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All new socialist articles in English will be written on this new website. The Dutch section of Revolutionary Socialist Media also moved to a new website!



The new website for Revolutionary Socialist Media in English

Eduard Shevardnadze, life of a class-traitor

Eduard Shevardnadze is death, the former Soviet minister of Foreign Affairs and second president of the capitalist; Republic of Georgia has passed away at 86 years. Shevardnadze was a Georgian, a supporter of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Like many Soviet politicians he was part of the ruling Stalinist caste. A privileged bureaucracy ruling over the oppressed proletariat. Shevardnadze made a big name for himself inside his caste. He ruled the Georgian Socialist Soviet Republic as first secretary of the Georgian Communist Party from 1972 until 1985 when he was made minister under Gorbachev. After the collapse of the Soviet-Union, he was elected leader of the Republic of Georgia. From 1995 until 2003 he was president, before a nationalist uprising forced him out of office. In the end, Shevardnadze behaved like most ex-stalinists. They switched sides, joining the bourgeoisie against the workers they already oppressed as supporters of stalinism!

Young Eduard was born in 1928 to a family which was deeply divided. His father was a die-hard communist, but his mother opposed communism. His home nation of Georgia was turned into a Soviet republic not by a proletarian revolution, but by military force. Soviet Russian troops invaded the nation in 1921, a master-plan of Joseph Stalin and local Georgian communists. Many Georgians hated the Russian communists and after a failed uprising, Stalin forced Russian chauvinism on the Georgians. The father of Eduard Shevardnadze used to be a Menshevik, but turned to the Bolshevik side after the invasion. As Stalin took over, Eduard's father remained loyal as most party members!

Yet the fact that he used to be a Menshevik made him a target in the 1930's. Stalin's great terror caused the death of 600.000 communists and almost 20 million Soviet workers would die between 1924 and 1953. As a former Menshevik, Eduard's father could have been deported to a Gulag camp. But thanks to his contacts inside the Soviet government, he was not arrested. At the age of 20, Eduard Shevardnadze joined the All-Union Communist Party in 1948. Like most new recruits he became part of a elite group of people. Party members were giving special privileges and lived far better then average workers!

When Nikita Khrushchev gave his famous anti-Stalin speech in 1956, it shocked Shevardnadze. The scale of Stalin's crimes caused massive disillusionment among many young party members. Eduard Shevardnadze was even more shocked when the Soviet government used brutal force against a pro-Stalin demonstration by young Georgians. When Khrushchev exposed Stalin many of his supporters were angry. Because Stalin was a Georgian and Georgians were proud of this fact. In March 1956, young stalinists started a rally on the third anniversary of Stalin's death. Soviet forces reacted quickly and gunned down the demonstrators. The killing of these young people shocked many inside the Georgian Communist Party!

Eduard Shevardnadze was demoted after he dared to criticize a senior party member. Inside the Communist Party of the Soviet-Union, criticism of leading party bureaucrats was not allowed. If a party member dared to criticize a senior leader, demotion was very common. Since most members wanted to remain inside the ruling caste ( because of the many privileges ) very few dared to oppose senior leaders who's corruption was widespread. Shevardnadze started to oppose corruption and was able to challenge the corrupt leadership of the Georgian SSR. In 1966 he was made Minister of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR. After initiating a successful anti-corruption campaign supported by the Soviet government, Shevardnadze was voted Second Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party!

As Minister of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR, Eduard Shevardnadze started a massive anti-corruption campaign. He ordered the arrest of 25,000 people. 17,000 party members, many government former ministers and 70 KGB officials. Because of his anti-corruption work, the Soviet government made him leader of the Georgian Socialist Soviet Republic after Vasil Mzhavanadze stepped down as first secretary. Shevardnadze ruled over the Georgian SSR from 1972 until 1985. While other Soviet republics suffered from shortages thanks to economic mismanaged, this was not the case in the Georgian SSR. Shevardnadze's economic policy had a positive effect on the Georgian planned economy. The agricultural reform in Georgia became the model of the nationwide Agricultural-Industrial Organisations established by a decree in 1982!

Still Eduard was a supporter of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. He even went so far in calling him ''leader'' a title only used by Stalin. Although the politics of Shevardnadze stood in direct opposition to the bureaucratic leadership of Brezhnev, he remained dogmatic loyal to Moscow. He knew that criticizing the party leadership would mean he lost all his privileges and status as leader of the Georgian SSR. But in 1985 a new leader was elected. Mikhail Gorbachev was a reformer and like Shevardnadze wanted to improve the lives of the Soviet people!

Under Gorbachev, the leader of the Georgian SSR was made Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. It made Shevardnadze very powerful, because he also controlled the politics of Eastern Europe. Nations like Poland and Bulgaria were puppets of Moscow and were now dancing at Shevardnadze's feet. But unlike his predecessors, the new minister choose to give the governments of Eastern Europe, more freedoms. When the people rose up against the Stalinist governments, Eduard Shevardnadze refused to send Soviet troops to save the totalitarian regimes, Stalin created 40 years ago!

