Bernie Sanders is America's "Tsipras"

Special to In Defense of Communism.

Let's get directly to the point: Many progressive americans support Bernie Sanders because they can't stand the Republicans or Hillary Clinton. The possibility of a Trump presidency is a nightmare, while Mrs.Clinton is nothing but the continuity of Barack Obama's administration. Senator Sanders has been presented in various ways: socialist, social-democrat, democratic socialist etc. Even Sanders himself has called himself a "socialist". But, does he really know the meaning of "socialism"? Is he confused with the political terminology or he does that by purpose?

Senator Sanders has as much relation to Socialism as Alexis Tsipras does. Tsipras, the leader of SYRIZA and current Prime Minister of Greece, was elected based on radical slogans, socialist rhetoric and illusions about "humanizing Capitalism". What Tsipras' government did is well known: he signed a new bailout agreement with the creditors and applied the same- and in some cases even harder- austerity measures. In fact, he did what his conservative predecessors did. 

The international economic crisis and the position of Greece - The theses of KKE

The international economic crisis  the position of Greece. 

The theses of KKE / By Eleni Bellou.

Source: International Communist Review, Issue 1, July 2014.

The international capitalist economy is going through a profound crisis characterized mainly by its extensive synchronization. It initially manifested itself in 2007 in the USA, in the construction sector, with the depreciation of capital in financial companies, due to the extensive circulation of investment derivatives in securitized precarious housing loans.

The danger of collapse of US financial giants -that hold powerful positions in the international market of money capital- caused a gradual and generalized large decrease of prices in the most important stock markets in the world. It was the “tip of the iceberg” in the manifestation of a generalized crisis of overproduction, overaccumulation of capital.

An optimistic version of the current data and assessments of the international economic organisations pinpoint 2010 as the year of the lowest point of recession. An increase of the number of unemployed by 25 million has already been registered and it is estimated that another 40 millions will be added by the end of the year. In 2009, the Gross World Product is expected to shrink by 1,7% according to the World Bank and by 2,75% according to the OECD. The latter estimates that the international trade will shrink by 13,2% in 2009.

The International Monetary Fund estimates the depreciation of money capital to 4,1 trillion dollars since the manifestation of the crisis.

It's not just Trump; It's Imperialism, stupid!

Special to the In Defense of Communism.

The enemies of Donald Trump have used numerous words in order to describe the multi-millionaire republican presidential candidate: "Bully", "arrogant", "racist", "misogynist", "intolerant", "narcissist" etc. Maybe Trump is, indeed, all the above. But the major issue isn't Trump's character or the way he presents himself in the media. The primary issue- the one that the working class in the US should be aware of- is the following: How the 'Trump phenomenon' was born and what feeds it? 

On that point it would be useful to clarify that the so-called 'Donald Trump phenomenon', independently of the result in November's presidential election, is not an unprecedented or incomprehensible phenomenon in the world's major imperialist power. The rise of Trump reflects the interests of a significant part of US capital which, especially in times of inter-imperialist contradictions, choose to promote specific personalities for the political leadership.