South Africa : Marikana killing fields exposed - No police charged with killing !

Major challenge to ANC government after reports that many miners were shot in the back, and now murder charges against other miners, no police charged

Vishwas Satgar says the murder of striking miners reveals that the deep apartheid pattern of the labor market, particularly in the mining industry, has not changed

Long Live Marinaleda - Long Live Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo - Land to the People

The self-described "Communist Utopia of Marinaleda" is a communist cooperative town whose inhabitants have been taking over and expropriating hectares of land (now communally owned).

Recently, it's mayor Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo led labourers into supermarkets and took basic living supplies (without paying) that were given to poor families hit hardest by Spain's economic crisis.

Houses in the town cost only 15 Euros a month and with wage equality, everyone is virtually employed.

On August 16th, the mayor starts a protest march from Jódar across the Andalusian region telling mayors to skip debt payments, stop layoffs, cease home evictions and ignore central government demands for budget cuts.

Solidarity with Marinaleda. The rest of the world under the yoke of capitalism must know there is a very active bastion of resistance. Workers of The World, Unite!

Democracy and Class Struggle salutes Marinaleda and Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo and calls for emulation of Marinaleda across Europe.

 

See Also:
http://democracyandclassstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/salute-to-sindicato-de-obreros-del.html

Civil societies and NGOs : The Imperialist components by Saba Navalan

 

The imperative need of Imperialism in the present time to support the myriad of multinational corporate, that in turn ensure the survival of capitalism which is undergoing a structural crisis is imminent.  Even though the current expansion of the American empire in the Middle East and Asia is facing numerous stumble blocks, they have temporarily succeeded to implement their imperialist agents of change in those countries. 65 Non-Governmental Organisations in Libya for instance, through their so-called community based organisations, had been hard at work to shape the world’s public opinion against the Gaddafi’s regime. The one country in the world that had never been dependant on IMF was completely destroyed and the ‘democracy’ has been established for corporates’ exploitation.

Regardless of whether it is post-genocide Sri Lanka or post-occupation period of Libya or Nepal’s counter revolution, these community based organistations are the basic imperialist component which facilitate the corporates to   create their ‘marketable environment’. The term ‘civil society’ and community based organizations are frequent terminology used within the non-governmental organizations lingo which have emerged  to modify the international political system in favour of imperialism. In their conception and practice, civil societies are shaped and community based organizations are formed to help corporates to exploit.

The concept of civil society first emerged to dismantle the socialist camp such as Soviet Russia and later the east European countries. For several decades   this concept of civil society was used to guide and absorb the so called ‘anti-communist’ activists before it was then experimented in the developing countries in order to destroy the anti-imperialist, nationalist, democratic and revolutionary forces. Today it serves to implement neo-liberal social and economic structure  throughout the world.    

As Professor  Ernest Gellner explains in his book on civil society , ‘the current usage of civil society rose to prominence as a direct reaction to the Marxist-Leninist structure that prevailed in the soviet union and Eastern Europe’.(1994) American empire and its western allies massively funded and created these civil societies in order dismantle Soviet supported countries such as Poland, Hungary and   Czechoslovakia. Marcia A. Weigle; Jim Butterfield  acknowledging  in their article ‘Civil Society in Reforming Communist Regimes’  as follows;  ‘In Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, the foundations of an independent civil society were built on the basis of social initiative from below designed to empower society in the face of Communist domination over state policies’. ‘The collapse of communist regime in Eastern Europe was thus considered to be process of redeveloping Civil Society.(Cahalan -1994) ‘The paradigm of civil society now became the dominant model to explain the 1989  anti-Communist revolution in eastern and central Europe. (Casier 1992)‘ Movement towards the civil society helped bringing  down regimes in Eastern Europe’(Bozoki and Sukosd 1993).

A simple concept like civil society helped to shape the entire world on behalf of imperialist countries and its corporate capitalists. Nevertheless regardless of any opinion on these countries and politics that they used to hold their power, imperialism was threatened by the existence of these countries. In order to include these countries in the American empires boundaries, at the same time exploit and destroy its resources and people. Civil societies acted as direct imperialist component until 1990s. Since late 1980’s and 1990s, the same concept of civil society is being used to destroy the 3rd world countries on behalf of neo-liberal economic structure. In the 3rd world the imperialist ruling class has always been funded and supported by western institutions and corporates.

 Since 1990, with experience gathered in Soviet and Eastern Europe, civil society mechanism is being used to control the poor countries. Civil societies are interchangeably linked with NGOs which are global political and pro-imperialist actors operating rural and urban areas in Asia, Africa and the other exploited countries and dependent on the funding from Europe, the US and multi-national corporates. Neo-liberal economy and globalisation terror assault on workers, peasants, students and the other small national productive forces generates great discontent which could be starting point of a anti-imperialist class and national revolution.

In this context, the NGOs and the concept of civil society are applied to divert the discontent from the direct attack on the corporate and the neo-liberal system. In Nepal the NGOs have successfully  destroyed and divided  a revolutionary movement and create an exploitative environment. In Sri-Lanka these civil societies and NGOs helped the government to eliminate all the resistance forces before 2009 genocide. The resistant itself has been taken by the western funded NGOs, right groups and related civil societies. People’s resistance  has gradually been eliminated and corporate land grab and exploitation is now ‘peacefully’ taking place. The civil societies and NGOs want ‘peaceful development’  in 3rd world countries. The rhetoric of development in these countries as used in neo-liberal vocabulary represents implementing the infrastructure for  corporates, the exploitation and theft.  Civil societies serves as a transitional force in order to mobilize  the various level of public fractions and infiltrate into social, cultural, political, economic and environmental realms. However the basic ideology of the civil society  is to promote the class compromise.

