During the days of the tragic fall of Aleppo, a number of rallies took place in solidarity with the Syrian Revolution as well as the popular resistance in Egypt. Since the first rally of Syrian refugees on 15 December, on which we already published a report, four more rallies took place. The Austrian section of the RCIT participated actively in all these rallies and was invited to address three of them.

On Friday, 16 December, 1,500-2,000 people participated in a rally in front of the Austrian parliament. This rally was organized by some petty-bourgeois civil society Austrian activists. Hence, while the majority of the participants were migrants, the organizers kept the rally as a silent manifestation without any speeches and with people only holding candles. Activists of the Austrian section of the RCIT participated and distributed flyers summarizing our main conclusions and slogans for the continuation of the struggle against the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad.

On the next day, up to 3,000 migrants – most of them from Turkey – hold a rally in the inner city of Vienna. Several speakers from the Turkish community, a representative of the Syrian community as well as Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the RCIT, addressed the rally. Comrade Pröbsting denounced in his speech the hypocrisy of the Great Powers and called for the solidarity with continuation of the Syrian Revolution. He also denounced the racist migration policy of the European Union and the Austrian government and called for the opening of the borders for refugees.

On Sunday, 18 December, the Egypt community organized a rally in which the organizers called for solidarity both with the people in Syria as well as in Egypt. The Egypt community is organizing solidarity activities without interruptions since the military coup in July 2013. As it has been the case in the past years, the Austrian Section of the RCIT was invited to address the rally and comrade Pröbsting hold a speech.

Finally, on Monday 19 December, the Syrian community organized another rally. A few hours before the start of the rally, the Austrian police told the organizers that they were not allowed to hold their rally in front of the Russian embassy (where most rallies took place in the past). Hence, the organizers had to redirect people in the last minute to the new place of the rally. Nevertheless, more than 200 people turned up. Again, the Austrian Section of the RCIT was invited to speak and comrade Pröbsting addressed the participants.

The Austrian Section of the RCIT has supported the Arab Revolution from its beginning in early 2011. We affirms our support for the ongoing Syrian Revolution, despite the terrible defeat in Aleppo, along with our hostility towards all Great Powers and lesser, regional powers who all share the desire to liquidate the Syrian Revolution. However, to persevere and to revitalize the revolution, the workers and peasants must draw the lessons of past defeats. Amongst the most important lessons are:

* No trust in and no collaboration with any Great Power!

* No to sectarianism! For multi-religious and multi-national unity in the struggle against the Assad dictatorship! For full national self-determination for all national and ethnic minorities!

* No trust in the official rebel leaderships!

* For the formation of popular councils and popular militias!

* The international workers movement must rally to support the Syrian Revolution! For a workers aid campaign for the Syrian people – as it was done in solidarity with the Bosnian people in 1992-95!

* The international workers movement must organize a campaign to boycott the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his capitalist business friends! For workers actions against the imperialist forces attacking the Syrian people!

* Open the Boarders for the Syrian Refugees!

* Most of all: For the building of a revolutionary party in Syria as part of a new revolutionary International!

It is symbolic that in these days, the German-language department of the international VICE magazine published an article exclusively about the Austrian Section of the RCIT (https://www.vice.com/alps/article/antiimperialisten-rkob-antisemitismus-islamismus). Unsurprisingly, the article is hostile in its characterization of our organization, refers negatively to our collaboration with Muslim migrant communities and repeats the slanderous accusation that we are “Anti-Semitic” because of our opposition to Zionism (to “prove” this denunciation they quote several hard-core pro-Zionist “academics” which claim to have studied the Austrian Section of the RCIT.)

As revolutionary communists we are not surprised about the accelerating hostility of our political opponents as well as of bourgeois media. It simply reflects the ongoing political polarization, the accelerating racist Islamophobia and the increasing public profile of the Austrian Section of the RCIT. Obviously, our opponents are increasingly worried by our successful work. Good!

Aleppo has fallen – the Syrian Revolution will continue!

See pictures and video clips of the RCIT’s speeches at the following link (scroll down below the article):

https://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/aleppo-soli-dez-2016/

Alternatively you can go to the RCIT’s YouTube Account and watch the speeches here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0mX4EKv8j4&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMvdp2x_C0k

See pictures and video clips of the RCIT’s speeches at the rally on 15.12.2016:

https://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/aleppo-soli-15-dez-2016/

After the Fall of Aleppo: Militant Protest of Syria Refugees

Report (with Pictures and Videos) from a Rally of the Syrian Community in Vienna on 15 December 2016

By the Austrian Section of the RCIT, 15.12.2016, www.rkob.net

In face of the fall of Aleppo, more than 1.000 Syrian refugees demonstrated in front of the Russian embassy in Vienna to express their outrage about the ongoing massacre. The demonstrators showed their unwavering solidarity with the ongoing liberation struggle against the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad and against the military aggression of the Great Powers. Given the ongoing tragedy in Aleppo, the mood at the demonstration was particularly militant. Several more demonstrations are planned for the next days.

The organizers of the demonstrations invited the Austrian Section of the RCIT to participate in the rally and asked our comrades Michael Pröbsting and Almedina Gunić to hold speeches at the rally.

In his address Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the RCIT, expressed the RCIT’s unconditional solidarity with the Syrian Revolution (see the link to the video below). He also denounced the reactionary intervention of the Great Powers in Syria. Comrade Pröbsting emphasized that the defeat in Aleppo demonstrates that it is crucial to draw lessons in order to continue the revolution. He said: “First: No trust in the U.S. and the EU. The resistance must not trust that Obama or Merkel would really give assistance. No collaboration with the Great Powers! Secondly: No to sectarianism! Irrespective of religion, of ethnical origin – we have to unite and to fight against the dictatorship of Assad! Thirdly: The leadership of the resistance must be put under control. No one must be allowed to speak unilaterally for the Syrian people but they must be controlled. No militia must act unilaterally but must be put under the control of the people! If we are going this way we can make up for the defeat in Aleppo! Then it is possible to continue the revolution – until Assad is overthrown, until the working people in Syria have achieved freedom and taken power!”

Comrade Gunić, leader of the Austrian section of the RCIT, emphasized in her speech the desperate necessity to continue the international solidarity with the Syrian Revolution. Both speeches were met with enthusiastic response. Both comrades were also asked for interviews by several TV stations (including Al-Jazeera). (See the link to the videos below)

The RCIT has supported the Syrian Revolution from its beginning in March 2011. We call the workers movement, in particular the trade unions, to organize an international solidarity campaign for the oppressed Syrian people and at the same time to oppose any military aggression of the imperialist Great Powers – be it Russia, the US or the European Union. We will continue this solidarity work despite the increasing obstacles in the struggle for the successful liberation of the Syrian workers and peasants!

Aleppo has fallen – Aleppo will rise again!

See pictures and video clips of the rally’s speeches at the following link:

https://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/aleppo-soli-15-dez-2016/

Reports about the RCIT’s intervention at the demonstration on Al-Jazeera and in Turkish media:

https://www.facebook.com/aja.europe/videos/1885943314970465/

http://m.haberler.com/avusturya-da-halep-protestosu-viyana-9067110-haberi/

http://aa.com.tr/tr/dunya/avusturya-da-halep-protestosu-/707331

For our latest statement on Syria see:

Michael Pröbsting: The Looming Kerry-Lavrov Agreement – A Great Power Conspiracy against the Syrian Revolution, 06.10.2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/syria-kerry-lavrov/; Joint Statement: Solidarity with Aleppo! Hands off Syria! 4 October 2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/joint-statement-aleppo/; Syria: For an Independent Revolutionary Road! Down with the Bombing and Siege against Aleppo! Stop the Turkish Invasion and Occupation! No to the Imperialist Conspiracy against the Syrian Masses! Joint Statement of the RCIT and Sınıf Savaşı (Turkey), 25.09.2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/defend-aleppo/; Yossi Schwartz: The Revolution in Syria won a Tactical Victory! Down with Assad the Butcher! 21 August 2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/aleppo-victory/; The Imperialist Counterrevolution Threatens the Syrian Revolution! Down with the Great Powers’ Wars! Solidarity with the Syrian Revolution against the Assad Dictatorship! For a Socialist Federation in the Maghreb and Mashreq! Joint Statement of the Agrupación de Lucha Socialista (ALS) and the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 07.12.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/imperialist-counterrevolution-syria/; RCIT: Great Powers Aim to Liquidate the Syrian Revolution! Mobilize for International Solidarity with the Syrian Liberation Struggle against the Assad Dictatorship! Stop the US, Russian and French Air Strikes! No to Daesh/IS-Terrorism! 18.11.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/great-powers-syria/; RCIT: Revolution against Russian Imperialism! Stop the US, UK and French Air Strikes! Smash the Assad Dictatorship! 9.10.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/defend-syria-against-russia/; RCIT: The Arab Revolution is a central touchstone for socialists! Open Letter to All Revolutionary Organizations and Activists, 4.10.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/open-letter-on-arab-revolution/. For many more RCIT documents on the Arab Revolution see on our website: http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/

For our analysis of the Arab Revolution we refer readers to:

RCIT: Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Arab World: An Acid Test for Revolutionaries, 31 May 2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/theses-arab-revolution/

For other RCIT documents and articles on Syria see:

http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/

Austria: “Left-Wing” Zionists Attack Arab Migrants at Demonstration in Solidarity with Refugees!

Report (with Pictures and Videos) from the anti-racist Demonstration on 26 November in Vienna by the Austrian Section of the RCIT, 27.11.2016, www.rkob.net

About two thousand people demonstrated on 26 November in Vienna in solidarity with refugees and against racism. This was an important signal against the racist offensive both by the Austrian government as well as by the right-wing opposition one week before the presidential election where the right-wing candidate Norbert Hofer has a good chance to win.

The Austrian section of the RCIT joined the demonstration with a very lively and militant contingent of about 100 activists – the biggest of any political organization at the demonstration. (See the pictures and videos below.) In addition to the activists of our youth organization RED*REVOLUTION, many activists from the Syrian, Iraqi, Egyptian, Ahwazi Arab, Moroccan, Palestinian and other communities – with whom we have organized numerous activities in past years – participated in our contingent.

We shouted many slogans against the racist rabble-rousing, for the opening of the borders, and for solidarity with the Arab Revolution as well as with the Palestinian liberation struggle. Like in past demonstrations against racism, our contingent varied significantly from other left-wing groups not only because of its size and its militant spirit. In contrast to all reformist and centrist groups, the RCIT in Austria stands in active solidarity with the liberation struggle in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Palestine and other countries against the dictatorships and against imperialism. Furthermore, one could see yet once again that we are not merely white anti-racists who are only in favor of the rights for migrants and refugees; but that we actively fight together with migrants and refugees, and that we are building a multinational revolutionary organization. At the end of the demonstration Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the RCIT, addressed the participants of our contingent and explained the necessity to continue the struggle for liberation.

The militant multi-national character of our contingent and our solidarity with the Arab Revolution as well as with the Palestinian liberation struggle aroused again profound hatred from a sector of demonstrators – the so-called “anti-national Black Block” people. These people – nearly all of them White Austrian middle-class people – combine some silly ultra-left phrases (their front banner read “Communism instead of Austria”) with fanatical support for the Zionist state of Israel and strong hatred against Muslim people. As a result, these dumb thugs slander all Muslim people as “Islamo-Fascists” and denounce our Anti-Zionist stance as “Anti-Semitic”. These Zionists have close connections, among others, to the youth organization of the Communist Party and most reformist and centrist organization refuse to distance themselves clearly from this scum. As we have reported in past articles these people hold pro-Israel rallies during the Gaza Wars in the past years. (See e.g. https://freegazafromhamas.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/kundgebung-solidaritat-mit-israel-befreit-gaza-von-der-hamas/)

While these people did not dare to attack our contingent, they attacked a small group of Arab brothers when they briefly left our contingent. One of these brothers was violently thrown to the floor. This attack provoked the intervention of the police which – in the final part of the demonstration – created a cordon in front of our contingent so that as a result we became effectively isolated from the rest of the demonstration. This Zionist attack against our Arab brothers caused a lot of attention. The national state TV reported about the incident and about the Zionist slander against the Austrian section of the RCIT. (See http://wien.orf.at/news/stories/2811311/. A video with scenes shortly after the Zionist attack, published by a rather pro-Zionist source, can be viewed on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdyvIqLwFpI)

This attack was not the first incident as these people already attacked (unsuccessfully) our May Day demonstration this year (see http://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/report-may-day-2016-in-austria/). At the annual fete of the Communist Party on 3 September, Almedina Gunić – leader of the Austrian section of the RCIT – was physically attacked by these “anti-national” Zionists. (See http://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/bericht-vs-fest-2016/) All these incidents demonstrate once more the thoroughly reactionary, racist and pro-imperialist character of the so-called “Anti-Nationals”. It is a scandal that Arab brothers and sisters who have been forced to flee from dictatorship and war and who face racist discrimination in Europe – that they have to face again racist attacks on a demonstration is supposed to demonstrate against racism!

