Category: Red Youth

We reproduce here the press release of our comrades in Spain                                                     (Collectives of Young Communists – Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain) detailing the events which have led up to the anti-communist trial to be held next week. Red Youth stands in solidarity with these comrades who are victims of a much wider trend that today is on the rise across Europe and America. Two decades since the Soviet Union collapsed under the treachery of revisionism, the imperialist countries find themselves locked into the most serious capitalist crisis of overproduction yet witnessed. As the people rise up to fight this exploitative system, anti-communist forces are doing everything they can to slander, imprison and silence communists, they shall fail on all fronts! Victory to the CJC!

“Juanjo Serrano, Xavier Auré and Albert Camarasa, PCPE and CJC militants, are pending for a trial – to take place after three failed attempts on the 1st of December – whose consequences would involve three years and ten months of prison for each of the defendants.

The Public Prosecutor Office requests three years and ten months of prison for three communists, members of the PCPE and CJC, its youth wing. The origin of this unjust charge is to be found during an anti-fascist demonstration which took place in Barcelona on November 14th, 2007. The anti-fascist movement took to the streets of Barcelona after the killing of a 16-years-old anti-fascist at the hands of a Spanish soldier in Madrid, on November 11th, 2007.

Lack of evidence turns the whole accusation into a perfectly orchestrated police set-up whose motivation seems to be the dismantling of communist and other anti-fascist organizations in this country.

The facts which leaded to this shameful situation are the following:

On 11th November 2007, Carlos Palomino, a young anti-fascist fighter, was killed by a 23-years-old fascist – professional soldier of the Spanish army – when going to a rally in support of racist ideas convened by Democracia Nacional, a prominent fascist party. Immediately after the killing, demonstrations to denounce fascist impunity took place across the country. The state of collective indignation was proportional to the brutality of the murder. In this sense, mass media contributed to lessen the repercussion by presenting the facts as the result of clashes between hard-line anti-system youngsters. This is a classic strategy used by the power to criminalise anti-fascist movement and rank it equally to neonazism.

On 14th November, different anti-fascist collectives and organizations called for a demonstration against fascist terror. Since the very beginning, catalan autonomic police, Mossos d’Esquadra – a squad leaded by Saura, Conseller of the Generalitat and member of ICV-EuiA, allies of Izquierda Unida and PCE – was under orders not to let demonstators through in a pacific way. As expected, police action was out of proportion; their main excesses included the taking of Barcelona’s city centre, disproportionate presence of riot police – ready to attack -, intimidations to demonstrators in the underground, ambulances all along the streets, threat of charge at the beginning of the demonstration…. All these facts contributed to create an artificial climate of danger; turning Barcelona into some sort of warlike scenario.

During the demonstration, diverse attempts to stop its course followed one another. Due to police intimidatory and vicious attitude, feelings of nervousness and indignation grew upon demonstrator in a significant way. This situation culminated in a brutal charge against anti-fascist people just 400 metres after the beginning of the demonstration. Riot control police clearly exceeded in their duty, since repressive actions spreaded throughout Barcelona’s city centre, reaching Passeig de Gràcia’s commercial zone. Needless to say, police’s actuation brought about an unjustifiable atmosphere of social commotion.

The results of police charge included diverse aggressions; in fact, many demonstrators had to be evacuated in ambulance. Moreover, five people were placed under arrest. In this sense, two comrades of JCPC-CJC were taken to the central police station of Barcelona. Due to the minor status of one of our comrades, police was forced to communicate the arrest to his family.

Immediately after the arrest, party leaders, accompanied by a lawyer and together with our comrades’ parents, appeared in the police station. At this moment, our comrades’ are required to identify themselves; after an endless wait, a policeman reported the official version of the events: In theory, our comrades were identified as subject of criminal actions during the demonstration. Reality proves, however, that one of the defendants, member of PCPC-PCPE, could not even attend the demonstration due to family issues. Thus, the whole accusation could be summed up as an ellaborated set-up whose intention is to criminalise anti-fascist struggle and communist ideas.

