Protestors march in the capital of Sudan, Khartoum, January 13, 2022 -- Image via Twitter
A special Red Review solidarity edition with statements from Communist and Workers' parties regarding the uprising in Kazakhstan, and the situations in Sudan, Swaziland and Palestine.
We had previously looked at some Kazakhstan solidarity statements in : "In Kazakhstan, there is now a real popular uprising" (theleftchapter.com)
Highlights include:
- KKE: Communists "must support workers’ struggles wherever they break out and contribute so that the ideas of Marxism–Leninism and the revolutionary prospect are grafted onto the development of the organized mass, popular, and labour movement."
- Palestinian People's Party appeals to all progressive , democratic forces and human rights organizations to express their solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
- Swaziland: The most immediate task of the democratic forces at this point is to organise the masses, not for a dialogue, but for total revolution, for a total takeover of power which must be placed at the hands of the people.
- At this critical stage of the struggle of our people aiming at defeating the military dictatorship and establishing the people’s power, the Sudanese Communist Party calls on all fraternal parties, democratic and progressive parties and organizations to continue their solidarity actions:
Statements from Communist and Workers' parties in solidarity with the worker uprising in Kazakhstan:
The recent mass mobilizations in Kazakhstan have led to violent conflicts and the intervention of military forces to suppress them. President Tokayev spoke of foreign intervention, of 20,000 foreign militants, which was followed by the military intervention of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) countries. The question arises: Were these mobilizations based on internal developments or was it truly a foreign intervention as in the case of Ukraine a few years ago?
Answer: The root cause of the mass people’s mobilization that took place in Kazakhstan lies in the enormous social and economic problems that the restoration of capitalism has caused to the people of this country.
Millions of people live on very low wages and pensions, millions are unemployed, others are forced to commute to the internal part of the country or to Russia to earn a wage. Millions of young people, in a society where the average age is low, are desperate regarding their future which seems obscure.
At the same time, it is obvious that capitalists live in luxury, that the energy wealth is being looted by local capitalists as well as foreign monopolies, such as US Chevron corporation. Overall, the US, British, and EU monopolies control 75% of the mining sector of the industry, which is the most important in this country. The energy wealth is also directed to the EU, Russia, and China, which are important importers of the energy wealth of the country.
The huge social differentiation led to harsh workers’ struggles. How did the authorities respond? 10 years ago in the city of Zhanaozen the regime’s security forces murdered thousands of workers in strike. There was an intensification of repression; among other things, the CP of Kazakhstan was banned while until today they deny the legalization of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan, they banned more than 600 trade unions by adopting new trade union laws in order to fully control the trade union movement. Moreover, an effort was launched to support the nationalist forces, including the justification of the local Nazi collaborators, i.e. the so-called “Turkestan SS legion”, which acted during the Second World War.
The anti-popular economic and social policies are the cause of today’s people’s mobilizations, with the final straw being the rise in liquefied gas prices. However, this does not contradict the fact that there is an ongoing inter-imperialist conflict in the region and that various quarters will seek to utilize these events....
You referred to the utilization of these incidents. In the past, we have witnessed the so-called colour revolutions, such as in Ukraine or the “Arab Spring”. Are there any similarities and by whom can these developments be utilized?
Answer: Firstly, both in the case of the “colour revolution” in Ukraine or Belarus and in the so-called Arab Spring, a lot of facts indicated foreign intervention, funding, training, and preparation of political forces that would assume a role, taking advantage of the sharpening of social and political problems. Such a thing is not evident in the case of Kazakhstan and it is clear that all basic foreign “players” (USA, China, Russia, EU) to one or another extent sided with the current President, only disagreeing on the deployment of the CSTO military forces. The situation as well as the way that the events unfolded have nothing in common with Ukraine, where the bourgeoisie was divided between the USA–EU and Russia and where we clearly saw foreign diplomats leading the pro-Western demonstrators and even openly utilizing fascist forces for their plans.
Certainly, in the case of Kazakhstan as well it is obvious that developments led to an intra-bourgeois realignment. President Tokayev and the businessmen that surround him sidelined to an extent the former President of the country, N. Nazarbayev, who was appointed as lifelong Chairman of the Security Council. Arrests of cadres of his entourage were made, such as that of Karim Massimov, former Prime Minister and Head of the National Security Committee of the country. It is apparent that the “old guard” is forced into a war for the redistribution of the pie for the economic and political power among the sections of the bourgeoisie of Kazakhstan.
There are also political forces; nationalist, Islamist, and other forces connected with the imperialist centres of the West, which will seek to manipulate the people’s forces that took part in the demonstrations but have a low political criterion. These forces do exist and we must not ignore them. This does not reduce but highlights the need for the organized people’s movement to be able to safeguard its mobilizations, such as in the working-class areas of Western Kazakhstan....
