Protest at the Italian Embassy London on 8th February 2012 against the trial of 12 members of the (n)PCI, CARC and ASP at Bologna - Italy

Democracy and Class Struggle calls for support for protest at the Italian Embassy, London on the 8th Februry 2012 against the trial of 12 members of the (n) PCI, CARC and ASP  in Bologna under subversion charges.


Comrades Giuseppe Maj, Pietro Vangeli, Giuseppe Czeppel, Manuela Maj, Massimo Amore, Marco Proietti Refrigeri, Paolo Babini, members of the (n) PCI, of the CARC Party or of the Association of Proletarian Solidarity are being put on trial in Bologna on the 8th February accused of “subversive association for purposes of terrorism”(item 270 bis of Penal Code), charge built by fascist regime and implemented by the fascists special courts to incarcerate hundreds of communists and anti-fascists, Antonio Gramsci included.


The Protest will be between the hours of 5pm to 7pm on the 8th February at the Italian Embassy London at 14 Three Kings Yard, Grosvenor Square, Westminster , London W1K 4Eh.


defenditaliancomrades@gmail.com

Remembering the Workers Party of Scotland - Marxist Leninist

The WPS (ML) had its origins in the Committee to Defeat Revisionism For Communist Unity. Arguing that the level of class antagonisms (and hence class consciousness) continued to remain higher in Scotland than in England, the decision in principle to form the WPS (ML) on the behalf of the Scottish working class was taken in Edinburgh in May 1966 by seven anti-revisionist veterans. Thus, the Scottish elements of the CDRCU were placed on a separate organisational basis. The Scottish Vanguard, the organ of the WPS (ML), was launched in 1967.

The constitution of the WPS (ML) was adopted in Edinburgh on December 5th 1970, in the wake of the CDRCU collapse. The Party stated: “our programme is one of action. We must secure the results which our workers have been striving to attain for whole generations and which are still outside their grasp: full employment and prosperity for all, a crash programme to solve the housing problem, justice for the veterans of labour and attractive prospects in Scotland for our youth.” The WPS (ML)’s support for Scottish nationalism and independence drew sharp criticism from other anti-revisionist groups.

The WPS (ML) soon embarked upon a propaganda offensive producing leaflets and the Red Clysider, and Dundee and Tayside Vanguard in 1971. A Bookshop, Vanguard Books, in Glasgow acted as outlets for Marxist and Party literature. The WPS (ML) was also instrumental in popularising the work of Scottish communist, John MacLean, partly through the founding of the John MacLean Society.

Ken Houlison and Val Sutherland had been the initial leaders of the WPS (ML) but Tom Murray, for many years, the Party Chairman, sustained the organisation’s existence beyond its actual effective operation. Aberdonian by birth, Murray was veteran communist, having served as political commissioner of a machine gun battalion in the Spanish Civil War.

The WPS (ML) achieved notoriety in the spring of 1972 when two members – Colin Lawson and Matt Lygate – and non-party persons were sentenced for robbery with violence of Glasgow banks to obtain money for political action. While protesting at the severity of the sentences, and noting the political function of the judiciary, the main thrust of a statement issued by the WPS’s Central Committee “A Crisis Met and Overcome” was to disassociate the Party from the “romantic adventurism” of Lygate and Lawson.

Membership of the WPS (ML) declined in the late 1970s and early 1980s and with the death of Tom Murray in February 1983, the Party came to an end.

Source: http://www.marxists.org/history/erol/uk.firstwave/index.htm#wps
 also http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.com/2012/01/remembering-matt-lygate-1938-2012-long.html



              Dedicated to the memory of Matt Lygate

War Against Iran protest in London 28th January 2012 "Don't Attack Iran"

Hundreds of anti-war protesters gathered in central London Saturday at a demonstration against Western intervention in Iran and Syria, the organisers said.

The rally, organised by the Stop the War Coalition, took place outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square with a number of speakers addressing the 200-strong crowd.

