September 2022 issue of Revolutionary Democracy published

The September issue of the English-language Indian Marxist-Leninist theoretical and political journal Revolutionary Democracy ( revolutionarydemocacry.org ) has been published and can be ordered from Red Star Publishers ( redstarpublishers.org ) for $6 dollars, which covers US shipping costs.  For more information see the website or contact them at:  

Red Star Publishers

PO Box 1641

Manhattanville Station

New York, New York 10027

USA

Phone:  212 864 7595

Brick and mortar bookstores and organizations selling copies in India, the UK, and the US are listed at revolutionarydemocracy.org and many of the articles are also available posted.

Contents:

Hands off Ukraine!

On the Situation in the Ukraine, Bikram Mohan

No war in Ukraine, No to all kinds of warmongering! ICMLPO

The War in Ukraine: A War of Imperialist Aggression and Redivision of Territories for World Hegemony, Revolutionary Communist Party of Volta – PCRV/ Burkina Faso

Is the War in Ukraine Only a Inter-Imperialist War Between the USA and Russia or Is It Also a National-Liberation War of the Ukrainian People?, Revolutionary Alliance of Labour of Serbia

The Communists and the Independence of Ukraine, Luiz Falcao, PCR Brazil

On the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Pakistan Mazdur Mahaz

Russian and US imperialism – Hands off Ukraine!, National Liberation Council, Bangladesh

Statement by Members of the United Communist Party – Internationalists

Russia Needs ‘Denazification” as Does Ukraine, Alexander Batov

Unafraid to Be Called a “National Traitor”, Andrei Movchan

Minsk Peace Resolution and Southeast “Separatism”, (2014), Maxim Latur

The National Question and Revisionism (1974), Bujar Hoxha

Some Manifestations of National Oppression in the Soviet Union Today (1987), Natasha Iliriani

We Support the Struggle of the People of Sri Lanka, ICMLPO

BJP government: Withdraw Agnipath Now!, NTUI

Review the Condemnable Zakia Jafri Ruling. Release Teesta Setalvad and R. B. Sreekumar Immediately!, NTUI

Continuous Attack on Industrial Workers, Sudha Bharadwaj

Inequalities, the Budget and the Marginalised Groups, K.B. Saxena

A Brief Outline of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Malem Ningthouja

On the Repression of Tribal People in Silger, Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization

Yemen’s Humanitarian Catastrophe and Media Censorship, Toufan

Colombia: Historic Victory of Petro and the Historic Pact, En Marcha

Obituary: Maurice’s Militant Journey, La Forge

Some Reflections on ‘Khrushchev Lied’ by Grover Furr, Vijay Singh

Appearance of the Notes “On the Question of Nationalities or about “Autonomisation”, Valentin Sakharov

Amendments to the Draft Document on the Tactical Line of the Communist Party of India, I.V. Stalin

Towards ML Unity September issue published

The September issue of Towards Marxist-Leninist Unity has been published and will be posted at:  redstarpublishers.org/TMLU.htm  (see also for TMLU's contact information and how to order print copies).  Submissions for the planned November issue should be sent in during October.

Contents:

The Inter-imperialist wars and the position of the left within the US  

End the War in Ukraine  

Preliminary Remarks on Biden vs. Trump  

Inflation, Stagflation and Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act”  

The Crisis of Success in the United States  

Short and Local Articles  

Education Cuts  

Rehire unvaccinated municipal workers  

Water  

No to Congestion Pricing Plan  

Redoing bus stops  

Marx once said: “Religion is the opium of the people.”  

Why not use speed bumps instead of speed cameras?  

Penn Station “upgrade: A new boondoggle in the interests of the real estate industry  

To Hell with LUMA and the Inept Capitalist Government!  

Chile: The Victory of the Reject and the Alternative of the Revolutionary Communists  

Sección en español  

Las guerras inter-imperialistas y la posición de la izquierda dentro de los EE.UU.  

Los Estados Unidos no tiene derecho a dar lecciones a Putin sobre las invasiones  

¡Pa’l carajo LUMA y el Gobierno inepto capitalista!  