Which was and which should be the stance of the CPs towards similar people’s mobilizations as in Kazakhstan?
Answer: We must underscore that the KKE and more than 10 Parties that so far have taken a position on the issue, such as the Russian Communist Workers’ Party (RCWP), the Socialist Party of Latvia, the Labour Party of Austria, the CP of Mexico, the CP of Sweden, the CP of the Workers of Spain, and the CP of Belgium, following the developments, from the very first moment expressed our solidarity with the people of Kazakhstan, who raised against the social problems caused by capitalism 30 years after the overthrow of socialism. Unfortunately, many parties did not have a clear picture of what is truly happening and, thus, did not immediately take a position. Moreover, some parties, such as the French CP, focus on the “neoliberal policies” and authoritarianism of the regime, thus, acquitting capitalism once again, while others that examine the new transnational unions that are being created in the territories of the former CPSU at the initiative of Russia without a class-oriented base, such as the CPRF, justified the CSTO military intervention. This situation, first of all, indicates the ideological–political crisis within the ranks of the international communist movement and the need to overcome important ideological–political issues such as the character of transnational unions, the nexus of contradictions that are being developed among the bourgeois classes, and the character of the new capitalist powers of Russia and China.
In any case, the communists must support workers’ struggles wherever they break out and contribute so that the ideas of Marxism–Leninism and the revolutionary prospect are grafted onto the development of the organized mass, popular, and labour movement.
The Workers Party of Ireland extends its solidarity to the workers of Kazakhstan in their struggle for labour, social and political rights and condemns the state brutality and repression against strikers and protesters. Despite the wealth which has been created for the foreign monopolies, the regime and its allies, the people of Kazakhstan have endured massive poverty, mass job losses, wage cuts and increasing prices for food and fuel. Despite the regime’s attempts to portray the protests as the actions of “criminals” and “terrorists” this is in reality a class-based popular uprising against the capitalist state and its privatisation pro-capital agenda which has been pursued for many years in conjunction with various imperialist forces and the monopolies.
Mass protests over the rise in liquified gas prices commenced early in the New Year. Subsequently, the protesters raised a number of additional demands for a reduction in food prices, for measures against increasing unemployment and mass layoffs, and for higher wages, pensions and social security benefits. The response of the regime was to attempt to criminalise legitimate protest and to suppress the demands of the workers with force. Many protesters were killed and injured. There have been mass detentions and forcible suppression of demonstrations and strikes.
This is a regime with a history of repression. Hundreds of trade unions have been outlawed, workers’ organisations and political parties have been banned and a decade ago a workers’ strike in Zhanaozen was brutally suppressed with 15 workers killed and hundreds injured.
The Workers Party of Ireland applauds the struggle of workers in Kazakhstan and their demands for the nationalisation of the mining and oil industries under the control of the workers; condemns the state repression of the strikes and protest demonstrations; demands the release of all protesters and political prisoners detained by the state, the right of workers to form trade unions and political parties and to engage in open trade union activity, including strike action, and the legalisation of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan.
End the repression!
Solidarity with the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan!
Ted Tynan, President
Gerry Grainger, International Secretary
Workers Party of Ireland
We categorically protest against the one-sided and tendentious coverage by the official media of the events taking place in Kazakhstan. The picture presented to society by provocateurs of the of looters, murderers and rioters deliberately hides rallies, pickets and strikes in which thousands of workers with clearly formulated demands participate.
The authorities ignore the opinion of the working people. The ruling regime banned the Communist Party and the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan, liquidated independent trade unions, and imprisoned the most active representatives of the left, workers' and trade union movements. Working people are deprived of the opportunity to fully and legally pursue the realization of their interests and to influence political decision-making.
We are in solidarity with the demands of the working people of Kazakhstan:
- Dismiss the incumbent president and all Nazarbayev officials
- Release all political prisoners and end repression of workers and trade unionists
- Repeal anti-worker and anti-union laws that deny workers the right to form independent trade unions and political parties
– To meet the package of economic and social requirements, including raising wages, stopping the practice of mass layoffs of workers, ensuring the safety of jobs, lowering the retirement age
– Nationalize under the control of labor collectives the entire mining and large industry of the country
– Lift the ban on the activities of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
Power to labor, not capital!
