Shame on the Labour Party

Once again the Labour Party covers itself in shame, said the general secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland, Eugene McCartan, responding to Brendan Howlin’s pushing through of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill (2013) to give him the power to cut workers’ wages, terms and conditions, and increment payments.

        “This is nothing less than a full-scale assault on public-sector workers by their employer, the state, and it will have repercussions far beyond public-sector workers.

        “Workers know from experience that laws are merely congealed politics, and that these measures will be followed up with demands by private employers to extend and expand the scope of this law in all branches of the economy.

        “The almost complete silence of important sections of the trade union movement is appalling. They have not moved beyond issuing mealy-mouthed statements of condemnation. They have failed to mobilise workers in defence of their rights and against these draconian attacks on their rights.

        “The very fact that this legislation is being pushed through is reason enough on principle to call for and mobilise for a rejection of the reheated Croke Park II.

        “The celebration to mark the 1913 Lockout by national trade union leaders ring very hollow in the light of recent events. They are still ideologically locked in to ‘social partnership,’ despite being the only partner on the dance floor: everyone else—government and bosses—have left that particular stage to them.”

Another world is possible!!

Communist Party of Israel on Syria

Communist Party: Israeli attack on Syria unjustifiable

 

Communist Party of Israel (CPI) on Sunday slammed Israeli military strikes on Syria earlier in the day. "We condemn the unjustifiable attack on the sovereignty of Syria," said the spokesperson calling on all parties in Syria to reach a political agreement to protect the rights of the Syrian people.

“The Netanyahu government proves that it hasn't learned from the historical experience that security cannot be borne of warfare. CPI and Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) condemn the airstrikes and call for an immediate end to this escalation. CPI and Hadash warn against entanglement in a regional war,” he added.

According to CPI these aggressive measures constitute a danger to the entire region, and all of the peoples residing in it. With the excuse of preventing the use of chemical weapons the Israeli government is choosing to serve the foreign policy of the US imperialism in promoting its interests in the region. CPI vehemently objects to any use of non-conventional weapons and demand immediate disarmament of such weapons in the entire Middle East, including Israel.

Statement of the Syrian Communist Party

Statement of the Syrian Communist Party On the night of 4th – 5th May 2013, sites in the countryside of Damascus, the Syrian capital, had been targeted by the Zionist enemy, but obviously, the main goal was to support the enemies of the homeland, which is regressing in front of courageous Syrian Arab Army and to rise the morals of the gangs members. The criminal aggression of the Zionist enemy is another evidence to the clear truth that the all kinds of the armed gangs are beast flocks carrying out the will of the world gangs, imperialist, Zionists and their dirty pimps including the kingdoms and sheikhdoms of gulf and Turkey the agent of NATO. The experience of the past proves that the Syrian people is deep rooted patriot and unifies in front of external imperialist aggression. No compromise with the imperialists and their agents. No dialogue with the homeland enemies who carry out the imperialist will. In the great national battle, we confirm that our people will be steadfast regardless the painful and big losses as the people of Vietnam, people of Iraq and the Lebanese national resistance, these peoples who fought against the huge imperialist war machine that so called non-defeating but it was defeated because of the peoples resistance. The victory is for the peoples' will that confirm: It's better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees! and the Syrian people is one of them. We say with free people in our homeland and world: together we'll win! Syria won't kneel down. Damascus, May 5, 2013 The central Committee of Syrian Communist Party General SecretaryAmmar Bagdache

“The poor South” against the “rich North”?

Blame our bloody fate!
Blame the God that hates us!
Blame our stupid heads!
Blame, more than anything else, the wine!
Who is to blame? Who is to blame?…no mouth
has answered this yet.

Statement by the KKE

http://www.solidnet.org/greece-communist-party-of-greece-/3963-cp-of-greece-r-l-r-ru

CPI NEC Political Statement

POLITICAL STATEMENT

18 May 2012

At its regular meeting the National Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland evaluated the present political and economic situation in the country, north and south. What is most clear is that the crisis of the system is deepening: the contradictions are deepening and spreading as the ruling elite continues to make the people pay for the crisis, and the system attempts to overcome the crisis at the expense of the people.

     The Irish and British ruling class continue to use the crisis for a growing assault on working people, north and south, whether in the form of attacks on pensions and social welfare or a “bedroom tax.”

     The external troika continues to determine all economic and social priorities, working in alliance with the Irish state, Irish capital, and all the establishment political parties. At the EU level the voices of monopoly capital are attempting to sow confusion while appearing to be responding to popular discontent with the effect of “austerity”—appearing to be listening and learning, to empathise with the suffering of the mass of the people, talking about the need to modify their strategy. But this in fact is just a change in language, not a change of strategy.

     The Irish government in particular is attempting to turn the labour market into a hiring-fair, with tens of thousands of workers facing a life of precarious employment. The recent Supreme Court decision in relation to registered employment agreements will further erode and undermine workers’ terms and conditions and will result in renewed pressure on already low-paid workers.