While we believe that the organizers of the demonstration – a coalition of NGO’s, Stalinists and the centrist Cliffite group (“Linkswende”) – do not support such violent attacks (at least we hope that they will distance themselves in a public statement), they certainly have to share political responsibility for this incident. Several of these organizations have expelled the Austrian section of the RCIT from united fronts – and sometimes even tried to expel us from demonstrations – with the argument that our solidarity with Palestine equals “Anti-Semitism”. The Communist Party expelled the us from its annual fete this year because of our anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist positions. (See http://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/cp-bars-rcit-from-festival/) We will continue to appeal to these organizations to refute this reactionary attitude.

However, irrespective of the attitude of the reformists and centrists or the attacks of the dumb Zionists, the Austrian section of the RCIT will continue its revolutionary work and its collaboration with migrant brothers and sisters.

See numerous photos and video clips at the following link:

Pictures: http://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/let-them-stay-26-nov-2016/ (Scroll down to view the pictures)

Videos: The daily paper “Kronen Zeitung, one of the biggest Austrian dailies, published a video about the demonstration. The contingent of the Austrian section of the RCIT can be viewed from minute 2.00 to 2.30 (http://www.krone.at/oesterreich/fluechtlingsdemo-in-wien-chaos-auf-shoppingmeile-160-kraefte-vor-ort-story-541192)

Interview with Michael Pröbsting on the Arab TV Station Al-Karamh

Below is the link to an interview with Michael Pröbsting which was aired on the Arab TV station Al-Karamh. It was recorded during the conference against the imperialist occupation of Iraq in Beirut on 24/25 September 2016 (see our report as well as the speech of comrade Pröbsting at the conference here: http://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/video-iraq-syria-palestine-solidarity/)

The interview was conducted in German language and translated into Arabic. You can view the whole interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J48j-ygK_EM

In the Wake of the PSTU/LIT-CI Split, What Lessons Can Be Learned?

An Open Letter to Members and Sympathizers of the International Workers League (Fourth International)

Issued by the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency and Corrente Comunista Revolucionária (Brazil Section of the RCIT), 11.7.2016, www.thecommunists.net

Dear comrades of the LIT-CI,

Without doubt, the split in the PSTU – the largest section of the LIT – is an important event, not only because it involves nearly half of the Brazilian section’s membership, but also because it reflects fundamental problems within this organization.

As you are well aware, the immediate cause for the split was the shameful, neutral, abstentionist position of the PSTU majority during the institutional coup of the big bourgeoisie in Brazil against the popular front government of Dilma Rousseff, which was overthrown with the complicity of the judicial branch of the state apparatus, the private media as well as the neoliberal right-wing opposition. Even today the unrepentant PSTU leadership refuses to form a united front with the reformist mass organizations FBP, FPSM, CUT, MST, MSTS, etc. aimed at mobilizing against the right-wing, neoliberal government of Temer!

At the same time the PSTU leadership combines such Third Campist sectarianism with the arch-opportunist call for a general strike demanding new general parliamentary elections! What would be the result of such general elections? A strengthening of the right-wing parties? A consolidation of the PT? How on earth can revolutionaries possibly want to orient the working class vanguard to such a parliamentary electoral maneuver which would only stabilize the capitalist regime?!

The PSTU minority, which initiated the split, appears to have criticized this policy and certainly justifiably so!

The RCIT and its section in Brazil characterize the PSTU leadership’s abstentionist position as an outright betrayal of the working class movement. Of course, revolutionaries could not have given any political support to the Popular Front government led by the reformist PT, as the latter made a reactionary coalition with the openly bourgeois PMSB and accommodated to the bourgeoisie by initiating neoliberal reforms. But this was hardly the reason that the PMSB left the coalition and why the united big bourgeoisie overthrew the government in an institutionalized coup. Instead, for the PMSB, the reason was that the Popular Front government did not go far enough with its adaption to neoliberalism. In this, the PT was hampered by its broad social base, i.e., the support it derives from the trade unions, the peasant organizations, the organizations of the urban poor, etc. It is precisely because of this base that the PT-led government was forced to introduce social programs like the Bolsa Família.

The big bourgeoisie – with the support of US imperialism – instigated the coup because it wanted to impose a right-wing government which was not limited by its social base in implementing a full blown neoliberal attack on the working class and the poor. And this is the main reason that the reformist mass organizations of the working class and the poor mobilized against the coup, and are now mobilizing against the Temer government.

The institutional bourgeois coup against the government of Dilma Rousseff was an attack against the popular masses. It was the responsibility of revolutionaries to understand this, and to have called for a united front with the reformist mass organizations against the putschists. Revolutionaries should have participated in the anti-coup mass demonstrations, without having given any political support to the government of Dilma Rousseff. They should have combined the struggle against the coup with a perspective of breaking the working class and their organizations away from the popular front and building a strong revolutionary party. This was in fact the consistent policy of the RCIT and its Brazilian section which we attempted to implement as well as possible given our limited forces. (1)

Comrades of the LIT: An organization like the PSTU, which claims to represent the vanguard, completely fails to give the popular masses any direction if it is incapable of differentiating between the popular front and the putschists; between Kerensky and Kornilov; between Negrin and Franco.

The policy of the PSTU leadership was ostensibly ultra-left, but in fact it was mainly an adaption to the reactionary prejudices of the liberal middle class milieu which despises the PT for its support among the supposedly “unenlightened” workers and poor.

Comrades, many of you may have largely agreed with our criticism of the PSTU’s policy during the playing out of the institutional coup. But lest you think that this was simply an isolated error in judgment by the PSTU’s leadership, we say unequivocally: No, this was no isolated error but the inevitable result of an incorrect political method.

Look at the shameful position of the LIT leadership during the military coup in Egypt, or the pro-Western imperialist mobilizations in the Ukraine against the Yanukovych government with the participation of significant fascist forces. In the case of Egypt, the LIT leadership welcomed the bloody coup of General Sisi of 3 July 2013 as an expression of the ongoing revolutionary process in Egypt! What a scandalous assessment for a coup in which the old guard of Mubarak – with the support of all the Great Powers (e.g., US, EU, Russia, China) – took power, massacred thousands of people and abolished the democratic rights which the masses had achieved in 2011! The RCIT and its comrades in the Middle East opposed the military coup from the start, and called for a united front of the organizations of the working class and the people (including Islamist mass organizations) to resist the murderous putschists. (2)

In the Ukraine, the LIT leadership hailed the insurrection led by the fascist Right Sector (with the support of US imperialism) at the end of February 2014 as a “democratic revolution.” Surely, revolutionaries could not defend the Yanukovych government, which was clearly a lackey of Russian imperialism. But to have supported, from start to finish, the reactionary mobilizations which were initiated and controlled by the US and EU imperialists and the right-wing and fascist opposition parties! – This is nothing but an outright mockery of Marxism! (3)

Comrades of the LIT: How could all of this have happened? Are such betrayals isolated mistakes? No. When a leadership repeatedly fails to analyze major events of the international class struggle during the past few years, this is no accident; it is rather the product of a terribly faulty method!

These repeated failures are derived from the LIT’s method, which can be characterized as “fatalist objectivism” and “opportunist processim.” The LIT leadership believes that the “objective process” will inevitably push all political mobilizations and movements in a progressive direction – irrespective of their leaderships, their social class compositions, and the relation of forces. While this method may be justified in a very general way with regards to the crisis of capitalism and the objective need for the socialist revolution, Trotsky scornfully dubbed it “fatalist objectivism.” Captive of this overly simplistic method, the LIT leadership completely ignores the living forces of the class struggle and the “the importance of class-conscious revolutionary activity in history“ (Trotsky). Consequently, the LIT leadership’s phrases about the “revolutionary process” hide an opportunist adaption to the liberal middle class.

Yes, capitalism faces an historic crisis and we are living in an historic period in which the socialist revolution is on the agenda. However, and unfortunately, capitalism in decay not only knows that the socialist revolution as a way out of the crisis, but that there is also an alternative: barbarism. In fact, in such an historic period of the capitalist crisis as that which commenced in 2008, both the class struggle of the workers and the oppressed and the attacks of the reactionary forces are advancing and accelerating!

In such a period, it is vital that revolutionaries combine a transitional program for working class independence and for socialist revolution with a concrete policy of the united front tactic. Such a policy takes into account the concrete dynamic of the class struggle; it differentiates between the direct, immediate aggressors against the working class and the oppressed and the rotten reformist and populist traitors who inhabit the upper echelons of the mass popular organizations. Such a Marxist policy allows us as revolutionaries to both denounce the reformist and populist leaderships while at the same time apply the united front tactic which appeals to the base of these mass organizations, by calling for joint actions (and placing demands for such joint action on their leaderships).

Such a policy – or even initially only consistent propaganda and agitation for it – demands the existence of an authentic revolutionary organization. Such an organization must not succumb to forming strategic alliances – or even a joint non-revolutionary party – with reformist or centrist forces (like the PSOL in Brazil). This would just be another form of opportunism – opportunism in party building. No, such an organization must fight for a revolutionary program and for working class independence. It must strive to build the revolutionary party as the highest organizational form of proletarian class consciousness. It must keep the vanguard aware of the revolutionary character of the present historic period and fight against all forms of petty-bourgeois pessimism (like the one we are supposedly experiencing in a period characterized by the collapse of Stalinism and a regression in the class consciousness).

At the same time such a revolutionary organization must intervene in the class struggle with a correct assessment of the different class forces and must implement the united front tactic to mass organizations which, unfortunately, still rally the majority of the class conscious workers and oppressed behind them. Doing so is the only way to break the reformist and populist workers and oppressed away from their treacherous leaderships!

We fear that the comrades who split from the PSTU have not sufficiently understood the methodological failures of the LIT. They wrote in their public statement: "We recognize the PSTU as a revolutionary organization. We do not think it is less revolutionary than before. But sometimes it is impossible for revolutionaries belonging to the same organization. (…) We remain, therefore, in the framework of the International Workers League, as a sympathizing section.” We ask the comrades: If the PSTU is indeed a revolutionary organization, and the only difference is tactical, why the split? In fact, the comrades themselves probably suspect that the political problems are much deeper, but they have yet to draw the correct political conclusions from their organizational split.

The RCIT is building such an organization. We appeal to all comrades from the LIT – majority as well as minority – to reconsider the method of their leadership and to enter into discussions and collaborations with the RCIT! Comrades, now is the time to draw the right lessons from the past struggles and to jointly build a revolutionary world party fighting for the socialist revolution!

Footnotes:

(1) See on this the documents of the RCIT:

CCR: Brazil: After Rousseff’s Impeachment, Temer’s Interim Government Deepens Attacks on Brazilian Workers. The coup was mainly against the workers and social movements, 12 June 2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/brazil-temer-government/

CCR: Brazil: The Arrest of Lula da Silva – Yet Another Step in the Creeping Coup. For the Organization of Struggle Committees! For Mass Demonstrations against Those Plotting the Coup! But No Confidence for the Pro-Austerity PT-PMDB Government! 9.3.2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/arrest-lula/

CCR: Brazil: No to Impeachment! No to the Call for New Elections! All workers and oppressed: Out into the streets of Brazil to fight against the threat of a coup! The anti-coup struggle should be in conjunction with the class struggle against the austerity attacks of the government! 6.12.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/brazil-impeachment/

(2) See on this the documents of the RCIT:

RCIT: Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Arab World: An Acid Test for Revolutionaries, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/theses-arab-revolution/

RCIT: General Sisi – The Butcher of the Egyptian People – Sentences another 683 People to Death, 1.5.2014, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/egypt-mass-death-sentences/

Michael Pröbsting: The Coup d'État in Egypt and the Bankruptcy of the Left’s “Army Socialism”. A Balance Sheet of the coup and another Reply to our Critics (LCC, WIVP, SF/LCFI), 8.8.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/egypt-and-left-army-socialism/

Michael Pröbsting: The Military’s Coup d'État in Egypt: Assessment and Tactics, 17.7.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/egypt-meaning-of-coup-d-etat/

(3) See on this the documents of the RCIT:

Michael Pröbsting: The Minsk Agreement and the Civil War in the Ukraine, 20.2.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/minsk-agreement/

Michael Pröbsting: The Uprising in East Ukraine and Russian Imperialism. An Analysis of Recent Developments in the Ukrainian Civil War and their Consequences for Revolutionary Tactics, 22.October 2014, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/ukraine-and-russian-imperialism/