It made him not popular with die-hard stalinists and nationalists inside the Soviet government. Conservative members of the Communist Party of the Soviet-Union feared a total collapse of their empire. They were right, as the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the other Stalinist regimes collapsed one by one and Eduard Shevardnadze did nothing to stop it. In 1990, Shevardnadze became a supporter of western style capitalism. Here he collided with Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who wanted a state-capitalist model. Both men became political enemies as Shevardnadze wanted massive privatizations which Gorbachev rejected! 

In December 1990, Eduard Shevardnadze left the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. He could not longer work with Mikhail Gorbachev. In August 1991, the conservatives inside the Communist Party of the Soviet-Union staged a coup against the Soviet government. But their attempt to save the Soviet-Union failed. Shevardnadze returned as minister for a few months and resigned with Mikhail Gorbachev on 26 December 1991. The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics was dissolved and Shevardnadze returned to Georgia, now called the Republic of Georgia! 

One of the first things Shevardnadze did back in Georgia, was converting to the Christian Orthodox faith. By rejecting atheism he was able to gain support from the religious population. After 1991, Georgia was very corrupt. As Shevardnadze left for Moscow in 1985, the nation was ruled by corrupt leaders who gave political and economic corruption free reign. This corruption led to a violent uprising which started in December 1991 and lasted until January 1992. More then 100 people were killed in bloody confrontations between former Stalinist factions!

For three years, the Republic of Georgia was very unstable. Greedy politicians tried to enrich themselves by selling the means of production. Because there was no workers party and thanks to massive anticommunist propaganda by right-wing nationalist forces, there was no leftist opposition. The ideals of socialism were discredited and called ''totalitarian'' and ''evil''. Workers were poisoned with nationalist and anticommunist believes. Young people were easy brainwashed as they embraced the new capitalist revolution. Only the elderly remained dogmatic loyal to Joseph Stalin and the ''Marxist-Leninist'' ( Stalinist ) ideology. These elderly were abandoned as capitalism destroyed the social security systems which took care of them!

In 1995, Eduard Shevardnadze won the presidential elections. Many hoped he would end the massive corruption and inequality. But Shevardnadze was transformed from a Stalinist bureaucrat into a Capitalist bureaucrat. He served a new master, the Georgian bourgeoisie which reestablished itself after the economy was sold to capitalists. Although Eduard himself was not a greedy capitalist, his closest allies and family owned many key economic enterprises. Shevardnadze's government enforced nepotism, favoring a very tiny minority. It is said that 70% of all the wealth was concentrated in the hands of people around the president!

American imperialism were happy with this reformed Soviet bureaucrat. But Georgia became known as a very corrupt state. Although Eduard Shevardnadze was a friend of George W Bush and a ally of Russian president; Vladimir Putin, he was hated by most workers and poor people. Still the working class had no political party for themselves. The supporters of the Soviet-Union were never able to win back the minds of the Georgian proletariat. Most workers reject socialism because they are led to believe that it ''does not work'' as both Shevardnadze and the capitalist media told them this! 

The anger of the Georgians was manipulated by a national-conservative called Mikheil Saakashvili. He represented a new generation of Georgians who rejected socialism and embraced both Georgian nationalism and economic liberalism. Mikheil Saakashvili formed the United National Movement which opposed the nepotistic regime of Shevardnadze. The United National Movement is a right-wing populist party, able to feed on the anger of the working class. Also Saakashvili used anti-Russian hated against Shevardnadze, who was a friend of Moscow. In November 2003, the situation was getting out of hand. The country was again on the brick of a violent uprising. Eduard Shevardnadze met with Mikheil Saakashvili and agreed to step down as president of Georgia!

Many Georgians celebrated the end of the nepotistic president. There was music and dancing when the old president left office. Shevardnadze was 75 years old and for the first time since 1966, he was powerless with no nation or government to control. Germany offered him asylum, but he wanted to remain in Georgia. Mikheil Saakashvili became president in January 2004 and turned Georgia into a hard-core nationalist nation. The new nationalist government used the 1921 Soviet invasion, as ''proof'' that Lenin was ''imperialist'' and wanted to build a Russian controlled ''Soviet-Empire''. This lie is promoted in almost all Georgian newspapers and television networks, most owned by Mikheil Saakashvili and his anticommunists!

In 2014, 11 years after he was removed from power, Eduard Shevardnadze died at the age of 86. Western media outlets praise him for his role as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union between 1985 and 1991. But the Georgian working class can only hate him. Not only was he a Stalinist leader loyal only to his bosses in Moscow, but he also was a nepotistic president ruling for 8 years. Mikheil Saakashvili changed the flag and state emblem of Georgia, the 1918 flag was replaced by a medieval Georgian flag with the Saint George Cross. The new nationalist state of Georgia under Saakashvili proved to be no alternative. But thanks to his ownership of major media networks, the United National Movement was able to win all elections. This was partly the result of Mikheil Saakashvili's charisma, his control over the media and the absence of a socialist alternative. The capitalist anti-nationalist opposition to Saakashvili was final able to defeat him during the 2012 elections. The United National Movement lost power after ruling Georgia for 8 years. But win out a workers party to lead the revolution, the capitalists will have nothing to fear!


