Capitalists and Jihadists: French-Swiss multinational admits indirect financing of ISIS

In our previous article "ISIS: A tool in the hands of Imperialism" we were writing among other things: "...the savage murderers of ISIS became part of an imperialist equation in Syria which serves the interests of the monopolies of the states involved in the war". The revelation of the numerous direct and indirect relations between large corporations and the jihadists was a matter of time. 

Such an interesting revelation came recently from London's "Financial Times" which expose the indirect financing of the Islamic State from LafargeHolcim, the French-Swiss multinational manufacturer of building materials.

Joseph Stalin's popularity among Russians continues to increase, reaching 16-year high

Sixty-four years after the death of Joseph Stalin, the popularity of the great Soviet leader in Russia continues to increase, reaching a 16-year high. 

More specifically, according to a recent survey by the independent Levada Center, the percentage of Russians who have a positive perception for the communist leader has been increased. Some 46 percent of respondents viewed Stalin positively, compared with 21 percent who said that they hated or feared the former leader. Another 22 percent described themselves as merely “indifferent.”

Most Russians — 32 percent — said that they looked upon Joseph Stalin “with respect.” Ten percent said that they had “sympathetic views,” while four percent said that they looked upon the leader with “admiration.” 

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST BULLETIN #4

KKE: Women's liberation is connected with the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism

With a political and cultural event held at the Party's headquarters in Perissos, Athens on Saturday evening, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) honoured the International Women's Day (8th March). 

Hundreds of women and men of all ages attended the event which had the slogan "With the KKE in the struggle for the equality and the contemporary needs of woman".

The major speaker at the event was the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas. Secretary Koutsoumbas hailed the 8th of March as a "milestone day for the participation of women in the struggle for the equal rights between men and women in labour, education and social life". 

In his address, the KKE GS said that during the 100 years of the KKE there are numerous examples of communist women who have demonstrated extraordinary heroism in their activity. 

Solidarity with comrade Taly Nayandra of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB)

With a statement, the Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Brasileiro) strongly denounces the brutality of the Brazilian Military Police against the PCB and Communist Youth Union's member Taly Nayandra Figueira dos Santos.

A indigenous activist and militant communist, Nayandra has been a candidate for vice-mayor in the city of Manaus, in the region of Amazonas.

According to the PCB, comrade Taly Nayandra was arrested by the local Military Police on Saturday 25th of February and suffered physical and psychological torture for more than an hour. 

Nayandra was placed in a room alone and was severely beaten by police officers with punches, face slaps and kicks, while she was also psychologically battered. After all this torture, she was left alone in a street of São Raimundo neighborhood in Manaus.

THIS IS CAPITALISM! Smartphones made by blood; child labour in Congo's cobalt mines

It's Capitalism, Stupid...

A Sky News investigation has found children as young as four working in Congolese mines where cobalt is extracted for smartphones.The mineral is an essential component of batteries for smartphones and laptops, making billions for multinationals such as Apple and Samsung, yet many of those working to extract it are earning as little as 8p a day in desperately dangerous conditions.

TESIS DEL CC PARA EL 20º CONGRESO DEL PARTIDO COMUNISTA DE GRECIA (KKE)

TESIS DEL CC PARA EL 20º CONGRESO DEL PARTIDO COMUNISTA DE GRECIA - PRÓLOGO

THESES OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE FOR THE 20th CONGRESS OF THE KKE (Full Text)

THESES OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE FOR THE 20th CONGRESS OF THE KKE

PROLOGUE

The Central Committee of the KKE publishes its Theses for the 20th Congress of the KKE, which will be held from the 30th of March to the 2nd of April 2017, four years after the 19th Congress, in line with our Statutes.

From the 19th Congress we have a new programme that expresses the elaborated strategy of the party for workers' power, socialism, and provides directions for the leading activity of the party under all conditions.

The Programme that was adopted by the 19th Congress of the KKE and the Congress decisions as a whole have met with  mass acceptance inside the party and KNE, and also amongst the supporters and friends of the party, more broadly amongst working class and popular forces in Greek society. This acceptance is borne out in practise by the significant activity developed by the Party and KNE on the basis of the decisions of the 19th Congress.

Despite all this, this deep agreement with our decisions, as well as the work developed in all the party's fields of activity in the framework of the efforts to implement these decisions, does not lead us to complacency, self-satisfaction, and even more so to a lack of concern about the weaknesses, deficiencies and about how and to what extent the Programme and Statutes have been understood and are best served by our activity.

Operation "Atlantic Resolve": How Greece's SYRIZA government facilitate the imperialists

Back in 1999, during the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO's imperialists, the port of Thessaloniki in northern Greece had been a major gateway for U.S. army. The then Greek government of Kostas Simitis, leader of the social democratic PASOK party, had been proved a valuable ally of the U.S-led coalition thus providing the country's ports and bases to the imperialists. 

Today's Greek coalition SYRIZA-ANEL government, led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, walks on the same path; it does anything in order to facilitate its imperialist "allies". 

Communists in Greece and Turkey denounce nationalist "cockfights" over the Aegean

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos and Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu
have been engaged in a warfare of nationalist and provocative statements over the Aegean.

Ankara and Athens resurrect old nationalist tension, writes soL international:

"Greece will do everything to prevent Turkey from getting to its territory", Greek Minister of National Defense Panos Kammenos said Sunday, adding that Greece is ready to rebuff Ankara in a case of any provocation. After his statement, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called the Greek minister "a spoiled child". 

New Developments in Political Economy: The Demise of “Globalization”

New Developments in Political Economy: The Demise of “Globalization”.

By Zoltan Zigedy.

“Globalization” is a slippery term: 1. Sometimes it is used as a description of the quantitative changes in the global economy that emerged in the 1980s. 2. Sometimes it is used to express a set of policy prescriptions that gained traction in that same period. 3. Sometimes it is used to name a theory positing a new era, epoch, or stage of capitalism, a qualitative change in the way that contemporary capitalism functions.

And sometimes the word is used in all three senses:

Kemal Okuyan on Turkey's referendum: "Everybody should stick to their own guns"

Kemal Okuyan, First Secretary of the CC of Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) and soL columnist wrote an article on February 20, 2017, on the stance of the communists in Turkey regarding the upcoming referendum for constitutional amendments. 

Everybody should stick to their own guns…

By Kemal Okuyan / Source: soL.

We are facing a well-known front on the road to the referendum: the front of "yes." I have no idea about the covert aspect of the cooperation between [President] Erdoğan and Bahçeli [the Nationalist Movement Party’s leader who supports Erdoğan’s presidential system]; some mention blackmailing and some others talk about awarding. There is, however, politically and ideologically close links between them and between the social groups they represent. Furthermore, we can say that the "yes" votes are merged within the devotion to the Ottoman past, i.e. anti-Republicanism…

Antifascist victory in Greece! Communist Mayor Peletidis acquitted of all charges by court

Not guilty! The KKE-backed Mayor of the city of Patras Kostas Peletidis was acquitted of all charges by Patra's magistrate court earlier today. The public prosecutor's proposal was also "not guilty". The decision of the court consists a victory not only for Mayor Peletidis himself, but primarily for the popular antifascist movement in Greece against the neo-Nazi criminal organisation of Golden Dawn. 

Peletidis had been charged with "breach of duty" by the Ministry of Justice's Public Administration Body of Inspectors, because during the 2015 parliamentary elections he refused to provide municipal space for the gatherings of the fascist criminals of Golden Dawn. Furthermore, the mayor refused to provide information to Golden Dawn's MPs about the number of migrant children attending Patras' municipal kindergartens.