•
From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 4 March.
Russia is holding presidential elections today, which Putin can confidently expect to win, notwithstanding the western imperialist financed attempts to rally a ‘democratic’ (ie, western poodle) opposition.
Naturally, the results will be declared to be fraudulent, with various western imperialist agents no doubt engaged in creating the ‘evidence’ to ‘prove’ this allegation as we speak! It would seem that Putin is standing firmly against the Russian bourgeoisie accepting to be vassals to the West, and it has just been announced that he will be increasing Russia’s defence budget from 3 percent of GDP to between 5-6 percent over the next 10 years.
•
From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 4 March.
The well-known Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzon, has been targeted by fascist sympathisers as a result of his attempts to reopen cases of human rights abuses committed during the Franco era. Various right-wingers have brought no fewer than three criminal prosecutions against him, alleging various kinds of misconduct, and decisions have now been made in all three cases.
The most serious charge was a charge of corruption, arising out of the fact that the Santander Bank financed a university course on which Garzon was hired to lecture. That case was thrown out and Garzon found to be innocent.
The second case involved the accusation that Garzon illegally ordered wiretaps on confidential discussions between accused persons and their legal representatives. This he was found guilty of and was disbarred for 11 years, effectively ending his professional career as a judge. His purpose had been to ensure that proceeds of crime were not spirited out of the country, but this did not apparently excuse his breach of lawyer-client confidentiality.
Finally, he was accused of improperly taking action against suspected perpetrators of human rights abuses during the Franco era. The impropriety of this arises from the fact that all those guilty of such abuses were given immunity against prosecution by law, a law by which Garzon is bound. Garzon’s argument is that such a law is illegal under international law and he was therefore not bound by it.
The Spanish court, however, decided that Garzon was bound by it, but that he had not committed any offence as he had acted in good faith.
It is probable that these various cases will be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.
•
From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 4 March.
A condition of releasing sufficient bail-out funds from the EU for Greece to be able to avoid default has been that even more stringent austerity measures should be implemented. The measures have been duly passed by the Greek parliament, and so the Greek people have been rising up in rage as their living standards are being mercilessly and sharply forced downwards.
As the Greek people put up a spirited fight against austerity, and opinion polls suggest that they will use their votes in April’s parliamentary elections to vote against austerity and, subject to leftist parties being able to cooperate for the purpose, perhaps even return a government that will resist the demands of Greece’s creditors, the inclination among politicians from other EU countries is developing towards letting Greece default and leave the euro. This is seen by many as the cheaper option, although others are still more worried about how much their own banks will lose if this happens and consider it is worth while attempting to turn the screw even harder on the Greek people for at least a little while longer.
An article on this subject appears in the latest Lalkar.
•
Communists unfurl their banners from the Acropolis in Athens on Saturday 11 February 2012, day two of a general strike
Regarding the Expressions of Solidarity with the Greek People
Communist Party of Greece (KKE), 20 February 2012
Recently, demonstrations have been held in many countries across the world under the ‘umbrella’ of slogans of “solidarity with Greece” and “we are all Greeks”. Working-class and popular solidarity are powerful weapons in the struggle of the peoples. But the workers must deal with any attempt to mislead them.
Which Greece needs solidarity? The Greece of the capitalists, who seek to acquire new loans from the EU and the IMF in order to strengthen the profitability of their capital, to reinforce their position against the people, or the Greece of the working class and the other popular strata, who are suffering due to the consequences of the capitalist crisis, for which they bear no responsibility?
At many of these events this issue remained unclear. And this is the case because there is an effort by certain forces (mainly of social democracy, the opportunists of the party of the European left and the ‘greens’) to use vaguely the idea of ’solidarity with the Greek people’ to whitewash the support that they gave in the past to the Maastricht Treaty, to the other Euro treaties, to the EU of capital itself, which is reactionary and can in no way be ‘democratised’, as they are even now claiming.
In addition, there is an attempt to use the issue of Greece in the inter-imperialist rivalries, inside and outside the EU.
Yes, the workers in Greece want the solidarity of the workers in Europe and all over the world! But solidarity with their struggles, their strikes, their militant demands, the KKE, and the class-oriented trade-union movement, PAME which is in the front line of the struggle, not the ’solidarity’ that seeks the continuation of capitalist exploitation and the squeezing of the workers.
Regarding this issue, the Press Office of the CC of the KKE issued the following statement:
The KKE addresses a message to all the workers of Europe: It is not necessary for you to ‘become Greeks’ in order to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Greece.
