Showing posts with label Capitalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Capitalism. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Communists in Vienna: "We are not paying for your crisis!"

“We are not paying for your crisis”. Under this campaign slogan, the Party of Labour of Austria (PdA) organized on Saturday 3 October a political rally at the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce at Wiedener Hauptstrasse in Vienna. In the coming weeks and months the party will intervene with a campaign which, among others, will focus on the collective bargaining and will try to expose the treacherous role of the social democratic labor aristocracy.

Speeches at the PdA rally were delivered by Tibor Zenker, the party's chairman, as well as Raffael Schöberl, former chairman of the Communist Youth of Austria (KJÖ). 

Monday, July 19, 2021

Europe floods: The tragic results of capitalist development

Europe's death toll from catastrophic flooding rose to at least 199 on Monday with hard-hit west Germany and Belgium reeling from the devastation. Nearly 300 people remain unaccounted for in Germany and Belgium, officials announced. 

There are at least 163 dead in Germany, according to authorities. The hardest-hit areas in Germany are Rhineland-Palatinate, where 117 have been killed in the flooding and in North Rhine-Westphalia, where at least 46 people died and 138 remain unaccounted for, the Koblenz Police and the German Ministry of Interior said.

Saturday, May 8, 2021

COVID Vaccines: Communist Parties say "No" to patents

On the issue of the patent for the COVID-19 vaccines, more than 60 Communist and Workers' Parties have issued the following statement:

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a great tragedy for more than a year now. In this period, in many countries, millions of workers have caught the disease, losing their health, their jobs or even their lives. On the other hand, in the same time frame, some companies that have sold the essential needs food, hygienic materials, masks and finally, vaccines, as commodities, have become among the wealthiest in the world. The capitalist class has turned the pandemic into an opportunity for greater exploitation of workers in order to make more profits. 

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Communist Party of Britain: The European Super League is an assault on the game of the working class

With the following comment, posted on its social media accounts under the title "Listen to fans and players", the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) denounces the "European Super League" formed exclusively by major football clubs. 

The comment reads:

"The Super League proposal is an attempt by the wealthy clubs to establish a perpetual monopoly and to resolve their debt issues: Barcelona are £1bn in debt and in financial crisis. Real Madrid could not afford one big signing last summer, Juventus have to find around £100m by the end of June. Internazionale’s owners sought emergency funding in February.

Friday, April 9, 2021

Forbes list of wealthiest parasites in times of pandemic

While billions of people around the world have been affected, on way or another, by the Coronavirus pandemic, capitalists are becoming richer. While the world's working class is suffering from increasing exploitation, mass layoffs, decline in living standards and lockdowns, the big capital enjoys more and more profits. The 2021 Forbes list of billionaires is quite revealing about the situation:

“The number of billionaires on Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest exploded to an unprecedented 2,755 660 more than a year ago. Of those, a record high 493 were new to the list roughly one every 17 hours.

Thursday, March 18, 2021

150 years since the Paris Commune — Abstract from Karl Marx's "The Civil War in France"

Today, 18 March 2021, marks the 150th anniversary of the heroic Paris Commune, the first time in the history of mankind when the state power passed, albeit for a short time, into the hands of the proletariat, the most pioneering and only revolutionary class of capitalist society. 

The Commune founded by the workers of Paris lived for only 72 days. However its historic importance was enormous. Nothing after the Paris Commune would be the same for the working class, nor for the bourgeoisie which, from then on, would be forced to live with the nightmare of a revolution overthrowing its dominance.

On the occasion of the 150 years since the Commune de Paris, we publish two chapters from Karl Marx's work "The Civil War in France" (1871) which refer to the historical events of the then period. 

Monday, March 15, 2021

Young Communist League of Britain (YCL): Statement on the murder of Sarah Everard and violence against women

The Young Communist League of Britain (YCL) issued a statement in response to the tragic and reprehensible abduction and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard by a police officer. 
 
The statement reads:

The news this week that Wayne Couzens currently serving as a Metropolitan Police Officer, has been arrested and charged in connection with the murder of Sarah Everard in London, is a horrific demonstration of the persistent levels of gendered violence against women and girls in Britain and the seismic shifts that must be fought for and won to achieve women’s liberation and equality.

Sunday, March 7, 2021

International Women's Day 2021 — Statement by the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)

On the occasion of the 2021 International Women's Day on March 8th, the Secretariat of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) issued the following statement:

Women’s equal rights in health and safety at work and in society

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), the oldest trade union international representing 105 million workers in 133 countries on the five continents, offers a warm internationalist greeting to the working woman, the female trade unionist, the female militant of each country and continent on this International Working Women’s Day, March 8, 2021.

Friday, February 26, 2021

“Since the time of Perestroika we have been freezing": 85-year-old Russian woman lived without heating for 30 years

Her name is Vera Pavlova and she is 85 years old. She survived the Siege of Leningrad in 1942, overpassing the difficulties of the Second World War, but the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union reserved a devastating surprise for her: She lived without heating for 30 years!

Pavlova's apartment is on a five-story building which stands on the shore of the bay next to a Soviet shipyard in Feodosia, Crimea. After the victory of the counterrevolution in the beginning of 1990s, the plant and the boiler house that provided heating to the workers' houses, was closed. 

Thursday, February 18, 2021

A YEAR OF CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC — JOINT STATEMENT BY COMMUNIST AND WORKERS' PARTIES

A year after the outbreak of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Communist and Workers' Parties from all over the world issued a statement assessing the current situation and pledge to continue the struggle for public, free and universal healthcare services, as well as for protection of the workers-people's democratic rights. 
 