On the following days, the accusation was officially formulated:

– Firstly, three anti-fascist militants were arrested during the demonstration.

– Secondly, three comrades of PCPC-PCPE and JCJPC-CJC were accused of “an attack against authorities and public disorder” due to the making a supposed barricade and throwing stones to the police; all these accusations were presented without any piece of evidence. As a consequence, authorities ask for “three years and ten months of imprisonment and special disqualification of passive suffrage”. Minors’ expedient was archived, since Minors’ Court saw no evidence of crime. In order to sustain the charges, Public Prosecutor presented a single piece of “evidence”: police’s testimony. Nevertheless, no proof of the mentioned accusation could be found.

This is not the first time that Spanish Government appeals to false accusations with the objective of criminalising anti-capitalist movement. Police statements, on having presumption of truth, are more effective in legal terms than witnesses’ words. The uniqueness of this case lies in the fact that the accused were separated into two summaries: one of them referring to three activists of diverse organizations and another one referring to communist militants.

In view of the circumstances, PCPE and CJC call for active solidarity with the accused. National and international support is very important, for three communist militants risk prison due to unproved accusations. In the end, what lies behind the accusation is the everlasting persecution against our political project and revolutionary movements across our country. In this sense, campaigns of denounce against the police set-up, rallies and petition drives intend to stop this shameful situation.

The first trial against our three comrades was supposed to be held on December 21st, 2010; yet, due to a burocratic miscarriage – lack of presentation of a document from the Minors’ Prosecution Office – it was postponed until February 14th. The already mentioned document claimed absence of evidence for the accusation.

During the first days of February, our Party powered a massive solidarity campaign against the Prosecution Office. Increasing pressure, however, gave consequence to excessive presence of policemen during the trial. The objective was clear: to intimidate anti-fascist people gathering in support to the accused. Moreover, our comrades’ relatives were not able to even attend the trial, since docks were occupied by secret policemen, members of the information squad.

The trial, unfortunately, was postponed until the 1st of December due the same reason: bureaucracy was not capable of transferring a document from the Minors’ Public Court to the Court. In view of these facts, PCPE considers this stratagem as direct consequence of political pressure. In this sense, capitalist system is unable to condemn three communist militants due to the broad wave of solidarity. Thus, postponing the trial is just another device to lessen the impact of solidarity and, therefore, create a more favourable scenario to imprison our comrades.

Oficial trial is to be definetively held on the 1st of December. Our comrades’ situation is extremely difficult, for lack of graphic evidence facilitates police distortion. Sadly, burgeois system of dominance seems reluctant to admit the innocence of our comrades. The absurdity reaches its peak when false witnesses’ testimonies are judged in a positive manner and accused people are legally defenceless. Thus, in view of the circumstances, we have nothing to do but raise the banner of working class solidarity; proletarian internationalism shall prevail.”

For further information visit www.cjc.es

The Liam Fox affair: the latest example of corruption in government and business

Dr Liam Fox decided to fall on his ministerial sword, or was thrown onto it, after the publication of a report following an investigation into his conduct by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell which found him guilty of clear breach of the ‘ministerial code of conduct’.  Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon is to launch another investigation into Dr Fox and the press are still circling the ex-minister like sharks around a bloodied survivor from a shipwreck.

We are left wondering what this right-wing Tory has done to upset enough of the establishment to warrant this attention.

There are accusations of misused public funds but that is nothing special among bourgeois parliamentarians of any hue; in fact their official wage even before ‘perks’ could well be described as a misuse of public money.

Perhaps the Government’s cuts to the defence budget have angered some of their masters and Fox has paid with his head as a shot over the Government’s bow?  On the other hand this is a time of especially rich pickings for the arms corporations overseas sales and Dr Fox has certainly been involved in helping them.

Perhaps rival business interests are clearing him out of the way to have someone in the MOD and Cabinet batting for them?

