PARTIT KOMUNISTA MALTI: November 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Communist Party appeals the Government to respect the right to strike.

The Communist Party of Malta deplores the attitude taken by the Maltese Government, when once again the Government has shown its anti-democratic credentials, when without any warning, and without informing anyone, the Government amended the Industrial law hindering transport workers from their right to strike. The right to strike is protected by the International Labour Organization (ILO) statute.

“This ploy was not a surprise to us, because the Nationalist Party embraces the same values of the European Union, neo liberalism. Where referenda, general elections, and the right to strike, are seen as a direct threat to the hegemony of the European financial Institutions”.

“The recent event that took place in Greece and Italy, where leadership of the country was entrusted to non-elected technocrats is a case in point. While the actions being taken by the Government in Malta, particularly in the public transport sector, is a continuation of this neo liberal agenda”.

The Communist Party of Malta appeals to the Director of Employment and Industrial Relations to take this issue with urgency and find an appropriate remedy so that the right to strike by all workers is protected. The right to information and also the right to open consultation should not be undermined. The Government should respect the democratic process, and withdraw the amendments made to the Act on Employment and Industrial Relations.

“The Party appeals to the Trade Unions to unite and work together on this important matter. The Communist Party will also do its part by taking this issue to the European Parliament with the help of our comrades in the United Left Block”.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Communist Party of Malta congratulates the Spanish United Left Block electoral success.

The Communist Party of Malta congratulates the United Left Block , which include the Communists, The 'Indigniatos’ Movement and the Left Socialists for the success in electoral results obtained in Spain.

“The United Left Block has increased its rapresentation from 2 to 11 deputies in Parliament, and has gained more support, where from 3.77% (970,000 votes), has now obtained 6.95% (1,600,000 votes)”.

The Communist Party notes that whenever social democratic parties adopt right wing social and economic policies, they lose the popular support. The Party believes that the future for the Spanish people will be tougher. The right wing People's Party which now has an absolute majority will push forward a more neoliberal agenda, and will take measures in favour of banks and against the people.

The Communist Party of Malta expresses its solidarity with the Spanish working class and the progressive movements that are offering strong resistance to protect the the interests of the working people.

“The Party hopes that in this scenario, there will be no anti-democratic actions as those taken recently by the EU and the Financial Institutions in Greece and Italy”, stated the Communist Party.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

“European Institutions threaten Democracy”, Communist Party of Malta.

The Communist Party of Malta condemns the anti-democratic actions that are being committed against the people of Greece and Italy. The European Union and the capitalist financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank are imposing technocrats as leaders of interim goverments, without consulting the people through elections. The Party believes that these countries should go to the polls. Indeed the Communist Party of Malta is supporting the European left block in its call for elections.

“The working class has every right to oppose austerity measures and have every right to elect parties who they believe that they will protect their interests. The current situation in Greece and Italy is dangerous. Anti-democratic tactics were also applied in the case of the European Treaty to come into force. The European Treaty is a neo liberal concept.”
“The Communist Party of Malta sees this capitalist interference in both countries as a threat to sovereignty, and could be a step towards fascism. We are concerned that fascism will be imposed if the working class succeeds in putting a stop to the austerity measures”.
The Party expresses its solidarity with the working people in Greece and Italy and is giving its full support to the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Italian Communists, in their struggle to protect the working class from the capitalist onslaught and for democratic participation and representation.
The Party is also concerned that the anti-democratic tactics, will be applied in similar situations in the future. Capitalists are feeling threatened by democratic measures. The are scared of losing their hegemony. The party appeals to the Maltese MEPs to be on the alert, as there is a possibility thatEurope will find itself in the same situation, as in the 1930s, which lead to an era of fascism.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

COMMUNIST PARTY's 2012 BUDGET PROPOSALS

“Budget 2012 should give importance to working conditions, the standard of living and strengthening of social services", said the Communist Party.

“The government should stop supporting economic policy based on precarious work. The State is there to protect the right for a decent work. The Party urges the government to include this aspect in the budget”.

“With regards the standard of living, the Communist Party believes that the greatest negative impact on households are the result of the increase in energy prices, including that of electricity, water and gas, three resources that are essential in every day life. The Government should seek to safeguard the basic consumption, while penalising wasteful practices”.

