Russia:  Provincial election results annulled due to Communist protest

In an unusual  move, Russian Republic election officials annulled the result of a provincial governor’s race on the grounds that the winning candidate’s campaign engaged in electoral fraud.  A new election will be held in December of this year.

In the run up to the Primorye Krai (province) election on September 16, the candidate of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, Andrei Tarasenko, had been trailing the candidate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Andrei Ishchenko, by a considerable margin in this far eastern district.  But when the votes were counted, Tarasenko had somehow achieved a miraculous victory. Ishchenko complained that United Russia had stolen 30,000 votes to win the election.  In recent provincial elections, United Russia has been losing ground to the communists, evidently because of the impact of an economic downturn on the voters.

 

Brazil:  left, center forces unite to block fascism

The shockingly high vote – 46 percent of votes cast – for a fascist presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, in the first round of the Brazilian general elections on October 7 has created a situation of emergency mobilization on the country’s political left and center.  The uphill struggle is to prevent Bolsonaro from winning the runoff election on October 28.

Bolsonaro, and his running mate, army general Hamilton Mourão, will face the Workers’ Party’s Fernando Haddad, whose running mate is the Communist Party of Brazil’s Manuela D’Avila, in the runoff.  To make up for the difference between Bolsonaro’s 46 percent and Haddad’s 31 percent in the first round will be very difficult and will entail winning over huge numbers of people who voted for other candidate or cast spoiled or blank ballots in the first round.  The third place candidate in on October 7, Ciro Gomes of the Democratic Labor Party has indicated support for the Haddad-D’Avila ticket. Many centrist parties and former candidates are declaring themselves officially neutral. However, Brazil’s other communist party, the Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Brasileiro, or PCB), which has often not agreed with the Workers’ Party, strongly urged its followers to vote for the Haddad-D’Avila ticket as the only electoral means to halt the fascist tide exemplified by Bolsonaro.  “Because of [our] historical experience, the PCB does not underestimate fascism; [this is] the reason why, in spite of the differences which we never failed to express publicly, in this second round we urge a critical vote for the candidate of the Workers’ Party, Fernando Haddad”.

Finland: Communist Party of Finland celebrates its 100th anniversary

This year, the Communist Party of Finland, one of the oldest communist parties in the world, is celebrating the centenary of its founding in 1918.  Finland had been, since the early 19th Century, a semi-autonomous dependency of the Tsarist Russian Empire.  When the Bolshevik Revolution took place in Russia in November 1917, Finnish communists organized themselves to win socialism in their own country.  Finland declared its independence in December 1917. This was followed by a civil war which was won by the right wing Finnish “White Guards” with German support.  After that the Communist Party suffered years of repression, but operates legally today.

In a statement marking the anniversary, the Communist Party of Finland Chairperson Juha-Peka Väisänen praised his party’s founders for their wisdom and courage, adding that struggle “must embrace the aspiration of the workers and communism for justice, equality and sharing.  This is the feminist dream of equal rights of the sexes to development. This is the environmental demand to change the state of our planet for the good of all. It embraces the vision of a global culture in which all minorities are entitled to their own culture…Long live the class struggle!

 

India:  Communists and allies organize resistance to fuel price hikes

As part of an ongoing mobilization against the anti-worker economic policies of the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, communist and leftist parties have been working together to organize mass protests throughout the country.

On September 10, September 21 and ongoing, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and the Socialist Unity Center of India have organized mass mobilizations targeting the government’s “unparalleled hike in the prices of petrol [gasoline], cooking gas as well as the runaway increase in the prices of essential commodities”.  Leaders of the leftist parties blame the Modi government for consumer tax policies which contribute to rising fuel prices, and thus to the cost of many essential items.

 

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