     The Communist Party of Ireland has pointed out and continues to argue that the policy of “austerity” is working as designed. It is essentially geared towards bringing about a massive transfer of wealth from working people to the super-rich and the monopolies. It is working as designed and is being executed with all the skill that the ruling class can draw upon, in particular using the state as the main vehicle for imposing their strategy, backed up and reinforced by their mass media.

     The debt crisis is purely a means to an end, that end being the complete subservience of working people and in particular the subservience of the trade union movement. This is best reflected in the continuous bullying and coercion of workers into accepting some reheated Croke Park II agreement, despite the fact that the majority of public-sector workers have previously rejected it.

     In the North the Protestant section of the working class will find no refuge in blind-alley politics in relation to the flying of flags. This will not put food on the table: it is a distraction, a political circus dressed up by a bankrupt leadership—a leadership who fully support the economic and social policies of the London government—who have no answers to the growing crisis of unemployment and deepening poverty. The flags protest is merely for blowing smoke in people’s eyes.

     Not alone are the people of the South facing daily cuts in services, pay, and pensions, they are now being treated to a display of sexist and misogynist bilge from establishment politicians and the discredited hierarchy of the Catholic Church regarding the rights of women, in particular regarding a woman wishing to exercise her right to life beyond that of the foetus she is carrying, the right to safe and secure abortion. The time has long passed for a full and unequivocal recognition that women have the right to control their bodies and their fertility.

     The CPI again reaffirms that we need to build the people’s resistance, to break the trade union movement away from the cul de sac down which elements of the leadership seem determined to continue dragging workers: of cuts in wages, deterioration of their terms and conditions, and savage cuts in public services.

     The CPI reaffirms its call for maximum support for protests against the forthcoming meeting of the leaders of the G8—a club of the rich for the rich—in Co. Fermanagh. In particular it urges support for protests organised by the trade unions and other progressives organisation.

          Building the people’s resistance and presenting an alternative direction for all our people, north and south—beginning the difficult but necessary re-conquest of Ireland for and by its people—is the task that the National Executive Committee and all the party have set themselves as we begin to prepare for our 25th National Congress in 2014.  

CPI Statement in Syria

Communist Party of Ireland - Statement on Syria - 18th May 2013

The imperialist powers, Britain, France and the United States regard themselves as the rightful rulers of the Middle East. With the aim of maintaining their hegemony they have always allied themselves with the most backward and obscurantist forces in the area. Any independent régime in the area is a target for attack, by subversion, by sanctions or by outright aggression by client states and local allies - or directly, if necessary.

Taking advantage of local unrest, they unleashed a war on Syria, recruiting for their purpose, as they did in Libya, the terrorist fundamentalist Islamists linked to Al Qaida, the very people against whom they have proclaimed their “war on terror”. These terrorists are directly recruited, financed and armed by U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and facilitated by U.S. ally Turkey.

These tactics have caused enormous suffering the Syrian people but have failed to dislodge the government. So U.S. ally Israel steps in, bombing Damascus. Direct intervention is being prepared, on the claim that the government of Syria has used chemical weapons, when the evidence cited by UN representative Carla Del Ponte implicates the opposition forces. They apparently were carrying out a false flag operation, prompted by Obama's "red line", to provide an excuse for intervention.

Coupled with the threats against Iran and the continued oppression of the Palestinian people the danger of escalating the conflict into a wider devastating war should be obvious, but does not seem to deter the imperialist powers.

They have so far rejected all efforts to facilitate a cease fire and a negotiated settlement, insisting on impossible conditions. The removal of these obstacles to a ceasefire and the facilitation of a peaceful settlement to the conflict is a reasonable demand, and one that the Irish government should be pursuing.

Behind the humanitarian mask, and a pretended concern about democracy the imperialists are as ruthless and criminal as ever. The Communist Party of Ireland calls on all democratic forces and all peace lovers to reject all thes humanitarian pretensions and rouse themselves to oppose imperialist aggression against Syria, whether direct or by proxy.

There are those who regard themselves as left-wing, even "anti-capitalist" have given support to "humanitarian" wars, in Yugoslavia and Libya and elsewhere. They should see by now what the imperialist strategy has been and what it continues to be.

 

Fight the G8!!!! Join the Resistance

May Fest Event

Friday 17 May, 7:30 p.m.
May Fest event

Keeping the spirit and principles of the International Brigades alive

A night of dicussion and music ★ The fight against fascism and racism, and youth issues of today, with Marc Navarro (Unity Against Fascism and Racism, Barcelona) and Pádraig Mackel (ICTU Youth Com­­mittee) ★ Followed by Ruairí Creaney (acoustic guitar) and, back by popular demand, Teknopeasant (banjo-driven gypsy folk punk poet).
▶Sunflower Pub (Union Street)
Organised by the International Brigade Commemoration Committee, in con­junc­tion with the ICTU Youth Committee
Further information: 077 51951785

May issue of SV out now

May issue of SV out now. Check it out at:

http://www.communistpartyofireland.ie/sv/index.html

Capitalism does not work for young people!

