Thursday, April 30, 2015
Letter To PEN Protesting Charlie Hebdo Award
After all the solidarity and #JesuisCharlie hashtag, Charlie Hebdo ridicules the African migrants who drowned whilst on their way to Europe. They wrote 'Family Reunion in the Mediterranean'.
Democracy and Class Struggle is pleased to note the opposition to Charlie Hebdo receiving the PEN Literary Award by authors and literary people - the pseudo progressiveness of Charlie Hebdo is a reflection of the current confusion of intellectuals who pose as leftists but act as rightists in defence of Charlie Hebdo and needs to be exposed..
The Letter to PEN is published below.
In March it was announced that the PEN Literary Gala, to be held May 5th 2015, would honor the magazine Charlie Hebdo with the PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award in response to the January 7 attacks that claimed the lives of many members of its editorial staff.
It is clear and inarguable that the murder of a dozen people in the Charlie Hebdo offices is sickening and tragic.
What is neither clear nor inarguable is the decision to confer an award for courageous freedom of expression on Charlie Hebdo, or what criteria, exactly, were used to make that decision.
We do not believe in censoring expression. An expression of views, however disagreeable, is certainly not to be answered by violence or murder.
However, there is a critical difference between staunchly supporting expression that violates the acceptable, and enthusiastically rewarding such expression.
In the aftermath of the attacks, Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons were characterized as satire and “equal opportunity offense,” and the magazine seems to be entirely sincere in its anarchic expressions of disdain toward organized religion. But in an unequal society, equal opportunity offense does not have an equal effect.
Power and prestige are elements that must be recognized in considering almost any form of discourse, including satire.
The inequities between the person holding the pen and the subject fixed on paper by that pen cannot, and must not, be ignored.
To the section of the French population that is already marginalized, embattled, and victimized, a population that is shaped by the legacy of France’s various colonial enterprises, and that contains a large percentage of devout Muslims, Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of the Prophet must be seen as being intended to cause further humiliation and suffering.
Our concern is that, by bestowing the Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award on Charlie Hebdo, PEN is not simply conveying support for freedom of expression, but also valorizing selectively offensive material: material that intensifies the anti-Islamic, anti-Maghreb, anti-Arab sentiments already prevalent in the Western world.
In our view, PEN America could have chosen to confer its PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award upon any of a number of journalists and whistleblowers who have risked, and sometimes lost, their freedom (and even their lives) in service of the greater good.
PEN is an essential organization in the global battle for freedom of expression. It is therefore disheartening to see that PEN America has chosen to honor the work and mission of Charlie Hebdo above those who not only exemplify the principles of free expression, but whose courage, even when provocative and discomfiting, has also been pointedly exercised for the good of humanity.
We the undersigned, as writers, thinkers, and members of PEN, therefore respectfully wish to disassociate ourselves from PEN America’s decision to give the 2015 Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award to Charlie Hebdo.
Chris Abani
Russell Banks
Peter Carey
Teju Cole
Junot Díaz
Deborah Eisenberg
Eve Ensler
Nell Freudenberger
Keith Gessen
Francisco Goldman
Edward Hoagland
Nancy Kricorian
Amitava Kumar
Rachel Kushner
Zachary Lazar
Patrick McGrath
Rick Moody
Lorrie Moore
Joyce Carol Oates
Michael Ondaatje
Raj Patel
Francine Prose
Sarah Schulman
Taiye Selasi
Kamila Shamsie
Wallace Shawn
Charles Simic
Rebecca Solnit
Linda Spalding
Scott Spencer
Chase Twichell
Eliot Weinberger
Jon Wiener
Dave Zirin
Ukraine : Borotba May Day Statement 2015
Until recently, we all perceived May 1 as a reason to open barbecue season, walk in a ritual procession under the red flag, and spend time with friends at parties. Now this day is filled with new meaning for us.
Ukraine lies in ruins. Donbass bleeds, factories close, the lights increasingly go out in cities, people have lost their jobs and savings, pensioners are on the verge of survival. In one year, the country has been transformed from a poor European power into an impoverished and backward war-torn colony; now the Ukrainians, by income level and life, are the envy of only the most oppressed African countries.
This all happened before our eyes, the reality surpassing even the wildest negative forecasts and expectations.
Now
The result is that the Ukrainian worker is now five times poorer than last year!
We are killed: in combat, casualties among troops and civilians exceeded the losses of the Soviet Army in 10 years of war in Afghanistan; millions have become refugees, lost their homes and property.
On May 2, the anniversary of the Odessa tragedy, we remember those who gave their lives defending their right to truth and justice.
We are silenced: the new government unleashed political terror, killing journalists and politicians who dare to disagree with the "European" rulers. Those who did not want to or could not go abroad were thrown into prison, where they were subjected to torture and extrajudicial killings.
We are forbidden: the law banning communist ideology leaves no doubt about who came to power and what kind of "democracy" is waiting for us. Anti-communism is one of the signs of fascism.
We are constantly being lied to: the atmosphere of hatred in the media distorts people's minds, journalists have turned into war propagandists, and will never be able to write and speak the truth, after irreversible mental changes and the destruction of personality.
At a time when telling the truth is life-threatening, many prefer to remain silent or leave Ukraine.
What to do?
Borotba calls on every Ukrainian who is tired of waiting and wants to act:
- Produce and distribute leaflets daily (if you need help, please contact us), start with a single leaflet per day;
- Create anonymous accounts on social media and conduct propaganda there;
- Paint graffiti in the streets of your town;
- Conduct discussions with relatives and friends, talk about workers' protests in Ukraine and solidarity actions abroad;
- Observe secrecy, never give out your real information in propaganda work, use the anonymous Internet browser TOR;
- Participate in all social protests: miners, Chernobyl, workers, teachers, defrauded investors, soldiers' mothers, they are all the people of Ukraine, they are all our allies;
- Report your work to Borotba’s website, we have to show that Ukraine is struggling and inspire others.
On to victory!
Red and Internationalist May Day - Proletarians of all countries unite!
RED AND INTERNATIONALIST MAY DAY!
Crises, wars, repression, oppression, unemployment, poverty!