The Communist Party of Belgium expresses its solidarity with the popular workers' movement, the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan and the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, which have been demonstrating for several days against misery, unemployment, the increase in the cost of living and anti-popular and anti-union laws, and are facing brutal repression from the regime and the Kazakh bourgeoisie. The latter has ruled this former Soviet republic in Central Asia with an iron fist since the restoration of capitalism in 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union. We support the struggle of the Kazakh popular workers' movement which has been fighting for many years against this national oligarchy which has been able to maintain itself by relying on the inter-imperialist contradictions which seek to control the rich natural resources of the country which is already totally open to Western imperialism. Thus, the European Union is already the first economic partner of Kazakhstan and a new cooperation agreement was signed last May in Brussels between the two parties. Moreover, US capital is well established with nearly 700 companies in the country. Oil is already largely exploited by US companies such as Chevron and ExxonMobil. It is precisely in these companies that the struggles led by workers in the energy sector (oil and gas) for the nationalisation of the sector under workers' control began. These struggles are not new. Ten years ago, the workers had already suffered repression during strikes in the oil sector by the regime, which opposes all workers' demands and communists. Since 2015 the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, a member of SolidNet, has been banned and the regime refuses the legalisation of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan, which is also a member of the World Conference of Communist and Workers' Parties.
Today, the repression has gone a step further in the will to crush the movement and repress the demonstrators. The government has called on Russia, which will send its army under a military agreement. The puppet president who succeeded the oligarch Nursultan Nusurbayev has also called for direct fire on the protesters.
We support the popular movement in its demands, and against any attempt by imperialist forces to deploy their pawns in the inter-imperialist contradictions. We warn of the danger of war which cannot be ruled out.
We condemn the repression against the popular workers' movement in Kazakhstan.
We demand freedom for political prisoners and legalisation for the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and the socialist movement of Kazakhstan and for the trade unions.
We condemn the repression against the comrades of the Communist Workers' Party of Russia arrested for supporting the demonstrators in Kazakhstan. We call for their immediate release.
9th of January 2022
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belgium (PCB-CPB)
The protests, demonstrations and strikes in Kazakhstan are an expression of the resistance of the people and the working class against oppression and exploitation, which cause lack if rights, poverty, price rises and unemployment. The Kazakh regime, which was formed after the end of the USSR 30 years ago, ignores the needs of the people, negates democratic and social rights and uses violence against any resistance. For years, strikes and protests have been repeatedly crushed and workers murdered, trade unions banned and the Communist Party and Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan illegalised. In this, the imperialist powers, including Russia, the US, China and European states, collaborated and continue to collaborate with the Kazakh regime around Nursultan Nazarbayev and his "successors" and henchmen for economic and geostrategic interests.
The resistance that is now breaking through offensively is legitimate and necessary. The Party of Labour of Austria declares its solidarity with the Kazakh people and the working class and their illegalised organisations and parties. The class struggle against the political-economic system, the national oligarchy and their imperialist allies has our internationalist and solidarity support
The Party of Labour of Austria demands:
- the end of police and military violence against demonstrations, the withdrawal of the army from the cities;
- the release of political prisoners and arrested protesters;
- the granting of workers' rights, including the right to strike and assemble, and the free formation of trade unions;
- the lifting of the illegalisation of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan as well as the Communist Party of Kazakhstan;
- no military and/or political intervention by the imperialist powers, neither the US or the EU, nor Russia or China;
- the end of the authoritarian and repressive regime in Kazakhstan, which still consists of Nazarbayev confidants;
- for a peaceful transition to a democratic system in which the rights of the people and the working class are expressed;
- for the transfer of Kazakhstan's wealth, industries and resources into social ownership under working class control.
The Communist Party of Workers of Spain expresses its support and solidarity with the workers' and popular mobilizations that are taking place in Kazakhstan and condemns the murders, arrests, and attacks of all kinds that the police and military forces of the Kazakh Government are carrying out against protesters.
The strikes and mobilizations that have been taking place since January 2 are aimed at improving the living and working conditions of the Kazakh people, whose government has handed over a large part of the country's wealth to monopolies that benefit greatly from the absence of trade-union and political rights of the country's working class.
We also denounce the intervention of foreign powers in the country, aimed both at repressing the protests and at trying to take advantage of them to aggravate the inter-imperialist confrontation.
For all this, we demand:
An immediate end to hostilities against the people and the withdrawal of troops from the cities
The release of all political prisoners and detainees
The recovery of the right to create unions, political parties, carry out strikes and meetings
The legalization of the activities of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan.
Let us not allow block politics to cancel the class struggle.
Central Committee Press Office
January 7, 2022
To the Communist and workers parties
To the progressive, democratic and peace loving forces
To the Human rights organizations
Palestinian People's Party appeals to all progressive , democratic forces and human rights organizations to express their solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
More than 4600 Palestinians (amongst them 34 women, 160 children, 500 administrative detainees and 9 members of legislative council) are in Israeli Jails .
