/ the
right wing mass media, (there is no left leaning means of
communications), did not report the important and generous visit of
President Correa, who, among other measures, has sent around 400
citizens from Ecuador, victims of the earthquake, back to their
homeland.
I got together with scores of Chileans who fought in the Nicaraguan
war of liberation, (now organized in, /The Salvador Allende Brigade,
BRISA/.) I spoke to them about the old theme of unity, warning them
of the risks of ideologic vanity and sectarianism. Men and women
extremely /solidarian/. They are collaborating with energy among the
sectors most affected by the earthquake. Having been in that sister
country, with whom I shared the anxieties of a magnitude 7
earthquake, was for our delegation a reason for pride and true
solidarity with the people of Salvador Allende and Pablo Neruda.
New wave of aggressions against the Saharawi people
Over the last two days the Moroccan authorities have entered the villages of Dahkla, Bojador and El Aaiun, and beat up a countless number of civilians living in these sites. This aggression must be framed in the context of the disappearing of more than 500 Saharawi people, most of them activists, since the year of 2005, by the
occasion of the “Peaceful Intifada for Independence” – movement for a fair and immediate referendum for the independence of Sahara.
WFDY will never forget or let anyone forget the crimes done against the Saharawi people, since the 31st October, 1975, when the massacre of that people started. The Moroccan forces never hesitated to make use of the most painful and torturing methods of bombing and torture. WFDY calls upon all its member and friendly organizations to denounce the crimes committed against the Saharawi people keeping and reinforcing the struggle for a free and independent Republic of Sahara.
The CC/HQ of WFDY
March 12, 2010
occasion of the “Peaceful Intifada for Independence” – movement for a fair and immediate referendum for the independence of Sahara.
WFDY will never forget or let anyone forget the crimes done against the Saharawi people, since the 31st October, 1975, when the massacre of that people started. The Moroccan forces never hesitated to make use of the most painful and torturing methods of bombing and torture. WFDY calls upon all its member and friendly organizations to denounce the crimes committed against the Saharawi people keeping and reinforcing the struggle for a free and independent Republic of Sahara.
The CC/HQ of WFDY
March 12, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
WFDY statement against ban to Aung San Suu Kyi to Participate in National Election
The World Federation of Democratic Youth shows it grave concern on recent development in Burma to ban Aung San Suu Kyi to participate in national election as per recent law promulgated by the Military Junta.
This development is accompanied with a charge of breaching the law of prison when uninvited stranger got entry to her lakeside house prison. Her house prison has been extended till November 2010 and the court had already rejected her appeal to release.
The pro-democratic leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Ki, 62, has already spent 14 years of illegal and immoral detention of house arrest in last 20 years. The consequences were developed after her party had won 80 percent of total parliament seats in 1990´s national election.
It is shrewd and trickery of Military Junta to put into pressure to National League for Democracy not to pay regard to its leader and her role for democracy in Burma. WFDY denounces such action of Military Junta in our strongest term as it is the mockery of law in Burma and that has only served to push back the blinking hope for democracy in deeper darkness.
Till now there are still more than 2000 students, youths and civilians in prison just for echoing their voice for democracy and justice in a peaceful manner.
We urge to all youth and student organization under WFDY umbrella to protest such action and show the solidarity with democratic struggle in Burma. We demand to Military Junta to retreat from such decision, and resume free and fair election in Burma to restore full democracy in the country. We appeal international community and human right organization to put pressure to release all political prisoners immediately along with pro-democratic leader Aung San Suu Ki.
The WFDY HQ ,
CC Headquarters, Budapest
11 March 2010
This development is accompanied with a charge of breaching the law of prison when uninvited stranger got entry to her lakeside house prison. Her house prison has been extended till November 2010 and the court had already rejected her appeal to release.
The pro-democratic leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Ki, 62, has already spent 14 years of illegal and immoral detention of house arrest in last 20 years. The consequences were developed after her party had won 80 percent of total parliament seats in 1990´s national election.
It is shrewd and trickery of Military Junta to put into pressure to National League for Democracy not to pay regard to its leader and her role for democracy in Burma. WFDY denounces such action of Military Junta in our strongest term as it is the mockery of law in Burma and that has only served to push back the blinking hope for democracy in deeper darkness.