Proletarians and oppressed people, let us unite and take the future in our hands!
Long live Revolution!
Imperialism continues crossing a deep economic crisis and unloading it on the proletarians and peoples of the world. They speak about recovery, but the only thing that recovers is the rush to profits, wealth and arms.
For the proletarians, poor peasants and other people’s masses in every country of the world, instead, we see unemployment, labour laws increasing precariousness, exploitation and slavery, misery, plunder of raw materials and energy resources, devastation of environment and territories. Youth without work are now the majority, in spite of their educational and cultural growth. New technologies are used to make more profits, intensify exploitation and the despotic command and control on labour and increase the destructive power of arms.
Against this situation proletarians and masses rise up, in the imperialist countries, as well as in the countries oppressed by imperialism. Proletarians and masses cannot accept a worse and worse condition of life and work; a life of hardship with neither hope, nor future, and they hate more and more their oppressed and harassers.
In the oppressed countries, workers, peasants and youth have repeatedly come out in the streets braving severe repression to fight back the attacks on their livelyhood; the peasantry, main force for the New Democratic Revolution, withstand the reactionary anti-peasants policies of displacement and annihilation and persist in the struggle for lands against old and “new” forms of semi-feudal domination, base of the imperialist rule.
In the imperialist countries the uprisings of youth and immigrants from Ferguson to Stockholm, to the banlieues in Paris, the general workers’ struggles, which often clash with the repressive apparatus of the State.All of this show that the revolution, as tendency and need, is increasingly emerging and clashes the reactionarization and fascistization of states and governments.
Wherever, in the struggles and people’s wars, the forefront role of women advances, to put an end to the heinous class and gender oppression that fills the streets of the world of rapes, femicides, and to demand a revolution for a true liberation. In order to face and prevent the people’s rebellion, imperialists, their States, their right or claimed “left” governments, respond with fierce repression, massacres, persecution; demagogy and plotting. They establish police states that rub out political, social and individual freedoms, in a vain attempt to stop the people’s wave and the revolutionary organization of masses.
They also employed the enticements of the electoral farce of reformist, social-democrats and revisionist in order to contain the rage of the mass within their reactionary system. These forces foster the illusion that some ‘pro-people’ government can overcome the ravages of the crisis; for instance, in Greece, highest expression of the crisis in Europe, forces of new social democracy as SYRIZA, come to power as a last resort, but they are not able to stand up to the diktats of European capital and banks or give response to the needs and struggle of masses. Also if the service done to imperialism by such fake left forces who misguide the masses still remain as a hurdle, in many countries the masses respond with the intensification of the class struggle and an increasingly massive abstention and boycott.
In Ukraine and Eastern Europe reactionary, also Nazi-like, forces advance, supported by US, EU and NATO, in a framework of inter-imperialist contention with Putin’s Russia. The masses are justly struggling against fascism and Western imperialism, but they need a genuine communist leadership to be not pawns of imperialist Russia expansionism.
The rebellion of proletarians and masses demands a radical change and the only means to achieve this is to overthrow, weapons in hand, the ruling classes and establish a new society free from exploitation, oppression and imperialism. Within the crisis become inter-imperialist contradictions sharpen and tendency to a new world partition war becomes more and more insistent – although the contradiction between imperialism and people and nation oppressed remains the principle contradiction in the world – the revolution remains the main trend and is embodied by the potential new wave of the world proletarian revolution.
In order to become successful new democratic revolutions marching to socialism in the countries oppressed by imperialism, and proletarian and socialist revolutions marching to communism in the imperialist countries, the rebellions of masses need a genuine revolutionary communist party in each country, a united front of all the exploited and oppressed masses led by the proletariat and a revolutionary people’s army. Where the masses lack these instruments, their heroic and bold struggles are defeated and / or end to be prey of reactionary forces, always tied to imperialist system, that can not free them from the social, economic and political chains.
In the name of the war on terrorism, imperialism unleashes wars and domestic terror. But imperialism is the true terrorism, the monster that we must fight and overthrow. What in the world is worse than imperialism? Imperialism, especially US, intensifies the policy of war, invasion and aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan and fosters wars in Syria, Libya Yemen and throughout the Middle East and West Asia. They respond to the people’s revolts in the Arab countries by installing in power forces that continue the policy of the old tyrants and regimes, as in Egypt, in cahoots and alliance with the Zionist gendarme, Israel, and other reactionary regimes in the region, from Turkey to Iran, Saudi Arabia.
In these wars and interventions, they arm feudal and reactionary forces which then turn against them, bringing the war within the imperialist countries themselves with fierce attacks that undermine the security and strength of those States, within which there are masses and sections of rebel immigrants who hate imperialism. In the field where these direct and indirect interventions took place, imperialismcontinues applying the policy of Low Intensity Conflict (LCI) with agents and plots to put masses against masses, to divert the target of the struggles of the oppressed peoples from of their main enemy, at the aim of dividing the anti-imperialist united front, as now in Syria facing the Arab and Kurdish masses.
Where the ISIS advances, the masses fight and resist, as Kurdish masses, with a leading role of women, in the front row in Rojava, Kobane. But only by fighting with the People’s War, not only the ISIS but also imperialism and the reactionary regimes in the region, the masses can free themselves from social and national oppression.
The bourgeoisie and its sophisticated intellectuals, in the imperialist citadels as in the centers of culture in the countries oppressed by imperialism, sing the funeral of the working class and its ideology, powerfully drawn by Marx, Engels Lenin, Stalin Mao, but in every corner of the world we are witnessing a huge resumption of the workers’ struggle, classist and combative, that shakes the citadels of capital, also in China, as well as all countries of the alleged development of capital , the so-called, “emerging countries”.
In the imperialist system, big countries, such as Brazil, Turkey, etc. are crossed by strong struggles of workers, peasants and other masses and show how the economic rise of these countries under the rule of imperialism makes them “giant with feet of clay” and land of revolution. There is no place in the world that does not see tensions and sharpening of the class struggle. In this framework it is the People’s War, led by Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties, the only strategic reference of the liberation struggle.
