Has socialism ever existed in the Nordic countries?

In “Arbetet Debatt” newspaper, left-wing politicians Jonas Sjöstedt from Sweden and Pelle Dragstedt from Denmark, published a text about socialism. They write about how it worked and that examples of it can be found in the Nordic countries, including Sweden.

We translated and publish an article written by Andreas Sörensen, head of the Communist Party of Sweden (SKP), that was published in "Riktpunkt" on 30 November 2021. The article is titled "Has socialism worked in the North?" and provides a response to the arguments made by Sjöstedt and Dragstedt. 

By Andreas Sörensen.

KKE and French communists honored the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune

Photo: 902.gr

“We are here in Paris to culminate the rich program of tributes, events, publications and other activities through which our Party honors the heroic Paris Commune, 150 years since the first “storming of dream” by the working class. We are here, we walked in the footsteps of the Commune and drawing strength and knowledge from its teachings, we continue the beautiful but difficult struggle. So that dreams will be vindicated”, said Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of the CC of the KKE, during a speech in Paris, France.

KKE leader Koutsoumbas pays tribute to the Paris Commune

Photo: 902.gr

On his 2nd day of visit in Paris, the General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas participated in a guided walk “on the footsteps of the Commune”. The walk began from Louise Michel square and continued in Montmartre.

Later on, the General Secretary and a delegation of the KKE visited the “Communards' Wall” at Père Lachaise cemetery where Koutsoumbas laid a wreath in honor of the 147 fallen combatants of the 1871 Paris Commune. Flowers were also deposed to the graves of the General Secretary of the French Communist Party from 1930 to 1964 Maurice Thorez, communist poet Paul Éluard and communard chansonnier Jean-Baptiste Clement. 

Sudanese Communist Party: The struggle for the overthrow of the military regime must continue

In a statement issued on December 1st, the Secretariat of the CC of the Sudanese Communist Party provides updated information on the situation in the country and condemns the new brutal crackdown unleashed by state forces against peaceful demonstrators. 

The statement reads:

Tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators took the streets of the capital and other major cities expressing their rejection of the political agreement reached and signed by the leader of the coup General Burhan and Prime Minister Hamadok. 

Sergei Kirov — An example of Bolshevism

Sergei Kirov, one of the most prominent party and state leaders in the Soviet Union in 1920-1930, a charismatic personality and close companion of Joseph Stalin, was murdered on 1st December 1934 aged 48.

Sergei Mironovich Kirov (real name Sergei Kostrikov) was born on 27 March 1886 in the city of Urzhum, Vyatka province (now Kirov region) in a middle-class family. Sergei lost his parents at an early age and was raised, along his two sisters Anna and Elizabeth, by his grandmother Melania Avdeyevna. He was sent to the "House of Charity for young orphans" and in 1901 he graduated from City College. He later joined the lower Mechanical and Technical School of Kazan. 

Greek-American resistance fighter Kostas Lekkas dies

Comrade Lekkas in his 100th birthday.

Kostas Lekkas, also known as Constantine "Gus" Lekas, a fighter of the Greek Resistance during World War II and a long-time member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), died in New York aged 102.

Comrade Lekkas was born on 7 July 1919 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. At the age of one, alongside his mother and siblings, he moved to Greece, settling at a village in Peloponnese. His father stayed in New York in order to work for a period of time but he was later killed in a car accident.

Dimitris Koutsoumbas — The struggle against “green” and “digital” capitalist barbarism

On Sunday 28 November, the European Communist Initiative held a teleconference titled "The communists at the forefront of the workers’–people’s struggle against “green” and “digital” capitalist barbarism, for the contemporary popular needs, for the real way out, socialism". 

Below you can read the introductory speech delivered by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas:

Joint statement of Communist Parties on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

Joint statement by the Palestinian People's Party (PPP) and the Communist Party of Israel, co-signed by many Communist and Workers' Parties, on the International Day for Solidarity with the Palestinian People:

Joint Statement of Communist and Workers parties on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 

Cuba: "Fidel Castro Ruz" Center inaugurated in Havana

On Thursday November 25, precisely five years after the physical departure of the Comandante en Jefe of the Cuban Revolution, the Fidel Castro Ruz Center was inaugurated on a night described by Army General Raul Castro Ruz as the most moving performance he had ever seen.

