Showing posts with label Latin America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Latin America. Show all posts

Friday, October 14, 2016

On the developments in Colombia and the peace agreement

On the developments in Colombia.
Οriginally published in 'Rizospastis', 9 October 2016.
Source: inter.kke.gr.

As is well-known, on Sunday 2 October, the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) was put to a referendum. In the referendum, where only the 37% of the eligible voters participated, the agreement was rejected by a 50.2% vote.

The agreement was finalized after four years of negotiations that took place in Oslo and Havana and aimed at putting an end to the armed conflict which began in 1964, when FARC-CP was founded as a response to the attack of the bourgeois army against the rural population of the Marquetalia region (1). At the same time, it had been announced that talks will also be pursued with the country’s other significant guerrilla organization, the National Liberation Army (ELN).

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Ernesto Che Guevara- What a young Communist should be

What a young Communist should be.
Source: Guevaristas.org.

Below are excerpts of a speech given by Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the central leaders of the Cuban revolution, at a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the formation of the youth organization. It was first published in Obra Revolutionaria, Oct. 23, 1962. 

The Union of Young Communists, with different names and organizational forms, is almost as old as the revolution. At the beginning it emerged out of the Rebel Army – perhaps that’s where it also got its initial name [Association of Young Rebels]. But it was an organization linked to the army in order to introduce Cuba’s youth to the massive tasks of national defense, the most urgent problem at the time and the one requiring the most rapid solution….

Later, as the revolution was consolidated and we could finally talk about the new tasks ahead, Compañero Fidel proposed changing the name of the organization, a change of name that fully expresses a principle. The Union of Young Communists [Applause] has its face to the future. It is organized with the bright future of socialist society in mind….

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Remembering the 1973 Chile coup: A useful lesson about the “peaceful transition” to Socialism

EDITORIAL

Santiago de Chile, 11 September 1973. With the active support of the US, a military coup under the leadership of General Augusto Pinochet overthrows the Salvador Allende's “Popular Unity” government. President Allende dies heroicly while defending the presidential palace. In the following years, more than 40,000 people are tortured and imprisoned. More than 3,000 people are officially dead, either executed or “vanished”. Thousands of citizens arrested. In October 1973, the popular songwriter Víctor Jara, and 70 other political killings were perpetrated by the death squad, Caravana de la Muerte. The Pinochet regime was ruthless and brutal.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Alexandra Nariño, a Dutch FARC rebel speaks about Colombia's War and Peace

FARC guerrilla fighter and delegate in the peace negotiations, Alexandra Nariño, speaks to teleSUR about her 14 years with the rebel army / Source: telesurtv.net.

Alexandra Nariño is not Colombian, yet the impending end of the South American country’s 50-year civil war between the government and left-wing rebel forces represents “enormous happiness” for her.

That’s because the Dutch national has been fighting within Colombia’s FARC guerilla army for 14 years. After living in the jungle in FARC camps for about a decade, for the last four years Nariño has played a key role in the peace process in Havana, Cuba, that aims to transition Colombia out of the longstanding internal conflict and toward a new era of peace.

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Interview with Pável Blanco Cabrera, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM)

Interview of Pavel Blanco, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Mexico (Partido Comunista MexicanoPCM), to the International Communist Press / August 20, 2016.

ICP: In the recent years, violence in Mexico, both related to drug trafficking groups, or as a part of a clearly paramilitary activity against the progressive forces, organizations and people and especially the communists has been on the rise. Your Party, PCM has also suffered attacks of these paramilitary forces. What are the causes of this wave of violence and what will be the consequences of this situation in the context of the class struggle? Can you also comment on the relation of this situation with the U.S. imperialism that never ceased to mark its presence in Mexico?

Pavel Blanco: First of all, I would like to send my brotherly greetings to the Communist Party of Turkey, with whom we share the same line in the revolutionary regrouping of the international communist movement. We will do everything to reiterate our solidarity on the face of the political events that violently convulse the class struggle there.