Till now there are still more than 2000 students, youths and civilians in prison just for echoing their voice for democracy and justice in a peaceful manner.
We urge to all youth and student organization under WFDY umbrella to protest such action and show the solidarity with democratic struggle in Burma. We demand to Military Junta to retreat from such decision, and resume free and fair election in Burma to restore full democracy in the country. We appeal international community and human right organization to put pressure to release all political prisoners immediately along with pro-democratic leader Aung San Suu Ki.
The WFDY HQ ,
CC Headquarters, Budapest
11 March 2010
We reject the lies against Cuba!
The World Federation of Democratic Youth has been closely following the intense campaign of blackmailing and defamation, particularly in
The Cuban Revolution, under the guidance of the commander Fidel Castro, is today, more than ever, a great example to all the youngsters of the world, for its example of dignity and its firm determination to build a free and fair society. It has been victim of a long list of attacks that have brought death to thousands of civilian Cubans and has made a big damage onto the Cuban economy, particularly because of the blockade imposed by the
We are sure that no dirty political manoeuver as the one going on today will bend the struggling spirit of the heroic people of Cuba, specially its youngsters that guided by the example of the Cuban Five Heroes unfairly imprisoned in the USA are now preparing their 9th Congress, out of which we are sure they will come out stronger.
WFDY, on behalf of all its member and friend organizations and all the progressive youth of the world, vehemently condemns the unfair aggression and manipulation of the truth against
We demand respect from all those that today manipulate the truth towards the heroic people of Cuba, its history, principles and a clean face in terms of human rights of all the Cuban people. We call upon all youngsters of the world to show in all possible places our solidarity towards the Cuban people, not letting anyone be deceived by the manipulating lies against
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
CP Greece Video of Strikes
Video from the last strike demonstration of PAME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYjt7gvICF8
For your better information, we send you a video produced by the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) about the demonstrations in Greece against the new offensive by the government of PASOK along with the EU, the capital and the parties that support the EU.
This video constitutes a response to the orchestrated effort of the bourgeois media and the international agencies to bury the mass participation in the demonstrations of PAME as well as their dynamics either by broadcasting the contrived incidents or the scant demonstrations of the compromised leaderships of GSEE and ADEDY. The scenes are from the last strike of PAME on March 5, 2010.
The widest possible circulation of this video can contribute to the restoration of the truth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYjt7gvICF8
For your better information, we send you a video produced by the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) about the demonstrations in Greece against the new offensive by the government of PASOK along with the EU, the capital and the parties that support the EU.
This video constitutes a response to the orchestrated effort of the bourgeois media and the international agencies to bury the mass participation in the demonstrations of PAME as well as their dynamics either by broadcasting the contrived incidents or the scant demonstrations of the compromised leaderships of GSEE and ADEDY. The scenes are from the last strike of PAME on March 5, 2010.
The widest possible circulation of this video can contribute to the restoration of the truth.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
My Recent Meeting With Lula - Castro
We met in Managua, on July 1980, 30 years ago, --during the commemoration of the first anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution—thanks to my contacts with the followers of the Liberation Theology, which had started in Chile when I visited President Allende there in 1971.
I hard heard about Lula from Friar Betto. He was a leader of workers, someone in whom the leftist Christians had early placed their hopes.
He was a humble worker from the metal industry, a man of remarkable talent and of prestige among the trade unions in that great nation that was leaving behind the dark days of the military dictatorship imposed by the Yankee imperialism in the 1960s.
Brazil’s relations with Cuba had been excellent until the dominating power in the hemisphere brought them to an end. Several decades would pass before those relations could slowly recover to what they are today.
Each of our countries lived its own history. Our homeland endured exceptional pressures during the incredible stages since 1959, confronting the aggressions of the mightiest power known to history.
Hence the enormous significance we attach to the recent meeting in Cancun and to its decision to establish a Community Latin American and Caribbean States. No other institutional event of the past century in our hemisphere is so transcendental.