The contemporary civil societies are made out of profoundly divided classes. Civil societies obscure class divisions, class oppression and class struggle.   Former left movement leaders, leaders of some trade unions, intellectuals and democratic forces have been co-opted by these NGOs and civil societies for unimaginable wages which is the imperialist bribe to their local agents who are mostly paid in several thousand dollars, ten to twenty  times more than a national average wage.  

Civil societies and NGOs emerge in the  absence of organised revolutionary movements in third world countries. The temporary revolutionary leadership gap has to be urgently filled to resist the NGOs and class based mass movements must be organised to substitute the civil societies.

"Nonsense Economics" and the Deepening Greek Crisis - Municipal workers go on strike

See Also :Contribution KOE to the Assisi Camp of Anti Imperialist Camp

Petros Al Achmar, Department for International Relations, KOE

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/greece-politicizing-struggle-as-main.html

Solidarity with South African Miners - Picket the London South African Embassy 30th August 3pm - 6pm

Show your solidarity with South African Miners, support the strike and protest the massacre - picket South African Embassy, Thursday 30 August, 3-6 pm, Trafalgar Square.

 

Nearest tube station Charing Cross

 

on behalf of

 

Pan African Voice

 

Mumia Abu Jamal Defense Campaign UK

 

UHURU

 

Pan African Community Forum

see also :
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/marikana-autopsies-show-miners-were.html

Interview with Comrade Kiran : Revolution has not paused; it is developing on slow or, fast speed.

(An interview with the chairman of CPN-Maoist Comrade Kiran)

1. International

How do you evaluate present international situation?

\

Electronic communication and information technology has developed significantly since some decades. It is a qualitative progress in the sector of productive force.

But, the hegemony of imperialism is there in this area, and American imperialism is dreaming of unipolar world system by standing on this base.

But, the crisis which has rapidly grown around 2008 A.D has affected United States of America and several European countries. The crisis is the consequences of unproductive investment in army sector and cut off of the financial capital from production.

Imperialism doesn't have the real solution of this crisis, as consequences of development and rapid growth of such crisis in United States of America and other countries, on the one hands the peoples of all over the world are being attracted toward socialism and fed up with imperialism and one on the other, the possibility of workers movement also being strong in the developed countries.

In competition with American Imperialism other competitive forums are also developing now. In this situation there is not possibility of fulfillment of the dream of unipolar world system of American imperialism.

American imperialism and its allied forces are accelerating their movement of interference now Libya to Syria by capturing the oil stock of Middle East including the Arab countries to avoid the crisis and they themselves are circling on the maze of this movement.

Presently, in the world development of the contradictions among the imperialist countries and the contradictions between capitalist  and  proletariat  class  becomes sometime slow and sometime fast.

Even now the contradictions between imperialism and the oppressed countries is static as the principal contradictions. Revolution is the main tendency of the world even today.

Observing in totality, we get objective situation favorable for revolution. But, the

subjective condition is weaker in comparison.

The set back of Revolution on Peru and emergence of capitulationism and rightist liquidationism in Nepal is the subject of worry. But in some of the countries of the world there are serious attempt of revolution and CPI (Maoist) is presenting itself effectively in this area. In this time, the main duty of the revolutionary communists of the world is to build the subjective situation strong and start to prepare for revolution by focusing on the struggle against imperialism and reaction.

Revolution has not paused; it is developing on slow or, fast speed. History of revolution is based on the dialectics of ebb and flow. Defect of all types of imperialism and reaction and victory of scientific socialism is inevitable. At last, no one can stop the progressive development of history and speed and velocity of revolution.

International Dimensions of Prachanda's Neo-revisionism by Comrade Basanta

I had authored an article about 6 years before. It was entitled: "International Dimensions of Prachanda Path". The article, published in the 10th issue of The Worker, Party organ in English, had created debate in the international communist movement.

Is Prachanda Path really a creative development of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism or merely a deviation from it was the question under debate at that time. Given the development of people's war in leaps, one after another, it was also not an easy task for them to take position against it. But, most of the revolutionary parties did not assimilate it rather they opined that it resulted from the ideological deviation on the part of CPN (Maoist).

The wave of Prachanda Path, which was said to be the synthesis of the experiences of 5 year's long stormy people's war, had stretched all across the world. It was not unnatural too. Party had defined Prachanda Path as a series of particular ideas generated by the Nepalese revolution. I had prepared that article as our party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), comprehended it at that time.

Unsurprisingly, Prachanda was happy with the article.

After 6 years now, I am writing again a short article centring on Prachanda. It is titled: "International Dimensions of Prachanda's Neo- revisionism." Some readers may think that Basanta is correct because Prachanda has taken a U-turn from his earlier Marxist-Leninist-Maoist position. Someone may say that to think of Prachanda, who considers Marxism as a vibrant science and applies in practice accordingly, a revisionist is the result of mechanical and dogmatic thinking on the part of Basanta and his team-mates. This debate will obviously surface in the days to come. The revolutionaries will regard that Basanta is correct; but the revisionists and liquidationists will do its opposite. Naturally, this article will not make Prachanda happy this time.

Everyone is aware that an intensive and extensive two-line struggle was on between Marxism and right revisionism inside the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) mainly for the last four years. But, in the recent days, there has been a turn in this process and the revolutionaries dissociating from the party led by Prachanda, have built up a new party.