The People’s War in India, hitting directly at one of the major bastions of imperialism and reaction in the world, has roused great enthusiasm among the revolutionary masses all over the world and become a powerful internationalist rallying point. Together with the People’s Wars in the Philippines, Peru, and Turkey, it continues to undermine imperialism and shows the path to overthrow the system of exploitation and oppression of imperialism and the feudal reactionary forces and the construction of a new power and society.
The Marxist-Leninist-Maoists communists in the world must construct and strengthen Communist Parties to take up their tasks of leadership and development, ridding their ranks of revisionist and capitulationist tendencies, as Prachandism in Nepal, Avakianism in the US, the Right Opportunist Line, in all forms, in Peru, etc., without falling, at the same time, into the sterile petty bourgeois revolutionarism and dogmatism. The building of the communist parties must take place in the fire of the class struggle with close tie with the masses, in function of the revolutionary struggle for the power.
This May Day 2015 calls us to lift high and strong the red flag of communism and revolution in every demonstration, in every anti-imperialist struggle in the world, bringing and renewing with strength the slogan of: “Proletarians and oppressed peoples of the world, unite!”
Let us unite to stop imperialist and reactionary wars, to crush imperialism and reaction around the world!
Let us salute the martyrs of the people and revolution, let us support the struggle and free revolutionary and communist political prisoners around the world!
Let us bring forth the genuine proletarian internationalism in the leadership of proletarian struggles, in the struggles of the peoples to create the conditions and advance towards an international organisation of communists
Let us support people’s wars until victory!
Let us take the future of communism in our hands!
Declaration signed by:
Collective of Iranian maoists
Marxist-Leninist Party of Turkey
Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan;
Communist Movement of Serbia
Communist Party of India (Maoist)
Democracy and Class Struggle – British State
Great Unrest WSRP-Wales British State
Long March Towards Communism (Spain);
New Communist Party (Liaison Comittee) USA
Maoist Comunist Group USA
Maoist Communist Mouvement Tunisia
Maoist Communist Party Manipur
Maoist Communist Party Italy;
Maoist Revolutionary League-Sri Lanka
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Party Construction Committee (Germany) MLM-PAK
Peru Peoples Movement (Committee for Reorganizing)
Red communist Blogs
Red Fraction of Communist Party of Chile – RF CPC – PPM (CR)
Red Block (Unity of maoists) France
Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR-RCP Canada);
Revolutionary Intellectual -Cultural Front,Nepal
Revolutionary Praxis – United Kingdom
Serve the People – Communist League of Norway
Servir Le Peuple – Sheisau Sorelh – Occitany – French state;
Workers Voice – Malaysia
Collective of Iranian maoists
Marxist-Leninist Party of Turkey
Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan;
Communist Movement of Serbia
Communist Party of India (Maoist)
Democracy and Class Struggle – British State
Great Unrest WSRP-Wales British State
Long March Towards Communism (Spain);
New Communist Party (Liaison Comittee) USA
Maoist Comunist Group USA
Maoist Communist Mouvement Tunisia
Maoist Communist Party Manipur
Maoist Communist Party Italy;
Maoist Revolutionary League-Sri Lanka
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Party Construction Committee (Germany) MLM-PAK
Peru Peoples Movement (Committee for Reorganizing)
Red communist Blogs
Red Fraction of Communist Party of Chile – RF CPC – PPM (CR)
Red Block (Unity of maoists) France
Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR-RCP Canada);
Revolutionary Intellectual -Cultural Front,Nepal
Revolutionary Praxis – United Kingdom
Serve the People – Communist League of Norway
Servir Le Peuple – Sheisau Sorelh – Occitany – French state;
Workers Voice – Malaysia
May Day declaration in ARABIC -from Tunisian Comrades
أيها البروليتاريون في كل بلدان العالم اتحدوا !
من أجل واحد ماي أممي أحمر !
أزمات ، حروب ، قمع ، اضطهاد ، بطالة ، فقر ...
أيها العمال و الشعوب المضطهَدة لنتّحد و لنأخذ مصيرنا بأيدينا !
تحيا الثورة !
ما تزال الامبريالية تتخبط في ازمة اقتصادية عميقة ، وهي تحوّلها إلى عبء ثقيل على أكتاف بروليتاريي العالم و شعوبه . و يتحدث الامبرياليون عن " ازدهار اقتصادي " لكن الشيء الوحيد الذي "ازدهر " هو السباق المحموم لتكديس الأرباح و الثروة و الأسلحة . و تترجم هذه الأزمة بالنسبة للبروليتاريا و الفلاحين الفقراء و الجماهير الشعبية في كل بلدان العالم بالبطالة و سنّ القوانين التي تشرّع التشغيل الوقتي و الاستغلال و العبودية و البؤس و نهب المواد الأولية و مصادر الطاقة و كذلك تقنين تدمير البيئة و الأرض .
و رغم أن عدد الشباب المتعلم في تزايد فإن أغلب المعطلين عن العمل هم من الشباب . و تُستعمل التكنولوجيا الجديدة لمزيد مراكمة الأرباح و التكثيف من الاستغلال بأكثر تسلطا و استبدادا و كذلك للزيادة في القوة التدميرية للأسلحة .
ان البروليتاريا و الجماهير الشعبية في البلدان الرأسمالية كما في البلدان المضطهَدة تنتفض لإدانة هذه الوضعية . فالبروليتاريا و الجماهير عامة لم تعد تقبل بتدهور ظروف عيشها و شغلها مما جعلها تفقد الأمل في حياة و مستقبل أفضل فيزيد حقدها أكثر على مضطهديها . ان العمال و الفلاحين و الشباب في البلدان المضطهّدة أصبحوا لا يترددون في النزول إلى الشارع لمواجهة أقسى أشكال القمع من أجل الدفاع عن حقهم في حياة أفضل . و الفلاحون الفقراء الذين يمثلون القوة الرئيسية في ثورة الديمقراطية الجديدة يصمدون أمام السياسات الرجعية المعادية لهم و المتمثلة في اقتلاعهم من أراضيهم و تدمير حياتهم ، فهم يستميتون في النضال من أجل الأرض و ضد كل الأشكال القديمة و "الجديدة " للهيمنة الشبه اقطاعية التي تمثل أساس الهيمنة الامبريالية . أما في البلدان الرأسمالية فإن هبّات الشباب و المهاجرات و المهاجرين – من فرغسون إلى ستوكهولم مرورا بضواحي باريس – و نضال العمال و العاملات تتصادم مباشرة مع الجهاز القمعي للدولة .
