SACP says capitalist market sustains land imbalances 

On June 20, South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, gave his annual State of the Nation Address to the country’s Parliament.   The reaction of the South African Communist Party (SACP) was largely positive, but also pointed how far the country has yet to go to overcome the inequality imposed on the majority of the population by the colonial and apartheid systems.

The SACP pointed out that the speech took place almost on the 106th anniversary of the imposition of the government of the then Union of South Africa of the 1913 Native Land Act, a law which ended up confining the large African majority to only 7 percent of the country’s land.  The SACP lauded Ramaphosa’s stated intention to accelerate the process of restitution of this land, but noted that these “imbalances are continually being sustained by the capitalist market”, i.e. are not just a historical relic of an earlier time.

Poland:  Communists Face New Wave of Government Repression. 

The far right wing government of Poland is instituting a new wave of anti-communist persecutions.  The new Article 256 of the Polish Penal code will criminalize a range of activities including wearing communist symbols on one’s clothing or having meetings in which communist ideas are discussed.

The Communist Party of Poland points out that this constitutes an abuse of the original article in the Penal Code which was supposed to criminalize fascist groups.   Changes in the law groups communism and fascism together as “totalitarian” systems that should be repressed, in spite of Polish communists’ long history of being the most determined fighters against fascism.  As a result, members of the editorial board of the leftist publication “Brzask” have been on trial for more than three years. Scores of communist and workers parties around the world have been speaking out against the persecution of communists by the Polish government.

 

Cyprus:  Historic AKEL Leader Dimitris Christofias  Passes Away

AKEL, which is the communist party of the island nation of Cyprus, is mourning the death of one of its most outstanding leaders.  Dimitris Christofias died at 72 years of age on June 21.

Dimitris Christofias was born in the village of Kato Dikomo, Cyprus, in 1946.   As a youth, he was active in left wing student struggles, eventually joining the AKEL youth branch, EDON, and becoming its General Secretary from 1974 to 1987.    He became General Secretary of AKEL in 1988, a post he held until 2009.   He was elected to the Cypriot parliament in 1991, and in February 2008, was elected as the 6th President of Independent Cyprus.

Dimitris Christofias spent his lifetime fighting against British imperialism, the Turkish occupation and in favor of socialism and the unity of the Cypriot people, gaining the respect of millions beyond his small country.

 

India:  Communists Denounce Murder of Their Party Activists

On June 22, two young communist activists, Tajimul Karim and Nizamuddin Mandal, were shot to death, evidently as a result of their political activities, in West Bengal, India.  The Communist Party of India (Marxist) lays the blame for the murders of its two young members at the door of the All India Trinamool Congress, or TMC, which has the majority in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, but is opposed by the two Communist parties and other left-wing groups.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) accuses both the TMC and the nationally ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of cynically refusing to take action to stop this kind of violence.

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