As a member of this new party, the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist, I am here with this article. We have not yet synthesized the entire experiences acquired during the tumultuous period of people's war and the period that followed. The forthcoming Party Congress will do it. For now, we have taken only a preliminary position according to which the people's war had definitely amassed new experiences but it was not correct at that time to synthesise them in the form of Prachanda Path. The national convention organized on June 15, 2012 summed up the strength and weakness of the revolutionaries also. It concluded that there were three kinds of ideological mistakes namely fideism, liberalism and metaphysics with them. 

These weaknesses were manifested mainly on the question of ideological synthesis i.e. Prachanda Path and the centralisation of leadership. On the other, the convention unanimously concluded that the appropriate terminology to denote Prachanda's ideological and political degeneration is neo- revisionism.

The neo-revisionism noticed in Prachanda has been manifested in different form than it had in the past revisionists, who used to attack upon the basic principles of Marxism in a direct and straightforward way. Like for example, Proudhon and Lassalle opposed the scientific socialism with the arguments that the process of continued reforms and strict discipline in the bourgeois society can pave the way for capitalism to reach communism. Bernstein concluded the basic principles of Marxism like class struggle and the theory of surplus value have been outdated. Khrushchev took position against the role of violence in revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat under socialist society. Liu Shao Chi and Teng Hsiao Ping stood against the theory of continued revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat put forth by Mao Tsetung. 

They one-sidedly emphasized upon the development of productive forces as opposed to the Maoist principle of grasp revolution and promote production. In our context, Prachanda has not made him stand yet in open against the basic concepts of Marxism as the aforesaid leaders did in the past. He has been doing it in the name of creative development of MLM.

When the situation develops to a new level, the old logics are not sufficient for the political parties to support their new position. It is true not only for the Marxists but also for the revisionists and other parties as well. Mao has said that revisionists are the reactionaries who mislead people in the guise of Marxism. So in the new situation the revisionists need to find new logics to misguide the revolutionaries. Prachanda understands it well. So he has been steadily sowing seeds of revisionism since long in the guise of creative application and development of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. He has not yet directly opposed the dictatorship of the proletariat as Khrushchev did. But, the development of Marxism which he has claimed is in fact the development of revisionism. In this way, revisionism has been replacing Marxism in the party led by him. The classical and modern revisionism openly oppose the basic tenets of Marxism including the dialectical and historical materialism, theory of class struggle, role of violence in revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat etc. etc. But, the neo-revisionism does the same in essence but in the pretext of opposing dogmatism, creative application of Marxism and the originality of revolution. To arrest the essence of Marxism in the name of its creative application and development has been the main characteristics of neo-revisionism. In this way, the features in points of Prachanda's neo-revisionism can be cited as follows.

Prachanda has been slowly attacking upon the universality of Mao's contributions. In the wake of party unity that took place with the Unity Centre - Masal, the UCPN (Maoist) had adopted Marxism-Leninism-Maoism/Mao Tsetung thought as its guiding principle. He argues that there is no difference as such in using two terminologies, Maoism or Mao thought, so long as they are done to mean the universality of Mao's contributions. It is indeed his artful deceit to blur the difference between Maoism and Mao thought which respectively refer to universality and particularity of Mao's contributions. By so doing he has been weakening the grasp of Maoism in the party and the revolutionary movement as well.

Mao has said that the struggle for production, class struggle and scientific experiment are the three sources of knowledge. In addition, he has stressed Marxism goes on developing through an infinite spiral of practice to theory and theory to practice. But quite the opposite, Prachanda claims that Marxism has become a matter of common knowledge for him. He had said in a CC meeting held about five years

before. By so saying he has stood against Maoist theory of knowledge and of course Maoism itself.

Interview with G.N.Saibaba in Varberg Sweden

The 14th of April 2012 "Jan Myrdals great award, the Lenin award" was handed out in a theatre in Varberg, Sweden. Individuals from different countries and mostly from different parts of of Sweden came for the celebration. Many of participants stayed at Hotell Gästis in central Varberg which have a lot of interesting arts, a library with revolutionary litterature and a beautiful pool, called the "Lenin bath". At the hotel we where very happy to be able to interview the joint secretary of Revolutionary Democratic Front of India, G.N.Saibaba.

Indiensolidaritet, Sweden, 28/8 -2012

Interview with G.N.Saibaba in Varberg Sweden, 14-15th april 2012

(The transcript of the interview is checked by Saibaba)

Indiensolidaritet: Can you say something about the political work you do in India?

Saibaba: I work for an organization called Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF). It is a federation of revolutionary mass organizations working among different oppressed classes and sections of the Indian society. Revolutionary students’ and youth organisations, revolutionary peasants’ organisations, revolutionary workers’ organisations, revolutionary cultural organisations as well revolutionary womans’ organisations from different regions across India are constituents of RDF. Thus RDF is a large network of revolutionary organisations reaching out to all sections and strata of the society.

From the year 2009 onwards began the Operation Green Hunt, the Indian state’s genocidal war on the poorest of the poor in India. All of us in our organization RDF work with other parties, groups, democratic organisations and individuals to raise our voice collectively and unitedly against the present military onslaught on the people and the extermination campaign against the people of India. We see this massive military operation as a continuation and the latest addition in the war waged by India’s ruling classes against the people of the subcontinent for last many decades – be it in Kashmir, North East, Punjab, and now in central and eastern India. So we are at one level involved in the basic struggles of the people and at another we are working along with a large network of political forces and carrying out a countrywide campaign against Indian state’s anti-people policies, particularly Operation Green Hunt.

