Public Meeting on Syria

Farewll to Comrade Billy Ennis

The funeral of our long-time comrade and friend Billy Ennis took place at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, on Wednesday 28 August. The funeral oration was given by the general secre­tary of the CPI, Eugene McCartan, and tributes were paid by other com­rades and family members.

Tionóladh sochraid Billy Ennis, comrádaí agus cara le blianta fada, i Reilig Ghlas Naíon, Baile Átha Cliath, Dé Céadaoin 28 Lúnasa. Thug ardrúnaí an CPI, Eugene McCartan, an óráid sochraide, agus thug daoine dá mhuintir ómós dó freisin.

Join Statement on Syria

Joint statement by communist and workers’ parties on the imperialist military attack on Syria

28 August 2013

We, the communist and workers’ parties, express our solidarity with the Syrian people and denounce the military attack against Syria that is being prepared by the imperialists of the USA, NATO and the EU together with their allies in order to promote their interests in the region.

     We reject the pretexts of the imperialists, which, as was demonstrated, were also used in the war against Iraq and in the other imperialist wars against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Libya.

     We call on the working class and the peoples all over the world to oppose and condemn the new imperialist war, to demand that the governments of their countries have no involvement in and do not support the criminal military offensive.

WFDY Statement on Syria

 

 

WFDY statement on the imperialist plans for military intervention in Syria


The World Federation of Democratic Youth highly condemns the imperialist military and political moves towards a direct military intervention to the sovereign state of Syria. WFDY re-affirms its position that we stand against any military or by other means intervention against the people of Syria.


With great concern we have witnessed the past couple of weeks a mobilization of the USA and their NATO allies, EU Britain, Turkey, Gulf countries etc to call upon an immediate and direct military intervention in Syria using the pretext of the well-orchestrated allegations about use of chemical weapons. The recent history has taught us very well how pretexts are easily fabricated or used to justify the modern crimes of imperialism.

The seed of war that the imperialists have planted in Syria will generate a serious of dangers for wider confrontations in the region of Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean, dragging along all the peoples of the region. Already the war in Syria is reflected in Lebanon and the involvement of many other neighboring countries is more than possible.

More than two years have passed since the beginning of the intervention in Syria, by the imperialist powers, headed by the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and of course Israel. The ongoing intervention consists of supplying the opposition with weapons, money, and flooding the country with extremists. All this distorted and used the demands of the Syrian people for reform into an imperialist backed war, beneficial to the international monopolies through weakening the country. They drive the peoples in wars and death, while the natural resources and development of their countries are stolen. In order to weaken the roles and struggle of these countries against the greediness of the imperialist powers, the situation which we witnessed, even if in a different form, in Palestine, Lebanon, etc.

Now imperialism is ready to internationalize the bloodshed they started in Syria and the only answer of the anti-imperialist movement is: hands off Syria!

WFDY calls all the youth anti-imperialist movements around the world to unite their struggle with the popular and peace movements in their countries, demanding the immediate end of any aggression against Syria. Once again we clarify our position that the people of Syria and in the wider region can decide their own future, away from the imperialist mechanisms, in the service of the youth and the people.
Budapest, August 30, 2013

The CC/HQ of WFDY    

Lockout Re-enactment and Commemoration

Below are the details of the State commemoration.

On August 31, 1913 Dubliners in O’Connell Street were baton charged by the police when Jim Larkin attempted to address them. Up to 600 people were seriously injured on what became known as Bloody Sunday.

As part of the centenary of commemorative events marking the 1913 Lockout there will be a major community led re-enactment of the events of that day.

This event is being organised by the 1913 Lockout Centenary committee, along with the Dublin Council of Trade Unions and the North Inner City Folklore Project.   Those wishing to join the re-enactment are encouraged to assemble at 11am on Saturday August 31 and follow the detailed guidelines given below for participants.

11am – Assembly at various locations as follows:

Dockers (men): Custom House
If coming as a docker, please wear dark trousers (not jeans or combats) with a belt or braces, collarless shirt with a muffler or handkerchief around the neck, dark waistcoat or jacket, hat or cap with dark shoes (no trainers).

Jacobs Workers (women): Rear of Central Bank
If coming as a Jacobs workers, please wear a dark ankle-length dress or skirt, a light coloured blouse and dark boots or flat shoes (no trainers). If possible please wear a dark coloured or straw hat.

Poor of Dublin (men, women and children): Gloucester Diamond
Men, women or children coming as the ‘poor of Dublin’ should wear old, torn or shabby clothes (see notes for men and women above) and very old shoes (no trainers)
The audience may wear any of the above, or any Edwardian costume (such as those worn on Bloomsday)

11.45 – Leave assembly points and proceed to O’Connell Street, gather at Clery’s and across the road.
12 noon – Assemble for State Commemoration
12.30pm – State Commemoration starts
1.30pm – Wreath laying ceremony at Larkin statue
1.45pm – Transition to Community Re-Enactment
2pm – Re-enactment of Bloody Sunday
2.30pm – Re-enactment participants move to Foley Street
3pm – Unveiling of plaque for those who died
3.30pm – Soup kitchen and fleadh in Foley Street.

Don't just commemorate, organise!!

At its meeting on Saturday 24 August the National Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland evaluated the continuing economic crisis and its effect on working people, north and south.

     Despite much talk by the Irish government and the establishment media about “recovery,” projecting rising property prices as the first “green shoots of recovery,” the small growth in house prices is more an indication of a growth in speculation. The much-talked-about growth in exports as a means of exporting our way out of debt is proving as illusory as ever. With the ratio of debt to GDP worsening, this can only lead to further cuts in public spending as the government struggles to meet EU targets regarding the debt.