Or maybe this irksome man has amassed enough personal enemies to be targeted as the latest sacrificial lamb to be ritually slaughtered in public to try and prove that the establishment is serious about clearing dishonesty out the Augean stables that are the natural habitat of any British government?

Whatever the reasons, in the “media frenzy”, several interesting items were revealed, if only in passing, re arms sales, front companies, bogus charities and Israel and the way these various connections intertwine.

There were also, of course, plenty of allusions from both the sensationalist and ‘serious’ bourgeois press that Fox’s relationship with Adam Werritty was ‘more’ than that of good pals.  However, whether they are gay or not is immaterial; it is not something that adds to either our condemnation of him or gives him any special defence. It is for us an irrelevance.  To put it into cruder terms, we don’t care who is screwing who so long as they are not screwing the working class!  No, their murky political and business relationship is what should and does concern us.

Werritty certainly had almost unlimited and immediate access to Fox whether in Parliament, his MOD office or even on Government business abroad; and whether the O’Donnell report admits it or not, Werritty was recognised by those foreign governments, and both British and foreign ‘businessmen’ dealing with the British establishment through the MOD, as an important player who could speak certainly for Fox and perhaps even for the Government itself.  It is not for nothing that Werritty had business cards printed portraying himself as an advisor to Dr Fox: he was just that and was present during many meetings discussing arms sales, methods of repression, and shady business deals.

The globe-trotting of Werritty to attend Fox’s overseas meetings, often as part of the Minister’s entourage, was an expensive business and could not lightly be taken up even by a wealthy businessman – but Werritty had no worries on that score.  He had set up a private company, Pargav, as a not-for-profit organisation to ‘support his work’ in the Middle East.  This company picked up the tab for all Werritty’s first class air flights and rooms in the best hotels etc. But where did the company get the money to pick up these tabs?  It seems that the company relied on donations, somewhere around £147,000 according to some reports, from companies and individuals to ‘support the work’ of Mr Werritty in the Middle East.  We know that three of those donors were very well known to each other: Mick Davis who runs the massive mining company, Xstrata, Michael Lewis and Poju Zabludowic.  Mick Davis has previously given £150,000 to the Conservative Party in 2010-11 and a further £7,500 to the Education Secretary Michael Gove.  He also threw £100,000 into the NO2AV campaign this year.  South African Davis is also the head of the United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIP), the foremost fundraiser in Britain for Israel.

Michael Lewis is a top financier and closely linked to the British Israel Communications and Research Centre (Bicom), the leading lobbyist for Israel in the UK, and he also donates to the Tory Party.

Poju Zabludowic, a real estate tycoon, is the chairman of Bicom and has also made large donations to the Tories.  In June, both Davis and Zabludowic were part of a delegation that met with William Hague MP to discuss the ‘Arab Spring’ and likely impacts of it on Israel.

These connections and links spread further as we learned that Lee Petar, a boss of Tetra Strategy, a lobbying firm that introduced a Dubai ‘defence contractor’ to Adam Werritty, had previously been in charge of communications for Bicom.

A company that donated money to Pargav is IRG which describes itself as “an international professional services firm that helps governments”.  This Washington-based company is owned by L3 Communications.  One of the investors in L3 Communications is Michael Hintze’s hedge fund CQS which has around £21 million tied up in L3.  In July Liam Fox told parliament that he had decided not to revive the Nimrod early warning aircraft project and that the MOD would award the contract to L3 to provide the new Rivet Joint aircraft.

Other donors to Pargav include G3 Good Governance Group, an international investigation company run by former MI6 employees which has an ongoing contract with BAE Systems, which in turn has £520 million worth of MOD contracts, as well as the venture capitalist John Moulton who nowadays owns the Readers’ Digest. According to the parliamentary report from Gus O’Donnell “Dr Fox facilitated an introduction between Mr Werritty and a donor” but didn’t say which one.

