Joint Statement on Solidarity with the Palestinian People

The International Meeting on "The Palestinian Problem and the Solidarity of the Left to the Struggle of the Heroic People of Palestine" organised on 25-26 February, 2011, in Nicosia, Cyprus by AKEL, with the participation of the Communist and Left parties and liberation organizations listed below, condemns the continuous crimes committed against the Palestinian people, demands the immediate end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and calls for the recognition of the Palestinian state on the borders of June 4th 1967.

Talks between Palestine and Israel are in a complete deadlock due to the Israeli intransigent policy aiming to perpetuate the occupation and to destroy any possibility for the establishment of an independent, sovereign, viable Palestinian state. Israeli aggressive and intransigent policy has been tolerated and supported by the United States and by the complicity of EU and in particular by a number of EU member-states and institutions. The new NATO dogma, adopted in Lisbon, constitutes upgrading of the alliance of aggressiveness; hence it becomes even more dangerous for the peoples in the region and the world.

Forty four years after the occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, Israel, violating international law, pursues unabatedly its expansionist policies continuing the building of settlements, colonizing East Jerusalem and the West Bank, evicting Palestinians, demolishing Palestinian houses, stealing away the land, water and resources that belong to the Palestinian people. A policy reminiscent of ethnic cleansing. Almost seven years after the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice declared that the construction by Israel of the wall of shame to be contrary to International Law, Israel continues to fortify the wall tearing apart the Palestinian land and society, leaving the Palestinian towns and villages without land and water, dividing communities, separating the farmers from their land, the patients from the hospitals, and the schoolchildren from their schools. Two years after the Israeli war on Gaza in December 2008 that resulted in the death of over 1,350 citizens wounded thousands of innocent civilians including women, children and elderly, destroyed homes, properties and infrastructure that still lay in ruins, the humanitarian tragedy remains. The residents of Gaza are still deprived of the most basic goods and services. The Israeli attack on Gaza is in reality an aggression against the entire Palestinian people.

Almost five years after the siege of Gaza, and despite the slight slackening of it, more than one million Palestinians continue to live in conditions of an open air prison. The daily attacks by the Israeli occupation army against the unarmed Palestinian population defending its land and right to freedom and statehood cause daily victims that constitute a constant bleeding and war crimes mainly silenced by the international press.

In view of the above, the representatives of the participating Parties and Organisations consider that these policies and facts close all doors and opportunities in front of a just and comprehensive solution of the Palestinian problem and in the Middle East in general.

Based on the above, the signatories wish to declare the following:

(1) We reaffirm our support for and solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle to regain their legitimate and inalienable national rights, including the right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent and sovereign state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with Al-Quds (East Jerusalem) as its capital, as well as the right of return for all Palestinian refugees in accordance with U.N. Resolution 194;

(2) We demand the immediate end of the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian and Arab lands, including Syrian Golan heights and the remaining Lebanon Shebaa Farms, that are illegally under the control of Israel since 1967; we call the international community to proceed with the recognition of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with the implementation of UN resolutions;

(3) We condemn the racist character of the Zionist movement and its plans and atrocities against the Palestinian people and we express our full support to the right of the Palestinians in resistance against the occupation;

(4) We condemn the Israeli intransigent policy vis-à-vis the talks and continual creation of faits accomplis mainly through the settlement policy that resulted to a deadlock for which Israel is fully responsible;

(5) We condemn the support of imperialist forces towards Israel that encourages the continuation and escalation of its criminal policies. Using the veto right in the security council of the U.N by USA concerning the Israeli settlements, is a recent example of this support by imperialist forces to Israel; We also condemn the political forces that are keeping equal distances between the victim and the victimizer, by accepting or even supporting the aggressive policy of Israel.

