Colombia:  Colombian Communist Party Praises Havana Peace Accords.

The Colombian Communist Party is praising the cease fire accords between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) and the government of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, signed in Havana, Cuba last week.  In an article on the party’s website, Carlos A. Lozano Guillen, editor of the party’s newspaper “Voz” (“the Voice”), called for left wing unity going forward, in spite of ideological differences, in order to be able to take power.  Lozano called for a constituent assembly process to take on basic structural issues that support “savage capitalism” in his country.  “The post-agreement [period] should unite the lefts to reinforce a stable and lasting peace  with more democracy and social justice. Lozano denounced utra-right wing ex President Alvaro Uribe, who has been ferociously denouncing the peace negotiations.

 

Bahrain:  People’s Tribune Denounces Repression

The People’s Democratic Tribune has denounced new moves by the government of this Arabian Gulf Kingdom to use revocation of citizenship as a means of stifling political and religious dissent.  Recently, the Bahraini government had announced that a number of people involved in opposition activities would be stripped of their citizenship.  The government of Iran has also objected to the citizenship-stripping of a Shiite.  The government has accused the latest batch of people stripped of citizenship and given harsh prison sentences of spying for Iran.  The ruling family of Bahrain is Sunni Muslim but the majority of the indigenous population is Shia.  For a number of years, there has been much political dissent in the Shia community, and complaints that Saudi Arabia interferes on the side of the government in a very heavy handed manner.  Almost half the total population of Bahrain consists of migrant workers brought in to work in the oil industry.

The People’s Democratic Tribune’s statement emphasizes its rejection of all foreign interventions in, and threats against, Bahrain, of actions that intensify sectarian tensions within the country.  Further, the Democratic Tribune calls for democratic reforms, and the resumption of the suspended national dialogue. The Democratic Tribune calls for the reversal of the citizenship stripping measures and other repressive policies.  Finally, it calls upon all Bahrainis to put sectarianism aside and work toward the interests of the whole nation.

 

Portugal: Communist Party of Portugal denounces European Union Threats

The Communist Party of Portugal is denouncing new threats that the European Union is making against the country, and calling for the government headed by the Socialist Party Prime Minister Antonio Costa to stand firm against them.  Under the European Union’s Stability and Growth Pact, signed by a previous government, Portugal is supposed to keep its national budget deficit under 3%.  The Communist Party denounced this pact at the time, calling it the “death pact” because it became the basis for imposing very harsh austerity programs on the Portuguese people, and because the economic shrinkage it mandates severely damages the economic welfare of the poorer European countries, of which Portugal is one. Recently, leading figures in the European union have been accusing Portugal of violating the Pact by reversing austerity measures imposed by the previous, right wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelh. The Portuguese Communist Party states that it “rejects the external conditions imposed on [our] country on the matter of the amounts of the deficit, as incompatible with sustained economic and social development” in addition to “multiple instances of outside interference” in the country’s internal affairs.

Austria:  Communist Party member is elected vice mayor of Graz

On June 16, Elka Kahr, a member of the Communist Party of Austria (Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, KPÖ) was elected vice mayor of the city of Graz, which is the largest city in Austria after the capital, Vienna.   This is not the first time the communists have done well in elections in Graz.  Comrade Kahr stated in her acceptance speech:  “We have to give the population courage and hope—and certainly not with just general terms, but very concretely.  I will work for this in my new position”.

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