Chile: El Triunfo del Rechazo y la Alternativa de los Comunistas Revolucionarios  

BAP calls for International Month of Action Against AFRICOM and other anti-war events

Below is a press release from the Black Alliance for Peace.  Some related anti-war weeks of actions are also coming up in October: 

Keep Space for Peace Week will be October 1 - 8:  space4peace.org

SOA Watch's On the Line:  Border Convening/En la Linea:  Convocatoria Fronteriza will be at the border October 8 - 9 in Nogales, Arizona and Sonora.

The United National Antiwar Coalition is calling for an anti-war week of action October 15 - 22:  unac.notowar.net/register-your-action-no-to-u-s-wars/

Amidst the Biden Administration’s Forever-Wars Policy in Africa, The Black Alliance for Peace Launches A Month of Action Against AFRICOM (U.S. Africa Command)

For Immediate Release            

Media Contact
communications[ at blackallianceforpeace]
[  ]

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022—October 1, 2022 is the 14th anniversary of the launch of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). Yet, jihadist terrorist violence on the African continent has increased since the founding of AFRICOM and NATO’s destruction of Libya resulting in civilian casualties and instability, which the West has used as pretext and justification for the continued need for AFRICOM. Since its founding, coups carried out by AFRICOM-trained soldiers have also increased.

That is why the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) is organizing an International Month of Action Against AFRICOM in October. This is an effort to raise the public's awareness about how the presence of U.S. military forces exacerbates violence and instability throughout the continent.

Despite its rhetoric, the purpose of AFRICOM is to use U.S. military power to impose U.S. control on African land, resources and labor to service the needs of U.S. multinational corporations and the wealthy in the United States. It also serves as a major boon to “defense” contractors.

AFRICOM is a direct product of NATO via the U.S. European Command (EUCOM), which originally took responsibility for 42 African states. In 2003, NATO started expanding; four years later, in 2007, EUCOM commander James L. Jones, who was also NATO commander of operational forces, proposed the creation of AFRICOM.

NATO has become a huge global axle in the wheel of the military industrial complex, which includes more than 800 U.S. military bases around the world as well as  joint bases or relationships with almost all African countries. These are all controlled by the U.S. empire for realizing the U.S. policy of Full Spectrum Dominance, which is driven by the ferocious appetite of international finance  capital.

NATO continues today in the form of AFRICOM facilitating wars, instability and the corporate pillage of Africa. This hypocrisy explains why 17 African nations abstained from the March 2 United Nations resolution condemning Russia. One African state, Eritrea, even voted no. Their experiences with NATO and AFRICOM ensure skepticism of self-proclaimed noble motives.

Motives such as bill H.R. 7311, the “Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act',' a racist affront to African sovereignty designed to dictate what bi-lateral relations African states are permitted to have.

That is why we call on our friends and allies to endorse this month as an individual or organization. Beyond that, we are calling on you to participate each week using our calls to action, for which we have provided materials on our webpage. Each week’s call to action ranges from watching our kick-off webinar to organizing mass actions like banner drops, facilitating teach-ins using our materials and spreading the word using BAP’s custom graphics.

The Black Alliance for Peace calls for the dismantling of NATO, AFRICOM and all imperialist structures. Africa and the rest of the world cannot be free until all peoples are able to realize the right of sovereignty and the right to live free of domination.

We demand:

• The complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Africa;

• The demilitarization of the African continent;

• The closure of U.S. bases throughout the world; and

• The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) oppose U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and conduct hearings on AFRICOM’s impact on the African continent, with the full participation of members of U.S. and African civil society.

 
Link to online version: https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/africommoa2022

Final Declaration of the 26th International Seminar Problems of the Revolution in Latin America (SIPRAL)

The Left, the Workers and the Peoples in the Face of imperialist War  

The invasion of Ukraine by Russian imperialism has turned that country into the scene of a war in which the economic, political and geostrategic interests of several capitalist-imperialist countries are at stake. This aggression and the immediate intervention of US imperialism and its allies of the European Union and NATO in the conflict shows the sharpening of the inter-imperialist contradictions, to the point of leading them to the military field, turning this conflict into a war of an inter-imperialist nature.  

Although the military battlefield is centred on Europe, its repercussions are global in nature, with economic, commercial, political and social implications. The effects of a military conflict, added to the sanctions adopted by the bloc of the US and European Union against Russia, and the response it has given to these measures, has led to the exacerbation of some phenomena that already existed and the appearance of other problems, such as the increase in levels of inflation, the aggravation of the energy crisis, the risk of famine in some regions of the planet and the decrease in international trade. The most disturbing phenomenon concerns the slowdown in the growth rate of the world economy, to the point of warning of the risks that a new economic crisis of capitalism has been ignited.  

