TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM - The phony dilemma: "Democracy" or Totalitarianism"?

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM: 

ON THE SOCIALIST POWER.

Central Council of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE).

Published by Synchroni Epochi, 2013.

Click here to read the book in pdf.

PART I: THE PHONY DILEMMA: "DEMOCRACY" OR TOTALITARIANISM"?

INTRODUCTION. 

A great part of anti-communist, anti-socialist propaganda focuses on the issue of the so called lack of “freedom and democracy” during the construction of the new society, of socialism-communism. The main focus of that attack is the revolutionary workers’ power, the state of the working class, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the role of the Communist Party. The capitalists cannot abide it; they tremble before the idea that the working class will emerge as the dominant class, and that they will be thrown into the dustbin of history. 

The Great Lie of the "American Dream": Capitalism perpetuates poverty in the USA

According to a New York Daily News report, earlier this month, the number of homeless people living on New York City's streets surged by nearly 40% this year, according to the results of an annual count. "There were 3,892 homeless people on the street, the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate done in February found — up 39% since last year, when the number was 2,794, according to results released Wednesday" the report writes. 

New York City is of course an example which highlights the great problem of homelessness that affects the United States of America. According to the official data published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) more than half a million people - a quarter of them being children- were homeless during 2015. 

Karl Marx- Wage, Labour and Capital 1847 (Part II)

Wage, Labour and Capital.

By Karl Marx. 

First Published: April 1849.

Source: From the original 1891 pamphlet via Marxists Internet Archives.

(Continue from Part I)

PART II.

THE NATURE AND GROWTH OF CAPITAL 

Capital consists of raw materials, instruments of labor, and means of subsistence of all kinds, which are employed in producing new raw materials, new instruments, and new means of subsistence. All these components of capital are created by labour, products of labour, accumulated labour. Accumulated labour that serves as a means to new production is capital. 

"Condemn me. It does not matter. The peoples will have the last word!"- Fidel Castro Ruz, 26 July 2003

Speech by Comandante Fidel Castro Ruz on the 50th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Garrisons, in Santiago de Cuba, 26 July 2003:

It seems almost unreal to be here in this same place 50 years after the events we are commemorating today, which took place that morning of July 26, 1953. I was 26 years old back then; today, 50 more years of struggle have been added to my life.

Way back then, I could not have imagined for even a second that this evening, the few participants in that action who are still alive would be gathered here, together with those, gathered here or listening to us all around the country, who were influenced by or participated directly in the Revolution; together with those who were children or teenagers back then; with those who were not even born yet and today are parents or even grandparents; with whole contingents of fully fledged men and women, full of revolutionary and internationalist glory and history, soldiers and officers in active duty or the reserves, civilians who have accomplished veritable feats; with a seemingly infinite number of young combatants; with dedicated workers or enthusiastic students, as well as some who are both at the same time; and with millions of children who fill our imagination of eternal dreamers. And once again, life has given me the unique privilege of addressing all of you.

Tsipras-Varoufakis: Loyal servants of the capitalist system

By Nikos Mottas*. 

During the last few days we are witnessing a highly hypocritical “blame game” between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. In his latest book titled “Adults in the room”, Varoufakis tries to present himself as a “fighter” who resisted Europe's “deep establishment”.

In his “political thriller”, the ex-finance minister describes how the Tsipras government handled the negotiations with its creditors, outlining the role each government official played during that period. As for his former collaborator, Varoufakis writes among other things: “Alexis Tsipras appears totally overwhelmed, unable to collide with his own consultants who were pro loan agreement, in some cases he was totally manipulated by the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ Troika”.

The Revision of the Great October on the 20th and 22th Congress of the CPSU

By Gyula Thürmer*.

Source: International Communist Review, Issue 7, 2017.