They are passing through very difficult situation especially those who are in hunger strike. Hisham Abu Hawwash was in hunger strike for 140 days protesting against his illegal administrative detention, as many prisoners are in hunger strike, Nasser Abu Hamid is in a critical situation and he can lose his life in Israeli Jails any time .
We believe that the international community must fulfill its obligations to pressure the Israeli occupation authorities to ensure response to the just demands of the hunger strikers and their release, and to break the silence about the escalation of the occupation’s violations of international human rights standards and rules of international humanitarian law, and to oblige the occupation authorities to respect international law and the provisions of the Geneva Conventions.
We appeal to all of you to express your solidarity with the prisoners especially Nasser Abu Hamid who needs urgently to be transferred out of Israel for therapy and to force Israel to stop violation of human rights and international law and to release them.
Long live international solidarity
PPP international relations
CP of Swaziland, CPS says: Time to meet Mswati’s war path with revolutionary people’s war (excerpt):
The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) reminds the oppressed people of Swaziland that the Mswati autocracy will not go down without a fight, by mere well-meaning dialogue.
Mswati has time and again proved that not only is he opposed to dialogue about the future of the country, but he is also committed to spill more blood to cling to power.
The CPS thus reiterates its firmly held stance that there must be no dialogue with the monarch, particularly under these conditions when the tyrant has repeatedly demonstrated that he will brutalise all those calling for change.
The most immediate task of the democratic forces at this point is to organise the masses, not for a dialogue, but for total revolution, for a total takeover of power which must be placed at the hands of the people.
As the CPS, we remain convinced that the dictator will never concede power unless forced to, using all available forms of struggle to overthrow the system.
The CPS thus condemns those seeking to pacify the people by urging them to go and “dialogue” with Mswati in the dictator’s compound. These groups aim to weaken the masses’ resolve for the total removal of the institution of the monarch, hoodwink them into getting their necks into Mswati’s guillotine and prolong their oppression.
Mswati continues to rule with an iron fist in Swaziland, as Africa’s last absolute monarch. Political parties remain banned since April 1973.
Since the massacre of 29 June 2021, Mswati has killed about 100 democracy activists, injured hundreds, and arrested about 700, many of whom were held without charge and viciously assaulted in police cells. Justice for all these and previous victims of the regime will only be ascertainable under a democratic republic.
As such, the fight that the masses must wage demands deeper commitment, discipline and sacrifice. There must thus be no middle road regarding the Swazi people’s struggle for freedom.
Turn up the heat for Democracy Now!
Forward to socialism in our lifetime!
Issued by the Communist Party of Swaziland
- January 1st marked Sudan’s Independence Day, but there was nothing to celebrate in the country at the moment.
- Sunday, the 2nd of January witnessed massive demonstrations under the slogan "In Memory of the Martyrs". The main demand of thousands of protesters who took to the streets was the achievement of a complete civilian democratic rule and justice for the martyrs.
- Following the continuation of the firm rejection of the political agreement signed on 21 November between the leader of the military coup, Burhan, and PM Hamdok by all active opposition forces, mainly the Resistance Committees, the Professional Alliance and the Sudanese Communist Party, the reinstated PM announced his resignation yesterday.
- Hamdok’s resignation is considered a blow to the military generals, who had thought an agreement with him would appease the protests and legitimise their stay in power. These calculations were wrong. The masses continue to condemn and challenge the military coup and all decisions that were introduced. The current political crisis, deepened by the recent draconian laws, threatens to return the country to the authoritarian years of Albashir’s dictatorial regime.
- The peaceful mass protests that swept the streets of a number of cities yesterday were met with brutal and excessive of force, resulting in the killing of two demonstrators and over 90 people were seriously wounded. Furthermore, the wave of detention has continued, as more than 350 activists were detained since last Thursday. Fifty-six protesters were brutally killed by the security forces.
- The radical opposition forces are engaged in a series of urgent talks to finalize the political platform that will help to speed up, unify and establish the central leadership which plays the role of representing the Resistance Committees, the Professional Alliance, the Sudanese CP and other political, civil and opposition groups.
- At this critical stage of the struggle of our people aiming at defeating the military dictatorship and establishing the people’s power, the Sudanese Communist Party calls on all fraternal parties, democratic and progressive parties and organizations to continue their solidarity actions:
To demand the abolition of the state of emergency and the draconian laws that followed.
To demand the immediate release of all political detainees.
To call for respecting the rights to peaceful protest actions, and the right to internet access, demanding an end to internet shutdown.
The Sudanese Communist Party avails itself of this opportunity to express its deep thanks to all the fraternal parties that have expressed their solidarity, and it appeals for more support in the coming battles.
Sudanese CP Bureau of Information