Australia: Communists protest xenophobic government policies

The Communist Party of Australia has protested plans by the Liberal (conservative) Party government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to revise the country’s citizenship laws to make it harder for immigrants to gain Australian citizenship.  In addition to requiring aspiring citizens to learn English and to have lived in Australia as a permanent resident for four years, the proposed new laws will require that they demonstrate “the steps they have taken to integrate into and contribute to the Australian community”.  The categories of visas allowing foreigners to come to Australia will also be sharply reduced in number.

The Communists denounced the new policies as aimed at stirring up xenophobic hostility to foreigners, and questioned the government’s nationalistic rhetoric about “Australian values”, wondering if these would include, for example, the well documented racist oppression of Australia’s indigenous population.

Venezuela: Communists applaud decision to leave the OAS

The Communist Party of Venezuela is applauding the announcement of by the government of President Nicolas Maduro that the country will be withdrawing from the Organization of American States (OAS).  In a statement dated April 28, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party said the decision was correct “in moments when great dangers are building up against peace and the security of our homeland”.

The Communist Party statement reminded readers that for several months, it has been advising the government to take this move, given that the OAS is currently, as historically, being used to impose the will of the United States against the interests of the peoples of Latin America and Venezuela in particular. The party called on all patriotic Venezuelans to support the move.

Spain: Spanish Communists opposed to regulation of “Uteruses for Rent”.

The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) opposes government regulation, meaning legalization, of “uteruses for hire”, which it considers to be “a frontal attack on the rights of women and children, as well as underpinning inequality and the feminization of poverty”.

By “uteruses for hire” is meant the practice of women bearing the child for another woman, in exchange for a material consideration.  The Spanish communists point out that “the majority of women who agree to these contracts are women who find themselves in situations of extreme vulnerability due to economic necessity” while the couples who hire them to bear the child are typically much better off.

According to the Communist Party, this situation represents an extreme form of both the capitalist tendency to commodify absolutely everything, and sexist patriarchy.  If such practices are given legal sanction, say the communists, it would be a major defeat for women’s rights.

India: Communist Party of India (M) protests curbs on cooperatives in Kerala

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly supports protests in the state of Kerala which have arisen since the right wing government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi implemented a currency reform which withdrew the 500 rupee and 1,000 rupee notes from circulation in the country.  Protesters complain that cooperative enterprises were especially damaged by the sudden disappearance of these high denomination currency items.  According to the party statement “District and rural cooperative banks are prohibited from exchanging old notes of these values or accept[ing] deposits in these denominations even from their own customers”.

The protests have been called by the Left Democratic Front, which has a majority in the Kerala legislature since the 2016 elections.  It is a group of twelve parties in Kerala to which the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and ten other parties belong.  Communist Party of India (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury denounced the government’s currency measures as violating the people’s constitutional rights.

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