This is Capitalism #5 - The world's richest 1% took home 82% of the wealth produced by workers in 2017

Eighty two percent (82%) of the wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the global population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth, according to a new Oxfam report released today. The report is being launched as political and business elites gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Hands Off Syria! TKP and Turkey's Peace Committee condemn Erdogan's Afrin operation in Syria

In a statement published on January 21st, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) condemns the military operation of Erdogan's government against Syria. Noting that Syria has long been turned into an arena for the bloody games of the imperialist powers, and that the AKP government of Turkey has sought ways to integrate in these imperialist projects, TKP underlined that the Turkish AKP government's recent military operation in Syria has "nothing to do with any national interest or security issue of Turkey."

J.V. Stalin- Lenin: The Genius of the Revolution

Joseph V. Stalin -

Speech Delivered at a Memorial Meeting of the Kremlin Military School.

January 28, 1924. 

First Published on Pravda, No. 34, 

February 12, 1924.

Source: Works, Vol. 6, January-November, 1924, pp. 54-66, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954.

Reproduced from Marxists Internet Archives.

Comrades, 

I am told that you have arranged a Lenin memorial meeting here this evening and that I have been invited as one of the speakers. I do not think there is any need for me to deliver a set speech on Lenin’s activities. It would be better, I think, to confine myself to a few facts to bring out certain of Lenin’s characteristics as a man and a leader. There may, perhaps, be no inherent connection between these facts, but that is not of vital importance as far as gaining a general idea of Lenin is concerned. At any rate, I am unable on this occasion to do more than what I have just promised.

Macedonia naming dispute: Commentary by the KKE General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas

In an interview to "Real FM" radio on Friday 19th January, the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas was asked about the ongoing developments in the naming dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Below you can read abstracts from D.Koutsoumbas' answers to the questions regarding this matter:

"It is clear that during this period, the Greek government and to a certain degree the government of Skopje as well, are facing powerful pressures for a solution in the naming issue, especially from the side of the USA and NATO. These powers are keen for the accession of FYROM in NATO because, as well know, the contradictions and competitions, especially in the Balkans, are very intense.

Large economic interests are clashing and Russia does not want to lose its influence that traditional has in the Balkan region and the USA are interested to abstract countries from Russia's influence and to integrate them in the so-called euroatlantic axis, NATO and the EU. […] For that reason, according to our opinion, the nomenclature is preceded disconnected from the other issues. Its not that the name issue is not an existing matter, but I think we must get out of this sterile nomenclature.

100 YEARS KKE – A century of struggles and sacrifices

The text below is a translated version of the first chapter of the Declaration of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece for the Party's 100th anniversary. The Declaration was published and circulated with the weekend edition of "Rizospastis" on 13-14th January 2018.

This year the KKE completes a century of struggles and sacrifices, remaining the only actually new Party of the Greek society, because it is the only one that struggles for the abolition of the exploitation of man by man. It was founded in a period when the flame of the October Socialist Revolution in 1917 gave a boost to the revolutionary labor movement internationally as well as in Greece.

KKE expresses solidarity with the Communist Party of Turkey, denounces the conviction of Kemal Okuyan

The International Relations Section of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece has issued a solidarity message to the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) regarding the provocative conviction of TKP's General Secretary Kemal Okuyan.

The KKE condemns and denounces the unacceptable conviction of the General Secretary of the CP Turkey, Kemal Okuyan, by the Turkish courts to 11 months and 20 days in prison with the pretext that in an article of his "he insulted the President of Turkey, Erdogan."

Vladimir Putin, Communism and Christianity

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people". - Karl Marx. [1]

By Nikos Mottas*.

A few days ago, during an interview for the documentary Valaam an excerpt of which was broadcast on Russia 1 TV channel, Russian President Vladimir Putin likened communism to christianity and Vladimir I. Lenin's mausoleum to the veneration of the relics of saints.

More specifically, Putin said: “First of all, faith has always accompanied us, becoming stronger every time our country, our people, have been through hard times. There were those years of militant atheism when priests were eradicated, churches destroyed, but at the same time a new religion was being created. Communist ideology is very similar to Christianity, in fact: freedom, equality, brotherhood, justice – everything is laid out in the Holy Scripture, it’s all there. And the code of the builder of communism? This is sublimation, it’s just such a primitive excerpt from the Bible, nothing new was invented.”

Intervention of the KKE in the European Parliament about the situation in Iran

During the discussion about the ongoing developments in Iran which took place at the Plenary of the European Parliament in Strasburg, the KKE MEP Kostas Papadakis made the following intervention: 

"The developments in Iran cannot be addressed separately from what is being unfolded in the broader region by the interventions of powerful imperialist powers. The alliance of interests of Iran with Syria, Iraq, Russia and Turkey causes intense competition - for Iran's nuclear program too- with powers such as the USA, the EU, Israel and Saudi Arabia who see their own interests being affected in the broader region. Both the EU and her governments play a special dangerous role.

Mikhail V. Popov - Counterrevolution in the USSR (Михаил Попов- Контрреволюция в СССР)

By Mikhail V. Popov.
Len.ru, 10 April 2017.

KKE expresses solidarity with the people of Sudan, condemns government's repression

In a statement the International Relations section of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece expresses its solidarity to the communists and the people of Sudan and condemns the local government's repression.

The statement points out: "The KKE condemns the antipeople measures taken by the government of Sudan in coordination with the IMF and the World Bank, which deteriorate even more the living standards of the country's working class and popular strata.