     The forthcoming budget will be more of the same, with further cuts in public spending, while the Labour Party and its supporters within the trade union leadership will squeal a little about this or that unjust aspect of the budget but will grin and bear it. What is clear is that government spending will be further cut well into the foreseeable future, with more and more areas of spending, such as state pensions and other benefits, being further attacked.

     In the Dublin Lock-out of 1913, the centenary of which we commemorate this year, the employers locked out more than twenty thousand workers, the majority of them members of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, to break the “new trade unionism” that it represented. Despite great poverty, hunger, an increasing child mortality rate, and police brutality, the Dublin working class stood its ground and resisted.

     While it is important to mark and celebrate the history of our class and its decisive battles, we need to go beyond commemoration. There is now a need for a “new trade unionism” for today. The Irish working class needs to draw lessons from the past in order to help it understand the present and to shape our future. There is an urgent need for a complete rethink of the path down which the present generation of trade union leaders has propelled the movement, a course that can only lead to the further demoralisation and marginalising of the trade union movement.

     The labour movement needs to rid itself of its subservient attitude and approach. We need to emulate and take inspiration from the heroism and courage of those men, women and children of 1913. What they had then and we lack but badly need today is leadership, with a clear strategy for defending the working class and all it has struggled for and won, which is now being whittled away.

     In the North the economic and social crisis is being used to accentuate existing sectarian divisions. The DUP and UUP vie with each other to see who can dive deeper into the septic pool of sectarianism. The recent attacks on the mayor of Belfast and the call for the blowing up of the Sinn Féin leadership show sectarianism plummeting to new depths. What the crisis has exposed is that these parties have no answers or solutions to the plight of the Protestant section of the working class. As the budget restraints from London tighten, unionism finds it increasingly difficult to dispense a shrinking largesse with which to control and manipulate the Protestant working class. The effects of the crisis, job losses, cuts in services and benefits and cuts in wages are being used to stoke sectarian tensions in order to deflect attention away from their own bankruptcy.

     Rejectionist republicans and Sinn Féin have also been coat-trailing, trying to exploit moments of sectarian tension and pressure for their own short-term objectives. The recent display by a colour party in Co. Tyrone is not in the interests of building unity among working people. Retreating into past failed methods and positions is not the way forward. The real alternative is to campaign to protect jobs, to oppose cuts in the health service and other public services, which are being chipped away and dismantled, and to actively engage in campaigns that can ease and neutralise sectarian tensions.

     Sectarianism is a dead end for our people that must be resisted by all means. While recognising that building the unity of our people is very difficult, with obstacles and road-blocks constantly thrown in the way, we have to work and strive to bring this about.

     The CPI calls on workers not to be fooled by the bigots, who have nothing to offer except more of the same. Throughout our country the working class are experiencing the full brunt of the crisis of the system. The unionists in the North wish to deflect workers away from the real nature of their poverty, alienation and frustrations towards a belief that someone else is getting a better deal at their expense. In the South the trade union leadership and the Labour Party are happy to commemorate the 1913 Lock-out, yet a hundred years later workers are still without the right to be represented by a trade union.

     Our message is clear. Don’t just commemorate: organise.

CP Australia

Record profits & growing hardship

Anna Pha

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has again reduced the official interest rate, a reflection of its concerns with domestic and global economic developments. The reduction to a low of 2.5 percent is aimed at generating economic activity and serves to counter the contractionary impact of cuts to government spending. Economic conditions look set to deteriorate further, in particular, with higher unemployment, suppression of wages and mining investment slowing down. Bankruptcies continue to rise as businesses are hit by a slowdown in demand and thousands more workers are being sacked. But not everyone is doing it tough. Midst all the hardship and pain, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has reported a record net profit (after tax) of $7.8 billion. And, according to the bank’s CEO, it’s “a good thing” for all of us!

“Once you’ve had one record profit, the next record profit just means you’ve grown. And I think it’s to everyone’s benefit in this economy for all the major banks to be growing,” CEO Ian Narev said.

“So I hope to continue to deliver record profits, because it will just mean we continue to grow. I think that’s a good thing for our customers and our shareholders and our people and I think the community more broadly.”

Really? A stable financial system is important. But obscene private profits, enough to fund federal budget items? The CBA’s profits have risen rapidly with only a small dip of one percent in 2009 (not a loss – just a smaller profit) over the past 10 years.

The 2013 result is up 10 percent on last year, and returned shareholders a whopping 18 percent on their investment. It is not a one-off exercise in profit-gouging. In 2012, profits rose 11 percent, in 2010 by 12 percent. Ten years ago they were $2 billion.

Who really benefits?

But where do these profits go? The CBA is distributing $3.4 billion of these profits through dividends to shareholders, the rest it retains for further expansion and as reserves. The top shareholders are mostly financial institutions/nominee companies – HSBC Custody Nominees (Aust) Ltd, JP Morgan Nominees Aust Ltd, National Nominees Ltd, Citicorp Nominees Ltd, Cogent Nominees Pty Ltd, etc.

As nominee companies, we have no idea who really pockets the profits when distributed or even if they are kept in Australia. But the 216 largest shareholders pocket 47 percent. Some of this would go into superannuation funds, adding to workers’ retirement savings.

As for the “mums and dads” shareholders, the bottom 582,237 shareholders own 12.3 percent of shares.

Where did CBA’s profits come from? Mostly from its customers – interest margins (the difference between interest on loans and interest paid on deposits) and fees – and some from other sources such as overseas investments and currency trading.

As Narev pointed out, the CBA pays tax on its profits, $3 billion in 2013. But, if the CBA had not been privatised, then the $7.8 billion could also have been government revenue, or much of it. This could have really been of benefit to the people, providing the government with income for affordable public housing and low income and other families with decent accommodation.