كل هذا يبين بوضوح ان الثورة – كتوجه و كضرورة – بدأت تُطِلّ مصطدمة بالطابع الفاشي و الرجعي المتزايد للأنظمة و الحكومات . و تلعب النساء في النضال و الحروب الشعبية دورا رياديا من أجل وضع حدّ للاضطهاد الجنسي و الطبقي و المتمثل في تزايد عمليات الاغتصاب و الاغتيال فهن يتمسكن بالثورة من أجل تحقيق تحررهن الفعلي .
و لاستباق التمرد الشعبي و مواجهته يفرض الامبرياليون – بدولهم و حكوماتهم اليمينية أو " اليسارية" قمعا وحشيا مكثفة المجازر و عمليات التعذيب و الديماغوجيا و المؤامرات ، و عندما يعجزون عن كبح جماح الغضب الشعبي و التنظم الثوري للجماهير فإنهم يلجؤون إلى أجهزة الدولة البوليسية فيمنعون الحريات السياسية و الاجتماعية و الفردية . و يستعمل الامبرياليون أيضا أسلوب الاغراء بمغازلة الاصلاحيين و الاشتراكيين الديمقراطيين و التحريفيين عن طريق مسرحية الانتخابات على أمل تدجين الغضب الشعبي و حصْره في إطار الصراع داخل النظام الرجعي . ان هذه القوى تنشر الأوهام حول حكومة " ذات توجه شعبي " يمكن أن تصلح ما دمرته الأزمة . ففي اليونان حيث تجد الازمة التي هزت كامل أوروبا أوضح تعبيراتها تمّ تمكين قوى الاشتراكية الديمقراطية الجديدة ( سيريزا ) من السلطة كآخر حلّ ، لكن سيريزا لا يمكن أن تخرج عن إملاءات رأس المال الأوروبي و إملاءات البنوك و لا يمكنها أن تلبي حاجيات الجماهير أو تستجيب لنضالاتها . و إذا واصلت هذه القوى – اليسارية المزعومة – دورها كمعرقلٍ لنضال الشعب فإن الجماهير ستكثف من الصراع الطبقي في العديد من البلدان و ستقاطع شيئا فشيئا مسرحية الانتخابات .
في أوكرانيا و أوروبا الشرقية تحرز القوى الرجعية و حتى الفاشية المكشوفة تقدما وهي في ذلك مدعومة من الولايات المتحدة و الاتحاد الاوروبي و حلف الناتو في إطار الصراع بين الامبرياليات مع روسيا بوتن . إنه من حق الجماهير أن تناضل ضد الفاشية و الامبريالية الغربية لكن لابدّ أن تكون لها قيادة شيوعية حقيقية حتى لا تتحول إلى بيدق بيد الامبريالية التوسعية الروسية .
إن البروليتاريا و الجماهير الشعبية بتمرّدها تريد تغييرا جذريا و ان السبيل الوحيد لتحقيق ذلك هو اسقاط الطبقات المهيمنة بقوّة السلاح و ارساء مجتمع جديد محرر من الاستغلال و الاضطهاد و من الامبريالية. و في الظرف الحالي للازمة يحتدّ التناقض بين الامبرياليات شيئا فشيئا و يتجه الوضع نحو حرب جديدة لإعادة اقتسام العالم ، و رغم ذلك فإن التناقض بين الامبريالية و الشعوب و الأمم المضطهدة يظل هو التناقض الرئيسي ، و تبقى الثورة هي التوجّه الرئيسي وهي تتنزل في إطار الموجة الجديدة للثورة البروليتارية العالمية . و لكي تتحول حركات تمرد الجماهير إلى ثورات ديمقراطية جديدة نحو الاشتراكية في البلدان المضطهَدة من طرف الامبريالية و إلى ثورات اشتراكية بروليتارية نحو الشيوعية في البلدان الامبريالية لابد من إيجاد حزب شيوعي ثوري حقيقي في كل بلد و جبهة موحدة لكل الجماهير المستّغّلة و المضطهدة بقيادة البروليتاريا و جيش شعبي ثوري . و في الحالة التي لا تمتلك فيها الجماهير هذه الأدوات فإن نضالاتها البطولية و الشجاعة ستنتهي إلى الهزيمة أو أنها تسقط فريسة للقوى الرجعية المرتبطة بدورها بالنظام الامبريالي و التي لا يمكن أبدا أن تحرر الجماهير من قيودها الاجتماعية و الاقتصادية و السياسية التي تكبّلها . و باسم الحرب على الارهاب تنشر الامبريالية الإرهاب و تشعل الحروب و هي في الواقع الارهابي الحقيقي و الوحش الذي يجب علينا قتاله و الإطاحة به . فهل هناك شيء أسوأ من الامبريالية في هذا العالم ؟
تكثّف الامبريالية – و خاصة الامبريالية الأمريكية – من سياسة الحرب و الغزو و العدوان في العراق و أفغانستان و تسلك خيار الحرب في سوريا و ليبيا و اليمن و كل الشرق الأوسط و آسيا الغربية . و قد ردّت القوى الامبريالية على الانتفاضات الشعبية في الأقطار العربية بتنصيب قوى سياسية مؤهلة لمواصلة سياسة الطغاة القدامى و أنظمة – كالنظام المصري – متواطئة مع الكيان الصهيوني – شرطي المنطقة – و مع بقية الأنظمة الرجعية من تركيا إلى ايران مرورا بالعربية السعودية . و عبر هذه الحروب و التدخلات تقوم الدول الامبريالية بتسليح القوى الاقطاعية و الرجعية التي تنثني ضدها بعد ذلك و تنقل الحرب إلى البلدان الامبريالية نفسها بتنظيم هجومات وحشية تزعزع أمن و قوة هذه الدول وذلك بتجنيد جزء من الجماهير و من المهاجرات و المهاجرين المتمردين و الناقمين على الامبريالية . وحيث تحدث هذه الهجومات سواء كانت بصفة مباشرة أو غير مباشرة فإن الامبريالية تظل تطبق مبدأ " القتال المنخفض الحدّة " ناشرة عملاءها على الميدان لكي يحيكوا المؤامرات و الدسائس بهدف تعبئة الجماهير ضد الجماهير و ذلك ليحرفوا نضال الجماهير عن هدفه و ليقسموا الجبهة المتحدة المناهضة للامبريالية كما يحدث اليوم في سوريا بين الجماهير الكردية و العربية .
