Turkey: Communist newspaper Evrensel analyzes the U.S. elections

Evrensel, the newspaper of the Turkish Labor Party (EMEP), one of the two largest communist parties in Turkey, published a fairly detailed analysis of the U.S. elections. The article notes that even though Biden has won, “the most striking thing in the U.S. elections was undoubtedly Donald Trump’s [high] rate of votes,” which defied pre-election projections of a Democratic Party sweep.

Evrensel quoted Professor Cihan Tugal, who teaches sociology at Berkeley, as attributing this to the exhaustion of centrist liberalism in the United States, which has “imprisoned itself as a soft imitation of right-wingism.” Tugal goes on: “The lack of an alternative condemns everyone who opposes the radical right to the Democratic Party,” which has also for the most part followed a “free market” line, as has the Republican Party,” giving voters inadequate choices and aiding Trump’s ultra-right demagogy.

Chile, Ecuador: Leftists analyze U.S. influence on Latin American ultra-right

Writing in El siglo (The Century), the newspaper of the Communist Party of Chile, Ecuadorian historian Juan J. Paz y Miño Cepeda  reminds readers of the extremely great impact of the U.S. elections on the electoral politics of Latin America. This has been true since the original promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine in the early 19th century, which established “Americanism” as a policy of U.S. hegemonic control over all the countries of Latin America, including the many military interventions.

To this has been added, during the Cold War and since, the use of “anti-communism” to intervene in the affairs of Latin American states. “Donald Trump’s positions are well known: He not only revived the traditional ‘Monroeism’ together with threatening interventionism, but also sharpened the continentalist strategies, including to strengthen the economic curtain against Russia and particularly against China . . . he reinforced the blockade against Cuba, dismantling what Barack Obama had advanced, and did not reduce the threats against Venezuela and equally against Nicaragua.” “Biden has promised a more cordial dealing with Latin America,” but whatever the changes Biden brings, it is still necessary to analyze what impact U.S. policy will have on the internal politics of the Latin American countries, in which there are signs that the autonomous left forces may be rising again (translation by E. Schepers).

Israel: Left and Arab Israelis hail Trump defeat as also a defeat for Netanyahu

On the website of the Maki, Israel’s communist party, Ayman Odeh, the head of the Hadash alliance of leftist and Arab parties to which the Maki also belongs, hailed the defeat of Donald Trump in the U.S. elections as a severe blow to the extreme right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Odeh and his Hadash colleague, Knesset member Aida Touma-Sliman, say that the disappearance of Trump makes possible the defeat of “the deal of the century,” the Trump-Netanyahu plan which is threatening to destroy all hopes for a Palestinian state.

The article also reports worry by the right-wing government that Biden’s promise to reverse Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with Iran will lead to a “violent confrontation” between that country and Israel.

Greek Communists emphasize continuity between Trump and Biden

Dimitris Koutsoumbas, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Greece, warned against raising false hopes that the new Biden administration would break with the overall imperialist policies of its predecessors. Koutsoumbas recalled wars and invasions carried out by Democratic Party presidents in the recent past.

“The reactionary Trump administration may have lost the U.S. election, but what is certain is that the policy that serves the interests of the U.S. ruling class and the bloodthirsty U.S. imperialism has not been completely defeated.” Koutsoumbas warned, especially, against speculation in Greek political circles that a Biden administration might play a positive role in Greek-Turkish relations.

Cuba: Prensa Latina explains the Georgia Senate runoff election to its readers

On November 10, the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina gave its Cuban and international Spanish-speaking readers a primer on the importance of the two runoff elections for Senate in Georgia, scheduled for January 5, 2021. The widely read and respected news bureau pointed out the role of the U.S. Senate in approving or blocking all legislation that the Biden administration might want, and in approving—or not—people the president names to the Supreme Court.

The importance of Prensa Latina’s coverage of the article lies in the fact that the U.S. political and electoral system has unusual features that are often misunderstood by people in other countries around the world.

Image: Ingrid Taylar (CC BY-NC 2.0)

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