Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Hands Off the Communists of Poland: Protests across the world against persecutions in Poland

Protest at the Embassy of Poland in Athens. Source: 902.gr
With a protest at the Embassy of Poland in Athens, members of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and its youth wing KNE expressed their solidarity to the persecuted cadres of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) and the editors of “Brzask” newspaper. 

With a banner reading “Hands Off The Communists Of Poland”, the KKE-KNE members gathered outside the Embassy, demanding the ending of the persecutions that the Polish authorities have unleashed against the country’s communists. KKE MEP Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos and Paschalis Kagiannis, member of the CC of KNE, met with the Embassy’s minister councillor Jolanta Wójcik-Niedzielska handing over to her a note of protest. 

The KKE-KNE delegation denounced the unacceptable anti-communist campaign (which equates communism with nazism) and pointed out that the cadres of the CP of Poland were acquitted by the court on February 2019. The KKE members demanded the end of the persecutions against polish communists, so that the Communist Party will be able to participate freely, without obstacles and prohibitions, in the country’s political developments. 

AUSTRIA

PdA members outside the Embassy of Poland
in Vienna.
“No more falsification of history and political persecution in Poland! Solidarity with the Polish Communist Party!” was the major slogan at the rally of the Party of Labour (PdA), on March 2 in Vienna. 

During a speech, the Party’s Chairman Tibor Zenker refered to the effort of Polish authorities to falsify history and slander socialism, part of which are the persecutions against the CP of Poland. Zenker underlined that “the truth cannot be forbidden” and that “the struggle for peace, international friendship, women’s rights and and social progress cannot be forbidden”.

SPAIN

Members of the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE) and its youth wing, Collectives of Young Communists (CJC), protested at the Embassy of Poland in Madrid, denouncing the intention of the Polish government and the EU to rewrite history and equate communism with fascism. 

The PCTE-CJC members demanded the ending of the persecutions against the CP of Poland and “Brzask” newspaper, expressing their proletarian internationalism to their polish comrades. 

SERBIA

On March 3, a delegation of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) and the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) held a protest at the Embassy of Poland in Belgrade regarding the persecutions against cadres and members the members of the editorial board of the party's newspaper „Brzask” and the Communist Party of Poland.

The New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) denounces the unacceptable persecution by the Polish authorities and the Polish government against the members of the editorial board of the party's newspaper „Brzask”.

Similar anti-communist persecution, convictions and bans against CPs have also been imposed in other EU member states, with the open support of the EU which has elevated anticommunism into being its official ideology, something that goes hand in hand with the intensification of the anti-people onslaught. Now there is enough evidence so that everyone can understand what the EU's declarations about the "values of freedom and democracy" really mean.

We demand here and now the end of all anti-communist persecution cease! We demand that no other types of measures such as banning of symbols or destruction of monument should be taken, such as those being promoted by the government of Poland.  We will continue to resolutely express our solidarity with the Polish communists.

Hands off the communists!
March 3, 2020
International Relations Section of the CC of NKPJ.

Protest at the Embassy of Poland in
Mexico City.
MEXICO

Members of the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM) protested at the Polish Embassy in Mexico City, expressing their solidarity to the communists of Poland. 

THE PHILIPPINES

With a letter addressed to the Ambassador and the Charge d’ Affaires of the Embassy of Poland, the Central Committee of the Phillipines Communist Party (PKP-1930) protests the persecutions against the Communist Party of Poland. 

CHILE

In a statement published on March 2, the Communist Party of Chile condemns the persecutions against the Communist Party of Poland by the right and far-right Polish authorities. 

Responding to the anti-communist falsification of history, the CP of Chile points out that “it is impossible to hide that Poland was liberated by the Soviet Army and that thousands of Soviet and Polish communists gave their lives in this epic. It was the Red Army who liberated Auschwitz death camp 75 years ago”. 

In the statement, the Party also refers to the solidarity that Polish communists had shown to the struggle of the Chilean people against the Pinochet dictatorship.

THE NETHERLANDS

The New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN) and the Communist Youth Movement of the Netherlands (CJB) organised a protest at the Polish embassy in The Hague against the persecution of communists in Poland, and to express our solidaritywith Communist Party of Poland.
The Polish embassy did not receive us, but we delivered a letter expressing ourconcerns and demands. A speech was held to inform about the anti-communist policies of the Polish government and the European Union (see below). Members of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) living in the Netherlands joined the protest.
Solidarity with the Communist Party of Poland!
Stop anti-communism!
The struggle of the workers for a better future is not a crime!
BELGIUM
A protest by the Communist Party of Belgium (PCB-CPB) was held outside the Polish Embassy in Brussels on March 2nd. 
Members of the KKE Organisation in Belgium attended the event, while the Communist Revolutionary Party of France (PCRF) delivered a message. 
A speech was given by Julien Hannotte Morais, political secretary of the PCB-CPB.