Gorbachev appointed as Russia's chief negotiator on Ukraine - Kremlin confirms

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, has been appointed as the head of the Russian team of negotiators on Ukraine, following a decision by President Vladimir Putin.

“Mr Gorbachev is a very experienced politician, with a successful background, as well as a personal friend of President Putin” said Kremlin's spokeman Dmitry Peskov, adding that “the President has always admired Mr Gorbachev's skills in crisis management and advertising. See for example how smoothly he led the USSR to disaster, but also his outstanding performance in Pizza Hut's commercial”. 

Ukraine's cultural heritage monuments destroyed: KKE submits question to the EU Commission

The destruction of the cultural heritage in Ukraine and other countries, as a consequence of the imperialist war, is the subject of a written question submitted to the European Commission by the EU Parliament Group of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). 

A recent example is the Russian bombing of Freedom Square and the Palace of Labor in Kharkiv, which are soviet-built structures that are heritage sites of international significance. 

Alexandra Kollontai — Communism and the Family

By Alexandra Kollontai

Women’s role in production: its effect upon the family

Will the family continue to exist under communism? Will the family remain in the same form? These questions are troubling many women of the working class and worrying their menfolk as well. Life is changing before our very eyes; old habits and customs are dying out, and the whole life of the proletarian family is developing in a way that is new and unfamiliar and, in the eyes of some, “bizarre”. No wonder that working women are beginning to think these questions over. Another fact that invites attention is that divorce has been made easier in Soviet Russia. 

Sweden's Communist Party (SKP) denounces vandalism of its offices in Malmö

In a statement issued on Tuesday morning the Communist Party of Sweden (SKP) denounces the vandalism of its offices in the city of Malmö. The vandals graffitied the phrase “Weapons for the Ukrainian people” in the premises' entrance adding the anarchist symbol.

According to the Party's newspaper Riktpunkt the attack, which took place on Monday night, is a reaction to the SKP's consistent refusal to take sides in Ukraine's inter-imperialist conflict between the Euro-Atlantic forces and Russia. “In a war between thieves, we don't choose sides”, a party statement reads. 

KKE declines to attend Zelensky's address to Greek Parliament

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) will not participate in the Parliament's special session on April 7th, in which Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky will address the body, 902 portal has reported.

The KKE points out that “Zelensky represents a reactionary government backed by the US-NATO-EU camp and, like Russia, is responsible for the drama of the Ukrainian people”. 

German Christian Democrats want to destroy Ernst Thälmann's monument in Berlin

In a provocative attempt to link Communism with the Russian invasion in Ukraine, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) local faction in Berlin has expressed its wish to bring down the monument dedicated to the great German revolutionary leader Ernst Thälmann. 

District deputies representing the CDU has submitted a motion under the name "No honor for enemies of democracy - dismantle the Ernst Thälmann monument!"  and pledge to donate the money from the selling of the melted material to the victims of war in Ukraine. 

Joint anti-NATO demonstration by Serbian and Greek communists in Belgrade

Photos credit: nkpj.org.rs

A large anti-imperialist protest organized by the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ), the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ), the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) took place on Saturday 26 March in Belgrade.

The protest was held in front of the famous building of the Ministry of Defense (General Staff) which was heavily damaged by NATO bombs in 1999, on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of NATO's criminal intervention against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Friends from the Serbian-Cuban Friendship Association and the League of Communists of Serbia also attended the gathering.

Brazilian Communist Party marks its 100th anniversary

Today, 25th March 2022, the political vanguard of Brazil's working class, the Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Brasileiro-PCB), marks its 100th anniversary.

"Created in 1922 by militant workers and intellectuals who organized the first strikes of the working class at the beginning of the 20th century against capitalist exploitation and the oppression of the bourgeois state, inspired by the victorious socialist revolution in Russia in 1917 and its achievements, the communists of the PCB built a new benchmark for the political struggle of the working class, establishing itself as an organization that sought to boost the class struggle under a revolutionary perspective towards socialism", reads a declaration by the Party's National Political Committee. 

