Greetings from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation

Democracy in Malta according to the Bourgeoisie

The remains of Galizia's car after the explosion.

At present in Malta the Bourgeoisie Class and its allies some of the better paid top echelons managerial workers, and pseudo-leftists, are attempting to bring down a democratically elected government using all means at that are disposable, fair or foul, and going as far as dirtying Malta’s name in Europe to achieve their aims. In the European Union, some parties like the greens and other right-wing parties are describing Malta as a country where there is no rule of law, and that democracy has failed. This, however, is very far from the truth as the situation is normal except for the protest by a minority which is not affecting anything as it does not enjoy popular support.  The Nationalist Party, the party that represents the interests of the upper classes, have twice in a row, been defeated at the poll, by a landslide. Also, a contradiction has arisen within the PN; the inner circle is involved in an internal struggle to remove their new leader who was elected by the party’s grassroots against the wishes of the PN’s inner circle. Their rhetoric leaves much to be desired and arrogantly declare that government is theirs by right. For instance recently a speaker in one their protest meetings that they are holding right now, declared that the Castille (PM’s office) is theirs by right and that the present administration is there because it had rented the place, disregarding the fact that the electorate has twice rejected them, and yet these persons try to convince us, that they the only defenders of the liberal democracy that is practised in Malta.

The recent murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a journalist and a blogger, by a car bomb, is being used as a thin veil excuse for this purpose. Persons that hated and feared her when she was alive are now making her a martyr for justice and truth. To start with Caruana Galizia was neither a crusader against corruption as the BBC has described her after her death, nor the saint as the Maltese middle class wants the world to believe. Her importance is being blown up out of all proportions.  Her murder which was condemned by all quarters of Maltese society is being used to give the false impression that Malta reeks with corruption and that crooks are everywhere. This is being done out of spite as although today’s Labour Party has moved to the centre and has continued a neo-liberal policy as the previous PN administration, they still consider this party, as the party of the working class.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Nationalist Party propagandist. She embarked on this career during her student days as an activist against the Dom Mintoff administration back in the 1970’s. Later on she embarked on a journalistic profession and later on she had her personal blog which she used to crucify anyone who acted or said something she did not like. She went as far as attacking the personal life of her victim, his wife or children were not spared. One person came out saying he lost his job and his family had suffered because of a remark he had published on Facebook. His employers scared that she would ruin their business sacked him.  During the 25 year Tenure of PN successive administrations never once she wrote or condemned corruption. Needless to say, there was plenty of it. One big scandal was when the PM Secretary was knifed in the back, his would-be murderer was used as the prosecutor’s witness, to bring to justice those involved, his evidence was not accepted in court, he was exposed as the person who did the stabbing and nothing came out in fact all persons he had accused were all found innocent. It is still a mystery who was behind all this and why the prosecution trusted this unsavoury character.

In 2013 something happened in Malta the Bourgeoisie suffered a landslide defeat. This was unthinkable as like kings of old the PN believes that it has the divine right to govern. At times the Catholic Hierarchy came to their aid to maintain this dictum. Daphne Caruana Galizia who had attacked the Labour Party and its MP’s in opposition now became the main critic of the newly elected Labour Administration with her spies within the public service employees she uncovered all that was going around. Of course, there would be corruption; no administration in Malta was ever free of this as Malta is a capitalist country.  She brought to the attention that a Minister and the PM chief of staff had secret Panama accounts. An action was taken against the Minister involved he was removed from his post. In the case of the PM chief of staff, who is not a civil service employee, but employed on contract,  no action was taken,  as according to the Maltese law it is not illegal to have secret accounts plus the fact that he was giving a good service which would have been lost if he was sacked. In fact, members of the PN acted as agents to help individuals procure secret accounts. One of them today is an MEP.

The Prime Minister Joseph Muscat also came under attack in Caruana Galizia blog she alleged that his wife owned a secret company to which she brought no tangible proof. In fact a person owned up and still it was insisted that this company belonged to the PM’s wife.  The PM reacted by ordering an independent inquiry into these allegations, so far the judge appointed has not concluded his investigations which is overdue as he had ample time to do so. On the first of May the Prime Minister called for early elections. The PN’s battle cry was corruption, and as in 2013 they suffered another landslide defeat, this time even greater.

