Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts

Monday, January 16, 2017

USA / Donald Trump government: Priority in serving the general interests of the capital

Article published on 'Rizospastis' Sunday Edition, 15 January 2017 / Translation: In Defense of Communism.

The priorities of the government of the newly-elected U.S. President, Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20th, do not differ from those of the outgoing President Barack Obama because- despite the existing differences in their declarations- their common denominator is to safeguard the general interests of the bourgeoisie. That doesn't negate a multilevel intra-bourgeois confrontation for the way through which this will be achieved more effectively, especially in a period when the inter-imperialist antagonism is exacerbated, with an estimated relative loss of U.S. leadership in the international capitalist economy and given the difficulties for a more impetuous capitalist recovery. More specifically Trump promotes a different mix of management with stronger elements of protectionism, an issue which however creates difficulties in international trade, which in turn displeases other parts of the (U.S) capital. 

Friday, January 6, 2017

"Islamic State" (ISIS): A tool in the hands of Imperialism

Photo source: Bēhance.net.
The history of exploitative societies has shown that religious and ethnic differences and contradictions, either existed or fomented, were always been utilized to promote the interests of the ruling classes many times they consisted the formation through which substantial class contradictions were manifested

In the history of capitalism and the imperialist system, the emerging bourgeoisies often wore the cloak of religion and many other imperialist powers have used religious conflicts in order to impose their designs against their competitors. The region of the Middle East is full of examples. 

From the late 19th century until today, we have seen many cases of religious movements which have been utilized by bourgeois forces for the creation of reactionary murderous organizations, from the “Taliban” and the “Mujahideen” in Afghanistan to the recent case of ISIS (also known as ISIL or Daesh). Of course, to some extend, in the process, these organizations may become autonomous from their creators or continue to operate in coordination with them. However, what is important is that without the support from imperialist mechanisms, without access to state mechanisms, their activity could not have such large dimensions and impact.

The notorious murderers of the “Islamic State” (ISIS/Daesh) do not consist a new phenomenon. The relation of such “organizations” and “movements” with european and american monopolies is a very old one. If we go back to 1928, we will see that the french company (Suez Canal) had supported the strengthening of the newly-founded “Muslim Brotherhood” in Egypt. 

Nonetheless, the best known case of mercenaries who used Islam as a cover for terrorist activities towards the promotion of US monopolies, can be found in Afghanistan in the beginning of 1980s. Zbigniew Brezinski, National Security advisor of President Carter from 1977 to 1981, was one of the masterminds behind the recruitment and training of Afghanistan's Mujahideen (predecessors of Taliban and Al-Qaeda) against the Soviet Union. Among these anti-Soviet “warriors” recruited by the United States was Osama Bin Laden. In the name of anti-communism, the US imperialism with the support of its NATO allies, created the monster which later was transformed into Al-Qaeda.

After the attacks of September 11th 2001, the “war against islamic terrorism” became the pretext for imperialist invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The foundations for the creation of ISIS can be found in the destruction of Iraq after the 2003 imperialist invasion. The US-led war in Iraq which was followed by the total destruction of the Iraqi state and the complete dissolution of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party created the seed for the rise of ISIS jihadists.

The leader of the Islamic State (formerly Islamic State of Iraq), the Iraqi sunni muslim Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been arrested by US Forces-Iraq on 2 February 2004 near Fallujah and detained at the Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca detention centers under his name Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badry as a "civilian internee" until December 2004, when he was recommended for release by a Combined Review and Release Board, while in December 2004, he was released as a "low level prisoner". Right after al-Baghdadi was freed, the Islamic State emerged out of nowhere and rapidly took over important swaths of Iraq and Syria.


US Senator John McCain meeting with members of the Syrian opposition.
Who is the man in the red circle?
There is strong evidence that al-Baghdadi was recruited, trained and financed by mechanisms of the U.S. secret services and Arab governments. His participation in meetings with US Senator- and US Presidential candidate John McCain- has been captured in published photographs. What seems to be closer to reality is that al-Baghdadi was used in the beginning as a supposedly “moderate” sunni of political Islam. The rise of al-Baghdadi and ISIS came as the result of a combination of developments in the broader region of the Middle East, including the imperialist war in Libya, the events of the so-called “Arab Spring” and the US-NATO imperialist intervention in Syria.

