India: Communists denounce murder of activists in Kerala

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has condemned the action of the country’s right wing prime minister, Narendra Modi, in praising a Hindu chauvinist organization which has killed more than one communist activist.

The organization in question is the Rashtriya Swayamsavak Sangh, or RSS, which advocates for an end to India’s official secularism and for preferential treatment of Hindus in this nation of many religions and ethnic groups.  The latest murder is of a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s local committee in the town of Kannur, K. Monahan, who was brutally hacked to death by RSS goons in the café where he worked. Several Communist Party of India (Marxist) activists have been murdered since the left won the state elections earlier this year.  The RSS has also accused the communists of attacking them.

Prime Minister Modi had sent a message of praise for RSS on the occasion of a religious festival.

Ecuador: Communist Party supports united front candidate for president

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ecuador (PCE) has announced its support for the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the “Movimiento Alianza Pais” (National Alliance Movement) in next year’s elections, which will take place on February 13.   Alianza Pais is the party of the incumbent president, Rafael Correa.

The candidates are:  For president, Lenin Moreno, and for vice president, Jorge Glas.  The Communist Party endorsement was decided on the basis of these individuals’ commitment to anti-imperialism, regional integration and democracy.  Moreno is a former vice president of Ecuador who has been especially interested in the rights of indigenous people.  He is confined to a wheelchair because of a back injury he sustained when he was shot in a robbery, and has also had a special interest in the rights of disabled people.  Glas is Ecuador’s current vice president.

In endorsing Moreno and Glas, the Communist Party saluted the economic and social gains of the Ecuadorian people under President Correa’s “Citizens’ Revolution”.

Sudan:  Communist Party calls for international support for doctors’ strike

The Sudanese Communist Party is calling for international support for an ongoing strike of medical doctors.  According to a party statement, the “bankrupt” health care policies of the government of Omar Hassan Al-Bashir have resulted in “the privatization of the whole system, the closing down of major public hospitals, thus endangering the lives of millions of poor patients who can not afford the cost of medical treatment in private hospitals.”

Doctors went on strike against these policies starting on October 7.  They are receiving wide support from Sudanese workers and unions.  The Communist Party considers that its main task at this point is to keep the mass protest movement as the key step in movement toward bringing about the fall of the Al Bashir regime.  The Communist Party requests maximum international solidarity.  As of Monday, the strike had reportedly expanded to 78 hospitals, including military ones.

Guyana:  People’s Progressive Party denounces reactionary government policies

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP),  in a press statement, characterizes the conservative government of President David Arthur Granger and his APNU-AFC coalition as “clueless, incompetent and in a state of drift”.  Granger, a retired military officer, narrowly won the presidency in last year’s general election.

The PPP criticized what it calls Granger’s “militaristic, command-style rule” which has “dampened and killed the spirit of the working people, the small entrepreneurs, the established business community and the farming community”.  The PPP also accused Granger of ignoring the interests of the indigenous Guyanans and of imposing economic policies that are causing a decline in living standards.   The PPP called for parliamentary and extra-parliamentary struggle to push Granger to change course.

Photo: Facebook, Vijay Prashad

 

 

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