We call on you to join us on the same road for the contemporary rights of the working class and the poor popular strata, in order to impede and overthrow our common enemy: the dictatorship of the monopolies, the EU, and the parties that serve them.
Their overthrow in every country or group of countries, the socialisation of the monopolies, disengagement from the EU and Nato, with working-class people’s power, will be the greatest contribution to the struggle of the peoples of Europe and the whole world.
The newest and most contemporary slogan, which is more timely than ever is: “Workers of all countries, Unite!”
********************
. Down with the coup of the Bailout Agreement, down with the illegal Papadimos’ government
. Overthrow the whole rotten political system
. Democracy, Independence, Productive Reconstruction, Emancipation
Communist Organisation of Greece (ΚΟΕ) statement, 13 February 2012
The Communist Organisation of Greece salutes the hundreds of thousands of people who swamped Athens yesterday and protested throughout Greece, resolutely opposing the new bonds that the IMF-EU-ECB troika is imposing.
The Greek people proved their advanced readiness for combat, and showed increased endurance and courage facing the ruthless attacks of the ’special police’ forces. Despite state terrorism and the blackmail of the establishment, the fighting spirit of the people against the new occupation and tyranny is raging.
The new bailout agreement is being imposed entirely as in a coup, by an illegal government, and ‘approved’ by a parliament that has lost any legitimacy. The Papademos puppet government, the three bourgeois pro-agreement parties, and the politicians who voted for and supported the new disastrous bailout agreement are continuously violating their own constitution and the country’s sovereignty.
Their whole political system is hence entirely illegitimate. They have definitively divorced themselves from the people, and must leave immediately.
Since the appointed ‘prime minister’-banker Papademos and his entourage didn’t manage to terrorise the people with the threat of default (besides, the bailout agreement leads to default with mathematical certainty), they took sole refuge in ruthless police violence and terror. They suffocated Athens with chemicals, not hesitating to use their ‘weapons’ in the most ferocious way even against two emblematic figures like our national resistance hero Manolis Glezos and the internationally famous composer Mikis Theodorakis.
The illegal and completely illegitimate government, with the full support of most mainstream media, resorted to violence and invested in terror. The ‘journalist’-parrots of the system and the apologists of the troika talked systematically only about the damage done to buildings. They ‘forgot’ to mention the hundreds of thousands of people who, despite the barbarous police attacks and the chemicals, remained in Syntagma square and the rest of Athens’ centre for five hours.
For what happened yesterday, as well as for what’s coming, the illegal government must take full responsibility. In full contrast to the will of the people, and with repeated coups, it is delivering the country, the life and the future of its people to its patrons.
The political system that robbed and destroyed Greece, that leads it to default and is now delivering it as a colony to foreign commissioners and foreign ‘courts of justice’, is crumbling in front of our eyes.
They cannot even convince themselves any longer: 45 MPs from the bourgeois parties, under popular pressure, voted against the bailout agreement and were immediately expelled from their respective parties. For the first time since the fall of the dictatorship in 1974, fewer than 200 MPs voted ‘yes’ at a decision that had the support of both the two big bourgeois parties.
The intensified crisis of the political system is an opportunity for the promotion of a social and political front that will put a stop to this illegal regime and set the country in a different course, bringing into being what the people want and demand. A social and political front that will pave the way for the salvation of the people and the country: real democracy. Independence. Productive reconstruction.
Stop the payments NOW! Not one more euro to the loan sharks. We can break the chains; the fight continues! Forward to a radical political change led by the people!
•
From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 4 February
Russia and China continue to frustrate attempts by US imperialism to establish a no-fly zone over Syria that would be aimed at obliterating its independence in the same way as was done with Libya.
A spokesman for the Russian government said that in the case of Libya it had made serious mistakes. These lay not in backing Gaddafi but in not backing him nearly strongly enough. Dimitry Medvedev, the Russian president who made the decision to abstain on the UN vote imposing the no-fly zone on Libya, has been heavily criticised within Russia for that decision.
The Russians have made it quite clear that no amount of pleas from the Arab League, manipulated as it is by western imperialism, is going to stop it from wielding its UN Security Council veto in Syria’s interests.
In the meantime, violence is intensifying in Syria as Turks and others get themselves involved in the assaults on Syria’s sovereignty.
It has become clear even to the blind that, for the most part, the opponents of the government in Syria are not innocent people peacefully expressing their disagreement with government policy but disparate armed thugs who are unable to win any substantial internal support for their various policies and are therefore bent on destabilising Syria by whatever means, happy to court the support of imperialist countries determined to put an end to Syria’s independence
•
From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 4 February
France has announced that it will be withdrawing its 3,900 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year, a year earlier than planned; and this year it will be pulling out 1,000 troops rather than the 600 originally planned.
