Brazil: Communist leader wins libel suit against ultra-rightist

Manuela d’Avila, national vice president of the Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil) has won a “moral damage” suit against a right-wing member of the country’s legislature, Carla Zambelli, who belongs to the same right-wing party as ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, the Liberal Party (PL). During the 2022 elections, Zambelli had published images of d’Avila and two other political figures with text accusing them of being part of the “genocidal left” because of their support for abortion rights.

The Court of Justice of the State of Rio Grande do Sul ruled that Zambrelli must pay d’Avila 20,000 Brazilian real (about $3,961). Zambelli has a history as an anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist.

Sudan: Communists condemn both sides in fighting, call for a return to democratic civilian rule

The Sudanese Communist Party is demanding an end to the violent clashes between rival military forces in Sudan, which have left scores of civilians dead in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere. The Communists say, “This clash is a result of the deviation of the military and civil forces that assumed the leadership and rule of the country since the beginning of the revolution in April 2019.” In 2019, a popular uprising ousted long-standing military dictator Omar al-Bashir, but in 2021, the military pushed the civilian leaders aside and have been ruling alone.

The Communists are demanding that the fighting cease, and that the armies and militias leave the cities, in order to “save the country from the bloody infighting among the generals,” and so that power can be returned to the people. Finally, the Communist Party asks fraternal parties and others for solidarity in this effort.

Switzerland: Communists react to the collapse of Credit Suisse

The Communist Party of Switzerland has responded to the sudden collapse in March of one of the world’s foremost financial institutions, Credit Suisse, and its takeover by UBS, saying that an unpatriotic elite “is undermining the Swiss Confederation’s economic stability.” The Communists see this incident as one more piece of evidence of the concentration of capital in the finance sector, which is an intrinsic feature of the present economic situation.

They say that the priority now has to be to protect the interests of the employees of Credit Suisse, as well as those of the general public, and that this cannot be entrusted to the incompetent hands of the managers of finance capital.

Comparing the situation with the 2008 bailout of UBS, the Communist Party criticized the Swiss government’s use of public money, saying “the whole episode translates into a bargain for UBS only.” Regarding the use of 9 billion Swiss francs (equivalent to about $10 billion), which were guaranteed to UBS in the event of further losses, the Communist Party demanded the government put Swiss taxpayers and Credit Suisse’s employees first.

They also denounced the “abuse of ‘urgency’ to bypass the democratic consultation process of the Swiss parliament,” and called for a series of measures to correct the situation.

India: Communist Party of India (Marxist) demands that removal of material from textbooks be canceled

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has denounced a move by India’s National Council of Educational Research and Training to remove a large amount of content from the history curriculum for India’s public schools. In particular, the Communists see this move as a manifestation of “communal” chauvinism, and an effort to suppress the history of non-Hindu minorities in the vast country. In particular, the changes minimize the importance of the Moghul Empire, despite the fact that the Muslim rulers of that Empire ruled over vast parts of India for centuries. The CPI(M) is demanding that these curriculum changes be reversed.

Image: Manuela D’Ávila by PCdoB (Facebook) / PCdoB flag (Facebook) / Brazilian flag (public domain); Sudanese Communist Party calling for a march against the rise of prices in 2018 in Khartoum, posted by Kribsoo Diallo (Facebook)

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