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On June 4, 2020, Nikolai Nikolaevich Platoshkin, a historian, political scientist, former diplomat, head of the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy of Moscow Humanitarian University, head of the Political Party “Alternative for Russia (Socialist Choice Party)”, who heads also the political movement “For New Socialism”, was arrested in his apartment in Moscow. On the same day, the Basmanny Court of Moscow in the criminal case initiated by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation against Platoshkin on incitation to riots (part 1.1 of article 212 of the Criminal Code of Russia) and the spread of fake news (part 207.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia), put him under home arrest for two months until August 2.
George Floyd’un polis tarafından katli, bütün ABD çapında ırkçılığa ve polis terörüne karşı bir isyanın patlak vermesine yol açtı. Bu halk isyanı, federal ve eyalet çapında hükümetleri halka karşı planladıkları askerî operasyonlardan vazgeçmeye, çeşitli büyük şehir hükümetlerini ise polis bütçelerini kısıp kaynakları siyahî, Latino vb. nüfusa yönlendirmeye zorladı. Tabandan gelme işçiler, isyanla dayanışma içinde olduklarını defalarca gösterdiler. Sendika üyesi birçok işçi, sırtlarında sendika amblemli gömleklerle eylemlere katıldı. Minneapolis’te metro işçilerinin sendikası, şehirde isyan başlar başlamaz ulaşımı kesti. Birçok büyük şehirde otobüs şoförleri tutuklu isyancıları hapishanelere ve karakollara taşımayı reddetti. Ancak sendika pankartları, henüz hiçbir eylemde görülmüş değil. Bir bütün olarak sendikal hareket, sendika bürokratlarının Demokrat Parti’ye koşulsuz bağlılığı ve tabandan gelen her türlü militan kıpırdanmayı boğması sebebiyle isyana elini henüz uzatmadı.
The murder of George Floyd sparked off immense protests and militant actions against racism and police terror across the United States. The people’s uprising forced the federal and state governments to roll back their military operations against the people in revolt, and important city governments to curtail their policing budgets and channel the resources to people of color. Rank-and-file workers have demonstrated their solidarity numerous times. Many members have participated in rallies and protests in their union shirts. The subway drivers’ union in Minneapolis cut off all transportation the day the uprising began in the city. In many major cities, bus drivers refused to take the arrested rebels to jails or police stations. However, union banners have been remarkably absent from the protests so far. Organized labor as a whole has not yet lent its hand to the people in revolt because of the union bureaucracy’s unconditional backing of the Democratic Party and stifling of rank-and-file militancy.
So the peoples’ rebellion has come back to the United States of America. And what a comeback! At the time of writing, the people have been on the streets for three weeks already, have united black and white (and Latino/a and Asian and all the others) in the fight for justice and social provision, have defied the aggressive tactics of the police from New York to California, have humiliated Trump in his quest for recourse to the military in fighting the masses, have thus “dominated” the street, to use Trump’s military term, to the chagrin of the forces of “law and order”, and have thus wrested concessions from the forces of the established capitalist order. What achievements!
Exactly 50 years ago, Turkey was shaken by a workers’ insurgency that still stands as the apogee of working class militancy in the country’s history. The workers of Istanbul and the neighbouring cities of Gebze and Izmit occupied the streets and squares, filling the hearts of the bourgeois with fear, overrunning every barricade set up by the police and the army, forcibly wresting their fellow workers taken under custody from police precincts, chanting slogans on one of the main avenues of the city that has always been the pride of the wealthy so that, in the words of a worker in their ranks, “the rich shall see our power”, and displaying their undeniable power by demonstrating in front of government buildings and local army headquarters.
The struggle continues most fiercely all across the country! The people in rightful rebellion have conquered important gains, such as curtails in police budgets and abolition of curfew orders in some cities. Despite this retreat, however, the bosses, with their parties and killer cops, continue to scheme to condemn the workers and the oppressed to death. In California, the police shot dead another brother, Erik Salgado, just recently.
After a week full of people’s militant action, Trump retreated and pulled the National Guard out of DC and some other cities. Some city councils have voted on defunding their respective police departments and channeling the resources to the betterment of African American communities’ living conditions. These are major victories on part of people in revolt!
Another brother has fallen victim to the racist attacks of the police just when the people of his city was protesting racism. Sean Monterrosa, a 22-year old Latino, was shot dead by the police in Vallejo, California, amidst the rebellion against racism. The police, afraid of the rebellion already sweeping the streets, did not disclose their disgusting crime until a day later.
