Ukraine's decommunization and the rise of fascism

By Nikos Mottas.

The process of the so-called “decommunization” in Ukraine was introduced during the first years of the restoration of capitalism in the USSR and included the slandering and erasing of anything related to the Soviet period and the construction of socialism.

This term was also used by the President of today's capitalist Russia, Vladimir Putin, in his anti-communist statement prior to the invasion, saying characteristically that “we are ready to show you what genuine decommunization means for Ukraine”. It is not a coincidence that anti-communism is a common feature of both the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev as well as the leadership of capitalist Russia, at a time when the two sides are waging a bloody war against the people on behalf of their bourgeois classes.

Sign the Petition: Freedom to Kononovich Brothers!

All comrades/friends/readers are kindly requested to sign and share the Petition demanding the immediate release of Mikhail and Aleksander Kononovich, members of the Leninist Communist Youth of Ukraine who have been arrested by the Ukrainian authorities on March 7th, 2022. 

Also, send emails and letters to your local Ukrainian Embassy or Consulate (check a list below) to protest the unacceptable and unjust detention of Kononovich brothers. 

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

The full text of the Petition:

Resolution of the CC of the KKE on the Imperialist War in Ukraine

Read below the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) on the Imperialist War in Ukraine in three languages (ENGLISH, RUSSIAN, SPANISH).

 

RESOLUTION OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE KKE
ON THE IMPERIALIST WAR IN UKRAINE

1. The KKE, from the very first moment, denounced the Russian invasion of Ukraine and expressed its solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

Oskar Lafontaine resigns from Die Linke

Oskar Lafontaine, one of Germany's prominent social democratic politicians, has left Die Linke, the party he co-founded in 2007. 

 

“I wanted there to be a left-wing alternative to the politics of social insecurity and inequality on the political spectrum, which is why I co-founded Die Linke. Today's left has given up that claim” the 78-year-old politician announced on Thursday in Saarbrücken.

According to Lafontaine, the background is “the gradual change in the political profile of the left” from 2015. It has become a party “in which the interests of employees and pensioners and a foreign policy based on international law and peace are no longer the focus”. 

Kemal Okuyan: Who will stop NATO?

The following article was published earlier this month, in the midst of the war in Ukraine, by Kemal Okuyan, General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP):

 

WHO WILL STOP NATO?

“NATO is not an organization, a force, or an alliance system that can be defeated militarily.” We have been stating this since the Russian armies entered Ukraine. 

The world’s plunge into ever increasing darkness and the fact that the international working class movement has for a long time been in retreat undoubtedly leads people to despair and the tendency to fall for the first “remedy” they come across.

British communists say "No to Putin's war, no to NATO"!

Britain's Communists have reiterated their opposition to Russian president Putin's invasion of Ukraine and urged people to step up the campaign for a ceasefire and a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

'The working class and peoples of Ukraine, Russia and elsewhere will not be the winners of this war', Carol Stavris told the Communist Party's executive committee at the weekend. The CP women's organiser highlighted the huge and lasting impact of the Russian offensive on hundreds of thousands of women and children fleeing Ukraine.

D. Koutsoumbas: "The people of Ukraine have become a punching bag among ruthless imperialists"

On 14 March, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), delivered a speech at a political rally in Corinth, noting, among other things: “More than 10 years have passed and the Greek people are still paying for the successive capitalist crises with impoverishment, three memoranda, and hundreds of anti-popular and anti-labour laws. They also pay for the recovery by constantly making new sacrifices to shield the profitability of a few business groups.

Now they are being told that they must pay the price of Greece’s participation in imperialist war. To pay ‘the price of participation in the war for freedom’, as the Prime Minister, K. Mitsotakis, said.

Putin is one of yours, western hypocrites!

The following comment was first published in "Rizospastis", the daily newspaper of the CC of KKE, under the title "Putin is one of their own":

All those who today denounce Putin's “authoritarianism”, in order to cover up their crimes against the people, are the same ones who were celebrating when a “liberal” and “democrat” was taking over as Russia's Prime Minister back in August 1999, at the behest of the then President Yeltsin who played a key role in the dissolution of the former USSR in line with US-NATO imperialism.

Austria: Marxist-Leninist youth front was formed

In March 2022 the new youth organisation of the Party of Labour Austria will start its activities. It bears the name "Youth Front of the Party of Labour" (in short: Youth Front; German: Jugendfront) and functions as a Marxist-Leninist organisation of working and learning youth and young people in Austria. 

 

The first step is the founding campaign "Youth in a common front - get organised!". Youth and young people are to be addressed, politicised and organised with the campaign. It will conclude with the founding congress, which is expected to take place in autumn 2022. 

Ukraine: Communist Youth Union members beaten badly, remain detained in Kiev

Mikhail and Aleksander Kononovich, both members of the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine are still alive, according to updated information given by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY).

More specifically, a recent post by the WFDY reads: 

"Finally, after 6 days without any news, we have received an update on the situation of comrades Kononovich. 

-They are arrested in a pre-trial detention centre in Kiev. 

Russian communist lawmakers condemn Ukraine war

 Oleg Smolin, Mikhail Matveyev, Vyacheslav Markhaev

Three Communist Party members of the Russian Duma, Oleg Smolin, Mikhail Matveyev and Vyacheslav Markhaev have expressed their condemnation for the military attack against Ukraine. 

 

Despite the official position of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) which views positively the government's war campaign, the three lawmakers joined the anti-war movement in Russia by publicly denouncing the launching of a full-scale war by President Vladimir Putin. 