Hundred years have passed since the Great October Socialist Revolution triumphed on the 7th of November 1917. The Hungarian Workers' Party celebrates the Great October as an outstanding event of the universal history, an event that had a decisive influence on the world, the international workers' movement, and also on Hungary and the fate of the Hungarian workers and toiling masses.

Capitalism Kills: 353 occupational murders within 2 months in Turkey

How many dead workers are needed to increase the profitability of the monopolies? 

As soL international reports, according to Council of Workers’ Health and Safety (İSİG), at least 353 workers were killed in occupational murders in two months in Turkey. 

Reminding that the construction site of the third airport in İstanbul is notorious for occupational murders, the İSİG underlines, about the campaign which was announced inside the construction site of the airport, that the numbers reported by the Turkey’s Ministry of Labor and Social Security and several bureaucrats are dead wrong, and that roughly 20 thousand workers were killed by occupational murders in AKP’s rule.

National Strike: Tourism workers in Greece raised their voice against modern slavery

Source: All-Workers Militant Front (PAME).

With militant demonstrations and picket lines in front of big hotels, the class unions held successfully the National Strike of Workers in Tourism, on Thursday, July 20. The Tourism workers in many cities all over Greece and especially in tourist areas like Corfu, Crete, Rhodes and more, went on strike.

The main strike rally took place in Athens, where the picket lines and the workers of many big hotels met. The strike had great success in hotels like the Metropolitan, Athens Hilton, Νovotel and Royal Olympic. The strike rally took place in front of the Ministry of Labour, protesting against the anti-workers legislation, especially for the young workers, students and apprentices. The rally also stopped in front of the National Union of Tourism, the association of tourism enterprises, where the unions wrote in red paint “Here are those who drink the workers’ blood”, and demanded National Collective Agreement, imposed to all tourism enterprises and hotels.

Statement by the KKE on the 43 years since the 1974 Turkish invasion in Cyprus

On the occassion of the 43 years since the invasion of the Turkish military forces in Cyprus (20 July 1974), the Press Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement:

Source: 902.gr / Translation: In Defense of Communism.

“43 years have been passed since the Turkish invasion and the continuous occupation of the 37% of Cyprus, since the crime against the Cypriot people which took place within the framework of NATO, with the support of the American and British imperialism.

The KKE responds to the slanderous lies of Carmelo Suárez's group (Comentario en español)

The International Relations department of the CC of the KKE issued a statement (commentary) replying to the recent slanderous delirium of the opportunist "Carmelo Suárez faction". Surpassing all limits, the Suárez faction shamelessly involves a third party (Communist Party of Venezuela) in order to vilify the KKE and the Communist Party of Mexico. 

In a recent article under the title "The declaration of Caracas as a necessity of the historical moment in Venezuela", the group of C. Suárez unleashes a provocative slanderous attack against the Communist Parties of Greece (KKE) and Mexico (PCM) for not being among the signatories of a random declaration of solidarity towards Venezuela.

Aleida Guevara: "The Cuban Revolution will endure because of social consciousness"

Major abstracts of an interview by Aleida Guevara, daughter of the heroic Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara, during her recent visit in Cyprus. The interview was published in the portal Dialogos / Translation in english: In Defense of Communism:

We talked about great personalities like Fidel, Che, Raul, Camilo. Their personalities frequently overshadow the Revolution of the Cuban people and the resistance which lasts for so many years. Something that imperialism feeds with illusions is (the perception) that the biological death of Fidel and Revolution's leaders will result to her collapse. How do you comment? 

Anti-workers rage by SYRIZA's newspaper “Avgi” challenges the right to strike!

In an anti-workers delirium that even the right-wing, neoliberal press would envy, SYRIZA party's newspaper “Avgi” launched a vociferous attack against the working people's right to strike! In an article published on 28/6, the newspaper shamelessly attacked the striking mobilizations of the municipal sanitation workers by reproducing the most reactionary arguments of the bourgeois press. Trying to justify the anti-people, anti-worker policy of the SYRIZA coalition government, “Avgi” characterizes the strike as the “ultimate medium” (!) which, according to the newspaper, should not be used frequently by the workers.