The people’s rebellion to demand justice for brother George Floyd and to end racist oppression has spread across the nation. Great support has come from the bus drivers’ and subway workers’ unions, as well as the Target workers’ initiative. Instead of meeting the people’s legitimate demands, however, governors everywhere have declared states of siege, martial laws, curfews, or other states of emergency to strangle this wave. Democrat and Republican alike!
The killing of George Floyd by a police officer kneeling on his neck for ten whole minutes and suffocating him has set the United States ablaze. Comrades in the United States working for the creation of a mass Labor Party of the American working class have put out a statement condemning the murder of George Floyd and the racist system in the United States and calling for measures that will overcome this never-ending series of murders of black people by the police. We publish the statement of the United Front Committee for a Labor Party below. (RedMed)
Kâr hırsı içindeki Amerikan muhteşem üçlüsü Ford, General Motors (GM) ve Chrysler, UAW liderliğinin de desteğiyle 18 Mayıs Pazartesi günü işçilere işbaşı yapmalarını buyurdu. UAW sendika yetkilileri Rory Gamblel ve Ray Curry, işe dönmeden önce tüm sendika görevlilerinin testten geçmelerini talep etti, ancak işçilere aynı hakkın tanınması için mücadele etmekten imtina ediyorlar!
Friends of Palestine Against Imperialism and Zionism, organized a demonstration in front of the Zionist consulate in Istanbul to commemorate the 72 anniversary of Nakba, the great disaster of the Palestinian people. We publish a report on the demonstration and on the activity of DİP (Revolutionary Workers Party) and the platform FPAIZ. The report was written by author Ahmad Zakaria from Egypt for www.alaraby.co.uk.
In the drive for profits, the US big three Ford, GM and Chrysler with the collusion of the UAW top leadership have said that they are ordering workers back to the factories on May 18th. The UAW union officials Rory Gamblel and Ray Curry even want the UAW staff tested before they return to work but refuse to fight for the same guidelines for all UAW auto workers.
11th May 2020 was the 6th anniversary of the referendum through which the People’s Republic of Donetsk was founded in the wake of the coup d’Etat engineered by the United States and the European Union in 2014 in Ukraine. This day is celebrated as Republic Day in the Donetsk People’s Republic. This year there were no mass celebrations because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Instead an international online conference was held. Savvas Mikhail-Matsas participated on behalf of the EEK of Greece (Workers Revolutionary Party) to address the meeting and celebrate this important day in the struggle against imperialism. We publish below a summary of his intervention at that meeting.
How can a historical Event be celebrated in times of distress? How can we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the world historical victory against fascism in 1945 without reducing it into a formal routine anniversary, or, even worse, into a diversion from the urgent needs of humanity? Only if the great Event, in all its dazzling brightness sheds light on history, revealing a path through the darkness of the present into a liberating future.
This May Day finds the proletariat fighting two wars: against the Covid-19 pandemic and against capitalism. The two fights are inseparably bound, for it is capitalism that set the conditions for the virus outbreak to turn rapidly into a global pandemic. It is the four decade-long capitalist assault on the healthcare system that deprived humanity of medical supplies when they are most needed. It is capitalist world trade that led capitalist states and politicians all around the world to deny, underestimate, or cover up the pandemic to keep “the economy running” rather than protecting people’s lives. And last, but definitely not least, it is the imminent unfolding of the Third Great Depression that haunts the hearts and minds of capitalists that turn them into panicked dictators forcing the workers to non-sanitized workplaces with little or no hygienic provisions.
For a Red Mayday with red carnations and red ribbons!
Homage to the frontline workers against the Coronavirus,
Long live health workers!
Those who cannot stay home of all countries, unite! You have nothing to lose but death!
We are proud to present to our readers Issue No. 2 for 2020 of Sovetskoe Vozrozhdenie. Бюллетень Ассоциации «Советский Союз» or in English Soviet Renaissance. Bulletin of the Association “Soviet Union”. This is the third issue of the journal. The very first issue of the journal was published in December 2019 and Issue No. (2020 (1)) were also posted on RedMed.
Russia, like other countries, is at the beginning of a new global economic and political crisis which is being intensified many times by the coronavirus pandemic and has already got tens of thousands of lives. Despite the growing spread of the epidemic in the country the ruling top is going to redraw the Constitution at any price.