Eduard Shevardnadze, with fellow class traitor Boris Yeltsin in the 1990's!

On the death of three Israeli teenagers

Three Israeli teenagers were abducted and murdered in the occupied Palestinian territories. The three teens were Naftali Frenkel 16 years old, from Nof Ayalon, Gilad Shaer 16 years old, from Talmon, and Eyal Yifrah 19 years old, from Elad. On 12 June 2014, the boys were last seen in Alon Shvut, a Zionist settlement inside occupied Palestine. 18 days later their bodies were found in a field north-west of Hebron. The abduction and murder of these teens has caused a massive wave of repression inside the occupied territories. More then 400 Palestinians were arrested by the Zionist regime, including all leaders of Hamas in the West-Bank. The right-wing prime minister of Israel has called for revenge and already one Palestinian teenager has been murdered. Israel will abuse this tragedy to strengthen their illegal occupation of the West-Bank and reactionary Islamic forces will use more terrorist methods to fight the Zionist regime!

When two Palestinian boys were murdered by Israeli soldiers there was no outcry for justice in the world media. Nadim Siam Nuwara 17 years old and Muhammad Mahmoud Odeh Abu al-Thahir 16 years old, were killed at a Nakba Day protest near the Ofer military prison, in the occupied village of Beitunia on 15 May 2014. CNN showed that the Palestinian teens were shot at by soldiers from the criminal; Israeli Occupation Forces. But since they were Palestinians, their death was no big media circus. In fact the media of Israel remains very quit about the torture of Palestinian children in Israeli jails and the killing of 
Nadim Nuwara and Muhammad al-Thahir!

A month later, three Israeli teens were abducted and later killed. The Israeli media and politicians were outraged and called for harsh retaliation. This shows the hypocrisy of the Zionist establishment in Israel. Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah are always called innocent and ''victims of evil. But were they innocent? They were walking on occupied Palestinian lands, lands they claim as their own. The international community has called the occupation of the West-Bank illegal. But the criminal State of Israel claims they have the right to occupy Palestine, because their holy book and doctrine grands them ownership of these lands. The three Israeli boys supported this claim and were members of Zionist communities that supports the occupation!

Revolutionary socialists support the right of Palestinians to resist the occupation force. They have the right to attack the soldiers of Israel who occupy their land. Pacifist resistance to the occupation has not helped, as the Zionist regime is supported by international capitalism. Because the West-Bank is under Israel control and the Palestinians have little to say, we support attacks against Israeli soldiers and those who support the illegal occupation. The murder of these three Israeli teens is wrong, but the abduction is NOT wrong, it is an act of resistance. Remember, that the land on which Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah were taken is under illegal control of Israel. So, Revolutionary Socialist Media does not condemn the abduction, but killing the teens was a counter-productive move which will only strengthen the Zionist regime of Benjamin Netanyahu!

On national television, prime minister Netanyahu called for revenge. Now radical Zionist Colonists feel they have the right to strike back at Palestinians. Colonists who live on Palestinian lands have a reputation of violence and brutal intimidations. Thanks to the protection from the IDF, Zionist Colonists bully and harass many Palestinian farmers. These farmers and their livelihood are attacked in a systematic campaign of violence and intimidation, which included the destruction of over 10,000 olive trees. In 2013, Zionist Colonists destroyed many olive farms, all who stood under IDF guard. This story was not reported in the Israeli news, the fact that the IDF did nothing to stop the extremists from destroying Palestinian property!

The Palestinian government is weak and more or less powerless to oppose the occupation. They control only those parts of the West-Bank which Zionist Colonists do not want. Every time the Palestinian Authorities try to establish a unified state, the Zionist regime stands against it. Israel does not want a united Palestinian people, they fear another massive uprising. This is what revolutionary socialists call for. A massive uprising of Palestinians against the Zionist Colonists and the Israeli Occupation Forces. We call for a democratic socialist Palestine next to a democratic socialist Israel. Workers in both nations must reject the religious and nationalist forces, both Zionist and Islamic. Benjamin Netanyahu is the face of right-wing Zionism and Khaled Mashal the face of reactionary Islamism. These two leaders are counter-revolutionary and do not care about the needs of workers and poor people!



Down with the Spanish crown

Spain gets a new king, the old Juan Carlos decided to give the throne to his son; Felipe VI age 47. King Carlos was made king by fascist dictator Franco in 1969. He was a puppet of the fascist dictator until Franco's death in 1975. Juan Carlos was instrumental in replacing the dictatorship with a parliamentary democracy. But the only reason he was able to remain king was because the Spanish left-wing agreed to support the monarchy. Both the social democrats and stalinists stood by the side of the king, betraying their republican ideology. Spain became a democracy and both the right-wing and left-wing seemed to support the king. The only opposition against the monarchy came from revolutionary socialists and classic stalinists who opposed the reformist euro-communist line of the PCE. Today Spain gets a new monarch, but the opposition against him is growing!