“Achievements and successes of the working class in socialism”, presented by the KKE in Athens

Τhe work “Achievements and successes of the working class in socialism”, published by “Synchroni Epochi”, was presented by the KKE's Central Committee, on July 12^th in Egaleo, Athens.

“Our future isn't capitalism. It is the new world, socialism”! This slogan was shouted by hundreds of members and friends of the KKE and KNE at “Alexis Minotis” municipal theatre of Egaleo, where the publication was presented. Working people from various sectors, who live the intensive capitalist exploitation, listened with interest the significant information that the new publication contains and which proves the superiority of the socialist system. The publication- a result of a collective effort by the Central Committee's department for Labor and Trade Union work- consists part of the KKE's greater multiform activity for the 100^th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution .

Turkey: Communist Party's Kemal Okuyan reflects on the first anniversary of the July 15th failed coup

A year has passed since the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey. TKP's General Secretary Kemal Okuyan answered to soL's questions on July 15, while the July 15th debate continued uninterrupted throughout the year. 

Below are Kemal Okuyan’s answers in the interview with soL news:

Do you agree with the "controlled coup" argument after a year passed from the coup attempt? In recent days, there has been a lot of supporting news and commentary took place in the world media that supported Kılıçdaroğlu's argument. Do you think the term controlled coup captures the reality well?

No. This means that Erdogan dominated all the critical points of state institutions on July 15, 2016, that he took risks by relying on his dominance and ruled the coup attempt personally after a point; the issue is not that simple.

Cyprus Issue: The KKE warns about the dangerous partition "solution" that is being promoted

Source: inter.kke.gr.

On July 11, 2017 a discussion of the leaders of the political parties was held in the Greek parliament regarding the developments in the Cyprus issue and the outcome of the negotiations in Geneva.

During the discussion, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of KKE, underlined that the Cyprus issue is an international problem of invasion and occupation of the northern part of Cyprus by Turkey. It is a problem that bears the stamp of NATO intervention, of the general imperialist plans for the region.

Solidarity with the striking workers at FIAT factory in Serbia

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), which is the militant voice of 92 million workers in 126 countries all over the world, stands firmly by the side of the 2.000 workers of the factory of FIAT Chrysler Automobiles, automobile assembly plant in Kragujevac, Serbia, who are on strike since Tuesday 27 June 2017.

The workers have taken strike action against the intensification of work, which increased after numerous workers were dismissed from the factory, while the factory tries to produce a high number of cars per day. Their main demands also include wage increase and transport allowance.

NATO openly glorifies Baltic Nazi-SS collaborators

The murderous, imperialist North Atlantic Treaty Organisation cannot hide its historical links with the Nazis. On 11 July 2017, the official account of NATO on Twitter published an English movie trailer called "Forest brothers. Fight for the Baltics". The tweet of NATO's account was writing: "This is the story of the Forest Brothers who fought the Soviet army for their homelands after WWII."

Microsoft accumulates immense profits, starts layoff of thousands of employees worldwide

The multinational giant Microsoft- despite its immense profits- is laying off more than 3,000 employees, with the cuts falling largely on the company's sales force. The vast majority of layoffs will hit employees located outside the United States, although some will also be in Redmond. Greek Telecommunication & IT Workers Unions has condemned the lay offs:

The Telecommunications & Information Technology Unions of Athens, Thessaloniki, Forthnet and 360 Connect (Vodafone) members of PAME (All-Workers Militant Front) and WFTU (World Federation of Trade Unions) condemn the multinational Microsoft, which announced that it will lay-off 3000-4000 from its sales departments.

Greek tourism industry: Unpaid labour, starvation wages and huge profits for the monopoly groups

What lies behind the luxurious and idyllic facade of Greece's tourism industry? The answer is that tourism consists another field for monopolies' profitability, based on unpaid workers, layoffs, unsourced workers, starvation wages, lack of collective agreements etc. 