In Mexico it is possible to literally observe the face of capitalism that Marx was speaking of. It drips mud and blood from all its pores. The wave of violence that shakes us with more than 200,000 dead in 10 years is not a system failure. Rather, it is the logical consequence of capitalism that consists of barbarianism, terror, uncertainties, hunger and death. The so-called war of narco-trafficking, in which the Mexican state is directly involved, is a process of re-accommodation of markets, routes and stakeholders in order to control this business, which is laundered rapidly through financial investments, and sectors such as the real estate and production. Here we don’t only refer to the agricultural industry but also to the branches such as metals, mechanics, iron and steel and extractivism. So, it is a process of amplification of accumulation and a new economic branch that rapidly generates consequences for politics. The money buys the political parties, candidates, elected state officers, mayors, MPs, senators and governors, all of which strongly influence the presidency of the republic.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Ronald Reagan: A Ruthless Mass Murderer

Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, consists a political idol of the world's anticommunists, neoliberals and conservatives. Like his close friend Margaret Thatcher, Reagan was a staunch defender of his class- a bourgeois politician and political representative of monopoly capitalism. During his term in the White House (1981-1989) Reagan played a leading role in supporting the counter-revolutionary forces in the Socialist countries, while he left his mark in various horrific crimes against the people of Latin America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua etc.) and the Middle East (Iraq, Lebanon, etc). Here, we will present a series of articles and testimonies which expose the role of R.Reagan's bloody, murderous imperialist legacy - In Defense of Communism.

Accessory to Genocide in Guatemala.
By Robert Parry.
May 11, 2013.

The conviction of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide against Mayan villagers in the 1980s has a special meaning for Americans who idolize Ronald Reagan. It means that their hero was an accessory to one of the most grievous crimes that can be committed against humanity.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Ernesto Che Guevara- Transcript of CBS 'Face the Nation' Interview (1964)

The text below is the trascript of an interesting interview that Ernesto Che Guevara, then Minister of Industry, gave to CBS Television Network in New York. 

Source: Guevaristas.org.

FACE THE NATION" as broadcast over the CBS Television Network and the Sunday, CBS Radio Network December 13, 1964 – – 12:30 – 1:00 PM EST.
GUEST: MAJOR ERNESTO GUEVARA, Minister of Industry of Cuba.
NEWS CORRESPONDENTS: Paul Niven, CBS News, Tad Szulc, New York Times, Richard C. Hottelet, CBS News. PRODUCERS: Prentiss Childs, Ellen Wadley. DIRECTOR: Robert Vitarelli.

MR. NlVEN: Major Guevara, in your speech to the General Assembly the day before yesterday, you accused the United States of helping Cuba’s neighbors prepare new aggression against her. We, in turn, have often accused your government of abetting subversion in other Latin American countries. Do you see any way out of this situation, any way to improve relations?
MAJOR GUEVARA: I think with regards to solutions, there are solutions, and I think there is only one. we have said repeatedly to the government of the United States that we do not want anything but to forget us, that they do not consider us even for good or evil.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Nikos Mottas- Venezuela and the Opportunist Theory of “21st Century Socialism”

Venezuela and the Opportunist Theory of “21st Century Socialism”.

By Nikos Mottas.

Translated version of an article published on atexnos.gr.

Rapid developments have taken place in Venezuela during the last months. From last December's electoral victory of the right-reactionary opposition until the recent assassination of a retired Army General, we have seen a series of events which lead to the destabilization of Nicolas Maduro government. Eighteen years since the rise of Hugo Chavez in power, in 1998, the “Bolivarian Revolution” trembles dangerously, while the conservative opposition is on the counter-attack and a number of external agents (US government, OAS etc.) are variously trying to intervene in the country's internal affairs.

The crisis in Venezuela has two sides: On the one hand, the government and its people are facing a multidimensional attack from imperialist centers which aim in exacerbating the situation to such extend so that a possible (external) military intervention would be justified. The attack on Venezuela must be examined as part of the broader framework of inter-imperialist, inter-bourgeoisie contradictions and antagonisms which- fostered by the US policy- are taking place in Latin America. That comes out also as a result of the developments in Brazil (the 7th largest economy worldwide) where the inter-bourgeoisie confrontation and the scandal-mongering political orgy led to the expulsion of President Roussef.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Mexico: Massive strike against anti-people reforms imposed by the Peña Nieto government

Source: Telesur.

Doctors' leaders have condemned the killing of at least eight people during a teacher’s protest last Sunday in the state of Oaxaca.


As protests led by the militant CNTE teachers' union in Mexico continue, the country's doctors are set to join in the job action, calling for a national strike on June 22 to protest a neoliberal reform to the health system imposed by President Enrique Peña Nieto.
The group #YoSoyMedico17, which is comprised of doctors, pediatricians, surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses, has been joined by more than 200,000 physicians from 32 states in opposing the so-called Universal Health System reform by Peña Nieto. The medical professionals say the measure is a "disguised way of privatizing health in Mexico," and said doctors were not consulted on the reform, according to Animal Politico.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Fidel Castro- Che’s ideas are absolutely relevant today

Fidel Castro Ruz- Che’s ideas are absolutely relevant today.
Source: Guevaristas.org.