Like the revolutionary socialists in the 1970's, Revolutionary Socialist Media opposes the Spanish monarchy. But unlike the leftist supporters of the Republic of Spain, we reject a bourgeois republic. The banners of the former Republic of Spain ( 1931-1939 ) never represented a socialist republic. Spain remained a capitalist republic during the years of the Popular Front ( alliance between social democrats and stalinists ).  Also the republican government between 1936 and 1939, worked with the Soviet NKVD to arrest and murder revolutionary socialists and anarchists. Because the social democratic PSOE and Stalinist PCE choose to govern the bourgeois republic, the forces of the socialist revolution were outnumbered and eventually slain by republican and fascist troops!


Today the Kingdom of Spain is facing a social dilemma. Poverty is high and the ruling conservatives are hated. Support for the Republic of Spain is growing, this is why the government banned the use of republican flags and anti-monarchist slogans on the day Felipe VI is crowned king. The ceremony was very sober, with no foreign kings and queens present. According to the new king this was done to show ''solidarity'' with those Spanish who are hit by poverty. We revolutionary socialists think this is very hypocrite. The Spanish king is rich, his personal wealth is estimated at 5 million euro's. Although poorer then the Dutch king ( who own 200 million euro's ), the new Spanish king is still part of the Spanish bourgeoisie!


Spain lacks a workers party on a socialist program. The United Left around the Spanish Communist Party is unable to provide a clear socialist alternative. This is why a new movement won the European Elections in 2014. Podemos ( meaning "We can" in Spanish ) was able to win five seats in the European parliament for Spain. The new movement has attracted many voters who had enough of the conservative People's Party and the pseudo-leftist; Spanish Socialist ''Workers'' Party. The party Podemos was founded in January 2014 and already made headlines when they won the five European seats. Their ideology stands in clear opposition to neoliberalism and the worst elements of capitalism. In a way they mirror the Greek political party Syriza. Unfortunate they lack a clear socialist program and do not call for the nationalization of the means of production under a democratic socialist plan. Podemos wants to regulate capitalism much like the classic social democrats of the past. This will however not work and by making compromises with the bourgeoisie, Podemos will eventually become a mainstream capitalist party much like the PSOE!


King Felipe VI now the new head of state. But he will not be supported by revolutionary socialists. We reject the Spanish crown and we call on workers to oppose the monarchy. But a return to the Republic of Spain is no option. A Spanish Socialist Workers Republic must be build, a workers state with a democratic planned economy. Such state would abolish private ownership of the means of production and expropriate all millionaires and billionaires. Instead of austerity and social cuts, the new socialist government would start with massive social programs to create jobs for millions. Socialist Spain would be forced to leave the European Union, because the EU is capitalist and undemocratic. The struggle against European and world capitalism will be hard, but if workers around Europe, see the alternative Socialist Spain provides, then the capitalist propaganda will lose its effect. Workers would abandon their social democratic parties and create new party for themselves. This would mean the end of social democracy. Conservatives and liberals may keep their electorate for some time, but even these voters will join the socialist side. Workers of the world have nothing to gain from these capitalist political ideologies!




Supporters of the Spanish Communist Party fly the bourgeois republican banner
We revolutionary socialists only support the red banner!

1/3 of all British families live in poverty

35% of all British families live below the poverty line. This is the result of massive capitalist politics which benefits the owners of big business. 30 years ago in the year 1980, the neoliberal conservatives came to power under Margaret Thatcher. She promised the British ruling class, that she would made them richer. She kept her word and the wealth of capitalists grew very fast. Yet the working class saw very little to nothing of the huge profits. Today in the year 2014, 35% of all British families live in poverty, thanks to the Conservative Party, Liberal Democrats and Labour Party, who's capitalist politics have caused this inequality!

According to the study by the Poverty and Social Exclusion project, 33% of households are forced to live below the poverty line, defined as going without three or more basic needs of life such. As being unable to feed and clothe themselves and their children and to heat and insure their homes. In the early 1980s, the comparable figure was 14%. The capitalist; Labour Party will use this study for their propaganda, claiming they will fight poverty. In reality the social democrats caused this poverty with their New Labour governments between 1997 and 2010!

Causes of poverty:

- Disability ( disabled adults are twice as likely to live in low income households as non-disabled adults )
- Illness ( unable to work, forced to live on very little money ) 
- Mental illness ( not able to meet labour market demands )
- Low Intelligence ( not able to get average paid jobs )
- Unemployment ( means poverty for millions )
- Being born to poor parents ( not able to pay for their child education )
- Being a lone parent  ( half of all lone parents are on a low income )
- Racial discrimination ( ethnic racism is strong in the UK )
- Capitalist exploitation ( paid low wages ) 
- Inherent biases in the capitalist system ( having to pay a higher rate of interest on a loan for example )

Capitalism in Britain is cruel and greedy. Like most capitalist nations, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is still facing the effects of the 2008 economic crisis. With help from the social democrats of the Labour Party, the ruling class has enforced brutal austerity politics on the British working class. These austerity attacks are supported by the social democrats who have the audacity to call their Labour Party, a democratic socialist party. Revolutionary socialists reject this, as the Labour Party is just another political pillar of the British ruling class, who's wealth has increased because of government deregulations and anti-worker politics of people like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown!

