Colombia: Communists, others warn against Colombian intervention in Venezuela

The Communist Party of Colombia expresses alarm that the far right wing government in that country is making noises about supporting a possible U.S. intervention in neighboring Venezuela. On April 4 communists supported an open letter signed by a large group of left and centrist deputies, calling for President Ivan Duque to desist from supporting such action. Communist Party Secretary General Jaime Cayecedo Turriago is one of the signatories.

The joint letter points out that government support for such military action without congressional authorization would violate the Colombian constitution, adding that to countenance such action in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic would be an especially heinous act, and an illegal diversion of national resources which are urgently needed at this moment.

 

Spain: Communists demand European Union break with US on Venezuela

The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) has angrily denounced the European Union’s support for the increased attacks by the United States against Venezuela, in particular, the Trump administration’s new tactic of charging Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and other Venezuelan officials of “drug trafficking.” As a result, U.S. naval units now patrol the waters of the South American country.

The communists accuse the EU leadership of falsely usurping the right of its 27 member countries to determine their foreign policies, and also of violating the 1949 Geneva Convention because U.S. policy is damaging the ability of Venezuela to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The communists contrasted the attitude of the EU leadership with that of Alena Douhan, the U.N. official in charge of investigating the impact of unilateral coercive measures, such as the sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Venezuela. Ms. Douhan has pointed out that such policies violate international law, among other things. The Communist Party of Spain expresses its solidarity with the Venezuelan government and President Maduro and condemns the EU’s support for the U.S. policy, demanding that this support be reversed.

 

Brazil: Communists work on coalition building for municipal elections in October

Brazil will be holding municipal elections in October 2020, and the Communist Party of Brazil (PC do B), one of the two main communist parties in the country, is already preparing. The PC do B won 83 mayoralties of the 5,568 in the country in the 2016 elections, and is working on a coalition strategy to increase the power of the left against the extreme right wing national government of President Jair Bolsonaro. Since last year, the PC do B has been conferring with other left-wing and left-center parties in a project titled “Movimento 65” to run joint local campaigns. The main partner in this effort is the Workers’ Party (PT, Partido dos Trabalhadores).

In the city of Santarem, in the Amazonian state of Pará, work is underway to build a united electoral front for October. On April 2 the precandidate of the PC do B, Jota Ninos, announced that with the support of his party, he is withdrawing from the race in favor of the PT’s precandidate, Maria do Carmo. The next step is to get other parties to support this joint candidacy.

 

Iran: Communists celebrate their 100th anniversary

The Tudeh Party, which is the communist party of Iran, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of that country’s communist movement this year. In a historical outline issued by the Tudeh last week, the party explained the movement’s origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as some industrialization began to develop, and with it the beginnings of a working class.

Iranian socialist and communist organizing, from an early time, took inspiration from events elsewhere, including the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. There was a strong influence of events in Russia, particularly among Iranians who were involved in seasonal work in the oilfields of Baku, Azerbaijan, then part of the Tsarist Russian Empire, and in the Caucuses. The Communist Party of Iran (CPI) was founded in 1920, but was crushed by the despotic regime of Reza Shah, who seized the throne in a coup in 1925 and arrested the CPI leadership in 1937. When Reza Shah was forced out of power by Soviet and British intervention, veterans of the CPI and others formed the Tudeh. The Tudeh has, in the interim, had to deal with brutal repression both from Reza Shah’s successor, Mohamed Reza, and from the far-right theological regime, but continues to fight for the Iranian working class and for socialism.

 

South Africa: Communists protest Moody’s downgrading

The South African Communist Party (SACP) is strongly objecting to the decision of the powerful Moody’s bond rating agency to reclassify South African government bonds to “a sub-investment status.” On March 28, Dr. Alex Mashilo, head of the SACP’s media relations, issued a denunciation of the move, accusing Moody’s of wanting to “usurp economic policy formation from democratic governments” in the interests of foreign monopoly finance capital’s interests. The aim is to allow transnational monopolies to take over state-owned entities in South Africa and other countries, using the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic for leverage.

The SACP also denounced political and economic leaders in South Africa who have allied themselves with such maneuvers for some years, and the failure of previous governments in the country to adequately capitalize these state-owned enterprises. The SACP calls on the country’s working class to unite and defend its interests and the nation’s sovereignty and democratic institutions.

Image: Fibonacci Blue, Creative Commons (BY 2.0).

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