Ernesto Che Guevara- What a young Communist should be

What a young Communist should be.

Source: Guevaristas.org.

Below are excerpts of a speech given by Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the central leaders of the Cuban revolution, at a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the formation of the youth organization. It was first published in Obra Revolutionaria, Oct. 23, 1962. 

The Union of Young Communists, with different names and organizational forms, is almost as old as the revolution. At the beginning it emerged out of the Rebel Army – perhaps that’s where it also got its initial name [Association of Young Rebels]. But it was an organization linked to the army in order to introduce Cuba’s youth to the massive tasks of national defense, the most urgent problem at the time and the one requiring the most rapid solution….

Later, as the revolution was consolidated and we could finally talk about the new tasks ahead, Compañero Fidel proposed changing the name of the organization, a change of name that fully expresses a principle. The Union of Young Communists [Applause] has its face to the future. It is organized with the bright future of socialist society in mind….

The 17th World Trade Union Congress kicks off in South Africa

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA- Hundreds of workers and employees from 111 countries of the 5 continents are in Durban, South Africa in order to participate to the 17th World Trade Union Congress, organized in the heroic land of South Africa. So far, according to the featured numbers, in the Congress are going to take part:

-1200 trade-union participants
-111 countries from the 5 continents
-340 women trade-unionists
-31% of the delegates are from the Public Sector and 69% are private employees.

The WFTU leadership would like to thank the South Africa working class as well as its militant trade unions for their great initiative to host a great trade union event like this. The 17th World Trade Union Congress is going to be a great democratic, open, internationalist and class-oriented trade union event .

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin- The State and Revolution (1917) Part VI "The Vulgarisation of Marxism by Opportunists"

The State and Revolution.

By Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

First Published: 1918.

Source: V.I.Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 25, p.381-492.

The question of the relation of the state to the social revolution, and of the social revolution to the state, like the question of revolution generally, was given very little attention by the leading theoreticians and publicists of the Second International (1889-1914). But the most characteristic thing about the process of the gradual growth of opportunism that led to the collapse of the Second International in 1914 is the fact that even when these people were squarely faced with this question they tried to evade it or ignored it.

In general, it may be said that evasiveness over the question of the relation of the proletarian revolution to the state--an evasiveness which benefited and fostered opportunism--resulted in the distortion of Marxism and in its complete vulgarization.

To characterize this lamentable process, if only briefly, we shall take the most prominent theoreticians of Marxism: Plekhanov and Kautsky.

KKE delegation at the European Parliament slams EU and NATO for encouraging Turkey's aggressiveness

Addressing the Plenary of the European Parliament, yesterday in Strasburg, the KKE MEP Kostas Papadakis pointed out the issue of the Turkish government's provocations which raise assertions against the sovereign rights of Greece. As MEP Papadakis mentioned, the aggressiveness of Ankara is supported by the EU and NATO. He said:

"The statements of Erdogan regarding the challenge of the Treaty of Lausanne are especially dangerous, as well as those of the Turkish Republic Party which raise non-existent sovereignty issues for 16 Greek islands. They raise questions of grey zones and borders as a continuation of a stance that nobody can underestimate: the timeless provocation, the continuous violations of the Greek sea and airspace limits, the constant challenges against Cyprus, the dispute of the Exclusive Economic Zone. 

Lieutenant Katina Manitara

The elderly lady of the photo was one of those who yesterday participated in a large pensioners' demonstration against the austerity, antipeople measures of the Greek government. 

This woman, along with other retirees took the streets of Athens in order to assert their rights; the rights of their children and grandchildren. The Greek police "welcomed" this woman and the other pensioners with violence and tear gas. 

The name of the lady is Katina Manitara, a resistance fighter during the Nazi occupation of Greece. As a child, in the beginning of the fascist occupation, Katina was delivering secret messages "under the radar" of the italian police. At the age of 14 she witnessed her father's torture from Greek fascists. 

On May 1947, at 15 years old, she joined the heroic Democratic Army of Greece; the KKE-led guerrilla army which fought against the bourgeois military forces and their imperialist allies between 1946-1949. During the war, a bullet fragment stucked in her head where it still remains. At the age of 17, Katina Manitara graduates from the Military School of the Democratic Army with the rank of second lieutenant. 

This lady, Katina Manitara, consists a symbol of resistance, of courage and dignity. 

SYRIZA government's police forces fire tear gas at pensioners during protest in Athens- KKE: "The government showed its real face"

The police forces of Tsipras' SYRIZA government confronts
elderly people with tear gas/ Athens, 3.10.2016.

Once again, the supposedly "left"- actually social democratic- government of Alexis Tsipras shows it's real face. After imposing numerous harsh, antipeople-antiworkers measures, after signing a third memorandum of austerity and after cutting wages and pensions, the coalition government of SYRIZA decided to enforce law and order against the protesting pensioners! 

