Violent attacks on Communists in West Bengal, India

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has denounced a wave of violent repression that has been released against its members in West Bengal.  The events have happened after the communists lost a legislative election there to the right-wing TMC (Trinamool Congress Party.  The election took place on different dates in different regions of the state, with the results announced on May 19.   The communists blame West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for instigating the violence by her provocative statements and threats.  According to the communists, during the elections ten of their own cadres were murdered, nine offices of left parties were attacked, and many people were kidnapped, some held for ransom.  There are cases of arson and intimidation.  The Communist Party (Marxist) is demanding an end to these atrocious actions.                .

Argentine Communists question motives for government “Development” plan

Jorge Kreyness, International Affairs Secretary of the Communist Party of Argentina, is questioning a plan announced by President Mauricio Macri to develop the neglected northern region of the country. “Neoliberalism has always been against state planning”, said Kreyness when interviewed by TELESUR. “To me it seems that the Belgrano Plan has been created in the U.S., and it needs to eliminate the rising elements of popular power, especially in [the northern province of} Jujuy that are led by Milagro Sala’s Tupac Amaru movement and the network of social movements that work with them, because they need to reach the Lithium mines located there”.  Kreyness and others believe that foreign corporations are promoting this “Plan Belgrano” not out of a desire to help local people, but in order to exploit the valuable lithium deposits in the region.  Milagro Sala is an indigenous grassroots leader in Jujuy who has been jailed on what  many think are trumped-up charges.

Austrian CP warns that defeating right-wing presidential candidate does not end danger

The Communist Party of Austria (Kommunistische Partei Österreichs) is warning that the very narrow defeat of the candidate of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) Norbert Hofer, by Green Party candidate Alexander  van der Bellen in the runoff presidential elections on May 22 does not put an end to the danger from the extreme right.  Van der Bellen defeated Hofer 50.4 percent to 49.7 percent, the highest vote ever for this ultra-right, anti-immigrant party.  The communists had pushed a vote for van der Bellen as the way to stop Hofer, but the narrow margin shows that maximum unity and mobilization has to be maintained against the neo-fascist threat.

 

Japanese Communists mark Obama visit to Hiroshima but demand no atomic bombs in Okinawa

On May 11, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo expressed satisfaction that President Barack Obama would visit Hiroshima, the city destroyed by the first atomic bomb, on May 27.  “By doing so, he will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit ground zero of the nuclear bomb blast.”  Shii added that Obama’s action has met with the approval of survivors of the bombing and the people of the city .   However, the Japanese Communist Party has also criticized an agreement, arrived at secretly between Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1969, which allows the United States, in an emergency and after consultation with the Japanese government, to station atomic weapons in Okinawa or  to use the island as a point of transit for moving such weapons somewhere else.  The Communist Party demands that this agreement be scrapped.

Photo: Communist Party of India (Marxist)

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