Something happened within the PN their former leader was made to resign and amongst the contestants, for leadership, there was the nomination for Dr Adrian Delia the President of a local football club. The PN inner circle fought hard to keep him out. However, the paid members of the party thought otherwise by electing him. As soon as he became leader Daphne’s guns were turned on him. She exposed him as a bankrupt businessman who also was involved in shady deals like prostitution in Soho to all these allegations, he denied and answered with 5 libel cases, he even went as far as to call her a whore. Now he has withdrawn all the libels and has become her defender. He was spurned by her family as they did not accept an apology made by him. His co-option in parliament, so he could fill the post as Leader of Opposition, proved to be a difficult task and it took weeks before an elected member was convinced to cede his parliamentary seat. After his co-option and his actions in parliament, some of the PN’s elected MPs took exception to this, as prior to his election he promised a new way of doing things, but he is acting very much like his predecessor.  Now they are working for his dismissal by a vote of no confidence. As things look now it is very possible that he will end up as party leader but not a leader of the opposition. 

In Parliament Delia’s answer to the 2017-2018 Estimates speech was not a critique against the budget put forward by the government, but a tirade against the government asking for the resignations of the Prime Minister, the Attorney General, and the Police Commissioner over the alleged by him the breakdown of the rule of law which again according to him brought about the Galizia Caruana murder. The reasons for this supposedly break down of law which is alleging are that the Police Commissioner and the Attorney General took no action and made no arrests in the Panama Paper scandal and Egrant allegations. As stated above the Maltese law does not consider it illegal to have secret accounts. If today this seems archaic it’s this law that has to go and not the Police commissioner and the Attorney General. Also in Malta, the police must have proof that a crime was committed. They cannot arrest anyone on suspicion. This comes from Malta’s past colonial rule whereby Maltese Laws are similar to those in Britain.

Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder must be condemned as the criminal act that it actually is, but one must also condemn those who are trying to sanctify her for their political ambitions. Action against corruption must be made always regardless of what party governs.  Citizens that only condemn the other side and completely close their eyes to the mistakes made when the party that they support, is in government are hypocrites. Needless to say, this applies to all.    

Victor Degiovanni

Secretary C.C.

Communist Party of Malta  

On the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution

STATEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNIST INITIATIVE

On the 100^th anniversary of the October Revolution

The Initiative Communist Parties greet the working class, all working people of Europe on the occasion of the centennial of the greatest event of the XX century – the October Revolution!

October 1917 proved in practice the correctness of the Leninist theory stating that the victory of socialism is possible in one single country or a group of countries, as a result of the uneven development of capitalism. The working class of Russia, driven by a revolutionary theory developed by the vanguard of the class - the Communist Party, accomplished the revolution and embodied the dreams of millions of working people for a better life, for a just social-economic system, whose criterion is not capitalist profit but the satisfaction of the ever-expanding needs of the people.

The world capitalist system moved by its contradictions lead humankind into the First World War which took the lives of many millions of people. The revolutionary uprisings that flared up against this background in Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary and other countries were cruelly suppressed. The imperialist powers actively intervened in the Civil War in Russia, but were defeated. The revolution won! Its victory confirmed the need for international solidarity of the working class against the capitalists, the possibility of building a socialist society only through the dictatorship of the proletariat, the need to end the bourgeois state, nonparticipation in the bourgeois government and the absence of transitional types of power between capitalism and socialism.

For over seven decades after October 1917, the workers in the Soviet Union experienced unprecedented gains. The world’s first socialist state madetremendous leaps in the economy in the interests of the people, in science,in technology and in the fields of society and culture. The working people of the USSR received the right to work, unemployment and discrimination against women were eliminated. The state of workers and peasants introduced free education at all levels and free medical care for the entire people. Soviet power protected the rest of the working people, provided universal access to culture and sports. The Soviets, as the organisational form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, involved the working people in managing the affairs of society, raising the political level of the masses to unprecedented heights.