The 2011 imperialist intervention in Syria wasn't proved as easy as the U.S government and its regional allies (Turkey, Saudi Arabia) hoped it would be. The plans for the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad's government were proved unsuccessful. The Assad government proved much stronger than the respective authorities of Mubarak in Egypt and Qaddafi in Libya. Nonetheless, the so-called “Arab Spring” had already paved the way for the rise of reactionary forces-tools in the hands of the imperialists, like ISIS.

From 2011 onward, the US and their European and regional allies (Saudi Arabia, Turkey etc), started to supply extremists and terrorists fighting the government of Syria with billions in cash, weapons, equipment, and even vehicles. Multiple publications in the western press had admitted this. Behind the “moderate Syrian opposition” it was the ISIS and other extremist forces, trained, equipped and financed by the secret services of the US, EU member-states, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Qatar. In a few words, the savage murderers of ISIS became part of an imperialist equation in Syria which serves the interests of the monopolies of the states involved in the war.

The Independent, 6 December 1993: Osama Bin Laden, the Anti-Soviet warrior.
The multiple terrorist attacks claimed by ISIS (e.g. Paris, Nice, Istanbul, Berlin, Brussels etc) in Europe, Turkey and elsewhere have added fuel to the fire of repression and intensification of security policies. The “monster of ISIS” has been exploited by bourgeois governments in order to spread fear in societies and strengthen the repressive state mechanisms against the people and the labour movement, to foster xenophobia and racism and to escalate more imperialist interventions. Of course, nobody can reject the possibility that groups within ISIS may operate independently from their imperialist patrons; however, this does not change the nature of the jihadists as a tool of imperialist mechanisms.

The future of ISIS depends on several factors: The developments in the inter-imperialist contradictions and rivalries in the broader region (e.g. US/EU vs Russia) as well as the political and social developments in regional powers (e.g. Turkey, Iran). The people of the region, the working class in the countries affected by the imperialist wars, must organize their struggle against the jihadists and their patrons, the imperialists. For that, it is essential for the masses to understand that the source of this situation is the power of the monopolies and the exploitative system which creates poverty, despair and wars.


Friday, December 23, 2016

USSR 1991 – History did not end with the counterrevolution; Socialism is timely and necessary


It was December 26, 1991 – 25 years ago- when the red flag with the sickle and hammer was lowered from the Moscow Kremlin. It was then, during the cold days of December, when the first socialist state of the world, the homeland of the world's proletariat, bent under the weight of the counterrevolution. Four days before, on December 22nd, the leaderships of three of the largest Soviet republics had decided the dissolution of the USSR, while the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had been outlawed on summer of the same year.

The events of December 1991 sealed the victory of the counterrevolution, as the result of a process which officially began in 1985 with the Perestroika and reached its peak in 1989 with the overthrow of Socialism. Of course, the roots of the counterrevolution can be traced back in a series of revisionist-opportunist decisions taken at the CPSU's 20th Congress back in 1956.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

KKE: Statement regarding the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Turkey and the Berlin attack

Regarding the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Ankara and the deadly attack in Berlin, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement:

"The KKE condemns the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Ankara, as well as the deadly attack in Berlin.

These actions, regardless the especial objectives of the perpetrators, consist a component of the imperialist war in the 21st century and that applies regardless of the extend to which the activity of such organisations is formed under the support or tolerance of imperialist centers or it is manifested as an element of autonomy of these forces from any powerful centers that strengthened them in the past.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Solzhenitsyn — The rotten legacy of a Fascist

By Nikos Mottas.



It was August 3, 2008 when the “Patriarch” of anti-communism, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, died. The writings of Solzhenitsyn became a major source of anti-Soviet hysteria and blatant slanders against the first socialist state. Even today, Solzhenitsyn's major work “The Gulag Archipelago” is, more or less, regarded as the anti-communist “bible” of the world's apologists of capitalism and anti-soviet propaganda. 

The supposed “honest” testimonies of Solzhenitsyn- which he was never able to prove- were used in the building of an anti-stalinist, anti-communist obsession which the West had so much need to base upon, especially after the end of WW2.

However, who was really this nobel prize-winning Russian and how much credibility do his anti-soviet fairy tales contain?

Sunday, July 10, 2016

KKE: "The Warsaw Summit proved the criminal role of NATO"

On the occasion of the NATO Summit in Warsaw, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) released the following statement:

"Pro-Peace declarations with dangerous heated-war decisions".
Source: 902.grTranslation: In Defense of Communism.