In addition, it could have been used to increase the dole, aged pension, sickness and other benefits, restore and increase benefits to single parents, fully cover dental care under Medicare, fund mental health, speed up the introduction of the national disability insurance scheme as well as eradicate homelessness.

Perverse system

It is a perverse “logic” that profit gouging by the CBA or for that matter other big banks or mining corporations is heralded as great for everyone, but governments and media turn a blind eye, don’t even question a system where people are thrown out of their homes and their electricity is cut because they are unable to pay the bill.

A system which impoverishes families through no fault of their own, and cannot provide basic social needs for the people and rejects a genuine super profits tax on the mining sector.

Housing is not the only cause of financial trauma. Privatisation and marketisation of electricity have seen electricity prices more than double in recent years.

A report released this month by the NSW Energy and Water Ombudsman found that 3.5 million low-income and low-wage families always have trouble paying their bills. The energy companies are showing less tolerance with late payers, sparking a huge rise in disconnections.

Lynne Chester from the University of Sydney estimates that the poorest 20 percent of households paid close to or more than10 percent of their income on power bills. This is on top of massive rental payments which consume more than 30 percent, in some instances as much as 60 percent of income. It leaves little for food, medicines, education, clothing, transport and other basics.

The Communist Party of Australia is calling for the establishment of a publicly owned People’s Bank with a strong social charter.

The People’s Bank would provide cheaper (for customers) services with low fixed interest rates for home loans, small businesses and family farmers. The bank would be government guaranteed and some of its deposits available for public housing and other public infrastructure.

Any profits would be returned to the government, not to private shareholders. The People’s Bank would benefit everyone. Affordable housing would reduce pressure on family budgets and help stimulate the economy and generate jobs with increased demand for goods and services.

At the same time the government needs to regulate rents, interest rates and the currency and plan economic development. The “markets” have failed the people. The public sector needs to rebuild its skills base and expand to resume building and providing public housing as an alternative to home ownership and private rental. Real competition from the public sector would soon bring down the cost of rent and housing as well as wiping out the waiting lists for public housing.

CP India blames Government

From Kuldip Singh Arora

New Delhi : Communist Party of India(CPI) on August 20,2013  squarely blamed the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister for the present “ pathetic” economic situation in the country, calling for the nationwide people’s struggles to force the Congress-led UPA( 11)  government to abandon its neo-liberal policies.

“We are worried India has to pay dearer for the fault of keeping the UPA (11) in power. Bigger struggles of the people are expected in the coming months,” CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said here.

Sudhakar’s remarks came a day after the Indian rupee continued to plumb new depths recording its biggest single day fall in a decade on Monday. With rupees 63.30 to a dollar it touched its lowest ever, recording biggest single day fall in a decade.

He said while the prices of food grains and other essential commodities are going up, the burgeoning unemployment and all prevailing corruption are other major worries. The credibility of the UPA (11) is at its lowest ebb.

“This will lead to more serious complications in the political arena.  A weak government can not solve the problems of the nation,” CPI general secretary said.

He said Manmohan Singh’s neo-liberal economic policies coupled with Chidambaram’s arrogance had created the present position.

Pro-corporate policies added fire to the fuel.

“A weaker government, which is unwilling to take strong measures to control prices, implement labour laws is causing much harm to the man-in- street and the nation. There is no other solution except fighting back these anti- people policies of the Congress-led UPA government.”

Giving a historical overview of the present economic situation, the CPI general secretary said the fall of the rupee versus dollar is a” symptom” of crisis of Indian economy.

In spite of tall claims of the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister they failed to stop the fall of the rupee. In 1947 Indian rupee was equal to the dollar. In late 1960’s it was 8 rupees a dollar. Under the leadership of Chidambram as the head of the Indian financial system, it had gone down to over 63 rupees to a dollar.

Furthermore, he said, foreign exchange had now only 6-7 months reservoir. This is a pathetic situation. Chidambram is to be squarely blamed because instead of finding scientific alternatives he made India to believe that FDI’s would solve all the problems and they are coming in plenty.

CYM Solidarity with Cuban 5

The Connolly Youth Movement sends warmest solidarity greeting to the brave Cuban Five. We also send our warmest embrace to the families of these heroes.

These Five Cuban patriots and anti-terrorists fighters four of whom still languish in prison cells in the United States of America should be release immediately. They where wrongly convicted and framed by a USA court and have suffered greatly for their patriotic actions.

The courage and actions of these five Cuban patriots should be acknowledged as being in defence of the Cuban and other peoples from attack by Miami based terrorist groups, whom successive Washington administrations have supported, nurtured and aided for many decades.

We Irish youth call for their immediate release and their exoneration of the crimes they where so wilfully convicted of.
CYM Dublin

Union of Progressive Youth Egypt

Statement by the Union of Progressive Youth concerning the recent situation in Egypt:

 

 We have received with deep regret the news about Venezuela and Ecuador’s decisions to withdraw their Ambassadors from Egypt, whereas such a decision is surprising from two countries that are fiercely against imperialism and known for their permanent stand facing the colonial American policies. We believe however that Ecuador and Venezuela have built up this decision based on erroneous information illustrated by the imperialist western media propaganda that described the Egyptian people’s revolution over the terroristic groups as a military overthrow. The Imperialist Media has as well portrayed the process of breaking off the protest of “Rabiha Adawya & Nahda” of the Muslim Brotherhood as an act of extermination, which was not the case, taking into account that the weapons in possession of the protestors were clearly exposed and the breaking off of the protest happened under the sight of all the Egyptian people as well as the Egyptian Human Rights organizations. The Egyptian Police has solicited the protesters to leave safely, but the latter refused and the police was faced by firefights, sceneries that were not revealed by the misleading imperialist media. We therefore call upon friendly organizations in the states of Venezuela and Ecuador to clarify the real Egyptian position and issue statements demanding their own governments to refrain from such decisions.

