MLToday | The Electronic Journal of Marxist-Leninist Thought | Latest Updates http://mltoday.com/ Thu, 17 May 2012 12:15:04 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://mltoday.com//images/M_images/rss.png http://mltoday.com/ MLToday | The Electronic Journal of Marxist-Leninist Thought | Latest Updates http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/national-liberation/free-political-prisoner-david-ravelo-1391.html Colombian police arrested David Ravelo on September 10, 2010. He remains in Modelo Prison in Bucaramanga. Nineteen months have passed, yet this high-profile human rights activist, Colombian Communist Party Central Committee member, and prisoner of conscience, has been convicted of nothing. Prosecutors are using an accusation from a jailed paramilitary chief wanting to please authorities who reduced his long sentence. Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/a-time-for-honest-self-reflection-the-us-labor-movement-and-china-1390.html The statistics are chilling.   In a country where workers have no real right to organize a union, they face an ever falling standard of living.   The workers’ attempts to organize independent unions are faced with repression – 25% of the companies illegally fire workers who try to organize; active union supporters indeed have a 1 in 5 chance of being fired; over half of the companies threaten to have undocumented, foreign laborers deported during organizing campaigns; over half of the companies threaten to close the plant if it is organized; and nearly half of companies that are unionized never reach a labor contract with the union.   Of course, this country is not China, but rather, is, according to the AFL-CIO, the United States. Tue, 08 May 2012 15:13:59 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/colombia-s-marcha-patri-tica-calls-for-international-solidarity-not-interference-1385.html The Summit of the Americas in Cartegena, Colombia turned out to be an embarrassing fiasco for Pres. Obama and the US delegation. It was mainly marked by the Secret Service prostitution scandal, denouncements of the War on Drugs at every turn, three heads of state in the region not even showing up and Argentina’s Pres. Kirchner storming out, and the utter isolation of the US and Canada in regards to Cuba. Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/electoral-politics/kke-on-the-election-result-of-may-6-2012-1388-2.html The CC of KKE met in order to make an initial assessment of the election result of 6th May 2012. This assessment will be discussed in the organs and the Party Base Organisations as well as in the organs and the Base Organisations of KNE. Furthermore, the party will discuss the election result with the people who work alongside the party, its supporters and friends. After this round of discussion and expressions of opinion the CC will conclude its assessment. Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/electoral-politics/france-hollande-a-triumph-with-european-scope-1392.html After 17 years of conservative governments, the triumph of the Socialist Party (SP) candidate Francois Hollande in the presidential elections is considered today a political change in France with European scope. French President-elect  Hollande won Sunday's election with 51,67 percent of the votes, compared to 48,33 of his rival Nicolas Sarkozy, according to data provided by the Ministry of Interior, after counting 99 percent of the ballots. Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/gadhafi-s-crime-making-libya-s-economy-work-for-libyans-1382.html “Oil companies are controlled by foreigners who have made millions from them. Now, Libyans must take their place to profit from this money.”—Muammar Gadhafi, 2006. The Wall Street Journal of 5 May offers evidence, additional to that already accumulated, that last year’s NATO military intervention in Libya was rooted in objections to the Gadhafi government’s economic policies. Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/the-nobel-peace-laureate-1381.html I will hardly refer to the Cuban people, who one day rid their country of the United States domain, when the imperialist system had reached the height of its power. Men and women of different ages paraded on May Day down the most symbolic squares in all provinces of the country. Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/the-silly-season-a-caricature-of-democracy-1384.html We are well into the silly season, the great US national election spectacle that will compete with the other inane entertainments offered by our mega-media. In a real sense, the 2012 Presidential and congressional campaigns are the ultimate reality shows. In fact, they are not far from mimicking the vulgar competitions of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. Imagine a television show with participants chosen by how much money they can raise from mega-millionaires, shadow boxing over questions prepared by media multi-millionaires, and concluding with an extravagant climax in November, with US voters selecting the winners. And those winners then get to rule the US for the next two, four or six years. And that, without too much exaggeration, is our two-party electoral system. Of course ruling the US should be serious business. And the great tragedy is that this frivolous selection process is anything but serious. Wed, 02 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/communist-forum/communist-parties-against-the-austerity-treaties-1380-2.html 1 May 2012 To the International Communist Movement Comrades, Today, on the occasion of May Day—International Workers’ Day—we publicity launch a united statement signed by fifteen Communist parties from throughout the European Union as a common position against the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union and the revised Treaty on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). All the parties call upon workers throughout the European Union to mobilise and to resist these treaties and the anti-people policies of the European Union and its allies inside each of our nations. All signatories expressed their solidarity with Irish workers and supported the call for a No vote by the Irish people in the referendum on 31 May. In anti-imperialist solidarity, Eugene Mc Cartan General Secretary Communist Party of Ireland Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/deepening-rift-between-israels-leadership-security-establishment-over-iran-1387.html Jerusalem, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Israel's leading media concur that a rift is growing between the country's hawkish leadership and the defense establishment over how to counter Iran's disputed nuclear program. Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/wealth-belongs-to-those-who-produce-it-1389-2.html May Day Declaration of the World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions addresses a fraternal salutation to all working women and men around the world. The 1st of May is the day that reminds us of our irreplaceable social role in the production of all the wealth in the world. The 1st of May is the day that reminds us of the invincible power, that class unity can provide us with, to change the world according to our needs and abilities. A world of prosperity, peace and fraternal solidarity. The only obstacle standing in the way of this progress is the parasitic activity of the monopolies. The predatory exploitation of the wealth-producing resources for their own profiting in burden of the peoples and the environment. Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/communist-forum/joint-statement-of-communist-and-workers-parties-for-may-day-2012-1379.html We demonstrate against capitalist exploitation and imperialist wars. For the satisfaction of the contemporary needs of the working class and people! For the overthrow of the capitalist system. For working class-people’s power, socialism-communism. Working men and women! Workers all over the world! Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:49:51 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/a-tale-of-two-rocket-launches-1378.html North Korea launched a rocket on April 13 to loft a satellite into space–part of the country’s civilian space program. The rocket, based on ballistic missile technology, broke up only minutes after launch. Western state officials and media rebuked Pyongyang for directing part of its strained budget to a rocket launch when it depends on outside food aid. Along with other countries, India “voiced deep concern.” [1] Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/opportunism-reformism-revisionism/why-the-cpusas-present-political-line-unity-against-the-ultra-right-is-wrong-and-harmful-1377.html At the April 21 national meeting, top CPUSA leaders are sure to defend the present line, emphatically declaring the main enemy is right-wing extremism, whose loathsomeness and frightfulness they will denounce at length. With self-assurance they will deflect their critics — if there are any critics — with OK, maybe Obama is a disappointment. Maybe he and the Congressional Democrats didn't keep their campaign promises. Maybe we got too enthusiastic in 2008.[1]  Look, we never said he was for socialism. But isn't it obvious the Republicans are so much worse? Imagine a President Newt Gingrich in the Oval Office with a finger on the nuclear trigger. C'mon, the main enemy is obviously the ultra right. Isn't it common sense? Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/national-liberation/recovering-hydrocarbons-sovereignty-1386.html Speech delivered by the President of the Argentine nation, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, on April 16, 2012 to announce the presentation of a bill to Argentine Congress to re-nationalize the oil company YPF (Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales, in English: Treasury Petroleum Fields ). It is owned by a private Spanish company, Repsol. Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/reconfiguring-the-world-1366.html Today’s economic crisis invites many obvious comparisons with the great slump of the 1930s. So it’s worth remembering that the worst thing about the 1930s wasn’t the unemployment, poverty and industrial dereliction, bad enough although all that obviously was. Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/the-united-states-barbarous-policy-on-iran-1369.html “Sanctions,” New York Times’ reporter Rick Gladstone writes, have subjected “ordinary Iranians” to “increased deprivations” in order to “punish Iran for enriching uranium that the West suspects is a cover for developing the ability to make nuclear weapons.” [1] In other words, Iran is suspected of having a secret nuclear weapons program, and so must be sanctioned to force it to abandon it. Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/northern-africa-the-middle-east-and-the-arab-world-1373.html Speech by the General Secretary, George Mavrikos. International Trade Union Conference.