That covers most of what we know about Adam Werritty’s financial ability to travel the world with Dr Fox and begs the obvious question: why were all these people and organisations, with all their connections and ‘business’ minds, so willing to pay for his travel and board?  Perhaps the fact that most had links with ‘defence interests’ would be enough explanation for most people?

The meetings Adam Werritty ‘sat in on’ with Dr Fox included briefing the then UK Ambassador Designate to Israel, Matthew Gould, on the MOD’s perspective of the security situation in the Middle East.  He attended the Defence Minister’s meetings with ‘businessmen’ and government officials in Dubai.  When Fox went to Israel to discuss the situation regarding the Palestinians, Werritty was listed as being present.  Werritty was also in Sri Lanka at the same time as Fox and was present at many meetings Fox had with Sri Lankan government officials.  The Sri Lankan Government have never denied that Werritty was there selling arms and associated products.

Dr Fox certainly doesn’t mix morality with either his business or political interests and told firms gathered at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair in London that the best way to safeguard jobs in the industry was to “widen the customer base”.  This ‘widening of the customer base included MOD approval of sales of shotguns, teargas and rubber bullets to Bahrain and various ‘defence’ equipment to Saudi Arabia, which both governments put to use earlier this year when the Saudi army entered Bahrain, using armoured vehicles reportedly supplied by BAE Systems, to help that government put down popular unrest and killing at least 30 protesters, injuring and imprisoning many more.

Another joint venture of Fox and Werritty was the now dissolved ‘charity’ Atlantic Bridge.  This ‘charity’ was run out of Liam Fox’s Parliamentary office by its only employee, Adam Werritty, who was Chief Executive of the UK branch.  Liam Fox was its Chairman, Margaret Thatcher was a Patron and its membership included the MPs George Osborne, William Hague and Michael Gove.  The published reason for the existence of Atlantic Bridge was to “foster closer links between the US and Britain”, but the Charity Commission eventually investigated it and concluded that Atlantic Bridge was ‘not an educational trust but a political organisation promoting a particular view of the transatlantic alliance’  William Hague who, along with Osborne and Gove, tried to defend Fox in parliament as the accusations and rumours leading to his resignation built up, has since tried to play down his role in this sham ‘charity’, saying that he was “only a name on the letterhead” and that he had “only exchanged a few sentences with Adam Werritty since becoming Foreign Secretary”.  Yet, when Hague published a book on William Wilberforce, it was Atlantic Bridge, with Werritty as the Chief Executive, that paid for the launch of the US edition of this book in New York.  When Atlantic Bridge was wound up, it had £36,000 in its account but there seems to be no record of where that money went.  While in existence, Atlantic Bridge linked up with a US neo-con organisation called the American Legislative Exchange Council.  This is a powerful lobbying organisation, which receives funding from pharmaceutical, weapons and oil interests among others.  It is heavily funded by the Koch Charitable Foundation whose founder, Charles G Koch, is one of the most generous donors to the Tea Party movement in the US. In recent years, the Tea Party has become a potent ultra-right force in American politics.

All of these links and connections, running into a powerful web of private interests, are the latest proof of the correctness of Engels’ observation that in a democratic republic, “wealth exercises its power indirectly, but all the more surely”, first, by means of the “direct corruption of officials” …; secondly, by means of an “alliance of the government and the Stock Exchange”. (Quoted by Lenin in State and Revolution).

The Fox affair is the latest confirmation also of Lenin’s observation that “Finance capital has created the epoch of monopolies, and monopolies introduce everywhere monopolist principles: the utilisation of ‘connections’ for profitable transactions takes the place of competition on the open market.” (Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism).

More like this at www.lalkar.org

To answer this question, we re-post this video recording of Harpal Brar, Chairman of the CPGB-ML, speaking at the Oxford Union in 2008, explaining that capitalism cannot save the planet!

The debate took place just after remembrance day 2008, when the big British capitalist banks (RBS et al.) had collapsed and were being bailed out to the tune of £850 bn – for which we are all now paying.