“In the financial area, the Government must work for a sustainable financial situation, but not at the expense of public services and social benefits. Without social services and benefits people at risk of poverty could reach 144,000, according to official statistics”, said the Communist Party.

The Communist Party therefore demands that the government should target areas that are generating big profits, such as the financial sector, on line gaming, and banks to increase its revenue while renouncing any policy of privatization in the health, education and pensions sectors.

“Social housing: Government should reform the system by investing in social accommodation to be offered to the public for renting at reasonable rates. This must also include a progressive policy regarding empty property, which must be utilised for the benefit of the country and the people”.

The Party insists on an increase in the national minimum wage and pension so that workers and those who retired after life long work enjoy a decent life.

“Immigrants should be safeguarded from exploitation and slave labour conditions”, concluded the Communist Party.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

"Someone should answer for the Public Transport fiasco"

The Communist Party of Malta expresses its solidarity towards all those people that had to face difficulties in order to make use of public transport, due to lack of proper public consultation, haste and arrogance. Many were late for work while others were forced to absent themselves from work. This resulted in everyone having to wake up earlier in order to arrive at work on time.

The Party sympathises with all those people that whenever they tried to express their concerns regard the service, many were ridiculed and told that they did not understand how the service works.

"The Party therefore believes that there is no credible excuse for this fiasco. We expect that someone should bear the responsibility for all this. We also expect that the money paid for the planning of the routes, should be returned back to the state, so that the Government could use that money on social services.

"The Party also expresses solidarity with those workers who were made ‘sacrificial lambs’.”

Members from the Communist Party of Malta will join tomorrow’s protest for a just and efficient public transport. We appeal the general public to join and support these courageous youths, who are organizing this protest.

Victor Degiovanni
Secretary

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Some History

An organized Communist Party did not exist prior to 1969. Secret Communist cells existed in various periods from the 1920's onwards, but they were always small in number. Maltese communists militated either in the Communist Party of Great Britain, or in the Partito Comunista Italiano, or worked under cover within the Malta Labour Party, which was also infiltrated by the catholic clergy at that time, in an effort to prevent the Labour Party from taking a Marxist line, notably amongst these infiltrators was Mgr. Michael Gonzi, the future Archbishop of Malta and a faithful servant of the British Crown and a much bitter enemy of Malta’s Liberation Movement in Malta’s struggle for Independence in the late 1950's.
The Civil and ecclesiastical authorities were ever vigilant in their witch hunt, and this culminated in the 1933 sedition trails where a number of dockyard workers and intellectuals were imprisoned for the crime of possessing classical Marxist literature. This however proved to be a great setback for the progressive movement as it took years and years to get back on its feet again
. The major exponent of the bourgeoisie was the Nationalist Party, an irredentist party firmly believing that Malta was a part of Italy that had yet to be redeemed, from English occupation. Its leaders favored the Italian Language to Maltese, and openly shown sympathies towards Mussolini’s fascist Italian state. With the Second World War looming on the horizon the English colonial authorities sacked a Nationalist administration after winning an election with the aid of the Catholic Church who had imposed mortal sin on who ever voted for the Constitutional Party, a pro British Bourgeoisie party. This pro Italy position eventually led, to the internment of the Nationalist Party leadership on breakout of the war. After the Second World War it was the right wing turn now to suffer a setback. The Second World War changed completely the political scene in Malta; however the times were still difficult for the setting up of a Communist party.
At the Mayday celebrations of 1948, where in a dinner held by the Labour Party for the occasion. The English socialist anthem Scarlet Banner was sung by some leftists present of the at this event. This caused an incident which led to affidavits and statements by the leading members of the labour party in parliament and a witch hunt by the Catholic Church paper Lehen Is-Sewwa (The Voice of the Righteousness) and the British Colonial authorities.

