European Communist Initiative: "Capitalism is responsible for Covid pandemic casualties"

In a statement, the Secretariat of the Initiative of Communist and Workers' Parties (European Communist Initiative) stresses out:

The Covid-19, which was first detected in late 2019 and declared as a worldwide pandemic in March 2020, has been going on for almost two years. During this period, 271 million people were infected, and more than 5 million people died due to Covid-19. The vast majority of deaths have been in the United States, which has the most market-oriented healthcare system in the world; however, “developed” European countries with big economies also lead the ranking of deaths.

Spain: PCTE communists expose government's celebrations over minimum wage increase

Spain will increase the national minimum wage by 3.6% to 1,167 euros ($1,334) per month, Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz said on Wednesday. Calling the increase “a very important milestone”, Diaz said that seeking to compete with other nations by pushing down salaries in the past had led to a weak economy and precarious businesses, and was profoundly unjust.

The social democratic government of Pedro Sanchez is trying to present this decision as a great success of pro-people policy. However the rise of inflation alone diminishes the increase and the minimum wage remains below the poverty line.

Dimitris Koutsoumbas: "Capitalist growth, by definition, is anti-popular in any management formula"

Capitalist growth, by definition, is anti-popular in any management formula, stressed Dimitris Koutsoumbas, the GS of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), speaking in Parliament on 02/02/22, noting that ND and SYRIZA with their “development” laws compete over how they will distribute billions of euros to the few by crushing the people.

Speaking about the new “development” law, he highlighted that the mockery must end and that the tale of capitalist development is the same old story that does not convince anyone. He added that growth is here, but wages —average and minimum— remain stagnant because capitalist growth is based on the intensification of the exploitation of workers.

Aspects of the ideological–political struggle in the ranks of the international communist movement

Article by the International Relations Section of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) about the recent international teleconference of the CPs:

Recently, in conditions of an ongoing 5th wave of the pandemic, an Extraordinary Teleconference of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties was held under the responsibility of the CP of Greece (KKE) and the CP of Turkey (TKP). The developments confirm that bourgeois governments were not able to tackle the coronavirus pandemic to the benefit of the workers. Moreover, the restrictions on travelling from one country to another hindered in-person meetings. This negative development is rooted in the enormous deficiencies in the public healthcare systems as a result of the anti-popular policy followed by governments serving the capital. 

Brazilian Communist Party: "The crisis generated by the pandemic evidenced the superiority of Socialism"

The text below is the contribution of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) to the Extraordinary Teleconference of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties (IMCWP) which was held on 10-11 December 2021:

"Dear Comrades: Receive the fraternal and revolutionary greetings of the Brazilian Communist Party, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. We recently successfully held our XVI Congress. The PCB is organized throughout the country and it’s present in the struggles of the workers and the youth.

30 years later, 63% of Russians regret the dissolution of the Soviet Union

Thirty years since the victory of the counterrevolution and the overthrow of socialism in the Soviet Union, the supposed "heaven" that capitalism would bring in Russia has been proved nothing more than a deception.

The deeply anti-worker policies of the bourgeois governments, from Boris Yeltsin to the current administration of Vladimir Putin, leads more and more Russians to consider what they lost after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Huge social achievements were abolished, the rich became richer and the poor became poorer, while the income for the working class families shrinks year by year. Capitalism has shown its real, repulsive, barbaric face to the working people of Russia. 

USA: No more workers’ blood for the profits of the bosses!

More than 90 people were killed in several states across the U.S. after tornadoes and heavy rains hit the region. Among them are six employees at AMAZON warehouse in St. Louis, Illinois, were roof collapsed and eight workers at a candle factory in Kentucky. 

In a statement, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and its militant trade unions across the world pledge "to continue the struggle for all necessary measures to protect workers from natural disasters and extreme weather events, measures that the US do not take because they consider them as a “cost”. 

30th anniversary of the dissolution of the USSR: "Socialism remains the future and the only way out for the people"

“Socialism remains the future and the only actual way out for the people” underlined Kostas Papadakis, MEP of the Communist Party of Greece (ΚΚΕ) during his intervention at the debate on the “30th anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet Union” held in the Plenary Session of the European Parliament.

In his intervention (here in Greek), the KKE MEP said:

USA: The decay of capitalist education in 24 seconds (VIDEO)

The rottenness and humiliation that follows the commercialization of education has no end!

This is where the measures promoted in our schools, in our children, as supposedly modernizing and innovative, the policy of converting schools into Corporations, in search of “benefactors”, “sponsors” etc.