Before starting the debate, the President of the Union led those gathered to pay homage to the soldiers who fell in WW1 and WW2.

As is generally the case on these occasions in our society, still dominated, run and organized by and in the interests of the very monopoly capitalists who led 100 million workers to the slaughter in order to prop up their system, there is much solemnity and grandeur without any real explanation, understanding or enlightenment.

The slogan “Never again!” looks particularly hollow now, when the capitalist system stands mired in a crisis far more protracted and profound than those of 1911 and 1929 which led British, French, German, Japanese and American capital on the road to war production and war to keep their rickety and self serving financial system on the road.

We will shortly be publishing our series of seminars on communism, starting with the communist manifesto here.

Only working people, taking the reigns of power and the economy into their own hands in order to plan life and production in a rational and meaningful way, putting the happiness and well-being of the earths vast toiling masses at the center of those plans, can avert the impending disaster of a third capitalist world war.

Since the Soviet Union collapsed, imperialism has been on a ceaseless drive to war to maintain its monopoly profits for the few parasites who benefit from this rotten, corrupt, decadent and moribund system.

This is the meaning and content also of the so called ‘peacetime’ wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya; and all the other overt and covert military, diplomatic and economic anti-democratic interventions perpetuated by NATO and its member states against sovereign and independent nations since WW2.

It is up to us to stop it. Let us resolve to do so on this, remembrance day 2011, 93 Years after the end of WW1.

Join us – join the struggle!

Let us also remember, that the Russian proletariat, 94 years ago in October 1917, by rejecting fratricidal slaughter and instead taking the path of the revolutionary overthrow of the Bourgeois order, brought their nation out of WW1 a year earlier than the rest of the world, and opened up the vista of a bright, peaceful and prosperous socialist development.

Faced with this alternative: Either Socialism or Barbarism – Let us take the road of October. [speeches from our meeting to celebrate the 94th anniversary of the October revolution will be uploaded here soon]

Remember the dead – Smash Capitalism!

The following question was received from a corresponding comrade. As it’s a theme we often encounter, we thought we’d share our response:

Question:

What is cpgb-ml’s position on trade unions? I was listening to Scotland’s CPB. They insist that we must work with the Trade Unions, Tenants Associations etc…. “AS THEY ARE”. We must not propagandize from above, we must work from within the democratic movements already on the ground. .

I have doubts about this approach myself.

Our reply:

Hi Cde, I am not sure exactly what is meant by the expression “propagandize from above”, but if it refers to imparting revolutionary as opposed to reformist politics – for which these expressions are generally euphemisms, then our considered response would be in disagreement with the Scottish comrades you mention.

We agree with Marx and Lenin in their assessment that Workers and their organizations cannot come to a consistent socialist consciousness by themselves.

The state and the ruling class have a vast network (inc the media etc) which permeates our society and culture with bourgeois ideology.

The job of the communists is to take the socialist consciousness into the movement, to link up the various struggles and demonstrate that their common fight is against capitalism.

The peace movement, the women’s movement, the youth and students, the anti racism movement and the trade unions all share a common enemy, imperialism. But without the scientific method of Marxism-Leninism to illuminate the path they will wander around in the dark.

So, the CPGB-ML is very much in favour of taking a communist understanding into all walks of working class life, into all campaigns, into all workers organisations.

A recent example would be the occupy movement, where we have updated our propaganda explaining the capitalist crisis and agitating for it to be overthrown. This has been warmly received in both the UK and the USA, in the limited numbers we have been able to circulate.

Lessons of the Occupy Movement:

http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=statements&subName=display&statementId=46

Time to face it Capitalism must Go!

http://www.cpgb-ml.org/download/leaflets/economiccrisis_20081013.pdf

Red Youth comrades attended the celebrations in London on Saturday night as communists marked 94 years since the Bolshevik revolution. We reproduce below a section of the speech delivered by Red Youth to the meeting,

“I’d like to consider why the October Revolution, an event that happened 94 years ago in a land and era that seems so far removed from our own, is still relevant to my generation – a generation of consumerism, individualism, ipads and x factor.

