Solidarity with the Polish communists

RESOLUTION ON SOLIDARITY WITH THE CP OF POLAND

Communist and Workers’ Parties that participated in the International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties in Athens, denounce the escalation of the ongoing anticommunist campaign against the Communist Party of Poland carried out by the authorities of the country.

The anticommunist trial against the CP of Poland continues on December 7th. The Polish authorities, supported by the EU, continue for nearly 3 years the trial against cadres and members of the CP of Poland and the editorial committee of Brzask magazine, proceeding even with investigations in the houses of cadres of the Party. They are threatened with 2 years of imprisonment.

Following a request of the government, the working group of the Polish  Parliament suggested the change of the law in order to ban communist symbols, by despicably equalizing them with “fascist symbols”, falsifying the historical truth, offending the memory of the peoples. We highlight that the law in question was modified in 2009 as well, inserting a respective ban of the communist symbols, but because of the reactions it was cancelled in 2011 as it was regarded as unconstitutional.

This dangerous development takes place at the same time when the Constitutional Court of Poland (which is controlled by the Polish government) “is about to investigate” the issue of legality of the existence of the Communist Party of Poland, following a relative request of a specific reactionary organization.

This concerted operation by the Polish government and the EU shows their joint aim to set obstacles to the organized struggle of the communists and the people against capitalist barbarity.

Anticommunism and intimidation of the Polish communists will not pass.

Stop now all the persecutions and bans against the CP of Poland.

We call on to an International Day of Mobilisation and Solidarity with the Polish communists on December 3rd outside of the Polish embassies in our countries.

1.            Communist Party of Albania

2.            Algierian Party for Democracy and Socialism

3.            Communist Party of Argentina

4.            Communist Party of Australia

5.            Communist Party of Austria

6.            Democratic Progresive Tribune, Bahrain

7.            Communist Party of Bangladesh

8.            Communist Party of Belarus

9.            Communist Party of Belgium

10.         Communist Party of Bolivia

11.         Communist Party of Brazil

12.         Brazilian Communist Party

13.         Communist Party of Britain

14.         New Communist Party of Britain

15.         Communist Party of Bulgaria

16.         Party of the Bulgarian Communists

17.         Communist Party of Canada

18.         Socialist Workers' Party of Croatia

19.         Communist Party of Cuba

20.         Progressive Party of the Working People – AKEL, Cyprus

21.         Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia

22.         Communist Party in Denmark

23.         Force of the Revolution, Dominican Republic

24.         Communist Party of Ecuador

25.         Communist Party of Estonia

26.         Communist Party of Finland

27.         German Communist Party

28.         Communist Party of Greece

29.         Hungarian Workers' Party

30.         Communist Party of India

31.         Communist Party of India (Marxist)

32.         Tudeh Party of Iran

33.         Communist Party of Iraq

34.         Communist Party of Kurdistan – Iraq

35.         Communist Party of Ireland

36.         Workers Party of Ireland

37.         Communist Party of Israel

38.         Communist Party, Italy

39.         Italian Communist Party

40.         Jordanian Communist Party

41.         Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan

42.         Party of the Communists of Kyrgyzstan

43.         Lao's Peoples' Revolutionary Party

44.         Socialist Party of Latvia

45.         Lebanese Communist Party

46.         Socialist Party, Lithuania

47.         Communist Party of Luxemburg

48.         Communist Party of Macedonia

49.         Party of the Congress for the Independence of Madagascar

50.         Communist Party of Malta

51.         Communist Party of Mexico

52.         Nepal Communist Party

53.         New Communist Party of Netherlands

54.         Communist Party of Norway

55.         Palestinian Communist Party

56.         Palestinian Peoples' Party

57.         Communist Party of Pakistan

58.         Paraguayan Communist Party

59.         Portuguese Communist Party

60.         Romanian Socialist Party

61.         Communist Party of the Russian Federation

62.         Russian Communist Workers Party

63.         Communist Party of Soviet Union

64.         Communists of Serbia

65.         New Communist Party of Yugoslavia

66.         Communist Party of Slovakia

67.         South African Communist Party

68.         Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain

69.         Communist Party of Sri Lanka

70.         Sudanese Communist Party

71.         Communist Party of Swaziland

72.         Communist Party of Sweden

73.         Syrian Communist Party

74.         Communist Party of Turkey

75.         Labour Party (EMEP), Turkey

76.         Communist Party of Ukraine

77.         Union of Communists of Ukraine

78.         Communist Party USA

79.         Communist Party of Venezuela

A window to the Tudor world

 Review

by Ben Soton

Tombland, C J Sansome, Macmillan 2018, pp.864, £20

Readers in East Anglia may be familiar with Tombland as an area of central Norwich. But it is also the title of the seventh novel featuring the hunchbacked Tudor sleuth Matthew Shardlake.  Shardlake, a lawyer, is well connected and sees society from the top In previous novels he has met Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Cranmer, Catherine Parr and Henry VIII.

 Despite this he has a sympathy for the oppressed having used his legal skills in the Court of Requests to represent tenant farmers in disputes with land owners.

 Arguably there was more contact between the rich and the poor in Tudor times than today. Members of different social classes would rub shoulders whilst travelling as well as in inns and alehouses; and wealthy landowners would often have direct contact with their tenants.  The super-rich of today are more likely to travel by private jet and not even use our overcrowded rail system which few of us can afford and I doubt that the CEO of Amazon knows the names of any of his warehouse staff.   

Through Matthew the author shows the many sides of Tudor life.  On the one hand we are brought into the politics of the Tudor court; with its numerous factions vying for influence.  Whilst in his crime solving adventures, in a period three hundred years before the police force, we see the underside of Tudor England.  Sansome’s vivid descriptions bring the era to life, which is arcuately researched and I would recommend his novels to anyone with an interest in the period.  The Maids Head Inn, where Shardlake and his party stay still stands in Norwich today.  I shall take this opportunity to inform readers that a double room costs £145 per night.      

Tombland is set in the reign of boy king Edward VI; where England is effectively ruled by his uncle Edward Seymour. The country is beset with problems of inflation, caused by the devaluation of coinage, a problem that began in the reign of Henry VIII.  Many landowners are enclosing common land and using it for sheep grazing which resulted in many tenant farmers forced off the land. This did not take place without protest. Those who drone on about the so-called crimes of Stalinism should perhaps look closer to home if they are concerned about past injustice. In the Soviet Union land was taken into public ownership and mechanised; fewer farm workers were needed and could be released to work in factories in the cities.  In Tudor England those forced off the land faced destitution.    

In his legal work in Norwich Shardlake finds himself in the middle of Kett’s Rebellion, named after Robert Kett of Wymondham, a local landowner who led the revolt.  Local tenant farmers set up a camp close to the city in opposition to enclosure; they believed the Lord Protector Edward Seymour would halt the process. Their hopes were tragically dashed.

 These protests, accompanied by similar events in the West Country, Essex and Kent were the largest uprisings since the Peasants Revolt of 1381 and prior to the English Civil War. The uprisings in Tudor England are often overlooked by some historians who try to present the period as one of relative tranquillity between the more violent Medieval Period and the seventeenth century. As a result, the Tudor Period is often described as ‘Merry England’.  Tombland, with portrayal of rural class war, shows a very different side of the period and it is anything other than merry.