France: Thousands of healthcare workers in the streets said "applause is not enough"!

“Applause is not enough” said yesterday hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers throughout France, demonstrating for their jobs, their rights and the country’s public healthcare system. 

At least 250,000 protesters in Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Lille and other French cities participated in protests against Macron government’s neoliberal policies which lead to more cuts in public healthcare sector. To date, the government hasn’t responded to the major urgent demands of healthcare and hospital workers who ask for increased wages, for an end to bed and hospital closures and for an increase of healthcare workers in public hospitals with sufficient medical equipment. 

Aris Velouchiotis: The soul of Greek Resistance

Today, June 16th, marks the 75th anniversary since the death of the iconic Greek communist guerrilla Aris Velouchiotis. A member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and First Captain of the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS) during World War Two, Velouchiotis is a leading personality of the Greek Resistance against the Axis occupation. 

Aris Velouchiotis, whose real name was Thanasis Klaras, Born in Lamia to a wealthy family on August 27, 1905, Aris studied at Larisa’s Averoff Agricultural School and worked briefly as an agronomist. 

Moving to Athens, he became a member of the Communist Youth (OKNE) in 1922 and a member of the KKE in 1925. Due to his radical, communist views he was sent to Kalpaki Disciplinary Platoon, an army camp where communist soldiers were imprisoned and tortured. 

HANDS OFF KARL MARX GRAVE IN LONDON!

By Nikos Mottas.

Karl Marx, the greatest thinker of all times whose revolutionary teachings became a guide for the struggles of the working class throughout the world, continues giving nightmares to fascists, reactionaries and anti-communists. 

His grave memorial at Highgate cemetery in North London has been a target of cowardly attacks and vandalism by far-right thugs. In 2019, in a space of a month, the grave was vandalized twice by fascists who caused extensive damages in the marble plaque. 

Capitalism is the virus: Large workers' rally by PAME and Trade Unions in Athens

Under the slogans “Take a breathe. Break the chains of exploitation” and “Poverty, unemployment and authoritarianism: Capitalism is the virus” thousands of people, workers, students, young men and women participated in a large rally organized by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME), Trade Unions and Labour Centers in Athens, Greece.

The rally was organized as a response to the anti-worker attack of the conservative ND government which tries, once again, to shift the burden of the new economic crisis to the people. 

KKE responds to the fabrications published in "Die Rote Fahne" online newspaper

On June 6, 2020, an article titled "The Migration Issue "divides" the Left" was published online in Greece. The author of the article is a geologist who had studied in Germany and lives in Athens. It refers to an article in the German online newspaper "DIE ROTE FAHNE", which deals with the migration issue in Europe and criticises the ΚΚΕ for ..."deficient analysis". 

The author of the article claims that what we are dealing with is a "not so friendly reaction of the "fraternal" Communist Party of Germany, KPD (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands).

USA Protests: Joint Declaration by Communist Parties in solidarity with the people of the U.S.

After an initiative by the Communist Party of Canada (CPC), the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM) and the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) more than 40 Communist and Workers' Parties from all over the world have signed a joint declaration in solidarity with the workers and the people of the United States, against repression, capitalism and its barbarism. 

The Joint Declaration reads:

Young Israeli Communists against occupation and annexation of Palestinian land

"A nation that occupies other nations cannot be free" says the Young Communist League of Israel (YCLI) on the occasion of the 53rd anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War which resulted to the occupation of Palestinian land by Israel. 

In the following interesting interview, the Young Communist League of Israel gives its perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, the warmongering policy of the right-wing Netanyahu government, the fight against fascism and imperialism and the common struggle with the Palestinian people and youth for a lasting peace:

Lenin on racism in the United States

In an article written in late January-early February 1913, under the title "Russians and Negroes", Vladimir Ilyich Lenin attempts a brief comparison between the then situation of the black people in the United States and the Russian people under the tsarist regime. 

The article, signed by Lenin as "W", was written during a period of severe censorship. It was first published in 1925 in "Krasnaya Niva" magazine.

Dimitris Koutsoumbas on U.S. protests: "The myth of the American Dream is collapsing"

In an interview with CNN Greece, the General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas commented, among other things, about the mass protests in the U.S. following the murder of George Floyd:

“The murder of African American Floyd by a white police officer was the trigger for the outburst of popular outrage that had been simmering. Alongside state violence, this outbreak is affected by other factors, such as the 100,000 deaths due to Coronavirus – with most victims belonging to the poor popular strata who had no access to health facilities – as well as the burgeoning of unemployment and poverty.

International Communist Bulletin #3 2020

Week #3, June 2020

KKE: Condemns U.S. aggression against Cuba, demands end to "barbaric blockade"

In a unilateral and arbitrary act, the U.S. government has included Cuba in the State Department list of countries which allegedly not cooperating fully against terrorism.

Read here the full statement-response of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The groundless argument used by the U.S. government is the presence in Cuban territory of members of the delegation to peace talks of the National Liberation Army (ELN) of Colombia.

Occupation is Terror, Annexation is Apartheid: Joint Statement by Communist Parties

The following statement, signed by numerous Communist and Workers' Parties, was issued after an initiative by the Palestinian People's Party and the Communist Party of Israel. 

Occupation is Terror, Annexation is Apartheid

On June 5th 2020 it is the 53rd anniversary of the 1967 aggressive war, where Israel had occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza strip, the Syrian Golan and Sinai peninsula.

Solidarity with the struggle of the workers and people in the USA - Statements by WFTU, PAME

Responding to the news of the racist murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) issued the following statement on May 30th:

The World Federation of Trade Unions expresses its solidarity and internationalism to the workers and unemployed of the USA.