RCIT: After the Fascist Pogrom in Odessa: Advance the Struggle against the Counterrevolution in the Ukraine! Commemoration for the Fallen Fighters in the Struggle against the Counterrevolution! All Out for the International Day of Antifascist Solidarity on 8 May! 6.5.2014, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 23, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/after-odessa-pogrom/

RCIT: Counterrevolution and Mass Resistance in the Ukraine, 17.4.2014, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 22, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/mass-resistance-in-ukraine/

Joint Statement of the RCIT and the Movement to Socialism (MAS, Russia): Ukraine: Rivalry between Imperialist Powers escalates after Right-Wing Coup: Stop the Imperialist Saber-Rattling! 2.3.2014, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 21, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/ukraine-war-threats/

MAS: Ukraine/Russia: The victory over the imperialist colonialism is impossible without the proletarian revolution! in: Revolutionary Communism No. 21, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/mas-declaration-5-3-2014/

RCIT and MAS: Right-Wing Forces Take Power in the Ukraine: Mobilize the Working Class against the New Government! 25.2.2014, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 19, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/right-wing-coup-in-ukraine/

MAS: No to the Terror of the Bandera-Fascists! Stop the Repression against the Communists of Ukraine! 22.2.2014, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 19, http://www.nuevomas.blogspot.co.at/2014/02/no-to-terror-of-bandera-fascists-stop.html

RCIT: “Ukraine: Neither Brussels nor Moscow! For an independent Workers’ Republic!” 18.12.2013, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 18, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/ukraine-neither-brussels-nor-moscow/

Announcement: Fusion between the ALS and the RCIT

Adopted by the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and the Agrupación de Lucha Socialista (ALS), 8 July 2016, www.thecommunists.net and https://agrupaciondeluchasocialistablog.wordpress.com

After 9 months of discussions and collaboration, both the ALS and RCIT positively view this process, and have therefore concluded that the basis has been achieved to fuse our two organizations, effective immediately, with the ALS becoming the Mexican section of the RCIT. The joint statements issued by the ALS and RCIT for May Day 2016 and on the situation in Syria, together with the RCIT-Manifesto, constitute the programmatic basis for this fusion.

Given the importance of the revolutionary process in Mexico, along with the concomitant ongoing reactionary offensive throughout Latin America as a whole, with all the massive class struggles that the latter will unavoidably entail, the RCIT and ALS – as well as the RCIT’s militants in Brazil and Venezuela – announce our intention to intensify our efforts to intervene in the class struggle and to fight for a revolutionary program. Lucha Socialista (the paper of ALS), Centelha Vermelha (the paper of the CCR) and Comunismo Revolucionario and O Comunismo Revolucionário (respectively the Spanish the Portuguese language journal of the RCIT) will play a crucial role in this undertaking.

We call upon revolutionaries in Mexico and throughout Latin American to join us in our struggle to rebuild a revolutionary World Party – an international party determined to fight for socialist revolution!

Long live the Struggle of the Mexican Teachers!

Solidarity Message from the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 3.7.2016, www.thecommunists.net

The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) sends its warmest greetings to the teachers in Mexico which are fighting against the reactionary education reform of the bourgeois government of President Peña Nieto. In particular we hail the heroic teachers of Oaxaca and the whole people of this state which have fought back the terrorist Policia Federal despite the killing of 12 people in the region of Nochixtlán.

The struggle of the Mexican teacher is not only important for all worker, poor peasants and popular sectors of the country but for the whole Latin American region and beyond. If you defeat the Nieto’s assault on free education, it will be a setback for all neoliberal enemies of popular education around the world!

Together with our comrades of Agrupación de Lucha Socialista the RCIT dedicates its forces for the creation of a world party fighting for socialist revolution. We call all democratic and socialist activists in Mexico to fight for:

* For the defense of public education, free, secular, scientific and popular!

* Solidarity with the people's struggle in Oaxaca! Freedom for all political prisoners! Stop the repression! For a workers, peasants and popular government!

* For the creation of popular committees of action all over the country which should include all popular mass organizations, trade unions, sections of MORENA etc. in order to unify the struggle! For a national assembly of delegates of popular assemblies, committees of action and mass organizations in order to plan the struggle against the government!

* For the formation of popular assemblies in Oaxaca to organize public life as well as self-defense against state repression!

* For a general strike to stop the reforms and to bring down the government!

* Down with the government of Peña Nieto! For a workers' government in alliance with the poor peasant and the urban poor!

* We call organizations of the workers and oppressed (e.g. UNT, SME, NCT, CNI etc.) to break with corrupt politicians and corporatists bureaucracies and to build a new mass party of the working class!

Syria: Defeat imperialism, down with Assad!

On the tasks of Syrian revolutionaries and the character of the Syrian civil war

Joint Statement of Dördüncü Blok and Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), July 2016, http://dorduncublok.blogspot.com/, www.thecommunists.net

1. In 2011, after many decades of brutal rule, the capitalist and sectarian Assad dictatorship started to crumble. Inspired by the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions, the multinational masses of workers and peasants in Syria started to stand up against the injustices imposed on them by the Assad dictatorship and the world economic crisis. We characterize this uprising as a justified attempt to foment a democratic revolution and at the same time to fight for important social demands.

2. Because of the treacherous bourgeois or petty-bourgeois leaderships of the uprising, the first attempt to topple Assad failed. At the same time, the Western Great Powers (the US and EU) in conjunction with the Gulf monarchies and Turkey, tried to exploit the Syrian Revolution for their own particular interests. Assad, for them a puppet of Russian imperialism, was an obstacle to implementing the various plans they had for the region. Western imperialism tried to buy off the anti-Assad rebels, but they were unsuccessful in this and even today they do not have any reliable allies among the rebel movements.

3. As a result of the failure of the official Arab left, which was mostly in bed with Assad (both of Syria’s Stalinist parties are part of the Assad’s National Front) and corrupt liberals, many poor Sunni Syrians joined radical Islamist forces. They did so because of the absence of an alternative leadership, because the Islamist forces provided food for the poor, and because these reactionary forces did most of the fighting. We don’t judge a mass movement exclusively by its leadership; it is also important to examine the essence of a movement and the classes standing behind it. The Syrian Revolution is not a CIA conspiracy; it is a legitimate mass movement of the workers and peasants against a corrupt, pro-imperialist dictatorship.

4. Syrian revolutionaries should oppose and criticize the political forces who are now leading the Syrian Revolution, but at the same time they must also demonstrate to the workers and peasants what a revolutionary struggle against Assad looks like. They must show the masses that a red Syria is worth fighting for.

5. When the Syrian Revolution started, it was multinational: Sunnis, Shias, Kurds, Alawites, Christians, Turkmens and Druze all participated in the uprising against the Assad. But both Assad and the reactionary Islamists (who were aided by the Gulf monarchies) had a vast material interest in splitting the masses along ethnic and religious lines. The reason that Assad released many Salafists in 2011 was precisely to undermine the revolution! We must understand Assad’s action for what it was and reaffirm that it is the role of true revolutionaries not only to struggle against oppression, but to do so by fighting for the unity of all oppressed peoples.

6. Since 2014 and the rise of Daesh/IS, the western Great Powers have entirely dropped even limited rhetorical support for the Syrian Revolution. While still skeptical of Assad, the West nevertheless intervened in the fighting in Syria alongside the regime by bombing not only Daesh/IS but also the forces of anti-western-rebels. Revolutionaries must unequivocally oppose intervention by any imperialist Great Power in the region, regardless of whether this be the US, the EU, Russia or China (or of any of their respective lackeys).

7. Daesh/IS is an arch-reactionary mass movement, which arose in the wake of the horrific crimes by US/EU imperialism in Iraq and Russia/Assad in Syria. While opposing the imperialist bombing campaign, revolutionaries should do everything in their power to encourage Daesh/IS’s being smashed by the masses.

8. We oppose an imperialist peace that will try to carve up Syria between the Great Powers who want to establish different protectorates for themselves. We demand the opening of the borders for all refugees from the conflict in Syria to Turkey and from there to Europe!

9. All revolutionaries must support the right of the Kurdish people for self-determination. We defend the Kurdish people against the reactionary attacks of the Turkish army, Daesh/IS and Iran. But at the same time we criticize the pro-imperialist leadership of the PYD/YPG and the petty-bourgeois ideology of Apoism. We are for a united, socialist Kurdistan from Rojava to Orumiyeh and from Bakhtaran to Qers.

10. In Syria we are for the formation of popular councils of the workers, peasants and poor. These councils should organize the defense against Assad and topple him. Following their victory, these councils will be able to rebuild Syria, ensure that it is not dived by the Great Imperialist Powers and abolish capitalism. This will reignite the fire that first broke out in 2011, revitalize it and spark workers’ and popular rebellions throughout the entire region.

11. The first urgent step to this is to found genuinely revolutionary party organizations throughout the Middle East, incorporating revolutionaries who have learned the respective lessons from the failures of Arab nationalism, Stalinism and Kurdish left-nationalism. Only such parties can liberate the masses of the region from the horrors of imperialism and their regional allies – the Arab dictatorships; only such parties can lead the workers and poor towards the abolishment of capitalism; and only such parties will be able to liberate the oppressed peoples – form Palestine, to Kurdistan, from Ahwaz to the Southern Sahara!

For an Internationalist Working Class Campaign against Nationalist and pro-EU Chauvinism!

For a Joint Struggle against Racism and Imperialist War! For a United Socialist States of Europe!

An open letter to all revolutionary organizations and activists from the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 28.6.2016, www.thecommunists.net

The results of the BREXIT referendum in Britain have ignited a political crisis not only in the UK itself but throughout the entire European continent. On the one hand, the referendum has obviously strengthened reactionary nationalism, as is reflected in the increasing numbers of hate-crimes against migrants in Britain as well as in the surge of the far right in other Western European countries. On the other hand, the vote to remove Britain from the EU has also created confusion, uncertainty and nervousness among the forces of monopoly capital both in Britain and in Europe in general.

Shamefully, in the months leading up to last week’s historic referendum, large sectors of the left in Britain had called either for the country to LEAVE or REMAIN in the EU. In both cases, the proponents of these diametrically opposed positions were guilty of adapting to one of two imperialist camps. Those who supported LEAVE unabashedly adapted to the reactionary “UK First” imperialist camp dominated by the most extreme right-wing forces like UKIP; those in the left who called for a REMAIN vote no less shamelessly adapted to the pro-EU imperialist camp of the big bourgeoisie and the leadership of the Labour Party. Again, we contend that both strategies were and remain nothing more than variants of social-imperialism.

From the moment that the Cameron government committed itself to holding the referendum on the future of British membership in the EU, the RCIT repeatedly stated the dire importance for revolutionaries to oppose both versions of social-imperialism and instead raise the banner of working class internationalism. This meant and continues to mean that revolutionaries must join forces in order to:

1) Unequivocally reject support for both the “UK First” and the “EU First” positions, by abstaining in any such referendums in imperialist countries belonging to the European Union.

2) Organize the working class to struggle against the austerity offensive in all countries – whether inside or outside the EU – and come together to fight against the bosses on an international level.

3) Battle for Open Borders for all refugees, in addition to equal rights for all migrants.

4) Unite the working class in all countries – both inside and outside the EU – in an unrelenting struggle against imperialist wars; specifically: Down with Britain’s and the EU’s military intervention in Syria, Iraq, Mali etc.!

5) Give the highest expression to our struggle for the interests of the international working class by calling for a United Socialist Sates of Europe.

Naturally, as Marxists, we combine such a focused program with a socialist perspective which aims to bring about the revolutionary overthrow of all capitalist regimes and the founding of workers’ republics.

If you agree with the general outlook of this Open Letter, we urge you – both organizations and individual activists -- to contact us, giving us both your own ideas and any criticism you may have, so that we can take concrete steps towards further discussions and collaboration in launching such a campaign: rcit@thecommunists.net

The RCIT has sections and activists in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Tunisia, Israel / Occupied Palestine, Brazil, Venezuela, Britain, Germany, the US, and Austria.

For a more extensive overview of the RCIT’s viewpoints, we refer you to our website www.thecommunists.net. In particular, we draw your attention to the following RCIT documents:

For more information on the RCIT’s position on the BREXIT referendum, please refer to the following statements posted on our website:

RCIT: After the BREXIT Vote – Stormy times ahead for the workers and oppressed in Britain!, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/brexit-vote-results/

RED*LIBERATION: UK: No to Cameron’s Trap: Neither YES nor NO to UK membership in the EU! For Abstention in the Referendum! We call on Momentum to create a “Third Camp” and to launch a socialist and internationalist campaign! For international Unity of the British, Migrant and European Workers! http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/redlib-brexit/

RCIT: Boycott Cameron’s Trap: Neither Brussels, nor Downing Street! For Abstention in Britain’s EU-Referendum! For international Unity and Struggle of the Workers and Oppressed! Fight against both British as well as European Imperialism! Forward to the United Socialist States of Europe, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/eu-referendum-in-uk/

Michael Pröbsting. The British Left and the EU-Referendum (Download as a PDF), http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/british-left-and-eu-referendum/

Joint Call for an International Day of Action on 20 June 2016

Open Europe’s Borders for Refugees! Solidarity with the Arab Revolution!