Protesters waved banners bearing the words "Don't attack Iran" and "Hands off Iran and Syria", while the crowd joined together in chanting: "One, two, three, four, we don't want another war. Five, six, seven, eight, stop the killing, stop the hate".

The coalition opposes all military intervention from the West in Iran as concern that the Middle Eastern country is developing nuclear weapons grows.

The group said there is "absolutely no justification" for Western countries to become involved.
Stop the War Coalition activist John Rees said the uprising that ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a year ago proved that oppressed people in the Middle East could fight for themselves.

He said: "Here is a people who without the bombers and the bullets, the tanks and the soldiers, or the United States, or Britain, or any of the Western powers, pulled down a dictatorship on their own.
Rees said that history showed that foreign intervention led to the future of these countries not being controlled by their own people.



In front of the US embassy in London , stop the war coalition organised a protest against possible war on Iran.

Then a group of Green and Kurdish protesters clashed with pro Iran supporters who were wearing headband saying 'pledge to Khameniei"

India abandons US dollar to purchase Iranian OIl

Movement in the Punjab by Harsh Thakor

Mass gathering in the conference at Barnala in Punjab from the blog at lokmorcha.blogspot.com about 17000 people assembled on 27th January 2012


Amidst the intensified political atmosphere in the Punjab state assembly elections, a “Pagri Sambhal Campaign Committee Punjab” has been organized by different prominent and struggling personalities. The committee will hold a State level “Pagri Sambhal Conference” on January 27^th at Grain Market Barnala to strip bare the deceitful game of elections and to proclaim the actual pro-people path of struggle.

           

In Punjab the mass revolutionary Movement is making history by staging a huge pagadi Sammelan conference in Barnala on February 27^th.The purpose of the conference is to create political consciousness to the broad revolutionary masses on the coming parliamentary elections in Punjab on January 30^th, be it the students,youth,working class or peasantry. A huge series of meetings have been held by the Lok Morcha Punjab,the Bharatiya Kisan Union-Ekta(Ugrahan),the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union and the Naujavan Bharat Sabha propogating that all the political parties are simply hoodwinking the people and fighting to the last to mobilize the struggling sections to attend the meeting in Barnala.

All these organizations have played a prominent role in the democratic revolutionary movement of Punjab. They do not support candidates or participate in parliamentary elections nor do they call for boycotting parliamentary elections.They believe that the peoples day to day class struggles have to be  built up and political consciousness built up for the masses to assimilate politics of agrarian revolution and to build their own democratic institutions of political power. Today the peasantry is subjected to the burden of merciless exploitation becoming victims of money lenders and are forced into debt resulting in a series of suicides. The landless labourers, mainly dalits are denied their minimum wages or the right to own a plot.The working class is subordinated to unprecedented repression in terms of retrenchments,denial of living wages and improper working or living conditions. The youth are victims of unemployment because of the tentacles of globalization and privatization and similarly the student community hardly has access to proper facilities nor can afford the exorbitant fee hikes.The problem with the working class is that 90% of it’s composition is of migrant labour from other states like Bihar ,Uttar Pradesh etc.All these workers are not the true proletariat as they virtually became destitutes in being unable to earn a living income from their lands and any time would be retrenched and be forced to return to cultivate and defend their lands. This sharply contradicts any thesis that India is a fully developed capitalist society. The chief problem of the peasantry is the non acceptance of the landed section s to accept the landless Dalit class peasntry into the struggles.This is why separate organizations were created for the landed and landless peasantry.A model organization has to be created for the uniting of both the classes especially considering the organization of the Dalit peasantry.

While addressing the press conference, committee members declared that all the opportunist political parties, along with the ruling Akali-BJP combine, Congress and so called third alternative of Manpreet-Left brand Front, are in agreement with those anti-national policies which are responsible for the crises of farm-laborers, farmers, industrial and electricity workers, employees, un-employed, youth, and women in Punjab as well as in country. In Punjab too, people have lived through and experienced the rule of different political parties but to no avail. The toiling people, therefore, in order to get rid of their crises, should organize and march forward on the path of intense, united struggles. They further said that though the government will be changed as a result of the present elections, but, they warn, no one should hope that the policies, serving the interest of feudal lords and national-multinational capitalists; and exploiting and oppressing the people, will ever change through elections. Neither the repressive black laws, framed only to impose these policies on peoples, will be changed; nor the police, the jails and the bureaucrats, who punish people for demanding their rights, are going to change. Through elections, these parties only resolve the issue of political power and the division of the plunder among themselves.

