Communist Party of India sees government moving in “authoritarian and fascistic” direction

The Communist Party of India sees the strategy of the right wing government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as having two prongs.  The government is essentially neo-liberal and pro-corporate, and is working to undo India’s social safety net, leading to the “destruction of whatever development the country has achieved since independence.” The government of Modi is also notoriously corrupt, while claiming to fight corruption, as revealed by evidence from the Panama Papers scandal, which the government has tried to cover up.

To distract attention from the harm neoliberal policies are doing to the population, and from the many corruption scandals, the Modi government is promoting increased conflict on religious, ethnic and caste bases.  The opposition, in particular the left, needs to upgrade its initiatives of struggle against these “authoritarian and fascistic” tendencies, which are more evident every day.

Turkey: Communist Party warns against simplistic conspiracy theories about last year’s coup attempt

July 15 was the first anniversary of the failed military coup that is still sending aftershocks through Turkish politics and society.  In an interview in the newspaper Sol, Kemal Okuyan, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey, shared his views about what was behind the coup and some other matters.

With reference to accusations by the head of the CHP (secular Kemalist party) Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, that the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was itself behind the coup, as a provocation designed to give itself more power, comrade Okuyan is skeptical.  He doubts that Erdogan, a year ago, had enough power to set all the coup pieces in motion without showing his hand.

Algeria: Communists mourn the death of a pioneer

The Algerian Party of Democracy and Socialism (PADS) is mourning the death of one of the founders of the communist movement in Algeria, Boualem Khalfa.  Khalfa, who died on July 10 at age 94, was an early leader of the Communist Party of Algeria.  A PADS statement said “our comrade fought to the last breath for the emancipation of the oppressed and exploited classes”.

Boualem Khalfa joined the Algerian Communist Party as a very young man, in 1948, at a time when the French colonial regime was savagely repressing the Algerian independence movement.  An excellent journalist, he served on the editorial team of the pro-independence newspaper Algier Republicain, eventually becoming editor-in-chief (and doing jail time for some of his writings). In 1955, the Communist Party of Algeria was dissolved by the colonial regime, forcing Khalfa and other militants to work underground.  Arrested and tortured in 1956, he was sent as a prisoner to France but escaped, and continued with his political work, in part from exile.  The coup in Algeria in 1962 led to more persecution of communists, but he was undeterred, and continued working to maintain communist ideas until the last.

Brazil: Communist Party of Brazil denounces sentence against ex-President Lula da Silva

Luciana Santos, president of the Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil) has denounced the recent sentencing of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to 9 ½ years for supposed corruption and money laundering, a sentence which adds that he cannot hold public office for the next 19 years.  Lula is free while he appeals the verdict and sentence.

In a statement, Santos said “In spite of the complete absence of evidence… Judge Sergio Moro has condemned ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to nine and a half years in prison….The Communist Party of Brazil expresses its firm indignation at the sentence given by Judge Sergio Moro, its solidarity with Lula, with his family and his party, and calls on all democrats, no matter what their political positions or ideologies, to mobilize so that the democratic rule of law be guaranteed “ and that Lula be freed on appeal.  Lula is [part of] the patrimony of the Brazilian people, an icon of our history and will be tenaciously and decisively defended by all who dream of a just Brazil for all its people.”

Photo: Partido Comunista do Brasil

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