The Communist Party of Brazil Calls for Reversal of Coup Against Dilma Rousseff

The National Political Commission of the Communist Party of Brazil (PC do B), meeting on May 20 in São Paulo, concluded that “the coup is reversible and democracy can triumph”.  The Brazilian communists called for the progressive forces to condemn the coup d’etat carried out by the parliamentary right against President Dilma Rousseff, and resume the offensive in defense of democracy.  The coup brought to power Vice President Michel Temer, a right winger, as interim president while Rousseff undergoes an impeachment trial. The Communist Party of Brazil denounced Temer for immediately promoting right wing changes to reverse the 13 years of progressive government under Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.  Temer, with an all white male cabinet, is making budget cuts and other changes that will deprive the working class and poor of health care, education, housing and other necessities, while eliminating the ministries of women’s affairs and racial justice.  However,  Temer’s administration has already been hit by massive corruption scandals.  According to the communists, “a vast democratic people’s movement is arising nationwide against the interim imposter president”.   The coup must be defeated in the streets and the Senate, they add.

 

Filipino Communists Analyze Election of Duterte

The Philippines Communist Party (PKP), which was founded in 1930, has weighed in with its views on the national elections which were held on May 9.  The Filipino communists point out that the major presidential candidates pretty much all came from the old traditional ruling class and represent its interests.  The victory of the mayor of Davao City, Rodrigo Duterte, they see as a populist reaction to the abuses by this elite stratum.  Duterte’s vulgar sexual jokes and his promise to massacre petty  criminals and then grant himself a presidential pardon for the mass murder is a danger sign of what kind of regime he will run, the communist say, as is his admiration for the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Duterte has talked about offering positions in his cabinet to a Maoist communist group, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which, through the New Peoples’ Army, which has carried out more than 47 years of armed struggle. CCP leader Jose Maria Sison was Duterte’s mentor in the latter’s youth. It remains to be seen if the friendship between Duterte and Sison could end the fighting which has cost thousands of lives.

Communist Party of Australia Denounces Subminimum Wage Plan

The Communist Party of Australia is denouncing the “jobs and growth” reelection slogan of the government of  Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, of the right-wing Liberal Party.  The communists say the plan is really a union busting scheme that will hurt the working class and only help big business.   According to the plan, young workers who are recipients of a public aid program called the Newstart allowance will be “handed over to businesses to work 25 hours for $100 (Australian) a week on top of their benefit.  This amounts to paying them $4 an hour (the U.S. dollar currently is equivalent to 1.37 Australian dollars).   The communists say that this is just one more anti-labor attack by the Liberal Party leadership, designed to produce “cheap, disorganized and compliant workers”, and that the plan amounts to one more form of slave labor in Australia.

Communist Party of Swaziland Holds Fifth’s Annual Conference

On March 24^th -28^th the Communist Party of Swaziland held its Fifth Annual Conference and Anniversary. Because of the repressive situation in Swaziland under the monarchy of King Mswati III, the event had to be held in Mpumalanga in the neighboring Republic of South Africa.   The party denounced the “most hated, inhuman and parasitic Mswati regime and Tinkhundla system” (Tinkhundla is a semi-traditional ruling system based on selection of local governments through royal patronage).  Characterizing the regime as “feudalist-capitalist”, the Communist Party called for unity and intensified action by the working class and its allies to make the country ungovernable as a step toward ending the undemocratic  regime and replacing it with democracy and socialism. The Communist Party denounced the probable selection of the Swazi government to the chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as shameful. The party promises to protest against such a development.

 

 

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