Trotsky’s Lies - What They Are, and What They Mean

Trotsky’s Lies - What They Are, and What They Mean

 

By Grover Furr*.

The personality and the writings of Leon Trotsky have long been a rallying point for anticommunists throughout the world. But during the 1930s Trotsky deliberately lied in his writings about Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. My new book, Trotsky’s ‘Amalgams’, discusses some of Trotsky’s lies that have fooled people, and demoralized honest communists, for decades. 

In January 1980 the Trotsky Archive at Harvard University was opened to researchers. Within a few days Pierre Broué, the foremost Trotskyist historian of his time, discovered that Trotsky had lied. Trotsky had always denied that any clandestine “bloc of oppositionists” including Trotskyists, existed in the Soviet Union. Trotsky called this an “amalgam,” meaning a fabrication by Stalin. This “bloc” was the main focus of the second and third Moscow Trials of January 1937 and March 1938. Broué showed, from letters in the Trotsky Archive by Trotsky and by his son Leon Sedov, that the bloc did exist.

KKE celebrated its 99 years with a large political and cultural event in northern Greece

THESSALONIKI- With a large political and cultural event in the country's second largest city, Thessaloniki, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) honored its 99 years, just a few months before the Party's 20th Congress. The event, organised by the KKE Central Macedonia Party Organisation at Palais des Sports indoor arena, was attended by General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas who delivered a speech.

Secretary D.Koutsoumbas called the working class and the popular strata to join the KKE in a large social alliance against the capitalist system and its political representatives. 

Among other things, Koutsoumbas said: "Today, all those who feel that belong to the Left, who voted for SYRIZA in the previous elections, can find their actual position here, within the lines of the labor-people's movement which has as an aim and direction the struggle against the monopolies, against capitalism, against imperialist war, in alignment with the KKE".

Solidarity with Greece's small farmers in their struggle against the SYRIZA and EU policies

Small farmers in Greece are back on the roads again. With their tractors of work and struggle, on the roadblocks, in order to survive. They are struggling, tooth and nail, in order to keep their fields and animals, so that their remain in their villages, so that we can sustain our families through our work in a decent way.

The struggle is inevitable for poor farmers. If they don’t struggle, they will be driven off their land, if they do not resist, they will be throwed on the bonfire of unemployment and destitution. 

Farmers from Tyrnavos, Central Greece, set the first blockade on Monday noon, while farmers from Karditsa, Trikala, Farsala, Larisa have scheduled to go out on the streets on Thursday. The protests and the blockades are to take place from South on the island of Crete and Peloponnese to the North in Central and East Macedonia and from East mainland like Magnisia to the West like Aitoloakarnania and Epirus.

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST BULLETIN #1

KKE GS Koutsoumbas: "The 21st century will bring the definite overthrow of Capitalism"

KKE General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas speaking
at the European Communist Meeting, Monday 23 January 2017.

"The 21st century will bring the definite and- this time- irreversible overthrow of capitalism and the construction of socialism-communism. After all, the ice has been broken, the road is open, the way has been shown" said Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), during the closure of his speech at the European Communist Meeting which took place today in Brussels.

Refering to the 100 years since the 1917 Great Socialist October Revolution, the KKE General Secretary said among other things: "October proved the capacity and capability of the working class to realize its historic mission as the only really revolutionary class, to lead the cosmogony of building socialism-communism. On the same time, October demonstrates the irreplaceable role of the guidance factor of the socialist revolution, the Communist Party, the immense power of proletarian internationalism".

Antonio Gramsci - I hate the indifferent

I hate the indifferent.

By Antonio Gramsci*.

I hate the indifferent. I believe that living means taking sides. Those who really live cannot help being a citizen and a partisan. Indifference and apathy are parasitism, perversion, not life. That is why I hate the indifferent.

The indifference is the deadweight of history. The indifference operates with great power on history. The indifference operates passively, but it operates. It is fate, that which cannot be counted on. It twists programs and ruins the best-conceived plans. It is the raw material that ruins intelligence. That what happens, the evil that weighs upon all, happens because the human mass abdicates to their will; allows laws to be promulgated that only the revolt could nullify, and leaves men that only a mutiny will be able to overthrow to achieve the power.

CP of Israel & Hadash: Take action, stop the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands

Communist Party of Israel & Hadash: Umm Al-Hiran Won’t Stand Alone! 

The Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) have issued a statement in which they assure that the Arab-Bedouin village of Umm Al-Hiran in the Negev will not stand alone in its struggle to resist being uprooted by the far right Israeli government.

In their statement, the CPI and Hadash declare: “The aggressive violence of the Police on early Wednesday morning [January 18] attests to the criminal intent which resulted in the shooting death of Yacoub Mousa Abu al-Qee’an, a resident of Umm Al-Hiran, as well as injuries to tens of others, including Member of the Knesset Ayman Odeh who was scathed in the head by a ‘sponge bullet.’ The CPI and Hadash call upon their cadres to launch a series of militant actions to protest these criminal actions, while working in conjunction with all patriotic political and popular movements to broaden the struggle.”

Poetry for Lenin - By Vladimir Mayakovsky and Bertolt Brecht

Photo: In Defense of Communism.

On the occasion of the 93rd anniversary of Vladimir I. Lenin's death, we post three major poems by the giants of literature and poetry Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) and Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) dedicated to the great Bolshevik revolutionary and architect of the first socialist state in the world.  

The first one is Vladimir Mayakovsky's legendary poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" published in 1924. 

The other twoo are poems by Bertolt Brecht, titled "The Unconquerable Inscription" (1934) and the "Cantata on the Day of Lenin's Death" (1935). 

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.

KKE: The Greek people must denounce and isolate the Nazi thugs of Golden Dawn

On the 17th of January 2017, thugs from the neo-Nazi party of “Golden Dawn”, at a time when the trial concerning the murderous activity of this fascist organization is continuing, gathered outside a school in one of the working class neighbourhoods of Piraeus. They intended to prevent the children of the refugees from attending the primary school. 

Α group of about 20 members of the neo-Nazi party headed by Golden Dawn MP Yannis Lagos started quarreling intensely with parents and teachers ahead of the parents’ meeting which was expected to decide on whether to allow 22 child refugees to attend the school. The meeting was held with the participation of the mayor of Perama, the teachers and the parents. 

100 years since the Great October Socialist Revolution- European Communist Meeting to be held in Brussels on January 23

Honoring the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the 2017 European Communist Meeting will take place on January 23rd at the European Parliament building in Brussels. The subject of the meeting is "100 years since the Great October Socialist Revolution. Capitalism- monopolies - European Union bring only crises, wars, poverty. Socialism is timely and necessary". 

The European Communist Meeting is hosted by the EU Parliament delegation of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). The introductory speech at the event will be given by the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas. 

German communist leader Herbert Mies died at 87 - Statement by the KKE

A leading figure of the German communist movement, Herbert Mies, died  on 14 January 2017 in his hometown of Mannheim at the age of 87. Mies joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1945. He was elected chairman of the (West) German Communist Party (DKP) in 1973. He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1985/1986. Mies resigned from his position as party chairman in October 1989.

Responding to the news of Herbert Mies' death, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement:

"With sadness the CC of the KKE was informed about the death of comrade Herbert Mies who was a leading figure of the international and German communist movement, being President of the German CP from 1973 to 1989.

For a whole life, until his 87 years, comrade Mies consistently served the working class of Germany, the people of his country. In his youth, he opposed fascism and faced decisively the difficult circumstances of illegality and persecution of the next period. He excelled in the International Communist Movement and was awarded the Lenin Prize.

IT'S CAPITALISM, STUPID: Just eight men own same wealth as half the world

According to the latest report published by Oxfam eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity. Oxfam's report 'An economy for the 99%', shows that the gap between rich and poor is far greater than had been feared. 

More specifically:

• Eight men now own the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world.

• Over the next 20 years, 500 people will hand over $2.1 trillion to their heirs – a sum larger than the GDP of India, a country of 1.3 billion people.

• The incomes of the poorest 10% of people increased by less than $3 a year between 1988 and 2011, while the incomes of the richest 1% increased 182 times as much.

• A FTSE-100 CEO earns as much in a year as 10,000 people in working in garment factories in Bangladesh.

• In the US, new research by economist Thomas Piketty shows that over the last 30 years the growth in the incomes of the bottom 50% has been zero, whereas incomes of the top 1% have grown 300%.

• In Vietnam, the country’s richest man earns more in a day than the poorest person earns in 10 years.