We, the undersigned organizations, call for a joint international day of action on 20 June – World Refugee Day. Together we express our unconditional solidarity with the refugees who have been forced to flee their homelands as a result of the devastating consequences of brutal dictatorships, multi-national corporations, and Great Powers aggression. On World Refugee Day we reiterate our dedication to:

* Fight against chauvinism and militarism in Europe! Open the borders to refugees! Lift the state of emergency in France! No deployment of national armies on European streets! Defend Muslim migrants against Islamophobic racism! No to the criminalization of pro-Palestine solidarity activists! For a united front of mass organizations of the workers’ and migrants’ movements to drive racist and fascist forces from the streets!

* Equal rights for migrants! Equal wages and full citizenship rights! Equality for migrants and national minorities’ languages in education and public administration! For a public works program with jobs for all refugees and all unemployed native workers! Native workers and migrants – fight together against your common enemy: the ruling class in the EU and Russia and the dictatorships in the Middle East and Africa!

Similarly we reiterate our solidarity with the Arab Revolution:

* Defend the Arab Revolution against its foreign and domestic enemies! Down with the reactionary regimes in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, the Gulf monarchies, and Tunisia! Defend Yemen against the Saudi Aggression! Smash the imperialist Apartheid State of Israel – Victory to the Palestinian Resistance! For the Kurdish people’s right to national self-determination! Down with the reactionary Daesh!

* Down with imperialist aggression and war! In Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Mali, and Somalia: Defeat the imperialist NATO and Russian forces and their local allies! We are on the side of those resisting the imperialist invaders, but give no political support to nationalist or Islamist forces!

We view this joint international campaign as a step towards the urgent need for authentic revolutionaries to unite in order to strengthen our common struggle to build a new World Party of Socialist Revolution.

Signed by:

Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Venezuela, Israel/Occupied Palestine, Yemen, Tunisia, USA, Germany, Britain and Austria)

Dördüncü Blok (Turkey)

Agrupación de Lucha Socialista (Mexico)

Defend Refugee Rights! Support the Arab Revolution! Defeat EU Chauvinism and Imperialism!

Open Letter on EU-Chauvinism and Arab Re

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An Open Letter to All Revolutionary Organizations and Activists for an International Solidarity Campaign

Issued by the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 22.05.2016, www.thecommunists.net

Comrades, Brothers and Sisters!

We are living in a period in which the forces of reaction are gaining more and more strength. Imperialist governments in the EU are constructing walls to prevent the entry of refugees into the continent and their free movement once inside, augmented by the terrorizing of those who have made it; they impose “state of emergency” regimes and wage wars in North Africa and the Middle East. Zionist forces have launched an offensive in Europe to criminalize and pressurize activists who express solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle. At the same time, right-wing racist forces are achieving big gains in elections. In the Arab countries, the revolutionary process has been put on the defensive and the Great Powers (the US, EU and Russia) are attempting to liquidate the Syrian Revolution by any means necessary. And the racist, apartheid State of Israel continues to crush heroic Palestinian youth with brute force.

Shamefully, left-reformist forces like the ex-Stalinist Party of the European Left (PCF in France, LINKE in Germany, SYRIZA in Greece, etc.) either support such attacks or don’t raise a finger to mobilize against this reactionary offensive. This underlines once more the extreme urgency for authentic revolutionaries to unite in order to strengthen the struggle to build a new World Party of Socialist Revolution.

In such a situation it is urgent that revolutionaries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East as well as in other parts of the world join forces to fight against this counterrevolutionary offensive. Hence, the RCIT proposes to all revolutionary organizations and activists to launch a joint international campaign of solidarity around the following demands:

* Defend the Arab Revolution against its foreign and domestic enemies! Down with the reactionary regimes in Syria, Egypt, the Gulf monarchies as well as Tunisia! Defend Yemen against the Saudi Aggression! Smash the imperialist Apartheid State of Israel – Victory to the Palestinian Resistance!

* International solidarity with the ongoing Syrian Revolution! Continue the struggle until the whole Baathist state apparatus is smashed! Down with the military interventions of Russia and NATO! No to any negotiated settlement by the Great Powers! For the Kurdish people’s right to national self-determination! Down with the reactionary Daesh!

* Down with imperialist aggressions and wars! In Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Mali, and Somalia: Defeat the imperialist NATO and Russian forces and their local allies! We are on the side of those resisting the imperialist invaders, but give no political support to nationalist or Islamist forces!

* Fight against chauvinism and militarism in Europe! Open the borders to refugees! Lift the state of emergency in France! No deployment of national armies on European streets! Defend Muslim migrants against Islamophobic racism! No to the criminalization of pro-Palestine solidarity activists! For a united front of mass organizations of the workers’ and migrants’ movements to drive racist and fascist forces from the streets!

* Equal rights for migrants! Equal wages and full citizenship rights! Equality for migrants and national minorities’ languages in education and public administration! For a public works program with jobs for all refugees and all unemployed native workers! Native workers and migrants – fight together against your common enemy: the ruling class in the EU and Russia and the dictatorships in the Middle East and Africa!

It is urgent for revolutionaries to fight within mass organizations of the working class and the oppressed – even though they are often led by reformist forces – in order to put pressure on them to join the struggle for such demands.

Naturally, as Marxists, we combine such a focused program with a socialist perspective which fights for a revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist regimes and for the founding of workers’ and peasant republics.

If you agree with the fundamental outline of these revolutionary positions and perspectives, we urge you to contact us so that we can discuss and decide together how to launch such a campaign. For example, World Refugee Day on 20 June might be an excellent opportunity for an international day of action.

We encourage organizations and activists who share the general outlook of this Open Letter to contact us and send us their ideas and criticism so that we can take concrete steps towards joint discussion and collaboration: rcit@thecommunists.net

The RCIT has sections and activists in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Tunisia, Israel / Occupied Palestine, Brazil, Britain, Germany, the US, and Austria.

For a more extensive overview of the RCIT’s viewpoints, we refer those who are interested to our website www.thecommunists.net. In particular we want to draw attention to the following RCIT documents:

* Revolutionary May Day Statement 2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/mayday-statement-2016/

* An Open Letter to All Revolutionary Organizations and Activists, http://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/open-letter-revolutionary-unity/

* The program of the RCIT: The Revolutionary Communist Manifesto, www.thecommunists.net/rcit-manifesto

Each of these documents has been published in several languages.

Stop Judicial Prosecution of Michael Pröbsting for Solidarity with Palestine! List of Signatories

Statement of Solidarity

Stop Judicial Prosecution for Solidarity with Palestine!

We Call upon the Austrian State to Drop the Charges against Michael Pröbsting!

We, the undersigned, are aware that Michael Pröbsting was summoned on 20 April 2016 to appear before the Federal Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism due to a speech he delivered at a rally half a year earlier. In his speech, Pröbsting said: “With all our hearts we will stand with the Third Intifada until the State of Israel is abolished and all people in Palestine can live together peacefully.” Furthermore, we are aware that if the public prosecution department should open a trial against Mr. Pröbsting in which he is convicted, he can face up to one year in prison. Irrespective of our concrete perspectives about the future of the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation, we oppose any such judicial prosecution of Michael Pröbsting.

Signatories (25 May 2016)

Israel / Occupied Palestine

Basel Ghattas (Knesset Member for the Joint List, Balad)

Progressive Labor Party, Israel-Palestine

Yigal Levin (Social Activist)

Ofer Neiman

Shmuel Yerushalmi

Eyal Rosenberg

Do Aminob

Yehuda Stern

Austria

Ibrahim Ali (Coordination Council of the Egypt Community in Austria)

Dr. Leo Gabriel (Journalist, Director of the Institute for Intercultural Research and Cooperation; see Letter)

Abderrahmen Laarouchi

Ulrike Laarouchi

Faez Soliman (Spokesperson of Al-Ahwaz Al-Arabaya)

Dr. Hermann Dworczak (Social Scientist and Trade Union Activist)

Karl Fischbacher (LabourNet Austria)

Wilhelm Langthaler (Writer and Activist for a just social order)

Priv.-Doz. DI Dr. Gernot Bodner

Dipl.Ing. Dr. Mohammad Abu Rous

Mag. Sebastian Baryli

Frigga Karl (Human Rights and Peace Activist)

Irina Vana

Waltraud Schauer

Mag. Elisabeth Lindner-Riegler

Mohamed Zakaria

Rahman Mohamed

Ahmed Maher

Argentina

Juan Marino - Tendencia Piquetera Revolucionaria (TPR)

Natalia Saralegui - Tendencia Piquetera Revolucionaria (TPR) and member of Memory, True and Justice Summit (EMVyJ, Encuentro Memoria, Verdad y Justicia)

Lionel Zivals - Tendencia Piquetera Revolucionaria (TPR)

Australia

Dr. Michael Karadjis (University of Western Sydney)

Brazil

Jose Aparecido da Silva (President of the Trade Union of the Public Employees in Diadema)

Frente Comunista dos Trabalhdores

Britain

Communist Party of Great Britain (PCC)

Socialist Fight

Egypt

Abdul Rauf Ahmed Butikh (Poet and Socialist Journalist)

France

Christian Ronse, University Professor, Strasbourg in France

Germany

REVOLUTION Germany

Said Fallah

Lina Tahan

Bernhard Thiesing (Journalist, Mitglied der Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft ver.di, Berlin)

Greece

Savas Michael-Matsas (General Secretary of the EEK, Greece)

Communist Revolutionary Action

Panagiotis Papargyris

Organization of Communists Internationalists of Greece (OKDE)

Iran

Kamil Alboshoka (Ahwazi Organisation for the Defence of Human Rights)

Hungary

Tamas Krausz, Historian

Italy

Franco Grisolia (Nationale Commitee of the Trade Union Federation CGIL)

Tiziana Mantovani (Central Commitee Partito Comunista dei Lavoratori)

Ottaviano Lalli (Central Committee of Partito Comunista dei Lavoratori)

Mexico

Agrupación de Lucha Socialista

Russia

Iosif Abramson, Dr. of Techn. Sci., St.Petersburg

Igor Gotlib, St.Petersburg

South Africa

Shaheen Khan, Citizen of the Republic of South Africa

Shaheed Mahomed (Workers International Vanguard Party)

Mr. Abdeslam Habiballah Ahmed (Executive Chairperson of the Migrant Community Board in South Africa)

Union of Arab Communities in South Africa

Moroccan Association of South Africa

Mallet P. Giyose (Jubilee South Africa)

Turkey

Sungur Savran (Chairman of the Revolutionary Workers' Party, DIP)

Şafak Can

Can Ali Dijvar

Sinem Can

Serkan Cibran

Berxwedan Poyraz

Tr Serdar

USA

Alex Steiner (Editorial Board of the Web Site http://permanent-revolution.org)

Frank Brenner (Editorial Board of the Web Site http://permanent-revolution.org)

Barry Finger (Member of the Editorial Board of New Politics)

Keith Kinion

Walter Daum (League for the Revolutionary Party)

Venezuela

Ricardo Galíndez (for the Corriente Socialista Revolucionaria)

International Organizations

International Bureau of CoReP (CoReP: http://www.revolucionpermanente.com, Groupe Marxiste Internationaliste (France): http://groupemarxiste.info, Gruppe Klassenkampf (Österreich): http://www.klassenkampf.net, Révolucion Permanente (Peru): http://luchamarxista.blogspot.fr)

Liaison Committee of Communists (LCC): Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe (RWG-ZIM), Communist Workers Group - New Zealand/Aotearoa (CWG-NZ), Revolutionary Workers Group of Brazil (RWG-BR), Communist Workers Group – USA (CWG-US)

League for the Fifth International (http://www.fifthinternational.org)

Arbeiter*innenstandpunkt (http://arbeiterinnenstandpunkt.net/), Gruppe ArbeiterInnenmacht (http://www.arbeitermacht.de/), Arbetarmakt (http://www.arbetarmakt.com/), League for the Fifth International - Britain (http://www.workerspower.co.uk/), Liga Socialista (http://www.ligasocialista.com/), Socialist Party of Sri Lanka (http://socialistpartylanka.blogspot.de/), Revolutionary Socialist Movement Pakistan (https://rsmpakistan.wordpress.com/), Workers Power – US (http://www.workerspower.net/)

Video-Statement: Stop the Criminalization of Palestine Solidarity!

