Is Colombia the most dangerous country for trade unionists and social activists?

Members of right-wing paramilitary terrorist
group in Colombia.

Source: TeleSur.

"It is better not to say anything, it is better not to talk, not to speak, it is better to be silent to stay alive," a local priest said.

The murder of a social activist has become an almost weekly news event in Colombia as more than 100 community leaders have been killed over the past year by right-wing paramilitaries, Empire Files Abby Martin reports.

Just a year after the signing of what was thought to be the monumental movement towards peace with the country’s largest guerrilla group and Colombian government calling a truce, the violence targeting union and social leaders has rocketed.

Question of the KKE in the European Parliament about the prosecution of palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi

The delegation of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) at the European Parliament denounced the provocative prosecution of the 16 year-old palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi by the Israeli authorities and submitted a question to the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.

In his question to F.Mogherini, the KKE MEP Kostas Papadakis mentioned that Israel escalates its aggressiveness, through the recent provocative arrest of the 16 year-old palestinian Ahed Tamimi and the 12 charges filled against her by the Israeli court because she scuffled with Israel soldiers in the West Bank. Papadakis added that before the incident, the occupational israeli forces had shoot Tamimi's 14 year-old cousin and had invaded her house.

The Sultan and the Fascists: MHP Party to support Tayyip Erdogan in 2019 presidential elections

Devlet Bahceli, leader of MHP, gestures during
an election campaign.

* MHP (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi), the Nationalist Movement Party is an anticommunist, neo-fascist nationalist party, founded in 1969. Its paramilitary wing, known as "Grey Wolves" is a fascist terrorist organization, known for participating in numerous massacres, bombings and assassination attempts. 

The following article is from sOL international: Turkey's fascist Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahçeli overtly supports President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the presidential election in 2019. Not surprisingly, he has lent a help to Erdoğan since the foundation of the AKP party, rallying to rescue the government whenever it has faced political challenges.

Founded in 1969 in the Cold War era as an anti-communist fascist party, Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and its leader Devlet Bahçeli have become a hot topic recently as the party lends an overt support to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP).

"Hands Off the Right of Strike": PAME unionists and workers stormed the Ministry of Labour in Athens

A strong message to the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government was sent by trade unionists and workers who broke into the Ministry of Labour, after a request to meet with officials was turned down. 

The mobilization of numerous labour and workers' unions and associations began at Omonoia square in downtown Athens on Tuesday morning and ended at the Ministry of Labour where members of PAME unfolded a huge banner with the slogan "Government-big capital-EU, pay attention: Get your dirty hands off the strike. It is a workers' right". 

This is Capitalism #3 - Two million children are forced to work in Turkey

According to soL international, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) protested child labour in front of the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Social Security Institution on January 5. TKP already launched a widespread campaign at the end of 2017, "Child labour must be prohibited". The recent protest came after the Ministry of Labour and Social Security declared 2018 as "the year of fighting against child labour".

V.I. Lenin — The Defeat of One’s Own Government in the Imperialist War

Vladimir I. Lenin - The Defeat of One’s Own Government in the Imperialist War.

Published in Sotsial-Demorkrat No. 43, July 26, 1915.

Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, [1974], Moscow, Volume 21, pages 275-280. 

During a reactionary war a revolutionary class cannot but desire the defeat of its government.

This is axiomatic, and disputed only by conscious partisans or helpless satellites of the social-chauvinists. Among the former, for instance, is Semkovsky of the Organising Committee (No. 2 of its Izvestia), and among the latter, Trotsky and Bukvoyed,[2] and Kautsky in Germany. To desire Russia’s defeat, Trotsky writes, is “an uncalled-for and absolutely unjustifiable concession to the political methodology of social-patriotism, which would replace the revolutionary struggle against the war and the conditions causing it, with an orientation—highly arbitrary in the present conditions—towards the lesser evil” (Nashe Slovo No. 105).

Greek workers on the streets: Action and strike on January 12th against the new antipeople measures

The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) calls workers, youth, pensioners, the unemployed, farmers, the self-employed, all the people to massive, militant action. The government brings a new series of anti-workers measures. They must receive a dynamic response.

The SYRIZA-ANEL Government are imposing the demands of big capital, bringing a new round of measures of "fiscal adjustment" and of suppression of workers'-people’s struggles, with number one goal to ban our right to strike, and also to expand auctioning off of workers houses, so as to protect the profitability of business groups.

Iran Protests- Tudeh Party appealing for the release of more than 1500 arrested in Iran (تظاهرات ایران)

The Appeal of the Tudeh Party of Iran to All Progressive and Freedom-loving Forces of Iran and the World:

A broad campaign must be organised for the release of hundreds of students, working people and freedom fighters in Iran who have been detained by the repressive forces in recent days. 