Indiensolidaritet: The way we see it, there are two lines regarding solidarity work in Europe. One line is trying to unite people on an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal basis and another one focuses more on Maoism. What do you think about this?

Saibaba: Yes, there is this perception and understanding of how to develop the solidarity movement for the peoples’ struggles and the particularly on the military attack on the people that is going on in India. So what I can see is that there are large sections who think that, the large sections of the people of India and the larger confrontation is more important to focus on, to tell the world outside India. There is another section of organizations which hold that the present campaign by the Indian state is targeting the revolutionaries in India and therefore the revolutionaries should be supported directly. What is important today is that the people of India – the poorest of the poor 80 percent of the country who live an extremely perilous existence – are looking forward to a basic change in their lives. The poorest section of humanity in the world therefore is waging a defiant struggle in India under the leadership of the revolutionary Maoists who are from among their own. So if you take the larger picture of what is happening in India, you can see that this is a great resistance against the loot of the land and minerals by the corporate sector. Monopoly capital in its desperation to dominate the world’s resources would like to overcome its crisis by exploiting the cheap raw materials in India and other oppressed countries. It’s an attempt by the imperialists, by the monopoly capital on the world scale, to transport their burden of the economic crisis upon the shoulders of the poorest of the poor in India.

Removing the people from their homes and hearths has become pertinent for the corporations backed by the government to capture the valuable mineral resources which are estimated to a value of several trillions of dollars. So the resistance movement is built up by the indigenous people, the poorest of the poor, the millions and millions of the wretched of the earth. To crush this movement and to silence all the people the Indian government has sent more than 250,000 armed personnel to these regions backed by its air force and navy. You therefore can see the importance of the struggle. Of course the revolutionary forces are involved – they work in these areas and organise the people, but the question is much larger. It is an anti-imperialist struggle of the people, led by the revolutionary Maoists. This is a larger question because this resistance exists not only in the central and eastern parts of India where the Maoist movement has a strong presence, but extends to every part of India even where the Maoists are absent. So in our view, we have to take into account this anti-imperialist struggle as a whole. We have to recognize that this is a larger struggle of the people of India who are not led by the revolutionaries everywhere simply because they do not exist in other parts. So the international solidarity should be to the entire movement. The other section of the people who feels that the revolutionary movement is a target too is not wrong in their perception. Yes, the revolutionary movement is a target of attack. In fact the Indian prime minister has termed it “the largest internal security threat” way back in 2005 reflecting the intent of the ruling classes to finish off the revolutionary movement. But what is important to recognise is that the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggle spanning over entire India and the revolutionary movement in India which exists in a considerable part of the country are interrelated. We cannot separate this two. The larger anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle is very important and we must not lose sight of it. We must stand in solidarity with the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle of the common people of India. The Indian ruling classes and the imperialists have planned many genocides and massacres but the people have successfully resisted them so far through coordination and collective struggle, not allowing any of these corporate houses to intrude and take over their lands and resources.

So we in India feel that to give support to the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles of the people is also to give support to the revolutionary movement in India. Therefore we need not and should not separate these two and give support only to the revolutionaries as if the revolutionaries exist outside and separately from this struggle. The revolutionary struggle in India is a part of the larger anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle going on in the subcontinent.

Our Beloved Comrade Tarimela Nagi Reddy by Indian Comrade

  

1. Introduction

On 28th July this year the Indian Communist Revolutionary Movement dips its blood in memory on the 36th death anniversary of Comrade Tarimala Nagi Reddy. His contribution to the Indian Communist Revolutionary Movement was invaluable .`

In light on the great repression on the democratic rights movement in India even today Com Nagi Reddy’s teachings have great relevance.

He laid the foundation for the correct perspective in the democratic Rights Movement.

He was born in a wealthy family on February 11th 1917. His schooling was done in the Theosophical and Rishi Valley schools which were reknowned for their discipline and all –round development of personality.

Here he learnt about the dignity of labour ,which was professed by the schools. This teaching set the trend for his revolutionary career.

He meticulously studied Marxist –Leninist theory and moulded himself with revolutionary consciousness.

Remarkably he launched a struggle against the landlord of is own family.

Comrade Nagi Reddy’s political ideas were not tolerated by the governing body of the Madras Loyoal college ,thus he moved to Benarus Hindu University,where he had greater avenues to express his political thought. Making untiring efforts he led the student masses towards nationalist politics, socialist ideas and proletarian revolution.

Inspite of carrying the burden of leading the student’s movement and participating in the secret organization of the party, his upper-class background prevented him from attaining party membership early.

In 1939, the Communist Party of India had full faith in Nagi Reddy’s proletarian revolutionary qualities , and awarded him party membership.

Marge Grower, the then vice-chancellor of Delhi University ,openly challenged the national slogan for the formation of a constituent assembly.

Comrade.T.N, openly opposed this,being the leader of the Students Union. Fascinatingly,the Indian Congress leader Gandhi opposed him Gandhi wrote a letter to the Vice –Chancelor of the BHU to demand an apology from T.N.

T,N.opposed it and as thus failed in his law examinations.

Angered T.N. left the college and returned to his village. He started organizing students and youth into the Communist Movement. Several youth were attracted to Comrade T.N’s simple, down-to –earth style of explaining politics and economics. This made the Congress leaders helpless. (They opposed the Communists in the Freedom Struggle)

In 1949 T.N. published a booklet titled ‘economic effects of War’ which dealt with the effects of the 2^ndworld war on India when the government was imposing collection of levy from peasants for war efforts. 