Is it because we have an obscure interest in military history? Or do we have a fascination with mysterious Russia and her peoples? Or perhaps it is because the October Revolution of 1917 provided an enduring example that the working class – organised in a vanguard party and armed with the correct theory and tactics of revolution – can overthrow centuries of exploitation, remove imperialism from their land and build a society that put the needs of the people above the selfish, private wealth for the few.

The October Revolution also settled, I feel, the question of working class organisation and showed the legitimacy and necessity of building a vanguard party. Now, it’s incredibly fashionable for my generation to be individually rebellious – to hate not only the system but all forms of authority, organisation and even arguably ideology.

But history has shown that the worker’s party – where experiences of theory and practice are shared, sharpened and directed towards the oppressor – is the only real vehicle of collective

emancipation. In this context, revolutionary politics moves beyond a mere fantasy or passing adolescent pursuit and we start to connect with the wider class struggle in Britain and globally.

I think my own experiences are a good demonstration of this; I spent my teenage years calling myself a Marxist without doing any real study or practical work; I called myself a Communist but because of my ignorance, I believed the slander of the Soviets, and in general, revolution became a label and an expression of teenage identity. Contrast this with a mere 18 months in the movement; my understanding of society and oppression has improved immeasurably, I’m engaged with people on the streets in a real way, and I’m travelling and making connections with genuine activists across Europe and the world. This is the beauty of moving away from individual anger and towards the real political movement.

That, of course, doesn’t mean it’s an easy ride. Our views aren’t popular – even among the so called left wing of Britain. Being an activist in a relatively small city, Glasgow, I often see the same people and I’m asked ‘how can you be a communist?’ and bizarrely instructed ‘become a socialist!’. And it’s not simply a confusion of terminology. Because social democracy has led, or misled, our movement for so long, deliberately starving the youth of a Marxist education and of our working class history,

socialism, for many, has become something you don’t really need to define and has become blurred with naïve liberal fantasies, easily controlled by the bourgeoisie within our ranks. It’s a logical racket for them.

It’s so frustrating that we have thousands of people in Britain who believe themselves progressive, proudly labelling themselves socialist, but have absolutely zero understanding of what imperialism is, and the link between our working class and the oppressed people and regimes of Africa, Asia and the Americas, have zero understanding of what the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is – the link between the rich man’s state, the rich man’s army, and the rich man’s media, and as such, despite having great intentions, in times of conflict are easily swayed by the more plausible bourgeois media accounts and into a position of neutrality; standing them against their own working class interests and the interests of the globally oppressed and into the side of imperialism. It is a frustrating, tragic and perverse product of social democracy and I’m proud that we’re leading against this comrades. But it’s certainly is not all doom and gloom. We’ve saw so many examples of the working class, especially the youth, breaking free from the tired, traditional forms of resistance promoted by social democracy. We saw the encouraging student occupations against tuition fees, we’re seeing the growth of the global Occupy movement and of course we had the extraordinary events in London and elsewhere in August – what we call the Youth Uprisings.

Comrade Joti spoke recently about the role of the media in manufacturing and manipulating public consciousness and this was certainly conducted in August. Every politician of every party and every

correspondent of every media channel spoke about their shock and disbelief on the level of violence amongst the youth. Nonsense!

The ruling class love us being violent. They are perfectly happy when we are shooting and stabbing each other in our drug infested, abandoned estates. Even better when we join their

police force to brutalise our citizens and protect their private property. And better still, their ultimate delight, when we enlist in their armies and fight on their behalf to secure and loot resources from the developing world – killing millions of innocent fellow workers in the process. No. The ruling class are only shocked and against our violence when it is pointed away from each other and towards them. This is when the demonization campaign begins and shows how important the media is to the existence of the ruling class.