Workers in Great Britain need a workers party. Unfortunate many trade unions still support the capitalist; Labour Party. There is also the outdated idea that the social democrats are leftist, which is no longer the case. Social democracy betrayed the working class to the capitalist class since ''Iron Lady'' Thatcher took power in the early 1980's. Social democrats capitulated to capitalism after the collapse of stalinism. Tony Blair is the living proof of a social democratic leader who carried out right-wing neoliberal politics. Blair's New Labour government was also imperialistic, supporting the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq!

A huge problem of poverty is that fact that families can no longer live on a single income. Both parents need to work to survive in the capitalist society that is Britain. In most European nations this is becoming more and more standard. An average working class family with two or three children cannot survive on a single income any-more. 30 years ago a family could live on a average salary. But under neoliberalism, the costs of living has increased. Rising prices for basic-needs has left a lot of British families poorer. The upper class of Britain is not facing these problems, their income is very high. Here we show the salaries of wealthy British people, who do not suffer because of poverty. Their incomes are in British Pounds £!

David Cameron ( Prime minister ) £142,500 
Tony Hall ( BBC boss ) £450,000
Mike Rees ( Standard Chartered bank boss ) £8,986,000
Wayne Rooney £15,600,000
Angela Ahrendts ( Burberry boss ) £16,900,000
Queen Elizabeth £36,100,000
Crispin Odey ( hedge fund speculator ) £14,200,000
Carolyn McCall ( EasyJet boss ) £6,430,000

Now let us look at the incomes of working class jobs in the UK: Their incomes are in British Pounds. The average income in the UK is £26.000, but four in five new jobs are in sectors averaging under £16,640 for a 40-hour week. Working full-time on the £6.31 hourly minimum wage would gross just £ Four in five new jobs are in sectors averaging under £16,640 for a 40-hour work week. Working full-time on the £6.31 hourly minimum wage would gross just £13,124 ( €16,300 ) in a year!

- Lollipop ladies £3,187 average
- Theme park attendants £6,011
- Bar staff £7,317 
- Playworkers £7,400 
- Waiters & waitresses £7,655
- Cleaners £8,067 
- Florists £8,960
- Hairdressers £10,174
- Fitness instructors £10,378 
- Shopworkers £11,174 
- Cooks £11,346 
- Nursery nurses £11,163 
- Beauticians £12,418 
- Window cleaners £12,561 
- Receptionists £12,595 
- Care workers £12,804 
- Childminders £12,949 
- Telephonists £14,032
- Tailors & Dressmakers £14,482
- Caretakers £16,114 
- Secretaries £16,384
- Cabbies £16,416
- Customer service £16,525 
- Undertakers £16,526 
- Packers £16,820
- Tele sales £17,362 
- Chefs £17,391
- Gardeners £17,595
- Street cleaners £17,616 
- Butchers £17,681
- Hospital porters £17,748
- Farm workers £17,925 
- Traffic wardens £18,065 
- Travel agents £18,344 
- Van drivers £18,744 
- Tyre & exhaust fitters £18,888 
- Bank clerks £19,908 
- Youth & Community workers £20,000

These jobs are all paid under £20,000 ( €24,974 ). This is why revolutionary socialists reject the capitalist system. All these workers must work 40 hours a week, while rich people like Carolyn McCall are paid £6,430,000 ( €8.029.000 ) a year. The British ruling class was a lot poorer before 1980, before Thatcher came. Now there is a huge gab between the poor and the rich in the UK. To blame are the politicians who made this possible. Right-wing scum like Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron. They serve the ruling class, the peo   ple who own the means of production. The people who exploit the working class. British workers must understand that their poverty is the result of the capitalist system. Voting on the Labour Party will keep this capitalist system intact. New Labour will not end poverty, it is responsible for austerity and exploitation. 

Workers of Britain have a political voice. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is not yet a workers party, but it unites the most class consciousness socialists and trade unionists. TUSC is standing against the austerity cuts that caused this massive poverty. They stand against Labour, Tories and the LibDem ( Liberal Democrats ). Unfortunate class consciousness among British workers is as low as in the rest of Europe. The collapse of stalinism has discredit socialism and the turn to the right by social democracy has also led to massive disillusionment. 35% of all British voters did not vote in the 2010 general elections. This shows that 1/3 of the population in the United Kingdom does not believe that politicians can change anything. A direct result of the fact that all three major political parties, offer no alternatives to the dictatorship of capitalism!



Child poverty in Great Britain. 
20% of all children in London live in poverty!!