Union of Progressive Youth Cairo

17/08/2013"

Significant statement from the Egyption Communist Party

June 30 Revolution... Its Nature, Duties and Prospects

1. June Revolution, correcting the course of January Revolution

The Revolution of June 30, 2013 is the more profound and mature second wave to correct the path of the revolution of January 25 2011; and to offset the greatest danger suffered by Egypt in its recent history, namely the risk of cultural apostasy, separation from time and threatening the unity of homeland. This danger was posed by forces of fascist religious right, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, the forces representing the most parasitic, tyrannical, corrupt, fascist, racist and reactionary segments of large capital; in addition also to the a serious threat to Egyptian national security, represented in takeover by Muslim Brotherhood to governing the country, starting the implementation of the empowerment and control scheme on state joints to plunder the wealth of the country, conspiracy to hijack the revolution and the nation for the benefit of a scheme led by the United States and implemented under the auspices of Qatar and Turkey, in order to break up the national territory and threaten entity and unity of the Egyptian state, by dumping it in the abyss sectarian rivalry and religious conflict to turn into two models of Iraq and Syria, in order to ensure full security for Israel and protect the interests of the United States and global imperialism in the region, through dismantling of Arab countries and destruction of national armies that cast a potential threat to Israel.

The Deal-Plot which was made to abort the January 25 revolution was based on enthronement of the Muslim Brotherhood as rulers of the largest Arab country and empowering them politically in the region in exchange for manipulating them to serve American-Zionist schemes and their integration into capitalist globalization policies and the continuing neoliberal approach associated with world monopolies. Muslim Brotherhood has been ready for this, as it was they who secured the unprecedented Armistice Agreement between Hamas and Israel. They kept silent on Obama's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel and fell dumb about Zionist violations of Al-Aqsa Mosque after they deceived the masses with their slogans "Khyber Khyber O Jews," and "To Jerusalem we go Millions of Martyrs." The most dangerous is what has been exposed of their willingness to compromise the national territory and conspiring with Israel and the United States to implement the Zionist project to the nation swing through resettlement of Palestinians in Sinai, as well as agreeing to grant Halayib and Shalateen to Sudan, and abandonment of national sovereignty in the suspicious project of Suez Canal region, accelerate the agreement with the International Monetary Fund and promulgate The (Islamic) Bond Law.

One of the objectives of imperialist projects of in the Middle East is the establishment of states on religious grounds, to serve mainly Zionist plan to declare Israel a Jewish state for all Jews in the world. This is in addition to the important results entailing these religious countries inevitably caught up in sectarian conflict. So, it became strategically required to divide and fragment the Arab countries and bring the Sunni-Shiite conflict, Muslim-Christian conflict and Muslim-Jewish conflict to replace Arab-Israeli national liberation conflict and also replace the social class struggle among the peoples of Arab countries and authoritarian regimes allied with imperialist global and international monopolies.

We have seen clear and visible signs in Egypt after the rule of Muslim Brotherhood in a series of attacks on churches as well as the attack on St. Mark's Cathedral for the first time in history since the introduction of Islam into Egypt, also the brutal attack on the Shiites in the village of "Abu Nomros", killing and dragging four of them in a precedent first of its kind; and Declaration of Jihad in the stadium, calling for the supply of mercenary terrorists to the war in Syria, as well as proliferation of groups of "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice", and the emergence of types of lynch and suspension of bodies on light poles. If we add to this the continuing series of torture in sit-ins in Rabea and Nahda at the hands of militias, the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies, we find ourselves in front an outlawed barbaric savage scenario without the right to differ. The aim so became that we terminate ourselves by ourselves, and that our punishment goes to our bodies not to the real enemies.

Thus we were destined to get to this miserable fate, but awareness, vigilance and greatness of the Egyptian people saved Egypt and spoiled all these plots. So, the genius Tamarrod campaign was able to mobilize all tributaries of popular rejection of the rule of Muslim Brotherhood through a campaign of signatures exceeding 22 million people signing in less than two months. These were collected by all sects, classes and categories of the Egyptian people, even within state institutions and bodies in all governorates of Egypt. This was followed by the great exit of the Egyptian people on June 30, with more than 30 million citizens rallying in all governorates of Egypt. The Egyptian armed forces siding with the people's will, adopted the people's demands and announced the roadmap to drop the Brotherhood regime and their allies of forces of religious right. This put the United States and the European Union in a real crisis. This was the first time the Egyptian armed forces run that contrary to American will since more than 40 years. It was also the first time that the Egyptian people of all sects and political forces and institutions unite to correct the revolution path and begin to develop a civilian and democratic constitution for the country to exit from dependency and groveling.

Perhaps this is what explains the hectic movement and shuttle flights of Ashton and Barnes and other officials to Egypt, in a way considered a blatant interference in its internal affairs through the practice of constant pressure to release the deposed president who is accused in cases of foreign contacts affecting the state's national security. This was also in order not to dissolve the armed sit-ins and terrorist outposts in Rabea and Nahda with the aim of ensuring continuation of Muslim Brotherhood in Egyptian political life, maintaining the organization and continuing religious extremist right-wing parties to continue the plot of deconstruction, fragmentation and extortion of the new Egyptian leadership, trying to confuse and disrupt the map of future to abort the June 30 revolution.

We regard the Egyptian people's revolution on June 30 as correcting the path of the January 25 revolution and an extension of all phases of the national democratic revolution that began with the Orabi Revolution in 1881 and continued through the 1919 revolution and the revolution in 1952...