The following speech was given by Fidel Castro on 8 October 1987 at the main ceremony marking the twentieth anniversary of Guevara’s death. It was held at a newly completed electronics components factory in the city of Pinar del Río.

Nearly twenty years ago, on October 18, 1967, we met in the Plaza of the Revolution with a huge crown to honor Compañero Ernesto Che Guevara, Those were very bitter, very difficult days as when we received news of the developments in Vado del Yeso, in the Yuro Ravine, when news agencies reported Che had fallen in battle.

Friday, June 3, 2016

Message of the International Relations Department of the CC of KKE to the Communist Party of Venezuela

Message of the International Relations Department of the CC of KKE to the Communist Party of Venezuela. 

Source: 902.gr.
Translation: In Defense of Communism.

In a message to the Communist Party of Venezuela, the International Relations Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece points out the following:

To the Communist Party of Venezuela.
Central Committee, Caracas, Venezuela.

Dear comrades,

We express our internationalist solidarity to the working class and the popular strata of your country who are facing with the consequences of the capitalist economic crisis as well as the increasing aggressiveness of Imperialism and the reactionary forces.

KKE denounces every attempt of intervention in the domestic issues of Venezuela, such as the one which is manifested within the framework of the OAS (Organisation of American States), as well as the military provocations by the US and their allies, the open targeting by the US, NATO and the EU, alliances in which our country participates and fulfilling a negative role for the people.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

On the developments in Brazil - The dilemmas of bourgeois management and the necessity of the anti-capitalist struggle

The people must disentangle themselves from the dilemmas of bourgeois management.
Source: Rizospastis, 22/5/2016 / Reproduced from inter.kke.gr.

The developments in Brazil, the escalation of the political crisis have been at the centre of attention internationally.
This is not strange, as we are talking about the 7th largest economy in the world, the 5th largest country in terms of area and population, and the largest country in the planet's southern hemisphere. A country that in previous years witnessed high levels of capitalist growth, indeed in 2011 it replaced Britain as being the world's 6th largest economy.
It plays a significant role in the framework of the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) as well as in important inter-state capitalist unions (.e.g.Celac, Mercosur/Unasur) that are being promoted in the American continent. We should also bear in mind that since 2004, i.e. in the period of the "progressive" governments, it has been the head of the military intervention in Haiti, which is being carried out under the mantle of the UN.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

José Reinaldo (Partido Comunista do Brasil): "Coup opens a new phase of the political struggle in Brazil"

Source: Solidnet.org
The legislative-judicial-mediatic coup d’etat in Brazil is going on. On April 17, under authoritarian and farcical driving, the House of Representatives approved the admissibility of impeachment proceedings against the President of the Republic. In the coming days, the Senate welcome the decision, by simple majority, authorize the opening of the procedure and immediately result in expulsion for up to 180 days of President Dilma Rousseff from the post to which she was democratically elected, with 54 million votes.
By José Reinaldo Carvalho (*).
In few months, the Senate will took the predicable final decision, converted to the Court, under the Presidency of the Supreme Court. The traced and executed script in both congressional houses showed so far that there is a game of marked cards and the exercise of a relentless power of the majority made up of reactionary parties. There are not worth logic, rationality or the truth of the facts. It is an abominable counterfeit trial, led by disgusting politicians. A ritual used to give a false constitutionality to something that is already decided. . A judgment made as an expression of a coup, which does not take into account consistent legal criteria.
In recent days, another throw into unbelievable coup plot, aimed at medium-term future: the request of the Attorney General to the Supreme Court to investigate President Dilma Rousseff and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for "obstruction operation Lava Jato[1]". Invested of Torquemada powers, the attorney general has denounced Lula as "head of a criminal organization" in the operation of the so-called "petrolão[2]".

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV): Against fascism, class-appeasement and corruption! The option is Socialism!

In a published statement the Communist Party of Venezuela (Partido Comunista de Venezuela) expresses its greetings to the workers of Venezuela and the world on the occassion of the International Workers Day. 