Capital in the capitalist countries under the pressure of socialism and tenacious workers’-people’s struggles was forced to make concessions: an eight-hour working day and universal suffrage rights were introduced, the people acquired the right to pensions, benefits, vacation for the first time. The USSR made an enormous contribution to and played the leading role in the smashing of fascism and the Great Anti-fascist Victory of the Peoples. Moreover, the USSR made exceptional contributions through the multifaceted internationalist solidarity that it provided to the peoples in their struggle to overthrow the colonial system.

The defeat of the world’s first socialist state cancelled out the social gains of the working people, both in the socialist countries and in the capitalist countries. It is a temporary setback that does not negate the fact that the era in which we are living in is the era of the transition from capitalism to socialism. We call on the people, the youth to more deeply study the causes, the reality and truth about the dissolution of socialism and to reject the propaganda of the bourgeoisie, the EU, the capitalist governments and their apparatuses, to denounce the falsification of history, and the unacceptable identification of communism with fascism.

Reality proves to us that capitalism is out-dated and can only offer the same thing as 100 years ago — poverty, degradation, wars, cyclical economic crises- and that the only real alternative to this is the invaluable experience of the Great October Socialist Revolution!

We have unshakeable faith and certainty that the working class, the peoples, taking their lead from the ice that was broken and the road that was opened, will carry out more mature, more experienced, more effective and capable socialist revolutions, which this time will be irreversible. In any case, we are living in the era of socialist revolutions which was inaugurated by Great October. The course of history cannot be reversed.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                27/10/2017

                                                                                                                                

Communist Party Comments on the 2017-2018 Budget

The Communist Party of Malta views the Budget presented in Parliament for the year 2017 to 2018 as being positive in many aspects, but understandably it is still lacking in others. To eradicate poverty completely more have still to be done. Although the measures being taken are slow they are on the right track.

Under the present socio-political conditions, where Neo-Liberalism reigns supreme, the party does not expect much more. One cannot expect governmental control over exorbitant rents which are becoming more unaffordable to the working classes in Malta, in a Capitalist system capitalists dictate the terms, not the Government.  Neither can we expect that the minimum wage is raised substantially so that a family can have a decent level standard of living. This, however, should not deter us from continuing the struggle to achieve our aims

The Communist Party of Malta is glad to note that the LP has retained much of its social consciousness of the past, even in today’s situation, where the political parties, have moved away from past political stances.

The Working Class in Malta must once more take on the lead in the struggle for regaining what it had lost in the recent past, the right for, for long-term employment, away, from the precarious jobs, and low wages. Only through Socialism will these conditions improve. Only the working class can embark on the road towards Socialism

Statement of the Secretariat of the ECI on Education

                  

The European Communist Initiative, which rallies 29 communist and workers' parties in its ranks, highlights the major issue of education which concerns school and university students, parents and teachers, the peoples as a whole. Education should be a right, not a privilege-commodity for the few.

In reality, it has been demonstrated that the education system under capitalism does not provide real education and is very expensive. It reflects and reinforces the dominant ideology of the society on which it is based.

The mission of the education system under capitalism is to ideologically prepare the workers of tomorrow so that they are assimilated into the exploitative system at a young age so that they adapt to the needs of the profitability of the monopolies. In capitalist society education systems are critical tools in the maintenance of a class-based society in the interests of the ruling capitalist class designed to perpetuate exploitation.

The reactionary reforms being promoted by the EU and the bourgeois governments reinforce the penetration and intervention of businesses into all levels of education, state spending is being reduced, the commercialization of education is flourishing and the content and results of research are controlled by these forces.

The anti-scientific and even obscurantist theories about nature and society, such as the attempt to discredit and conceal the theory of evaluation, to reproduce unequal relations between men and women. that dominate the education system, the fragmented knowledge and "skills", impede the development of critical thinking and scientific understanding.

The experience that has been accumulated underscores the fact that a plan is underway which aims to co-opt and convert the children of the working class and popular strata into supporters of the EU and NATO through designated programs and funding for lessons, projects, trips that propagandize the “values” of capital and its organizations.

In every country, the working class and the families of the popular strata and their children are paying for the grave consequences of the anti-people political line of the bourgeois governments. The lack of teachers and infrastructure continues and is intensifying.