(6) We demand the immediate full lifting of the siege of Gaza, the re-opening of borders, the opening of the Rafah crossing by Egypt and the rapid reconstruction of all that was damaged or destroyed by this unjustifiable aggression and hold Israel accountable for all the damages; the Goldstone report and recommendations that considers Israel responsible for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, must be implemented and Israel’s impunity should be stopped; the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem are part of the future Palestinian state and any division between them would render a Palestinian state non-viable and is unacceptable.

(7) We strongly condemn the perpetuated construction of the racist wall as well as of the colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank which violate all relevant UN resolutions and constitute a flagrant violation of International Law. We demand the immediate removal of the wall and all the settlements.

(8) We demand the immediate release from custody of all the freedom prisoners in Israeli detention, including women, children, elderly and elected representatives.

(9) We extend our solidarity to the forces in Israeli society resisting and denouncing the criminal Israeli policies against the Palestinians and against democracy

(10) We urge all sections of Palestinian national movement to advance the national dialog and to work seriously and in a responsible manner toward ending the internal split and re-establishing Palestinian national unity. This process should be aiming at strengthening the role of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the legitimate and sole recognized representative of the Palestinian people and also at reforming the role and status of the PLO, on democratic bases, with an open door to all those Palestinian forces or organizations desiring to join it. In this respect, we welcome the announcement of Presidential, legislative and local elections ahead of the possible declaration of Palestinian state

(11) We declare our decisiveness to be a vital part of the international campaign to support the goal of international recognition of the Palestinian state. In the above framework, until September 2011 we shall proceed with the following concrete initiatives:
(a) To carry out an international campaign for raising signatures of support to the aim of international recognition of the Palestinian state within the 1967 borders; (b) After coordination with the GUE-NGL group, to organize a meeting in the European Parliament in order to raise the issue of international recognition of the Palestinian state;
(c) To organize an international visit of solidarity to West Bank, in which the main goal will also be the effort for international recognition of the Palestinian state; (d) To undertake several other initiatives, on the national or regional levels, by individual parties within the above political framework.

1 Brazil Brazilian Communist Party

2 Brazil Communist Party of Brazil

3 Cyprus AKEL

4 Denmark Communist Party in Denmark

5 Denmark Red Green Alliance

6 Georgia Unified Communist Party of Georgia

7 Germany German Communist Party (DKP)

8 Greece Democratic Left

9 Greece Communist Party of Greece (KKE)

10 Hungary Hungarian Communist Workers' Party

11 India Communist Party

12 Iran Tudeh Party

13 Iraq Iraqi Communist Party

14 Ireland Communist Party of Ireland

15 Israel Communist Party of Israel

16 Italy Italian Communists

17 Luxemburg Communist Party of Luxemburg

18 Malta Communist Party of Malta

19 Mexico Mexican Communists

20 Morocco Party of Progress and Socialism

21 Netherlands New Communist Party of Netherlands

22 Pakistan Communist Party of Pakistan

23 Palestine Palestinian Peoples Party

24 Palestine Communist Party of Palestine

25 Russia Communist Party of the Russian Federation

26 Sudan Sudanese Communist Party

27 Sweden Communist Party of Sweden

28 Tunisia Ettajdid Movement

29 Turkey Turkish Communist Party

30 UK New Communist Party of Britain

Condemn the Armed Intervention in Libya!

Joint Statement of the New Communist Party of Britain and the
Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)

Our two parties call on the working class and people to condemn the British government as well as the governments of the US, France, Canada and other countries for the military attacks on Libya. The Members of Parliament who this week voted overwhelmingly in support of what amount to crimes against peace must also be condemned. These attacks, which have included bombardment from the air and sea using the military might of some of the most powerful armed forces in the world, are being carried out under a UN mandate and with the alleged aim of protecting civilians. However, it is clear to the whole world that they are a cynical attempt to bring about regime change, as part of an attempt to re-divide the natural resources of this country and gain strategic advantage in the region. The attacks have already led to many civilian deaths as well as the destruction of the resources and infrastructure of the Libyan people.