The Austrian State is attempting to prosecute pro-Palestine activists for their Anti-Zionist views. On 20 April 2016, the Federal Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (the political police in Austria) summoned Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the RCIT, to answer charges of “sedition” and “inciting criminal action” (paragraph 282 of the Austrian Criminal Code). If convicted, Pröbsting can face up to one year in prison. Here is Video-Statement of Michael Pröbsting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD8Dagx5lTA&feature=youtu.be

Stop Judicial Prosecution for Solidarity with Palestine!

A Call to the Austrian State to Drop Its Charges against Michael Pröbsting!

Introduction

The Austrian State is attempting to prosecute pro-Palestine activists for their Anti-Zionist views. On 20 April 2016, the Federal Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (the political police in Austria) summoned Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the RCIT, to answer charges of “sedition” and “inciting criminal action” (paragraph 282 of the Austrian Criminal Code). If convicted, Pröbsting can face up to one year in prison.

Michael Pröbsting is a long-time activist in solidarity with Palestine where he has visited two times. (1) For many years he has collaborated with Arab migrant communities in Austria and has frequently been invited to address their demonstrations and meetings.

The charges against Pröbsting are founded on a sentence of a speech he delivered half a year ago (!) at a rally outside of the Viennese headquarter of the United Nations. At the close of this speech, Pröbsting said the following: “I send my greetings to all courageous Palestinians who are fighting for their freedom and against the dictatorship of Israel. With all our hearts we will stand with the Third Intifada until the State of Israel is abolished and all people in Palestine can live together peacefully.” (2)

In his interrogation, Pröbsting repeated what he has stated repeatedly in public in speeches and writings for many years: He supports the one-state solution for Palestine, which means that all Palestine refugees will have the right to return to their homes and that the state of Israel should be replaced by a single state of Palestinian and Jewish people. When the police asked him if he supports terrorist attacks, he replied that he opposes terrorist attacks against civilians, but that he does support the armed resistance of the Palestinian people against the Israel army.

The public prosecution department of Vienna will now have to decide whether to press charges against Pröbsting and conduct a trial.

We strongly protest any such judicial prosecution of Michael Pröbsting and unequivocally reject the supposedly illegal nature of his viewpoint on solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the State of Israel. It is obvious that these charges, brought up half a year after the incriminating speech, are part of a political offensive by pro-Israeli forces. Similarly, these same forces tried to create a scandal when another organization invited the Palestinian liberation fighter Leila Khaled to a public meeting in Austria. (3) In Britain Anti-Zionists are currently expelled from the Labour Party. (4) In the United States supporters of the BDS campaign are facing numerous pressures.

We reject the slanderous accusation of Anti-Zionism as a “new form of Anti-Semitism.” We are opposed to the State of Israel, not the Jewish people. Quite the contrary, we share our Antizionist convictions not only with millions of people around the world supporting the Palestinian liberation struggle, but also with many Jews who oppose Zionism either because of political or religious arguments – including the Israeli-Jewish members of the RCIT section in Israel / Occupied Palestine. (5)

Three years ago, Johannes Wiener, another comrade of the RCIT, was threatened with similar charges because of a speech he delivered at a rally in which he expressed views similar to those of Pröbsting. At that time we initiated a campaign of solidarity and, as a result, the charges, which were pressed by a pro-Israeli organization in Austria, were ultimately dropped. (6) We call upon all friends of the Palestinian Liberation Struggle, and all who defend democratic rights, to join our solidarity campaign, to sign the following statement and to send it to the ministry of justice in Austria.

* * * * *

Statement of Solidarity

Stop Judicial Prosecution for Solidarity with Palestine!

We Call upon the Austrian State to Drop the Charges against Michael Pröbsting!

We, the undersigned, are aware that Michael Pröbsting was summoned on 20 April 2016 to appear before the Federal Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism due to a speech he delivered at a rally half a year earlier. In his speech, Pröbsting said: “With all our hearts we will stand with the Third Intifada until the State of Israel is abolished and all people in Palestine can live together peacefully.” Furthermore, we are aware that if the public prosecution department should open a trial against Mr. Pröbsting in which he is convicted, he can face up to one year in prison. Irrespective of our concrete perspectives about the future of the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation, we oppose any such judicial prosecution of Michael Pröbsting.

Please send this short letter by email to the Austrian ministry of justice: medienstelle.ressort@justiz.gv.at. Please forward this email also to us: rcit@thecommunists.net

Footnotes:

(1) The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) is an international organization with a presence in 10 countries. The URL of its website is www.thecommunists.net and it can be contacted at rcit@thecommunists.net.

(2) This speech was delivered at a rally held on 16 October 2015 organized by the Ahwazi Arabs, an oppressed national minority living in Iran. Michael Pröbsting was invited to address the rally. A brief report of that rally with links to pictures and a video of his speech (in German) can be viewed at http://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/solidarity-with-ahwazi-arabs/. The incriminating sentence starts at 4:00 minutes into the video clip.

(3) See on this e.g. OKAZ: Stellungnahme des Österreichisch-Arabischen Kulturzentrums (OKAZ) zur Hetzkampagne gegen die Diskussionsveranstaltung mit Frau Leila Khaled, http://okaz.at/stellungnahme-des-oesterreichisch-arabischen-kulturzentrums-okaz-zur-hetzkampagne-gegen-die-diskussionsveranstaltung-mit-frau-leila-khaled/

(4) See on this e.g. RED LIBERATION: Defeat Zionism in the Labour Party Statement, 30 March 2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/zionism-labour-party/

(5) See on this numerous articles in Hebrew, Arab and English language on the website of the Internationalist Socialist League, the RCIT-Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine: http://the-isleague.com/

(6) See e.g. RCIT: Victory! The Charge against RKOB Spokesperson and Palestine Solidarity Activist Johannes Wiener has been dropped! 10.1.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/solidarity-with-wiener-won/

From the Defense of Our Rights to a Socialist Future!

Platform of the Corrente Comunista Revolucionária, March 2016, http://elmundosocialista.blogspot.com/

1. Down with the coup! No to impeachment and to “corruption-investigations” which are just a tool for the right-wing opposition and the state apparatus to destroy our democratic rights.

2. Defeat the coup-plotters in the streets by independents mass mobilizations by the working class and the oppressed! Force CUT and all mass organizations to struggle consistently for our rights! For mass demonstrations, occupation of squares, and general strikes against the coup plotters! For the formation of anti-coup action committees in all workplaces, neighborhoods, schools, etc.

3. Dismissal of all pro-coup judges as well as pro-coup army and police officers! For the formation of self-defense units to defend the people against the pro-coup army! Call the ordinary soldiers and police men to refuse the coup activities!

4. The private media support the coup. For nationalization of the mass media under workers control! For the occupation of the media by anti-coup action committees!

5. Defend the PT, Lula and Dilma against the right-wing attacks! But no political support for the popular-front government! Fight against their anti-workers austerity measures!

6. Higher wages, lower prices! End unemployment by a public works program – financed by the rich and the multinational corporations! The land to our landless brothers and sisters and to the small camponês – expropriate the big land owners and the multinational corporations!

7. Equal rights for women as well as for our black-, indigenous- and migrant brothers and sisters. Only if the oppressed are united we can defend ourselves consistently!

8. Nationalize the property of the multinational corporations under the control of the workers. No cooperation with any imperialist great powers like the USA, EU, China, Japan and Russia!

9. For the formation of a government of the working class in alliance with the urban poor and the landless peasants in Brazil and everywhere! We can only secure our future and our rights if we overthrow capitalism which creates this misery!

10. The CCR – Corrente Comunista Revolucionária - is dedicated to build a really revolutionary party in all of Brazil and Latin America. This is the only way in which we can fight consistently for our rights!

11. We support the positions of our international organization CCRI/RCIT on international issues (Solidarity with the Anti-Marci movement in Argentina! For a Free and Red Palestine! Defend the Syrian Revolution against Assad and the Great Powers! For the rights of refugees in Europe and against the anti-Migrant and anti-Muslim racists! Liberate Africa from imperialism! Etc.).

One world – one struggle – one revolution!

Report on May Day 2016 in Austria: Joint Resistance against Racist Attacks

Forceful, militant, internationalist demonstration despite racist attacks

Report (with Pictures and Videos) on the multinational, internationalist demonstration in Vienna marking May Day 2016 organized by the Revolutionary Communist Organization LIBERATION www.rkob.net

The Revolutionary Communist organization LIBERATION (RKO LIBERATION, the Austrian section of the RCIT), organized a forceful, militant demonstration of 150 participants on May Day in Vienna. Among the participants were representatives from several migrant organizations including the Austria Coordination Council in Support of the Syrian Revolution, the Coordination Council of the Egyptian Community, the Ahwazi (Iranian Arab community), the Organization of Migrants from Iraq, and the Latin American Platform in Vienna. Brothers and sisters from Vienna’s Tunisian community were also present. Together we marched to demonstrate our internationalist solidarity with workers and oppressed throughout the world and our unflagging commitment to the fight against racism. We protested against the dictatorship of General al-Sisi in Egypt and Assad’s brutal rule in Syria, the imperialist-backed regime in Iraq, against theocratic Iran, against the ongoing parliamentarian coup in Brazil, for a free, red Palestine, and against the repression of migrants and the exploitation of workers everywhere, including in Austria.

This multinational, internationalist demonstration was viciously attacked by a group of Austrian racists who were not even deterred by the presence of the many families with small children who attended. Cowardly and to a certain extent drunk, these brutes tried several times to attack our demonstrators, and continually heaped insults upon us. Just like Alice Schwarzer, these louts see every woman wearing a headscarf as a symbol of "Islamist terrorism" and therefore a legitimate target for insults, thereby unsuccessfully attempting to disguise their own vile racism and sexism behind an allegedly “democratic” struggle for equality and against anti-Semitism. Sadly, these types of racists are actually commonly referred to by the local media as anti-nationalist, anti-fascist and anti-sexist. This perversion is particularly ironic seeing how they immediately denounce any criticism of the apartheid state of Israel as overt anti-Semitism, and basically see Muslims as nothing more than latent anti-Semites. Given their twisted logic, it’s no wonder that these cowardly racists even tried to attack and beat women among our demonstrators. When our comrades successfully managed to defend our sisters in the march, shouting “women beaters” at the would-be assailants, these warped men in all seriousness indignantly attempted to insult our comrades accusing us of "sexism"(!) But our comrades from the Austrian section of the RCIT successfully thwarted these racist provocateurs and put an end to their attempts to interrupt our multinational demonstration.

Undeterred by several attempts by these vile racists and women beaters to disrupt our May Day march and celebration, in the end our march and the public rally afterwards were a success. The crowd was addressed by a number of speakers among them Rahime Berisha, Almedina Gunić, Marek Hangler, Johannes Wiener and Michael Pröbsting, each one speaking as a member of the Austrian section of the RCIT. Other speakers included Ibrahim Ali from the Egyptian community, Dr. Hamoui from the Syrian community, and Comrade Isabel from the Latin America Platform in Vienna. There were also speeches by Abderrahmen Laarouchi, a Moroccan migrant, and a Syrian refugee who just recently arrived in Austria. Several speakers, including Abderrahmen Laarouchi, emphasized that we are fighting against Zionism and the apartheid state Israel, but not against Jewish people who are our brothers and sisters.

Elated and in the spirit of internationalism, militant anti-Zionism and anti-racism, we successfully concluded our May Day demonstration with calling out a joint slogan: “Long live internationalist solidarity!”

Speeches from the May Day demonstration as well as photographs of our contingent can be viewed on the RKOB website at: http://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/erster-mai-2016/

Austria: Mass Demonstration in Solidarity with Refugees

Report (with Pictures and Videos) from the anti-racist Demonstration on 19 March in Vienna by the Austrian Section of the RCIT, 20.3.2016, www.rkob.net

Thousands of people demonstrated on 19 March in Vienna in solidarity with refugees and against racism. This was a strong signal against the racist offensive both by the Austrian government as well as by the right-wing opposition.

The Austrian section of the RCIT joined the demonstration with a very lively and militant contingent of nearly 100 activists. In addition to the activists of our youth organization RED*REVOLUTION and the young workers group RED*RESISTANCE, dozens of migrants and refugees from Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Honduras and other countries – with whom we have organized numerous activities in past years – participated in our contingent.