The agreement has been reached at a time when the most serious economic crisis of the globalized world develops concurring with the greatest danger of an ecological catastrophe for our species and the earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, this being the most painful human disaster in the history of our hemisphere, in the poorest country of the continent and the first one to eradicate slavery.
As I was writing this Reflection, only six weeks after the death of over 200,000 people, --according to official figures released in that country-- we received dramatic news of the damages caused by another earthquake, this time in Chile, causing the death of close to one thousand people and huge material damages, according to official figures released by the authorities there.
It was particularly moving to watch the suffering of millions of Chileans materially and emotionally affected by such a harsh blow of nature. Fortunately, Chile has more experience in coping with this kind of phenomenon and it is a country with more resources and a higher economic development. If it were not for the sounder buildings and infrastructure, a countless number of people, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of Chileans would have perished. There are reports of two million victims and the potential loss of between 15 and 30 billion dollars. Faced with this tragedy, Chile counts on the solidarity and the sympathy of the peoples, ours included, although given the type of cooperation required there is not much that Cuba can do. Nevertheless, the Cuban government was one of the first to communicate to Chile our feelings of solidarity at a time when the communication system was not yet operational.
The country which is today putting to the test the world capacity to tackle climate change and ensure the survival of the human species is Haiti, as it is a symbol of the poverty suffered today by billions of people worldwide, including a significant portion of the peoples of our continent.
The recent earthquake in Chile, with the amazing intensity of 8.8 in the Richter scale, although fortunately at greater depth than the one which devastated Port-au-Prince, leads me to emphasize the importance and the duty to encourage the steps toward unity taken in Cancun, even though I do not entertain illusions knowing how difficult and complex our struggle of ideas will be vis-à-vis the efforts of the empire and its allies inside and outside our countries to thwart our peoples efforts toward unity and independence.
I want to place on record the significance and symbolism I attach to Lula’s recent visit and my meeting with him, both personally and as a revolutionary. He had said that as he was nearing the end of his term as president, he wanted to visit his friend Fidel; he honored me with that description. I think I know him well. We often had fraternal conversations both in Cuba and abroad.
I once had the honor of visiting him in his house located in a modest neighborhood in Sao Paulo where he lived with his family. It was very moving for me to meet with him, his wife and children. I will never forget the fraternal and healthy family atmosphere in that home and the sincere affection showed by the neighbors who approachd Lula when he was already a prestigious worker and political leader. No one knew then whether or not he would become the President of Brazil since major interests and forces opposed him: but I enjoyed talking with him. On the other hand, Lula did not care much about that position; he took pleasure in fighting and he did so with irreproachable modesty. This he showed extensively when after being defeated twice by his adversaries he only accepted to run for the Workers Party on a third occasion due to the strong pressure of his most sincere friends.
I will not try to relate the times we spoke before he was elected president; on one of these occasions, actually one of the firsts was in the midst of the 1980s as we were struggling in Havana against Latin America’s foreign debt, which then amounted to 300 billion dollars and had been paid more than once. He is a natural born fighter.
As I said, on two occasions his adversaries beat him in the elections with the support of their huge economic and media resources. However, his closest assistants and friends knew that the time had come for that humble worker to be the candidate of the Workers Party and the leftist forces.
Certainly, his opponents underestimated him; they thought he would not achieve a majority in the legislative body. The USSR did not exist anymore. What could Lula do at the head of Brazil, a nation of great wealth but little development in the hands of a rich and influential bourgeoisie?
But, neoliberalism was in a crisis; the Bolivarian Revolution had triumphed in Venezuela; Menen was in a free-fall; Pinochet was off the political stage; and Cuba was putting up a resistance. But Lula was elected when in the United States Bush won the elections through fraud robbing his rival Al Gore of his victory.
It was the beginning of a challenging stage. Fostering the arms race and the role of the Military Industrial Complex, and cutting down taxes to the wealthy sectors were the first steps taken the new US President.
The fight on terrorism was his pretext to resume the wars of conquest and to institutionalize assassination and torture as an instrument of imperialist domination. It’s impossible to publish the events related to the secret prisons which exposed the complicity of the US allies with that policy. Thus, the acceleration took place of the worst economic crisis of those that cyclically and increasingly have accompanied developed capitalism, just that this time the privileges of Bretton Woods were there but none of its commitments.
