N° 32 février 2023 Fascist coup attempt in Brazil. On the afternoon of Sunday January 8, supporters of Jair Bolsonaro invaded the National Congress and attempted to occupy the buildings of other public bodies by ransacking them.
The intention was clearly to stir up trouble and bring about a coup. This movement has been organized for months by sectors of the Brazilian ultra-right, which enjoys strong financial support from businessmen and segments of the military police and armed forces. Observers believe that the laissez-faire attitude of the security forces is obvious and indicates the degree of penetration of the putschist forces into the state apparatus. This attack on the places of power is not unique. Thus, after the announcement of Lula's victory, coup d'etat actions were organized in broad daylight, with attempts to block roads and as in Brasilia on December 24 with the attempt to blow up a truck- cistern at the city airport. I'
If the reaction of the power made it possible to disarm the coup, the fact remains that the democratic process is weakened in Brazil. In a statement by the National Political Commission of the Brazilian Communist Party, The PCB:"understands that there is a clear attack against the democratic organs underway. We demand an immediate investigation and the sanction of the authorities who prevaricated and made possible this disastrous episode. We demand investigations to identify the ringleaders and the financiers of these actions and their arrest. The moment demands an effective and articulated response from all popular and social movements, democratic entities and left-wing parties against neofascism and its terrorist groups, with a strong unity of action". Further, the PCB proposes a large unitary popular mobilization to demand: "imprisonment for the putschists and dismissal for officials who are complicit in the coup attempt".
It is indeed necessary to strike hard to cut short to new attempts at putsch so much the complicities are numerous. Especially that of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro and his domestic supporters, those of an important fraction of the forces of Brazilian capitalism as well as those from outside, in particular the United States where Bolsonaro is precisely located. From this point of view, the Brazilian Minister of Justice Flavio Dino bluntly dismissed in a message on Twitter the “political responsibility” of the crisis on Jair Bolsonaro himself.
An index of the evolution of the balance of power in Latin America, the condemnation of the abortive coup d'etat was rapid, strong and unanimous and support for President Lula was supported. The presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) Pro Tempore expressed its support for the government of Lula, "elected by the Brazilian people, and rejects violent actions against Brazilian democratic institutions", according to a message on Twitter. Alberto Fernández said that as president of Celac and Mercosur, I put the member countries on alert so that we unite against this unacceptable anti-democratic reaction that is trying to be imposed on Brazil". He expressed his disavowal of the aggression of Brasilia and offered its"unconditional support and that of the Argentine people to Lula in the face of this coup attempt he is facing". From the Executive Secretariat of ALBA-TCP, Félix Plasencia published, on the same social network, "our support and our solidarity with President Lula, in the face of the acts of violence perpetrated by neo-fascist groups who intend to strike State against democracy in Brazil, and ignores the will of its people. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros rejected, “categorically, the violence generated by the neo-fascist groups of Bolsonaro, who attacked the democratic institutions of Brazil. Our support for Lula and the Brazilian people who will surely mobilize for the defense of peace and of its president.The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also called reprehensible and undemocratic the coup attempt of the conservatives in Brazil, encouraged by the leadership of the oligarchic power, their spokesmen and fanatics. "Lula is not alone, he has the support of progressive forces in his country, in Mexico, in the Americas and around the world." Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia, offered his full support to Lula and the Brazilian people. "Fascism decides to strike ," he said. "The rights failed to maintain the pact of non-violence," he added. In Argentina, the Vice President of the Republic, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, said that the images in Brasilia“Exactly reproduce the images of January 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. It is not accidental." "We trust Lula's experience to face this real challenge to democracy in Brazil," he stressed. Cuban leaders have spoken forcefully against the coup by the voice of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez: "We express all our support and solidarity to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his government" . of the Cuban Communist Party Granma devoted a long article to it under the title: "Cuba condemns the violent acts in Brazil".
The Brazilian people need all our internationalist support in this ordeal. Our party intends to bear witness to this by condemning the attempted putsch and its instigators. We address our fraternal greetings to the Brazilian people, to their Communist Party and to the progressive forces of that country.
see the article published in CommunistesHebdo N°793: Brazil: Victory of a short head of the candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva against the outgoing Jair Bolsonaro2
2 https://www.granma.cu/mundo/2023-01-08/ diaz-canel-cuba-condena-energicamente-los-actos-violentos-y-antidemocraticos-en-brasil
Iran:
Our Revolutionary COMMUNISTS party has already expressed itself on the situation in Iran and on the violent repression against the popular movements in progress. This is why, on this basis, we join the text published by several dozen Communist Parties around the world. We reproduce this statement here.