So much was made about looting during the riots. The same scenes of youths, many of whom were Black or Asian, taking items from department stores were replayed over and over again on our TV screens. This was to paralyse the masses with fear, with huge racist undertones, and to misdirect public support back towards the state.

We know the so-called looting was a side issue but even then what do they expect to happen when we live in such a paradoxical society. On one hand, our lives are dominated by consumerism and consumption; our TV screens are bombarded with endless advertisements and hideous reality TV shows where the vulgar and rich dominate. And on the other, reality, the majority of the youth are denied access and participation to this fantasy world, and even denied access to what every sensible person considers basic human rights – a decent job, a decent school and a decent home.

As young people, our self-esteem is linked to the possession of these fancy, desirable but ultimately unattainable possessions, whilst their absence breeds real anger, frustration and feelings of failure amongst the working class youth. This is compounded again for minority youth or those of different religions or abilities, as they face multiple oppressions. I guess what I’m trying to say comrades is that the real criminality, the real failures, and the real violence is perpetrated by the ruling class and actions of the youth were a predictable and understandable response to this oppression. I think Malcolm X quotation is appropriate “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” And aren’t we in Britain living with media- induced Stockholm Syndrome?

To summarise, the youth uprisings were perhaps not the most sophisticated expression of political consciousness but they did demonstrate that a whole mass of people are justifiably angry with the state and are willing to violently change it.

The working class youth in August have already achieved what so many of our so called leading Marxists in this country have not: they’ve recognised that no main political party – and especially not the Labour Party, the party that has oppressed them for most of their young lives – can represent them or improve their condition. The working class youth in August have already achieved what so many of our leading trade unionists have not: they’ve recognised that no amount of peaceful marching and banner waving is going to make a damn bit of difference in the long run.

That is not to say that the so called riots were a meaningful act of revolution which can over throw capitalism. But it does present the opportunity for serious activists to inject this spontaneous anger, which will only intensify, with consciousness and direct it towards the real criminals in Britain. I believe that Red Youth, armed with Marxism-Leninism – the only successful path to revolution, is the vehicle for this.

In our youth movement, there are so many calls for ‘left unity’ and it can sound so positive and rational. But we’ve got to ask first; unity with whom? Disingenuous calls for unity are often made by traitors seeking to blunt our revolutionary character and herd us back into their reformist agenda.

But comrades we know the system cannot be reformed. In fact, as it edges closer and closer to its demise, it becomes more savage and more inhumane. The political agenda since the youth uprisings has not been one of reform or concession but criminalisation and utter humiliation. We’ve saw young single mothers tossed out of their home for apparently accepting stolen goods. We’ve saw kids thrown in jail for chatting on Facebook, sentenced to four years with their appeals rejected. We’ve saw five thousand youths jailed – many denied full legal rights – and any hopes they had of getting a decent job, if there were any to begin with, are now gone. Theresa May wants the Human Rights Act gone and more police powers. Ken Clarke wants private prisons. Ed Miliband may be quieter but no less vicious. Comrades, this is the nature of their class war. What is ours going to be? I suggest seeking reform is not the way.

Finally, I hope I’ve articulated why the October Revolution – with its examples of building a vanguard party, removing enemies from within the movement and injecting wider public anger with political direction – is not only still relevant to my generation but absolutely vital. I would urge anyone here or watching online (if it goes up) that is not yet involved to join the struggle and begin taking our first steps towards our own revolution and class emancipation.

Thank you.”

Videos of the speeches will be made available shortly here.

 

A brief introduction to some facts about the war in Libya is followed by media worker and CPGB-ML member Joti Brar’s remarks on the role of the press in aiding and abetting imperialism’s unjust wars, concentrating on the example of Libya.

Joti goes on to point out that journalists playing an active and knowing part in the generation of war propaganda are not only central to the entire conduct of these modern day colonial wars, but are, for that very reason, guilty of war crimes.

A good opportunity to remind ourselves of the resolution passed by Sop the War last year:

“No Cooperation with War Crimes”
http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=leaflets&subName=display&leafletId=73