“I am still excited and, I confess one thing, I have cried like everyone here,” said Army General Raul Castro Ruz to the children of the La Colmenita theatre group who, on the evening of November 25, precisely five years after the physical departure of Cuba’s Comandante en Jefe, had the great responsibility of inaugurating the Fidel Castro Ruz Center.

Visite du Secrétaire général du KKE Koutsoumbas à Paris

Dimitris Koutsoumbas, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), will visit Paris on December 2-4, 2021. 

According to "Rizospastis" Koutsoumbas will pay a visit to Louvre museum on Thursday 2 December, while on Friday he will participate in a guided walk "on the footsteps of the Commune". On the same day he will lay a wreath at the Communards' Wall at the Père Lachaise cemetery where, on May 28, 1871, one-hundred and forty-seven fédérés, combatants of the Paris Commune, were shot and thrown in an open trench at the foot of the wall.

Turkish communists lead protests over price rises: "Stand up against expensiveness"

While the Turkish Lira collapses and the cost of living is rising day by day, demonstrators are taking the streets in Turkey's major cities in order to protest Erdogan government's economic policy.

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) is once again on the forefront of the protests, organizing rallies in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and other cities.

 “Our labor is exploited, our country is plundered. Our lives are being stolen with prices that change every day, with increasing bills. We have to resist for our life, for our future. Now is the time to stand up!”, reads a statement by the TKP which calls the working people to mobilize against the governmental policies. 

Communist Parties on the situation in Donbass: "Fascism can’t be healed!"

Left: Cartoon by Carlos Latuff (2014).

A number of Communist Parties and organizations from Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan undersign a joint statement about the situation in Donbass. 

 

Under the title "Fascism can't be healed", they call for internationalist workers' solidarity against the imperialists and their fascist puppets. 

The statement reads:

KKE event in Berlin: Only the people can save the people

Under the theme “Pandemic, high prices, competitions – Developments show that only the people can save the people”, the Central Europe Party Organization of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) organized on Saturday 20 November a political event at the premises of Greek community in Berlin.

The speaker at the event was Giorgos Marinos, KKE MP, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. Other attendants included KKE MEP and Central Committee member Kostas Papadakis, as well as representatives of the German Communist Party (DKP) and the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP). 

Austria: Communists slam government's policy on pandemic

In a statement titled "Lockdown for the unvaccinated: diversionary tactics and government failure", the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Austria (PdA) condemns the federal government's policy on the management of the pandemic situation.

The statement reads:

On the 15th of November 2021, the federal government imposed an Austria-wide "lockdown for the unvaccinated". The Party of Labour of Austria cannot agree to this measure and wants to state the following points in this regard:

European Communist Initiative: "The price rises in basic goods did not fall from the sky"

In a statement concerning the constant price rises in electricity, fuel and goods of popular consumption, the Secretariat of the Initiative of Communist and Workers' Parties stresses out:

In the recent period an acute rise in prices of different basic goods, including electricity, fuel, and other essential commodities is being registered. This situation, which is particularly worrying when we are on the threshold of winter season, is affecting the working class and the popular strata of our countries, who have been the victims of the bourgeois governments and their management of the recent crisis against the peoples.

The impact of AUKUS on international developments and the stance of the communists

By the International Relations Section of the
CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).

The tripartite “security” alliance between the US, Australia, and the UK under the name “AUKUS”, announced on 15/09/2021, constitutes a new important development in the structure of imperialist alliances.

What does this development mean and which additional tasks arise for the communist movement?

Ástor García re-elected General Secretary of the PCTE

On November 13 and 14 were held the plenary sessions of the 2nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE), called the Centennial Congress as a tribute to the founding, in November 1921, of the Communist Party of Spain as the Spanish Section of the Communist International.