We shouted many slogans against the racist rabble-rousing, for the opening of the borders, and for solidarity with the Arab Revolution. We used the long demonstration to give a number of short speeches. Leaders of the Austrian Section of the RCIT, like Almedina Gunić, Michael Pröbsting, Johannes Wiener, Marek Hangler and Rahime Berisha, explained our struggle for open borders and for solidarity with the Arab Revolution. We also emphasized the importance of the struggle for women’s liberation

Our contingent varied significantly from other left-wing groups not only because of its size and its militant spirit. In contrast to all reformist and centrist groups, the RCIT in Austria stands in active solidarity with the liberation struggle in Syria, Egypt, Yemen and other countries against the dictatorships and against imperialism. Furthermore, one could see yet once again that we are not merely white anti-racists who are only in favor of the rights for migrants and refugees; but that we actively fight together with migrants and refugees, and that we are building a multinational revolutionary organization. We will continue this path.

See numerous photos and video clips at the following link:

Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.932308580218548.1073741849.172362649546482&type=3

Videos (including speeches in English language): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvd6RcGECq1uJBzi7Ls4KYX7b8CKt0sok

Revolutionary Communists in Austrian TV

By Revolutionary Communist Organization LIBERATION (Austrian Section of the RCIT), 26 February 2016, www.rkob.net

Almedina Gunić and Marek Hangler, leaders of the Austrian Section of the RCIT, were recently invited by the Austrian Television channel OKTO TV. They appeared in the TV show “Aswan TV” on 16 February which is often dedicated to issues relevant to migrants.

Our comrades were asked by the presenter Alessandra Rametta, a journalist who reported for many years from war regions in Africa and the Middle East, to report about the goals and the campaigns of the Austrian Section of the RCIT.

Our comrades Gunić and Hangler presented the communist ideas and activities for 30 minutes in German language. You can watch the whole TV show here:

http://okto.tv/aswan/15839/20160216

Down with Assad and the Great Powers!

Report (with Pictures and Videos) from a Rally of the Syrian Community in Vienna on 14 January 2016

By the Austrian Section of the RCIT, 19.01.2016, www.rkob.net

The Syrian Community in Vienna organized a rally in solidarity with the ongoing liberation struggle against the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad and against the military aggression of the Great Powers. They invited the Austrian Section of the RCIT to participate in the rally which took place in front of the Austrian ministry of foreign affairs. They also asked our comrade Michael Pröbsting to hold the official speech at the rally.

In his address Michael Pröbsting expressed the RCIT’s unconditional solidarity with the Syrian Revolution. He also sharply denounced the reactionary intervention of the Great Powers in Syria. Pröbsting said: “Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by the Syrian army. What is the European Union doing? What is the US doing? What is Russia doing? They only send bombs against the people in Syria! But our brothers and sisters in Syrian don’t need bombs which kill them. They need food, medicine and weapons in order to defend themselves!”

Pröbsting also called the workers movement, in particular the trade unions, to organize an international solidarity campaign for the oppressed Syrian people and at the same time to oppose any military aggression of the imperialist Great Powers – be it Russia, the US or the European Union. The RCIT has supported the Syrian Revolution from its beginning in March 2011. We will continue its solidarity work despite the increasing obstacles in the struggle for the successful liberation of the Syrian workers and peasants!

See photos and the video clip of the rally’s speech at the following link:

http://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/syrien-kundgebung-2016/

For our latest statement on Syria see:

RCIT: Great Powers Aim to Liquidate the Syrian Revolution! Mobilize for International Solidarity with the Syrian Liberation Struggle against the Assad Dictatorship! Stop the US, Russian and French Air Strikes! No to Daesh/IS-Terrorism! 18.11.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/great-powers-syria/

The Imperialist Counterrevolution Threatens the Syrian Revolution! Down with the Great Powers’ Wars! Solidarity with the Syrian Revolution against the Assad Dictatorship! For a Socialist Federation in the Maghreb and Mashreq! Joint Statement of the Agrupación de Lucha Socialista (ALS) and the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 07.12.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/imperialist-counterrevolution-syria/

RCIT: Revolution against Russian Imperialism! Stop the US, UK and French Air Strikes! Smash the Assad Dictatorship! 9.10.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/defend-syria-against-russia/

For our analysis of the Arab Revolution we refer readers to:

RCIT: Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Arab World: An Acid Test for Revolutionaries, 31 May 2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/theses-arab-revolution/

For other RCIT documents and articles on Syria see:

http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/

An Open Letter to All Revolutionary Organizations and Activists

Open Letter to Revolutionaries.pdf

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At the Outset of a New Political Phase: For the Unity of Revolutionaries in the Struggle against Advancing Counterrevolution!

Issued by the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 29.12.2015, www.thecommunists.net

As the crisis of capitalism deepens and brings in its wake more wars and misery, the working class and the oppressed are politically disoriented by their reformist and populist leaderships. The resulting political paralysis constitutes a huge danger for the popular masses that face a new political phase of counterrevolutionary offensives by the bourgeoisie. In such a situation it is of utmost urgency for revolutionaries to advance the struggle for a new World Party of Socialist Revolution and hence, as a first step, to strive for unity based on agreement on the crucial programmatic and organizational tasks of the class struggle today.

The present world situation cannot be understood outside of the context of the global historic period which opened with the Great Recession in 2008. This long-term period is characterized by the fall of the rate of profit and capitalist decay. Against this backdrop, the bourgeoisie all over the world has less room to maneuver and make any concessions to the working class.

As a result the capitalists are forced to accelerate their attacks on the working class and the popular masses as exemplified by the numerous austerity and privatization programs in Greece, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, South Africa, etc., as well as in the attacks on workers’ rights as we are witnessing in China, South Korea, Cambodia or Vietnam.

For the very same reason the imperialist monopolies are increasing the super-exploitation of the semi-colonial countries (the so-called “Third World”) resulting in the barbaric IMF programs, programs of debt repayment, land grabbing and increasing poverty that we are witnessing throughout Africa and Latin American, as well as in many countries like India and Pakistan, to name only the largest and most prominent. Furthermore the Great Powers and their lackeys are increasingly deploying ground troops, warships and air forces to expand their influence in the South (e.g., NATO in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq; Russian intervention in Syria; French intervention in Mali and CAR; Chinese troops in South Sudan; the African Union Mission in Somalia; etc.).

Likewise, the decay of the capitalist system is intensifying the rivalry between the imperialist Great Powers (the US, EU, Japan, China and Russia). Hence we see an increasing number of conflicts between the Great Powers over spheres of influence (e.g., in the Ukraine, in Syria or in East Asia). Other manifestations of this rivalry are various projects of US imperialism (e.g., the TTP and TTIP free trade agreements) as well as of the new Eastern imperialists (China and Russia) which increasingly are challenging the hegemony of the old Western imperialists (e.g., China’s Nicaragua Canal Development Project; the New Development Bank operated by the BRICS states as an alternative to the existing American and European-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund; the spread of trade conducted in Yuan and Ruble, etc.).

The result of these accelerating contradictions in the world capitalist system is a rising number of class struggles, popular uprisings, reactionary counteroffensives, coup d’états and wars. The Arab Revolution which started in December 2010 is a prime example of this: the working class and poor swept away brutal dictators like Ben Ali, Gaddafi, Mubarak and Saleh. But since the liberal and Islamist leaderships could not offer a vision leading forward, they also suffered terrible defeats like the crushing of the democratic protests in Bahrain, the coup d’état of General Sisi in Egypt, and the return of the old guard of Ben Ali in Tunisia. In Libya the Great Powers support the reactionary forces around General Haftar and try to force the bourgeois-Islamist government in Tripoli to capitulate. In Yemen, the Saudi forces with their puppet Hadi have invaded the country in order to destroy the Yemeni Revolution.

In Syria the revolutionary liberation struggle is continuing but is facing huge threats. The murderous dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad – with the wholesale support of Russian imperialism as well as that of Iran – is continuing its war of destruction against its own people. At the same time the Syrian Revolution is threatened by the rise of the counterrevolutionary Daesh (the so-called “Islamic State”). Last but not least, all the Great Powers are united in their determination to liquidate the Syrian Revolution since they fear both a destabilization of the imperialist order throughout the entire region as well as growing waves of refugees coming to Europe.

The wave of popular struggles in Latin America during the past decade formed the backdrop for the election of a number of bourgeois populist and popular front governments (e.g., Lula da Silva / Rousseff in Brazil, Chavez / Maduro in Venezuela, Morales in Bolivia, Correa in Ecuador, and Kirchner in Argentina). These governments – dominated by a sector of the bourgeoisie and ruling in their interests, but also based on the support of workers’ and popular organizations – could offer some concessions to the popular masses since these countries experienced a certain economic upswing based on their intensifying trade with China as well as massive foreign loans and investments made there by the new Eastern imperialist power. However, with the slowdown of China’s economy and the intensifying efforts of US imperialism to regain the hegemony in its “backyard,” the bourgeois-reformist model of Castro-Chavismo is exhausted and has disillusioned the masses.

Greece, a modern day semi-colony in the South of Europe, is the most prominent example of the brutal strangulation which the poorer European countries are suffering at the hands of the EU and the imperialist monopolies. However, Greece has also been in the forefront of the European class struggle during the past few years with up to 40 general strikes having taken place in that country. As a result, the left-reformist SYRIZA was elected into government in January 2015. However, true to its nature as a bourgeois workers’ party, it openly betrayed the working class by forming a popular front with the right-wing racist ANEL party and by capitulating to the austerity programs imposed by the EU despite the tremendous victory for OXI (“No”) in the referendum on 5 July.

The accelerating contradictions of capitalism are provoking the class struggle as well as the bourgeoisie’s attacks in all parts of the world. In China – a capitalist country which has become home to the greatest number of billionaires worldwide as well as of the second largest number of multi-national corporations – the workers and rural poor are gaining confidence in expressing their disgust with the capitalists, managers and bureaucrats. According to the Hong-Kong based China Labour Bulletin, the reported number of strikes and protests in the country has doubled every year since 2011. Similarly, on 2 September 2015 India witnessed one of the biggest general strikes in its history with 150 million people participating. In Pakistan, too, workers are continuing to resist the bosses and the governmental privatization plans as exemplified by the actions of the power workers. In Thailand, the workers and poor peasants are still suffering from the serious defeat in May 2014 when the military launched a reactionary coup d’état to overthrow the bourgeois-populists government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

In South Africa the working class and youth have continued to fight against the popular front ANC government of Jacob Zuma despite the outrageous massacre at Marikana in August 2012. The split in the trade union federation COSATU with the breaking away of its single biggest union, NUMSA, was a correct step forward, as were the attempts of the latter to form a new political movement. Despite its reformist deficiencies, this project will hopefully lead to the formation of a new workers’ party. Likewise, the mass protests of the workers and poor in Burundi against its long-term dictator Pierre Nkurunziza demonstrated that the African masses are not willing to succumb to their reactionary dictators, lackeys of imperialism.

However, despite their heroic struggles, the working class and the oppressed have not been able to stop the bourgeoisie’s austerity programs, anti-democratic offensive and imperialist war drive. Worse, in a number of countries the ruling class has launched counterrevolutionary offensives.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the Great Powers and their local flunkies continue to try and strangle the Arab Revolution by supporting old and new dictatorships as well as by means of foreign military interventions.

In Latin America, important sectors of the bourgeoisie have launched a counterrevolutionary offensive in order to depose the populist and popular-frontist governments. They have already pushed out the Kirchnerist government in Argentina, substantially weakened the Maduro government in Venezuela and are unrelenting in their attempts to impeach Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.

In Europe, the ruling class is whipping up chauvinism against migrants – particularly of Muslim origin – and has begun a systematic process of militarization and domestic repression. French President Hollande declared a three months state of emergency (with the support of the ex-Stalinist PCF and the Front de Gauche!), vastly extending the legal power of the repressive state apparatus and accelerating the imperialist military intervention in Syria. Britain and Germany swiftly followed apace. The ruling classes of the imperialist EU fear the mass of refugees coming to Europe (around one million in 2015) and try to make people forget that they are only facing the consequences of the bourgeoisie’s barbaric world order!

All these developments mark the onset of a new political phase: an interim phase characterized by the global counterrevolutionary offensive of the ruling class which leads to more austerity programs, domestic repression and imperialist wars and which will provoke mass resistance of the working class and the oppressed.

Unfortunately, the working class and the oppressed suffer from a lack of revolutionary leadership. Instead, their resistance is impeded by the reformist, populist, and bureaucratic nature of their current leaders. The official heads of the trade unions and popular organizations, of the reformist and bourgeois and petty-bourgeois populist parties (e.g., the Castro-Chavistas, Kirchnerists and Rousseff’s and Lula’s PT in Latin America, SYRIZA in Greece and other social democrats in Europe, the Stalinists in India and the Maoists in Nepal) as well as of the various strands of Islamism (e.g., the Muslim Brotherhood, various rebel groups in Syria or the Houthis in Yemen) – they have all failed to offer the workers and popular masses a road out of capitalist misery and humiliation. Their political nature – irrespective of their official “radical” proclamations – is to remain or to become part of the state apparatus of the ruling capitalist class. It is therefore hardly surprising that they often have been, or aspire to become, an ally of one or several imperialist Great Powers.