Communist Party of Turkey: "Turkey is not helpless, the people’s true alternative will be strengthened!"

Source: soL international.

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) has released a comprehensive public declaration on January 15, calling on the working people to get organized within the party in order to strengthen the people’s true alternative amid the political chaos in the country.

TKP: TRUMP REPRESENTS TODAY'S IMPERIALIST WORLD ORDER

Indicating to the current situation of the worldwide imperialist system, the TKP declaration says, "It has been revealed that the world’s super power U.S. President Trump watches T.V., and eats hamburger all the day for fear of being poisoned. What a big dilemma!"

Berlin: Communists commemorated Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, 99 years since their assassination

A rally in commemoration of the assassinated communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht took place in Berlin on Sunday. Members and friends of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) joined demonstrators from the German Communist Party (DKP), the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) and other communist and workers' parties and organizations, marching in the eastern part of Berlin. 

The march ended in a memorial which is dedicated to numerous personalities of the German and international communist movement, to the murdered revolutionaries of November 1918. 

It was on January 15th 1919, when paramilitaries burst into an apartment in western Berlin and seized the communist revolutionaries Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Although neither had an arrest warrant against them, they were both taken prisoner.

"Shithole President": Donald Trump has been declared persona non grata in the Caribbean

Nearly 100 representatives of Pan African organizations and members of the Caribbean Socialist popular forces proclaimed US President Donald Trump a non-grata person in the Caribbean, Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) of Barbados reported Monday.

According to the source, all of them were committed to demand their respective governments to strongly protest any visit by Trump and support popular activities to prevent US President from coming to the Caribbean.

CMC said that Trump is not well received in the Caribbean, because of his racist and outrageous comments and actions made last Thursday against African countries, Haiti and El Salvador. The measure was promoted by Barbados' Clement Payne Movement, Pan African Caribbean Network and People's Empowerment Party.

Thousands of workers across Greece joined PAME demonstrations against the government's new bill

A powerful message to the coalition government of SYRIZA-ANEL as well as to the employers was sent by thousands of workers, students, pensioners and unemployed people who joined the demonstrations organised by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) across Greece. 

In Athens and other Greek cities numerous rallies took place against the new antiworkers' governmental bill which was passed today by a majority of deputies at the Parliament. The bill includes an amendment which aims to abolish the sacred right of the working people to strike.

Yes Man: Eurogroup's Dijsselbloem admits that "with Tsipras almost everything has been easier"

"Feel like home". PM Tsipras welcomes Jeroen Dijssebloem.

The outgoing Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem admitted something that everybody knew: The fact that the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government of Alexis Tsipras was easily submitted to the demands of the creditors thus doing the "dirty job" on behalf of the capital by imposing new harsh antipeople-antiworkers' measures.

In an interview with the "Financial Times" on Friday, the former Dutch finance minister talked about the shambolic negotiations with the Tsipras government in the first half of 2016, as well as his tenuous relations with Yanis Varoufakis, then Greece's finance minister, generated immediate reverberations in Athens.

World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY): Solidarity with the youth, students and people of Iran

The World Federation of Democratic Youth express its solidarity and support to the youth, students and people of Iran that are currently in front of repression, violence and oppression by the police and the paramilitaries of their country.

The last two weeks the youth and the people of Iran, have been demonstrating and developed a difficult struggle in the streets of more than 70 towns of the country, for their rights against the economic, social and cultural policies of the regime. 

Policies which have brought high prices on basic consumer goods, huge unemployment, widespread privatisation and extreme poverty on a mass scale. They are standing against the violations of the regime on the human and democratic rights of the people, on the same time that they oppose the anti-popular policies and conventions against the workers.

Jack London - What Life Means to Me (1905)

Jack London - What Life Means to Me.

Revolution and other Essays.

I was born in the working-class. Early I discovered enthusiasm, ambition, and ideals; and to satisfy these became the problem of my child- life. My environment was crude and rough and raw. I had no outlook, but an uplook rather. My place in society was at the bottom. Here life offered nothing but sordidness and wretchedness, both of the flesh and the spirit; for here flesh and spirit were alike starved and tormented.

This is Capitalism #4 - No Money? No Care! Baltimore patient dumped outside in freezing cold!

This is Capitalism No #4

Shocking video shows security guards of the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus wheeling a disoriented patient out onto the street in just her gown and dumping her alone at a bus stop in the freezing cold. 

Hands Off the Right of Strike: Militant demonstrations across Greece against Government, EU and Capitalists

Militant strike demonstrations took place earlier on Friday in Athens, Thessaloniki and other cities in Greece, as thousands of workers gave a decisive response against the antipeople-antiworkers' plans of the government, the EU and the big capital. 

In Athens, the demonstrators gathered at Omonoia square and marched through the center's major streets. The KKE General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas attended the rally, while the demonstrators announced a resolution regarding the prosecution of the palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi by the Israeli authorities.

KKE: "Syriza and New Democracy compete with each other on who is the best executioner of the workers' rights"

"The New Democracy party, apparently being perplexed as long as the SYRIZA-ANEL government has taken its job, bids in anti-worker proposals and competes with SYRIZA on who is the best executioner of the workers' rights" writes, among other things, a recent statement of the Press Office of the CC of the KKE. 

Earlier, in a statement, the centre-right opposition party of New Democracy (ND) had expressed disagrements with some of the provisions of the new antiworkers' bill forwarded by the government. However, ND agrees on the new law's amendment which actually tries to abolish the right of the workers to strike. 

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".