Pro-Beijing newspaper launches attack on CWI

The pro-Beijing newspaper, Ta Kung Pao, ran a front-page attack on pro-democracy legislator Leung Kwok-hung (known as ’Long Hair’) and Socialist Action (CWI in Hong Kong) in their 10th June edition. This propaganda piece in a daily newspaper infamous as a Hong Kong mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictatorship, comes as Hong Kong’s democracy struggle enters a crucial phase in the run up to the annual July 1 mega-demonstration against the government. The Chinese regime is stepping up its psychological warfare against ‘political instability’ and ‘illegal’ demands for free elections in Hong Kong. Socialist Action is seeking legal advice over the article’s slanderous nature, a hallmark of this newspaper, while at the same time conducting a vigorous political defence to expose its lies.

By Socialist Action, CWI in Hong-Kong 

The newspaper falsely claims ‘Long Hair’, who is currently serving a four-week jail sentence on trumped up political charges, masterminded the creation of Socialist Action in 2010 to be a more extreme force in the democracy struggle. Absurd accusations and slanders of this type run throughout the article, which conjures up the bogey of “foreign forces” i.e. the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), to which Socialist Action adheres. Ta Kung Pao accuses the CWI of advocating “very violent methods” and accuses its sections in Brazil, Sweden and Turkey of fomenting riots last year. This is standard stuff, in other words, from the paid hacks of a dictatorship whose level of paranoia is unparalleled when it comes to mass protests, democratic ideals, and genuine socialism.

Ta Kung Pao’s concern over violence is worthy of an ‘Oscar’ given its silence over the military massacre of protesters in Beijing in 1989. It attacked this year’s 180,000-strong commemoration of the June 4 massacre victims as an “act of national betrayal.”

Fomenting riots

“The CWI’s methods of protest are very violent,” the article claims. “On 20 May 2013, the CWI’s Swedish section Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna initiated a protest against the Swedish government’s social policies and lack of public services. The protesters set fire to cars, destroyed shopping centres and attacked police stations, and this resulted in three days of riots. Many police and members of the pubic were injured.”

This is just one example of Ta Kung Pao’s deranged ‘journalism’. Last year’s riots in 
Stockholm were triggered by police shooting dead an elderly man, following years of racism and neglect of public infrastructure in working class districts. The CWI’s section initiated a protest meeting together with local community groups to appeal for an end to the burnings and rioting while sharply criticising police brutality and the government’s neo-liberal policies.
As in similar outbreaks in Britain, France and China, the CWI has always made clear it does not believe rioting, while understandable as a reaction to desperate social conditions, offers any way forward for mass struggle against capitalism, unemployment and poverty. We stand for organisation – workers’ parties and fighting unions – and disciplined collective methods of mass struggles, such as workers’ strikes and occupations linked to building a socialist alternative.

Ta Kung Pao’s take on the Brazilian mass protests of 2013, currently being reprised during the World Cup, is even more fantastic! Stating that 300,000 people took part in protests against fare increases, it says the police used repression against “criminal organisations” and that “many of those arrested were members of the CWI section, LSR.”

Trotskyism

The article rails against Trotskyism which it describes in quasi-Maoist language as an “ultra left, violent” political trend: “Many countries regard them as extremist organisations second only to terrorism”. It attacks the theory of permanent revolution, which it converts into a doctrine of ‘permanent rioting’. In reality, the permanent revolution is Leon Trotsky’s brilliant conception of how the capitalists in colonial and semi-colonial countries are incapable of completing bourgeois democratic tasks, achieving national unification or solving other problems left over from feudal society. Hong Kong, China and many other parts of Asia are living proof of the correctness of Trotsky’s theory, which explains why workers need to organise a mass socialist alternative and not leave the struggle against dictatorship or foreign imperialist domination to any wing of the capitalists.

Ta Kung Pao’s article is part of a wider CCP propaganda offensive to discredit the most radical sections of the democracy struggle. The aim is to link ‘Long Hair’ with the CWI and tar both with the brush of ‘violence’ and ‘political extremism’. Among the more outrageous accusations, it claims that Socialist Action cooperates with Civic Passion, a right-wing ‘nativist’ (Hong Kong nationalist) group which conducts a vicious smear campaign against Socialist Action. In contrast, while representing different political organisations and programmes, Socialist Action and ‘Long Hair’ have cooperated in many struggles for workers’ rights and against the Chinese dictatorship.

Sharpening democracy struggle

The CCP‘s propaganda offensive is linked to the more charged political situation in Hong Kong and China. It is clearer than ever that Beijing has no intention of allowing free elections (universal suffrage) in Hong Kong in 2017 as people were once led to believe (but as CWI comrades warned would not be the case). Instead a rehash of the current ‘controlled’ election model is being served up, causing widespread anger. Last week, China’s state council (cabinet) unveiled a white paper on Hong Kong that spells out that the territory’s “high autonomy is not full autonomy”. This document, unprecedented since the 1997 handover (from Britain), is widely seen as the Chinese regime putting its foot down over demands for greater democracy. Its publication follows a string of warnings by pro-government politicians that martial law could be imposed in Hong Kong and PLA troops deployed to quell protests.