This is an article written by a Cuban comrade before the Covid 19 crisis gripped the world. Since then Cuba has constantly been in the limelight as its actions of solidarity sending doctors and nurses and also material to countries around the world have gained great sympathy. Here we read about a more worrisome aspect of life in Cuba, the debate on the future of socialism on the island. The author of the article takes the side of Che Guevara on questions of the market and planning and calls for a systematic defense of the gains of the revolution. This is the original Spanish version of the article. We hope to have it translated into English presently and post that on RedMed as well.
Contribution in the correspondence round table of the journals “Alternativiy” [Alternatives] and “Voprosy politicheskoy ekonomii” [Political Economy Issues] dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the antifascist Victory in 1945, Moscow May 2020
Gavin Newsom, the governor of the state of California, delivered an important speech on the morning of April 9th, 2020. Criticizing the indifference of the Trump administration towards the crisis that the Coronavirus pandemic inflicted upon the entire country, the governor used some phrases that might sound strange to some ears. Newsom said that as a “nation-state”, California would supply all the necessary masks and medical equipment for itself and could even “export” these items to other countries. Thus, he uttered words that go beyond an ordinary high-level official’s criticism of the federal government for failing healthcare policies – words that blow separatist winds and hint at deeper fractures!
A state governor declaring the territory he rules a nation and going against the central government on that basis would be considered a rebellion by the ruling classes of such country. If the commanding heights of the US government were to react harshly to Newsom, such a well-known picture would have been complete. On the contrary, of they were to meet the speech with indifference, we could have considered it as unnecessary harshness going beyond its purpose.
Lenin, chief architect of history’s first successful workers’ revolution, would have been 150 on 22nd April this year if he were alive. He was not only a Russian revolutionary, but also one that belonged to the whole world. Lenin does not belong to Russians only. He belongs to us all.
Lenin for reconnecting with the proletariat. Lenin for ending the rule of the bosses and establishing proletarian power. Lenin for world revolution and fraternity of the peoples!
Happy 150, comrade Lenin! For you still live on in our struggle!
We are publishing here issue No.2 for the year 2020 (Issue No. 134) of Communist of Leningrad, the bi-monthly publication of the Russian Party of Communists in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). We had earlier published the previous issue on our website. (RedMed)
Η Πρωτομαγιά του 2020 είναι μοναδική στην ιστορία της εργατικής τάξης.
Η ανθρωπότητα ως σύνολο βρίσκεται αντιμέτωπη με μια πρωτοφανή καταστροφή εξαιρετικά απειλητικών διαστάσεων. Ταυτόχρονα, η πανδημία του κορωνοϊού πυροδότησε την έκρηξη όλων των άλυτων αντιφάσεων της παγκόσμιας καπιταλιστικής κρίσης. Ουσιαστικά, η πανδημία δείχνει ότι ο καπιταλισμός έχει πλέον αποδειχθεί ασύμβατος με τις πιο επείγουσες ανάγκες της ενεργού διαδικασίας της ζωής, κι έχει γίνει ιστορικό εμπόδιο, που μόνο η παγκόσμια σοσιαλιστική επανάσταση μπορεί και πρέπει να ξεπεράσει.
2020 1 Mayıs’ının dünya işçi sınıfı tarihinde bir benzeri yok.
İnsanlık bir bütün olarak, son derece tehlikeli boyutlara ulaşan benzeri görülmemiş bir felaketle karşı karşıya. Buna ek olarak, Koronavirüs salgını, küresel kapitalist krizin çözülmemiş tüm çelişkilerinin patlayışını tetikledi. Bu salgın özünde kapitalizmin yaşamı sürdürmek için gerekli en acil ihtiyaçlarla uyumsuz, sadece dünya sosyalist devriminin üstesinden gelebileceği ve üstesinden gelmesi gereken tarihsel bir engel olduğunun apaçık ortaya çıktığını gösterdi.
Давайте организовывать забастовки на тех предприятиях и рабочих местах, которые грубо игнорируют все гигиенические меры, необходимые для защиты своих работников! Давайте организуем забастовки, чтобы заставить текстильные и швейные фабрики производить маски и защитное снаряжение, предприятия автомобильной и другой металлообрабатывающей промышленности - производить вентиляторы (не получив удовлетворения требований установить в цехах вентиляторы, недавно в США уволилась группа рабочих GeneralElectric), застройщиков - построить больницы вместо роскошных многоквартирных домов, транспортные компании - предоставить необходимое количество автобусов, чтобы обеспечить безопасные условия передвижения работников на работу и с работы!