و أينما تقدمت " الدولة الإسلامية " فإن الجماهير تقاتل و تصمد لاسيّما الجماهير الكردية حيث تلعب النساء دورا رياديا على جبهة القتال في كوباني و روجافا ( كردستان السورية ). لكن لا يمكن للجماهير أن تتحرر من الاضطهاد الاجتماعي و القومي إلاّ عن طريق حرب الشعب ، ليس فقط ضد داعش بل أيضا ضد الامبريالية و الأنظمة الرجعية في المنطقة .
إن البرجوازية و مثقفيها المزيفين في القلاع الامبريالية و في الأوساط الثقافية بالبلدان المضطهدة قد احتفلوا بدفن الطبقة العاملة مع ايديولوجيتها التي وضع أسسها المتينة ماركس ، انجلز و لينين و ستالين و ماو تسي تونغ ، لكننا نشهد اليوم في كل بقاع العالم مدّا نضاليا عماليا مقاوما يزعزع أركان القلاع التقليدية لرأس المال و كذلك الصين و البلدان المسماة "صاعدة" .
و في داخل المنظومة الامبريالية نجد بلدانا كبيرة مثل البرازيل و تركيا تشقها صراعات عمالية و فلاّحية قوية و هذا يدل على أن الازدهار الاقتصادي لهذه البلدان الواقعة تحت الهيمنة الامبريالية لم يجعل منها إلا " عملاقا برجلين من صلصال " و أرضا خصبة للثورة . فليس هناك مكان في العالم لم تحتدّ فيه التوترات و الصراع الطبقي ، و في هذا الظرف تصبح حرب الشعب بقيادة الأحزاب الماركسية اللينينية الماوية المرجع الاستراتيجي للنضال التحرري .
إن حرب الشعب في الهند التي تضرب مباشرة أهم قلاع الامبريالية و الرجعية قد أججت حماسا كبيرا لدى الجماهير الثورية في كل أنحاء العالم و أصبحت تمثل عامل تضامن و تكاتف أممي قوي . وهي تواصل مع الحرب الشعبية في الفلبين و البيرو و تركيا تقويض أركان الامبريالية و تمهد الطريق للقضاء على النظام الامبريالي ، نظام الاستغلال و الاضطهاد كما تواصل ضرب القوى الرجعية الاقطاعية من أجل بناء مجتمع جديد و سلطة جديدة .
إن الشيوعيين الماركسيين اللينينيين الماويين في كل بلدان العالم مدعوون لبناء و دعم الأحزاب الشيوعية و ليتحملوا مسؤولياتهم في القيادة و التطوير و يتخلصوا من التوجهات التحريفية و الاستسلامية على شاكلة توجه براشندا في النيبال و أفاكيان في الولايات المتحدة و الخط الانتهازي اليميني بكل أشكاله في البيرو مع تلافي السقوط في ثورجية البرجوازية الصغيرة العقيمة و الدغمائية . ان بناء الأحزاب الشيوعية يجب أن يتمّ في خضمّ لهيب الصراع الطبقي و في علاقة لصيقة بالجماهير و في ارتباط مع متتطلبات النضال الثوري من أجل السلطة .
إن أول ماي 2015 يدعونا إلى رفع العلم الأحمر – علم الشيوعية و الثورة - عاليا و بقوة في كل مظاهرة و في كل نضال ضد الامبريالية ، و التمسّك بهذا الشعار القوي : " يا عمال العالم اتحدوا ".
- لنتحد من أجل ايقاف الحروب الامبريالية و الرجعية و سحق الامبرياليين و الرجعيين في كل العالم !
- لنحيي شهداء الشعب و الثورة ولندعم النضال من أجل تحرير السجينات و السجناء السياسيين الشيوعيين و الثوريين !
- لنضع نصب أعيننا الأممية البروليتارية الحقيقية في النضال البروليتاري و الشعبي من أجل خلق الظروف لتقدم المنظمة الأممية الشيوعية !
- لندعم حرب الشعب حتى النصر !
- لنأخذ مستقبلنا الشيوعي بأيدينا !
الامضاء
Parti Communiste d'Inde (Maoïste)
Parti Communiste Maoïste de Manipur
Ligue Révolutionnaire Maoïste - Sri Lanka
Front Culturel - Intellectuel Révolutionnaire - Népal
Voix des Travailleurs - Malaisie
Parti Communiste de Turquie/Marxiste-Léniniste
Mouvement Communiste Maoïste - Tunisie
Parti Communiste d'Afghanistan (Maoïste)
Collectif maoïste Iranien
Parti Communiste Maoïste - Italie
Bloc Rouge (Unification des Maoïstes) - France
Servir Le Peuple - Sheisau Sorelh - Occitanie - Etat français
Comité de Construction d'un Parti Communiste Maoïste de Galice - Etat espagnol
Longue Marche vers le Communisme - Espagne
Comités pour la Fondation d'un Parti Communiste (maoïste) - Autriche
Comité de Construction d'un Parti Marxiste-Léniniste-Maoïste - Allemagne
Democraty and Class Struggle - Etat britannique
Great Unrest WSRP - Wales Etat britannique
Revolutionary Praxis - Royaumes-Unis
Mouvement Communiste de Serbie
Servir Le Peuple - Ligue Communiste de Norvège
Parti Communiste du Brésil Fration Rouge - CPB (RF)
Parti Communiste d'Equateur Soleil Rouge - CPE (RS)
Parti Communiste du Chili Fraction Rouge (FR - PCCh)
Mouvement Populaire Pérou (Comité pour la Réorganisation) - PPM (CR)
Parti Communiste Révolutionnaire (PCR-RCP) - Canada
Nouveau Parti Communiste - Comité de Liaison - Etats-Unis
Groupe Communiste Maoïste - Etats-Unis
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Another predatory design in Nepal: Israeli “Aid” and the Fraudulent Claim of Humanitarian Credibility
Israeli "aid" is a cynical propaganda ploy, the fact that Israeli "rescue" efforts include fast-tracking the removal of dozens of Nepali infants to Israel, must be examined.