At the same time, the bourgeois democratic opposition parties (pan democrats) have enormously complicated the democracy struggle through their desire to avoid and limit mass struggle and pin all their hopes on a compromise with the CCP. The accusations of violence from the establishment camp and newspapers like Ta Kung Pao are a deliberate attempt to slander the most radical sections of the democracy struggle, such as ‘Long Hair’, and to increase pressure on the dominant ‘moderate’ wing of the pan democrats to dissociate themselves from ‘extreme’ methods.

The latter shamefully condemned ‘Long Hair’ – tabling a motion against him in the legislature – when he was arrested and subsequently charged for ‘criminal damage’ and ‘disorderly conduct’ during a 2011 protest. This was against a sham government-run consultation process over tightening by-election rules, used as a cover for further attacks on democratic rights. ‘Long Hair’ received a two-month prison sentence (which would have resulted in the loss of his elected seat in the legislature), subsequently reduced to four weeks on appeal. It is this sentence for a fictitious ‘crime’ that he is currently serving.

Socialists fight back!

Ta Kung Pao’s attack is, for all its venom, a twisted recognition of the impact Socialist Action/CWI is having and the Chinese dictatorship’s fear of socialist ideas. The article mentions the 2011 District Council election campaign when Socialist Action ran Sally Tang Mei-Ching as a candidate, and even mentions that she went to Taiwan on Socialist Action/CWI’s behalf during the mass ‘sunflower’ protest movement earlier this year.
It refers to Socialist Action’s call for the Occupy Central movement (a plan to occupy streets in the main business district, led by ‘moderate’ pan democrats) to embrace a more fighting programme and approach including the need for strike action as a key weapon in the anti-CCP struggle, beginning with a call for student strikes. Ta Kung Pao, of course, distorts this, wishing to equate strikes with ‘violence’ and ‘extremism’ – which is how the dictatorship and the capitalists actually view workers’ use of the strike weapon today.

Reporting Socialist Action’s support for the Refugee Union’s campaigns in Hong Kong, it claims this is to “use refugees as hatchet men” in order to prepare and radicalise the Occupy Central movement. The refugees, whose 120-day occupation and protest camp against discrimination and corruption has been a model of discipline and restraint, are portrayed as criminals that fit in with Socialist Action’s alleged plan because they “do not fear prison”. As with its accusations about the rioting overseas, Ta Kung Pao does not produce a single fact to back up its accusations. An additional aim is to link ‘Long Hair’ with “foreign forces” in the shape of the CWI and the Refugee Union. This plays to a pet theme of CCP propaganda today, promoting chauvinistic Chinese nationalism and an alleged overseas conspiracy to ‘split’ China. The article stresses that Socialist Action has “foreign” members and links to “foreign organisations” – something that would be outlawed if pro-CCP security legislation known as ‘Article 23’ is passed in Hong Kong. This legislation has been held up for 10 years by mass pressure, but has not been abandoned by the pro-government camp.

While Ta Kung Pao is highly discredited in Hong Kong as a newspaper kept afloat by CCP money, there’s no escaping the implicit threat in its attack on the comrades of the CWI. Hong Kong and China are moving into stormy times and the dictatorship is identifying and vilifying its political enemies. Rather than being intimidated, however, socialists will be even more determined to fight for genuine democracy, including a democratic and publicly owned media, and to build mass organisations of the working class and the youth, to finish off capitalism and dictatorship!



Socialist Action, fighting with Leung Kwok-hung against
the state-capitalist CCP!

2 trillion dollars and 4.000 death soldiers later

More then 2 trillion dollars were spend on the Iraq War and more then 4.000 American soldiers have been killed. The Republic of Iraq is collapsing, the second largest city of the nation is captured by radical extremists of the ISIL ( Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant ). On 4 June, Islamic forces attacked the city of Mosul. After six days of fighting with police and security forces, the extremists were able to capture the city. More then 500.000 Iraqis fled to the Kurdish Autonomous Region, the only part of Iraq that has been stable since the 2003 invasion. After spending 2 billion dollars and losing 4.000+ soldiers, the American project to bring democracy and stability to Iraq can be called: ONE BIG FAILURE!!

Only 139 American soldiers died during the invasion, but more then 4.000 would die between March 2003 and December 2011, in what became known as the Iraq War. American imperialists believed they could install a puppet government, that would mask itself as democratic. In reality the government of Iraq has been very unstable and even moderate Islamic. This is said in the almighty ''democratic'' constitution which proclaimed Iraq to a nation governed by the laws of Islam. Since 2006, the leader of the nation is Nouri al-Maliki. He is leader of the Islamic Dawa Party, Shia-Islamic and pro-capitalist!


Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was a presidential republic. However the new state after 2003, became a parliamentary republic. Nouri al-Maliki was the first stable prime minister to take office. During the period between the collapse of Saddam's government and the birth of the new pro-USA puppet government, Iraq had more then 12 prime ministers. All were replaced sooner or later. When Al-Maliki became prime minister he made sure he would become the strong man of the government. But he failed in this, Al-Maliki was unable to stop the sectarian violence between Sunni-Muslims and Shia-Muslims. As a Shia-Muslim he stood in opposition to Saddam Hussein who was a Sunni-Muslim. He worked with the USA to overthrow the Iraqi Ba'ath regime in 2003!