War against the Coronavirus, war against capitalism’s brutal assault!
Let us organise strikes in those enterprises and workplaces that callously disregard all hygienic measures necessary to protect their workers! Let us organise strikes to force textile and garments factories to produce masks and protective gear, automotive and other mechanical industry factories to produce ventilators (a demand for which General Electric workers walked off their job recently in the US), developers to build hospitals in place of luxury apartment buildings, transport companies to provide their idly lying fleets of buses and smaller vehicles in order to get workers in the essential sectors to work safely!
Nobody lives a miserable existence, remaining jobless or even homeless and uncertain of their future. Hence the overall public health picture is incomparably better under socialism than under the richest capitalist country. Even in the case of the experience of socialist construction in the 20th century, bearing the burden of so many distortions and deformations and defects, this was an indubitable achievement. Capitalism, on the contrary, is class struggle. Capital does take a step back or two when circumstances impose that (the so-called “welfare state”). But when its interests dictate another course, it will step up class struggle and cut down on all social services in cold-blooded ruthlessness. Thus the neoliberal assault on all gains of the working class! The bourgeoisie, in a frenetic course to take back what it had conceded over the three decades from the end of the second war all the way up to Thatcher and Reagan, decimated the health care system around the world. That is why the patients are lying on the floors of hospital wards in Italy and Spain! That is why the richest city of the world, New York, home to Wall Street, is the epicentre of the pandemic!
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Sosyalizmde kimse işsiz, aç açıkta, sefil yaşamaz. Dolayısıyla halk sağlığı koşulları çok daha iyidir. Bu 20. yüzyıl sosyalist inşa deneyimleri için bile tartışılmazdır. Oysa kapitalizm sınıf mücadelesidir. Sermaye işçi sınıfından ürktüğünde bütün bu alanlarda taviz verir vermesine. Ama çıkarı gerektirdiğinde de sınıf mücadelesini en acımasız tarzda yükselterek bütün bu hizmetleri tırpanlar. İşte neoliberal taarruz! Sermaye bütün dünyada son kırk yıldır sağlık sistemini delik deşik etmiştir. Bunun için bugün İtalya’da, İspanya’da hastalar yerlerde yatıyor. Bunun için dünyanın en zengin kenti, Wall Street’in vatanı New York dünyanın salgın başkenti haline geliyor!
Hayatımızı kurtarmak istiyorsak ille sosyalizm!
Sosializmdə heç kim işsiz, ac-yalavac, səfil yaşamır. Dolayısı ilə xalq səhiyyəsinin şəraiti daha yaxşı olur. Bu, XX əsr sosialist quruculuğu təcrübələri üçün belə inkaredilməzdir. Halbuki kapitalizm siniflər mübarizəsidir. Kapital fəhlə sinfindən ürkəndə bütün bu sahələrdə, əlbəttə, güzəştə gedir. Amma maraqları tələb edəndə də sinfi mübarizəni ən qəddar formada kəskinləşdirərək bütün bu xidmətləri dağıdır. Budur neoliberal hücum! Kapital bütün dünyada son qırx ildir səhiyyə sistemini deşik-deşik etmişdir. Odur ki, bu gün İtaliyada, İspaniyada xəstələr yerdə yatırlar. Odur ki, dünyanın ən zəngin şəhəri, Uoll-Stritin vətəni olan Nyu-York dünyanın epidemiya paytaxtına çevrilir!
Həyatımızı xilas etmək istəyiriksə, hökmən sosializm!
En noviembre pasado, los iraníes salieron a las calles para protestar contra el aumento del costo de la vida y luego fueron duramente reprimidos por la República Islámica. Cientos de ellos fueron asesinados y miles detenidos. Ellos enfrentaron condenas de prisión de décadas y muchos de ellos se suicidaron por desesperación. Abrumadoramente jóvenes, los detenidos se vieron obligados a confesar bajo tortura crímenes que no habían cometido. La República Islámica supone que los levantamientos fueron organizados y coordinados por la oposición en el extranjero y los obligaron a confesarse a tal efecto. La mayoría de los detenidos ni siquiera pueden pagar un abogado y sus familias están demasiado asustadas para impugnar los procedimientos. Fuentes oficiales afirman que alrededor de 400 jóvenes entre las edades de 19-25 están encarcelados en la prisión de Teherán.