This is the actual meaning of "economic growth" that the SYRIZA-ANEL government, as well as the New Democracy and the other bourgeois parties, promote. 

Even if thousands of tourists arrive in Greece every day, hundreds of employees work daily to the tourism industry with humiliating salaries and exhausting shifts that last from dawn till dusk. The average - daily room rate on all 4-5-star hotels is equal to the salary of a waiter! In a tourist country like Greece, where 25 million of tourists are expected this summer, hotel workers cannot afford a decent vacation and relaxing period. This is Capitalism.

KKE politburo member G.Marinos in Venezuela: "We must walk on the steps of the October Revolution"

In the 15th Congress of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) which took place between 22 and 25th of June in Caracas, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) was represented by its Political Bureau member Giorgos Marinos and Dimitris Karagiannis, member of the international relations section of the CC and journalist in 'Rizospastis'. 

On June 21st, the PCV organised the 2nd International Ideological Seminar with the subject being "The timeliness of Lenin in the 100 years of the Great Socialist Revolution", in which 18 Communist and Workers Parties participated.

What follows is the speech by Giorgos Marinos, reproduced from inter.kke.gr:

KKE: Solidarity with the Communists in Russia

Source: inter.kke.gr.

The MEP of the KKE, Sotiris Zarianopoulos, denounced, with a question to the High Representative of the EU for Foreign and Defense of Policy F. Mogherini, the arrest of two cadres of the Russian Communist Workers' Party, as well as the tabling of law that outlaws meetings of MPs with workers and is aimed against the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

The question of the MEP of the KKE was as follows:

"In recent decades, after the overthrow of socialism in the Soviet Union, an assault against the democratic and trade union rights of the workers is being observed in a number of countries in Eastern Europe, as well as in Russia. The climax of this assault is both the anti-communist bans in former socialist countries, which are members of the EU, as well as in Ukraine, and also the corresponding restrictions on the activity of the CPs.

Dimitris Koutsoumbas at KNE anti-imperialist camp: "Our future is not capitalism; it is the new world, Socialism!"

KKE GS D. Koutsoumbas addressing young communists in Ioannina.

A large crowd of young communists, members and friends of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE), attended a speech by the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Greece Dimitris Koutsoumbas, yesterday at the city of Ioannina in northern Greece. The speech by the KKE Secretary General marked the closing of the 26th anti-imperialist camp of KNE.

Russia's bourgeois class still trembles at the sight of Stalin: The Moscow State Law Academy incident

Sixty-four years have been passed since the biological death of Joseph Stalin and, still, the bolshevik leader creates nightmares to the bourgeois class. They fear his legacy, his name, even his portraits or plaques which refer to him. 

According to an Agence France-Presse report (which is full of stereotypical anti-communist references to "Stalin's repression"), everything started when the Moscow State Law University last month reinstated a Soviet-era plaque marking a speech delivered there by Stalin in 1924. The plaque had been removed in the 1960s. A former student launched an online petition in order to have the plaque removed, while a defense lawyer called Genri Reznik and professors of another college break their ties with the university in protest. 

DECLARATION OF THE CC OF THE KKE ON THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

Declaration of the Central Committee of the KKE on the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution   Source: inter.kke.gr.

The Central Committee of the KKE honours the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. It honours the climactic world-historic event of the 20th century which demonstrated that capitalism is not invincible, that we can construct a superior organization of society, without the exploitation of man by man.

KKE MEP Kostas Papadakis blasts EU's resolution on Cuba as "unacceptable"

In his intervention regarding the "EU-Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement" at the European Parliament's plenary in Strasbourg, the MEP of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Kostas Papadakis pointed out the following:

"The unacceptable resolution which the EU and the European Parliament promote consists an organised plan of EU monopolies' penetration, formation of reactionary mechanisms and NGOs in Cuba. Both the US embargo, as well as the EU interventions are against the Cuban people.