The June 30 revolution came to accomplish the historical tasks of this unfinished revolution which are overdue, especially after the wave of overall reactionary apostasy that swept Egypt and the region since the mid-seventies and lasted for more than 30 years and what happened during it of collapse of the Arab liberation movement as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of current religious fascist religious rightist trend under authoritarian regimes perched on the breath of our peoples for decades.

The contradiction in Egypt now is not just a contradiction between the forces of political opposition and a despotic reactionary group that came to power and failed governance of the country, but rather the contrast is reflected deeper among the majority of the masses of the Egyptian people and their national and democratic political forces on the one hand and the forces of the fascist religious right led by Muslim Brotherhood which represent the greatest threat to the future of the nation and the revolution on the other.

Therefore, the January revolution and its second wave in June is seeking to complete the national independence from all forms of dependency and complying with US and imperialist countries. This would not be achieved without economic, social and cultural comprehensive development basically self-reliant. On the other hand it is a democratic revolution establishing a democratic civil state on the basis of a Constitution protecting freedoms and political economic, social and cultural rights of citizens and ensuring popular control and participation as well as freedom to form political parties, trade unions and associations with an emphasis on the separating religion from politics and prohibition of religious parties. This revolution, most importantly, has its social aspect which is based on redistribution income and wealth in the society in the interest of the majority of the toiling masses, protecting the rights of the poor and vulnerable groups in the society and enabling workers and peasants to form their trade unions to ensure the revolution continuation in achieving its goals and move them to a higher stage in the path of social revolution for the benefit of the working classes.

Our analysis of the nature of contradiction in present moment and the nature of the basic tasks of June 30 Revolution as an important decisive stage of the stages of national democratic revolution moves us to the need to put a correct political map of alliances in the current stage. We see the need for continued alliance of all national democratic forces to face the danger of religious fascism and therefore the need to maintain the National Salvation Front and its core of political parties and trends (liberal, national and leftist), responding to attempts to solve or weaken this front on the pretext of ending its mission, which will be realized only after success in eliminating the risk of fascist forces, with continued emphasis on the fact that alliance of socialist and progressive forces and the unity of their struggle is the guarantee for the continuation of this wide front and stopping the hesitance of all forces that do not want to confront the rule of Muslim Brotherhood. Again the unity of youth revolutionary movements and co-ordinations and avoiding escalation of any internal contradictions among them is a very important issue to ensure a correct compass during the transition period with the need to involve young people effectively in judgment institutions to be trained to take over basic responsibilities in the next phase.

We must evaluate what happened on June 30 objectively and correctly, rejecting any tendentious positions aiming at distorting the historic achievement of the Egyptian people of forces of counter-revolution represented by Muslim Brotherhood and their allies from the forces of fascist religious right at home and their allies abroad of imperialist countries in the United States and Europe. These are the ones that hastened to describe what happened as a "military coup"... If this is normal from enemies of the revolution and it is understandable when put by many forces and movements that hold the stick from the middle to achieve their own narrow interests and selfish objectives. Yet it is curious that they share the same view with some forces that claim revolutionary leftist based on categories of rigid historical dogmas, reserved molds and fixed clichés which they reiterate on the military, the military rule and military coups without analyzing the concrete reality and verification of real-life facts and actual practices on the ground, which emphasizes that what happened was a popular revolution with which the Egyptian army sided. We should also analyze the historical attitudes of the Egyptian army instead of arbitrary application of rigid texts on the ground. In some moments we should learn from the lessons and experiences provided by our Egyptian people by their sound nature and revolutionary sense. Most dangerous is that this wrong position distorts attention from the main enemy of the popular masses at the present moment, which is the risk of the fascist religious right and their terrorist schemes in Sinai and deployment of supporters in desperate serious attempts to attack the revolution of the Egyptian people and circumvent their will to overthrow the rule of Muslim Brotherhood and correct the course of the revolution and put a new constitution and take urgent social procedures.

On the other hand we also have to stand firmly in the face of symbols of Mubarak regime supporters and their media organs who want to write off the January revolution out of history and distort it in order to justify the sins of Mubarak regime and evade their responsibility thereof and load Brotherhood with all cons of the previous stage. We assure had it not been for the January 2011 revolution, the people would not have succeeded in June 30 Revolution and would not be able to reveal the crimes of the obscurantist power trading in religion. Therefore, we reiterate our emphasis that June 30 revolution is the second deeper and more mature wave of the January 25 revolution. It is a correction of its track. Toppling the rule of Muslim Brotherhood does not mean never to return to the practices and crimes of Mubarak regime. The revolution of June 30 shall complete what the January 25 revolution failed to accomplish and struggle to sweep all disadvantages of Mubarak regime and that of Muslim Brotherhood. It is a confirmation that we want to drop the core of these regimes and demolish the foundations upon which they were established and building a new system to achieve the goals and aspirations of our people and what it requires of radical change in policies, practices and institutions to lay the foundations for new situations based on enlightened liberation national culture freeing the people from all aspects of impoverishment, exploitation, backwardness, ignorance and extremism and ending discrimination on the basis of religion, gender or ethnicity.

2. Our Position of the Transitional Phase and its Entitlements

We believe that the transitional phase and the Declaration of a map of the future, despite our reservations on some aspects as well as on the key points in the recent constitutional declaration, but we emphasize that it lays the foundation for a new era and is based on the revolutionary legitimacy of millions of revolution of the Egyptian people on June 30. If you are the legitimate main objective revolutionary overthrow the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies, and at the same time working to build a new system completed to achieve the national democratic objectives of January Revolution.