At the same time it left the food grain stocks of landlords untouched. From underground, he charted out a programme to oppose the levy. He collected the details of food grain stocks with the landlords and exposed it before the people.

The government issued an arrest warrant on Com.T.N. and gave him rigorous imprisonment for 1 year.

In the Telengana struggle T. N. served as a member of the Rayalaseema Regional Committee, taking proper measures to save the secret organization and the families of several comrades which came uder repeated raids by the police. His wife Laxmikanthamma also lived a rigorous underground life.

Comrade T.N.played a major role in the Telengana Armed struggle from 1946-51. He was arrested in 1951 . In 1952 he came out of underground life and contested the elections.

Marikana' Autopsies show miners were fleeing'

Insiders in the investigations into the shooting said post-mortem reports did not favour the police version of events - that they opened fired after being fired upon.

 

Instead,
 

“the post-mortem reports indicate that most of the people were fleeing from the police when they got killed.
 

“A lot of them were shot in the back and the bullets exited through their chests.
 

“Only a few people were found to be shot from the front,” said one of several sources, who cannot be named as they are not allowed to speak to the media.
 

Independent Police Investigative Directorate
 

(IPID) spokesman Moses Dlamini would neither confirm nor deny the contents of the post-mortem reports.
 

He said they would hold a briefing in Rustenburg on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) led by the Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane has confirmed that all the post mortems were complete.
 

IMC spokesman Harold Maloka said the post-mortems were conducted by state pathologists and verified by independent private pathologists.

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/autopsies-show-miners-were-fleeing-1.1370093#.UDtMNSPI__h

Tribute to Andhra Pradesh Radical Students Union(APRSU) by Indian Comrade

The Andhra Pradesh Radical Students Union carved out a permanent niche in the annals of the history of the revolutionary student movement worldwide. Probably no student movement worldwide made such efforts to emulate the experience of the Russian and Chinese Revolution. It reminded you of a ship surviving in the stormiest of seas  as the APRSU weathered every storm in it’s journey.

It  traversed the wildest of forests. Lighting the torch of Mao Tse Tung Thought. Words simply cannot describe the sacrifices of the martys which should be inscribed in Gold. 20 years ago the Andhra Pradesh Radical Students Union faced it’s official ban.(the same time the C.P.I-M.L.-Peoples War Group was banned)

This organization played a historic role in building the students movement in Andhra Pradesh, for 3 decades. It waged struggles on all fronts, playing a major role in building the Rytu Collie Sanghams (peasant associations)and Radical Youth League committees. It also built the Singanakeri workers Union in 1982.

Significantly, on 14^th April,1972 Student George Reddy, leader of Progressive Democratic Students  was martyred. George was the architect of the Revolutionary Student movement in Andhra Pradesh which had it’s genesis in the Progressive Democratic Students and ‘Vishaka ‘group.This year on 14^th April was the 40^th anniversary of his martyrdom at the hands of ABVP goondas.

This year is  the 25^th martyrdom anniversary year of Women comrade Madidila Sarna Latha , Ravinder Reddy, Gogu Venkanna Veeraiah and Gajjavelli Sammanna , 20^th martyrdom anniversary of Com. M.Srivasa Rao and M.Vijay Kumar and  30^TH martyrdom year of Com.Sheshaiah and Gangarajan. All these martyrs contributions have to be written in gold letters. 

Other significant comrades who were martyred were Com.Janardhan, Com.Chandrashekar, woman comrade Janjanam Savitri , Raju, Mahesh and Veerana.The majority of these martyrs were simply killed in cold blood and the police fabricated false cases that they were killed in encounters after staging attacks. 

Often the bodies were not returned to the parents and cremations taken place without the parents or relatives. Today let us dip our blood in memory of all the martyrs of the Andhra Pradesh Radical Students Union.

Can popular protests be developed to seize power from the capitalist elites?‏

Picture Wilhelm Langthaler

Can popular protests be developed to size power from the capitalist elites?

by Wilhelm Langthaler at the Anti Imperialist Camp at Assisi

      

The European Union is experiencing its deepest and most acute crisis ever – both in economic as well as in political terms. We are faced with massive capital flight from Southern Europe to its centre, which is not much longer sustainable. At the same time the imposed austerity is driving a downward spiral into recession leading to mass impoverishment. Popular protests are in the making while the politico-institutional framework is at the brink of collapse. The Euro and the entire EU is being threatened, destabilising the power of the capitalist elites.

       

Acute crisis of capital flight

 

The current stage of the crisis of the EU/Euro is marked by capital fleeing the European south. The symbol for this are the increasing interest spreads over German bonds. But also banks and the corporate sector are in acute shortage of capital while private consumption is plunging. Together with the severe austerity imposed by the EU centre the European south is suffering deep recession of which the worst is still to come. Large sections of the population including the middle classes are being impoverished to an extent and in a pace unprecedented since decades.

For any peripheral country this would mean immediate default and devastating social crisis as countries like Mexico, Indonesia, Argentina and many other countries did suffer from. Only being part of the EU and the Euro, default could so far be postponed – to social costs which might exceed even the ones to be expected with bankruptcy as Argentina had exemplified.

Behind the South Africa Mineworkers massacre by Jean Damu‏

Behind the South Africa Mineworkers massacre:

POV

Aug. 19, 2012

by Jean Damu

The recent South African mineworkers massacre in which scores were shot and killed had its origins in long disgraced trade union organizing tactics but that in no way absolves the police and mine owners from being held in accountable.

There is blood and blame enough to cover both sides of the barricades, enough in fact that the regional leadership of the immensely influential South African Communist Party has called for the arrest of the leaders of the breakaway mine workers union which they assert foment violence wherever they appear.