The education system in capitalism has a deeply class character and aims to produce obedient workers who will not challenge the exploitative system. The poison of anti-communism is utilized in many school books. Socialism and the history of the communist movement are distorted and slandered, as are the history and struggles of the labour-people's movement. There is a devious and ahistorical attempt to equate communism with the monster of fascism. This year we honour the 100th anniversary of the Great October Revolution which brought to the fore a superior organization of society, socialism, which abolished the exploitation of humankind.

The radical eradication of the terrible legacy of illiteracy, the safeguarding of high-level exclusively public and free education for all, the development of educational theory and practice and the elimination of unemployment are amongst the great achievements of socialism. Problems that are related to educational infrastructure, the provision of meals, student accommodation etc, which remain unsolved under capitalism, were resolved by socialism.

The European Communist Initiative emphasizes the need to strengthen the struggle against the reactionary changes that are being promoted by the imperialist centers and the bourgeois governments, against the chronic underfunding of education, the falsification of history, the promotion of anti-scientific theories in schools.

We call on school, university and college students, their parents and teachers, the labour-peoples movement to fight alongside the communists to intensify the struggle for the right of children to real education in line with the requirements of our time, so that education becomes a means to improve the life of humanity and not a tool to perpetuate capitalist exploitation and the profitability of the bourgeois class.

                                                                                           6/10/2017

SOCIALISM CAN NEVER BE EQUATED WITH FASCISM

The Estonian Presidency of the EU has complied with the EU agenda, by the holding  of the event entitled “European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarian Regimes” whereby equating Communism  with Nazism. We are not surprised as in the ex-Baltic Republics, after seceding from the Soviet Union through the counter revolution of 1989 of Gorbachev and Co; the bourgeoisie took over and anti-communism became the order of the day in all of these Baltic States.

We have also seen in recent times, the EU and US installing a Fascist regime in the Ukraine and the fragmentation of ex-Yugoslavia in the late 1980’s, through the connivance of NATO, and the Vatican. These attempts to put Socialism in par with fascism is has been going on for quite some time now. This however exposes the realities of today were Capitalism is a moribund system, thus it is attempting to make fascism look more palatable to the masses, as only through this Fascist revival the bourgeoisie can bring about hope for the survival of the Capitalist System and thus prolonging their hold on the political power that enslaves the working class to their system of capitalist exploitation.

Equating Communism with Fascism is an attempt to rewrite history in order to exonorate Fascisn and make the younger generations forget all the achievements Made by the Soviet Union between the 1930’s and the early 1950’s and of the great victory over Fascism in the Second World War with the Soviet Union giving the  main contribution towards this aim.

 Communism which is the end result of Socialism is for the betterment of the living conditions of the working masses while Fascism is for more profits for the wealthy few, thus it can never be on par with Nazism. The assumption that it is, is a complete lie that has to be jointly denied and strongly condemned. Only Socialism can bring hope to mankind to live in Peace and Freedom.

Religious Instruction in State Run Schools

Self proclaimed Maltese Patriots in an Islamophobic stance

The Communist Party of Malta believes that the controversy that is going on in Malta right now about the teaching of Islamic Religion in state run schools is a xenophobic, nationalistic, and a hysterically religious fervour which amounts to a fascistic attitude, that without hesitation the Party condemns. 

The Communist Party of Malta deems that that Maltese state should be secular. As State and Church should be separate entities. If so then there would have been  no obligation for the state to offer religious instruction classes in state run schools. However reality in Malta is quite different

The Self Government constitution of 1947 was drawn up by an assembly made up by the political parties and all the NGO’s that existed then. This assembly decided that Malta should be a Secular state, but the Government that was elected subsequently decided otherwise and declared Malta as a Catholic state. This has obliged subsequent Maltese Governments since then, to provide religious instruction in state run schools. The Maltese Constitution also provides a clause that does not allow any discrimination on racial, colour, and religious bases

In Malta today live Maltese citizens that belong to other religious denominations, such as Islam and other faiths. This obliges the Maltese state to provide them also with religious instruction in state run school according to their religious believes. A case already exists where civics classes are held for the children that their parents object that they should be given religious instructions

The Maltese Communist Party praises the position taken by the Maltese Government and also the Catholic Hierarchy for it’s’ support towards the solving of the problem of Islamic religious teaching to Maltese students that are of that faith.