The Lok Morcha ,Punjab a more advanced political body held a meeting for activists on Bhatinda at Teachers Home on January 15^th on the revolutionary alternative. Here the people were meticulously explained the need to propagate to the common people to form their alternative forms of political power.Gurdial Singh Bhangal gave a historical preview explaing how since 1947 the peasants and workers were denied their basic rights and how from the 1990’s the globalization has worsened their plight.N.K.Jeet explained the same with economic figures and examples. Finally Amolak Singh theoretically projected what the revolutionary democratic state would resemble. The author was deeply impressed with the readiness and preparation of the activists who attended the meeting.They listened to everything intensely assimilating the politics projected.

(new) Italian Communist Party - Fight Repression ! Fight Anti Communism !

(new)Italian Communist Party    Central Committee         Website: http://www.nuovopci.it         e-mail: lavocenpci40@yahoo.com      Delegation         BP3 -   4, rue Lénine  -   93451 L’Île St Denis (France)         e-mail: delegazionecpnpci@yahoo.it

EiLE - News Edition in Foreign Language Contents (French) (Spanish) Edition in Foreign Language Catalog updated - 27th, December 2011 NO to persecuting and outlawing communists!

Party of the Committees to Support Resistance – for Communism (CARC) Via Tanaro, 7 - 20128 Milan, Italy - Tel/Fax 02.26306454 e-mail: resistenza@carc.it sito: www.carc.it

Association for Proletarian Solidarity (ASP) CP 380, 80133 Naples – Italy e-mail:info@solidarietaproletaria.org sito:www.solidarietaproletaria.org

Struggling Workers Union (SLL) Info: c/so Garibaldi 46, Naples, Italy Tel. 081.287829 Fax. 081.5637815 e-mail: sllna@libero.it website: www.sll-na.net

Fight repression! Fight anticommunism!

Monti’s government means misery for the popular masses, cancellation of workers' rights, Italy’s subjection to the international community of speculators and warmongers: It is the government that continues and worsens the work of the Berlusconi’s government and of the previous Prodi’s ones, extending the spread of the popular masses plundered for the benefit of the imperialist bourgeoisie and the clergy.

Throughout Italy protests against the criminal measures of Monti government are growing. The rebellion spreads in Sicily, filling station owners and taxi drivers are on strike, truck drivers are blocking highways, independent trade unions called the strike nationally. The government responded with repression: in last two days fishermen have been attacked by the police near the Parliament in Rome, 4 truck drivers were arrested in Apulia, 26 people were arrested all over Italy for taking part in demonstrations in defense of the environment in the Susa Valley.

Against the (new) PCI, the CARC Party, the SLL and the ASP over forty proceedings are going on. The main one of them is on 8th February, in Bologna. It is the apex of political persecution against this political area that has lasted for more than thirty years. By this way in Italy the imperialist bourgeoisie carries out the anti-communist crusade of which it is part the Lindblad Directive approved in 2006, thanks to which in many European countries communist parties were outlawed (Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) or are going to be outlawed (Czech Republic and Moldova). In other states Communist symbols have been banned (Poland, Hungary). Finally in December 2010 it was presented the proposal to prosecute the apology of communism (as explained in the Joint Statement of 45 Communist and Workers Parties of Europe, "Anti-communism in Europe will not go" [http://it.kke.gr/news/news2010/2010-12-29-joint-statement/view?searchterm=anticomunismo%20in%20europa]). 


These are all signs of the intention of the bourgeoisie to criminalize Communism and persecute those who profess it and struggle for the new birth of the communist movement, to end the economic, environmental and social disaster caused by capitalism, to build a society without bosses, without exploitation, misery and war.