The pensioners who protested against the complete destruction of their lives got a response from the police forces of Mr.Tsipras' government. That response was the use of pepper spray and tear gas against older people! 

Greece: Communist mayor slams SYRIZA government, boycotts Tsipras' fiesta

KKE-backed mayor of Kesariani,
Ilias Stamelos.

ATHENS- In a symbolic gesture which carries a great message, the communist (KKE-backed) mayor of Kesariani, Ilias Stamelos, officially denied to participate in a governmental fiesta for the 75th anniversary of the country's most significant WW2 resistance movement, EAM (National Liberation Front). The government, along with the state television, ERT, are organising an event at the Kesariani Shooting Range (Skopeftirio)* on Sunday 2 October. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is scheduled to attend the event. 

In a letter addressed to the SYRIZA-ANEL government, mayor Stamelos points out the the city council's decision to deny any participation in October 2nd governmental event. Ilias Stamelos mentions that the heroic legacy of Kesariani's Shooting Range is in contrast with the governmental policy which attacks the rights of the working people. In his letter, among other things, the communist mayor writes:

"The policy exercised by the government is in total dissociation with the struggles and the claims of Kesariani's people and is directed against the Greek people in general. The SYRIZA-ANEL government has unleashed an attack against the rights and achievements of the people. It votes and applies memorandums of austerity, thus implementing a policy which crashes the people with taxes and reductions in wages and pensions, while on the same time it offers exemptions to the big capital". [...]

The banners of the Nazis deserve only one place: The dustbin of History

COMMENT:

The Golden Dawn flag waved by supporters of APOEL Nicosia during the football match against Olympiacos in Piraeus is a Nazi symbol. It is the symbol of a Nazi, fascist criminal organisation which tries to pose as a political party. It is a Nazi symbol because of Golden Dawn's Nazi ideology. 

The issue isn't a typical matter related to UEFA policies about political messages in football. It's more than that. The shameful gesture of APOEL fans to wave the flag of Nazis consists a political and social issue. The symbols of Nazism and fascism, the symbols of Golden Dawn, have no place in football stadiums. They have no place anywhere. 

KKE: Statement regarding Turkish President Erdogan’s remarks on the Treaty of Lausanne

The Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement regarding the remarks of the President of Turkey Tayip Erdogan on the Treaty of Lausanne:

"Erdogan’s statements are dangerous and provocative and are part of the systematic efforts of the Turkish leadership to dispute the Aegean islands and the borders and sovereign rights of Greece more generally, to raise the issue of “grey zones”.

The period when these statements were made was no accident, as the negotiations are intensifying around the “closure” of the Cyprus question, on the basis of two component states, while the bargaining over the refugee issue between Turkey and the EU is underway. With these specific statements, Turkey is objectively exerting pressure in order to settle these matters in an even more negative direction for the peoples.

Once again, the government and the other political forces have been exposed, which for many years have been reassuring the Greek people that the alliance between Greece and Turkey, in the framework of NATO, is an agent for the “peace and security in the region”, the moment when NATO not only does not subdue the aggressive designs of Turkey, but on the contrary foments and reinforces them.” 

Greek industrialists: "SYRIZA and New Democracy converge in their economic strategy"

Info taken from 'Rizospastis', 24/9/2016.

In it's latest weekly report, the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (the union of the Greek industrialists) admit that the SYRIZA government and the right-wing, conservative opposition of New Democracy have no fundamental differences in their strategy for the country's economy. "The development objective is common, the means are different" says the report of SEV* thus openly acknowledging the convergence between SYRIZA and New Democracy in their strategy to serve the antipeople, antiworkers objectives and priorities of the Greek capital.

The industrialists evaluate the interventions of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Thessaloniki International Fair earlier this month as "positive", as long as both seem to be fully aligned to the demands of the domestic capital for competitiveness and recovery of profits. 

The downward spiral of European opportunism has no end

The downward spiral of European opportunism has no end.

Comment published on 'Rizospastis' (24/9/2016), 
Source: inter.kke.gr.

It is well-known that European capital and its union, the EU, have acquired for many years now its "leftwing chorus". Various parties are playing this role, parties that call themselves "progressive" and "leftwing" even some parties that keep a "communist" title, having for many decades now been assimilated into the opportunist, social-democratic current of "Eurocommunism". 

The latter, such as, for example the French Communist Party (PCF) have for many years been divorced from Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, have even abandoned the historic symbols of the communist movement and in the name of the "left' have become the "tail" of social-democracy and also whitewash the capitalist system and the imperialist unions of the EU and NATO. However, they keep the "communist" name and in this way, apart from their misleading activity in their own countries, even participate in the International Meetings of the CPs, seeking to play a similar role. If we can judge from the events of the recent festival of "L'Humanite", the newspaper of the PCF, the downward spiral has no end.