There can be no justification for such barbaric attacks, carried out on a daily basis with overwhelming force against a sovereign country. The fact that Anglo-American war chieftains have openly admitted that they are seeking regime change and the assassination of Colonel Gaddafi makes a mockery of any claim that armed aggression is being carried for humanitarian reasons. The UN Charter was originally conceived in order to prevent crimes against peace and provides no basis for foreign intervention carried out in order to support armed rebellions. The Anglo-US imperialists and the other big powers who shout the loudest about the rule of law and their “universal values” have once again shown that they adhere to no other principle but “might is right”. They put the defence of their own neo-liberal interests first, while international law and the UN itself can be manipulated or ignored as best suits their purposes.

The hypocrisy and deceit of the British government and its allies, broadcast through the monopoly-controlled media has now reached unprecedented levels. On the one hand, the government claims that it is the greatest champion of those protesting against reactionary regimes in North Africa and the Middle East and, on the other, claims that it has reacted in Libya because these same reactionary regimes organised in the League of Arab States have called on it to do so. Armed intervention in Libya is also in stark contrast to the complete disregard that the Anglo-Americans and their allies have shown for the civilian population of Palestine, who have been driven from their homeland or massacred on an almost daily basis for the over sixty years.

The military attack on Libya show that Britain and the other big powers will let no international norm stand in the way of intervening militarily in pursuit of their interests. It shows that the big powers are still intent on dominating world affairs and dictating matters in their interests, as well as contending to divide up the world’s resources between them. It is not for nothing that Cameron and Hague speak about the great opportunity presented by the recent uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East. In these circumstances, they seek to consolidate and strengthen their position throughout the region, impose political and economic arrangements that are to their liking and divert the aspirations and struggles of the people from threatening their interests. Justice-loving people can be under no illusion that Britain and the other big powers are supporters of the people’s empowerment and sovereignty.

The military attacks on Libya and the continued interference of the Britain and its allies throughout the region must cease. Now is the time to demand and organise for an anti-war government in Britain!

Hands Off Libya!

End All Use of Force and Armed Intervention!


26th March 2011

Twenty Years Ago...

...in the NEW WORKER


Workers from every British Aerospace factory in Britain joined together in a 3,000 strong march to Parliament on Wednesday, to lobby for jobs and against plant closure.
Just days before, BAe announced it will axe 4,700 jobs at seven plants, in addition to the 5,000 jobs that will go with the closure of Preston and Kingston.
Immediate demands at the lobby focussed on BAe, but with unemployment accelerating in every sector, they reflect the feelings of workers throughout the country.
The BAe workers fight has opened the way for the Labour and trade union movement to act now and stop the slaughter of British industry as a whole.
Alex Ferry, general secretary of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions demanded the Tory government take a political decision and intervene to save industry.
In the last 25 years the number of defence industry jobs has been halved to 620,000 even while arms spending rocketed.

A new movement against unemployment and poverty is sweeping eastern Germany.
Mass demonstrations, which began in Leipzig, are now being held throughout what was once the German Democratic Republic, organised by trade union officials and with the support of the opposition Social Democrats.
Social Democrat leader Hans-Jochen Vogel joined calls for Chancellor Kohl’s resignation at an 80,000 strong rally in Leipzig.
Demonstrations are now being held there every Monday. Anti-government protests have also taken place in Berlin, Dresden and Zwickau.
Leipzig had been the centre of the anti-communist movement which led the opposition which brought down the socialist government of Erich Honecker.
Now the city is on its last legs. The birthrate has dropped by 40 per cent and the number of marriages has slumped by over 60 per cent. Divorces are rocketing as are crime and political violence from Nazi skin-head gangs.

Joint statement against imperialist aggression in Libya

Joint Statement of Communist and Workers' Parties Against imperialist aggression in Libya
The imperialist killers headed by the USA, France, Britain and NATO as a whole and with the approval of the UN started a new imperialist war. This time in Libya.

Their allegedly humanitarian pretexts are completely misleading! They throw dust into peoples' eyes! Their real goals are the hydrocarbons in Libya.

