PARTIT KOMUNISTA MALTI: THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF MALTA SALUTES ALL THOSE WHO FELL ON 9/11/1973.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF MALTA SALUTES ALL THOSE WHO FELL ON 9/11/1973.

An address written by Victor Degiovanni and delivered by David Pisani at the Gnien tal-Gherf Commemoration of the coup of the 11th of September 1973 against the Unidad Popular Government in Chile.

On the 11th of September 1973 the Nixon administration through covert activities of its special branches and the open manoeuvring of Henry Kissinger succeeded to stage a military coup against the democratically elected Government of Chile. This coup was not only instrumental in the toppling President Salvador Allende a moderate Socialist. This also led the way for Milton Friedman and his disciples of the Chicago School to start the neo-liberal experiments which led to the capitalist crises that we are facing today.

The Chilean Army did not have a history and tradition, of military coups as the Armed forces in other Latin American countries. General Augusto Pinochet, with the assistance of U.S. financial aid, and with the help of U.S. covert forces, embarked on an all-out attack on the Moncada Palace which served as the official residence of the Chilean President. This was to be the start of one of the bloodiest coups.

The fascist forces also attacked and managed to capture the media, made their presence felt in the streets, imposing a curfew and arresting all those suspected with Unidad Popular affiliations, murdering thousands and thousands progressively minded Chilean citizens. Amongst those who died in the first days of the coup were the Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda a world renowned poet, and Victor Jara a popular folk singer. The football Stadium in Chile became in a manner of speaking a Chilean “killing field”

The radical changes that were on the agenda of this newly elected government were not to the liking of the Chilean middle class and their master U.S. imperialism. The methods used to bring the progressive socialist government were creating artificial scarcities of essential requisites using the strike as a weapon by truck owners and other small time businesses, ensuring that food and other necessities from reaching the city, and holding protests in the streets, in an effort to create discontent. These actions had the reverse effect as Unidad Popular gained more popular support. These methods are today being used in Venezuela.

The Nixon administration, with Henry Kissinger being the prime instigator sought the support of the Chilean Military forces, through the aid the military received, and the indoctrination training at the “School of the Americas” located in Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia the die was cast. On September the 11 of 1973 a democratically elected government was brought down by a military coup. This day will always remain a day of shame, for the Chilean military forces.

The Communist Party of Chile at that time was led by Louis Corvolan backed Salvador Allende candidacy for President. Pablo Neruda who was the Communist Party nominee withdrew his candidature from the race, so to give more chance to his friend Senator Salvador Allende to win. The Communist Party formed part of the Unidad Popular government that was elected in 1970. This coalition was made up of a number of left wing parties and other smaller progressive parties. This coalition managed to wrest the government from the hands of the Christian Democrats, and for two years embarked on the road for improving the lot of the working class liberating the copper mines from foreign hands, thus the profits from this natural resource were once again in Chilean hands.

The coup changed things drastically. The Communist Party was banned, and a large number of activists were murdered by the military, some that were lucky managed to escape and lived in exile, while the rest of the party went underground and formed a guerrilla organisation, the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front Which offered resistance to the Pinochet Fascist dictatorship up to the restoration of democracy in 1990 when the Communist Party was once again legalized. Today the Communist Party of Chile works independently of other Parties and once again is represented in Parliament.

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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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PARTIT KOMUNISTA MALTI

Saturday, October 4, 2014

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF MALTA SALUTES ALL THOSE WHO FELL ON 9/11/1973.

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