Democracy and Class Struggle, a Maoists English blog, writes that “the trial of comrades in Bologna on 8th February 2012 is not only an attack on democracy in Italy but also on the resistance in Europe ! Start organising your protests now! The news of the prosecution of 12 members the (new) Italian Communist Party and the CARC and ASP on the 8th February 2012 as part of a renewed campaign against Communism in Italy should send shivers down the spine of all involved in Europe in resistance to austerity and attacks on democracy. These are our brothers and sisters in struggle  who have been at the forefront of resistance in Italy.”

The British comrades, who are organizing a protest rally in front of the Italian Embassy in London on 8th February, call for “protests at Italian Embassies throughout the World on 8th February 2012 to shed light on these sinister actions of the Italian State.”

Everyone can take part in the battle the Italian Communists are carrying out against anti-democratic and reactionary forces that operate in their country and internationally, following the example of British comrades, or sending messages of solidarity, or by sending the following letter of protest to the judges and the Italian Minister of Justice

I undersigned …....[organization o individual name].......... formally protest against the persecution that part of the Italian magistracy carries out against the dissent, the freedom of expression and association.

These magistrates continuously utilize clearly political crimes, introduced in italian order by fascism, as that of subversive association, against Communist political organizations (i.e. the trial against the (new) Italian Communist Party and the Party of the Committees to Support the Resistance - for Communism).

The attempt to use the scarecrow of "terrorism" for these attacks on Communists and on people who protest makes us remember the times when Mussolini and who supported him firstly outlawed Communists and then eliminated every party and the Parliament itself, when the fascists were calling "bandits" the Partisans (most of whom were Communists) who fought to free Italy from Nazi-fascism.

The many judiciary inquiries against (n)PCI, CARC Party, the Association for Proletarian Solidarity and their sympathizers and helpmates are a clear violation of any democratic principle. They are an attempt to outlaw Communism, by now no more too much concealed.

I therefore send this letter to protest and to reaffirm my indignation and my concern for the reactionary and persecutory work attacking the very fundamental principles of the Italian Constitution concerning freedom of political association and organization.

Please send the letter to the following addresses, and a copy to carc.int.dept@alice.it (international department of CARC Party):

- PM Massimiliano Rossi

presso la Procura della Repubblica

Piazza Trento e Trieste, 3 - 40137 Bologna

Tel: 051.201111; fax: 051.201948 o 051.201 883

mail: procura.bologna@giustizia.it

- Corte d'Assise

Via Farini 1, 40124 Bologna

Tel: 051.201269/270/139; fax: 051.332352

mail: roberta.castellari@giustizia.it ; tribunale.bologna@giustizia.it

Paola Severino

via Arenula 70 - 00186 Roma

mail: callcenter@giustizia.it

Seminar on Philippine Society and Revolution - Utrecht - 4-5th February 2012

Seminar on Philippine Society and Revolution
4-5th February 2012
Amsterdamsestraatwe g 50, 3513 AG Utrecht.

In 1969 Prof. Jose Maria Sison published, under his then nom de guerre Amado Guerrero, Philippine Society and Revolution that has effectively served as a manifesto for the Filipino revolution since. Prof. Jose M. Sison, through an examination of Filipino history and the mode of production, argued that Philippine society could be characterized, using Mao Zedong's formulation, as a `semi-feudal semi-colonial' society. Furthermore, he delineated the strategy and tactics through which the Filipino people could overthrow the predetermination that has been foisted onto their lives by imperialists, rural feudal landlords and urban capitalists and build a different kind of socio-economic and political order in the Philippines.

We invite you to attend a two-day seminar on Philippine Society and Revolution on the 4th and 5th of Februari 2012 at Amsterdamsestraatwe g 50 in Utrecht, the Netherlands from 10am till 5pm. Light refreshments will be served. This two-day seminar will be composed of study groups and lectures by Prof. Sison, and other members of the New Democratic Front of the Philippines who have studied the socio-economic and political structure of the Philippines. In these two days we will closely study Philippine Society and Revolution and discuss different aspects of the book whilst trying to answer questions such as: what is imperialism and how has it effect the political and socio-economic development of the Philippines? ; what is semi-feudalism semi-colonialism, and is the Philippines still a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society?; and why people's war? Please, note that the seminar will be held in English.

