PARTIT KOMUNISTA MALTI: July 2014

Friday, July 25, 2014

Communists condemn the Governments’ double standards.

Gaza: Malta is Neutral

Malta takes sides

The Communist Party of Malta deems the comments made by the Prime Minister, Dr Joseph Muscat on CNN with regards to more sanctions against Russia as premature, as the United Nations investigations are not yet complete.

The Party is amazed how the Government did not react against the Israeli aggression in Gaza, where Palestinian Civilians are the victims of continuous bombing by Israeli military forces, which breaches all International laws.

“The position taken by the Government is not in line with traditional socialist principles and ideas. On the contrary the government is playing in the hands of US Imperialism”.

“With respect to Palestine, the Communist Party of Malta expressed solidarity with the people of Gaza, the activists in France which are being denied the right to express solidarity with Palestine by a supposedly socialist Prime Minister, and with activists from the Palestinian solidarity network (Malta) who were stopped from exposing in public, a streamer in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, eventually taken to court and fined”.

Communists condemn privatisation of energy production

"The approval in Parliament of the Energy Bill, to give the Government the legal right to privatise energy production and distribution is of major concern. Strategically, the Government is giving away all of Malta's sovereignty in energy production", stated the Communist Party of Malta.

"Similar policies were applied by the previous administration. These policies resulted in the state losing control of essential public services; increase in prices; new employment contracts on precarious conditions, and running of these services in private monopolies. Public services should remain under state control".

"Contrary to all this, the Party supports Government's initiative to sign an agreement with China to produce in Malta renewable energy mechanism and sources".

The Communist Party of Malta appeals to the General Workers Union to be careful not to allow the new management taking ownership of Malta's energy production and distribution to engage new workers on precarious job conditions, as it had happened in the postal service, telecommunication, security and the environmental sector".

Sunday, July 13, 2014

“Government should support the Palestinian Cause” – Communist Party of Malta.

“The declaration made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr George Vella, to keep secret Malta’s position with regards the vote to allow Israel to hold a seat in UN Security Council, as one, that betrays the Palestinian cause.

“The Government present policy contrasts largely with the traditional labourite principles, one of which was, solidarity with the people of Palestine”, stated the Communist Party of Malta.

“Traditionally, past Labour administrations from the Dom Mintoff era till now, always supported the Palestinian people’s cause. This policy was also upheld by the Nationalist administrations from 1987 onward through the initiative of Dr Guido Demarco.”

“The Government should officially declare it’s position with regards to Palestinian issue and clearly state how its representative is going to vote on the Israeli vote. The Communist Party of Malta reiterates that the Zionist State of Israel should not occupy a seat in the UN Security Council, as Israel had never observed UN resolutions against it. The Maltese Government should not condone such behavior.

“We also appeal to the government to condemn the criminal punitive measures being taken by Israel against the Palestinian population in Gaza”, ended the Communist Party of Malta.

Appeal for a diplomatic and peaceful solution in Ukraine.

Dr George Vella Minister for Foreign Affairs

The Communist Party of Malta and the Ngo Garden of Knowledge had initiated an online petition to appeal to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Hon. Dr George Vella, and the Ukrainian Consul in Malta, Mr John Debono to work for a diplomatic and peaceful solution in Ukraine.

“The war declaration against the people of east Ukraine by the new president, Petro Poroshenko should be condemned, as it constitutes a direct breach of International Law. The people in the Ukraine should not suffer the consequences of foreign political interference and neither the senseless bombing by the Kiev government”.

The two organizations said that “there should be no discrimination what so ever on Russian speaking Ukrainians. The Ukraine Government should ensure strict respect for democratic rights and freedoms, the protection of minorities, and the freedom of assembly. We express our deepest solidarity with the people of Ukraine”.

The two organisations appealed to the public to join this petition to call for a diplomatic and peaceful solution.
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/dr-george-vella-save-people-of-ukraine

“The European Commission proposal opens the way for GMOs” – Communist Party Malta

“The agreement reached in the European Union on genetically modified (GM) crops is nothing less than a cheap compromise that will give more power to multinational companies. It’s a shame that UE environment ministers did not take a common position to totally ban GMOs from Europe”, stated the Communist Party of Malta.

“Through this compromise, the present EU structural system to halt the cultivation of GMOs in Europe will be weakened. The present system to a certain extent offers more protection against opening up to GMO cultivation and production”.

“With GMO production, more agricultural land will be taken for GMOs cultivation which in turn will benefit a few transnational corporations, such as Monsanto and the Swiss based Syngenta. The small farmers will have their livelihood threatened due to cross contamination of food and agricultural land”.

The Communist Party of Malta supports the position taken by the Maltese Government to vote against this European Commission proposal. The Party also supports the local wide grassroot activism against Monsanto and other similar companies.

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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