The centrists of various hues – “revolutionaries” in words, but opportunists in deeds – are part of the problem, not the solution. As a general rule they opportunistically adapt directly to the bureaucratic apparatus of the mass organizations and thus, indirectly, to this or that imperialist Great Power. We specifically name, among many others: the CWI led by Peter Taffee, Alan Woods’ IMT, the Lambertists as well as the Mandelist NPA in France who consistently fail to support the resistance against the imperialist occupation in those countries which are victim to the imperialist powers (e.g., Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali, etc.); the Morenoite LIT which hailed the reactionary Euro-Maidan movement in the Ukraine as well as the coup d’état in Egypt (as did as the IMT); French centrists like the LO who support the suppression of female Muslim’s right to wear the hijab in schools; British centrists who supported the chauvinist “British Jobs for British Workers” strike in 2009, denounced the August Uprising in 2011 and who oppose “Open Border for Migrants” (like the CWI and the IMT); various centrists who refuse to defend the Syrian Revolution but prefer to take a neutral stand (CWI, IMT, PTS/FT); the Cliffites (SWP in Britain) who opportunistically have found a place of peaceful coexistence in the parliamentary faction of the left-reformist and pro-Zionist LINKE in Germany, and who have managed the political absurdity of first supporting the candidacy of Morsi and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood in 2012, only to then refuse to defend the Muslim Brotherhood from the massacres of General Sisi in the summer of 2013, and finally to opening collaborate with coup supporters in the so-called Road of the Revolution Front; or those centrists which have many times opportunistically adapted to the Castro-Chavistas (e.g., the Lambertists in Brazil) and/or who have more recently scandalously supported the right-wing, pro-US opposition against Chavez (e.g., Chirino/UIT in Venezuela in 2013) or against the Brazilian PT government (e.g., support of the Morenoite LIT and UIT for the pro-impeachment demonstrations).

We must choose a different path. As long as the working class and the oppressed do not possess a revolutionary combat party – nationally as well as world-wide – they cannot succeed in their liberation struggle. Therefore the most urgent task in the present period is the timely founding of revolutionary parties and a new World Party of Socialist Revolution. Such new revolutionary parties are forged in the class struggle as well as in that against the official leaderships – the treacherous labor bureaucrats, Social Democracy, Stalinists, petit-bourgeois Nationalists and Islamists – who consciously or unconsciously mislead the workers and oppressed.

To make significant progress in this task, the unity of revolutionaries all over the world is vital. Such a unity can succeed in building a strong international Bolshevik organization which shares a common program as well as common understanding of the methods of party building and thus serves as a pre-party formation for the new World Party of Socialist Revolution (which in our opinion will be the Fifth International).

Faced with advancing counterrevolution at the beginning of this new political phase, the RCIT calls upon all sincere revolutionary organizations and activists around the world to unite in the struggle for an authentically Marxist – meaning Bolshevik, applied to the conditions of the 21^st century – international organization. Such an international organization needs theoretical and practical clarity. It must be based on a joint understanding of the application of the revolutionary program to the main question of today’s international class struggle. They must not only proclaim the road to liberation, but must also name and fight against all obstacles. In other words, it must take up the struggle against the numerous left-reformist and centrist forces which disorient and mislead the working class under the banner of “Marxism” – which is a “Marxism” devoid of its revolutionary spearhead, a “Marxism” conveniently and opportunistically adapted to all possible non-working class leaderships (reformists, populists, Islamists, etc.), or a “Marxism” which vegetates in sectarian retirement from the class struggle.

For a Revolutionary Approach to the Burning Issues of World Class Struggle

Programmatic clarity and unity has to be examined on the basis of the most important issues of world class struggle such as the following.

* Defend the Arab Revolution against its foreign and domestic enemies! Down with the reactionary dictatorships in Syria, Egypt as well as the Gulf monarchies! No to the return of the Ben Ali clique in Tunisia! Against General Haftar’s gang in Libya! For workers and peasant republics!

* International solidarity with the ongoing Syrian Revolution! Continue the struggle until the whole Baathist state apparatus is smashed! Down with the military intervention of Russian as well as French, US, British and German imperialism! No to any negotiated settlement by the Great Powers! For the Kurdish people’s right to national self-determination! Down with the reactionary Daesh!

* Smash the imperialist Apartheid State of Israel! For a Democratic, Palestinian, Multinational and Socialist Workers and Fallahin Republic from the River to the Sea (“For a Free, Red Palestine!”)! No to any Two-State Solution! Victory to the Palestinian Resistance! For international workers and popular solidarity like the boycott campaign!

* Down with imperialist aggressions and wars! In Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Mali, Somalia, and North Korea: Defeat the imperialist NATO and Russian forces and their local allies! We are on the side of those resisting the imperialist invaders without giving any political support for nationalist, Islamist or Stalinist forces!

* Stop the counterrevolutionary offensive in Latin America! No to the impeachment of the Rousseff government in Brazil! No to the right-wing Macri government in Argentina! For a mass united front of workers and popular organizations which should include those under the influence of the reformists and populists (like the Kirchnerists, Castro-Chavistas, etc.)! But no political support for any bourgeois-populist or popular-front government! Expropriate the multinational corporations from US, EU and China! Defend Argentina against British imperialism and kick Britain out of the Malvinas!

* Defend democratic rights against dictatorships and semi-dictatorships! For mass united fronts of workers and popular organizations – including those led by reformist, populist and Islamist forces – against the reactionary Bonapartist regimes (e.g. Egypt, Thailand, Burundi, etc.)

* Support the struggle of all oppressed nations for self-determination! Freedom for Azawad (Mali), Chechnya, East-Turkmenistan (China), Balochistan, Kashmir, Northern Ireland, the Basque Country, Catalonia, and all other oppressed nations! Support the struggle of the Afro-American minority in the USA (like the Black Lives Matters movement) as well as of the native/indigenous people in Northern and Southern America for liberation!

* Equal rights for migrants! No immigration control in imperialist countries! Equal wages and full citizenship rights! Equality for migrants and national minorities’ languages in the education sector and the public administration! For a revolutionary migrants movement!

* Fight against Chauvinism and Militarization in Europe! Lift the state of emergency in France! No deployment of the army on European streets! All European troops out of Northern Africa and the Middle East! Defend Muslim migrants against Islamophobic racism! Equal rights for Muslims! No to mass arrests against Islamists! Open the borders to refugees!

* General strikes against the austerity offensive! Stop attacks on wages and workers’ rights! No more privatizations! Cancel public debt! Nationalize all enterprises which sack workers or declare bankruptcy and place them under workers’ control! Expropriate the banks and corporations!

* Support the struggle of the Greek workers and poor against the EU-Troika! For an indefinite general strike against the Third Memorandum! Exit the EU and fight for a workers’ government! Smash the imperialist EU with a Socialist Revolution! For the United Socialist States of Europe!

* Down with all imperialist Great Powers – US, EU, Japan, China and Russia! In any political, economic or military conflict between these Great Powers, the workers movement must not give any support to one of them but must follow the Leninist program of revolutionary defeatism and declare: The Main Enemy is at Home!

* For Women’s Liberation through socialist revolution! Support the struggle of Dalit and other women in India against systematic oppression! For self-defense units of the workers and poor to defend women against violence! Equal wages for women! For the socialization of housework! For a revolutionary working class women’s movement!

* For the liberation of the youth! Down with state repression against young people! Avenge the murder of 43 students from Ayotzinapa in Mexico! Solidarity with the migrant youth in France and Britain fighting against oppression! Support the protests of the South African students! For a revolutionary youth movement!

Contrary to the reformists bureaucrats like the Castro-Chavistas, the Party of the European Left or the Indian CP’s, revolutionaries reject the illusion that such immediate demands, to say nothing of the entire program, can be realized within the capitalist system. Even the temporary implementation of such demands cannot be achieved via the reformist methods with a focus on elections, parliamentary work and reforms. Capitalism in decay is incapable of offering any meaningful enduring reforms.

Instead, revolutionaries insist that the liberation struggle has to be conducted by the means of uncompromising class struggle and by advancing the self-organization of the workers and oppressed. This is why revolutionaries support all forms of mass struggle dictated by concrete circumstances – beginning with mass demonstrations, strikes and general strikes, occupations up to armed insurrections and civil wars. Likewise, revolutionaries call in all struggles for the formation of action committees of the workers, youth and popular masses in the workplaces, neighborhoods, villages, schools and universities. Furthermore, revolutionaries call for the formation of self-defense units in order to defend strikes and demonstrations as well as migrants or refugees against the police and fascists. In situations of acute class struggles, such bodies can be expanded so that action committees can become councils (like the soviets in Russia in 1917) backing armed workers’ and popular militias.

We reject any form of sectarianism towards the mass organizations of the working class. The application of the united front tactic towards trade unions and other workers’ and popular mass organizations is a fundamental element in achieving the strategic goal of breaking the working class away from the treacherous labor bureaucracy. Such tactics must be focused on practical activities and have to include mobilizing and organizing ordinary members, placing demands on leaders, warning the workers against having any illusions in the bureaucratic leadership as well as independent agitation and propaganda. Hence, the united front tactic must go hand in hand with sharp denunciations of the bureaucracy and the refusal of any strategic bloc with any “left” faction of the bureaucracy.

Working within the unions and other mass organizations in order to revolutionize them remains crucial. Communists should organize in factions and help build a broad rank-and-file movement to fight against the privileged bureaucracy and to ultimately oust it. However, revolutionaries are also aware that the unions usually organize only a small minority of the working class. Likewise, the unions are often dominated by the labor aristocracy or by the better-off sectors of the proletariat. Hence, it is crucial to use all opportunities to build factory committees and similar bodies in struggles in order to broaden the base of organized workers. Furthermore, revolutionaries must strive to organize the lower strata of the working class and the oppressed layers in the unions and to bring representatives of these layers into leadership positions so that the dominance of the aristocratic layer can be eliminated.

Revolutionaries must combine their participation in the class struggle with a program for working class power. This means the total renunciation of the European left parties, Stalinists and various centrists (e.g., CWI, IMT) pipedream of a peaceful, parliamentary road to socialism. It means fighting for the building of action councils of the workers, peasant and poor, of armed popular militias, for the expropriation of the capitalist class and for a workers’ government allied with the peasants and urban poor and based on local councils and militias. It means preparing the working class for the armed insurrection, the civil war and the dictatorship of the proletariat as the only means by which the proletariat can advance in the struggle for liberation.

An International Revolutionary Organization as the Essential Tool to Fight for the Program

These are some of the most important questions of the world class struggle today. Programmatic clarity on what to do and what not to do, are basic for a sustainable revolutionary unity. However, it is not sufficient to agree on a program. One must know how to fight for the program. In short, what is necessary is congruence on the kind of combat organization which is the tool to implement the program in reality via the class struggle.

Revolutionaries reject all concepts which praise so-called “broad, pluralist, left parties” as the way forward. Surely, we are for greatest organizational and tactical flexibility towards political formations which represent layers of radicalizing workers and oppressed (including tactics like entering such parties as a revolutionary faction or calling for new Workers’ Parties). But we categorically reject the concept of “pluralist, left parties” as a way forward because it usually means unity of bureaucrats and workers, of supporters and opponents of imperialist wars, of supporters of the peaceful, parliamentarian road as well as of the revolutionary road. In short, such “Left Unity” is one that will only paralyze revolutionary activity, hence it is a useless unity. What the working class needs is a revolutionary combat party and this has to be openly proclaimed.

The struggle for an authentic revolutionary world party in the tradition of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky is the most important challenge for communists today. Surely, at this moment we are too small in numbers and not sufficiently rooted in the working class. But big accomplishments in the history of humanity are never gifts from heaven but are achieved by hard and systematic work. Forming an organized international unit of determined revolutionary workers and oppressed, based on a common program and a joint understanding of their practical and organizational methods is the most important prerequisite to build such a new, revolutionary International. It will be instrumental in the winning over of additional, broader sectors of the workers’ vanguard at a later date.

There is no national road to build a world party but only an international road. Hence, a true revolutionary party as well as pre-party organization must exist as an international formation from the beginning. Without an international organization, national centeredness and finally nationalist deviations are unavoidable – as there is no consciousness without matter and no spirit without a body.

Likewise, a revolutionary party as well as pre-party organization must be based on the organizational methods of Bolshevism (Democratic Centralism, cadre organization, etc.). It should orient towards winning the best militants among the working class and the oppressed – particularly those from its lower and middle strata. Hence, we reject the orientation of the majority of the centrist organizations toward the middle class intelligentsia as well as the labor bureaucracy and aristocracy. Such work cannot be conducted by the means of propaganda alone but has to be combined with exemplary work among the masses.