 Brussels, Belgium 10-11 April 2012, Developments in the Region of Northern Africa, the Middle East and the Arab World The class-oriented movement that struggles through the ranks of the WFTU, the World Federation of Trade Unions, is obliged to examine, analyse and inform the working class about the developments in international relations, providing it with the best possible tools for its struggle against the capitalist exploitative system, against imperialism thus assisting the intervention of the trade union movement and the struggles of the working people. Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/what-will-the-u.s.-do-when-its-number-two-1365.html How will the United States react when China becomes the number one economy in the world? It's a very serious question, because the U.S. is a very dangerous country, that still operates on the assumption that it has a Manifest Destiny to dominate the world. When the reigning superpower confronts its economic second fiddle status in 2016, it could throw quite a troublesome tantrum. Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/obama-signs-a-phony-and-dangerous-jobs-bill-1374.html President Obama is ramping up his phony progressive campaign rhetoric, trying to once again masquerade as something other than a Wall Street servant. But this time around, he is weighted down by his actual record in office, which shows Obama to have been a savior to the bankers and money speculators. Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/electoral-politics/the-left-government-is-dangerous-for-the-people-1370.html The KKE is continuing its preparations for the battle of the elections with visits in workplaces and rallies in workers’ neighborhoods. At the same time, it continues its activities for the relief of the workers’ families from the barbaric measures that affect all the working people. The Communists play a leading role in the organization of strikes, in the organization of the workers in their trade unions, of the self-employed through the ranks of PASEVE, in the organization of the people in their neighborhoods through the People’s Committees, the Committees of the Unemployed. In this direction, on Friday 6th April the KKE proposed a draft law for the relief of the popular strata from the loans. Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/stephen-harpers-illusions-1364-2.html I think - and I do not intend to offend anyone - that this is how one refers to the Prime Minister of Canada. I deduced it from a statement published on Holy Wednesday by a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of that country. The United Nations Organization membership is made up of almost 200 States - allegedly independent States. They continuously change or are forced into change. Many of their representatives are honorable people, friends of Cuba; but it is impossible to remember the specifics about each and every one of them. Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/a-comment-on-is-the-french-cp-back-1375.html The French presidential campaign has given a new focus to a revitalised left in France, and one that has a different shape. The various Trotsykite formations, whose media-blessed campaigns put them in front of the PCF's Marie-George Buffet in the last presidential election, have vanished from sight and poll below 1%. Much the same has happened to the ecologist candidate, while the anti-globalisation movement, which had some minor electoral traction, has also vanished. Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/is-the-french-communist-party-back-1362.html After years of retreat and opportunism and consequent loss of support and influence, the French Communist Party (PCF) is showing signs of life. Aligned with smaller parties in the Left Front (Front de Gauche, FG), the PCF has rallied around the presidential candidacy of Jean Melenchon for the forthcoming first round of French elections. The latest polls show Melenchon with over 14% of the prospective voters, ahead of all other candidates excepting Hollande (PS) and Sarkozy (UMP). Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/marxist-theory/response-to-clendaniels-1361.html In his generally favorable review of our book, John Clendaniel raises four significant points of criticism that I would like to reply to. 1. The first relates to our criterion for when a theory is scientific. John says that the falsification standard that he then puts forward for scientific socialism curiously appears to have been borrowed from Karl Popper. American and British philosophy of science have largely moved away such positivist standards and the focus has instead shifted to the explanatory power of theories and other types of theory confirmation. Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/cuba-meets-the-challenges-of-the-21st-century-1363-2.html An interview with Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban Parliament President of the Cuban Parliament since 1992, and member of the Political Bureau of the Cuban Communist Party, Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada is, after President Raul Castro and First Vice-President Antonio Machado Ventura, third in line in the Cuban government. Professor of philosophy and a career diplomat, Alarcon spent nearly 12 years in the United States as the Cuban ambassador to the United Nations. Over time, he has become a spokesperson for the Havana government. In this long interview, one that lasted nearly two hours, Alarcon did not seek to evade a single question. He comments on the role of Fidel Castro after his retirement from political life and explains the presence of Raul Castro at the center of power. He also speaks about the reform of the Cuban economic and social model as well as the challenges facing the Cuban nation. Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/social-and-economic-conditions/general-strike-in-spain-workers-defend-against-attacks-on-labor-rights-1371.html Two months ago almost to the day Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy was caught telling other EU leaders that his labour reform plan “is going to cost me a general strike.” Well, if he’s been wrong on most things since being elected in a landslide victory over the Socialists in November last year, he’s right on this one. Industrial action yesterday was a massive show of resistance to his moves to slash employment rights, and a more general rejection of austerity policies that even mainstream supporters of neoliberal ideas think are half mad. Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/us-state-departments-second-denial-of-permission-for-cuban-diplomats-to-travel-1352.html Statement by participants in DePaul University Conference on Latin America's ALBA and the Peoples'  Continental Integration. Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/us-travel-ban-on-cuban-diplomats-stirs-media-interest-1349.html Editors' Note: It appears that at least 95 US television and radio stations and newspapers -- including the Washington Post, Huffington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Miami Herald -- picked up the brief Associated Press story about the US State Department ban on travel to the panel on Cuba organized by Marxism-Leninism Today at the Left Forum in New York City. Below is the AP story and the text of our protest letter. Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:01:30 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/national-liberation/peace-in-colombia-hostage-to-class-war-over-land-1348.html In the face of seemingly endless suffering, impetus for peace in Colombia gathers momentum. Terror, political persecution, arbitrary detentions, and militarization dominate. State-mediated killings now run into the tens of thousands. More than four million rural inhabitants have been displaced from sustenance-providing land. Having recently announced its last ten prisoners held for ransom would be released, and having signaled its decision no longer to raise money through hostage-taking, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has propelled movement toward peace. The insurgent group wants to humanize the conflict, said Piedad Cordoba, president of Colombians for Peace. The Brazilian government agreed to provide logistical support for any prisoner release. Justice Minister Juan Carlos Esguerra granted Cordobas request that representatives of her group visit FARC prisoners in state hands, and then reneged. Cordoba has proposed a bilateral truce to open space for dialogue. Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/struggles-for-equality/a-dirty-little-secret-in-texas-1353.html Here in the state of Texas in the United States there is a dirty little secret that has received little attention. It is a repulsive, anti-democratic relic of the cold war McCarthy years of vicious anti-communism under which many patriotic people of this country suffered. Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/cubas-economic-reforms-strengthening-the-cuban-revolution-1358.html The writers are Cuba solidarity activists in the U.S. Peace Council and U.S. Labor for Friendship with Cuba. Almost 80 people packed a classroom at Pace University's downtown New York campus on a relatively warm, mostly sunny Saturday afternoon, on March 17, 2012, to learn about new developments in Cuba directly from diplomats of the Republic of Cuba. Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/marxist-theory/the-character-of-the-contemporary-era-1368-2.html The character of the contemporary era as the basic element which defines the strategy of the Communist Parties and the experience of the KKE. Speech of Giorgos Marinos member of the PB of the CC of the KKE and MP to the International Seminar of CP of Brazil The national question and the struggle for socialism today , Rio de Janeiro, 23 and 24 March 2012 We thank the CP of Brazil for the invitation and we warmly salute the Brazilian communists who over a long period, in adverse conditions, have made their own historic contribution to the struggle of the international communist movement for the interests of the working class, the farmers, the landless and the native people, against imperialism, capitalist exploitation, supporting the socialist perspective which is the future of the peoples. Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/books-arts-and-literature/review-samir-amins-the-law-of-worldwide-value-1347.html Samir Amin has been an important participant in the conversation among Marxists for decades. His many books, his articles and his partisanship for the peoples of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are acknowledged and respected by all those who strive for a world without capitalism. He has associated his views with Marxism and enthusiastically interprets those views through the prism of the Monthly Review theoretical triad of Paul Sweezy, Paul Baran, and Harry Magdoff. Perhaps he adheres even more faithfully to these views than the current editors of this influential journal. He shares with Immanuel Wallerstein the World Systems approach, with its emphasis on the core and periphery distinction in the global economy. Both views have, at different times, exerted great influence among Marxist thinkers and activists, especially in the West. These views have revealed important insights into the mechanism of global capitalism and imperialism. Yet these views are inadequate for a coherent understanding of our world today. Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/a-great-general-strike-a-powerful-day-of-action-1356.html Declaration By Jerónimo de Sousa, General Secretary of Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) The today’s General Strike was a great general strike, a powerful demonstration by the Portuguese workers and people of discontent, protest and demand for change. Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/international-conference-in-solidarity-with-palestine.-1357.html Speech by the General Secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions, George Mavrikos 22 March 2012 Ramallah, Palestine Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/communist-forum/arguments-over-climate-change-1359.html An Australian Communist viewpoint on climate change. It is sometimes tempting to tag our opponents as climate deniers or climate change skeptics , simply because they often deny the evidence of their own senses, and what is happening all around them. Their views, ignorant and dogmatic as they usually are, tend to operate in a cynical and toxic way to undermine action around stopping carbon pollution, or pursuing renewable alternatives. Often, they are merely vehicles of a vested capitalist interest, defending the comfortable exploitation and profit-taking of the past. Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/the-roads-leading-to-disaster-1350.html This Reflection could be written today, tomorrow or any other day without the risk of being mistaken.  Our species faces new problems.  When 20 years ago I stated at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro that a species was in danger of extinction, I had fewer reasons than today for warning about a danger that I was seeing perhaps 100 years away.  At that time, a handful of leaders of the most powerful countries were in charge of the world.  They applauded my words as a matter of mere courtesy and placidly continued to dig for the burial of our species. It seemed that on our planet, common sense and order reigned.  For a while economic development, backed by technology and science appeared to be the Alpha and Omega of human society. Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/mlt-denounces-state-department-restrictions-on-cuban-diplomat-travel-1345.html Statement by the editorial boad of Marxism-Leninism Today (MLToday.com) on the US State Department's denial of permission for Cuban diplomats to travel to New York City for the Left Forum, March 16-18, 2012. The Editorial Board of MLToday.com strongly protests the State Department’s refusal to grant  two Cuban diplomats in Washington, DC permission to travel to New York City to participate in the Left Forum the weekend of March 16-18. Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/why-labors-rank-and-file-wont-campaign-for-obama-1344.html A surreal fog hangs over U.S. labor unions' enthusiastic endorsement of Barack Obama. When AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka announced the labor federation's recent endorsement, the exaggerated pro-Obama comments likely surprised union members everywhere. Has President Trumka paid any attention to the labor policies of President Obama? Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/gloria-cuartas-talks-about-the-case-of-david-rabelo-crespo-1376.html Gloria Cuartas is a social worker and human rights defender. She was mayor of Apartado, Colombia where she had to face serious problems of violence. She has received international awards for peace. She was also Senator of the Republic and, most recently, in the capital city, Bogota, she was director of public participation in jury trials. Mrs. Cuartas testifies about the struggle of David Rabelo Crespo as a defender of human rights in Medio Magdalena, Colombia. Watch the video in Spanish here. (http://davidravelolibre.org/Gloria-Cuartas-habla-sobre-el-caso) March 14, 2012. Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/the-selective-compassion-of-the-media-and-human-rights-establishmen-1354.html Last week, there were marches throughout the streets of 20 different cities in demonstrations by citizens calling themselves, “Victims of State Crimes.”  And indeed, these crimes have been considerable, involving murder, kidnapping and forced displacement of civilians from their homes, their land and their town.   This violence has been so bad that the country now has the largest internally displaced population in the world at over 5 million and counting.  And, those that resist this violence are murdered, including the 49 human rights activists killed just last year.  Meanwhile, in the capital city, demonstrations were held on International Women’s Day in support of women who have increasingly been victims of acid attacks, permanently disfiguring them and causing a life-time of psychological pain. Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/struggles-for-equality/capitalism-and-discrimination-1355.html Discrimination usually signifies a process selecting people for bleak lives. For African Americans, racial prejudice has accounted for political repression, ill health, early death, educational failure, and bad or no jobs.  The role of class-based discrimination is generally discounted. To focus on race prejudice is convenient and easy. One gets credit for acknowledging a grim history and civil rights victories. Not much heavy lifting is required because policies materialized aimed at ridding corporate, academic and governmental entities of exclusion. Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/struggles-for-equality/on-international-women-s-day-8th-march-2012-1342.html The massive bloody strike on March 8, 1857 of women workers in the textile industries of New York who,  demanding the reduction of the work hours to 10 hours a day, equal pay for men and women and healthy and safe conditions in the work places, were brutally attacked by the government and the employers, inspired the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1910 – held at the initiative of the great German Communist Clara Zetkin - to call for the celebration of the 8th March as the International Day of Women. Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:45:46 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/the-battle-for-china-s-future-1343.html Suppose your favorite basketball team leads by twenty points at half-time, with more rebounds and steals and far fewer turnovers than its opponent. The athletic director rushes into the locker room and announces to the coach and players that unless they radically change the game plan, they will suffer a devastating defeat. Your first thought would likely be that the athletic director has taken leave of his senses. Or that he or she has been bought off by the rival. Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/u.s.-does-dirt-to-cuban-five-parolee-rene-gonzalez-1341.html The U. S. government continues its pattern of abusing the Cuban Five political prisoners. Authorities have been silent on Rene Gonzalez’ request that he be allowed to visit his sick brother in Cuba for two weeks. Gonzalez, who finished a 13 year jail term on October 7, 2011, is serving parole in Florida. Brother Roberto, a lawyer involved in Rene’s case, is terminally ill with not long to live. Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/barack-obama-deals-crippling-blow-to-unions-black-economic-self-help-1333.html Black people love to talk about economic self-help, about what old Elijah Muhammad used to call doing for self. What we don't look at most of the time, is what collective economic self-help actually looks like in the real world. Mostly, it does not look like individual entrepreneurship, everybody starting their own small business. Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:35:41 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/social-and-economic-conditions/free-market-health-care-true-stories-1331.html I recently wrote an article about my personal experiences in dealing with the medical system while undergoing surgery ( Free Market Medicine: A Personal Account ). In response, a number of readers sent me accounts of their own experiences trying to get well in America. Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/action-week-with-greek-steelworkers-march-9-to-14-1336.html From the Trade Union International of Metal and Mining (TUI-M) and from the European Regional Office of the World Federation of Trade Unions, we call on all the workers of metal, mining and other sectors to organise different mobilizations in solidarity with the Greek steel workers of Helleniki Halivourgia.
 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/usaid-contractor-engaged-in-anti-cuba-espionage-1339.html While the North American media continues to call the imprisonment of Alan Gross “proof of Cuba’s human rights violations,” the truth is beginning to break into the news.  In March 2011, Gross was sentenced to 15 years for seeking to “undermine the integrity and independence” of Cuba. Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/war-with-iran-will-they-or-wont-they-1332.html What's the Obama Administration's latest position on the possibility of an attack on Iran? It seems to be in flux. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says there is a strong possibility that Israel will attack Iran in either April, May, or June, according to the Washington Post earlier this month. The purpose would be to destroy Iran's alleged building of a nuclear weapon. Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/books-arts-and-literature/review-arguments-for-socialism-1328.html Arguments for Socialism by Paul Cockshott and David Zachariah. Amazon Kindle E-Book, 2011, $3. Paul Cockshott's new E-Book, Arguments for Socialism, is a collection of his articles written since the collapse of the Soviet Union, along with a number of contributions from David Zachariah. The articles fall broadly into three main categories: 1) those which argue for the development of Marxism, and more specifically Marxist economics, as an objective and empirically falsifiable scientific theory through the application of methods developed in the natural sciences; 2) articles dealing with imperialism, nationalism and democracy; and 3) the explanation and application of the approach to planned economy that Cockshott developed in his previous work Towards a New Socialism. In the first set of articles, Cockshott is concerned to rescue Marxism from a creeping idealism and return it to the path of scientific socialism. In 21st Century Marxism, Cockshott puts forward his program. To succeed in its fight for socialism the working class must develop and extend its own Marxist political economy. This must draw upon the theoretical contributions of Soviet planners and should not hesitate to use the advances in other sciences – statistical mechanics, information theory, computability theory to both better model the capitalist economy and provide an enriched theoretical framework for the building of a planned economy. Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/stern-advice-to-the-left-from-the-house-of-lords-1327.html A sense of humor is essential to balance the humbuggery of much of the political commentary that surfaces today. Astonishment is the best word for a recent provocative discussion (Say No to Protectionism) posted on the Political Affairs website and authored by Peter Mandelson— Lord Mandelson to his UK peers. In the past, Political Affairs was the source of timely, informative articles that expressed the views of advocates of the Marxist-Leninist perspective, authors like Jacques Duclos, Palmiro Togliatti, William Z. Foster, Henry Winston, Herbert Aptheker, Paul Robeson, and many other committed Communists. But today Political Affairs embraces a far wider spectrum of opinion including now, for undoubtedly the first time, a lord from the prestigious UK House of Lords, Lord Peter Mandelson. Unlike Foster, Winston, and Robeson, Mandelson has established his credentials by championing the third way , a position to the right of traditional social democratic doctrine. Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/syria-rogue-elements-rampant-1330.html Smelt any proverbial rats, lately? If not, you have not been paying attention, there are plenty about. Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/what-should-organized-labor-expect-if-obama-wins-the-presidency-in-2012-1334.html If President Obama, as predicted, wins his election for a second term as President of the United States, he will be less beholden to American labor for his victory than for his first election in 2008. In 2008, he hungered for the financial support and army of volunteers that the unions freely gave him. He desperately needed unions to help him carry the key industrial states that assured his election as president. Sat, 25 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/multiplicity-of-aspects-and-the-unity-of-truth-hans-heinz-holz-in-2007-2011-1346.html Prepared speech at the event The Unity of Politics and Philosophy in the Struggle for Communism, February 25, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. Exactly five years ago, here in Berlin, we celebrated the 80th birthday of the Marxist philosopher Hans Heinz Holz at the symposium Passion for Contradiction in the historic site for philosophy, Humboldt University. It was with satisfaction that Holz, then 80 years old, looked back on a long life's work. He was an elected member of the World Academy of Letters. He was an honorary director of the Biographical Center in Cambridge, England. He was honorary president of the International Society for Dialectical Philosophy. He was a fellow of the Leibniz Society. Sat, 25 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/human-rights-warriors-for-empire-1337.html The largest imperial offensive since the Iraq invasion of March, 2003, is in full swing, under the banner of “humanitarian” intervention – Barack Obama’s fiendishly clever upgrade of George Bush’s “dumb” wars. Having failed to obtain a Libyan-style United Nations Security Council fig leaf for a “humanitarian” military strike against Syria, the United States shifts effortlessly to a global campaign “outside the U.N. system” to expand its NATO/Persian Gulf royalty/Jihadi coalition. Next stop: Tunisia, where Washington’s allies will assemble on February 24 to sharpen their knives as “Friends of Syria.” The U.S. State Department has mobilized to shape the “Friends” membership and their “mandate” – which is warlord-speak for refining an ad hoc alliance for the piratical assault on Syria’s sovereignty. Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/national-liberation/in-venezuela-an-unfair-vote-or-democracy-for-the-many-1340.html Vladimir Lenin used to say that there’s no all-inclusive democracy that serves all people and all classes equally. Democracy is a class affair, serving whichever class has state power. Talking of democracy in the abstract, of pure democracy, or democracy above class, is a mistake. Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/social-and-economic-conditions/myths-about-the-crisis.-response-of-kke-and-the-class-oriented-labor-movement.-1335.html A life of hell for the working class, for all the people who hardship is being prepared by the black front consisting of the Coalition Government and the Troika (European Union, International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank) and the Greek plutocracy. Their agreement on the measures which have been announced is only the precursor for infinitely worse measures, which they will bring with their new agreement by June 2012. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/syria-s-uprising-in-context-1323.html Since the beginning of the unrest in Syria, “the government has said that while some protesters have legitimate grievances, the uprising is driven by militant Islamists with foreign backing.” [1] This hardly squares with the view of Western state officials and media commentators who say that an authoritarian regime is killing its people and violently suppressing a largely peaceful movement for democracy. Who’s right? Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/the-blockade-of-cuba-fifty-years-on-1320.html HAVANA TIMES, Feb 8 — Johana Tablada, the deputy director of the North American Division of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, granted us an interview to discuss the US economic embargo against Cuba, which has just marked its 50th year of remaining in place under ten US presidents. Q: One of the arguments given by the proponents of the embargo is that it's an excuse used by the Cuban government to explain all of its own mistakes. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/colombia-coal-and-murder-1310.html A Mystery That Continues to Confound, But Also To Instruct My family and I have recently taken to watching re-runs of the X-Files.   As the reader might recall, this was a show which revolved around two independent-minded and quite earnest FBI agents who are engaged in an incessant search for the truth — “The Truth is Out There” being the subtitle of the show.  And, the quest of these two agents is forever stymied by dark, shadowy government figures from some unknown government agency who are conspiring to cover up the truth.   By the end of each episode, our loveable agents find themselves incarcerated, near-death, lost, out of their minds, or all of the above as retribution for their quest for truth. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/alba-summit-approves-declaration-on-puerto-rican-indedependence-1321.html Heads of state from the Bolivarian Alliance for the People’s of Our America (ALBA, in Spanish) approved on Sunday a special declaration regarding the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and full independence at the second session of the XI ALBA summit. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/no-war-no-sanctions-on-iran-1314.html No War, No Sanctions On Iran! Clear the Middle East of All Nuclear Weapons! As the drums of a military strike against Iran are getting louder and louder, the leaders of the United States and Israel, in a good-cop/bad-cop style of approach, are trying to present the U.S. and Israeli public opinion with an apparently “inevitable” — but certainly false — choice. While the “bad-cop” Israel is threatening Iran with an immanent Bush-style “preemptive strike,” the Obama Administration, trying to look like a “good-cop,” is pretending to be “opposed” to such a unilateral military action on the part of Israel, while forcing other governments into taking part in the imposition of devastating economic sanctions on Iran and its people. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/where-next-for-cuba-1319.html Recent changes to Cuba’s economy have raised many questions. Some see them as a move towards capitalism and as a recognition of the failure of socialism. But what is the truth? On a recent visit to the island as part of a Morning Star/Cuba Solidarity Campaign media group, we were able to get a clearer idea of what is going on. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/raul-castro-at-alba-summit-1322.html Comments by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, President of the Councils of State and Ministers during 11th ALBA-TCP Summit of Heads of State, Venezuela, February 5, 2012. Year 54 of the Revolution. Now, of all the issues in our five meetings, in our humble opinion, the principal issue is that of the Economic Complementarity Council. Everything else depends on the success we have economically. Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/bringing-war-to-our-doorstep-1367.html CP Australia Statement: Bringing war to our doorstep: the US pivots to Asia, Pacific and Indian Ocean The United States is a Pacific power, and we are here to stay, said US President Obama during his visit to Australia late last year as he announced the stationing of 2,500 US Marines in Darwin, more visits by US ships and aircraft to Australia, greater US access to Australian military bases, more joint military exercises, and storage of more US military equipment in Australia. Then on January 5 at the Pentagon, President Obama formally announced a new US policy which will bring war to Australia's doorstep. Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/struggles-for-equality/why-record-black-male-unemployment-remains-invisible-to-the-first-black-president-1309.html It's not complicated. In the Obama White House, like everyplace else, crucial tasks get accomplished, less important ones put off, and the least meaningful ignored altogether. Take the State of the Union address, typically a grab bag affair with a little something for everybody that matters. Whether you're a a dependable friend or a despicable enemy, or if your cause is just worth a prevaricating presidential applause line, you'll get it. If the president judges you worth patting on the head, pointing to as an example, or lying to or about, it will happen then and there. And if you're not mentioned at all, anyplace from the beginning to the end, well, you just don't matter much. Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/opportunism-reformism-revisionism/stiglitz-an-ideologist-of-capitalism-1312.html Translated Avante! article by Albano Nunes, Member of the Secretariat of the CC, Portuguese CP. Capitalism has assumed different forms of existence in time and space. Its ideologists have never spoken with one voice.  And if there exist times of great unanimity and “unique thought,” [Editor: the notion that there is no alternative to neoliberalism]  as happened during the years of the triumphal celebration of socialism’s tragic defeats, there are also other times in which capitalist crisis and the class struggle breed real disagreements in the dominant class, namely between the two great historical currents which support it, the “liberal/conservative” and the “social-democrat/Keynesian.” Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/attack-on-iran-criminal-stupidity-1338.html US and Israeli leaders are talking themselves into a disastrous conflict that will make Iranian nuclear weapons a certainty After a decade of calamitous western wars in the wider Middle East, the signs are becoming ever more ominous that we’re heading for another. And, hard as it is to credit, the same discredited arguments used to justify the disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan – from weapons of mass destruction to sponsorship of terrorism and fundamentalist fanatics – are now being used to make the case for an attack on Iran. Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/books-arts-and-literature/joseph-balls-the-need-for-planning-1326.html Many readers of mltoday.com will be interested in an article by Joseph Ball, “The Need for Planning: The Restoration of Capitalism in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and the Decline of the Soviet Economy” that is available on-line at <<http://clogic.eserver.org/2010/2010.html>>. The article’s title may be off-putting to those who do not accept the ideas that capitalism was restored in the Soviet Union in the 1950s or that the Soviet economy declined thereafter. Whether the Soviet Union became capitalist at this time is a matter of definition. Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/houston-activists-support-steelworkers-in-greece-1324.html HOUSTON, Texas – On January 30, 2012, activists and members of the Houston Peace Council converged on the Greek Consulate located at 520 Post Oak Blvd. in an effort to support Steelworkers at the “Helleniki Halivourgia.” The action was peaceful, orderly and disciplined. The purpose of the action was to support steelworkers who have been on strike since October 31, 2011 and have been met with very harsh, anti-labor tactics employed by the companies for which they work. Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/an-exchange-on-the-solidarity-center-1313.html Cannibalism on the Left At a time when economic inequality has reached record levels and unions face existential threats, you would think the Labor movement would refrain from eating its own, but no. In a recent article in the online newsletter Counterpunch, long time unionist Alberto Ruiz attacks the AFL-CIO sponsored Solidarity Center, whose mission is to strengthen unions in countries like Colombia, as an imperialist organization. Pointing to a half dozen WikiLeaks cables that document meetings at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Ruiz claims that Solidarity Center staff are working to undermine the very unions they are supposed to support. After reading the WikiLeaks cables, a very different picture emerges. The reality is that Solidarity Center staff meet with Embassy officials in order to draw U.S. government attention to the dangers facing unionists in Colombia. There have been 2,837 murders of union members since 1986. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/the-genius-of-chavez-1316.html President Chavez presented his annual report to the Venezuelan Parliament on activities carried out in 2011 and his program for 2012. After thoroughly carrying out the formalities required by this important activity, he addressed the official state authorities, members of parliament from all parties, and supporters and opposition members who had come to the Assembly to participate in the country’s most solemn act. Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/2102-a-new-year-of-tough-times-ahead-1315.html The new year has dawned upon a deeply troubled America. Times are not good in the best of all possible nation states, which has suddenly discovered that the seven-league boots with which it is accustomed to stride the globe have become ill-fitting and down at the heels. In recent years, particularly since the onset of the Great Recession, it has become clear to many Americans that their country is composed of two different societies with clashing interests — a very small minority in possession of great wealth and power, and everyone else, with some getting by and many falling by the wayside. Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/theater-of-the-absurd-1311.html Talented artists are gifted with the ability to take some commonplace belief or unquestioned assumption and reveal underlying nonsense. Still others craft inventive works that expose fatuity lurking behind pomposity and platitudes. But consider some of the events transpiring over the last few weeks. Reality is indeed stranger than fiction. These events rival any work of literature in illustrating hypocrisy and proud ignorance. And the real-life actors in this public theater know no shame or regret. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/social-and-economic-conditions/free-market-medicine-personal-account-1318.html When I recently went to Alta Bates hospital for surgery, I discovered that legal procedures take precedence over medical ones. I had to sign intimidating statements about financial counseling, indemnity, patient responsibilities, consent to treatment, use of electronic technologies, and the like. One of these documents committed me to the following: “The hospital pathologist is hereby authorized to use his/her discretion in disposing of any member, organ, or other tissue removed from my person during the procedure.” Any member? Any organ? Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/books-arts-and-literature/the-last-lincoln-veteran-1325.html During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), almost forty thousand men and women from fifty-two countries, including 2,800 Americans, traveled to Spain to join the International Brigades to help fight fascism.  The U.S. volunteers became known collectively as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The Last Lincoln Veteran   Video (5 min. 45 sec.) <<http://youtube/XBdYlvSQ2mA (http://youtu.be/XBdYlvSQ2mA) >> From the album, Big Red Sessions by David Rovics www.davidrovics.com January 23, 2012 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/no-war-on-iran-1298.html Below is a statement by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) on the assassination of Iranian scientists and the growing threat of war against Iran. Also, UNAC members participated in a national conference call on Tuesday with many other antiwar and Iranian groups.  The meeting called for demonstrations on February 4 to protest the threat of war against Iran. Please join us on February 4 and plan a protest in your local area. There is a Facebook event for February 4 here: http://www.facebook.com/events/214341975322807/ On the Assassination of Iranian Scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan  and the Growing Threat of War Against the Islamic Republic of Iran Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:20:50 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/electoral-politics/how-to-waste-your-vote-in-2012-1296.html It's true enough. Your vote really is your voice, and in the modern era, every government on earth claims to rule with the consent of the people. This bestows upon the vote a unique kind of legal and symbolic power. The gap, however, between this legal, this symbolic power of the vote and any real ability to change things for the better is a vast one. The authorities rightly fear the people's voice, and so have contrived law and custom to ensure that we are seldom heard and almost never heeded. Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/marxist-theory/carlos-lozano-explains-anti-communism-eng.-esp.-1300.html As pretext for war against leftist insurgents and repression of political opponents, the Colombian government conjures up terrorist enemies. That's of a piece with U. S. reasoning to justify both its own global war making and military support and funds for Colombia's iron fist. The two governments are together in serving business and financial interests. To be sure, U.S. apologists for assistance to Colombia also raise the specter of narco-terrorism. That's a hot potato for a Colombian government tied to rightwing paramilitaries who work for narco-terrorists. Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/books-arts-and-literature/post-modern-imperialism-1297.html I confess that I cringe when I see the word “post-modern.” This word has obscured more discussions, confused more gullible readers, and conned more writers than any word since “existential” and its “-ism.” For the most part, it has served as a kind of fashionable linguistic operator that signals something radical and profound will follow. Almost always, what follows disappoints. Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/struggles-for-equality/mlks-message-and-todays-struggles-1308.html Anthony Monteiro speaking before 500 labor, community and Occupy activists at Philadelphia's Martin Luther King Jr rally at AFSCME DC33. Organized by the Occupy Philly Labor Working Group, the rally followed a short march from the 30th Street Train Station, where TWU spoke, with a stop at the Post office, where the APWU spoke out against USPS cuts. Anthony Monteiro's speech: MLK's Message and Today's Struggles (http://youtu.be/iYatWZJDLyk). January 16, 2012 Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/socialism-today/how-to-think-about-socialism-in-korea-1302.html At the end of 2011 the Irish and international media had a feeding frenzy about the death of Kim Jong-il, head of state of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). His death once again presented an opportunity for them to indulge in wholesale anti-communism, equating all the problems, tensions and difficulties on the Korean peninsula with the nature of the political-social system in North Korea and, by extension, with all those who advocate a socialist alternative to moribund monopoly capitalism around the globe. Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/may-day-labor-trip-to-cuba-1304.html With U.S. Labor for Friendship with Cuba as a program consultant, Marazul Charters, Inc. is organizing a research delegation to Cuba for full-time trade unionists:  April 25-May 2, 2012. Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/world-peace-hanging-by-a-thread-1295.html Yesterday I had the satisfaction of having a pleasant conversation with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I had not seen him since 2006, more than five years ago, when he visited our country to participate in the 14th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement of Countries in Havana. During the summit, Cuba was elected for the second time as president of the organization for a three-year term. I had become gravely ill on July 26, 2006, a month and a half prior to the summit, and could barely sit up in bed. Many of the most distinguished leaders who participated in the event were kind enough to visit me. Chavez and Evo visited me several times. One afternoon four visitors came by whom I will always remember: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan; an old friend, Abdelaziz Buteflika, the president of Algeria; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran; and the vice minister of Foreign Affairs and current Foreign Minister of China, Yang Jiechi, on behalf of the leader of the Communist Party and the president of China, Hu Jintao. It was really an important time for me; I was in the midst of intense physiotherapy on my right hand that I had seriously injured when I fell in Santa Clara. Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/opportunism-reformism-revisionism/interest-in-communism-surges-where-is-the-cpusa-1299.html A  recent Rasmussen poll published on March 15, 2011 indicates that 11% of Americans favor communism over capitalism. Put that way, it may not sound like much, but if you look at the numbers it is significant in a country totally brainwashed by the capitalist controlled media. Based on a U.S. population estimate of 312,000,000 it means that roughly 34,320,000 people in the U.S. think that communism would be superior to capitalism. Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/books-arts-and-literature/working-class-1306.html Dick Gaughan is the famous Scottish guitarist, singer, songwriter, composer and record producer. Known and loved as a singer and writer of working class songs, there is no one better to take us through this topic than Gaughan whose web site is <<http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/>> The presentation was sponsored by the Morning Star, the only English-language socialist daily newspaper in the world,  as part of its Our Class, Our Culture series in Scotland. It was recorded March 1, 2011 in Augustine Church Centre, Edinburgh. Dick Gaughan - Song and the Working Class Movement  (http://scottishcommunists.org.uk/morning-star-videos/dick-gaughan-song-and-the-working-class-movement) (http://youtu.be/M6X1qPc0riE) Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/richard-ahearn-an-nlrb-director-and-a-tale-of-two-struggles-1305.html When EGT, an international corporate behemoth, threatened to break their union in Longview, Washington, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and their friends from the community organized a massive demonstration, sat down on the tracks and stopped a train.  They did it more than once.  The nation’s workers took heart at this bold action. Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/marxist-theory/parenti-pathology-of-wealth-1307.html Social critic and noted author Michael Parenti speaks about Democracy and the Pathology of Wealth. Parenti discusses developments in the U.S. political scene, the Occupy movement and the struggle against corporate capitalism. Michael Parenti is an internationally known award-winning author and lecturer. He is one of the nation’s leading progressive political analysts. His highly informative and entertaining books and talks have reached audiences in North America and abroad. Parenti’s writings cover: U.S. politics, culture, ideology, political economy, global imperialism, fascism, communism, democratic socialism, free-market orthodoxies, religion, ancient and modern history, news and entertainment media, environmentalism, sexism, racism, ethnicity, and his own early life. For more information visit his website <<http://michaelparenti.org>> M (http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/michael-parenti-democracy-and-the-pathology-of-wealth-2012/)ichael-Parenti-January-6-2012-Democracy and the Pathology of Wealth (http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/michael-parenti-democracy-and-the-pathology-of-wealth-2012/)   --  Video Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/wikileaks-revelations-the-afl-cio-and-colombia-1294-2.html Ernesto Guevara “feels that in social and political matters the role of Latin America has been one of neglect. As an example of this, he remarked on one occasion, ‘Five thousand workers are shot down in the Bolivian highlands, and maybe there is one line in the New York papers, which mentions that there is labor unrest in Bolivia.’  He wonders if the United States so-called international labor unions would take an interest in the South American worker and if it might help to raise the living standards of the Latin Americans to a level which might come closer to that of the North Americans.” –CIA biographical report on Che, 1958,  as reproduced in Who Killed Che?  How the CIA Got Away with Murder. Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/the-struggle-in-mexico-1301.html Interview with the Communist Youth League (Mexico) by the International Center of the Young Communist Movement of France, Seine-Maritime Federation, Rouen, France What is the political situation in Mexico right now? We think it is important to highlight that, in our country, the economic system that prevails is capitalism at a fully developed stage and in crisis, which seeks in every way to exploit and oppress the Mexican people at ever higher rates. Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/2011-2012-summing-up-taking-stock-1292-2.html People across the political spectrum share one thing: they sense that we are living at a critical moment in the history of capitalism. Where the last decade of the twentieth century brought a near-universal and smug celebration of capitalism’s success, the second decade of the twenty-first century finds uncertainty, doubts, and fears in every conversation about global capitalism. Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/social-and-economic-conditions/the-crisis-of-capitalism-and-the-revolutionary-perspective-in-hungary-1291-2.html The forces of capitalism both in Europe and Hungary make enormous efforts to hide the fact that contemporary capitalism is in a deep crisis. They cannot deny the existence of serious problems of capitalism, but they try to demonstrate that all problems can be solved in the frameworks of capitalism by capitalist reforms. But the truth is that the serious internal crisis of capitalism cannot be solved by traditional capitalist reforms. The revolutionary perspective of solving the problems of capitalism is becoming more and more real. Hungary is one the weakest elements of contemporary European capitalism.  Hungarian capitalism is in a deep crisis independently of the worldwide crisis. But it is being made even deeper by the general crisis of capitalism. The crisis is far from being solved, and nobody can foresee its consequences. Under these circumstances we should not only criticise the capitalist system but we should as well demonstrate to the people the real possibility of establishing a new world. We should demonstrate socialism as a real alternative to existing capitalism. It means that the communist movement in Hungary is entering a new situation which means new possibilities and new tasks. Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:50:27 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/socialism-what-unviability-are-we-talking-about-1285.html The website of Cuba's Temas magazine has a section titled Catalejo   (Telescope) that solicits commentaries in the form of short essays on a variety of topics. Many of these commentaries respond to longer articles in the magazine itself, and some have sparked debate among contributors.  One of these debates has been initiated by Carmelo Mesa-Lago and Jose Luis Rodriguez. Mesa-Lago is a Cuban-born US economics professor who has written extensively on Cuba. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics and Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Jose Luis Rodriguez was Cuba's Minister of Economy and Planning from 1998-2009. An economist, he is now a consultant at Cuba's Centre for Research on the World Economy (CIEM). Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/marxist-theory/climate-change-and-class-1293.html It’s “the most urgent fight of our lives. It is our last chance,” says NASA space scientist James Hanson. He warns of “runaway greenhouse effect that would destroy all life on the planet,” adding that “The biggest obstacle to solving global warming is the role of money in politics.”  (“Storms of my Grandchildren,” Bloomsbury, 2009) Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/why-the-u.s.-media-turned-on-the-arab-league-this-time-1303.html Once again, we see the frightening collusion of the U.S. imperial government with its British war partner, but this time not in Iraq, but in Syria. Immediately upon the arrival of the UN-sponsored Arab League Delegation (AL) into the Syrian capital and cities, the American media antagonists wasted not a second in discounting the AL's initial reporting, fearful that the 150 plus observers in the delegation weren't going the way of their interventionist plans, and not siding with the opposition's claims, coming primarily from the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Anderson Cooper, the CNN poster boy popularized by the corporate media as going beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind , (amazingly covering events in Haiti, Libya, Somalia, the Sudan, etc.) all reinforcing the dominant White House/British/French narrative, is now busy promoting the opposition in Syria. Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/electoral-politics/the-wasteland-of-democratic-party-politics-1282-2.html There is no drama in the Democratic Party, this election year. The Democratic domain is a dead zone that has had all the oxygen sucked out of it by Obamaism. Of course, Obamaism is simply Clintonism with a darker face. Bill Clinton was the first Democratic Leadership Council President. Al Gore would have been the second, if George Bush had not stolen the 2000 election through massive disenfranchisement of Black voters in the Sunshine State. Gore did not see fit to contest the election based on the theft of hundreds of thousands of Black Florida votes. Instead, he hitched his fortunes to hanging chads and a Republican-dominated U.S. Supreme Court. Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/basic-questions-castro-speech-to-cuban-national-assembly-1283.html Cuban President Raul Castro at the closing session of the Cuban National Assembly Comrades: The 8th ordinary session of the National Assembly of People’s Power which ends today has approved the economic plan and the Budget Law for the year 2012. At the same time, deputies received abundant information on the progress made in the implementation of the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the [Communist] Party and the Revolution approved by the 6th Congress. The President of the Supreme People’s Court and the Attorney General of the Republic also reported to Parliament. Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/war-on-venezuela-washingtons-false-accusations-against-the-chavez-government-1288.html Ever since the US-supported coup attempt against President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela failed in April 2002, Washington has been pursuing a variety of strategies to remove the overwhelmingly popular South American head of state from power. Multimillion-dollar funding to anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela through US government agencies, such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has increased exponentially over the past ten years, as has direct political support through advisors, strategists and consultants- all aiming to help an unpopular and outdated opposition rise to power. Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/korean-leaders-death-a-danger-for-north-korea-not-its-neighbors-1289.html There are a few facts to keep in mind to understand what’s going on in the wake of the death this week of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. #1. US foreign policy vis-a-vis North Korea has always sought to force the latter’s collapse to pave the way for its absorption into the US-dominated South [1] — and did so well before Pyongyang began to work on nuclear weapons. US hostility toward North Korea has never been about nuclear weapons. On the contrary, North Korea’s nuclear weapons are a consequence of US hostility. US hostility, now in its seventh decade, is about what it has always been about: putting an end to what Washington mistakenly calls North Korea’s Marxist-Leninist system (Marxism-Leninism has been replaced by Juche ideology—a home-grown doctrine of self-reliance), its non-market system, and its self-directed economic development [2]. None of these offer much latitude for US profit-making at North Korea’s expense, and hence are singled out for demolition. Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/must-we-adore-vaclav-havel-1280.html Editors' note: Vaclav Havel has died and the mainstream press is filled with adulatory obituaries. This is an evaluation of Havel by Michael Parenti written in 1997.  It might give readers a more substantive picture.  Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/social-and-economic-conditions/census-bureau-one-half-in-us-low-income-or-poor-1290.html Editor's note: The number -- 50 percent -- was so dramatic that even the corporate media were stunned Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans -- nearly 1 in 2 -- have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/in-memoriam-hans-heinz-holz-1279.html The philosopher Hans Heinz Holz died on December 11, 2011 at age 84 from long hard illness against which he literally fought to the end, doing scientific work with all his remaining strength. Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/the-chinese-puzzle-1276-2.html Whither China? was the name of a widely circulated pamphlet authored by the respected Anglo-Indian Marxist author, R. Palme Dutt. Written in 1966, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the throes of the Cultural Revolution, the pamphlet sought to shed light on the PRC's tortuous road from liberation in 1949 to a vast upheaval disrupting all aspects of Chinese society as well as its foreign relations. Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/communist-forum/final-statement-world-meeting-of-communist-parties-1278.html The 13th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties was held in Athens on 9-11 December 2011 with the theme: Socialism is the Future! The international situation and the experience of the Communists 20 years after the counterrevolution in the USSR. The tasks for the development of the class struggle in conditions of capitalist crisis, imperialist wars, of the current popular struggles and uprisings, for working class-popular rights, the strengthening of proletarian internationalism and the anti-imperialist front, for the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of socialism” Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/cuba-s-medical-internationalism-book-review-interview-with-cuban-doctor-1264-2.html Steve Brouwer’s remarkable book “Revolutionary Doctors” (Monthly Review Press, 2011) traces Cuban – Venezuelan collaboration in medical care and teaching.  That story, little known even to North American leftists, is of ideas and action converting health care into a driving force for international solidarity. Brouwer emphasizes that bi-national cooperation plays out within the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America, the solidarity alliance known as ALBA. Cuba has sent 15,000 physicians to Venezuela in exchange for reliable access to relatively cheap oil.  They’ve not only delivered health care to 80 percent of Venezuelans, most of them underserved, but also taught 30,000 Venezuelan young people who study in “medical schools without walls.” Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:24:26 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/attitude-to-wftu-is-a-basic-criterion-for-communist-parties-1284.html Speech at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in Athens. Dear comrades, It is for the WFTU an important opportunity to greet the leaders of the Communist parties at a time when our trade union organization, during the last six years, is following a steady upward path, a path of strengthening its internationalist and class characteristics. In the last six years we succeeded in affiliating important trade unions to the WFTU adding 16 million new members; today our organized strength has 82 million members in 120 countries. In the six years we have built four new international sectoral trade organizations, in branches with strategic importance and we strengthened the voice of the WFTU in the four international organizations where we participate with permanent representatives in the UN in New York, in the International Labour Organization in Geneva, in FAO in Rome and in the UNESCO in Paris. Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/the-afl-cio-s-covert-ops-in-venezuela-1263.html In 2002, the AFL-CIO’s international arm known as the “Solidarity Center” was greatly embarrassed when it came to light that it had been supporting actors in Venezuela participated in the short-lived coup against President Hugo Chavez.  As a number of authors and publications noted at the time, the Solidarity Center, with money donated from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), gave support to the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (“CTV”) which in turn was instrumental in the coup against Chavez which, as the reader may call, involved the kidnapping of Hugo Chavez. Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/what-hama-says-about-syria-1269.html Hama, Syria, (Prensa Latina) The city of Hama visibly reflects what 
 Syria is going through today. Syria is a country now submitted to an 
 intense political attack, a terrorist violence imposed and fostered 
 from abroad, and a media campaign marked by distortion and false 
 statements about the reality.

 Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/communist-forum/germany-in-the-driving-seat-1272-2.html Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland The agreement reached at the EU summit meeting is a clear victory for Germany. The decision to hand over more powers in relation to budgetary priorities and on greater supervision will further undermine the sovereignty of this state and the ability of the Irish people to effect change or to reverse the policies being imposed by the external EU-ECB-IMF troika in alliance with the internal troika of Fine Gael, the Labour Party, and Fianna Fáil.       Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/free-the-five-final-declaration-of-the-vii-colloquium-1277-2.html Final Declaration of the VII Colloquium in Holguin, 2011       For the seventh time, friends in solidarity from all around the world are meeting at the Holguín Colloquium to discuss experiences and the work to come,  in this tough battle for truth, justice and the release of the Five. Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/opportunism-reformism-revisionism/struggle-for-the-overthrow-of-capitalism-and-not-for-its-whitewashing-1265-2.html To the CP of Spain and the “United Left” Comrades, We read your letter which you had already published and in which you wonder on what the assessment of the article of our newspaper “Rizospastis”, which was published in the edition of 22nd November, is based on. The article reported in relation to the recent elections in Spain: “the United Left trapped voters in illusions for a “better management” of the capitalist system.” Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/books-arts-and-literature/rejoinder-to-roger-keeran-1262.html Let me begin by acknowledging the positive. Keeran correctly identified one error in my book. On page 30 I wrote:           Stalin did refer to Trotskyites in very hostile terms. But he did not advocate persecuting them [i.e. Trotskyites]. As Keeran notes, this is wrong. I should have written:           Stalin did refer to Trotskyites in very hostile terms. But he did not advocate persecuting former Trotskyites. I’m grateful to Keeran for noting this error. Unfortunately, it is the sole valid criticism in his long review. Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/struggles-for-equality/black-america-at-the-bottom-1268-2.html The nation’s economic news is grim indeed, and is the grimmest of all for black Americans. Recently released census data shows that while the median yearly income in this country is $50,000, it is only $32,000 for black people [4], the lowest of any other racial group in the country. Hispanics had a median income of $37,000, whites $49,000 and Asians $64,000. Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/annals-of-u.s.-imperialism-africa-update-1266.html U.S. military outreach to odd corners of the world coincides with hits to the military budget. President Obama announced recently that 2500 U.S. marines were heading for Darwin, Australia. And in a development barely touched upon in the mainstream media, U.S. military activities have accelerated in Africa. Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/books-arts-and-literature/j.-edgar-and-the-terrorism-of-film-1287.html J. Edgar, the new film by Clint Eastwood, is a real horror film, it is an act of violence, an act of terrorism. The film's careful construction of FBI founding father J. Edgar Hoover as a flawed but justifiable hero rather than an individual villain performing the tasks of a villainous institution has hit theaters with the precision timing of a predator drone strike and with similar political design. As old antagonisms produce new and threatening responses, as new generations emerge taking their turn asking serious questions about the planet, equality, justice and self-determination, be they occupiers or decolonizers, Hoover returns even in death to remind the liberal, the affluent, the White that their place atop the social pyramid is legitimate and must be protected by any means necessary. And no matter what they say they love him for it. Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/trade-unions-and-climate-change-1271-2.html Dear comrades of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) It is a great honor and joy for WFTU being here today with our comrades from South Africa and representatives of the international trade union scene. Our joy is even greater because we participate in an initiative of NUMSA which is a historic, militant, class-oriented organization. We salute the struggles of NUMSA, which are important not only for the workers of the metalworking sector in your country but also from the wider region. NUMSA is one of the three organizations that are members of WFTU in South Africa. This year, WFTU celebrated 66 years of class struggle for the interests of the working class worldwide. Another historic event that took place in Athens, Greece this year was the 16th World Trade Union Congress in which more than 828 trade unionists from 101 countries of the world participated. Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/palestine/netanyahu-shattering-the-myth-of-israeli-democracy-1270-2.html A proposed Israeli law threatens groups promoting the equal rights of Palestinians in Israel.  Nazareth -  As protests raged again across the Middle East, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, offered his assessment of the Arab uprisings last week. It was, he said, an “Islamic, anti-western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli, undemocratic wave,” adding that Israel’s Arab neighbors were “moving not forwards, but backwards.” It takes some chutzpah — or, at least, epic self-delusion — for Israel’s prime minister to be lecturing the Arab world on liberalism and democracy at this moment. Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/a-euro-germanic-chauvinism-1286.html Portugal has borne the full brunt of the EU austerity machine. Workers fought back in 2011 with a series of general and sectoral mass strikes. Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/strikers-show-the-tories-whos-boss-2-million-out-to-save-their-pensions-1273.html Tory attempts to belittle public-sector industrial action rang pathetically hollow today as millions of workers joined the fight against government-imposed pension cuts. Services across England, Scotland and Wales ground to a halt in the strongest show of union strength in a generation. Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/struggles-for-equality/as-public-sector-sheds-jobs-blacks-are-hit-hardest-1267.html Don Buckley lost his job driving a Chicago Transit Authority bus almost two years ago and has been looking for work ever since, even as other municipal bus drivers around the country are being laid off. At 34, Mr. Buckley, his two daughters and his fiancée have moved into the basement of his mother’s house. He has had to delay his marriage, and his entire savings, $27,000, is gone. “I was the kind of person who put away for a rainy day,” he said recently. “It’s flooding now.” Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/asia-pac-fic-the-usa-escalates-intervention-1275-2.html Amid deep economic stagnation and the context of systemic crisis,  North American imperialism insists on a  totally irrational global strategy and the growing use of military power. The USA has a heritage as an oppressor. It is a country with a public debt which already has reached beyond 15 trillion dollars and soon will reach 100% of its GDP. It does not conceal its anxiety in the face of the challenge of China, as a result of that country’s development. Since 2010 China is the second biggest economy in the world and its biggest  creditor. Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/communist-forum/general-strike-a-strong-blow-to-defeat-the-pact-of-aggression-and-to-save-the-country-1260-2.html Statement by Jeronimo de Sousa, General Secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) on the Portuguese general strike Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/books-arts-and-literature/khrushchev-lied-but-what-is-the-truth-1246.html Khrushchev Lied: The Evidence That Every 'Revelation' of Stalin's (and Beria's) 'Crimes' in Nikita Khrushchev's Infamous 'Secret Speech' to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956 is Provably False by Grover Furr. Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press and Media, 2011. $25.00. Pp. 425. In 1987 William Morrow and Company published a biography of a leading Soviet Communist, L. M. Kaganovich, written by Stuart Kahan, an American journalist and allegedly Kaganovich's nephew, who claimed to have interviewed Kaganovich in Yiddish in Moscow and who portrayed Kaganovich as the architect of Soviet terror.[1] In a blurb a Yale historian praised the book as an important contribution. Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/is-there-a-future-for-the-european-union-1251-2.html When the so-called “dismal science” – economics -- resorts to hollow metaphors like “contagion,” “belt-tightening,” “toxic,” or “tsunami” to describe economic facts and events, one might reasonably wonder if it represents dismay more than science. For sure, practitioners in this field eschew metaphors for technical jargon in their narrow academic studies that have earned many prizes and peer acclaim. But these studies have proven singularly unhelpful in explaining or resolving the four years of chaos that has befallen the global economy. Thus, it comes as a surprise that those who are paid handsomely to think for us are hailing the appointment of two professional economists to run Greece and Italy. Reflecting these changes, stock markets and other market indicators also reacted happily. Aside from the fact that -- over the course of a weekend -- the democratic content of two bourgeois democracies were exposed as shams, aside from the fact that the appointments were largely dictated by forces outside of the two countries, it is incomprehensible that two economists—one a former vice-president of the European Central Bank and the other a former European Union Commissioner – will do anything other than continue subservience to the neo-liberal agenda. In effect, Greece and Italy have been put into receivership by the European Union. Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/electoral-politics/barack-money-bags-obama-can-t-run-on-the-99-percent-ticket-1256.html The trick that President Obama must pull off this election year is to raise a cool one billion dollars, while pretending to run as a man of the people – of the 99 percent. Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/national-liberation/farc-leader-alfonso-cano-dies-in-combat-1250.html Guillermo León Sáenz Vargas, who was known as Alfonso Cano and who headed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), died November 4 in a Colombian military attack in southeastern Cauca department. Colombian intelligence services had used U.S. electronic surveillance tools and CIA assistance to track Cano’s movements. With helicopters and planes overhead, his detachment of 20 combatants came under fire from a force variously estimated at from 1000 to 4000 troops.  Some regard the operation as an execution.  Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/a-phone-call-from-fidel-1248.html On Sunday October 9, Juventud Rebelde published Strange Disconnection , a report by students from the Faculty of Journalism about the problems associated with the use of the new technologies in the universities. The last thing they imagined was that this would lead to one of the biggest surprises of their lives. Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/where-the-99-kicked-out-the-1-percent-1261.html From the remarks of Bill Preston, President AFGE Local 17,  at a November 18 panel sponsored by U.S. Labor for Friendship with Cuba and the Metro DC Coalition to Free the Cuban Five.  Cuba is a country where the 99% actually took over and kicked the 1% out of power. While we in the imperialist countries learn about current developments in Cuba's socialist economy, we cannot forget the internationalist duties of those of us who reside in the land of U.S. imperialism: Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/communist-forum/democracy-in-grave-danger-1252.html Who runs Ireland? The revelation that documents relating to the forthcoming budget were found today (17 November) in Berlin in the German Bundestag, with German politicians poring over their contents, while neither Dáil Éireann [Irish parliament in Dublin] nor, most importantly, the Irish  people have seen or read what is in store for them, is almost beyond belief. Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/declaration-of-the-striking-greek-steelworkers-1247-2.html Resolution of the General Assembly of the steelworkers of the “Helliniki Halivourgia” Industry Colleagues, hear the voice of the steelworkers! Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/social-and-economic-conditions/human-rights-record-of-united-states-in-2010-1249.html Editors' Note: Every year Washington prepares a series of reports on every other country on earth and what Washington thinks is wrong with the human rights situation everywhere else but in the United States of America. People's China, a perennial target of the the US propaganda campaign, which also targets Cuba and any other country whose political system fails to meet Washington's criteria, has prepared this valuable and detailed response. China's Information Office of the State Council, or cabinet, in April 2011 published a report entitled The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010.   Following is the full text: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/labor-movement/power-to-the-people-mavrikos-in-peru-1254.html A speech by George Mavrikos, General Secretary of the WFTU, to the international conference of CGTP Peru (General Confederation of Peruvian Workers) and the WFTU at the 13th Congress of CGTP Peru - Lima, November 16, 2011 It's a great honor and pleasure for the WFTU to be here today, together with various representatives of the international trade unions and trade unionists from Peru. We are particularly happy because we are celebrating a historic event, the 13th Congress of CGTP Peru, a militant, class-oriented, historic organization that has been a member of the WFTU for many years. The WFTU has led the class struggle for the interests of the working class all over the world for 66 years. Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/obama-ignores-global-warming-1253.html The Obama Administration has largely remained passive about the critical imperative to reduce greenhouse gases to limit catastrophic global warming. Washington continues to insist upon exercising world leadership in all key global endeavors, including the environment, but has failed dramatically in terms of climate change. In fact, the White House is greatly expanding U.S. access to fossil fuel energy sources even as scientific and environmental organizations are intensifying their warnings about the need to immediately reduce greenhouse gas carbon emissions that are warming the planet. Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/genocidal-cynicism-1257-2.html No sane person, especially someone who has had access to the elementary knowledge acquired in primary school, would agree that our species, especially those who are children, teenagers or youth, should be deprived of the right to live, today, tomorrow and forever.  Never have human beings, throughout their eventful history, as persons endowed with intelligence, ever heard of an experience like that.  I feel the duty to convey to those taking the trouble to read these Reflections the opinion that all of us, with no exception, are obliged to create awareness about the risks that humankind are running in an inexorable manner, towards a final and total catastrophe as the consequence of irresponsible decisions made by politicians who fate, rather than talent or merit, has placed the destiny of humankind in their hands.  Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/occupy-america-1245-2.html Beginning with Occupy Wall Street in September 2011, a protest movement spread across the United States to 70 major cities and hundreds of other communities. Similar actions emerged in scores of other nations. For the first two weeks, the corporate-owned mainstream media along with NPR did what they usually do with progressive protests: they ignored them. These were the same media that had given the Tea Party supporters saturation coverage for weeks on end, ordaining them “a major political force.” Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/wars-for-profits-a-no-nonsense-guide-to-why-the-us-seeks-to-make-iran-an-international-pariah-1255.html Flipping idly through my morning newspaper, my eyes fell upon a headline, which, given its significance, should have appeared on the front page, but instead was tucked away at the back, on page A9. “Israel won’t rule out attack on Iran”. (1) Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/books-arts-and-literature/occupy-wall-street-finds-a-troubador-1259.html I think this might be the most important email I've ever sent out. Your response to it may, I hope, not only help promote my music at a crucial time, but may have at least some small impact in helping to foster a growing and vital social movement. Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/marxist-theory/six-fundamental-features-of-a-communist-party-1243-2.html Editors' note:  Several months ago, MLT posted Hans-Peter Brenner's article from the German weekly, Junge Welt, Of Saviors and Liquidators: V. I. Lenin, Alvaro Cunhal, Sam Webb.   It cited portions of a 2001 article by Alvaro Cunhal, Six Fundamental Characteristics of a Communist Party. We are grateful to Marcel Hostettler, a Swiss reader, for pointing out that the full article is available in English at the PCP web site: http://www.pcp.pt/en/ six-fundamental-characteristics-communist-party -álvaro-cunhal.  Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/communist-forum/a-stronger-kke-means-hope-1240.html The crisis in Greece is intensifying. A large mass rally-demonstration was carried out by the KKE on Friday night, November 4,  in Syntagma [Constitution] Square in Athens. The rally took place a few hours before the vote of confidence in the PASOK [social reformist] government, which was achieved by it (with 153 votes out of the 300 MPs in Parliament) with the promise that from now on it will seek wider consensus with whatever other bourgeois parties desire consensus. The main speaker at the large rally of the KKE was Aleka Papariga, General Secretary of the Central Committee, who stressed, among other things: Sat, 05 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/where-does-occupy-wall-street-go-from-here-1234-2.html One of the most striking aspects of the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon is its failure to get any traction among the elite political strata, especially among elected officials with an eye on the upcoming elections. Sure, there have been numerous Democrats and even some Republicans who have, with an earnest, but patronizing tone, suggested that OWS is an understandable response to the pain inflicted by a sinking economy. But there has been no real attempt to harness the visible anger and outrage to the forthcoming political campaigns of 2012. Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/natos-genocidal-role-1235.html On March 9th this year, under the title of NATO War, Lies, and Business, I published a new Reflection about the role of that warlike organization. I am selecting some fundamental paragraphs from that Reflection: As some may be aware, in September of 1969, Muammar al-Gaddafi, an Arab Bedouin soldier of a peculiar character and inspired by the ideas of the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, promoted in the heart of the armed forces a movement overthrowing King Idris I of Libya, a country almost completely covered by desert and having very little population, located in northern Africa between Tunisia and Egypt. Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/western-mercenaries-and-corporations-pouring-into-libya-1241.html Western security firms – a polite term for mercenary outfits – are cramming planes into Libya to make the country safe for an invasion of western capitalists, the real beneficiaries of NATO’s war. Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/marxist-theory/social-democracy-soviet-socialism-and-the-bottom-99-percent-1237.html A measure of just how far to the right US electoral politics are is that the country doesn’t have a mainstream social democratic party. This absence prompted Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks to write It Didn’t Happen Here (1), the “it” being a social democratic party that could count on the ongoing support of a sizeable fraction of the working class population. By contrast, Western Europe and Canada have long had such parties, and social democratic parties have formed governments in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece and Canada as well as in Scandinavia and other places. Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/interview-with-author-of-state-of-siege-1242-2.html CSF [Cuba Si France, a solidarity group in France]: You've just published a new book under the title État de siège? What exactly do you cover in it? SL [Salim Lamrani, author]: As the book's subtitle suggests, it covers the unilateral economic sanctions that the United States first imposed upon Cuba at the height of the Cold War. The goal of these sanctions has been the overthrow of the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro, the social and economic reforms of which did not sit well with the Eisenhower administration of the period. More than a half century later the Soviet Union has disappeared and the Cold War is only a fading memory, still the United States persists in maintaining an economic state of siege that is suffocating for all levels of the Cuban population, although it  primarily effects the most vulnerable sectors: women, the elderly and children. Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/imperialism/obama-the-son-of-africa-claims-a-continent-s-crown-jewels-1236-2.html On 14 October, President Barack Obama announced he was sending United States special forces troops to Uganda to join the civil war there. In the next few months, US combat troops will be sent to South Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic. They will only engage for self-defence , says Obama, satirically. With Libya secured, an American invasion of the African continent is under way. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/cuba/message-to-fidel-raul-1238-2.html This is the message Cuban Five prisoner Rene Gonzalez sent to Fidel and Raul when he was released after spending 13 years in prison. It is followed, below, by his message to the Cuban people. Dear Comandante: First of all an embrace, my gratitude and appreciation not just for all of the support that you have invested in us, for the way in which you have mobilized an entire people and have mobilized international solidarity for our case, but – in the first place – for having served as an inspiration to us, for having been the example which we have followed during these 13 years, and for having been for us a flag behind which we were always going to march. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/opportunism-reformism-revisionism/international-criticism-of-webbs-a-party-of-socialism-for-the-2st-century-1232-2.html Editors' Note: at readers' requests, we are printing, in one place, four major international criticisms of the Sam Webb article. Greece Greek Communist Party (KKE) International Relations Section, Central Committee, Athens, April 13, 2011 

 To the members and cadre of the CPUSA, 
To the workers that struggle in the USA,
To the communist and workers parties, Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://mltoday.com/subject-areas/commentary/greece-a-victim-of-capitalism-eng.-esp.-1222.html Greece, cradle of slave-owning democracy, seems fated to be among the countries digging the upcoming grave of capitalist democracy. To understand what the future has in store for the people of Greece, you need to imagine an intruder breaking into your home, pointing a gun at your head and demanding you give him your salary, your savings, your car, your TV set and your refrigerator. That's how US writer and journalist Zoltan Zigedy sees the situation in his web site ZZ's Blog where, under the title Capitalism Mugs Greece. Who is Next?, he explains that the Greek people did not benefit at all from the orgiastic profits of international banking nor did it promote its irresponsible behavior, but now it is forced to pay the price for the damage which caused the collapse of the global capitalist system. Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0100