This seminar is open to all members of the public, and all are welcome. The seminar is free to all participants. The seminar is aimed all people who wish to gain a firm grasp of this important theoretical and political contribution to the struggle for New Democracy in the Philippines, and may be interested in trying to understand what implications it may have on their own societies and social movements. The seminar will also attempt to make itself relevant to those whom have never read Philippine Society and Revolution before, and also to those who have read it several times. Thus, no prior knowledge is required to attend the seminar. Our only request is that all those who wish to participate read Philippine Society and Revolution prior to coming to the seminar. Copies of Philippine Society and Revolution are available for purchase at the NDFP office in Utrecht or online at: http://www.scribd. com/doc/12489151 /Philippine- Society-and- Revolution.

If you would like to participate in the seminar please contact the organizers at:psrseminar@gmail. com. Please, note that there are limited spaces available in the seminar and participation is first come, first serve. After confirming your participation a schedule of the day's activities will be e-mailed to you.

Tahrir Square 1 year later January 25th 2012

Chants against Field Marshall Tantawi and SCAF. Tahrir is packed, maybe more packed than on Feb 11th, 2011.
And the Revolution continues. Ta7ya Masr !

The Italian State has decided to attack leading forces of the resistance to austerity in Italy - the (new) PCI, the CARC and the ASP

Defend Italian Comrades Now !

The Italian State has decided to attack leading forces of the resistance to austerity in Italy.

The attack by the Italian State is focused on :

The (new) PCI - (new) Italian Communist Party which represents the the renaissance of socialism in Italy

The CARC and the resistance to austerity

The Association for Proletarian Solidarity which fights racism against migrant workers.

Comrades Giuseppe Maj, Pietro Vangeli, Giuseppe Czeppel, Manuela Maj, Massimo Amore, Marco Proietti Refrigeri, Paolo Babini, members of the (n) PCI, of the CARC Party or of the Association of Proletarian Solidarity are being put on trial in Bologna on the 8th February accused of “subversive association for purposes of terrorism”(item 270 bis of Penal Code), charge built by fascist regime and implemented by the fascists special courts to incarcerate hundreds of communists and anti-fascists, Antonio Gramsci included.

The news of the prosecution of 12 members the (new) Italian Communist Party and the CARC and ASP on the 8th February 2012 has part of an renewed campaign against communism in Italy should send shivers down the spine of all involved in Europe in resistance to austerity and attacks on democracy.

These are our brothers and sisters in struggle who have been at the forefront of resistance in Italy.

Democracy and Class Struggle calls for protests at Italian Embassies throughout the World on 8th February 2012 to shed light on these sinister actions of the Italian State.

This is not a time to let sectarian differences surface, because you may not endorse the programme of the (n) PCI, it is a time to express and demonstrate practical solidarity to comrades under attack.

We call for support from communist and progressive organisations in Britain to join us at the Italian Embassy on the 8th February to protest the trial in Bologna of our Italian brothers and sisters.

contact: defenditaliancomrades@gmail.com

Remembering Matt Lygate 1938 -2012 - Long Live the Workers of Scotland - Red Salute from Democracy and Class Struggle

“Long live the workers of Scotland”

Matt Lygate

1938 – 2012

“An honest man here lies at rest

As e’er God with his image blest.

The friend of man, the friend of truth;

The friend of Age, and guide of Youth:

Few hearts like his with virtue warm’d,

Few heads with knowledge so inform’d:

If there’s another world, he lives in bliss;

If there is none, he made the best of this.”