See the bottom of this article for more details. — Frontlines ed.
Democracy and Class Struggle thanks Revolutionary Frontlines for this article.
Israel criticized for touting Nepal rescue while Gaza is still in ruins
by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 04/27/2015
Carrying the flag: A photo published by the Israeli army shows its personnel preparing to deploy to Nepal (via Twitter).
The director of Human Rights Watch has criticized Israel for touting its emergency aid efforts for earthquake-devastated Nepal while it continues to block reconstruction in Gaza.
"Easier to address a far away humanitarian disaster than the nearby one of Israel’s making in Gaza," Kenneth Roth tweeted in reference to Israel’s announcement that it was flying 260 Israeli army medical and military personnel to Kathmandu.
"End the blockade!" Roth demanded. Earlier this month, 46 international aid agencies urged sanctions on Israel if it did not end the tight siege on Gaza that has prevented the rebuilding of a single home in the eight months since Israel’s devastating assault last summer.
"The blockade constitutes collective punishment; it is imposed in violation of [international humanitarian law] and, according to the UN, may entail the commission of war crimes," the report, signed by Oxfam and Save the Children, among others, states.
Israel’s ongoing blockade of devastated Gaza amounts to "war crimes," aid agencies say .
(Anne Paq / ActiveStills)
Despite the fact that more than 100,000 people whose homes Israel destroyed remain without permanent shelter, "no permanent housing has been rebuilt," it adds.
More than 2,200 Palestinians were killed as a result of the Israeli assault, including 547 children. At least 11,000 Palestinians were injured.
Despite the urgency of the aid agencies’ pleas for Gaza, the report was virtually ignored by world media.
US ambassador joins in
The latest reports put the death toll from Saturday’s earthquake in Nepal and dozens of aftershocks at more than 3,000 people, with much of the devastation concentrated in the capital Kathmandu.
Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro was also quick to exploit the tragedy, tweeting that the US and Israel "have [the] same response: announce immediate rescue & relief assistance."
Shapiro has been utterly silent about Israel’s tight blockade on Gaza that continues to prevent relief and assistance.
Disaster propaganda
Israel’s use of international disaster aid to burnish its blood-soaked image is a well-worn routine and amounts to official policy.
"You are being sent to an important mission," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the army personnel bound for Nepal. "This is the real face of Israel – a country which does all in its power in such moments."
In 2013, Israel deployed assistance teams to the Philippines after thousands were killed by Typhoon Haiyan.
It mounted a sophisticated multimedia propaganda effort, including a dedicated Twitter account and YouTube videos, to boast about its efforts.
The Electronic Intifada blogger Benjamin Doherty termed this kind of propaganda "bluewashing."
Doherty, writing before Israel’s latest devastating attack on Gaza, noted that Israel’s much-touted aid efforts were far from exceptional, and in the context of events in its own region, minuscule:
The Israeli army’s minuscule efforts to provide relief for a handful of Syrians are over-exposed in the world media, while refugee camps and cities in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon are overcrowded with Syrians escaping violence. There is no other country that does so little and makes so much noise about it.
Indeed, dozens of countries and aid agencies are rushing assistance to Nepal. Given the relatively large size of its military budget, Israel’s contribution to the relief effort is not out of line with what other countries are offering.
In addition to supplies, the UK has sent seven search and rescue crews, four search and rescue dogs and a team of trauma doctors.
Qatar announced it had set up an "air bridge" with several aircraft flying large amounts of relief materials and a field hospital.
Turkey has also offered to send a fifty-bed field hospital.
Iran said it was already working with its neighbors to send urgently needed supplies and rescue teams.
Pakistan has dispatched four C-130 military transport aircraft carrying relief supplies and a 30-bed hospital.
Official policy
Aid missions to countries including Rwanda, Armenia, Turkey, Haiti, the Philippines and Macedonia in recent decades have helped "bring respect to Israel," Reserve General Shuki Shemer, the Israeli army’s former chief medical officer, observed in 2013. "Missions overseas contribute to Israeli hasbara."
Hasbara – the Hebrew word for "explanation" – has come to mean state propaganda in the context of government efforts to improve the country’s image.
Indeed, this was a specific recommendation of the Reut Institute, the Israeli think tank which created the roadmap Israel and its allied organizations have used to sabotage and attack the Palestine solidarity movement and fight so-called "delegitimization."
"In relation to the struggle against delegitimization and re-branding Israel, Tikkun Olam has great significance because it creates a dissonance with the demonized image of Israel that is advanced by the delegitimizers," Reut said in its influential 2010 report on how to fight Israel’s critics.
Tikkun olam is a Hebrew phrase meaning "repairing the world" that forms an ethical value in many modern interpretations of Judaism.
It is also the banner under which Israel, the self-described "Jewish state," carries out its aid missions and thus becomes a convenient tool of hasbara.
Israel may seek to demonstrate it believes in repairing the world, but it definitely does not believe in repairing Gaza.
"Human trafficking"
The earthquake in Nepal has thrown light on an international practice that some say amounts to human trafficking.
As part of its "rescue," Israel is evacuating 25 babies born to Nepalese surrogate mothers, nine of them prematurely.
"Many Israeli male couples have fathered children with the help of surrogate mothers in Nepal because surrogacy is illegal in Israel for same-sex couples," The Guardian reports.
Israeli government officials said they would be fast-tracking the interior ministry paper work to allow the babies, who are Nepalese citizens and would not be considered Jewish under Israeli law, to enter the country.
The usual procedures require DNA tests to prove that a baby’s father is Israeli.