The Summit of NATO in Warsaw proved, once again, the criminal role of this imperialist organisation, which decided:

- the further concentration and redeployment of wartime military forces to countries which border with Russia,

- the completion of the installation and operation of the so-called "Missile Shield" with bases in Romania, Poland, with  the naval support and general infrastructure connected to the use of nuclear weapons in a destructive showdown. Its not accidental that the Declaration of the Summit's conclusions states the readiness of NATO to use nuclear weapons,

Thursday, July 7, 2016

An Unholy Alliance: The ties of Social Democracy and the 'New Left' with NATO and Fascists in Ukraine

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and its alliance with Ukrainian leftists supporting a pro-NATO course against Russia. 

Source: NewColdWar.org / Original Source: Junge Welt & [2].

An unholy alliance of leftists supporting a pro-NATO course against RussiaBy Susann Witt-Stahl and Denis Kovalpublished in German in Junge Welt, June 25, 2016.

The Die Linke (Left Party)-affiliated Rosa Luxemburg Foundation wants to play it safe. It relies not on historical pro-Soviet or Marxist left traditions but instead promotes a “new left”. The foundation is named after a world-renowned icon of anti-capitalist movements whose identity is bound with communist and anti-imperialist ideas. But the members of the Foundation’s leadership recommend to the left a convergence with the ‘liberal imperialism’ of the global hegemon, the USA.

Understandably, this requires some political flexibility. Progressive forces should not plant themselves on one side or the other of competing imperialist powers, says the Facebook page Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Ukraine. It demands that the “independent left” distance itself from the NATO-EU bloc, on the one hand, and from Russia on the other hand.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

The KKE is fighting for Greece's disengagement from the EU and NATO with workers' power

Interview of the MEP of the KKE, Sotiris Zarianopoulos, with the Russian newspaper IZVESTIA. Reproduced from inter.kke.gr.

There is a scandal around the already approved plan of economic reforms proposed by the party in power, "Syriza". As it turned out after the plan has been carried out hastily through Parliament, it contains a clause that allows the country's top officials to own offshore companies. Party and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is now accused of bad faith and a departure from its own commitment to fight corruption. Could you give your reaction? Why your party think this item needs to be?
Answer: The SYRIZA-ANEL government has also been exposed by the unacceptable governmental provision concerning offshore companies, which it later withdrew. Nevertheless, the KKE stressed in Parliament that the offshore companies, the tax havens, the multifaceted privileges of capital are integral to the rotten system of exploitation today and are being reinforced in every way by the EU, which is a reactionary anti-people union. For this reason the government and the other bourgeois parties do not dare to even look at the proposals of the KKE for the abolition of the confidentiality of shares and the naming of the shareholders. We have no illusions that any provisions in the conditions of capital's dominance can deal with the decay and corruption that is a fundamental characteristic of the capitalist system. It is in its DNA.

Friday, May 27, 2016

Vladimir Putin visits Greece: Russian Monopolies seek to participate in Energy and Transportation privatization deals

Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrived in Athens today, bringing with him numerous businessmen and representatives of Russian monopoly groups, including Gazprom and Rosneft. Mr.Putin is scheduled to meet with the President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos as well as with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, while on Saturday he will pay a visit to Mount Athos in northern Greece. 

What is the major purpose of Putin's visit in Greece?

President Putin has clearly stated Moscow's intentions to strengthen Russian economic and geopolitical presense in Greece and the Balkan peninsula. In an article published in 'Kathimerini', Vladimir Putin pointed out his government interest in deepening the Greek-Russian relations, as long as they consist part of the relations between Russia and the EU. 

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Russian Communist Workers' Party (RCWP): Condemnation of anti-communism at Donetsk

Source: International Communist Press, 24th May 2016.
The Russian Communist Workers' Party (RCWP) denounced the decision disqualifying the two communist deputies in the legislative organ of the self proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), the People's Soviet.
The Russian Communist Workers' Party (RCWP) released a statement on the decision that took the powers of two communist deputies in the legislative organ of the self proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), the People's Soviet. The RCWP stated that the decision of Donetsk People's Republic authorities which disqualifies communist deputies in the People's Soviet has no difference than the Kiev regime's anti-communist laws and attacks. In the statement, the RCWP underlined that with this decision the DPR authorities try to prevent communists from participating in the People's Soviet elections in the first place.

The decision is compared with the Ukrainian President Poroshenko's anti-communist steps such as banning the communist party and adopting de-communization laws. The RCWP stated that the attack against communists of DPR only justifies Poroshenko's claims about Donetsk being under the jurisdiction of Kiev and next step would be demolishing the Lenin monuments in DPR cities.