Turkey: Communist Party faces repression for opposing Erdogan

The  Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) is denouncing repressive actions of the government of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP party against its own members and other dissidents.

Erdogan’s government is promoting a referendum on the subject of strengthening the already very strong powers of the Turkish presidency.   The Communist Party is urging protests as well as a “no” vote on the referendum.  In response, the communists say, the government exercised a search warrant on the party’s office in the city of Isparta in Western Anatolia, and has arrested dozens of Party members who have been distributing leaflets calling for a “no” vote.   Though most arrestees have been released, these actions reinforce the impression of growing authoritarianism.

The Communist Party of Turkey has re-adopted its old name; until recently it was known as the Communist Party (Turkey).

 
Ireland:  Communists call for defense of rural public transportation

An article by Jimmy Doran in Socialist Voice, the newspaper of the Communist Party of Ireland, is raising the alarm about the possible privatization of that country’s rural bus service, called Bus Éiereann, a key part of the rural public transport system.  The article denies that the bus service is a drain on the taxpayers and on the nation’s resources, as the corporate media have been saying.   Rather, the problems faced by the service stem from “policy decisions to starve Bus Éiereann of the financial support needed to provide decent public transport to our citizens living in rural Ireland”.

Furthermore, the government has been open handed in issuing licenses to competing private operators. Doran finishes by saying: “We must stand with the people of rural Ireland and with the Bus Éireann workers” to oppose privatization schemes

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Mexico: Communists  say no to Trump’s “wall”

The Communist Party of Mexico has denounced U.S. President Donald Trump’s stated plan of building a wall along the 1,900 mile U.S.-Mexico and “Making Mexico pay for it”.  Trump has also threatened to impose a tax of 20 percent of the value of all Mexican products entering the United States, the money to be used to build the wall.

A party statement says “The Communist Party of Mexico condemns the construction of such a border wall and expresses its point of view as to how workers should confront imperialist aggressiveness which is anti-worker, anti-immigrant and racist”.    The party statement goes on to accuse the U.S. ruling class of whipping up anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican sentiments in order to distract U.S. workers from the real reason for their problems, which lie in the nature of  capitalism itself.

The Communist Party of Mexico  calls for unity  between workers in Mexico and the United States against imperialism.

 

Swazi Communist Party calls for support for striking students

The Communist Party of Swaziland is calling for support for students studying for careers in health care who complain that promised expense allowances have not been paid.

The dispute has arisen at the Southern African Nazarene University (SANU), where students went out on strike on January 27 because the non-payment of promised allowances has “disrupted the payment of fees and access to academic books, accommodation, food ….and other essentials”.  The Communist Party also complains that the authoritarian monarchy of King Mswati III  has responded with police repression  instead of dialogue.

 

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