There has been a push to legalize surrogacy for gay couples in Israel in order to get around this problem and to recruit them into Israel’s war against the so-called "demographic threat" from Palestinians.
"Legalizing surrogacy for gays in Israel would allow ‘Jewish eggs in Jewish mothers,’ Fred Hertz has argued.
Jewish gay activists see surrogacy for same-sex couples as important for "maintaining the demographic advantage over non-Jews," Hertz, a lawyer and pro-Israel LGBT advocate, has explained.
While the babies are being airlifted out of the country, there is no word on the fate of their mothers.
Commercial surrogacy, where people from rich countries pay for women in desperately poor countries to carry a baby for them, is a rapidly growing industry in places including India, Thailand and Nepal, which has a per capita GDP of just $730.
The practice of commercial surrogacy is illegal in many European countries. Non-commercial surrogacy is allowed in some European countries. Some US states allow commercial transactions, but the attraction of countries like India and Nepal is that they are far cheaper.
A 2010 article in Mother Jones on India’s "rent-a-womb" businesses described "gestational dormitories" in what amount to "baby factories," and allegations that women face procedures that may endanger their health.
India has recently enforced new restrictions on its $1.5 billion dollar a year commercial surrogacy industry.
Last summer, Thailand launched a probe after nine surrogate babies were found in circumstances that suggested they were being trafficked to, among other places, Australia.
The poorly regulated global industry gained notoriety last year after an Australian couple was accused of abandoning a baby whose gestation they had contracted with a woman in Thailand, after learning that the boy, named Gammy, had Down Syndrome.#
Thailand is considering outlawing the practice.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Japan on April 28th : Okinawans protest US base relocation plan on anniversary of Japan regaining its sovereignty
NAHA – About 300 people protested on Tuesday against the planned relocation of a U.S. military base within Okinawa Prefecture, 63 years to the day after Japan recovered its sovereignty after being defeated in World War II.
Okinawa was excluded from the handover and remained under U.S. control until 1972. The 1952 date therefore came to be remembered in the prefecture as a “day of insult.”
In a rally at Henoko in Nago, the coastal district earmarked as the proposed site where U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma will relocate to, participants chanted slogans such as “We’re opposed to a new base” and “Don’t destroy the beautiful sea.”
April 28 is the day the San Francisco Peace Treaty took effect, ending the postwar occupation of Japan by U.S.-led Allied Forces following Japan’s surrender.
But Okinawa remained under U.S. military control until it was returned to Japan in 1972.
Social Democratic Party chief Tadatomo Yoshida and Okinawa prefectural assembly members opposed to the base relocation plan staged a protest off the coast in several boats.
One boat capsized when a Japan Coast Guard vessel intercepted it after it breached a no-entry zone, according to the JCG. Four protesters were thrown into the ocean, one of whom was taken to hospital.
The protesters began gathering early Tuesday morning in front of the gate of the U.S. Marines’ Camp Schwab, which is adjacent to the planned Futenma base relocation site.
Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine said he remembers the anger of people in Okinawa when the central government held a ceremony in Tokyo on April 28, 2013, commemorating the 61st anniversary of Japan recovering its sovereignty.
Inamine also criticized the fact that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe planned to hold talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington later on the Tuesday anniversary.
“The construction of a new base is impermissible,” said Naomi Tanahara, 63, a Naha resident who took part in the rally. “Okinawa was abandoned by Japan on the day of insult and burdens on the prefecture from hosting U.S. military bases have since increased.”
The Ryūkyū independence movement (琉球独立運動 Ryūkyū Dokuritsu Undō) or Republic of the Ryūkyūs (Japanese: 琉球共和国, Kyūjitai: 琉球共和國) is a movement for the independence of Okinawa and the surrounding islands (Ryukyu Islands), from Japan.
The movement emerged in 1945, after the end of the Pacific War. Some Ryukyuan people felt, as the Allied Occupation began, that the Ryukyus (Okinawa) should eventually become an independent state, instead of being returned to Japan.
The majority pushed for unification with the mainland, hoping that this would hasten the end of the Allied Occupation there].
The US-Japan Security Treaty was signed in 1951 as re-unification occurred, and providing for the continuation of the American military presence. This set the stage for renewed political movement for Ryukyu independence.
Is it a May Day distress call for Greece ? Euclid Tsakalotos replaces Yanis Varoufakis in negotiations with Eurozone
Democracy and Class Struggle has been a critic of Yanis Varoufakis and his accommodation with European Union, however even his accommodation is not enough for EU and he has been replaced by Euclid Tsakalotos in negotiations.
Mr Varoufakis was left isolated at an EU finance ministers meeting in Latvia on Friday.
Reacting to the news a senior European Union official told the Guardian it was ‘impossible’ to deal with Varoufakis.
“It had got to the point where eyes roll,” he said.
“People had got sick and tired of being lectured about austerity and the effects of the crisis. Any sympathy for Greece was eroded by his failure to draft concrete proposals,” the EU official said.
Clearly Yanis Varoufakis is not the failure it is the economically illiterate European Union who cannot stomach hearing from Yanis about the failure of Austerity.
We publish a review of some of the current options for Greece from the Anti Imperialist Camp below:
Berlin’s brinkmanship with the Greek default - Anti Imperialist Camp
The German minister of finance, Wolfgang Schäuble, has made it candid-clear: no credit extension without complete surrender to the conditions dictated by the creditors’ financial oligarchy.
This despite the fact that everybody knows that Greece will under no conditions be able to serve its debt.
The German message therefore serves first of all to make clear to the entire southern periphery as to who is to command and who to obey.
This will turn out to be a hubris of the type of Bush’s military “export of democracy” to Iraq.
Syriza not to accept complete surrender
For the last two months the Greek government has been trying to play cat and mouse.
On one hand they signalled their readiness to agree to the troika’s conditions in their substance opportunistically hailing the Euro regime and the EU.
On the other hand they insisted on a compromise which would at least allow them to soften austerity which they have been elected for.
They could not afford to simply betray their electorate which would mean political suicide.
In a certain sense they remained true to their electoral formula “Neither rupture nor submission” proving at the same time the impossibility and wrongness of their own slogan.