We, the Communist and Workers' parties condemn the military imperialist intervention. The people of Libya must determine their future on their own, without foreign imperialist interventions.

We call on the peoples to react and demand the immediate cessation of the bombings and of the imperialist intervention!


1.Algerian Party For Democracy And Socialism, PADS
2.Communist Party of Armenia
3.Communist Party of Azerbaijan
4.Communist Party of Australia
5.Communist Party of Bangladesh
6.Workers’ Party of Bangladesh
7.Communist Party of Belarus
8.Workers’ Party of Belgium
9.Brazilian Communist Party
10.Communist Party of Brazil
11.Communist Party of Britain
12.New Communist Party of Britain
13.Party of the Bulgarian Communists
14.Communist Party of Canada
15.Communist Party of Chile
16.Socialist Worker`s Party of Croatia
17.Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
18.Communist Party of Denmark
19.Communist Party in Denmark
20.Communist Party of Estonia
21.Communist Party of Finland
22.Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party
23.Unified CP of Georgia
24.Communist Party of Greece
25.Communist Party of India
26.Communist Party of India [Marxist]
27.Tudeh Party of Iran
28.Communist Party of Ireland
29.Workers’ Party of Ireland
30.Party of the Italian Communists
31.Communist Party of Kazakhstan
32.Socialist Party of Latvia
33.Lebanese Communist Party
34.Communist Party of Luxembourg
35.Communist Party of Malta
36.Communist Party of Mexico
37.Popular Socialist Party of Mexico
38.New Communist Party of Netherlands
39.Communist Party of Norway
40.Communist Party of Pakistan
41.Communist Party of Poland
42.Portuguese Communist Party
43.Communist Party of Russian Federation
44.Communist Workers' Party of Russia – Revolutionary Party of Communists
45.UCP- CPSU
46.Communist Party of Soviet Union
47.New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
48.Party of the Communists of Serbia
49.Communist Party of Slovakia
50.Communist Party of Sri-Lanka
51.Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain
52.Syrian Communist Party
53.Communist Party of Sweden
54.Communist Party of Turkey
55.Labour Party (EMEP), Turkey
56.Communist Party of Ukraine
57.Union of Communists of Ukraine
58.Communist Party of Venezuela
Other Parties


1. Pôle de Renaissance Communiste en France

2. Galician People's Union

3. Communists-People's Left (Italy)

WFTU condemns attack on Libya

WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS

Athens, Greece 20/03/2011



PRESS RELEASE



''THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNION condemns the military aggression of the imperialists against Libya.
In the eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, the North Africa the dangerous developments, the conflicts and the competition between the various imperialist compounds are targeting the petroleum of Libya, the natural gas of the countries in North Africa and the control of strategic points rich in raw materials.
This competition leads to economic and spy wars or in warfare like nowadays in Libya.

The European Union, the USA, France, England and their allies argue that their attacking Libya to implement the decisions of the UN.
They are hypocrites and liars!
Why are they not doing the same for the resolution about the Cyprus issue? Why are they not doing the same to implement dozens of the UN resolutions for Palestine? Why are they not doing the same to implement the resolutions of the UN to stop the embargo against Cuba?
We demand the immediate ceasing of the military aggression against Libya. We express our internationalist solidarity to the people of Libya.






The Secretariat









40, ZAN MOREAS STREET, ATHENS 11745 GREECE
Tel. +302109214417, +302109236700, Fax +30210 9214517
www.wftucentral.org E-mails: info@wftucentral.org, international@wftucentral.org

Twenty Years Ago...