The announcement to that effect was made by Sarkozy as part of his presidential re-election campaign, in response to the killing of four French soldiers and the severe wounding of eight others by a member of the Afghan puppet forces. These deaths aggravated public anger at a war in which most French people believe the country should never have become involved.
•
From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 3 December
Hungary is yet another European country in extreme financial difficulties. As it tries to refinance its debt, it is being forced to pay high rates of interest, and its currency, the florint, has tumbled to record lows.
This is causing severe difficulties for thousands of Hungarians who took out mortgages in Swiss francs when the florint was much stronger and are now facing massive mortgage repayments.
Credit ratings for Hungary have dropped close to junk status as Hungary’s biggest market – the eurozone – finds itself in trouble.
•
From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 3 December
The Greek authorities have launched a poll tax in an attempt to increase the government’s tax revenue. The tax makes no exceptions for the unemployed or the elderly and is almost triple the amount paid in property tax previously.
The new tax, levied on people who have already suffered massive cuts in pay and pensions, is based on square footage, the age of the building and the average value of a neighbourhood, and has nothing to do with the taxpayer’s income. To ensure effective collection, the state-owned power company will be required to cut off electricity to anybody who has not paid.
The Greek people are fighting back, however, with electricians being recruited to restore power to people who have been cut off, and workers occupying the power company’s billing centre to prevent bills from being issued.
•
From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 3 December
There is a real threat that the euro is going to collapse as a currency. This is because everybody is trying to get rid of their euro holdings. The reason this is happening is that it has become clear that Greece is not going to avoid defaulting on its debt, with the general consensus being that its lenders are going to have to take a 50 percent ‘haircut’.
At the same time, Portugal’s debt has been reduced to junk status by credit rating agencies, and borrowing costs for Italy and Spain have soared above the affordability mark, with even German bonds suffering increased borrowing costs. Now France is under threat as it is likely to need to bail out its banks as a result of their losses on their Greek debts, etc.
Attempts to put together a firewall that will enable European countries to continue to borrow at affordable rates of interest are floundering, and the Germans are resisting attempts to have the European Central Bank step in to perform this service, because they make the largest contribution to this bank and don’t want to throw good money after bad and then find themselves in financial trouble.
There is some suggestion that Germany would be willing to be more accommodating if the European countries would agree to greater fiscal integration, which of course implies a surrender of sovereignty to the EU which in turn is very much dominated by Germany and France. They of course can be expected to use that control for their national benefit at the expense of other EU countries.
In the meantime, the elected leaders of Greece and Italy have both been forced to resign, to be replaced by unelected ‘technocrats’ with close links to Goldman Sachs (which in turn was intimately involved with the repackaging of subprime debts as high quality by camouflaging them in complex ‘derivatives’). The new head of the ECB is also a former Goldman Sachs man.
The UK and the US are said to be making contingency plans for the chaos that will certainly ensue if the euro does in fact collapse. More detail in this month’s issue of Proletarian.
•
From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 5 November
Former president Yulia Tymoshenko, a leader of the Ukraine’s 2004 ‘Orange’ counter-revolution, has been jailed for seven years for exceeding her powers when in office to broker a gas deal with Russia, causing the country an estimated loss of US$200 million. Ukrainian prosecutors are also investigating allegations that she was involved in the contract killing of Yevhen Shcherban, a member of parliament, in 1996, along with Pavlo Lazarenko, who was prime minister at the time and has since been jailed in the United States for fraud and money laundering.
Naturally accusations are flying that Ukraine’s president Yanukovich has trumped up these charges in order to remove a powerful electoral rival from the scene, and Tymoshenko’s conviction has been denounced both by western imperialism and by Russia.
According to the Asia Times Online, “The majority opinion in Ukraine seems to be that the charges against the iconic figure of the ‘Orange’ revolution are probably justified. People know she is a billionaire child of the days of ‘wild capitalism’ in the 1990s when in the debris of the Soviet Union’s collapse and by exploiting the general lawlessness, Ukraine’s newly rich made fortunes out of state property – often enough off Ukraine’s import of Russian natural gas. The apathy of the people toward Tymoshenko’s fate underlines the public awareness that the ‘Orange’ revolution was not a revolution at all, but in reality a game of musical chairs between Ukrainian millionaires and billionaires.” (‘Ukraine scores own goal for Russia’ by M K Bhadrakumar, 13 October 2011)
Clearly the game continues.