As anticipated, the anti-people and dictatorial theocratic regime of Iran have proceeded to deploy large squads of the Guards Corps, Basij militia and the mercenaries of the security forces to violently repress the protest movement of the youth and working people of our nation. As has been the case in recent years, the response of the heads of the dictatorial regime to the people - who are frustrated by the poverty, deprivation, oppression, corruption and lack of freedom - is to accuse them of association with foreign powers and then fire at and detain them. 

Russian newspaper "Sovetskaya Rossiya" awards the General Secretary of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas

The General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, is among the 10 personalities (writers, politicians, journalists, etc.) who have been choosen by the Russian newspaper "Sovetskaya Rossiya" for this year's prize "A Word to the People" (Слово к народу). 

General Secretary Koutsoumbas receives the award for his speech at the 19th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties which took place on November 2017 in Leningrad. 

"Sovetskaya Rossiya", founded on July 1956, is one of Russia's historic newspapers and the only one which has kept the name "Soviet" in her name, more than 25 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Today, the newspaper is politically orientated towards the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). 

This is Capitalism #2 - World's wealthiest capitalists became 1$ trillion richest in 2017, while 22,000 children die each day due to poverty

This is Capitalism No #2

Italy- Communist Party: The time is now!

The time is now: 

united for the Communist Party.

(Il tempo è adesso: uniti per il Partito Comunista)

Translation: Srećko Vojvodić

Just a bit less than a month ago, the Communist Party has announced its intention to participate in political elections 2018. Since that day, we have received hundreds of messages of support, proposals of active and specific help, as well as militant joining of our project. We thank everybody and will keep on connect you these days with our local representatives.

Greek soldiers refused to guard NATO's base: "We will never carry out any service supporting NATO killers"

Archive Photo.

According to a report published in "Rizospastis", soldiers denied to participate in the guarding of NATO's newly established helicopter base at the port of Alexandroupolis, in northern Greece. 

Talking to Rizospastis, one of the Greek soldiers - who perform their military service- said:

"We will never guard, or carry out any other service that supports NATO and the American murderers of the people. That is what I personally supported in my report to the (military) command. My colleagues did the same. It is provocative and unacceptable that they bring in our country, in our home, NATO's army which plan and unleash wars against the people."

J.V. Stalin - Trotskyism or Leninism? (1924)

Joseph V. Stalin- Trotskyism or Leninism?

Speech delivered at the Plenum of the Communist Group in the A.U.C.C.T.U., 

November 19, 1924;

Published on Pravda, No.269, 

November 26, 1924.

Published via Marxists Internet Archives.

Comrades, after Kamenev's comprehensive report there is little left for me to say. I shall therefore confine myself to exposing certain legends that are being spread by Trotsky and his supporters about the October uprising, about Trotsky's role in the uprising, about the Party and the preparation for October, and so forth. I shall also touch upon Trotskyism as a peculiar ideology that is incompatible with Leninism, and upon the Party's tasks in connection with Trotsky's latest literary pronouncements.

This is Capitalism #1 - Homeless in Frankfurt ordered to pay fines for sleeping rough

This is Capitalism No #1

Iran-Turkey: "The alternative to the mullahs and imams doesn't have to be the Yankee" (Kemal Okuyan)

Kemal Okuyan, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey and soL columnist, wrote on the political situation in Iran and Turkey on the occasion of the New Year.

How did Iran and Turkey enter the New Year?

We've entered the New Year. It was a New Year's on which the political power terrorised the country saying "don't enter the New Year; enter your home", some caricatural characters kept watch on the roofs to beat up Father Christmas, the minimum wage that is kept at a certain level dooming the people to poverty was praised to the skies, and it was announced that a little more "poison" was to be added into ethyl alcohol to prevent alcohol production at home.

Workers in Greece respond with new nationwide strike to the antipeople policy of SYRIZA government

The Greek Government of SYRIZA (which is in alliance with the far-right ANEL party) prepares the escalation of the attack against the workers and the popular strata of Greece.

The last memorandum with its new prerequisites leads to a new round of attack against the life of the working-people families, as over the next few months the government is to complete a massive amount of anti-peoples’ measures so as to declare the supposed “end of the memorandums”. Measures already agreed with the EU-IMF-ECB and which are demanded by the industrialists, ship-owners, the bankers etc, since they serve their competitiveness and profits.

Iran Protests: Tudeh Party supports people's struggle, strongly opposes any kind of foreign intervention

The CC of the Tudeh Party of Iran (حزب تودۀ ایران‎) issued a third statement about the developments in the country. Also, read the first statement and the second statement. 

• The regime’s plots to violently and bloodily suppress the protest movement of the frustrated people must be prevented through an organised struggle and united action.