On the other hand, in the past eight years, with Lula at the head of the nation Brazil kept overcoming obstacles, increasing its technological development and expanding the weight of the Brazilian economy. The most difficult part was his first term, but he succeeded and gained experience. With his restless struggle, his calmness and composure as well as his growing devotion to his work, under such challenging international conditions, Brazil attained a GDP close to two trillion dollars. The data vary depending on the sources but they all agree to place it among the 10 largest economies in the world. In spite of this, with an area of 5,327,500 square miles, compared to the United States with barely a larger territory, Brazil only has about 12% of the GDP of that imperialist country that plunders the world and deploys its armed forces in over one thousand military bases worldwide.
I had the privilege of attending his inauguration as president at the end of 2002. Hugo Chavez was there too. He had just faced the treacherous coup d’etat of April 11, that same year; later there would be an oil coup organized by Washington. By then, Bush was president. The relations between Brazil, the Bolivarian Republic and Cuba had always been good and mutually respectful.
I had a serious accident on October 2004, which markedly limited my activities for months; then I fell gravely ill at the end of July 2006, the reason for which I did not hesitate to delegate my responsibilities at the head of the Party and the State through the proclamation of July 31 that year, first provisionally, and soon with a final resolution as I understood that I would not be able to resume them again.
As soon as my health situation allowed me to study and meditate I devoted myself to that and to review materials about our Revolution, and once in a while to publish some Reflections.
After I fell ill, I have had the privilege of receiving the visit of Lula every time he has traveled to our homeland; and we have talked at length. I will not say that I always coincided with all of his policies. I oppose by principle the production of biofuels using crops that can serve as food since I am aware that hunger already is, and can increasingly become, a major tragedy for humanity.
However, I must honestly say that this is not a problem created by Brazil, least of all by Lula. It is an essential part of the world economy imposed by imperialism and its rich allies that subsidize their farm productions to protect their domestic markets and compete in the world market with the food exports of the Third World nations, which are forced to import the industrial items produced with the raw materials and energy resources of these same countries that inherited poverty from centuries of colonialism. I perfectly understand that given the unfair competition and subsidies of Europe and the United States, Brazil had no choice but to produce ethanol.
The infant mortality rate in Brazil is still 23.3 per one thousand live births and maternal mortality is 110 per 100,000 deliveries while in the rich industrial nations is lower than 5 and 15 respectively. We could offer many more such data.
The beet sugar subsidized by Europe deprived our country of its sugar market derived from sugarcane, a precarious and seasonal farm and industrial labor that kept the sugarcane workers unemployed a good part of the year. Meanwhile, the United States seized our best lands and its companies became the owners of the industry. Suddenly, one day they deprived us of our sugar quota and blockaded our country in order to crush the Revolution and the independence of Cuba.
Presently, Brazil has developed the cultivation of sugarcane, soybean and corn with high-yield machinery that can be used for these crops with a very high productivity. One day, as I watched a documentary about 40 thousand hectares of land in Ciego de Avila used to grow soybean alternating it with corn where they will try to work the entire year, I said that this is the ideal of a socialist farm enterprise, highly mechanized and with a high productivity per man and per hectare.
The problem with farming and its facilities in the Caribbean are the hurricanes that are increasingly sweeping the territory.
Our country has also elaborated and signed with Brazil a project for the financing and construction of a very modern port in Mariel that will be of great importance to our economy.
Venezuela is using Brazilian farming and industrial technology to produce sugar and to use bagasse as a source of thermo-electrical energy. This is sophisticated equipment working in a socialist enterprise, too. At the Bolivarian Republic they are using ethanol to reduce the harmful effect of gasoline on the environment.
It was capitalism that developed the consumer societies and also the waste of fuel that has begotten the risk of a dramatic climate change. It took nature 400 million years to create what our species is consuming in barely two centuries. Science has yet to solve the problem of the type of energy that will replace the one generated with oil today. No one knows how much time that will require and how much it will cost to resolve it in time. Shall we ever have it? That was the issue under discussion in Copenhagen and the Summit was a complete failure.