A few days ago, French president Emmanuel Macron started off his address to the nation on the Coronavirus pandemic with the following words: “We are at war”. Since then, the metaphor of humanity at war against an invisible enemy has become commonplace everywhere. However, the notorious “president of the rich” Macron, the restless warrior of the French bourgeoisie, might be possibly meaning something else when he says “war”: the war the bosses have declared on the working class and the laborers to protect their profits! Yes, in France as well as in Turkey and the entire capitalist world, there are two different wars.
Le coronavirus est devenu une pandémie et un fléau principalement parce que le capitalisme pille et détruit sans pitié le système de santé public partout dans le monde, de la Chine à l'Europe et aux États-Unis (où le système de santé était très faible déjà au départ) et depuis des décennies entravé son développement dans des pays plus arriérés et aussi en raison de l'appétit vorace pour le profit qui guide chaque choix fait par l'industrie pharmaceutique internationale.
The Coronavirus has become a pandemic and a scourge primarily because capitalism has been callously pillaging and destroying the public health care system all around the world, from China to Europe and the United States (where it was very weak to begin with) and has for decades impeded its development in more backward countries and also because of the voracious appetite for profit which guides every choice made by the international pharmaceutical industry.
Wall Street got shut down for the second time within four days on Thursday, March 12th. If the largest based index among the major three, S&P 500, falls by 7%, an automatic mechanism called the “circuit breaker” shuts down the stock market for 15 minutes to cool nerves. When this happened last Monday (March 9th), some claimed that it would be recorded in history as “Red Monday”. This label obviously entails a reference to the “Black Tuesday” of the notorious stock market crash of 1929. Yet, this time, as the same thing has occurred twice within a week, the inventors of the name might have additional tasks: “Red Monday”, then maybe “Orange Thursday”, then…
در آبان ماه گذشته در بسياري از شهرهاي ايران مردم در اعتراض به گرانيها به خيابان آمدند و ديري نپاييد كه دولت جمهوري اسلامي با شديدترين عكس العمل ها اعتراضات را سركوب كرد. صدها نفر كشته، هزاران نفر زنداني شدند. برخي از زندانيان به دهها سال زندان محكوم شدند و برخي از آنها اين احكام را برنتافته و دست به خودكشي زدند. تعدادي از زندانيان تحت شكنجه به جرمهاي نكرده اعتراف كردند. جمهوري اسلامي كه سعي دارد رهبري اين اعتراضات را به مخالفين برون مرزي اش ربط بدهد بر اساس اين فرضيه از محكومين به زور اعتراف مي گيرد. اكثر دست گير شدگان به وكيل دسترسي ندارند و خانواده هايشان از ترس سكوت كرده اند. بر اساس داده ها، چهارصد جوان بين سنين نوزده تا بيست و پنج سال در زندان بزرگ تهران زنداني شده اند.
Geçen Kasım ayında İran’ın birçok şehrinde yaşam pahalığına itiraz eden ve sokaklara dökülen İran halkı, çok uzun sürmeden İslam Cumhuriyeti’nin sert tepkisiyle sokaklardan püskürtüldüler. İslam cumhuriyeti bu ayaklanmaların yurt dışından belli muhalifler tarafından yürütüldüğünü söyleyip bu varsayıma göre itiraflar alyor. Bu tutukluların çoğunluğu avukat bile tutamıyor, bir çoğunun ailesi korkudan itiraz bile edemiyor. Açıklamalara göre 19-25 yaş arası 400 genç Tahran hapishanesinde tutuklu. Hükümlerin en ağırı geçen hafta açıklandı. Üç genç, 25 yaşındaki Amir Hüseyin Muradi ve Muhammed Recebi ile 27 yaşındaki Said Temcidi, İslam İnkılap Mahkemesi tarafından idam cezasına çarptırıldılar.
The Islamic Republic assumes that the uprisings were organized and coordinated by the opposition abroad and forced confessions to this effect. Most of the detainees cannot even afford a lawyer and their families are too scared to challenge the procedures. Official sources state that around 400 young people between the ages of 19-25 are imprisoned in Tehran prison. The harshest judgments were given last week and three young people (Amir Hosein Moradi and Mohammad Rajabi of ages 25 and Said Tamjidi of age 27) were given the death sentence by the Islamic Revolutionary Court.
The Workers Revolutionary Party in these times of crisis and threatening spread of the corona virus pandemic calls the working class and the people, against any complacency, to active mobilization.