Statement of the EUROPEAN COMMUNIST INITIATIVE on the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome

However many celebrations the EU organizes on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its establishment, it cannot hide its imperialist character, its anti-people mission. The EU was not created in order to serve the interests of the workers but those of big capital. The goal of its establishment and criterion of the EU's strategy is the perpetuation of capitalist exploitation, the servicing of the competitiveness of European capital and its need for very cheap labour power without rights. For this reason, it has been demonstrated in practice that the celebrations about the prosperity of the popular strata which accompanied the founding of the EEC, the establishment of the EU and EMU, not only did not have any real basis for the peoples, but on the contrary conceal the full-scale assault against the workers'-people's rights. What had been won by the workers through harsh class struggles and the pressure exerted by the USSR and the other socialist countries are being taken back. In any case, it is no accident that the EU plays a leading role in anti-communism, the distortion of historical truth, the provocative identification of communism with the monstrosity of fascism.

The political line of the EU thrusts the burden of the crisis onto the workers and along with the measures it implements for the recovery of the capitalist economy and the increase of the profitability of capital, stepping on the ruins of the workers'-people's rights.

With this as the goal, new anti-people measures are being implemented and the mechanisms that support EU capital with new privileges, tax exemptions, subsidies are being multiplied in order to reinforce it at the expense of its international competitors e.g. USA, China, Russia.

In the environment of the sharpening of the competition over energy resources, their transport routes and the control of the markets, the European monopolies play a leading role in imperialist interventions against Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, Libya etc. in order to impose their interests in regions of strategic importance. The EU and the governments of its member states further reinforce their military preparation through the European Defense Union, the Euro-army, the enhanced cooperation between the EU and NATO, the arms race, facts that bear witness to the strengthening of the danger of a generalized military conflict.

In the same reactionary direction, the EU and its member states intensify their mechanisms of repression, surveillance, profiling and intimidation of the peoples, with the basic aim of impeding the activity of the labour-people's movement.

The peoples must be vigilant. They must not shed their blood in the wars for the interests of the imperialists, the major victims of which are the refugees.

The working class, the poor popular strata in Europe have acquired a great deal of experience over the years; the only way forwards is to call the EU into question.It is being demonstrated that the EU is neither eternal nor inevitable. Whatever scenario is adopted "regarding the future of Europe", the peoples will suffer heavy losses.

The European Communist Initiative (ECI) calls on the peoples to struggle and reject both the longstanding supporters of the EU, social-democrats and liberals, and also those that continue to sow illusions in name of alleged "fundamental principles of the EU that were later lost " or the of the anti-worker "acquis communautaire", like the forces of the Party of the European Left.

At the same time, the ECI stresses that they must struggle to decisively isolate the managers and reserve forces of capital, such as the so-called eurosceptic, nationalist and fascist forces, which sloganeer with their positions about the EU and in practice aim to keep the people trapped in every country in the capitalist development path, seeking to undertake themselves the management and perpetuation of the capitalist system, representing sections of the bourgeois class.

The working class, the peoples of Europe have the strength and can reinforce their struggle, fight for the recovery of the losses suffered during the crisis and in general the satisfaction of their demands on the basis of their needs, to come into conflict with the monopolies and the exploitative system, to chart their own path for their own power and economy which will serve their interests and satisfy their contemporary needs, to be liberated from the shackles of the EU and other imperialist alliances.The future of the peoples Europe is socialism, the only real way out of capitalist barbarity.

The peoples must come into conflict with capitalist exploitation in a mass and organized way, must strengthen the struggle against the EU and NATO.

                                                                             

Statement of the Secretariat of the European Communist Initiative on the 8th of March of Struggle

The Secretariat of the European Communist Initiative sends warm militant greetings, on the occasion of the International Women’s Day to the working women, unemployed women, women pensioners, urban and rural self-employed, to the young mothers, to the young women in university and school. It particularly salutes women refugees and immigrants, women from single-parent or large families, women with special needs and the mothers of children with special needs.

Female work exploitation, employer intimidation, dismissals, abuse of women, are clear signs of a rotten system, capitalism, based on the exploitation, at a time when all the rights, previously obtained through decades of class struggle, are being rapidly canceled.