Particularly in Europe, the war fever has led governments of different kinds (neoliberals, social democrats, fascists) to increase their military budgets, to reform NATO's budget and the number of its military personnel, while the workers and peoples are paying higher rates for public services such as energy, fuel and food and they are continuing to lose their jobs in branches where the effects of war are greater. There is no doubt that wars are big business for the monopolies and that the peoples are the main victims of these conflicts in which the interests of the owners of big capital are concerned.  

But the impact on the living conditions of the workers and peoples is global. The serious problems created by the economic crisis of capitalism of 2020 and by the Covid 19 pandemic have not only not been overcome but, in the current situation, are getting worse. Latin America is one of the regions of the planet in which the lowest levels of economic growth are projected, with all the negative implications that this has for the living conditions of the workers and people; it is a continent in which, also, there are the highest levels of increase in poverty and extreme poverty.  

This explains the rise of the struggle of the masses, who are taking to the streets so that the governments provide a positive response to their urgent material needs, but also to fight for political rights, for social transformation, in defense of water and the environment. The yearning for change is present among the peoples of our region and that yearning is accompanied by struggle, in which the workers, youth, women and indigenous peoples have a particular role. They are actions that come existed before and now are raised to higher levels of social conflict.  

We live in a world in which the contradictions between capital and labor, between the workers and capitalists, between the peoples and imperialism are sharpening; in which the monopolies and the imperialist countries are counterposed to each other.  

Inter-imperialist contradictions are not only present in the current conflict in Ukraine; they are various; they even exist among those who now act as allies to confront those they consider as the common enemy. Now attention is focused on the struggle between the bloc of the US and the European Union and Russia, but we must not lose sight of the fact that the contradiction between the two largest economies on the planet, the US and China, sets the tone for the world economic and political scenario. Today we are witnessing a new episode of this confrontation, provoked by the visit of delegations of US imperialism to Taiwan.  

In these circumstances, we reiterate our rejection of the invasion of Ukraine and the imperialist war and raise the banners of peace. We express our solidarity with the Ukrainian workers, youth and people who are the main victims of this conflict and are resisting. We know that, as long as the capitalist-imperialist system exists, the danger of war will be present, and that it can even take the form of a world war. Therefore, the struggle for peace is inextricably linked to the struggle against capitalism-imperialism and to the triumph of the social revolution and socialism. We demand the dissolution of NATO and of all military blocs, the destruction of nuclear weapons and an end to the programs aimed at their creation; we demand an end to the arms race and to allocate those resources for education, health and the creation of jobs.  

We call for strengthening the unity and organization of the workers and peoples to confront the owners of capital, that this unity be anti-imperialist and anti-fascist and expresses the internationalist character of the struggle.  

From this America, in which the peoples are struggling to win their emancipation, we express our solidarity with all the peoples of the world who are fighting for jobs, for life, for freedom. We are united by the same ideals; we know that we are right and we also have the strength.  

26th International Seminar Problems of the Revolution in Latin America  

August 20, 2022  

Revolutionary Communist Party – Argentina  

Revolutionary Communist Party – Brazil  

Communist Party of Labor – Dominican Republic  

Popular Revolutionary Front – Mexico  

Communist Party of Mexico (Marxist-Leninist)  

Single Union of the Workers of Notimex – Mexico  

Union of Revolutionary Youth of Mexico  

Union of Education Workers – Mexico  

General Union of Workers of Mexico  

Popular Democratic Bloc of Peru  

Peasant Confederation of Peru Justiniano Minaya Sosa  

Popular Democratic Front of Peru  

Popular Antifascist and Anti-Imperialist Front of Peru  

Provincial Federation of Peasant Communities and Agrarian Organizations of San Ignacio – Peru  

