Message from the Communist Party of Greece

Recently, demonstrations have been held in many countries across the world under the "umbrella" of slogans of "solidarity with Greece" and "we are all Greeks". Working class and popular solidarity are powerful weapons in the struggle of the peoples. But the workers must deal with any attempt to mislead them.

Which Greece needs solidarity? The Greece of the capitalists, who seek to acquire new loans from the EU and the IMF in order to strengthen the profitability of their capital, to reinforce their position against the people, or the Greece of the working class and the other popular strata, who are suffering due to the consequences of the capitalist crisis, for which they bear no responsibility?

In many of these events this issue remained unclear. And this is the case because there is an effort by certain forces (mainly of social-democracy, the opportunists of the Party of the European Left and the "Greens") to use vaguely the "solidarity with the Greek people" to whitewash their support which they had provided in the past to the Maastricht Treaty, and the other Euro-treaties, to the EU of capital itself, which is reactionary and in no way can be "democratised", as they are even now claiming.

We lived better under socialism

Over the seven decades of its existence, and despite having to spend so much time preparing, fighting, and recovering from wars, Soviet socialism managed to create one of the great achievements of human history: a mass industrial society that eliminated most of the inequalities of wealth, income, education and opportunity that plagued what preceded it, what came after it, and what competed with it; a society in which health care and education through university were free (and university students received living stipends); where rent, utilities and public transportation were subsidized, along with books, periodicals and cultural events; where inflation was eliminated, pensions were generous, and child care was subsidized.

Read the full article on 21stCenturymanifesto

The Countdown to Gulf War III

As tensions heighten in Persia, the threat of a Western attack upon Iran inches ever closer. Jane Green considers the background to the situation

Taken from the Morning Star

With 10 days of Iranian naval exercises having just been completed, including the testing of long-range ballistic missiles, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi - naval commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) - has announced further activities next month.

Fadavi has said that the drill in February will be "different compared to previous exercises held by the IRGC."

The exercises - coupled with the warning that Iran could close the strait of Hormuz, the narrowest point in the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes - has now encouraged the US and Israel to announce that they are to carry out extensive joint manoeuvres in the region.

The US and Britain have said they will act to keep the shipping lanes open.

DECLARATION OF 19 EUROPEAN COMMUNIST YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS 20 YEARS AFTER THE COUNTERREVOLUTION

Our future is the new world, Communism

The Communist Youth Organizations that sign the following announcement call upon the youth of Europe, and of the whole world, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the dissolution of the USSR and the overthrow of socialism.

This anniversary, from the scope of the bourgeois governments and parties, from the scope of the forces of capital, is a chance to slander socialism and its contribution, to project the capitalist “eternity” and “welfare”. These are the ones that with their applied politics have taken back all the youth’s rights; they have made dozens of imperialist wars and are planning even more; they have condemned us in poverty and unemployment; they penalize communist ideology.

From our scope, the scope of the workers, of the peoples and the youth of the world, this anniversary is a chance to remember and highlight the achievements of socialism, its contribution to humanity; a chance to draw significant conclusions of the defeat in the years 1989-1991.

We address to the young people, to learn and know the truth about socialism; To tell them that our future is the new world, Socialism-Communism.

From the KKE

A video short produced by the Greek Communist Party which highlights the struggle through 2011 against EU diktat and a government of traitors

 

The National Question

There has been some (very isolated) criticism of those on the left who take an anti EU position. Much of it rests on the opinion that to stand against the European project results in some sort of petty nationalist attitude. But to ignore the "national question" is a dangerous and immature position to take.

The following article appeared in the September/October 2011 edition of Challenge - the magazine of the YCL. You can read more about the CPB's position on Europe in this article.

Britishness – An Impossible Concept?

Britishness, like any concept of nation, is contested, socially and politically constructed, historically variable and both personal and public.

International Solidarity

Nicaraguan workers express their solidarity with the workers of Great Britan as they prepare for strikes on the 30th of November