Conference of the European Communist Action: The struggle of the working class and its movement is the real catalyst of developments

The European Communist Action (ECA) conference took place on Sunday 16 March in Paris, on the theme: "Conclusions and perspectives for the labour movement in Europe".

The conference, organised two years after the major workers' mobilisations in France, which shook the country and the whole of Europe, aims to exchange the views and experiences of the CPs of ECA the  on the workers' movement in Europe.

Trump's tariffs analyzed from a class perspective

By Charles Andrews*

The key to a capitalist economy is the state of its capital accumulation. That goes for understanding tariffs in particular.

 — U.S. tariffs were successful in the late 19th century. Capital accumulation was vigorous, and tariff protection helped develop domestic industries.

 — The 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariffs certainly did not help when the boom of the 1920s had already collapsed into a deep depression. Capitalism cannot evade the law of the falling rate of profit; boom turns into bust.

Is The Working Class Right?

By Nathan Richardson*

The 2024 U.S. election has shocked many around the world with Donald Trump’s landslide victory. But his return should not be considered as an American phenomenon. In recent years the right-wing populist parties around the world have successfully garnered support from the political left working class by advocating for robust welfare states, albeit through a lens that is often chauvinist, nativist, and ethnonationalist.

PAME’s greeting at the 58th Congress of the UD CGT13 in Marseilles: "Our future is not to become slaves of the 21st century"

A delegation of the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) Secretariat and the Union of Piraeus' Port Dockers of COSCO arrived in France to participate in the Congress of UD CGT 13 and express solidarity with the strike actions of the working class of France. The following greeting speech was delivered by George Perros, member of the Secretariat of PAME:

"Comrades,

Workers of UD CGT13 Bouches duRhones, of the historic Marseille.

PAME stands by the side of the working class of Turkey: On the employers’ crime in Amasra

In a statement about the employers' crime in Bartin, Turkey, which led to the deaths of 41 miners, Greece's All Workers-Militant Front (PAME) points out:

"PAME expresses its deep sorrow and condolences to the families and colleagues of the 41 miners murdered in the Amasra mines in Bartin, Turkey.

41 of our brothers, our colleagues did not return to their families because of the employers’ unending pursuit of profit. After the dead of Soma, whose families are still waiting for justice, comes another massacre of workers.

18th World Trade Union Congress: Opening speech by the General Secretary of the WFTU George Mavrikos

This weekend, the heart of the international trade union movement beats in Rome, where the 18th World Trade Union Congress is taking place with 419 delegates from 95 countries. 

The Congress began on Friday 6 May and will conclude on Sunday 8th May. 

On the first day, the General Secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) George Mavrikos delivered an opening speech, analyzing the experience from the Union's activity during the previous period as well as the challenges and struggles that are coming for the class-based working class movement: 

The stance of the communists towards the imperialist war in Ukraine

By Nikos Mottas.

The inter-imperialist confrontation between the Euro-Atlantic powers (USA, NATO, EU) and Russia in Ukraine inevitably brings to the fore serious ideological-political disagreements and chronic contradictions that exist in the international communist movement.

The Russian invasion and the war in Ukraine emphatically highlights the misconception that exists in part of the communist movement concerning the issue of imperialism. A number of self-proclaimed “communist” forces are either unable, or deliberately avoid, to conceive imperialism through Leninist criteria. Instead, they disconnect economy from politics, overlook the fact that the competition between the monopolies is the basis for the sharpening of international conflicts and focus unilaterally on the aggressive foreign policy of specific states and alliances (e.g. USA, NATO, EU). 

150 years since the Paris Commune — Abstract from Karl Marx's "The Civil War in France"

Today, 18 March 2021, marks the 150th anniversary of the heroic Paris Commune, the first time in the history of mankind when the state power passed, albeit for a short time, into the hands of the proletariat, the most pioneering and only revolutionary class of capitalist society. 

The Commune founded by the workers of Paris lived for only 72 days. However its historic importance was enormous. Nothing after the Paris Commune would be the same for the working class, nor for the bourgeoisie which, from then on, would be forced to live with the nightmare of a revolution overthrowing its dominance.

On the occasion of the 150 years since the Commune de Paris, we publish two chapters from Karl Marx's work "The Civil War in France" (1871) which refer to the historical events of the then period. 

Short documentary: The working class struggles in Greece during 2020 (English Subs)

 

World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU): 75 years of action, with honor and dignity

On October 3rd, the World Federation of Trade Unions celebrates 75 years since its foundation. The largest international workers’ assembly until then took the decision that was indelibly engraved in the memory of the world labor movement, October 3rd, 1945: THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS IS FOUNDED at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris.

75 years later, the WFTU continues on the same uncompromising path, with unity, class-oriented, with internationalism. 75 years with honor and dignity!

50 years since May 1968: The crucial role of the working class

On the occasion of the 50 years since the events of May 1968 in France, the Organ of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) "Rizospastis" (26-27 May 2018) republished abstracts of an interview with Mitsos Katsianakos (1942-2003), member of the CC of the KKE, who as a young worker had participated actively in the events of 1968. The interview had been published on 17 May 1998. 

Chronicling the facts, Mitsos Katsianakos said to "Rizospastis": "The May of 1968 wasn't just a student uprising and nothing else. We certainly had a student uprising, which began before May, towards the end of April and early May of 1968. Until then we had chases and skirmishes between students and the police in Quarter Latin, at the large university outside of Sorbonne. We had night street fights, until the 10th of May. By that time-and it should be clear to all of us-no one was worried. No one could see that this May would be red, that this May would give a new dimension to the social and political life of France itself.