Responding to the survey on youth unemployment and emigration by the National Youth Council of Ireland, the Communist Party of Ireland stated that it is not just the policies of the current and past Governments that have led to the constant haemorrhage of mass emigration of our youth but the economic system itself, which is incapable of creating enough jobs and proper economic and social development to meet the needs of our people.

     Paul Doran stated that until there is a fundamental change of direction in the economic and social policy of this failed state we will continue to rear our children to walk the streets of cities around the globe. All economic and social development has been skewed in favour of transnational corporations and the Irish rich and powerful.

     As the statistics show, this state has the highest net emigration since the late 1980s. Over the last four years 308,000 people have left, 41 per cent of them (125,000) in the 15–24 age group. In brief: —There is 31 per cent youth unemployment. —One in three young men under the age of twenty-five are now out of work. —Youth unemployment has trebled since 2008. —We have the fifth-highest rate of child poverty in Europe, with a poverty rate of 20 per cent.

     Unless we break this cycle of dependence and control by the European Union, the United States and the British state in the North we will see further generations of our youth leave, looking for a future.

     Emigration, like unemployment, is used as a weapon against the people to keep them subdued and cowed.

CPI Statement

Connolly Media Group

New Vimeo page from the Connolly Media Group


http://vimeo.com/user16882513

Check it out

Rene returns home!

After more than 14 years in a US jail and on supervised release in Florida
Cuban anti-terrorist fighter, Rene Gonzalez, is home at last with his family
following the decision of a US court to grant him permission to stay in Cuba.
Rene was in the country for two weeks of humanitarian leave for the memorial
service of his recenty deceased father,
 
The court granted him permission to stay on the condition that he renounce his
US citizenship.
 
Although this is a cause for great celebration for Rene and his family and all
supporters for the campaign for his freedom, his four compatriots, Ramon,
Gerardo, Antonio and Fernando, remain in US prisons and the fight for their
freedom must continue and intensify until they are home with their families
too.

Death of our Venezualan comrade

Communist Party of Venezuela Mourns the Death of Jerónimo Carrera, its Party President

By Ryan Mallett-Outtrim     

After nearly 70 years of political activism, the president of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) Jerónimo Carrera died today.

His grandson, Ulysses Carrera told Venezuelan media that he died in his home early this morning of “natural causes”.

Via twitter, President Nicolas Maduro extended his “heartfelt condolences” to Carrera's family and friends, as well as all his “PCV comrades”.

His funeral was held at 2pm today at the PCV national headquarters in Caracas.

A Lifelong Activist

Born in the Venezuelan city of Cumana in 1922, Carrera became politically active just after World War II.

He was an active unionist, and co-founded the Confederation of Workers of Venezuela and the United Workers of Venezuela.

In 1971 he became a member of the PCV Central Committee. Throughout much of his political life, Carrera was working in a party that was often suppressed by Venezuelan governments.

After supporting Chavez's campaign for presidency in 1998, the PCV began to play an increasingly vocal role in Venezuelan politics. In 2007, the party was invited by Chavez to join the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

Carrera opposed the amalgamation, stating at the time that he and other PCV members were “merely the custodians of our party”.

“We've got three generations of Venezuelans in our party who have lived through periods of clandestine [activity]...and have experienced repression and difficulties in their careers because of their party membership,” he told Venezuelan media. Carrera himself was imprisoned twice during his political career.

He was also a prolific writer on the Venezuelan left, contributing regularly to the party newspaper Tribuna Popular, and writing a weekly column in the Venezuelan newspaper, La Razon.
Carrera leaves behind a party that is the largest supporter of the Bolivarian revolution outside the PSUV. Although he and the PCV were generally supportive of former president Hugo Chavez, his party chose not to join the PSUV; prefering instead to retain political independence.

The PCV remains the second largest backer of Maduro, and campaigned for his election on April 14. However, the party has taken a critical position on some PSUV decisions. In the 2012 gubernatorial elections, the PCV rejected four PSUV candidates for several state governorships. In the states of Merida, Bolivar, Amazonas and Portuguesa, PCV candidates ran against the PSUV.

In a press conference this morning, the PCV's union secretary Peter Eusse stated that the “best tribute we can pay to  Jerónimo Carrera is our revolutionary determination and [our] fight against imperialism.”

“We won't have a minute of silence for Jerónimo, but a lifetime of struggle!”

Published on Apr 29th 2013 at 9.09pm

Pilgers 'War on Democracy'

'The War On Democracy' (2007) was John Pilger's first for cinema. It explores the current and past relationship of Washington with Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile.

Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B0RbU_UhCA

Latest version of thr Peoples News out now

Latest developments in the EU check out the Peoples News:

http://www.people.ie/news/PN-85.pdf

And come along to the People's Movement
Inaugural Europe Day Lecture
'Europe Day, Europe in Crisis,
and the Unending Saga of Irish Debt'
Andy Storey
Ireland Institute
27 Pearse Street, Dublin 2
Thursday, 9 May 2013, 7:30 p.m.