N°18 - novembre 2021 Brazil: Bolsanaro out! For what perspective? Russia: Stop repression! Algeria France: When Macron as an imperialist leader reveals his true colors! Austria: Success of the Communist Party KPÖ in Graz, second city of the country.
Brazil: Out Bolsanaro! For what perspective?
The Brazilian Communist Party's newspaper "O Poder Popular" reports the power of the September 29 protests against Bolsonaro and his government. The demonstrations that took place in the streets of the main Brazilian cities, to demand the departure of the government of Bolsonaro, Mourão and Guedes, for the defense of life, the rights of the working class, against the attacks of capital, privatizations, the handing over of public goods, the destruction of the environment... have met with immense popular success. Since May 29, the Brazilian people has been present in the streets, with students, activists of popular movements, the trade union movement, left-wing political parties, feminist movements, black collectives and countless organizations. They were hundreds of thousands across the country, participating in protests that took place in more than 200 Brazilian cities, in the largest popular protest during the pandemic. "O Poder Popular" reports that wherever there was street action, there were banners from the PCB.
Beyond the current demonstrations, the PCB newspaper wonders about the future of the movement.
As PCB Secretary General Edmilson Costa said: “In history, no society has failed to struggle when the crisis has reached an unbearable limit. And the Brazilian crisis is reaching the limit of unbearable. The more than 20 million unemployed, the more than 30 million in precariousness and the 19 million starving will not be able to remain silent for long, even with the restrictions due to the pandemic… the current situation demands a change of tactics, because the ruling classes and this genocidal government continue their attacks precisely because they still do not have a popular response that contributes to the beginning of the shift in the balance of power. And this can only happen with popular demonstrations and the workers moving into action by work stoppages in defense of life. To change this situation, we must overcome the current setback and disorganization once and for all...The recovery of Lula's political rights... cannot be used as a motto to replace the street fight for the electoral campaign of the beginning of 2022, in a project of class conciliation that we already know and that has already turned out to be a disaster for Brazilian workers. The popular counter-offensive, structuring in practice an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist front capable of defeating the genocidal government and of advancing in the construction of Popular Power and Socialism ".
Russia: Stop repression!
The results of the elections were largely falsified by the authorities and the protests were amplified to denounce this masquerade. Thus, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which officially obtained 20% of the vote, is organizing demonstrations in many cities of Russia to protest against the denial of democracy, meaning that the power has largely lost its popular support. The authorities and the police are trying to intimidate activists of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, deputies of municipal bodies, candidates for deputies of the State Duma. According to the KPRF: "Dozens of Communists and party supporters have already been arrested and fined. This behavior of the police is a sign of the weakness of the current government ".
We express our solidarity with the arrested communist militants and we demand an end to the repression.
Algeria France: When Macron as an imperialist leader reveals his true colors!
Relations between France, a former colonial power, and Algeria, which freed itself from colonization by a long and hard struggle for national liberation, have always been complex and marked by imperatives of both foreign and domestic policy. Macron has just written a new inglorious page for France. Since he became president he has multiplied the signals to try to "settle the accounts" of colonization. One day, he affirms that it was a crime against humanity, the next day he glorifies, with electoral ulterior motives, the harkis who were auxiliaries of the repression against those of the Algerians who fought for independence. Although this sway is meant to heal the wounds as they say, it is above all a question of exonerating the colonial system and French imperialism. And as he was recently receiving young people whose parents and grandparents were involved in various capacities in the Algerian war, he made a few digressions, judging severely the Algerian policy and especially its treatment of the national liberation struggle which, let us recall, cost the lives of several million Algerians. This is obviously a gross interference in the affairs of Algeria. Algeria’s response was immediate and beyond the summons of the French ambassador to Algiers to notify him of the Algerian state's protest, the latter prohibited the overflight of its territory to French military planes operating towards the Sahel. This deterioration in Franco-Algerian relations comes on top of the French government's restriction on the granting of visas for Algerian citizens wishing to travel or stay in France. It is in the wake of the US policy which wants to isolate Algeria by relying on Morocco that the recent agreement with Israel places even more clearly in the imperialist alliance forged around Israel, Saudi Arabia and the USA. Macron places France in this strategy.
Austria: Success of the Communist Party KPÖ in Graz, second city of the country
Elke Kahr of the Communist Party KPÖ won the municipal elections in Graz with 29.1% (+ 8.8%) of the votes cast against 25.7% (-12.1%) for incumbent Conservative Siegfried Nagl who has been in office for 18 years. While her party weighs very little elsewhere in Austria, this Communist candidate won by far the municipal elections in the second city of the country on Sunday. This unprecedented situation deserves an explanation in view of the national weakness of the KPÖ. Robert KROTZER, secretary of the Austrian Communist Youth (KJÖ) and activist of the Styrian federation (south-eastern part of the country) of the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) explains: “Nationally, the Communist Party, powerful at the time of the Liberation, retains strong reputation. It has constitutional status (which explains why its reformist leadership cannot change its name and make it a "left party"). But the national reformist orientation, candidate-centered, aligned with the Party of the European Left and the German Die Linke, paralyzes it and drives it into insignificance. On the contrary, for its part, the Styrian federation of the KPÖ is strengthening its influence (even electoral- it is the only region in Austria where the KPÖ sits in parliament).It is developing from points of mass implantation (industrial sectors, metallurgy, working-class neighborhoods in particular in Graz) and on a line of opposition to the pro-European consensus of the governing parties. It is of utmost interest that the Communist Youth, in full renewal at the national level, find in Styria a reference in terms of concrete mass action and organization. It is a prospect, however modest, of reconstituting a Marxist-Leninist point of view and organization at the national level ".