Joint Statement by NCPN and TKP: To the working people of Netherlands and Turkey

Joint Statement by the New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN) and the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP).

To the working people of Netherlands and Turkey.

A crisis is being practiced between the two countries reflecting the rude nature of the bourgeoisie politicians, so severe that we have not observed for many years. Now, they provoke and play with nationalistic emotions among the people and they try to benefit politically out of this tension being escalated.

However, we know that the politicians who are the heroes of this crisis resulting in the crisis reaching scandal dimension have been attacking their own working people and that they have put their signatures under policies extorting the rights of the proletariat. Both parts represent the bourgeoisie class and exploitative monopolies.

Turkey's Communist Party (TKP) unleashes new attack against Tayyip Erdogan

Photo credit: In Defense of Communism.

With a statement the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) bashes the AKP government of Tayip Erdogan. 

How much more will you humiliate this country? Get out of here!

Everyone is aware of the tensions between the AKP and several European countries. 

This international scandal is nothing but vileness done by a fundamentalist gang which considers its own interests, future, and destiny over the country’s destiny. 

Communists in Greece and Turkey denounce nationalist "cockfights" over the Aegean

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos and Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu
have been engaged in a warfare of nationalist and provocative statements over the Aegean.

Ankara and Athens resurrect old nationalist tension, writes soL international:

"Greece will do everything to prevent Turkey from getting to its territory", Greek Minister of National Defense Panos Kammenos said Sunday, adding that Greece is ready to rebuff Ankara in a case of any provocation. After his statement, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called the Greek minister "a spoiled child". 

New Developments in Political Economy: The Demise of “Globalization”

New Developments in Political Economy: The Demise of “Globalization”.

By Zoltan Zigedy.

“Globalization” is a slippery term: 1. Sometimes it is used as a description of the quantitative changes in the global economy that emerged in the 1980s. 2. Sometimes it is used to express a set of policy prescriptions that gained traction in that same period. 3. Sometimes it is used to name a theory positing a new era, epoch, or stage of capitalism, a qualitative change in the way that contemporary capitalism functions.

And sometimes the word is used in all three senses:

KKE: People’s struggle for a united Cyprus without guarantors and protectors

Source: inter.kke.gr.

The Party Organization of the KKE in Cyprus held on Saturday the 11^th of February a meeting in Lefkosia (Nicosia), Cyprus with as its theme the positions of the KKE on the Cyprus issue. Giorgos Marinos, member of the PB of the CC of the KKE, spoke at the meeting.

His speech was as follows:

“The KKE is preparing for the 20^th Congress which will be held between 30^th of March and 2^nd of April and there is an ongoing creative dialogue- on the basis of the theses of the CC- in which members and friends are participating, a large number of working people.

The major objective of the Theses of the CC and the final decisions of the Congress is the all-round ideological-political-organizational steeling of the KKE and its Youth, as a Party of revolutionary overthrow. This steeling is a necessary precondition in order to carry out the complex tasks of the labour movement's recasting, the struggle against imperialist war, the building of social alliance towards an anticapitalist, antimonopoly direction aimed at workers' power.

Theses and tasks of TKP: Erdogan, capitalism and imperialist contradictions

THESES and TASKS of the COMMUNIST PARTY of TURKEY.

On the Presidency, the orientation of the capitalism in Turkey and the contradictions with in the imperialist world.

KKE: Greek and Turkish workers must fight together against the bourgeois classes

The Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued a statement regarding yesterday's violation of the Greek maritime borders by Turkish warships. More specifically, the statement says:

"The KKE denounces the violation of  the Greek maritime borders, in the area of Imia, by Turkish warships in the presence of the heads of the Turkish armed forces, which took place on Sunday 29th of January.

This action- 21 years after the Imia crisis- consists a dangerous development added to the successive violations of the Greek air and maritime space, the challenging of the Treaty of Lausanne which defines the Greek-Turkish borders, the threats which Ankara fired recently, after the decision of the Supreme Court for the non-extradition of the 8 Turkish military officers who asked for protection-asylum in our country.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: His revolutionary legacy remains alive and timely

By Nikos Mottas.

It was in the dawn of January 21, 1924, 93 years ago, when the heart of the greatest revolutionary in history, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, stopped beating. Lenin, the leader of the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution and architect of the first socialist state in the world, was 54 years old.

The name of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is identified with two dialectically connected issues. On the one hand, there is his revolutionary activity and practice as the leader of the 20^th century's most significant event- the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution. On the other hand, there is his theoretical work which is the development of the revolutionary theory of Marx and Engels in the era of Imperialism. That extraordinary combination of revolutionary theory and practice makes Lenin a unique personality in history who, 93 years after his death, remains “alive” in the collective memory and hearts of the working class people across the world.