Syriza’s left wing helped to avoid giving in
The fact that Syriza eventually did not give in – which at a certain stage of the negotiations seemed close to happening – is also thanks to the important left wing who opposed that categorically.
Also the popular pressure played its role though the electoral mandate was ambiguous and left a door open to capitulation for the sake of preserving Greece’s membership in the Euro zone.
Oligarchy: split Syriza and seize their government?
As it became gradually clear that Syriza as configured today is not ready to serve as their puppet, the EU oligarchy and their media apparatus is contemplating to split Syriza and propose a broad government of national salvation accepting Berlin’s dictate.
Is this split of Syriza possible? Who would be ready to go with the right wing of Syriza betraying the popular interest? The post-Pasok splinters seem to be too weak. Bring down Tsipras in order to return power to Nea Demokratia?
The variant of a Quisling-type government under the banner of salvation by avoiding the default is improbable.
If things remain like this the German blackmail is doomed to fail.
A split of Syriza will become, however, plausible if the Euro-crats accept to make serious concessions to the Greek government.
This could push the majority around Tsipras to break with the left wing and maintain governmental office.
This would require to neutralise the falcons around Schäuble.
Gradual decomposition of an contradictory and impossible electoral mandate
For a certain period of time the negotiations between Athens, Bruxelles and Berlin appeared to a poker accompanying by bluffing.
As the end of the game can be felt it morphs into a political operation to blame the other for the failure. It is the clash of narratives creditor versus debtor, neo-liberalism versus Keynesianism. In the end it is a social struggle against the capitalist elites acquiring national connotation.
For the vast majority of the Greek people it is clear that the Syriza government has done whatever possible to please the creditors offering even partial surrender.
But the financial oligarchy only accepts submission into debt peonage. According to their neo-liberal religion this is the only way to salvation.
Despite the relentless campaign of the corporate media the Greek people will understand and honor steadfastness along the popular strata of the other countries of periphery.
Even within the core countries including Germany standing firm will gain the support of a significant minority in the lower strata of society.
David can deliver a significant blow to Goliath.
To put it differently: It has taken a certain time to dissolve the antinomy of Syriza’s electoral formula into the only two historic alternatives: Within the Euro regime there can only be continued austerity for the periphery.
If austerity should be ended, then the break with the EU oligarchy representing the creditors’ interests in unavoidable.
We do not allege Syriza to have taken this itinerary for pedagogic reasons.
Its right wing really believed to be able to change the Euro regime.
The historic lesson of failure taught the people and to a certain extent also significant parts of Syriza the necessity to confront the ruling capitalist elites.
That does, however, not mean that Syriza’s right wing is happy to go down that road. They will try whatever possible to avoid or soften the conflict.
And they might be even conscious that at the end the EU elites will need them in one way or the other as only relying on Neo Demokratia is at least for the time being not enough.
Default: risk for oligarchy
The elites claim that Greek default will not have any significant impact on their system but first of all harm Greeks themselves. But it only serves to make their threats credible. It is enough to follow their own media to understand that they are not sure at all. Their praised financial markets and the spread over bunds speak all too clear a language.
Despite the numerous firewalls and rescue funds installed the consequences for the European and even global financial system are unpredictable. True, most of the Greek debt is in public hands. But the entire banking system as such is fully intertwined with the core capitalist states.
Given that the capitalist system since 2007/8 have not succeeded to come out of the crisis mode it is not given that it can absorb a shock of unprecedented proportion.
But the main impact will be political with its repercussions on the financial system. A default setting the Greek government against the ruling capitalist elites of the core European states delivers a message to the people of the European south which could not be more powerful. It will push them to resist the Brussels-Berlin dictate holding them in misery.
Eventually it could lead to the unraveling of the entire Euro regime and even the EU.
Not to forget the geo-political aspect: Pushed into default by Berlin’s blackmail Athens will turn to Moscow and Beijing for survival setting Washington in motion.
Political decision by Euro regime imminent
Actually Athens has been insolvent since the first bailout in 2010. Only the troika allowed them under their forced administration to not default and continue to serve their debt. Everybody knows that without the extension Athens will inevitably default even within weeks.
So if Syriza continues to defy the dictate, and that seems the case, default is imminent. By accepting this it turns weakness into strength. In the end it is their only trump card as the EU elites could not imagine their steadfastness.
Now Berlin will have to face the consequences of their blackmail. It is them to hesitate!
Coup by the means of a default shock?
By means of the default threat only apparently it has not been possible to install a subservient government in Athens. Most probably Berlin needs to make the default happen – with all the connected risks.
From the point of view of the oligarchy it is evident that they will try to use the shock caused by the default as much as possible to undermine the current government. Capital flight and imposition of capital controls; failing banks and nationalisations; public salaries not being paid in time; substantive devaluation of the new currency to be issued: in the very first phase after the default a further economic contraction is nearly unavoidable.
In such a scenario Berlin and Brussels might come up with a new “rescue package” contingent on eliminating the anti-oligarchic forces from government. By promising relief to the population they might push to form a new government ready to accept the known “conditionality”.
If this is impossible by parliamentary means this might come about by a referendum or even in breach of the constitutional rules. But this scenario is more the logic consequence than an actual plan. Today astonishment and confusion prevails in the elites who also could decide to further prolong the limbo.
All this will most probably mean the exit of Greece from the Euro as the government will be forced to act which is only possible by issuing a new currency within very few weeks. The political operation by the center elites will need months given their today’s disorientation.
Anti-oligarchic popular government
The magnitude of the sociopolitical earthquake might, however, lead even to unexpected results. Not accepting submission into long-term debt peonage possibly will pay for Syriza.
As the assumption of its left wing will have proven right, we could see a shift to radical positions both in society as well as in Syriza.
The Syriza government might be forced to take a whole series of measures against the oligarchy’s interest.
Or, the left wing could even gain the lead.
That would require the construction of a broad front far exceeding Syriza and the historic left in order to defend the interests of the majority of the people transforming the mandate of January into a program of rupture with the capitalist elites of the center and its Greek henchmen.
April 17, 2015
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