The party of al-Maliki is Shia-Islamic and is supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is why Sunni-Islamic extremists like the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant ( ISIL ), oppose the Al-Maliki government. They use sectarian methods to split the Islamic population of Iraq, between Sunni and Shia Muslims. Although the Republic of Iraq is not a pure Islamic state like Iran, they do get financial support from Tehran. The State of Law Coalition is the ruling coalition around Shia-Islamic parties, Al-Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party is the biggest party in the parliament!

Still Iraq is no democracy, the nation is called NOT FREE by Freedom House, an American group that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights. They say that Al-Maliki is ruling like a dictator and is using the state and the police forces against those who oppose him, mainly Sunni-Muslims. Now in June 2014, Sunni-Islamic extremists from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant ( Syria ), have started their offensive in north Iraq. The ISIL group has been founded in 2006, by radical Sunni-Muslims who want to create a Islamic Caliphate in Iraq. At the height of the Iraq War, it claimed a significant presence in the Iraqi provinces of Al Anbar, Ninawa, Kirkuk, and most of Salah ad Din, and parts of Babil, Diyala, and Baghdad. It claimed Baqubah as its capital. In the ongoing Syrian Civil War, the group has a large presence in the Syrian regions of Ar-Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo!

In Syria, the ISIL extremists are also in conflict with Sunni-Islamic forces. As sectarianism is not limited to Sunni and Shia Islam, the ISIL and other Syrian Islamic rebels have clashed over many issues. ISIL extremists are theocratic and want to build a Islamic Caliphate in both Syria and Iraq. The rise of the ISIL has strengthen the secular Syrian Ba'ath regime of dictator Bashar Al-Assad. With the Syrian Opposition now dominated by Islamic forces, he plays the role of the lesser evil. Syrians fear the cruelty and theocracy of the ISIL, this is why many have rejoined the Ba'ath camp. This also shows what happens if there is no mass organisation of the working class to lead a revolution. Many opponents of Bashar Al-Assad have joined the Islamic side, because they have weapons and money. This money is paid by Saudi-Arabia and other Arab monarchs. Sunni-Islamic forces are almost all on the payroll of the Saudi monarchy!

George W Bush believed in March 2003, that he could bring democracy to Iraq. The results of his invasion were catastrophic. Iraq is plagued with corruption, sectarian conflicts and capitalist exploitation. In all senses the Republic of Iraq is a failed state much like the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, another American created pseudo-democracy. Western people think they can export democracy, secularism and tolerance. But imperialist nations never want genuine democracy. The USA invaded Iraq because of oil and because Saddam Hussein had outlived his usefulness. Iraq was also needed as a buffer state between Iran and Israel, the biggest ally of American imperialism in the Middle East!

The city of Mosul was the battleground between Iraqi security forces and ISIL extremists. In June 2014, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant started a major offensive in the northern provinces. Mosul was home to many officers and generals from Saddam Hussein's era and is also very close to the Kurdish Autonomous Region, called Iraqi Kurdistan. After the invasion by western forces, many sectarian conflicts started in Mosul. By 2009 more then 2.500 Kurdish Iraqis were murdered. More then 40 families were displaced in those six years after the American take over!

On 4 June 2014, ISIL extremists captured the city. Iraqi police and security forces fled, leaving behind many materials such as money, weapons and ammunitions. The city looks like Saigon in April 1975, when North Vietnamese forces took over. Now Mosul is under control of the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Already 500.000 Iraqis have left the city and fled to the Kurdish Autonomous Region. Still 1.300.000 people have remained in Mosul and are now facing the brutality of the ISIL extremists. We revolutionary socialists have no illusions, we know the Sunni-Islamic extremists will enforce a strict theocratic regime. Woman will be second class citizens and under full male chauvinist control. There will be no freedom of speech and no freedom of religion. Shia-Muslims will be hunted and murdered as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant ( Syria ) is Sunni-Islamic and deeply sectarian!

American forces left Iraq in December 2011 under Barack Obama, after losing 4.000+ soldiers. Iraq lost 18.000 army, police and security officers between 2003 and 2011. Civilian loss is at 110.000 Iraqi's, who died in the conflicts. Now the government has lost the city of Mosul to ISIL extremists. Thanks to American stupidity, Operation Iraqi Freedom resulted in IRAQI NO FREEDOM. The Republic of Iraq is no democracy and not a free nation. Only one winner came out of the war. American capitalists are finally able to get to Iraqi oil. Saddam Hussein prevented this, but since 2003 the oil fields are under control of western oil companies: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Revolutionary socialists call for the creation of a massive workers party, that rejects sectarianism, Islamic dogmatism and capitalism. The Islamic Dawa Party and their Shia-Islamic allies do not care about workers, poor people and the youth. They serve American and Iraqi capitalism. Workers must remove them from power by a socialist revolution. They have nothing to lose, they have a world to win!



The results of George W Bush's ( and Obama's ), Iraq War 2003-2011

Struggle, Solidarity, Socialism

Struggle, Solidarity, Socialism