DEMOCRACY DID NOT REALLY EXIST IN MALTA PRIOR TO 1971, not under the direct British Colonial rule, neither under the first Nationalist Administration after the 1964 independence. It was not possible to form a Communist Party. It was enough just to receive the "Soviet Weekly" from the United Kingdom, to find yourself watched and tailed by plainclothes policemen, and even taken to be interrogated by the Police. The Maltese Prime Minister in the early 1950’s took a film distributing company to court in order to stop the screening four Soviet films which the then, very harsh censors, had deemed them fit for viewing by the Maltese general public. Even Hollywood ran into trouble, if the story line included communists. One positive aspect was the cold war cinema films of the McCarthy era were banned in Malta. The Civil authorities went into hysteria at the word communist. The then regular Christmas tournament, organized by the Malta Football Association was stopped, because most the teams invited came from Eastern Europe. The catholic oligarchy led by the now Sir Michael Gonzi Archbishop of Malta with its’ network of Parish priests spying on each and every individual in each respective parish operating in a Gestapo fashion. The Main employment on the island depended on the Naval Dockyard, and on the other British Military Bases. The contradiction here was that, to declare oneself Communist would have been sheer madness, as these "devout" Catholics, would have starved you to death, while on the other hand Marxist Ideas spread amongst progressive workers, by the odd English Airmen or Sailors posted on the island.

In the last days of the Catholic hierarchy imposed Dr George Borg Olivier Nationalist administration, as in 1962 and 1966 general elections the church again made use of moral sanctions, now to safeguard its privileges it enjoyed during the colonial period, The Communist party was eventually set up, through the activism of Paul Agius who had returned to Malta, from Australia, who along with other Maltese comrades founded the Communist Party of Malta This event took place around 1969. The party for a short period operated underground but after 1971 when the Borg Olivier administration was finally defeated The Party came out into the open. The Party Membership started to grow Lillian Schiberras Anthony Vassallo, Anthony Baldachinno and others. Evarist Bartolo, Mario Vella, and Alfred Consiglio were amongst the early members
It is not possible to mention all here but many passed through party membership. During the 1970,s the party gave critical support from the left to the Dom Mintoff’s Labour Party administration progressive, anti imperialist policy. The Party supported the policy of neutrality and the demilitarization of Malta, At the time Malta was an important NATO Base. The Communist Party was not prepared to contest the General Elections in 1976 and in 1979 was in support of the closing down of all the military bases in Malta. In 1981.for various reasons, again the party could not contest in the general elections. During the 1980's the party embarked on the road towards electoral campaigns. The party started to publish a monthly newspaper "Zminijietna" and started to prepare for the evantuality of contesting. The Party was now going through its golden age as membership started to grow and things were looking up. On the eve of the 1987 elections Dom Mintoff now a backbencher in the Labour administration proposed amendments to the Maltese constitution, which were accepted unanimously. The electoral rules were changed to suit the two party system and it resulted that small parties now had no chance of surmounting the unofficial 17% threshold. The Central Committee failed to read the writing on the wall. Failed to withdraw from the fray, and contested the 1987 elections with disastrous results. After this debacle, the party went into a period of decline. The events in Eastern Europe of 1989 continued to give the party further blows, where now it was a struggle to survive and keep its archives.
In the mid 1990’s the party slowly started again on the road of being active once again.
NEWS FROM FRATERNAL PARTIES
Communist Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark
A Festival jointly organised by the Communist Party in Denmark (KPiD) and the Communist Party of Denmark (DKP) takes place on Saturday 15. August (12-23) and Sunday 16. August (12-18) in Norrebroparken in Copenhagen (near Nordbanegade). Bus 5A from Central Train Station. Lots of music, speakers from the 2 organising parties and from other organisations, political debates, displays, food, drinks and happiness - everything in favour of the 2 communist papers, Kommunist and Skub.
Everybody visiting Copenhagen are invited!

LINKS
http://www.icsbrussels.org/ICS/2009/Sci09_Available_Papers.htm
http://cubaveritas.blogspot.com/

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=14368

http://wwwlavienglish.blogspot.com/2010/10/soviet-union-was-born-in-october-1917.html

http://aucpbenglishwebsite.blogspot.com/

http://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/Statement-of-77-Communist-and-Workers-Parties-against-the-Imperialist-Military-Attack-against-Syria/

http://communismgr.blogspot.com.mt

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