Among other things, PCV's statement points out: "As it happens historically, the working class and peoples of the world bear on their shoulders the burden of the crisis of the capitalist system in its imperialist phase, while the governments of the hegemonic powers, mainly the United States and the European Union, continue their offensive against the people and national liberation processes. Monopoly capital and the governments and institutions seek to serve out of the crisis of the system with more violence and greater social injustice. The class contradictions have been sharpened in all over the  world, including particularly in Latin America".

The PCV accusses US Imperialism- as well as their collaborators in Latin American countries- for trying to restore the power of the monopolies, by supporting the implementation of neoliberal policies. For these plans, reformist petty-bourgeois parties have been a useful tool.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

On Imperialist military intervention in Latin America, Limits and contradictions

By Diego Torres* / Source: International Communist Review, Issue 5, Nov.2014.
"War is the continuation of politics by other means". This is Clausewitz’s thesis,which Lenin retakes to characterize the imperialist world war, and from that departing pointavoid  getting lost in petty-bourgeois pacifism or social chauvinism , stating clearly, with the rest of the Zimmerwald Left , the slogan of turning the imperialist war into a world civil war against the bourgeoisie. This thesis is still perfectly valid and allows us to start evaluating military interventions of the imperialist centers in Latin America.

Brazilian Communists: The People will defeat villainy and the coup (English / Português)

Source: Solidnet.
Infamy and villainy were the main characters this Sunday (April 17th), in the House of Representatives. A session to fill with opprobrium those responsible for this hateful plot weaved by the Vice President of the Republic, Michel Temer, whose memory will bring shame to Brazilians for many generations.
By Socorro Gomes*.
He, who wants to usurp the mandate given to President Dilma through the vote of 54 million Brazilians, will have a place in history as a man who used his post as Vice President to plot and conspire and, going through the odious path of treason against the Constitution he swore to uphold, reach power without votes, trashing democracy and the people's will.
Driven by an uncontrollable ambition, Michel Temer has chosen those promoting the coup to offer his service as a hunting hound in a criminal gear. The master of ceremony in this fraudulent act masked as a trial for an inexistent crime against the fiscal order, the so-called “pedaladas”, was the House's President, Eduardo Cunha, who is a criminal defendant facing a process of destitution run by the House's Ethical Council, in trial for corruption in the Supreme Court. Just like buffoons are Representatives Jovair Arantes and Rogério Rosso. The alleged fiscal maneuvers (so-called “pedaladas”, a derogatory term) were not even mentioned by the Representatives while they declared their votes, in a clear demonstration of how unimportant for those “judging” is the subject of the report being voted.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Cuba: 1,000 delegates to participate in Communist Party's 7th Congress on April 16-19

Source: Granma.
The 7th Congress of PCC will be held on April 16-19 with about 1,000 delegates and will focus on the continuity of the economic reforms to update Cuba's socialist model approved at the 6th Congress in 2011.
Guaranteeing greater representation of all Communist Party members around the country and ensuring that participants increasingly reflect the areas from which they come, were key considerations during the election of delegates to the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, to be held April 16-19. 

According to an announcement made at the Party Central Committee Department of Cadre Organization and Policy, 1,000 delegates – similar to the number of participants in the 6th Congress - representing all territories will attend the organization’s most important event.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Solidarity Declaration with the Venezuelan People - Declaración de Solidaridad con el Pueblo Venezolano

Communist Party of Venezuela / Source: Solidnet.
The Communist, Revolutionary and Workers Parties of the world, express our strong support and firm solidarity to the VENEZUELAN PEOPLE, the Government of the Constitutional President Nicolas Maduro Moros, the Communist Party of Venezuela, and the Committee of International Solidarity (COSI), member of the Executive Committee of the World Peace Council (WPC), victims of an abominable and new interventionist escalation by the US imperialism which means the prelude to a declaration of war.
The "Executive Order" was renewed on March 3rd, 2016 by the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, which extends and expands the possible actions of the major State aggressor on sovereignty and self-determination of peoples, against the political and social process in Venezuela, in which a "national emergency" against an alleged "unusual and extraordinary threat to national security and foreign policy of the US" is declared.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Stop Lecturing Cuba and Lift the Blockade

Stop Lecturing Cuba and Lift the Blockade
By Marjorie Cohn.
Republished from mrzine.monthlyreview.org.

Surrounding President Barack Obama's historic visit to Cuba on March 20, there is speculation about whether he can pressure Cuba to improve its human rights.  But a comparison of Cuba's human rights record with that of the United States shows that the US should be taking lessons from Cuba.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights contains two different categories of human rights: civil and political rights on the one hand; and economic, social and cultural rights on the other.