TKP: Turkey should leave NATO immediately!

In a statement issued on Thursday 24 March, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) underlines the necessity of Turkey's disengagement from the "criminal and bloodthirsty terrorist organization" called NATO. 

The statement reads:

"Today, during the NATO Leaders Summit, G7 and EU meetings held in the first month of the Russian Federation’s military action against Ukraine, decisions for more support for Ukraine against possible nuclear and other attacks and new sanctions against Russia were issued.

KKE responds to Paul Mason's slanderous remarks

Comment of the International Relations Section of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) about the slanderous remarks made by British journalist Paul Mason in the Danish newspaper "Information":

Love for the EU and NATO can make you blind...

"The international mouthpieces of social democracy seem to be working under the most adverse of circumstances. Among them is Paul Mason, member of the Labour Party in the UK, former Corbyn’s errand boy, writer, and former journalist, who decided to address the issue of the “European Left” in his article published in the broadsheet newspaper “Information” in Denmark.

Swaziland police kidnap Communist Party member

In a statement issued on Wednesday 23 March, the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) denounces the kidnapping of its member, Bongi Nkambule, by police forces.  This incident is added to the kidnapping of children by Swaziland's security forces a few days ago in Lubuluni community.  

 

The Communist Party of Swaziland's statement reads:

"Wednesday 23 March 2022:- Today, around 13:00, Mswati's police kidnapped Communist Party member, Bongi Nkambule - fondly known among his comrades as "Comrade Bongo".

PCTE: On the Spanish government's change of stance about Western Sahara

Statement by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE) on the Spanish Government's change of stance about Western Sahara:

The Spanish Government, via a letter signed by Pedro Sánchez, has modified the official stance on the conflict in Western Sahara, thus supporting the stance held by Morocco all over the years —Sahara would become an autonomous province within the Alawite kingdom.

Stepan Malentsov on Ukraine war: "The fundamental solution of the problem is only on the path of socialism"

Commenting on the developments in the Ukraine war, the First Secretary of the CC of the Communist Workers' Party of Russia (RWCP) Stepan Malentsov pointed out the following:

"I would strongly advise everyone to pay attention to the fact that the majority of the media talk less about the task of denazification, i.e. about the eradication of Nazism, fascism of the Bandera modification. It is understandable. This issue is much more complex than just demilitarization, i.e. destruction of military infrastructure during hostilities and further disarmament under pressure from the prevailing force.  

Ukraine's decommunization and the rise of fascism

By Nikos Mottas.

The process of the so-called “decommunization” in Ukraine was introduced during the first years of the restoration of capitalism in the USSR and included the slandering and erasing of anything related to the Soviet period and the construction of socialism.

This term was also used by the President of today's capitalist Russia, Vladimir Putin, in his anti-communist statement prior to the invasion, saying characteristically that “we are ready to show you what genuine decommunization means for Ukraine”. It is not a coincidence that anti-communism is a common feature of both the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev as well as the leadership of capitalist Russia, at a time when the two sides are waging a bloody war against the people on behalf of their bourgeois classes.

Sign the Petition: Freedom to Kononovich Brothers!

All comrades/friends/readers are kindly requested to sign and share the Petition demanding the immediate release of Mikhail and Aleksander Kononovich, members of the Leninist Communist Youth of Ukraine who have been arrested by the Ukrainian authorities on March 7th, 2022. 

Also, send emails and letters to your local Ukrainian Embassy or Consulate (check a list below) to protest the unacceptable and unjust detention of Kononovich brothers. 

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

The full text of the Petition:

Resolution of the CC of the KKE on the Imperialist War in Ukraine

Read below the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) on the Imperialist War in Ukraine in three languages (ENGLISH, RUSSIAN, SPANISH).

 

RESOLUTION OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE KKE
ON THE IMPERIALIST WAR IN UKRAINE

1. The KKE, from the very first moment, denounced the Russian invasion of Ukraine and expressed its solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

Oskar Lafontaine resigns from Die Linke

Oskar Lafontaine, one of Germany's prominent social democratic politicians, has left Die Linke, the party he co-founded in 2007. 