...in the New Worker



THE TORIES are in disarray after the people of this country have defeated the poll tax – the flagship of this Tory administration. But they have not abandoned their ambition to demolish local democracy.
As we go to press Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine is expected to announce the poll tax is to be scrapped and replaced with a property tax. But at the same time a whole tier of elected local government, the shire counties are expected to follow the Greater London Council into abolition.
The Government is expected to increase the financial incentives to schools to opt out of local authority control while squeezing funds to the local education authorities. In this way most of the funding – and control – of education will move from local to central government.
The Tories have hinted they will keep some form of minimal "head" tax.
The divisions within the Tory Party are still wide open. Former local government minister Rhodes Boyson believes the only objection to the poll tax is its size and thinks it should stay, with all education removed from local authority budgets.

************************

AMID mounting popular discontent the Kuwaiti government leadership resigned this week although real power remains in the hands of the Sabah family.
The return of the Emir and his entourage was greeted with a noted lack of enthusiasm from his subjects who still have no running water or electricity.
But Kuwaiti mechanics and the United States Army Corps of Engineers have been working 16-hours-a-day to restore his palace. Four hundred workers have installed hundreds of gold-plated French bath-room fixtures and door-knobs as well as power and running water to make the Emir feel at home.
A reign of terror is sweeping Kuwait with thousands of Palestinians and Kuwaitis being rounded up by the Emir's gunmen on charges of collaboration with Iraq.

Twenty Years Ago...

...in the New Worker


The Dalai Lama, former priest-king of feudal Tibet, is stepping up his campaign against Peking. And in his exile centre of Dharmsala, in India, he warned that unless Peking accepts his terms he will withdraw his offer to compromise.
In 1988, the Buddhist leader offered to accept Chinese control of Tibet’s foreign and defence policy in return for the restoration of his priestly autocracy in Tibet. The offer was ignored by Peking, which never recognised that Tibet has ever been sovereign, a position held by the former Kuomintang Government of Chiang Kai-Chek as well.
The restoration of his backward, feudal rule is out of the question as far as People’s China is concerned.
The Dalai Lama is in Britain this week to drum up support for his cause but Prime Minister John Major has rejected some Tory calls for a meeting as this would jeopardise relations with China.

Three quarters of all children with jobs are employed illegally according to a survey of 2,000 children by the Low Pay Unit and Birmingham City Council published last week.
About two million children work in their spare time, most of them illegally and some for as little as seven pence an hour.
Furthermore over 600,000 are likely to have had an accident at work.
The survey found that 43 per cent of children have a job other than baby-sitting, washing cars or running errands.
A quarter are under 13 and not supposed to work at all. Fewer than a tenth were registered as the law requires.
Many are employed in work prohibited to children, for example in pubs and on building sites.
One 11 year old worked cleaning a pub and off-licence for 55p a hour and a 12 year old boy worked 18 hours a week in a sweetshop for 44p an hour.

Twenty Years Ago...

...in the New Worker

If the Tories win the next general election they may implement a policy of pressurising nearly all of Britain’s schools to opt-out of local authority control within five years.
The confidential proposals are being considered for the Tory manifesto it was revealed last week.
They will give huge incentives to encourage schools to leave local authority control.
A member of the manifest working party said “The recommendation does not use the word compulsory but its effect will be the same.
“By the end of the next parliament the aim is to ensure there is hardly a school left under local authority control”.
A spokesman for the National Union of Teachers told the New Worker that already the Government is bringing enormous pressure on schools to opt-out.
The Government is severely restricting what local authorities can spend on schools while offering the schools the funding they desperately need if they will opt-out.

Reactionary politicians have formed a new centre party which will be ready to contest the Polish general elections set for this May.
Its programme will be based on Catholic social teaching and capitalism. The congress was welcomed by President Walesa and the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
The Catholic hierarchy made the ending of the country’s abortion laws a major issue in the forthcoming elections. A Bishop’s letter called for support of the abortion law reform bill which is now going through the country’s parliament.
It will provide for jail sentences of up to two years for doctors and accomplices who carry out abortions except in cases of pregnancies resulting from rape, incest or if an abortion is recommended on medical grounds.
The Bishops want to eliminate the exceptions. Under the former socialist government abortions were legal and according to recent opinion polls some 57 per cent want it to remain that way.