The forms of gender and class discrimination continue to exist in every aspect of the economic, social, cultural life of women, as they are a source of additional profit for capital. They are utilized by all the bourgeois governments globally for the competitiveness of the monopolies. Inside this framework, the living standards of proletarian women are even worse. Women are the first ones to be fired, on the altar of the profits of big capital, they are underpaid in respect of men, they are forced to carry out a heavy work for free, or cannot access education because they cannot afford it, or endure violent cohabitation conditions just because they have no alternatives or simply do not know their rights.

Women are forced to supply social and family care services in substitution of the public sector, which has downgraded social services provided by local government, various NGOs and “social cooperatives”. This is the strategy of the EU and its governments to reduce social services and infrastructure, shifting the burden onto the workers’-people’s income.

Nevertheless, we are witnessing the ostensible paradox of women dying from exertion for 3 euros per hour or to stop looking for a job because they have enough of being continuously rejected.

The current social system cannot give answers to these problems.  

The bourgeois-social-democratic and liberal- parties and collaborationist trade unions are using gender diversity to blur the consciousness of class diversity. There is no affinity between bourgeois and proletarian women and there can be no solidarity between those who carry out class oppression and those who are subjected to it. Gender oppression is a consequence of class oppression and a division of labor that is functional to it. Therefore, women's emancipation cannot be obtained in a way, other than through the general emancipation of labor.

The right to permanent and stable work with rights, with a satisfactory salary and pension, to be provided with healthcare, assisted maternity and education are at the core of the contemporary needs of women and their struggles as a part of the general class struggle. Only a higher form of organization of society, with the overthrow capitalism and the establishment of socialism-communism can put an end to the double class and gender oppression of women.

The women of the working class must not accept that the children of the working class, of the people, their children become victimizers or victims in the imperialist interventions for the interests of the monopoles. They must demonstrate popular solidarity with the thousands of refugees, amongst them women, infants, unaccompanied children and adolescents and isolate the racist poison. They must honor in this way the contemporary internationalist message of March 8^th.

History confirms this truth. One hundred years ago, the Great Socialist October Revolution achieved for the first time the full and real equality of women's rights, taking a decisive step for the emancipation of women.

Therefore, March 8 should not simply be a celebration, but a day of political mobilization, marking the upswing of the struggle to win the contemporary rights and to satisfy the needs of working women and men, for a world free of exploitation. On the occasion of March 8^th, we address this call to reinforce the struggles for the achievement of our common goals and we greet the working women of Europe and the world.

Maltese Communists condemn EU agreement on Migration.

 

The Communist Party of Malta condemns the agreement reached by the European Union in Malta on migration, to try to cut off the route from Libya into Europe.

 

"The Party also condemns the two main parties in Malta for supporting the European Union, which is being hijacked by extreme right elements".   

 

The Communist Party of Malta urges all left and progressive forces in Malta to join together to show their disapproval to this agreement and the approval made by the Labour and Nationalist Party to this accord.

European Communist Meeting EU Parliament Brussels January 23rd 2017.

One Hundred Years from the events of 7^th November 1919.                                                 Communist Party Malta.                                             

2017 is the 100 year anniversary of the Great October Revolution This Revolution took place in Russia on November 7^th of 1917. This was the greatest event of the 20^th Century; it was a step forward that shook the world from its foundation, it brought about great changes where Marxist theory was put to practice, and also left an indelible mark in the history of mankind.

The salvation of humanity lies only in the transformation of the society into a Socialist Society.

Over 100 years ago Roza Luxemburg said “either Socialism or Barbarism” and since the counter revolutions that took place in the Soviet Union and the Socialist Community in Eastern Europe, this statement rings true, as exactly towards barbarism capitalism has led us. The Great October Revolution inspires and shows us the way forward in our struggles.

The Socialist road embarked upon by Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik Party after years of ceaseless struggle, at last had led to the Great October Revolution of 1917. The call by Lenin “All Power to the Soviets” led the then oppressed Russian workers and peasantry into open revolt against the “Provisional Government   that had replaced the Tsarist regime. This workers and farmers Revolution shaped the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics from the 15 countries that formed the previous Tsarist Empire. The USSR was to become a state governed by the workers.