Lula told me that when the cost of ethanol is 70% that of gasoline, it is not good business to produce it. He said that Brazil, which has the largest forest on earth, will progressively reduce the current pace of cutting by 80%.
Today, Brazil has the best technology in the world to drill in the sea; it can extract fuel from as deep as seven thousand meters of sea water and bottom. Thirty years back this would have seem a science fiction story.
He explained the high-level education programs that Brazil intends to carry forward and expressed great appreciation for the role of China in the world scenario. He proudly said that trade with that country amounts to 40 billion dollars.
One thing is clear: the metal worker has become an outstanding and prestigious statesman whose voice is respectfully heard in every international meeting.
He is proud to have been honored with the choice of Brazil to hold the Olympic Games of 2016 thanks to the excellent program presented in Denmark. His country will also host the World Football Cup in 2014. All of this has been the result of the projects submitted by Brazil, which left those of their competitors behind.
A great proof of his selflessness was his refusal to go to the reelection and his confidence that the Workers Party will continue in government in Brazil.
Some of those who envy his prestige and his glory, and worse still, those at the service of the empire, criticized him for coming to Cuba. To that end, they have resorted to the vile slanders used against Cuba for half a century.
Lula has known for many years that in our country no one has ever been tortured; that we have never ordered the assassination of an adversary, and that we have never lied to the people. He does know that truth is the inseparable companion of his Cuban friends.
From Cuba he left for our neighbor Haiti. We shared with him our ideas on what we are proposing with regard to a sustainable and efficient program, one especially important and very economic for Haiti. He knows that more than one hundred thousand Haitians have been treated by our doctors and by graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine after the earthquake. We discussed serious issues; I am aware of his fervent wishes to help that noble and long-suffering people.
I shall keep an unforgettable memory of my last meeting with the President of Brazil and I do not hesitate to declare it.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 1st, 2010
12:15 PM
Monday, March 1, 2010
Green Isle Dispute - Support the workers
A Campaign has also been launched on the Labour Start site. There is a link below to sign up for the Campaign. If you could please complete to show support for the workers and forward on to as many contacts as possible.
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=629
WFDY Solidarity with Chile
Solidarity with Chile
The World Federation of Democratic Youth has received with pain the news about the earthquake in Chile in which there are already more than 300 confirmed mortal victims, and nearly eight thousand harmed – being this the biggest catastrophe felt in the country over the last 30 years – which brings desperation to the Chilean people, particularly the poorest.
The succession of climate events, earthquakes and the reckless and selfish action of the capitalist
system against environment, confirm the need to struggle to preserve mankind and protect those with fewer resources as they are the main victims of all these happennings.
WFDY, now preparing the XVII World Festival of Youth and Students for next December, on behalf of its member and friend organizations and all the progressive youth of this world, its most sincere condolences to all the Chilean people and youth, particularly the poorest, in this tough moments that they are living, reaffirming its will to help in all that is necessary and calling upon all young progressive people to express its solidarity towards the people of Salvador Allende, Gladys Marin and thoushands of disappeared during the military dictatorship of Pinochet.
The CC/HQ of WFDY
Budapest, February 28, 2010
The World Federation of Democratic Youth has received with pain the news about the earthquake in Chile in which there are already more than 300 confirmed mortal victims, and nearly eight thousand harmed – being this the biggest catastrophe felt in the country over the last 30 years – which brings desperation to the Chilean people, particularly the poorest.
The succession of climate events, earthquakes and the reckless and selfish action of the capitalist
system against environment, confirm the need to struggle to preserve mankind and protect those with fewer resources as they are the main victims of all these happennings.
WFDY, now preparing the XVII World Festival of Youth and Students for next December, on behalf of its member and friend organizations and all the progressive youth of this world, its most sincere condolences to all the Chilean people and youth, particularly the poorest, in this tough moments that they are living, reaffirming its will to help in all that is necessary and calling upon all young progressive people to express its solidarity towards the people of Salvador Allende, Gladys Marin and thoushands of disappeared during the military dictatorship of Pinochet.
The CC/HQ of WFDY
Budapest, February 28, 2010
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