We demand the immediate end of racist violence and state authoritarianism of the US government, which kills innocent citizens and protesters.

From Athens to Minneapolis: Greek Communist Youth protest George Floyd's murder

Under the slogan “Capitalism means I can’t breathe”, hundreds of members and supporters of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE), the youth wing of the KKE, participated on Monday in protests against the murder of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis.

In Athens, the mobilization of KNE took place outside the U.S. embassy where the young communists shouted slogans against the barbarity and repression of the capitalist system. Some of the slogans were “War, poverty, racism, this is capitalism” and “Capitalists’ democracy means repression and violence for the people”. 

George Floyd's Murder: U.S. Communist and Left Parties in solidarity with the protesters

The brutal murder of African American George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25 has sparked a wave of protests across the United States. 

Thousands of people took the streets of Minneapolis and other major U.S. cities, demonstrating against police repression and demanding justice for Floyd and the other victims of police brutality.

Since the tragic incident became known, several communist and left political forces in the U.S. have strongly condemned the murder of George Floyd, expressing their solidarity and support to the protesters across the country. Below you can read some of the statements: 

Not Populism, Not Socialism, but Communism Will Get It Done

By Charles Andrews.

The ruling classes of developed countries get a lot of pushback these days from the masses they hold in contempt. The voters whom U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton insulted as “deplorables” went and put Donald Trump in the Oval office in 2016, daring to elect someone who was not a vetted ruler of capitalism. Then his near opposite, self-identified socialist Bernie Sanders, came back stronger than ever for the 2020 presidential primaries. Socialism has become a recognized political stance that cannot be red-baited off the stage. 

George Floyd's Murder — Capitalism means I can't breathe...

In a statement issued on Friday, the youth wing of the KKE, the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE), condemns the heinous murder of 46 year-old African-American jobless man George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, USA. 

More specifically, the statement of the Press Bureau of the Central Council of KNE points out:

Berlinguer: A good man, but not a communist

The following article was written by Marco Rizzo, General Secretary of the Communist Party, Italy (Partito Comunista) and published in "l'Unità" newspaper in November 11, 2015 under the title "Berlinguer, un brava persona ma non comunista". 

The article is a reminder of the deeply reactionary and reformist nature of Eurocommunism, a prominent founder and promoter of which was Enrico Berlinguer.

By Marco Rizzo.

There is always a beginning. We ask ourselves: What brought to consumption the great historical and political experience of Italy’s communists? What led Antonio Gramsci’s party to become today’s party of Matteo Renzi?

KKE: The joint action and coordination of the Communist Parties under pandemic conditions

The following article was published in "Rizospastis", the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), on 23 May 2020.

By Elisaios Vagenas*.

The recent successful tele-conference held by the Communist and Workers’ Parties that cooperate within the framework of the European Communist Initiative, in which 24 parties from many European countries participate, constituted a new form of exchanging opinions and coordination of their efforts.

Chile's Right on the footsteps of Pinochet: The anti-democratic persecution of Hugo Gutiérrez

Chile's right-wing President Sebastian Piñera (left) and 
Communist Party MP Hugo Gutiérrez.

Fascist dictator Pinochet may be gone, but his political descendants of the Chilean right are following his footsteps. 

After the extreme repression and violent crackdown against the popular protests in October 2019, the reactionary government of Sebastian Piñera and its political allies intesify anti-communism and attacks on the people’s democratic rights. 

The target of these attacks is the Communist Party of Chile (Partido Comunista de Chile) and its activity. More specifically, during the last months, the bourgeois state mechanisms are trying to dismiss Communist Party deputy Hugo Gutiérrez. 

EastMed pipeline and the position of the KKE

THE POSITION OF THE KKE ON EAST-MED PIPELINE

The ruling right-wing party New Democracy, together with the "left" party SYRIZA, the Social Democratic Party KINAL/PASOK and the far-right party Hellenic Solution, aligning with the dirty plans of the USA - NATO - EU - Israel and having their eye on the "upgrade" of the bourgeoisie of Greece, voted on 15/05/20 in the Plenary Session of the Parliament the agreement for the gas pipeline "East Med" with concise procedures.

Charilaos Florakis Remembered: The story of a Greek communist leader

By Nikos Mottas.

It was the 22nd of May 2005 when Charilaos Florakis, General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) from 1972 to 1991, passed away at the age of 91. Florakis' life and activity, identified with the history and struggles of the KKE, was devoted to the ideals of marxism-leninism.

Born in 1914 in Paliozoglopi, a small village in Thessaly, Charilaos Florakis became a member of OKNE, the Communist Party’s Youth Wing, in 1929. As an OKNE member and later as a student and active worker at the so-called “TTT” (Posts, Telegraphs, Telephone Offices) he began his political activity, during a socially and politically turbulent period for Greece. 

How the Indian communist-run state of Kerala successfully fought Coronavirus outbreak

The Indian state of Kerala has been a role model in the fight against Coronavirus pandemic. With a population of 34 million people, Kerala is governed by the ruling coalition of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), which is led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The state’s Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, is a member of the Communist Party’s Political Bureau. 

The communist party-run state has managed to contain COVID-19 spread better than most other Indian states. Kerala has reported only 4 deaths (COVID-19 related) with 600 cases after more than 3 months since the first outbreak of the virus in January. 

The "American Dream" in times of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed, in the most tragic way, the actual essence of the so-called “American Dream”. 

The images from the mass graves in Hart Island, the overloaded morgues, the utter failure of the U.S. health system to protect the people from the pandemic are characteristics of capitalism’s advanced decay.