Communist Party of Mexico- The class character of interstate unions in America

Class character of interstate unions in America.

By Pável Blanco Cabrera & Angel Chávez Mancilla*.

Source: International Communist Review, Issue 6, 2015.

A class approach that puts aside populist criteria is necessary, and this is done on a scientific basis, using the Marxist method of analysing reality, considering the degree of development of capitalism, the process of concentration and centralization in the imperialist phase, emphasizing what is general, without neglecting the peculiarities, and avoiding to place the part above the all. Marxist doctrine establishes the mutual connection between the phenomena of nature and society rather than analyse them in isolation. As V.S. Molodtsov noted "to deny the interdependence of phenomena goes against the possibility of knowledge as a single whole, as opposed to metaphysics Marxism-Leninism developed a truly scientific method of knowledge and transformation of reality. This method requires, first of all, considering all the phenomena of nature and society in mutual connection and interdependence"[1]. 

Obama's Legacy of War and Imperialist Crimes

When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, he had been presented by various media as a "peace pigeon", as a man whose "humanitarian spirit" would- supposedly- give an end to the bloody imperialist wars waged by the Bush administration. However, the presidency of Barack Obama proved, once more, the undoubted fact that the U.S. foreign policy isn't based on persons, but on the interests of the plutocracy, the monopoly interests of the United States. 

In his farewell speech in Chicago yesterday, President Obama praised the "values" of the United States which, as he said, "become more powerful when democracy works" and "when ordinary people participate in this". During his presidency, Barack Obama proved what kind of "values" he represents- these "values" are very well known to the people in the Middle East, in northern Africa and Ukraine where his government was involved.

A brief account of- Nobel Prize winner-Obama's foreign policy record is the following:

"Islamic State" (ISIS): A tool in the hands of Imperialism

Photo source: Bēhance.net.

The history of exploitative societies has shown that religious and ethnic differences and contradictions, either existed or fomented, were always been utilized to promote the interests of the ruling classes – many times they consisted the formation through which substantial class contradictions were manifested. 

In the history of capitalism and the imperialist system, the emerging bourgeoisies often wore the cloak of religion and many other imperialist powers have used religious conflicts in order to impose their designs against their competitors. The region of the Middle East is full of examples. 

From the late 19th century until today, we have seen many cases of religious movements which have been utilized by bourgeois forces for the creation of reactionary murderous organizations, from the “Taliban” and the “Mujahideen” in Afghanistan to the recent case of ISIS (also known as ISIL or Daesh). Of course, to some extend, in the process, these organizations may become autonomous from their creators or continue to operate in coordination with them. However, what is important is that without the support from imperialist mechanisms, without access to state mechanisms, their activity could not have such large dimensions and impact.

The notorious murderers of the “Islamic State” (ISIS/Daesh) do not consist a new phenomenon. The relation of such “organizations” and “movements” with european and american monopolies is a very old one. If we go back to 1928, we will see that the french company (Suez Canal) had supported the strengthening of the newly-founded “Muslim Brotherhood” in Egypt. 

Nonetheless, the best known case of mercenaries who used Islam as a cover for terrorist activities towards the promotion of US monopolies, can be found in Afghanistan in the beginning of 1980s. Zbigniew Brezinski, National Security advisor of President Carter from 1977 to 1981, was one of the masterminds behind the recruitment and training of Afghanistan's Mujahideen (predecessors of Taliban and Al-Qaeda) against the Soviet Union. Among these anti-Soviet “warriors” recruited by the United States was Osama Bin Laden. In the name of anti-communism, the US imperialism with the support of its NATO allies, created the monster which later was transformed into Al-Qaeda.

After the attacks of September 11th 2001, the “war against islamic terrorism” became the pretext for imperialist invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The foundations for the creation of ISIS can be found in the destruction of Iraq after the 2003 imperialist invasion. The US-led war in Iraq which was followed by the total destruction of the Iraqi state and the complete dissolution of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party created the seed for the rise of ISIS jihadists.

The leader of the Islamic State (formerly Islamic State of Iraq), the Iraqi sunni muslim Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been arrested by US Forces-Iraq on 2 February 2004 near Fallujah and detained at the Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca detention centers under his name Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badry as a "civilian internee" until December 2004, when he was recommended for release by a Combined Review and Release Board, while in December 2004, he was released as a "low level prisoner". Right after al-Baghdadi was freed, the Islamic State emerged out of nowhere and rapidly took over important swaths of Iraq and Syria.