Before addressing the issues confronting the unions it should be made clear that the police are going to have a very difficult time convincing anyone they shot in self-defense. There are numerous videos showing police forces standing in front of their vehicles, not behind them for protection, as they fired into crowds of protesting miners. That simple fact alone belies police protests of innocence.

CPP denounces docking of another US warship in Manila‏

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today condemned the scheduled docking of another US warship in Manila as another "arrogant display of contempt of Philippine sovereignty".

The USS Milius is scheduled to arrive today and dock at Manila Bay for a four-day port call.

"The docking of the USS Milius highlights the increasingly frequent arrival of interventionist troops of the US in the Philippines as the imperialist US government aims to further increase its presence and power projection activities in the Asia-Pacific," said the CPP.

"The CPP condemns the Aquino regime for allowing the US government to use the Philippines as a platform for its interventionism in the Asia-Pacific region. Under the Aquino regime, the puppetry and servility of the Philippine reactionary state has reached its highest levels in recent times."

Oppose ban on Revolutionary Democratic Front in Andhra Pradesh‏

Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF) has been banned by the Andhra Pradesh government on 9 August 2012 through Government Order No.430 under Andhra Pradesh Public Security Act 1992. This comes as the latest of the anti-people repressive measures that the Andhra Pradesh government have persistently adopted to over the last few decades to crush democratic voices and peoples’ movements under the garb of fighting Maoism. This comes as another glaring example of the hollowness of Indian government’s claim as ‘largest democracy of the world’.

      

We strongly condemn this act of banning and criminalisation of our organisation and demand the immediate withdrawal of this authoritarian ban.

The Government Order brands RDF as “unlawful” and bans it “with immediate effect”. The GO links RDF with the banned CPI(Maoist) by calling it a “frontal organisation” of the Maoist party. Falsely implicating RDF as “part of Tactical United Front”, it dubiously enlists the following as “unlawful activities” of the organisation:

(1) Sub serving the interest and objectives of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) whose avowed objective is to overthrow the lawfully established Government by means of force and violence through terrorist activities involving the use of firearms and explosives;

Greece: Politicizing the struggle as the main task

Contribution KOE to the Assisi Camp of Anti Imperialist Camp   

Petros Al Achmar, Department for International Relations, KOE

      

After the elections we find ourselves within a new political landscape characterised by the radicalisation of the popular forces. There are four main points to be mentioned:

      

First of all, everything is in flux. Nothing is secure: nor the political preferences of society, neither the relationship of forces between the people and the special regime imposed by the troika despite the relieve they got from the electoral outcome.

 

Then there is the acceleration of the political schedules. One event precipitates the next. The privatisation of the Agricultural Bank – which mortgaged 50% of the arable land – within only one day bears witness of this pace.

 

Furthermore there is the total insufficiency of the new government and the entire political system in administering the crisis. To survive Samaras concentrates on attacking Syriza. Within this frame we have to put also the manifold increase of deadly attacks on migrants by the Nazi-fascists of Hrisi Avgi and their struggle against the left.

Real Green Solution to Climate Change - No to the Agro Industrial Complex by Nickglais‏

In an recent exchange on Radical Wales a contributor was told he had to choose between Corporate Industrial scale Windmilling or Corporate Fossil Fuel Mining in Wales.

The reply was that these were the false dicotomies posed by Corporate Capitalism and were not the real choices offering fundamental and long lasting solutions to our ecological problems.

The real ecological choices are between the real solution from the ground up and community based or the top down fake "green" corporatism posing as a solution.

The Green market economy is in disarray if anybody cares to take a closer look, with carbon trading on verge of collapse and a well deserved prison sentence looming for one of the founders of this carbon trading scam.

Utimately the ecological prolem is a social problem and not a technical one of windmills or coalmines.
 

The clear advocates of a ground up community ecological solution are the International Peasant Movement of Via Campesina who have developed an alternative based on the science of agroecology as opposed to agro industrial agriculture.

Henry George - Land Value Taxation - Wolf in Sheeps Clothing by Nickglais

Picture Henry George

Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American writer, politician and political economist ,who was the most influential proponent of the Land Value Tax.

 

Henry George in his book Progress and Poverty tries to marry the interests of the working class with that of the capitalist class against landowners.
 

 

Henry George was an advocate of the free market and free trade against any form of protectionism. He believed in removing taxes from Labour and Capital and placing the burden of tax on landowners.

However whilst most Georgists are self confessed right wingers some on the Left like the Green Party in the UK have also adopted Georgist ideas.

The object of Land Value Taxation is to ensure that the rent attributable to the natural value of the land , and to the value created by its fortunate location, is paid to society as a whole and not to individual landowners.

Whilst the Land Value Taxation ostensible target is the absentee landowner or speculators, LVT would also fall on every landowner however small and they would be under pressure to extract as much profit from their land as possible to pay the tax.

Wales - Depopulation, Emigration and Immigration - Statement from Great Unrest Group 2012‏

The right wing has a obsession with inward migration to Wales which it sees as the source of all problems, while always missing the main problem in Wales that of the neo liberal capitalist economy which drives many of the most able and resourceful young people into outward migration from Wales.

Wales is the second poorest country in Western Europe after Portugal with a GNP per capita that is unfavourable to that of Greece.

The focus on the immigration into Wales takes the focus away from the more fundamental question of Welsh Depopulation. It is comparable to focusing on symptoms rather than of the main cause of illness of the patient.