 

“I wanted there to be a left-wing alternative to the politics of social insecurity and inequality on the political spectrum, which is why I co-founded Die Linke. Today's left has given up that claim” the 78-year-old politician announced on Thursday in Saarbrücken.

According to Lafontaine, the background is “the gradual change in the political profile of the left” from 2015. It has become a party “in which the interests of employees and pensioners and a foreign policy based on international law and peace are no longer the focus”. 

Kemal Okuyan: Who will stop NATO?

The following article was published earlier this month, in the midst of the war in Ukraine, by Kemal Okuyan, General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP):

 

WHO WILL STOP NATO?

“NATO is not an organization, a force, or an alliance system that can be defeated militarily.” We have been stating this since the Russian armies entered Ukraine. 

The world’s plunge into ever increasing darkness and the fact that the international working class movement has for a long time been in retreat undoubtedly leads people to despair and the tendency to fall for the first “remedy” they come across.

British communists say "No to Putin's war, no to NATO"!

Britain's Communists have reiterated their opposition to Russian president Putin's invasion of Ukraine and urged people to step up the campaign for a ceasefire and a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

'The working class and peoples of Ukraine, Russia and elsewhere will not be the winners of this war', Carol Stavris told the Communist Party's executive committee at the weekend. The CP women's organiser highlighted the huge and lasting impact of the Russian offensive on hundreds of thousands of women and children fleeing Ukraine.

D. Koutsoumbas: "The people of Ukraine have become a punching bag among ruthless imperialists"

On 14 March, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), delivered a speech at a political rally in Corinth, noting, among other things: “More than 10 years have passed and the Greek people are still paying for the successive capitalist crises with impoverishment, three memoranda, and hundreds of anti-popular and anti-labour laws. They also pay for the recovery by constantly making new sacrifices to shield the profitability of a few business groups.

Now they are being told that they must pay the price of Greece’s participation in imperialist war. To pay ‘the price of participation in the war for freedom’, as the Prime Minister, K. Mitsotakis, said.

Putin is one of yours, western hypocrites!

The following comment was first published in "Rizospastis", the daily newspaper of the CC of KKE, under the title "Putin is one of their own":

All those who today denounce Putin's “authoritarianism”, in order to cover up their crimes against the people, are the same ones who were celebrating when a “liberal” and “democrat” was taking over as Russia's Prime Minister back in August 1999, at the behest of the then President Yeltsin who played a key role in the dissolution of the former USSR in line with US-NATO imperialism.

Austria: Marxist-Leninist youth front was formed

In March 2022 the new youth organisation of the Party of Labour Austria will start its activities. It bears the name "Youth Front of the Party of Labour" (in short: Youth Front; German: Jugendfront) and functions as a Marxist-Leninist organisation of working and learning youth and young people in Austria. 

 

The first step is the founding campaign "Youth in a common front - get organised!". Youth and young people are to be addressed, politicised and organised with the campaign. It will conclude with the founding congress, which is expected to take place in autumn 2022. 

Ukraine: Communist Youth Union members beaten badly, remain detained in Kiev

Mikhail and Aleksander Kononovich, both members of the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine are still alive, according to updated information given by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY).

More specifically, a recent post by the WFDY reads: 

"Finally, after 6 days without any news, we have received an update on the situation of comrades Kononovich. 

-They are arrested in a pre-trial detention centre in Kiev. 

Russian communist lawmakers condemn Ukraine war

 Oleg Smolin, Mikhail Matveyev, Vyacheslav Markhaev

Three Communist Party members of the Russian Duma, Oleg Smolin, Mikhail Matveyev and Vyacheslav Markhaev have expressed their condemnation for the military attack against Ukraine. 

 

Despite the official position of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) which views positively the government's war campaign, the three lawmakers joined the anti-war movement in Russia by publicly denouncing the launching of a full-scale war by President Vladimir Putin.