The EU and her governments of imperialist wars and interventions, of the officially 20 million unemployed people, of the tens of millions who live under the poverty limits, wag the lecturing figure about human rights to the Cuban people who for decades erased unemployment, who expressed the need for the abolition of the exploitation of man by man. In a country which, despite sanctions, had achievements which were intangible for the capitalist countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

KKE Gen.Secretary D.Koutsoumbas: "People's struggle against capitalism is what brings hope"

Source: inter.kke.gr.

On July 3 2017, a pre-agenda discussion in Parliament was held at the level of the party leaders on the issue of the economy, at the request of the President of ND, K.Mitsotakis, on the occasion of the recent agreement in the Eurogroup regarding the completion of the second "review" of the Greek economy.

As was expected, the Prime minister A.Tsipras, the President of ND K.Mitsotakis and the leaders of the rest of the bourgeois parties attempted to use confrontational language in order to conceal their strategic convergence around the basic demands of capital, swapping accusations about who "undermines" the aims of capital and who serves them better.

In contrast, the GS of the CC of the KKE, D.Koutsoumpas, noted that the real hope for the working class and people is not to be found in the plans and negotiations of the capitalists. Dimitris Koutsoumpas underscored that the biggest memorandum is the capitalist development path itself. He noted that the fairy tales about "just development" in capitalism, which allegedly benefits both the monopolies and the people, are collapsing every day in the workplaces, where the harsh exploitation of the workers is realized.

PAME: We will not bleed for their profits in peace! We will not become flesh for their weapons in war!

The following text is the introduction speech, on behalf of the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME), at the Balkan Anti-Imperialist Trade Union Meeting which was held on June 25th in Thessaloniki, Greece. 

Dear Colleagues,

on behalf of the PAME Executive Secretariat, we welcome you to our today's meeting "With Workers From All Countries For A World Without Exploitation, Wars, Refugees". 

The Grenfell Tower Tragedy: Another crime of Capitalism

“When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live – forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence – knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual…” 

- Friedrich Engels, Condition of the Working Class in England, 1845. 

Karl Marx- Wage, Labour and Capital 1847 (Part I)

Wage, Labour and Capital.

By Karl Marx. 

First Published: April 1849.

Source: From the original 1891 pamphlet via Marxists Internet Archives.

PART I.

INTRODUCTION.

BY FRIEDRICH ENGELS.

This pamphlet first appeared in the form of a series of leading articles in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, beginning on April 4th, 1849. The text is made up of from lectures delivered by Marx before the German Workingmen's Club of Brussels in 1847. The series was never completed. The promise "to be continued", at the end of the editorial in Number 269 of the newspaper, remained unfulfilled in consequence of the precipitous events of that time: the invasion of Hungary by the Russians [Tsarist troops invaded hungary in 1849 to keep the Austrian Hapsburg dynasty in power], and the uprisings in Dresden, Iserlohn, Elberfeld, the Palatinate, and in Baden [Spontaneous uprisings in Germany in May-July 1849, supporting the Imperial Constituion which were crushed in mid-July], which led to the suppression of the paper on May 19th, 1849. And among the papers left by Marx no manuscript of any continuation of these articles has been found. 

Solidarity with the detained members of the Communist Party of Mexico - ¡Luis y Omar libertad!

Omar Cota (Left) and Louis Bahena.

According to the Communist Party of Mexico, two members of the Party have been detained by local police at the city of Cuernavaca. On Friday, June 30, workers and people in the town of Alpuyeca, in the state of Morelos, demonstrated against the operation of monopoly groups in the area. The local police forces tried to repress the protest. 

In their effort to defend the workers and the demonstrators, two members of the Communist Party of Mexico and the Federation of Young Communists were arrested.