US Senator John McCain meeting with members of the Syrian opposition.
Who is the man in the red circle?

There is strong evidence that al-Baghdadi was recruited, trained and financed by mechanisms of the U.S. secret services and Arab governments. His participation in meetings with US Senator- and US Presidential candidate John McCain- has been captured in published photographs. What seems to be closer to reality is that al-Baghdadi was used in the beginning as a supposedly “moderate” sunni of political Islam. The rise of al-Baghdadi and ISIS came as the result of a combination of developments in the broader region of the Middle East, including the imperialist war in Libya, the events of the so-called “Arab Spring” and the US-NATO imperialist intervention in Syria.

The 2011 imperialist intervention in Syria wasn't proved as easy as the U.S government and its regional allies (Turkey, Saudi Arabia) hoped it would be. The plans for the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad's government were proved unsuccessful. The Assad government proved much stronger than the respective authorities of Mubarak in Egypt and Qaddafi in Libya. Nonetheless, the so-called “Arab Spring” had already paved the way for the rise of reactionary forces-tools in the hands of the imperialists, like ISIS.

From 2011 onward, the US and their European and regional allies (Saudi Arabia, Turkey etc), started to supply extremists and terrorists fighting the government of Syria with billions in cash, weapons, equipment, and even vehicles. Multiple publications in the western press had admitted this. Behind the “moderate Syrian opposition” it was the ISIS and other extremist forces, trained, equipped and financed by the secret services of the US, EU member-states, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Qatar. In a few words, the savage murderers of ISIS became part of an imperialist equation in Syria which serves the interests of the monopolies of the states involved in the war.

The Independent, 6 December 1993: Osama Bin Laden, the Anti-Soviet warrior.

The multiple terrorist attacks claimed by ISIS (e.g. Paris, Nice, Istanbul, Berlin, Brussels etc) in Europe, Turkey and elsewhere have added fuel to the fire of repression and intensification of security policies. The “monster of ISIS” has been exploited by bourgeois governments in order to spread fear in societies and strengthen the repressive state mechanisms against the people and the labour movement, to foster xenophobia and racism and to escalate more imperialist interventions. Of course, nobody can reject the possibility that groups within ISIS may operate independently from their imperialist patrons; however, this does not change the nature of the jihadists as a tool of imperialist mechanisms.

The future of ISIS depends on several factors: The developments in the inter-imperialist contradictions and rivalries in the broader region (e.g. US/EU vs Russia) as well as the political and social developments in regional powers (e.g. Turkey, Iran). The people of the region, the working class in the countries affected by the imperialist wars, must organize their struggle against the jihadists and their patrons, the imperialists. For that, it is essential for the masses to understand that the source of this situation is the power of the monopolies and the exploitative system which creates poverty, despair and wars.

IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM ©

Elisseos Vagenas (KKE): The struggle for a united Cyprus must continue

The ongoing developments regarding the Cyprus Issue were the major subject of an interview given by Elisseos Vagenas, member of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and responsible for the Party's International Relations department, on the Voice of Greece radio.

As Vagenas pointed out, the bazaars for the "solution" plan move towards the creation of a new Annan Plan, which conditions the creation of two constituent states and, in fact, consists a dichotomοus solution, with occupational forces, foreign bases and guarantor powers remaining in the island.

He underlined that the actual basis of the bazaars is the dangerous developments in south eastern Mediterranean and in the Middle East and that the promoted solution in Cyprus could become the "pattern" for the occupation of other lands in Syria or Iraq.

Internationalist solidarity by the WFTU and PAME to the Workers and the People of Turkey

On the occasion of the recent deadly attack in Istanbul, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) issued the following statement of solidarity to the working class of Turkey:

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the WFTU which represents 92 million members in 126 countries of the world, we convey our condolences to the families of the victims in Reina Club in Istanbul.

We express our internationalist solidarity and our support to the militant trade union movement in Turkey and to the Turkish workers. The murder of the 39 people reveals the responsibility of the principals that are killing civilians, innocent and ordinary people. For this situation in Turkey and in Middle East abettors also exist; these are the governments which take advantage of the fundamentalism in order to put in action their plans and their anti-labor policies.

KKE: Statement regarding the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Turkey and the Berlin attack

Regarding the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Ankara and the deadly attack in Berlin, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement:

"The KKE condemns the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Ankara, as well as the deadly attack in Berlin.

These actions, regardless the especial objectives of the perpetrators, consist a component of the imperialist war in the 21st century and that applies regardless of the extend to which the activity of such organisations is formed under the support or tolerance of imperialist centers or it is manifested as an element of autonomy of these forces from any powerful centers that strengthened them in the past.

Solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people - للتضامن مع النضال العادل للشعب الفلسطيني

Source: inter.kke.gr.

The event organized by the Attica Party Organization of the KKE in cooperation with the Palestinian Embassy at the "Alkyonis" cinema on the evening of Sunday 11/12 sent warm militant greetings to the Palestinian people and also sent a message calling for the intensification of internationalist solidarity with them.

Kostas Papadakis (KKE MEP)- No trust in any bourgeois government, any bourgeois class, any imperialist alliance

Source: inter.kke.gr.

Kostas Papadakis, member of the CC and MEP, in the introductory speech of the KKE at the international seminar of the KKE's delegation to the European Parliament stressed the following:

Dear comrades,

Our seminar today aims to shed light on contemporary, complex and serious (for the workers) developments, through the prism of  Leninist thought, as this was exemplified 100 years ago in the work "On the Slogan for a United States of Europe". With the utilization of other works that also analyze the constituent elements of imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism.

Today, we see new inter-state unions next to the old ones, like NATO and the EU. Unions are emerging in Eurasia, Latin America, Asia that supposedly aim to unite the peoples and economic life of entire continents. The problems are serious, because apart from the mutated parties that bear the "communist" title and follow the social-democratic path, there are CPs that are trying, struggling but detach this development from its economic base and salute it, adopting the ideological construct of the so-called "multi-polar world".

Ernesto Che Guevara: The speech at the General Assembly of the United Nations (1964)

Ernesto Che Guevara's  speech at the United Nations General Assembly, 

11 December 1964.

Mr. President;
Distinguished delegates:

The delegation of Cuba to this Assembly, first of all, is pleased to fulfill the agreeable duty of welcoming the addition of three new nations to the important number of those that discuss the problems of the world here. We therefore greet, in the persons of their presidents and prime ministers, the peoples of Zambia, Malawi and Malta, and express the hope that from the outset these countries will be added to the group of Nonaligned countries that struggle against imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism.

The Turkish government escalates provocative rhetoric over Aegean- Comment by the Communist Party of Greece

Rejep Tayyip Erdogan.

Last Wednesday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu referred to the eastern Aegean Imia islets as “Turkish soil.” Cavusoglu was responding in writing to a question tabled by a Turkish MP regarding the status of islands and islets in the Aegean.

“As long as the AKP is in power there will be no change in the legal and de facto status of islands in the Aegean,” noted Cavusoglu in his statement. 

Cavusoglu’s comments followed comments made by the leader of the Turkish Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu in which he accused Greece of occupying 18 islands in the Aegean.

The Greek Foreign Ministry described the comments by Cavusoglu as “irresponsible and provocative” and a violation of international law. In response, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Huseyin Muftuoglu reaffirmed Ankara’s stance. 

“Turkey’s position on her sovereignty over Kardak Rocks [the Turkish name for the Imia islets] is well known by the international community since 1996. There is no change in our policy in this regard.” said Muftuoglu.

KKE: The people must be ready and vigilant - Statement about foreign policy and the Cyprus Issue

Statement of the GS of the CC of the KKE about foreign policy and the Cyprus Issue.

The GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, noted the following on 28/11/2016 in his statements on Foreign Policy and the Cyprus Issue:

“The KKE follows with concern the latest developments regarding both Greek-Turkish relations as well as the Cyprus Issue. The KKE expresses its opinion with responsibility and calls on the Greek people to be in a state of readiness and vigilance.

The major everyday problems which afflict our people are expected to worsen in the coming period, as a result of the second “evaluation” and the government's new agreements with its partners in the EU and IMF.

Reflections on Jack Rasmus’s "Looting Greece: A New Financial Imperialism Emerges"

Reflections on Jack Rasmus’s book Looting Greece: A New Financial Imperialism Emerges.

By Kostas Pateras* / Source: Marxism Leninism Today.

Looting Greece: A New Financial Imperialism Emerges by Jack Rasmus. Atlanta, Georgia: Clarity Press, 2016. $24.95. 312 pp.

The prolonged capitalist crisis in Greece, the intense labour-people's struggles, the dramatic negotiations and contradictions around the Greek debt (for which the Greek people are not responsible), the rise of SYRIZA have all attracted the interest, and this is only natural, of analysts, commentators, journalists, and, of course, ordinary workers from all over the world.

In the last two years in particular, a plethora of books have been published that attempt to analyze these developments and draw conclusions. One such effort is Looting Greece: A New Financial Imperialism Emerges, a recent book by Jack Rasmus, a professor of economics and politics at St. Mary’s College in California, and a writer for Z Magazine and Counterpunch.