Accordingly, we must not lose sight of the fact that the struggle for terminating the Brotherhood regime and remnants of Mubarak regime is the main task of this revolutionary legitimacy besides the quest for formation of an alternative regime and concrete actions to install and expand the social basis of the revolution. It must be understood also that the government, which was formed on the basis of this revolutionary legitimacy must loyal first to the demands of the popular will that took to the streets on June 30 and 26 July and its primary role is to use all the means to implement this will and offset any obstacles before its achievement. Our opinion is that the policies of transitional government are still far from the spirit of this revolutionary legitimacy. It still has that traditional slow rhythm as if it came in normal conditions. This is reflected also in clear positions of indecisiveness and inaction in the face of the forces of terror and extremism. Some senior officials in the institutions of the transitional authority speak about national reconciliation and the need to integrate Muslim Brotherhood in the political process without distinguishing between murderer terrorist cadres and leaders of Muslim Brotherhood and their normal fans, in a manner incompatible with the revolutionary legitimacy and contradicting the will of the people. We emphasize the need to correct these situations quickly because to continue in this situation, hesitation and slowdown would lead to erosion and weakening of revolution and give chance to its opponents and enemies to gradually regain their balance. This would not be permitted by the Egyptian people and their revolutionary youth political forces which must remain present in the fields and squares of revolution monitoring the government performance to guarantee the execution of their revolutionary will. On the other hand, there must be a strong clear expression from the transitional authority for the independence of Egyptian decision and respect for national sovereignty being free from dependency on America and starting to diversify arm sources and go to other world conglomerates in order to bring balance in our international relations in a way helping protect our revolution in the next phase.

We must continue strictly in the face of terrorism and resolving armed sit-ins in Rabea and Nahda, because the delay in facing these terrorist outposts' results shall have much larger losses than the rapid resolving in the framework of the law. We agree with the forces demanding dissolving Muslim Brotherhood as an legitimate group, and the need to confront terrorism, religious extremism and obscurantist thought and policies of discrimination against women and Copts comprehensively from the security, political, cultural and media aspects and within each of the state institutions, so as to ensure success in building a modern democratic civil state and build a national democratic regime to achieve the goals and aspirations of the Egyptian people.

The decision to eradicate these terrorist outposts so-called "sit-ins" requires the people's surrounding the new power, which was assured clearly initially in the twenty-sixth of July. Yet, this will not be final and conclusive unless this authority shows decisiveness and clarity in the implementation of law on the ground, significant assertiveness in maintaining security and regularity of services, and alleviating the suffering of the toilers of the Egyptian people in the form of concrete fair action directly: such as sanctioning the law of minimum and maximum wage, and the maximum not to exceed 15 times the minimum, strict control on prices, exempting small and medium farmers of their accumulated debts, reinstating temporary employment, restoration and operation of companies owned by the public sector, with judicial verdicts issued for their return .. etc. of the possible actions to ensure that the vast majority of the Egyptian people feel that the revolution they have made was for their favor so they give it back more support.

We emphasize the necessity to rewrite the Constitution completely without grafting, revision or amendment. Foremost among this comes the tasks of the transitional phase. The Brotherhood-Salafi Constitution of 2012 is distorted, sectarian and against personal and public freedoms, freedom of thought and expression, the rights of women and children and the rights of workers, peasants and laborers. In the new constitution must Article II of the 1971 Constitution must return. It stipulates that the principles of Islamic Sharia are the main source of legislation without any increase or addition. Also must be stipulated the need not to form parties on a religious basis, and the cancellation of all existing parties not meeting these conditions as well as emphasizing separation of religion from politics. It also has to be in a clear and explicit text to keep the public and cooperative ownership being protected by the necessary constitutional stipulations. The people's right to choose the path of their economic and social development must be respected and no stipulation to the perpetuation of the capitalist system or any other system in the Constitution. We see the need for stipulating effective means of popular control over the institutions of the executive authority and activating the role of popular participation, ensuring that the laws do not transgress over constitutional rights and freedoms. Finally, the economic and social rights of the citizens must be emphasized clearly and be binding to the State and in particular the right to health, education, employment, housing and protection of the rights of workers and peasants, as producers of wealth and goods throughout the country.

3. Uniting the efforts of the forces of the left

All of these challenges, actions and events required for the next stage, especially the transition period necessitate effective presence and unified efforts of the Egyptian leftist forces in the face of fascist right-wing forces, as well as in the face of capitalist rightists in general. The parties and forces of the left will have no ability to influence and affect without unity and cohesion. We emphasize the need to accelerate the pace of unity and the forma a unified leadership of the socialist parties as the first necessary and urgent step required in the current circumstances. Any delay in the formation of this leadership will have serious consequences not only for the future of leftist forces, but also on the future of the Egyptian revolution.

Long live the Great Egyptian People's Revolution

Long Live both Revolutions: January 25 and June 30!

August 3, 2013                                   The Central Committee - the Egyptian Communist Party

August Socialist Voice

August issue available at http://www.communistpartyofireland.ie/sv/index.html

KKE Programme

Programme of the KKE passed at its 19th Congress http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2013/2013-02-programme/index.html 

Anti communism alive and well within EU

The concurrence of the bourgeoisie and the opportunists during the despicable ceremony where the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz awarded “prize Sakharov” to Guillermo Fariñas, who as it has been proven has multifaceted connections with the USA, the EU the bourgeois governments of its member-states and business groups, is a part of the escalation of the anticommunist campaign of the EU against the socialist Cuba.

The Presidents and the MPS of the political groups of the European Parliament saluted with their presence the anticommunist delirium of Martin Schulz against the people of Cuba: the People’s Party, the Social democrats, the Liberals, the Greens, the Conservative and Reformists and Gabi Zimmer the president of GUE/NGL, cadre of the German Party “Die Linke” which is an ally of SYRIZA and a basic component of the opportunist European Left Party who took part in this contemptible ceremony.