Comrades, we are living in such a complex, stormy period, which is so replete in changes and turns – it is time to overcome routine and make bold steps forward! The RCIT calls upon all fighters for the liberation of the working class and the oppressed people around the world to join forces in the struggle to build a new revolutionary world party. Given different traditions and positions, it might be necessary to first form a Bloc or a Liaison Committee between several organizations before we can achieve revolutionary unity. Whatever the interim stages will be, the goal must be the same: revolutionary unity to build a new World Party of Socialist Revolution!

No future without socialism!

No socialism without a revolution!

No revolution without a revolutionary party!

We encourage organizations and activists who share the general outlook of this Open Letter to contact us and to send us their ideas and criticisms so that we can discuss concrete steps towards joint discussion and collaboration: rcit@thecommunists.net

The RCIT has sections and activists in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Tunisia, Israel / Occupied Palestine, Brazil, Britain, Germany, USA, and Austria.

For a more extensive overview of the RCIT’s viewpoints we refer those who are interested to our website and in particular to the program of the RCIT: The Revolutionary Communist Manifesto, www.thecommunists.net/rcit-manifesto

Rally in Solidarity with Aleppo

Report (with photographs and videos) on an Austrian Rally in Solidarity with the Syrian Revolution on 30 September 2016, RKO BEFREIUNG (Austrian Section of the RCIT), www.rkob.net

The Syrian community in Austria called for a rally in solidarity with Aleppo on Friday, 30 September 2016. More than 200 people – mostly Syrian migrants and refugees – participated in the rally and shouted various slogans against the Assad regime as well as against the US and Russia and for the continuation of the Syrian Revolution.

The organizers – the Austrian Coordination Council for Support of the Syrian Revolution – invited the Revolutionary Communist Organization LIBERATION (RKO BEFREIUNG, Austrian Section of the RCIT) to participate in the rally and to address it. Comrade Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the RCIT, and comrade Marek Hangler, Spokesperson of the Austrian section of the RCIT, emphasized in their speeches the need for international solidarity with the Syrian Revolution. Furthermore, they stressed our intransigent opposition to both Russian and US imperialist intervention in the conflict and warned against a Kerry-Lavrov agreement as a sell-out of the Syrian Revolution. They said that the only road to liberation is for the working people in Syria to take power.

Not surprisingly, not a single Austrian left-wing organization except ours joined the rally. This reflects the abstentionist or even pro-Assadist position of large sectors of the Stalinist, social democratic and centrist left, as well as the increasing Islamophobia in Europe, something which regrettably has also infected the so-called “left”.

To view photographs and videos of the rally, follow this link: http://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/syrien-30-september-2016/ (scroll down)

To view the speeches of comrades Pröbsting and Hangler, follow this links: https://youtu.be/qFAGMGEP7i0 and https://youtu.be/5HvsHo970eI

Internationalist Week of Action around the 20th June 2016: Solidarity with Refugees in Europe and worldwide! Open the boarders! Stop deportations!

Report on the Activities around the 20^th June 2016, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency, www.thecommunists.net, 26.6.2016

The 20^th June is the World Refugee Day and a very important possibility to show internationalist solidarity with refugees. This year the Revolutionary Communist Internationalist Tendency organized a number of meetings and participated in demonstrations around this important day.

Our comrades in Brazil hold a meeting in the camping of Frente Brasil Popular in Sao Paulo. They discussed about the revolutionary period we live in, the imperialist wars, the counterrevolutionary attempts in Latin America and the importance of solidarity with refugees and all oppressed. Our comrade Joao Evangelista held a speech on the need of anti-imperialist actions.

In Israel/Occupied Palestine our comrades met with activists at a concert which was organized to fundraise for legal defense of an anti-fascist. The anti-fascist activist attacked the Zionist Yoav Eliassy aka “the Shadow” who is a well known fascist rapper. They discussed about the need of organizing self defense against fascists as well as in defense of refugees, migrants and nationally oppressed. Especially in Occupied Palestine it means also to stand in absolute unity with the Palestinian resistance against the Apartheid state Israel.

Our supporters in Britain participated in the actions around the Aid Convoy to Calais. They also discussed with other activists and sold the LIBERATION (newspaper of the RCIT supporters in Britain). The Aid Convoy to Calais was an important sign of protest against the racist politic of the British government. It attracted a number of workers and oppressed, mainly migrants to get active around the World Refugee Day.

The comrades in Austria participated in two demonstrations. One demonstration was against the fascist organization of the Identitäre Bewegung, a Europe wide fascist organization with origins in France (Le Bloc identitaire). The other demonstration was on the 20th June itself and was focused on slogans in solidarity with refugees. The RKOB also participated in a public meeting with migrants and refugees from Iran who belong to the national oppressed minority of the Ahwaz people. Comrade Michael Pröbsting was invited to hold a speech to the brothers and sisters.

Also our comrades from the Dördüncü Blok in Turkey (with whom the RCIT keeps comradely relations) participated in a rally on the World Refugee Day. They raised the slogan of international solidarity as well as slogans against imperialism and racism.

All in all it was an important and successful week of actions for the comrades of the RCIT and our comrades from Dördüncü Blok! We look forward to fight together with our brothers and sisters who are coming as refugees to Europe. We stand together against racism, against imperialist war and bloody dictators like Assad in Syria and Sisi in Egypt! We demand: Open the borders and let us fight together for the right to stay. Long live international solidarity!

Watch a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h37gfGl1Tqs

Revolutionary Communists in Austrian TV Show speak out against Racism and Islamophobia

By Revolutionary Communist Organization LIBERATION (Austrian Section of the RCIT), 29 August 2016, www.rkob.net

Michael Pröbsting and Johannes Wiener, leaders of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), were recently invited by the Austrian Television channel OKTO TV (http://okto.tv/). They appeared in the TV show “Aswan TV” on 28 August which is often dedicated to issues relevant to migrants.

Our comrades were asked by the presenter Alessandra Mayerhofer-Rametta, a journalist who reported for many years from war regions in Africa and the Middle East, to report about the goals and the campaigns of the Austrian Section of the RCIT.

Our comrades Pröbsting and Wiener presented the communist ideas and activities for one hour in German language. You can watch the whole TV show here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGWL74qvJPw&feature=youtu.be

Communist Party of Austria Bars Austrian Section of the RCIT from Participating in Its Annual Festival

By Revolutionary Communist Organization BEFREIUNG (RKOB, Austrian Section of the RCIT), 31 August 2016, www.rkob.net

The national leadership of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) has informed the Austrian section of the RCIT (RKOB) that it will be barred from participating in the party’s annual festival this year on 3/4 September. For decades the KPÖ has been holding an annual festival, the Austrian version of the L’Humanité Fête of the French Communist Party or various other Communist Parties in Europe.

For 25 years, we, whether as part of our recursor organizations or as the RKOB since its founding in 2011, have participated the CP’s annual festival with a stall paid for by us, like many other progressive organizations. However, the leadership of the CP recently informed us that this year we will not be allowed to set up a stall. In a letter sent by the CP to the RKOB, the explanation given for barring our participation were “serious differences on important international questions (your viewpoint on Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, the situation in Iraq, in Syria and in particular your viewpoint on IS).”

As we have reported in the past, the Communist Party of Austria has been a main opponent of the Austrian section of the RCIT for many years, and continually takes exception to our consistent anti-imperialist, anti-racist and anti-Zionist program and practices; practices we have put into operation, for example, by organizing numerous activities against imperialist wars, solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and the Arab Revolution, in the struggle against Islamophobia and racism, and in our collaboration with migrant communities. On May Day of 2016 we organized a successful internationalist demonstration together with Syrian, Egyptian, Arab-Iranian, Tunisian and Latin American migrants. (1)

As a result, the Communist Party of Austria has felt itself obliged to publish various polemics attacking our organization and, in light of our increasing popularity and strength, it is now attempting to silence us via bureaucratic measures. (2)

These bureaucratic measures are the logical result of the CP’s reformist and social-imperialist policy. It is the sister party of the French Communist Party which voted for the introduction of French president Hollande’s emergency regime against Muslim migrants and its imperialist war in Iraq. The Communist Party of Austria also maintains friendly relations with the Iraqi Communist Party which has a record of collaboration with the US occupation. Furthermore, the CP has a record of collaboration with radical pro-Zionist organizations. The CP’s youth organization, for example, was among the organizers of pro-Israel rallies during the Gaza war in 2012 under the slogan “Free Gaza from Hamas”! (3)

Irrespective of the CP’s efforts to hinder our work, as the Austrian section of the RCIT, we in the RKOB will continue our revolutionary work in solidarity with all oppressed peoples and against the great imperialist powers and their social-imperialist lackeys.

For a more detailed statement in German on the CPA’s decision to bar the RKOB from its annual festival, see: Almedina Gunić: Anti-Imperialismus und Palästina-Solidarität– Die großen Feindbilder der KPÖ. Über den Ausschluss der RKO BEFREIUNG vom Volksstimmefest 2016, 31. August 2016, http://www.rkob.net/inland/betrieb-und-arbeiterbewegung/kpoe-vs-fest-2016/

Footnotes

(1) See the Report on May Day 2016 in Austria: Joint Resistance against Racist Attacks. Forceful, militant, internationalist demonstration despite racist attacks, Report (with Pictures and Videos) on the multinational, internationalist demonstration in Vienna marking May Day 2016 organized by the Revolutionary Communist Organization LIBERATION, http://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/report-may-day-2016-in-austria/

(2) See, for example,. the CPA’s polemics against the RKOB during the Gaza war in 2014 and at the beginning of the new imperialist drive in Iraq and Syria: Roland Steixner: "Revolutionärer" Wahnsinn, KPÖ, 08.10.2014, http://www.kpoe.at/home/anzeige/datum/2014/10/08/revolutionaerer-wahnsinn.html; KPÖ Wien: Stoppt das Morden - Gewalt ist keine Lösung, 18. Juli 2014 http://wien.kpoe.at/article.php/stoppt-das-morden---gewalt-ist-keine-los. Our reply to these polemics can be appear in an article in Germany by Michael Pröbsting: Die KPÖ und Obamas Krieg im Nahen Osten. Antwort auf eine neuerliche KPÖ-Polemik gegen die RKO BEFREIUNG, 25.10.2014, http://www.rkob.net/international/nordafrika-und-arabischer-raum/kp%C3%B6-und-obamas-krieg/; Michael Pröbsting: Gaza-Krieg: Israel-freundliche KPÖ verleumdet erneut die RKO-BEFREIUNG, 25.7.2014, http://www.rkob.net/international/nordafrika-und-arabischer-raum/israelfreund-kpoe/

(3) See https://freegazafromhamas.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/kundgebung-solidaritat-mit-israel-befreit-gaza-von-der-hamas/

Video: Revolutionary Unity is Necessary!

Speech of Michael Pröbsting (International Secretary of the RCIT) at the PCL Festival in Italy, 4.9.2016, www.thecommunists.net

The Italian Partito Comunista dei Lavoratori (PCL) held a festival in Florence on 1-4 September to celebrate the party’s 10th anniversary. In several meetings conducted during the festival, the comrades discussed the national situation in Italy, the struggle for women’s liberation, and the international class struggle.

Several international guests participated at the festival, including Michael Pröbsting, the International Secretary of the RCIT. Below we release a video of comrade Pröbsting’s speech in English and Italian.

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OENvfNBxdfw&feature=youtu.be

Video: Solidarity with the Resistance against Dictatorships and Imperialist Occupations in the Middle East!

A speech delivered by Michael Pröbsting at the “International Legal Symposium on Banning the Baath Party Law and ablation and the crime of war and occupation in Iraq” in Beirut on 24 September 2016

Published by the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency, 28 September 2016, www.thecommunists.net

Below we refer you to the video of a speech delivered by Michael Pröbsting, the International Secretary of the RCIT, at the “International Legal Symposium on Banning the Baath Party Law and ablation and the crime of war and occupation in Iraq”, held in Beirut on 24 September 2016. Comrade Pröbsting was invited to address the conference in a speech delivered during the opening ceremony.

The conference was organized by forces associated with the Arab Organization for Human Rights (http://aohr.org.uk). It dealt with the political and legal means available to protest against new legislation being instituted by the pro-US and pro-Iranian government of Iraq with the aim of criminalizing the Baath party and all its supporters. The conference also discussed the consequences of the horrendous imperialist wars of aggression against the Iraq (in 1991 and 2003) and the subsequent occupation in the wake of the latter war.

You can view the video of comrade Pröbsting’s speech at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKqMb1dmwdk