In Wales the problem is the terminally ill neo liberal capitalist economy and immigration is just one of its many symptoms.

The Welsh population is ageing and the productive working population is shrinking, therefore there is an urgency to fighting depopulation in Wales which none of those parties that participate in representative democracy in Wales have so far seriously addressed.

A quarter of the Welsh population will be 65 or over by 2030, compared to 22% for the UK average.

The representative parties in Wales represent themselves.This should be no surprise and was clearly seen by the early Greek Democrats thousands of years ago, which was why they favoured direct democracy over representative democracy.

The drawback of Nepal’s Revolution : The NGO’s Harvest

-By Saba Navalan Nepal is one of those lands so very rich in natural resources that it constantly pricks the eyes of multi-national companies which dominate the world today. Nepal which is situated at the backyard of India had been treated over the years as its slave-land. The poor farmers and working class in Nepal is representing the ‘neo-slaves’ of the globe. In many villages there has never been any governance or State administration. The inhabitants of these villages have never had access to government medical facilities. The horror of slavery in the Feudalistic System of Governance in the last century remains dreadfuly present trapped in a time capsule. For a long time Nepal has remained so steep in enslavement and subjugation as if it was under the ‘colonial rule’ of India. Prior to Maoists, no one proposed an alternative system of politics against India’s domination as well as revolutionary path against the feudal slavery system. In this milieu people were mobilised under the leadership of the Unified Communist Party which followed Maoism in letter and spirit. Villages were freed. Within a span of ten years many villages came under the overall influence of the Maoists. People were trained in people’s warfare. People were mobilised and organized through the Agricultural Labourers Organizations, trade unions and Workers’ Forums at first and later through Students’ Forums and Organizations which too became powerful. The Maoists maximised the conflicts and contradictions that existed between the King’s battalion otherwise known as the Royal Nepal Army and the Police Forces, in the initial stages and had developed effective suitable military strategy. In a similar vein, exploiting the contradiction that existed between the King and the Political Parties that were arguing the case of ‘bourgeois parliamentary democracy’ the Maoists began to launch their revolutionary initiatives in the urban areas as well amidst the lower rung of the middle-class. Around 75 districts had completely or partly, came under the Maoist administration just before 2000. Having formed a strong and firm People’s Political Front in Nepal, they led the first stage of revolutionary activities against the monarchy. The other capitalist parties too joined hands with the forces under the leadership of the Maoists in their effort to remove the system of monarchy. After the fall of monarchy the other parties came to an agreement with the Maoists on the issue of conducting general election for the formation of a Constitutional Assembly. At this stage the Maoists came forward to form a ‘Capitalist Democratic National Government’ in Nepal At the same time the Unified Communist Party of Nepal – Maoists - had announced was only an interim period in the revolution. By June 2006 the United Communist Party or the Maoists developed a 12 Point Compliance Plan in consultation with the other seven parties. On the 21st of November, 2006 an extended Peace Pact was signed between the Maoists and the Government of Nepal. The reason why the Maoists, who with the support of a tremendous ‘people’s upsurge’ had cordoned the Royal Palace in Kathmandu, instead of seizing ‘the power to rule’ in its totality had accepted a ‘peace pact’ still remains a mystery. Many agree that the November Peace Pact was the historic blunder of Nepal Revolution. The most alarming part of the pact which was considerably dangerous is the Clause whereby they would appeal to the United Nations Assembly, to be the watch-dog of the said Pact. As soon as the signatures were attested, an appeal was made seeking UN intervention. At the close of 2006 the interviews of Prasantha, Baburam Bhattarai and such others and exaggerated praises and hyperboles about them found their way in the Western Media. At the time when the United Nations commenced its mission in Nepal on the 1st of January 2007, accurate information about the nature of work really aimed at and to be carried out were also surfacing. The real job entrusted in the hands of the Special Committee called The United Nations Mission In Nepal [UNMIN] was to supervise and affirm the disarming of the ‘militants of Maoists’ People Liberation Army. The act of bringing in the United Nations in the picture, during the interim stage of Nepal’s revolution is considered the second worst possible mistake. What made the Maoists consent to it still remains a mystery. Although the initial stage of the revolution in Nepal to dethrone the king and to remove monarchy and feudalism began in the right direction, the way its succeeding stages of evolution were captured by the totalitarian institutions did start with the UN intervention. At present a large number of Maoists accept the fact that within the Maoist Party the conflict between the progressive reaction, between right and wrong, between truth and lie had begun with the victory of the revolution itself. The revolutionary sections which are a minority today observe that not taking over monarchy in its totality and allowing UN to step in were two decisive mistakes made. At that time Prasantha opined that disarming the militants couldn’t be deemed as the ultimate surrender of the revolutionary forces and that People’s Revolution was not entirely free. Thus he gave highly ambiguous and blurred statements and face-to-face sessions which however proved temporarily acceptable to the revolutionary forces. At the time the Communists sought refuge in an alluring conviction that ‘This is Prasantha’s revolutionary path’. In establishing a meeting ground between the Maoists and the Parties advocating the system of Parliamentary Democracy, on a continuous basis, and later on, in disarming the People’s Liberation Army and to wipe it out without a trace, the UNMIN played a crucial role. Following the election, a government with five Maoist Ministers and one Deputy Minister was formed in April 2007. Simultaneously, the Maoist leadership was forced to accept the DDR Programme tabled by the United Nations. The ‘so-called’ treacherous scheme DDR Programme [Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration]- of UN was accepted by the Maoist polit-bureau. In return the United Nations agreed to help the Maoists in undertaking several reforms. Particularly, the UN agreed to work