 The USSR from a backward country under the Tsarist regime was to become a leading country competing in all respects with the United States of America which in the twentieth Century was the leading power in the western world. The Soviet Union achieved for its citizens full literacy and a first class free health service in the years preceding World War. This was again restored in a short period after the Second World War

Through its 73 year history proved that not only the working class could lead society but that is was also the bastion of the working classes in the Western Capitalist Countries. Through its people’s efforts and their leaders namely Joseph Stalin, with great personal sacrifices the Soviet people built up a mighty land that eventually was put to test during the Great Patriotic war, much greater sacrifices were required to ward off the German invasion of 22 June 1941. These Sacrifices included loss of 24 million soviet citizens, and the complete destruction of soviet cities and villages. However through its great contribution the Soviet Union was the leading force that assured the victory over Fascism in the Second World War.

The achievements of the Soviet Union were evident needless to say the scientific accomplishments, speak for themselves. The Soviet Union was to become the champion of all countries that were oppressed by colonialism and was a catalyst in the liberation of all colonized countries It was the Soviet Union that supported Malta’s and other countries that demanded independence in the UN.

The Second War was barely over new war clouds arose on the horizon, not satisfied with the Yalta Treaty,  Imperialism with the aid of new weapons felt safe to challenge  the Soviet Union. The Nuclear Armaments this time were the threat not only to the Soviet Union but to the whole of mankind. This threat was neutralised by the Soviet Scientists who also were able to develop nuclear armaments in a very short time. A stalemate position then ensued. This came to be known as the Cold War. This period ended in the late 1980’s with a supposedly disarmament treaty which also ended the Yalta treaty.

Through the revisionism which had started during the Khrushchev period, and the weak leadership that ensued, plus the final internal betrayals of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, the counter revolution triumphed after 73 years, and the Soviet Union came to a sad end.  Imperialism had triumphed and went on to break every treaty that it had made with the now defunct Soviet Union. Today we are living in a unipolar world the U.S. dictating its demands which are always in tune with its own interests, which happens to be everywhere.

Capitalism today is in decay. The predictions, made by Karl Marx about its final collapse, have at last arrived.  Fascist forces are arising out of capitalism’s foul decomposition. Fascism is the tool that the bourgeoisie uses when its position is threatened, and exactly this is what has resulting from the collapse of the capitalist system. The virus that infected this system started long before the short lived triumph brought about by the counter revolution of 1989 that led to the fall of the Soviet Union and Socialist Community in Eastern Europe.  It was believed then that the disappearance of the Eastern Europe Socialist community and the Soviet Union will open new markets and give capitalism a new impetus thus ensuring its survival.

The opposite of what was expected ensued as the banking system started to collapse first in U.S then in tandem, the rest of the capitalist countries in Western Europe this brought about the capitalist crises that now has been an ongoing feature in the daily life of the European working classes. Workers especially in the southern European Countries are facing austerity measures imposed on them by the “Troika.” (the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).)

These measures have resulted in high unemployment, precarious jobs, reduced wage packets, reduced pensions and other social assistance. This has brought about misery on all the strata of workers from white collars to blue collars.  Furthermore, a rise in poverty amongst low the wage workers. A new term is being used to define those earning a low wages, they are being known as “the working poor” because they cannot cope with the rising prices of commodities  

Wars of aggression by the Empire and its NATO allies are being waged against third world countries in an effort to emerge from these crises by exhorting from them their natural resources. This however is not something new as in the 19^th Century it was the old imperialist powers France and Britain committed such acts. However today this is a paradox, as these wars continues to deepen the crises by putting more demands upon the already empty coffers, and thus creating more hardships on the workers in western world who are expected to pocket the bill and on the workers of the third world who are expected to be the victims.

This year all Communists and progressives around the world are celebrating the 100 years anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Today, though Soviet Union is no longer with us, through the internal betrayals by its last leaders.  This should not hinder us. Our tasks and struggles today are to give Capitalism its “coup de grâce” and to reach the masses everywhere to build socialism on a global scale thus ridding the world of miseries, suffering, and wars.

  Victor Degiovanni.