Throughout the two days of debates, the delegates debated and unanimously approved the Political and Accountability Report, which analyzed the tasks carried out by the Party since the previous Congress, held in November 2017, the proposal of reform of the Statute of the Party and the Political Resolution which establishes the main tasks of the PCTE until the next Congress. Seven short resolutions on different issues were also approved unanimously.

Poland's communists blast governmental policy on refugees

“The Polish government's policy towards refugees failed and resulted in the death of at least a dozen people” points out the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) in a statement concerning the ongoing refugee crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border. 

 

“A government that is unable to resolve this crisis in a peaceful way should resign” adds the Communist Party, underlining that the foreign policy of Poland must change.

The KPP stresses out that “it shouldn't be forgotten that Poland, as a NATO member-state, had an instrumental role in the tragic situation affected by war, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan” and adds: “The refugees hope to reach Western European countries through Poland. These people often flee from Islamic fundamentalism, imperialism or the lack of prospects in their home country. Many migrants are Kurds who have become victims of Turkism imperialism in Syria and Iraq. Some have successfully fought against the Islamic State but, now, the U.S. has handed them over to Erdogan's regime which is occupying part of Syria's territory and carries out air strikes in northern Iraq”.

Greece: Massive anti-imperialist rallies in honor of the 1973 Polytechnic Uprising

Thousands of people took part in the annual rallies held in Athens, Thessaloniki and other major Greek cities by the Communist Party (KKE) and its youth wing (KNE) on Wednesday 17 November, in order to commemorate the 48th anniversary of the 1973 Polytechnic Uprising against the military Junta.

In Athens, the demonstrators marched peacefully through central streets of the Greek capital, shouted anti-imperialist slogans ("Since the Polytechnic, the enemy remains the same: NATO, governments, capitalism") and ended outside the U.S. Embassy where they burned flags of NATO and the United States.

The KKE pays tribute to the 48th anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic Uprising

By Nikos Mottas.

 

"This year's celebration of the Polytechnic uprising can become another link in the workers-people's struggle for education and work with humane conditions, protection measures for the health and life of the people, free time, income for a dignified life, for the rejection of any anti-labor - anti-popular law, for the condemnation of any bourgeois party, which, with the whip or carrot, deprives the workers and their families of the wealth they produce", the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) emphasizes in its statement on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the uprising of the Athens Polytechnic (read here the statement in Greek).

KKE: Statement for the refugee crisis in Belarus-EU borders

The KKE calls the people of Poland and Belarus, as well as the other people of the region, to turn their backs on nationalism and racism, to strengthen the solidarity with the people who are victims of imperialist wars and exploitation, points out a statement of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) concerning the dramatic situation in the Polish-Belarusian border.

More specifically, the statement (here in Greek) issued by the Press Bureau of the CC of the KKE reads:

Communist Party of Ireland on COP26: "There is no green capitalism possible"

In a statement about the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow, the Communist Party of Ireland stresses out:

"The future belongs to socialism and to those who fight for it.

The jamboree that was the COP26 closed and a statement issued to the press. Their carefully choreographed opinion pieces, the television news features of how “western democracies” are leading the fight to save the planet and the parcelling of selected nations as villains into neat packages to reassure the gullible that it is not capitalism that is the problem. Nothing has fundamentally changed.   

Belarus-Poland standoff: The lives of refugees are not a tool in imperialist antagonisms

In a statement about the tension in the Belarusian-Polish border the Secretariat of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) underlines that "the lives of refugees are not a tool in imperialist antagonisms" and calls for an end to the imperialist interventions which are the root of refugee-migrant crisis, The statement reads:

"The tension on the Belarusian border with Poland is intensifying every day at the expense of thousands of stranded migrants and refugees who are treated like a tennis-ball in the EU – USA – NATO geopolitical confrontation with Belarus and Russia.

KKE: Solidarity with Cuba - Imperialist plans will not pass!

In a statement concerning the new escalation of aggressive imperialist activities against Cuba, the International Relations Section of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) expresses its solidarity with the Cuban people, the government and the Communist Party of Cuba, pointing out out that “the new imperialist plans will not pass”.

More specifically the statement reads (here in Greek):