Tudeh Party of Iran,
Joint Statement of Solidarity with the Iranian People's Struggle for Peace, Progress and Justice
We, the undersigned Communist and Workers' Parties, have been following with concern the latest developments in Iran since mid-September 2022.
In accordance with the action plan unanimously agreed upon at the 22nd IMCWP in Havana, Cuba, in October 2022, we express “our solidarity with the just causes of the Iranian people, including with the Iranian communists who face persecution and the prohibition of the free exercise of their political rights; to oppose dictatorial regimes, repression and discrimination in matters of democratic rights and freedoms” in this country.
The current mass protests in Iran, which began after the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custodyon September 16 – with the country's women and youth at the forefront – condemned the repressive state policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and called for fundamental systemic policy changes. Mass protests across Iran have been brutally suppressed by plainclothes IRI police and security forces.
Confirmed reports put the number of protesters killed by state repressive measures at more than 500, including 57 children, while hundreds more are injured and around 18,000 have been arrested.
The IRI justice confirmed that the trial of approximately 1,000 protesters has already begun. Several defendants have already been charged with “enmity towards God”, “fighting against Islam” and “endangering the national security of the Islamic State” and sentenced to death. These court proceedings fall far short of the most basic standards of due process and a fair and legal trial.
We strongly denounce the use of the death penalty - especially as a punishment solely for participating in peaceful protests and political activities and for exercising the right to freedom of expression or freedom to join an organization political or social of his choice.
We support the legitimate struggle of the Iranian people for peace, human and democratic rights, sovereignty and social justice. Their struggle to determine the future of their country - free from intimidation, oppression or violence - is their legitimate right. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all detainees and an immediate end to the torture and execution of protesters.
We also firmly reject any interference by imperialism and reactionary regimes in the Middle East in Iran's internal affairs. The future direction of political developments in Iran is a decision that belongs solely to the Iranian people themselves.
January 05, 2023
3https://www.sitecommunistes.org/index.php/monde/monde/2069-rubrique-internationale-sommets-de-l-asean-et-du-g20-des-luttes-la-et-ailleurs
European Parliament: Question on the new anti-communist law in Poland
The new escalation of anti-communist bans and persecutions in Poland, centered on changes to the country's Penal Code, is denounced by KKE MEPs in a question posed to the European Commission by the MEP of this Party Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanou.
The Polish government, by revising the Penal Code, punishes with a sentence of up to three years' imprisonment any person who, among other things, "publicly promotes" or"produces, records or imports, possesses, sells, offers, stores, preserves, presents, transmits or circulates in printed, electronic or any other form (...) communist symbols and ideas".
It also promotes the unacceptable equation of the monster of Nazism with socialism-communism, an equation contrary to historical truth.
This will come into force at the beginning of March 2023 and anyone in possession of a historical book, poster, film, even from recent Polish history in the 20th century, is potentially guilty and risk of prison sentences.
KKE MEPs denounce the fact that "the reactionary Polish government destroys the Soviet monuments to peace, the anti-fascist struggle, the solidarity of the peoples and against the war, while praising and paying homage to the collaborators of the Nazis. The EU and NATO, with the Polish bourgeoisie in the lead, arm the hand of fascist groups such as the "Azov Battalion" in Ukraine, accepting Stepan Bandera and his ilk as "liberators".
Those who are persecuted over time are the Communists, the Communist ideology. Communist parties face bans. The right to free political expression and to ideological and political debate and discussion is affected in more than a third of EU Member States, including Poland, where members and cadres of the Communist Party of Poland have suffered they were repeatedly persecuted and banned and sent to court for committing the "crime" of publishing a newspaper. University professors who held academic seminars on Marxism, and even protesters wearing a shirt with Lenin's image were persecuted."
Based on the above,
"What is the Commission's position on:
- the criminalization of the right to free expression and political action of communists and the people, which is becoming a veritable 'witch hunt' in Poland and in a third of EU countries?
- the prohibition, essentially, of communist ideology and action and, by extension, the prohibition of the action of the Communist Party, which has long struggled for the interests of the workers and the people?
- the demand that all persecutions against communists be stopped immediately, that all anti-communist laws prohibiting CP activity and violating basic people's freedoms in Poland, the Baltic countries and other EU member states be abolished?”