Germany: Election sees the rise of Der Linke alongside a fascist upsurge
Die Linke (The Left), the successor to the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany, has gained an unprecedented 39 seats and 9% of the vote in the German parliament, the Bundestag.
Heidi Reichinnek, the party’s parliamentary leader, credited its old-fashioned grassroots approach to politics for its success, saying, “We’ve knocked on over 300,000 doors. We’ve spoken with people; we’ve listened; and we’re already helping in their daily lives. While others just talk, we act.”
Die Linke also benefited from a swell of online interest after Reichnnek criticized Christan Democrat leader and likely new Chancellor Friedrich Merz, for normalizing and legitimizing the fascist AfD party by accepting their support for his party’s rightward immigration turn. “You’ve made yourself an accomplice, and today you’ve changed this country for the worse,” Reichinnek said of Merz in her viral speech, which the party says has been seen over 30 million times. “Resist fascism in this country,” Reichinnek said. “To the barricades.”
Still, the AfD shocked Germany and the world by surging ahead to become the 2nd largest party in Germany with 152 seats. Its support is largely based in eastern Germany. The AfD has been praised by JD Vance and Elon Musk.
Vietnam: Celebrating 95 years of the Communist Party
In February, Vietnam celebrated the 95th anniversary of its Communist Party. Ho Chi Minh founded the CPV, first as the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in Hong Kong while in exile. Vietnam, along with the rest of “Indochina” at the time, was under French occupation. To commemorate the founding and to celebrate the Lunar New Year, a special celebrity program was held at Guom Theater in Hanoi.
The Communist Party of Vietnam led the fight to liberate the country from France and later the United States, unifying the country in 1975. Since liberation and unification, Vietnam’s Gross Domestic Prodect has recently reached over $470 billion and the poverty rate has declined from 60% in 1986 to around 1.93% by the end of 2024.
Belgium: General Strike
Over 100,000 workers and their allies took to the streets of Brussels in February to protest the right-wing Belgian government’s austerity measures. The new government has been dubbed “Arizona” due to the colors for the state’s flag. Air traffic workers went on strike and others were expected to join. The Workers’ Party of Belgium listed 13 main attacks against the working class:
- Pension theft
- Billionaires spared taxes
- Night bonuses abolished
- Overtime pay phased out
- Wage freeze
- Healthcare cuts
- Ban on labor demonstrations
- Welfare cuts
- Attack on immigrant rights
- Increase of military spending
- Joining US cold war on China
- Following Trump, cutting global aid
- No sanctions on Israel
Sudan: CP denounces reactionary rival military factions
Saleh Mahmoud, International Secretary of the Sudanese Communist Party denounced the two dueling military juntas of the Sudanese Army and the Raid Support Forces, which have been locked in civil war since April of 2023. Saleh Mahmoud made the comments while in Addis Adbba shortly after meeting with officials from the African Union. Sudan has been plagued by civil war and military coups since its independence in 1956. The Sudanese Communist Party has been at the forefront of the struggle for democracy since the party’s founding in 1946 and has faced repression, including the arrest of senior leadership by military intelligence.
Politburo member Sidqi Kaballo called upon the United States to support an arms embargo, saying,
“The United States, as one of the world’s largest arms exporters, can play a crucial role in preventing the arming of the warring parties through its laws that impose strict restrictions on the use of its weapons in international conflicts. There is the potential for imposing international aerial and maritime surveillance on Sudan, and monitoring its borders using satellites and drones to prevent arms smuggling.”
Image: Die Linke Flagge by blu-news.org (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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The Communist Party USA is a revolutionary working-class political party founded in 1919 in Chicago, IL.
The Communist Party stands for the interests of the American working class and the American people. It stands for our interests in both the present and the future. Solidarity with workers of other countries is also part of our work. We work in coalition with the labor movement, the peace movement, the student movement, organizations fighting for equality and social justice, the environmental movement, immigrants rights groups and the health care for all campaign.
But to win a better life for working families, we believe that we must go further. We believe that the American people can replace capitalism with a system that puts people before profit — socialism.
We are rooted in our country's revolutionary history and its struggles for democracy. We call for "Bill of Rights" socialism, guaranteeing full individual freedoms.
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