Peruvian Marxist-Leninist Communist Party  

Union of Student Youth of Peru  

Towards Marxist-Leninist Unity, New York – United States  

Unitary Confederation of Neighborhoods of Ecuador  

Unitary Confederation of Retail Merchants of Ecuador  

Revolutionary Youth of Ecuador  

Popular Front – Ecuador  

Federation of Secondary Students of Ecuador  

Federation of University Students of Ecuador  

Women for Change – Ecuador  

General Union of Workers of Ecuador – UGTE  

National Union of Educators – UNE – Ecuador  

Popular Unity – Ecuador  

Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador [A host of the conference; www.pcmle.org/ ]

ICMLPO: Declaration of the Marxist-Leninist Parties of Latin America

 Declaration of the Marxist-Leninist Parties of Latin America  

The parties of Latin America that are members of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations, ICMLPO [ www.cipoml.net ], have had an important and fruitful meeting in which we have reviewed what is happening in this region and how we are fulfilling our commitment to organizing the fundamental forces to advance in the organization of the revolution and socialism.  

1. Latin America is one of the hardest hit regions of the planet in terms of the growth of its economy and the deterioration of the living conditions of the people. Here the levels of poverty and extreme poverty, the efforts of the bourgeoisie to promote labor flexibility and increase the levels of capitalist exploitation, the number of unemployed and underemployed, of homeless men and women, of young people who are forced to leave educational establishments and cannot find work, of women victims of violence; families forced to migrate from their cities and countries are growing; but also the amount of wealth concentrated in a few hands and the number of new rich people who have amassed recent fortunes are growing.  

2. In recent years we have witnessed a new process of changeover of bourgeois-political forces in the management of governments. The failure of openly neoliberal governments has given way to the presence of so-called progressive governments which, despite their pseudo-revolutionary rhetoric, also represent the interests of international monopoly capital and big local capital, although their features are different. None of these bourgeois choices represents the interests of the workers and peoples.  

The forces of fascism have not been able to implement their project in Brazil, the people have confronted it in the street. However, fascism persists as a threat against the peoples, as an instrument at the service of capital.  

3. The general crisis of capitalism, the serious problems facing the world economy and the economies of the different countries, the anti-popular content of the policies carried out by the governments, are causing the discontent and dissatisfaction of the masses to grow and to express themselves in mobilizations of protest for their demands and rights. The ebb that affected the labor and popular movement during the pandemic has been left behind; today we are witnessing a new moment of development and growth of the struggle of the workers, peasants, youth, women, residents of popular neighborhoods, indigenous peoples. They are struggles for the urgent needs of the peoples, for political rights, which are confronting governments and, at the same time, confronting capitalism because they are the fruit of this system.  

4. The conditions for the impetus of our revolutionary activity have improved, but how much we advance depends, above all, on what we do. Our parties are committed to the promotion of revolutionary activity in each of the countries, we are striving to present political and organizational alternatives in order to advance in the organization of the workers and peoples, to strengthen their unity, to develop the class struggle.  

5. A condition for fulfilling our strategic objectives is to win the masses to revolutionary positions, which is why we understand the need to strengthen our ideological work, to disseminate our political and programmatic theses, our theoretical conceptions. To fulfill that purpose, we have considered specific activities.  

6. We have a great challenge: to completely fulfill our condition as a revolutionary political vanguard in each of our countries, which implies reaffirming our Marxist-Leninist positions and improving our skills to apply theory to the concrete conditions of each place or country; it also implies having sufficient strength to lead the masses in the struggle for their material demands and in the revolutionary political struggle for the seizure of power.  

7. The struggle to put an end to the domination of capital has an international character in its content, and a national character in its form. Guided by this Marxist-Leninist principle, we reaffirm our commitment to the internationalist tasks that the organization of the proletarian revolution requires. We reiterate our solidarity with the struggle of the workers and peoples around the world, their struggles strike the domination of capital and affirm the way to achieve social emancipation, socialism.  

8. We salute the political-electoral victory achieved by the Colombian people who have defeated the most reactionary bourgeoisie in the country at the polls, allowing the establishment of a government that the people hope will fulfill their aspirations and the yearning for change.  

9. We condemn xenophobic and racist ideas and practices promoted by bourgeois factions against men and women who, due to the deplorable material living conditions, in some cases, and political circumstances, in others, have been forced into migration. We express our solidarity with those who are going through these circumstances.  

10. We condemn the inter-imperialist war taking place in Ukraine; we reject the action of the military blocs and the warlike policies that are being applied to maintain this war. We denounce the warlike actions that the imperialist powers are promoting around the world.  