The statement, among others, underline the fact that the pandemic has highlighted the necessity of Socialism which can put the contemporary scientific and technological potential at the service of the people's needs. 

The full statement is as follows:

Monday, February 1, 2021

Communist Party of Turkey: The Coronavirus pandemic is yet another evidence of the historical collapse of capitalism

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) has released a political report focusing on COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Turkey's working class, examining the policies of Tayyip Erdogan's government.

"The coronavirus pandemic, which has affected the whole world since the first months of last year, not only showed once again how devastating capitalism is as a social system but also showed the extent of its desperation. From this point of view, the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus cannot be seen as a health problem alone,” the report said. 

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

KKE: Capitalism is the actual and visible virus!

Coronavirus vaccine supply has become a critical issue as nations seek to stem high infection rates. Last week, AstraZeneca told the EU it was falling behind on its supply target because of production problems. U.S. pharmaceutical Pfizer/Biontech proceeded to temporary cut deliveries while cases in many European countries surge. 
 
From its side, the European Union warned it will tighten exports of Covid vaccines produced in the bloc. Competitions, delays, exports' restrictions, business profits are putting people's health into risk. 

Friday, January 15, 2021

German Communist Party: Capitalist economic crisis and the “Coronavirus” crisis

By the German Communist Party (DKP)

What is often referred to by the ruling media as the “coronavirus crisis” is in fact, regardless of the pandemic, the world’s deepest economic crisis for  at least one hundred years.

It is a cyclical crisis of overproduction combined with structural crises in various economic sectors, with the coronavirus pandemic and related government action adding a special feature to this crisis. 

Monday, January 11, 2021

It's not just Trump. IT'S CAPITALISM, STUPID!

 By Nikos Mottas.

The images of chaos from Washington DC with the pro-Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol are the mirror of a democracy in advanced state of decay. For decades, the facade of the much-celebrated “American Dream” and the artificial prosperity of the most powerful economy in the world was hiding the accumulated rottenness of an entire system.

The history of American Democracy, especially in the 20th century, is full of class exploitation, social and racial violence, imperialist interventions and wars, cultural values based on social Darwinism and the deification of money. Several generations of Americans were raised under the belief that there is no alternative to Capitalism, that Communism is a menace and the U.S. is the “guardian of the free world”.

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Capitalist Crisis in Spain: Accelerated by the Pandemic and managed by Social Democracy

By the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE)

 
Spain is living in 2020 the worst capitalist crisis of 121 its history. The economy is shrinking on double-digit figures; there are millions of unemployed workers, and dozens of thousands of victims dead because of the pandemic.

A superficial glance could determine that the causes of the current crisis are completely due to the effects of the pandemic and the paralysis of economy during confinement. However, the analysis we had made before the pandemic were already predicting the looming of a capitalist crisis, being the Coronavirus actually a catalyst, rather than the cause of it. One that affects the capitalist relationships worldwide and not only its national expressions.

Monday, January 4, 2021

Is the Covid vaccine a "triumph of capitalism"?

 By Nikos Mottas.

One of the many myths that have been spread by bourgeois media during this period is that the Covid-19 vaccine consists a “victory” or a “triumph” of capitalism. In fact, they are trying to convince us that the – without doubt significant - progress made by large biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the fight against Coronavirus is an achievement of the capitalist system. 

This is simply not true. 

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Capitalism is the virus, Socialism is the vaccine!

By Nikos Mottas.

The 2008 global capitalist economic crisis, the effects of which are still visible today, was a tremendous opportunity for the big capitalists to increase their wealth. During a period of ten years, from 2008 to 2018, the number of billionaires was doubled, like their profits. It has been proved that the crisis generates more capitalists.

The Coronavirus pandemic, which has plagued the world since the beginning of 2020, comes to confirm that capitalist barbarity “feeds” from the people's death, poverty, impoverishment and exploitation. The recent report by Forbes is revealing: 

Monday, December 21, 2020

Reaganomics Exposed: Keeping tax low for the rich doesn't boost economy, new research says

The so-called Reaganomics will be remembered by the people as a set of cruel, anti-worker economic policies in favor of the big capital, associated with supply-side theories and eliminating and restrictions on the free-market economy. 

The economic policy that U.S. President Ronald Reagan advocated for pushed for lower taxes for the wealthy and less business regulation by the government. The idea was that showering the rich with even more money would - supposedly - result in a greater supply of services and goods, at lower prices, and an increase in employment.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Questo è il capitalismo: Queues form outside Milan food banks as capitalist crisis deepens

The scenes you are going to see are from Milan, the industrial, commercial and financial center of Northern Italy and one of the Europe's wealthiest cities. Hosting a significant number of large multinational groups (e.g. Amazon, Apple, Coca Cola, HP, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft, Nestle, Samsung, Siemens, Vodafone, Whirpool, etc), Milan has in terms of GDP the second-largest economy in the EU after Paris.

But behind the impressive facade of capitalist growth, there is another Milan which reflects the deepening class inequalities and the results of long-time policies by the bourgeois Italian governments and the European Union

Friday, December 11, 2020

Who will pay for the crisis? Lufthansa receives $10 billion state bailout and cuts 30,000 jobs

On November 14th we were writing that at least 90,000 people will lose their job by the end of December as a result of mass layoffs by major U.S. airline companies. Aviation giants, such as United Airlines and American Airlines laid off 32,000 workers last October in an attempt to blackmail the U.S. government for higher subsidies.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a serious impact on the aviation industry due to travel restrictions and a significant slump in demand among travellers. No travellers means less profits for the big airliners. In order to reduce losses, the monopolies of aviation proceed to a series of anti-labor measures, including pay cuts, furloughs and, of course, layoffs.