This policy, which has been fully implemented in the United States and has led to the complete dissolution of Public Education, the categorization of schools, bankruptcies and school closures, has the “proud” of the example that follows.

This is capitalism! Better.com CEO fires 900 employees over Zoom after getting $750 million from SoftBank

We read on CNN: "Better.com CEO Vishal Garg announced the mortgage company is laying off about 9% of its workforce on a Zoom webinar Wednesday abruptly informing the more than 900 employees on the call they were being terminated just before the holidays.

"If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off", Garg said during a Zoom call. "The market changed, as you know, and we have to move with it in order to survive, so that hopefully we can continue to thrive and deliver on our mission,” the CEO pointed out. “This isn’t news that you’re going to want to hear. But ultimately it was my decision and I wanted you to hear from me". 

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.

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.

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.   

Socialism or Extinction: YCL on COP26 protests in Glasgow

In a statement concerning the protests against the COP26 summit in Glasgow, the Central Committee of the Young Communist League of Britain (YCL) stresses out the following:

"Yesterday the Young Communist League joined thousands of protestors in opposing the sham COP26 meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. As has been noted in the national media and by many online, we were surrounded by a police line that engaged in arbitrary confrontations with us throughout the day. They opposed our right to march with no reason given to us or legal observers, clearly seeing us as a credible threat. 

USSR 2.0: Half of Russians would prefer the Soviet system

Thirty years after the counterrevolution and the restoration of capitalism in Russia, the prestige of socialism remains in high levels despite the waves of anti-communist propaganda.

 

A recent poll conducted by Levada Center comes to confirm that more and more Russians appreciate the significant achievements of the socialist period.

According to the survey, which was conducted between 19 and 26 August 2021, half of Russians (49%) would prefer the Soviet political system. This is the highest number since the early 2000s. Only 18% chose the current political system, while 16% believe that the best political system is “the Western model of democracy”. 

Communists in Vienna: "We are not paying for your crisis!"

“We are not paying for your crisis”. Under this campaign slogan, the Party of Labour of Austria (PdA) organized on Saturday 3 October a political rally at the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce at Wiedener Hauptstrasse in Vienna. In the coming weeks and months the party will intervene with a campaign which, among others, will focus on the collective bargaining and will try to expose the treacherous role of the social democratic labor aristocracy.

Speeches at the PdA rally were delivered by Tibor Zenker, the party's chairman, as well as Raffael Schöberl, former chairman of the Communist Youth of Austria (KJÖ). 

Europe floods: The tragic results of capitalist development

Europe's death toll from catastrophic flooding rose to at least 199 on Monday with hard-hit west Germany and Belgium reeling from the devastation. Nearly 300 people remain unaccounted for in Germany and Belgium, officials announced. 

There are at least 163 dead in Germany, according to authorities. The hardest-hit areas in Germany are Rhineland-Palatinate, where 117 have been killed in the flooding and in North Rhine-Westphalia, where at least 46 people died and 138 remain unaccounted for, the Koblenz Police and the German Ministry of Interior said.

COVID Vaccines: Communist Parties say "No" to patents

On the issue of the patent for the COVID-19 vaccines, more than 60 Communist and Workers' Parties have issued the following statement:

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a great tragedy for more than a year now. In this period, in many countries, millions of workers have caught the disease, losing their health, their jobs or even their lives. On the other hand, in the same time frame, some companies that have sold the essential needs food, hygienic materials, masks and finally, vaccines, as commodities, have become among the wealthiest in the world. The capitalist class has turned the pandemic into an opportunity for greater exploitation of workers in order to make more profits. 

Communist Party of Britain: The European Super League is an assault on the game of the working class

With the following comment, posted on its social media accounts under the title "Listen to fans and players", the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) denounces the "European Super League" formed exclusively by major football clubs. 

The comment reads:

"The Super League proposal is an attempt by the wealthy clubs to establish a perpetual monopoly and to resolve their debt issues: Barcelona are £1bn in debt and in financial crisis. Real Madrid could not afford one big signing last summer, Juventus have to find around £100m by the end of June. Internazionale’s owners sought emergency funding in February.

Forbes list of wealthiest parasites in times of pandemic

While billions of people around the world have been affected, on way or another, by the Coronavirus pandemic, capitalists are becoming richer. While the world's working class is suffering from increasing exploitation, mass layoffs, decline in living standards and lockdowns, the big capital enjoys more and more profits. The 2021 Forbes list of billionaires is quite revealing about the situation:

“The number of billionaires on Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest exploded to an unprecedented 2,755 — 660 more than a year ago. Of those, a record high 493 were new to the list — roughly one every 17 hours.