Meeting of Marxist-Leninist Parties of Latin America, members of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations ICMLPO  

Quito, August 2022  

Guido Proaño Andrade: Gorbachev, at the service of world capitalism

It isn't clear where this was originally posted.  It is also posted at revistarupturas.com/gorbachov-al-servicio-del-capitalismo-mundial/ and elanguloagudoec.wordpress.com/2022/08/31/gorbachov-al-servicio-del-capitalismo-mundial/

Gorbachev, at the service of world capitalism  

by Guido Proaño Andrade  

The death of Mikhail Gorbachev has led to a great unfolding of information in the international press. In several headlines he is highlighted as the last Soviet leader; strictly speaking, he was not, since he led the final stage of capitalist restoration in the former USSR, an aspect totally contrary to Sovietism.  

Gorbachev assumed the functions of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, CPSU, in March 1985 and shortly thereafter was named President of the USSR. It was a time when economic, political, social and moral problems took on great dimensions in that country. In the 1970s, the growth rate of national income fell by more than 50% and in the early 1980s it almost reached zero. Corruption could not be stopped; there was talk of a "second economy" to designate what is known as the "black market," in which officials at the highest level of the State and leaders of the party were involved. The health system was practically in ruins; housing was overcrowded; the rates of alcoholism in the population were high; people's life expectancy was reduced and mortality was on the rise. There were many more problems.  

The bases of capitalism resurfaced in the former USSR with the coup d'état carried out by Nikita Khrushchev and his clique in 1956, after the death of Joseph Stalin (1953). Over the years, the successes achieved by socialism in all fields while Lenin and Stalin were at the head of the state were undermined and capitalist laws and forms of production were imposed. So much so that Leonid Brezhnev (who succeeded Khrushchev) said that "no one lives on their salary alone," referring to the existence of the "black market" and the social strata that depended on private economic activity for their income.[1]  

Gorbachev, when he assumed the leadership of the party and state, obviously did not present himself as an open promoter of capitalist re-establishment; he said that his purpose was to establish an "efficient, productive and democratic socialism," and thus led to the disintegration of the USSR.  

The economic and political reforms that brought the anti-socialist process initiated by revisionism four decades earlier to the highest point, were made official in July 1987. A year earlier they were approved at a Party congress, but as early as 1984, in a speech to the ideological working group of the Central Committee of the Party, Gorbachev raised the need for an information opening (glasnost) and the restructuring of the economic system (perestroika).  

Gorbachev's plan sought to establish a capitalist market economy, eliminate control over state enterprises, which could now determine what to produce, how much to produce and the prices in the market based on consumer demands; a new law on cooperatives restored private ownership to companies in services, manufactures and sectors linked to foreign trade; foreign trade was liberalized. This led to deindustrialization and the privatization of state-owned enterprises. In 1994, when the USSR no longer existed, 70% of the assets in Russia came from the private sector.  

Hand in hand with the pro-capitalist reforms was glasnost (transparency), which supposedly had the purpose of democratizing information, but in reality it was a means to open the floodgates to an open and furious anti-communist propaganda, driven by the most degenerate and pro-restoration sectors. The historical distortion of the process of building socialism in the USSR was one of the targets and, particularly, the unfounded attacks against Stalin were accentuated.  

Gorbachev defined perestroika as a revolution within the revolution, aimed at achieving more socialism and more democracy; in reality it was a counter-revolution within the counter-revolution. The economic and social problems deepened, the USSR fell into political chaos, the demands of the workers and the people were lit up on all sides, and some Soviet republics demanded to secede.  

On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev broadcast a live message on television, announcing his resignation from the presidency of the Republic. It was a formality; in fact he had no control over the situation in the country; days earlier the Washington Post called him the leader of a kingdom in the air.

  

The international bourgeoisie loudly applauded what Gorbachev did. None other than George Bush Sr. said that "the revolutionary transformation of a totalitarian dictatorship and the liberation of its people from its suffocating embrace" had taken place. If the most powerful imperialist head of state on the planet said that, it is because Gorbachev's services to world capitalism were enormous.  

---

[1] See: The Restoration of Capitalism in the USSR. Website of the Hispanic Soviet Friendship Association, AAHS, between March and April 2021