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). 

KKE in EU Parliament: Urgent question about the arrest of Kononovich brothers in Ukraine

With a question submitted to the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, the European Parliament Group of the  Communist Party of Greece (KKE) denounces the arrest of the two members of the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine, Mikhail and Aleksander Kononovich (read here) and demands from the EU Commission to express its position on the issue of anti-communist persecutions in the country. 

More specifically the urgent question submitted by the KKE MEP Kostas Papadakis reads:

Women's Day 2022: Statement by the World Federation of Trade Unions

In a statement about the Working Women's Day, the Secretariat of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) stresses out:

8 March 1857 – 8 March 2022: 165 years later

165 years ago, when the women workers in the New York textile mills, on March 8, 1857, went on strike and demonstrated for “ten-hour work, bright and sanitary workrooms, wages equal to those of male textile workers and tailors”, they certainly did not imagine that in 2022 all these demands would still be demanded.

War and the dirty role of social democracy

From left to right: Olaf Scholz, Alexis Tsipras, Pedro Sanchez.

The following article is based on a piece published in the weekend edition (5-6 March, 2022) of "Rizospastis", the daily newspaper of the CC of KKE, under the title "Social democracy's dirty job in times of war":

“If you had picked up the phone to call the party leaders, I might have told you my opinion, but not now after the fact, like the other political leaders. I would tell you that it would be better to send humanitarian aid, it would be better to send non-lethal equipment, like Spain and Italy did”. 

Alert: Ukrainian authorities arrested Communist Youth leader and his brother

In an urgent statement posted in social media accounts the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) points out:

"The First Secretary of our Ukrainian member organisation, the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine, Mikhail Kononovich, and his brother, Aleksander Kononovich, have been arrested by the Ukrainian neo-fascist regime during the last hours. 

 

They have been accused of being Russian and Belarusian spies. They will be possibly murdered in the following hours.

Cuba to host the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in 2022

Havana, Cuba's capital city, will be the hosting place of the 22nd International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP) on October 27-29, 2022. 

According to 902 portal, the decision was taken in yesterday's session of the Working Group of IMCWP in Lisbon, under the participation of 25 Communist and Workers Parties, 

Statement by the Cuban Government on Ukraine war

In a statement issued on February 26th, two days after the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, the Revolutionary Government of Cuba stressed out the following:

"The U.S. determination to continue NATO’s progressive expansion toward the Russian Federation’s borders has brought about a scenario with implications of unpredictable scope, which could have been avoided. 

European Communist Initiative on Ukraine war

In a statement on the recent Russian invasion in Ukraine, the Secretariat of the Initiative of Communist and Workers Parties stresses out the following:

"Three decades after the dissolution of the USSR and the imperialist war in Yugoslavia, a new war broke out on European territory. The unacceptable Russian military intervention and invasion of Ukraine has been prepared all the previous years through the USA, NATO, and EU intervention, their support for the reactionary government of Kyiv, the paramilitary mechanisms andfascist groups in Ukraine as well as the plan for the economic, political, and military encirclement of Russia.

KKE condemns blocking of "Russia Today" and "Sputnik" transmission in Greece

In a statement issued today the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) condemns the ban on the transmission of “Russia Today” and “Sputnik” news networks in Greece, calling it an “unacceptable and dangerous action”. The KKE also points out that the sanctions on RT and Sputnik is part of an effort to enforce the propaganda and fake news directed by the Euro-Atlantic side.
 
More analytically the KKE statement (here in Greek) reads: 

KKE leader Koutsoumbas blasts PM Mitsotakis on Greece's involvement in Ukraine war

The government of the right-wing ND party with the support of the other bourgeois parties of the social-democratic “left” SYRIZA and the also social-democratic KINAL/PASOK proceeds with the deeper involvement of Greece in the ongoing imperialist war in Ukraine, always on the side of the USA–NATO–EU. This was apparent in the discussion between the leaders of the political parties in the Plenary Session of the Parliament on 1 March 2022.

In his speech, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the KKE, stressed, among other things, the following:

South African Communist Party condemns racism and discrimination against Africans in Ukraine

In a statement, the South African Communist Party (SACP) condemns the disrespectful attitudes unleashed recently against African people by state actors and others in Ukraine. 

 

The statement also slams NATO aggressive expansion eastwards and calls all parties involved to work towards a peaceful resolution in the situation.  

 

More specifically, the statement of the SACP reads: 

KKE MEPs reject EU Parliament's resolution on Ukraine

The MEPs of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) voted against the European Parliament's resolution “On the Russian aggression against Ukraine” because it moves in the - dangerous for the people- direction of escalation of the EU-NATO-US conflict with capitalist Russia. 

 

The resolution promotes the directions of increasing the aggression of the EU and its monopoly groups it represents in the imperialist war that is taking place on Ukrainian territory. It calls for a new round of EU sanctions against Russia, including blocking her from the ports of EU member-states. 

Dimitris Koutsoumbas: No to imperialist war! Greece’s involvement must stop immediately!

On 27/2/22, the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) organized an event in the city of Lamia in honour of the 80 years of the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS), which was the military wing of the National Liberation Front (EAM). Both EAM and ELAS were founded following a decision of the KKE and fought against the fascist triple foreign occupation (German, Italian, and Bulgarian) of Greece during the imperialist Second World War.

The event took place in Lamia, the native city of Aris Velouchiotis, leader of ELAS and cadre of the KKE.