hand in hand with the Maoists in ‘developing’ the villages and to aid the caste-wise oppressed sections to enter into the political arena and to put an absolute end to monarchy. European countries such as Norway, France and the United States joined hands with the UN and feigned to have the interests of Nepal, its well-being, progress and development as their foremost concern. Upon the understanding arrived at with the Maoists on the issue of ‘development-, as well as based on the recommendations of the United Nations, non governmental organisations (NGOs) began to march towards the villages in large numbers. By 2008 this invasion had reached a crescendo. In the process of liberating the villages from the clutches of discrimination, the Maoists first created access to the basic services by establishing schools, hospitals and civil administrative structures at village level which were gradually devoured one by one by the NGOs. The NGO named Nirdhan Utthan Bank Limited which came into existence with the help of the funds received from Asian Development Bank began commencing its destructive projects and programmes in the rural areas. Ms.Meena Aacharya , the influential member of this Bank which had as its role-model the Grameen Bank that had changed Bangladesh so much as to be called NGO franchised country boasts that their bank had come into being with the specific purpose of providing redress to the people of Nepal and to retrieve them, having as role-model the Grameen Bank. Meena Acharya further says that more funds are available for ‘welfare schemes in Nepal and that the sponsors are ever ready to give more funds. USA’s Rockefeller family is regarded as one of the topmost funders of Non-Governmental Organizations in the world. This leading exploitative family` of USA right has a past for providing funds to Hitler who was responsible for war , destruction and a genocide that set an example to many others yet to come. The very principle of Nirdhan Utthan Bank Limited is extorting exorbitant interest for the loans they give. But, they would use the refined expression ‘Micro Finance’ to refer to it. Bill Gates who is called the technically refined thief of the world takes pride in hailing it as ‘Creative Capitalism’. The organization by name Centre for Micro-Finance in Nepal (CMF) too played a vital role in bringing the people and the rural economy within the purview of Totalitarian Organizational set-up. The NGO called Working for uplifting the socio-economic conditions of the rural poor and discriminated groups which runs with the financial aid from Trickle Up Program USA -COPPADES – and the United European Countries targeted those villages freed by the Maoists. Every new corner of the country is invaded by several NGOs such as ‘save the children’,’ American Aid’, ‘Transparency international’ and so on. Under the agenda of uprooting poverty it geared up all activities for destroying the seeds of revolution. The Nongovernmental Organization called Educate the Children began to take over the rural education. These Non-Governmental voluntary organizations which run with the help of funds from multi-national companies, instead of revolution gave alms to the people. Following the United Nations Organisation these NGOs had two primary projects on the basis of which they continued their tryst with Nepal. 1. Alluring the educated middle class front-line militants amidst the Maoisits with attractive salaries and with high-sounding slogans such as ‘helping the have-nots and Needy’ etc., and so enrolling them into their fold as staffs. 2. Destroying the mass Organizations bringing them under its control or by sabotaging. As a result, for the first time an opportunist group which could exercise power and domination over the society emerged from within the Maoists. Secondly, organizations of mass mobilisation which proved the very foundation and driving force of revolution were destroyed. Thirdly, the Institutions of revolutionary administrative outfits became bourgeois forums. The house worth millions that Prashantha had acquired after the Peace pact. It is only as long as the Party remained under the constant vigil and surveillance of the working class people that it could remain as a revolutionary party, working for people’s cause. In Nepal the systematic sabotage carried out against people’s organizations facilitated the formation of an opportunistic leadership to emerge. On the one hand the UN was bent on destroying the People’s Liberation Army and on the other, the freed lands once again fell into the hands of the landlords and the multinationals, thanks to the congenial climate for all these created by the NGOs. The way the People’s Organizations were sabotaged destroyed and came under the control of totalitarian Institutions proved to be the major setback of the revolution. As a result Maoists who remained strong with people’s support began to weaken. And the opportunists and the compromising elements gained strength. Thus the bourgeois agenda was successfully carried out as planned. The revolution which the people had carried forward with their valour and sacrifice suffered a great setback. Prasantha and Baburam Bhattarai were heading the opportunist groups that had gained strength. The revolutionary sect headed by Kiran seemed to be weak but at the same time having a firm political stand and perspective. After the departure of Stalin and Mao, Revisionism and compromising elements came to the forefront in the World Communist Movement. The setback suffered by the Maoists who, defeating the diversionary political approach and tactics had initiated and led a liberation keeping in tune with the prevailing socio-economic climate, having people at the helm of affairs, was a well-planned one by the imperialist forces. For the past 50 years in order to sabotage the class-based revolutionary people’s outfits and Movements the imperialist forces introduced the political ideology found by Post-modernism which is known as ‘Identity Politics’. Later on, this ideology was popularized through the civil societies. Civil Societies are formed through the Dhalit forums and other non-political ideologies. These ‘civil societies’, with the help of micro-economy programmes undergo changes in their system of dwelling. Through this process, throughout the world it has become an easy job to unsettle and sabotage People’s Groups and to weaken the revolutionary passion and fervour that prevail among the people and to pave the way for opportunist and compromising elements to enter inside. The so –called Non-Governmental Organizations which are in reality totalitarian in nature and which had thrown open all the doors for the safe and smooth entry of anti-revolutionary forces, offering a red-carpet welcome are indeed a deadly curse of today. It is this treacherous political strategy well planned and executed by the bourgeoise Organizations and outfits that had strengthened the leadership of traitors and betrayers of revolution such as Baburam Bhattarai and Prasantha in Nepal.