The EP delegation of the KKE denounced this despicable ceremony which was organized by the political personnel of the monopolies in the European Parliament, the awarding of “Prize Sakharov” to the Guillermo Fariñas who expresses the despicable anticommunist campaign of the EU against the socialist Cuba and the achievements of its people.

It also condemned the stance of Gabi Zimmer, president of GUE/NGL, because it is in complete contrast with the unanimous position of the group not to participate in the ceremony for the award of prize “Sakharov” to Guillermo Fariñas.

This stance of Gabi Zimmer, president of GUE/NGL is a continuation of the concurrence of the bourgeois forces with the opportunists in the European Parliament and other organs of the EU that reveals once again that opportunism is an enemy for the labour-people’s movement.

The Delegation of the KKE in the European Parliament expresses its internationalist solidarity with the Cuban people and its support for their struggle against the EU, the imperialist intestate union of capital, and the USA, for the defense of the achievements of the people of Cuba, the undeniable right of the peoples to decide for their life and future.

Murdering of three militants of the Communist Party of Mexico

Today AUGUST 5, the lifeless bodies of Raymundo Velazquez Flores, Secretary General of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Mexico in the state of Guerrero, Samuel Vargas Ramirez, member of the Regional Committee of the PCM in the same entity and the partner Miguel; all of them leaders of the Revolutionary League of Peasants of the South - Emiliano Zapata (Larsez), were found.

The bodies of our comrades were found with gunshot wounds and signs of torture on the banks of the river of the Municipality of Coyuca de Benítez, near them the car in which they were travelling, a white Tsuru without plates with lettering of the Independent Transport Workers Coordination of the State of Guerrero (Cetig), was found charred.

Our comrades went out around 6 p.m. from Cuernavaca, Morelos, on Saturday August 3 after a meeting of the National Political Committee of the Revolutionary Left Front (FIR), in the direction of Coyuca de Benitez. Communication with them was lost after they left comrade Tomasa Vázquez Juarez in her home in that municipality.

Our comrades had to attend a meeting with peasants from Larsez on Sunday August 4 in Chilpancingo, so obviously they were intercepted on their way and subsequently were killed in a cowardly manner.

The Communist Party of Mexico through its Political Bureau, hold responsible the Federal Government of Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI, the State Government of Angel Aguirre Rivero of the PRD and the municipal government of Ramiro Ávila Morales of the murdering of our comrades.

As we know in the state of Guerrero there are no guarantees for the political action of the communists, the revolutionaries and the social fighters. This is a direct attack from all three levels of government against the Communist Party of Mexico. Our Communist Party of Mexico and all its structures will act accordingly and swear that the murdering of our comrades will not go unpunished; they will remain in our memory as revolutionaries who worked tirelessly for the emancipation of the working class.

Our comrades, modest communists, without poses, always had in their brains the idea of the socialist revolution. Our first commitment with their exemplary lives is to stop what the government is looking for: that LARSEZ and the CPM turn headless and interrupt their organizational process in the combative and revolutionary state of Guerrero. The struggle continues, and with their example it will become stronger.

Finally, our militancy expresses its deepest condolences to the families of our comrades.

Raymundo Velázquez Flores

Samuel Vargas Ramírez

“Present!”

“Because the color of blood will never be forgotten!, The massacred will be avenged!,  Suited in olive-green, politically alive!, They have not died, they have not died!, Comrades you have not died!, Your deaths will be avenged!, And who shall take revenge?, The organized people!, And how?, Struggling!, Then struggle, struggle, struggle!, Do not stop the struggle for a worker’s, peasant’s and peoples power!”

“Workers of the world, Unite!”

Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Mexico

Central Council of the Communist Youth League

Poverty amidst untold wealth

Next time you hear that we “can’t afford” decent pay, working conditions and pensions for those who actually make the wheels turn round, here are a few facts to consider. In 2011, Canadian CEOs made $7.7 million on average, or 171 times more than the median Canadian wage of $45,448, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. In the Globe and Mail’s new listing of Canada’s top 100 CEOs, Canadian Pacific Railway boss Mark Harrison was number one, taking home $49,151,065 for the year. The remaining top 20 on the Globe’s list all topped $10 million. For example, Gordon Nixon, the CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada, raked in $13.7 million. Yes, that’s the same Royal Bank which took advantage of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to replace 45 employees in its Securities division, until RBC’s insatiable greed was inconveniently exposed to the public.

And the greed‑fest is getting uglier. The Globe writes about “a fevered pace of CEO turnover… as firms pay millions in severance to former executives while also shelling out to attract new leaders”. No wonder that a Pew Research Centre study finds that 76 per cent of Canadians think income inequality is worsening. Overall, 74 per cent of people polled in the developed capitalist countries said the economic system favours the wealthy and is unfair to most people.

We live under a system which functions very well indeed for the top sliver of the 1%. But for those on the bottom of the heap ‑ minimum wage workers bringing home $15,000 a year, social assistance recipients starving on less than $8,000 a year, unemployed students graduating with massive debt loads ‑ the capitalist system is a life sentence of poverty in the midst of staggering wealth. Makes the idea of a socialist Canada sound pretty good, doesn’t it?

http://www.parti-communiste.ca/?p=2596 

Call for class collaboration - sound familiar?