• We strongly oppose any kind of foreign intervention in Iran and believe that the right-wing and racist leaderships of Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu and the criminal and reactionary regime of Saudi Arabia, are no friends to the people of Iran and certainly do not strive for freedom, independence and social justice in our homeland.

PAME denounces the persecution of palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi by the state of Israel

Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi, 16.

The Youth Secretariat of the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) denounces the murderer-state of Israel, which, once again revealed its barbarous face by arresting and imprisoning young children simply because they are defending their homes.

The arrest and charging with 12 accusations against 16-year-old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi, from an Israeli military court, is one more proof for all those who, together with the USA and Israel, talk about "Democracy and Freedom," and imposing their "right" with military courts, imprisonment and murder of young children. 

It is a proof against the SYRIZA-ANEL government, which speaks of Peace and stability in the region, and builds relations with murderer states like Israel, which imprisons and murders young children, while the SYRIZA-ANEL Government continues to refrain from recognizing the Palestinian state.

Iran Protests: Statement of the CC of the Tudeh Party of Iran on recent developments

On the occasion of the recent mass protests in Iran, the Central Committee of the Tudeh Party (حزب تودۀ ایران‎) issued the following statement:

“Gulag Archipelago”: Exposing the anticommunist fabrications of Solzhenitsyn

 By Nikos Mottas*.

One of the most famous and celebrated works of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, the “Gulag Archipelago”, has been for a long time a kind of “holy bible” for every anticommunist. Firstly published in 1973, it- supposedly- consists an analytical record of the conditions existed in the so-called “labour camps” of the Soviet Union. Within the framework of the slanderous anticommunist campaign, bourgeois historiography has extensively promoted Solzhenitsyn's work as a source of arguments about the so-called “Stalinist dictatorship” and “communist crimes” in the Soviet Union.

However, there is a fundamental problem in the work of the deeply reactionary Solzhenitsyn: Gulag Archipelago is a completely antiscientific book, based almost entirely in rumors, speculations, third party opinions as well as interpretations of opinions by Solzenitsyn himself! In other words, the reader of this book becomes “hostage” of a novel type, unverifiable, recording to alleged events by Solzenitsyn and others who supposedly “saw”, “heard” or “learned” something.

63 Israeli teens refuse military service: “We won't take part in the oppression of the Palestinian people”

“We won’t take part in the arm of the occupation” —
headline from the Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot

Source: maki.org.il.

Sixty-three draft age youngsters from around Israel sent a letter on Thursday, December 28, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, Education Minister Naftali Bennet and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, declaring their refusal to be conscripted into the Israeli military because it oppresses the Palestinian people.

“We have decided not to take part in the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people,” they wrote in their letter. “The ‘temporary’ situation has dragged on for 50 years, and we will not continue lending it a hand.”

Dimitris Koutsoumbas: We draw conclusions, we become stronger - ДИМИТРИС КУЦУМБАС (КПГ): ИЗВЛЕКАЕМ УРОКИ, СТАНОВИМСЯ СИЛЬНЕЕ

ARTICLE OF THE GS OF THE CC OF THE KKE DIMITRIS KOUTSOUMBAS IN THE RUSSIAN NEWSPAPER “SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA”.

It is with particular joy that I address via the pages of the historical newspaper "Sovetskaya Rossiya" the workers of Russia, of the country where the "ice broke", as Lenin said, where "the way has been shown" as regards the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the construction of the new socialist-communist society. 

The consequences of the counterrevolution and the overthrow of socialism did not cloud the eyes, mind and judgment of the communists of Greece, the KKE. Indeed on the 28th of December 1991, a few hours after the red flag was taken down from the Kremlin, Rizospastis, the journalistic organ of the CC of the KKE, wrote on its historic front page: "Comrades, hold the flag high! Hope is to be found in the struggles of the peoples"! 

59th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution: Message of the CC of the KKE to the Communist Party of Cuba

On the occasion of the 59th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) send to the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) the following message:

Athens, 29 December 2017.

Dear comrades,

we are delivering to you our comradely regards for the 59th anniversary of the victory of the Revolution in Cuba which created the first free territory in the american continent, liberated from imperialist repression and capitalist exploitation.

Comment by the KKE on Macedonia name dispute: "An end must be put to the irredentist propaganda"

Commenting on the recent revival of the public discussion* concerning the name dispute between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece said the following:

"The revival of the nomenclature for the Skopje issue and the political-point aspirations developed by all sides, must not hide that a basic common pursuit, both of the SYRIZA-ANEL government and the other parties, is that the solution (whatever it is) must be linked to the accession of the neighboring country to NATO and the EU, which were and continue being the basic factors of instability, wars and border-changing in the Balkans and the broader region.