- Robert Burns

Democracy and Class Struggle just heard of the funeral in Glasgow of Matt Lygate of the Workers Party of Scotland and we republish this tribute here  http://mattlygateremembrance.wordpress.com/

The Workers Party of Scotland, also known as the Workers Party of Scotland (Marxist-Leninist) was a small Marxist-Leninist political party based in Scotland. It was founded in 1967 and campaigned for Scottish independence. Many of its founder members had previously belonged to the Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity. The party published the Scottish Vanguard until at least 1980. Another publication that was published was Red Clydesider.

Matt Lygate was born on 26/12/1938 in Govan Glasgow. From early on, he became an accomplished artist, orator, and thinker. He always loved the great outdoors and would often dissapear for hours up hills and down gullies to the distress of his parents. As a teenager, he moved to Sunderland with his family and became one of the best renouned tailor’s cutters of his time. Matt loved his family and family life, however when ordered to join the British Army (forced conscription was still in place at that point, even after the war), Matt, like his father during WWI, refused stating he would never join an imperialist British Army. That same week, he was on a boat to New Zealand before the powers that be could abscond him. Matt had been an avid member of the British Communist Party as well as a devout Christian, believing that Christ himself was a revolutionary socialist.

Once in New Zealand, Matt’s fervour and passion for justice as well as adventure blossomed. In his years on the islands of New Zealand, he travelled from village to village without map or tent, taking on local hard labour jobs as he went. He was institutional in the setting up of the first railway worker’s union and fought for the rights of the Maori people across the island. His travels took him from the heights of the Alps, picking deadly weeds in the snow, to the fields of  grain where he worked along side many of the industrious indiginous people of the island. On leaving New Zealand to return to his family, the New Zealand secret service met him at the docs to make Matt aware he would not be allowed back any time soon. Such was the impact Matt left everywhere he went. Many took inspiration from his great work and polemics on justice, liberty and equality, others saw him as a grave threat to the established order. Matt excelled at and loved playing both the saint and the sinner in the eyes of different beholders. He was never one for cult status. He always insisted people judge him on what he said and not who he is.

On return from New Zealand, Matt’s political and social work continued. He became heavily involved and a leading figure in the Scottish and Irish republican and socialist movements. He was a leading founder of the Workers Party of Scotland which was a Marxist-Leninist Republican party advocating the establishment of a Scottish socialist republic in the same tradition of John Maclean’s vision. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the John Maclean Society which did much work to reserect the memory and life’s work of Maclean. He believed in the emancipation of mankind worldwide. He was a true internationalist, involved in the struggle for Irish and Palestinian independence, meeting many world figures over his time. In fact when nominated years later for Glasgow University Rector, he stood down to allow votes for Yassar Arafat. Over his time he has been nominated and rejected two honourary degrees from both Glasgow and Edinburgh University. He rejected them on the political grounds that they might corrupt him and remove him from his working class route, but in truth it was also because Matt was a brutally modest man and shunned any idolisation or cult status. 

In 1972, Matt and 4 others were convicted of bank robbery and handed out the longest sentences in Scottish legal history for non murder crimes. During the case, Matt dismissed his defence team and represented himself. Knowing the fact he was to be tryed, not on bank robbery, but his politics, he used the court rather than to defend himself, but to attack the very system he knew aimed to destroy him. In his closing statment, he told the judge it was not his violence that had brought him to court, but that of the state against the working class. The same violence that had put 150,000 people out of work at the time in Scotland and stolen children’s milk leading to the return of Rickets in Scotland. He announced that the day would come when those who judged him would themselves be judged, an announcement that Lord Dunpark did not take too kindly too. On announcement of his 24 year sentence, Matt looked to the public gallery and with clenched fist shouted “Long live the workers of Scotland” and with that began the longest bank robbery sentence in Scottish history. Although the judge himself admitted the crimes to be political and although it was proven in court, none of the alleged stolen funds went to Matt, he was not allowed political prisoner status. He was also denied appeal, a basic right in Scots law based on the statement by the presiding Judge that Matt openly supported bank robbery and so did not require appeal. A political belief in the redistribution of money in s capitalist society did not account to acceptance of guilt of specific robberies, yet the judge refused to accept this and Matt was denied appeal against his unequivically long sentence.