The Communist Party of Malta on the visit by USS Whidbey.

The Communist Party of Malta is once again noting the flagrant violation of the Maltese Constitution by the present Administration. The visit to Malta of the American warship USS Whidbey is a clear evidence of how the neutrality clause is being violated.

“This U.S. war vessel was directly involved in the 'illegal' War against Iraq. This War had the support of several imperialist countries, including the USA, England and France, with the support of other satellite countries which comprised of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain and others. This war did not have the approval of the United Nations.”

The Party sees the consensus reached by the two major parties as a threat to the Maltese Constitution, to amend and to review the neutrality clause, with the main aim to adhere to imperialist policies.

The Communists affirms that “the policy of neutrality should be further strengthened, so that no Administration would find any excuse to engage Malta in a conflict. Neutrality should serve Malta to work for a peaceful agreement in conflicts and for humanitarian aid”.

Solidarity with Greek trade unionists

The Communist Party of Malta expressed solidarity with Nikos Photopoulos, Trade Union leader of GENOP / DEI, and six other colleagues, who are under trial for their full participation in the ‘sit in strike’ protests, held last November at the general headquarters of the Public Corporation for Computing, against the Government’s decision to impose austerity measures and job redundancies.

“The Party believes that Trade Unions have every right to defend and safeguard worker’s rights and conditions. Dismantling of this right means the resurgence in Europe of the fascist era, where workers and leaders where put in prison. This happened under Franco’s regime in Spain, Germany under Hitler, Italy under Mussolini, and Chile under Pinochet”.

“European and Greek workers have every right to refuse to pay for the economical fiasco made by others. The Communist Party of Malta joins with other communists and worker’s organisations to condemn the actions taken by the Greek authorities in the prosecution of the trade union movement. These workers are facing a prison sentence of 5 to 10 years”.

The Communist Party criticises the economic policies of the EU.

The Communist Party of Malta condemns the attitude that is being taken by the European Union where every day it is distancing itself from the path to a Social Europe. The creation of regular and decent jobs and the social protection for pensioners and the unemployed are no longer on the European agenda.

“The corporate model, which in history was associated with Italian fascism, where the Unions were forced to participate in the social and economic fora, is leading to the dismantling of worker’s rights. They are also deceiving the Trade Unions claiming that by leaving the system in the control of the European institutions, better social policies and more democracy will result.

“The fact is that with the fall of the Soviet Union, the EU felt that any left wing counterforce has vanished, thus neo liberal policies became triumphant and is increasingly exploiting the workers and threatening people’s sovereignty.”

“EU priorities are for a reduction in labour costs, dismantling of social policies and the privatisation of statal pension systems. Employers are also demanding more direct tax cuts and are also refusing to contribute towards the sustainability of the Welfare State System”.

“The Communist Party of Malta maintains that a Europe of Capital has always existed, while there was never a Social Europe. In fact, the European Social Charter was never put into practice. Today the European Union is finding ways and means to retreat from the concept of a Social Europe. In Latin America, neo liberalism has been successfully dismantled.

The Communist Party of Malta congratulates AKEL of Cyprus

The Communist Party of Malta congratulates the Workers’ Progressive Party of Cyprus, AKEL for managing to obtain good results in the local elections held on December 18th, in spite of many difficulties.

In coalition with other progressive parties, AKEL had 18 mayors elected, 8 of which are AKEL party members.
AKEL’s Secretary General Andros Kyprianou said in a statement that, “it was a rewarding result in the face of the war being waged by the opposition parties to isolate AKEL and despite the problems that Cyprus is facing”.

The Party not only kept its position but also increased the percentage of votes over that achieved in the last General Elections. Compared to the last local elections held in 2006, AKEL increased its seats by five.

The Communist Party of Malta sent a fraternal message congratulating AKEL for the positive results achieved.

The Communist Party of Malta comments on Russia and Korea.

The Communist Party congratulates the Russian Communist Party on the result obtained in the last parliamentary elections, where the Party managed to obtain 20% of the popular vote, which translated into 92 seats (12.5 million votes). Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of Russia has again managed to increase its support and has become the second largest party in the country, while the other Left party, The Just Russia Party, has achieved 8.6%, which translates into 64 seats.

“Both parties are collaborating together in the cause of the working people, and to combat the poverty problem in Russia. Poverty has increased due to neo-liberal policies that were adopted by the United Russia Party led by Vladimir Putin.

The Communist Party also expressed its solidarity with the Korean People on the loss of Kim Jong Il, the Korean leader. The Party calls upon the U.S. Administration to change its policy of embargo against the Korean people. This embargo has caused major difficulties which resulted in food shortage and lack of medicines.

The Communist Party of Malta believes that the US should treat DPRK as it treats Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait, Etophia, Turkey, Honduras, Haiti and Qatar. Sovreignity of the Korean peninsula should be safeguarded, so that the two people move towards the re-unification of Korea.

The Communist Party of Malta appeals workers at Air Malta to contest the next coming general elections.

The Communist Party of Malta has once again expressed solidarity with Air Malta employees who are facing an uncertain future with regards their employment with the company. Bad planning and the easy access for low-cost airlines brought about difficulties for Air Malta to compete with low cost airlines. Low cost airlines are massively subsidised and the sector is not unionised.

“The Party appeals the workers at Air Malta, to organise themselves politically, and proceed to nominate a candidate/s, to contest independently the next coming general elections with the specific aim is to push forward their interest and to safeguard their jobs. The Communist Party will surely support this candidate”.

“The political parties in Malta do not really represent the interest of the working people. The restructuring process is nothing more but a neo liberal concept to privatise all national airlines across Europe in the coming future”.

We believe that all transport workers should ‘unite’ in solidarity amongst each other on industrial level and, also organise themselves on a political level”.

Communists condemn Parliament’s position in favour of Partnership for Peace.

The Communist Party of Malta condemns the position taken by the Maltese Parliament vis a vis Partnership for Peace (PfP), where today there seems to be a consensus between the Government and the Opposition to allow Malta to continue to partecipate in the PfP. Initially, this decision was taken by the Nationalist Administration behind the people’s back.

“The Party sees this as a flagrant violation of the Constitution of the Republic of Malta. As a neutral country, Malta must keep away from military blocs. The PfP forms part of a NATO programme and it works independently from the U.N Peace keeping operations. NATO uses PfP to safeguard its imperialistic strategy”.

“The government of Cyprus, which has a military base imposed on it, refuses to join Partnership for Peace. We believe that this should be an example for Malta which boost that it embraces a policy of neutrality”.