Last week the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) was in discussions with the government and Business Council of Australia (BCA) around Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s proposed new productivity package. All three parties have called for higher productivity with a return to the approach adopted by the Hawke/Keating government in the 1980s, under the Prices and Incomes Accord between the ACTU and government.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had outlined the package to the National Press Club on July 11, in a speech titled: “The Australian Economy in Transition: Building a New National Competitiveness Agenda.” The main thrust of this agenda is a package of reforms to boost productivity and international competitiveness to be delivered by a co-operative trade union movement.

Under the 1980s’ Accord the trade union movement agreed to co-operate with employers, restrain wages and make no extra claims on employers. In return the government promised certain reforms, including Medibank, tax indexation, a (toothless) Price Surveillance Authority and the regular indexation of wages in line with price rises.

The theory was: wage restraint would result in higher profits, leading to new investments followed by the creation of more jobs. In practice, real wages fell and profits rose, while much of the new investment went into job-replacing technology or offshore.

Full wage indexation did not last and trade unions began the process of trading off working conditions in return for wage rises – the aim being to fund wage rises out of productivity increases. In fact employers often increased profits, following reductions in manning levels, longer working hours, loss of paid breaks and new enterprise “flexibility” measures.

While the unions co-operated, the employers never let up in their pursuit of maximising profits and drawing every extra drop of blood out of workers.

While the trade unions were pursuing “class peace”, Labor was able to push through a number of highly regressive (for workers) reforms – the OECD and IMF’s structural adjustment program of privatisation, financial deregulation, trade liberalisation (winding back tariffs) and competition policy.

The trade union movement sacrificed its independence, its right to pursue its own demands in the interests of workers. In fact, it quietly dropped its opposition to privatisation, pursuit of a 35-hour week and a number of other policy positions.

“That these changes [economic – Ed] took place in Australia in the 1980s without damaging social cohesion must be attributed to the partnership of a Labor government and working Australians,” ACTU president Ged Kearney noted, in a speech to a symposium on “The relevance of the Accord for unions today” at Macquarie University on May 31.

“It is impossible to envisage the same social stability during such a period of significant economic restructuring under a Liberal Government,” Kearney said.

“The difference was the Accord, and the important role that unions played in mitigating the impact of reforms by demanding a social trade-off for both wage restraint and continued cooperation with massive restructuring of the trade and financial system.”

Role of Accord

She is correct. The Accord was the vehicle by which the ALP delivered a compliant trade union movement during a period of significant changes that would have previously been strongly resisted by organised labour.

Kearney also referred to the sacrifices that workers made. “We frequently hear business leaders and their cheerleaders in the media calling for a return to the Accord, but where is their willingness to compromise in the same way that the labour movement did in the 1980s?

“When are they ever prepared to put aside their self-interest for the national interest? The moment any reform is floated – whether it be a resource rent levy or a price on carbon – they are quick off the mark to oppose it if it poses even the slightest threat to their bloated profits.”

Of course, the answer to that question is never. And they never will. After all they are capitalists!

Ged notes: “There were unintended consequences from that period that we are grappling with today: the growth of precarious work, skyrocketing executive salaries, the spread of sham business practices grew and insufficient attention paid to inequality, especially at the top end.”

She also acknowledges that, “Wage restraint from 1983 to 1990 meant unions held back from doing their core work of bargaining with employers for better wages and conditions, and some forgot how to organise and are still paying the price.”

Suppression of class consciousness

That is correct. But there were other serious outcomes, in particular, the dumbing down of class consciousness and the acceptance of the idea that gains could be won through sitting around a table with employers or in a court, without struggle. The Accord promoted the idea that workers and companies have common economic interests, that boosting profits somehow helps workers. Whereas every extra dollar in profits is a dollar less in wages and vice versa. The economic interests of labour and capital are diametrically opposed.

A new generation of trade union officials grew up having never blown the whistle on a job instead believing the way forward was co-operation with the boss. As Kearney correctly points out, “some forgot how to organise and are still paying the price.”

Despite recognising some of the negative outcomes of the Accord years of co-operation and wage restraint, Kearney still calls for a return to the Accord ideology. “We need tripartite dialogue and agreement in all major sectors of the economy with unions and employers talking to each other and working through the issues, with government at the table as necessary.

“The business community – and the Coalition – must get over the attitude of looking at every significant national reform proposal through the filter of their own self-interest. It needs to constructively engage rather than blocking at every step.”

She fails to acknowledge that employers will never give up their interests, never stop waging the class struggle. Trade unions can co-operate with employers and make as many sacrifices as they wish, but employers will never, for one moment, reciprocate if it hurts their profits.

In fact, the experience during the Accord years was that when workers made sacrifices employers demanded more blood.

New transition period

Rudd, in presenting his new Productivity Package to the National Press Club, refers to an Australia in transition. Big economic and social changes lie ahead.

To understand the nature of these changes – the new demands of big business – look no further than Greece, Spain or Portugal and the austerity programs there.

There is a new drive by transnational capital for a massive take-back of past gains by the working class in industrialised countries and making their businesses more internationally competitive. This includes dismantling the welfare state, corporate tax cuts, slashing wages, casualising workforces, winding back the public sector, deregulating labour markets, and extending the powers and reach of monopoly capital.

The aim of Rudd’s call for a return to class collaboration by the trade union movement is to offer employers something that the Liberals cannot: a compliant, co-operative union movement during another period of radical economic change which is not in the interests of workers.

The same policies delivered by the Liberals would be met with strong resistance by the labour movement, a point made by Kearney in relation to the 1980s. Workers, through their trade unions, are being called upon to make further sacrifices through a revamped Accord process.

If we are to halt the neo-liberal agenda of big business and defend past gains and make future gains for working people, we need a strong, united, militant trade union movement with broad community support. Trade union independence is vital, with unions free to determine their own policies, through their own democratic structures, in the interests of their members and the wider community.

http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2013/1604/08-rudd-plays.html

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