Bela Lugosi (Dracula, 1931) supported the Hungarian Revolution

By សតិវ​អតុ 

Most people know that Bela Lugosi is the actor that played Dracula in the 1931 horror classic, Dracula. 

In both Bram Stokers book and the movie Dracula is supposed to be from Transylvania. But Lugosi is actually from Hungary.

What most people don’t know is that Lugosi help organize Hungary's National Trade Union of Actors, the world's first film actors' union. . He was also a staunch supporter of the 1919 Hungarian Revolution that briefly brought Bela Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic into power.

That revolution only lasted for one year and then it was overthrown with the help of neighboring countries. Kun’s revolution was one of the first communist revolutions in the world, after the Soviet Union.

Because of his support for Kun, Lugosi had to sneak out of his country. He eventually ended up in the US, in 1921. His portrayal of Dracula is usually considered a favorite of both that character and of vampires by most people even today.

He had a long career and joined with Ed Woods towards the end of his life. Woods was famous for his real bad movies and his cult classic, Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead

Communist Party of India (Maoist) statement on Malkangiri encounter

From Redspark:

Statement by Jagabandhu, Spokesperson, CPI (Maoist), Andhra–Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee

(This is an English translation of the statement, read out in Telugu over a phone call to media on Thursday. This translation follows the full text in print appeared on the website www.virasam.org)

The statements released by police officers till now on the joint attack by Andhra and Odisha police on our camp near Ramaguda village in Malkangiri district in Odisha on October 24 and the massacre of 31 of our comrades, are misleading people as they are completely different from what actually happened there. There is some delay on our part in sharing the facts with people as we are completely encircled by police.

What actually happened was, our squad reached Ramaguda village on October 23 morning and camped there. We slept near the village that night also. In the early morning next day, people saw police coming towards our camp and tried to inform us but the police arrested them and prevented the information reaching us. While we were having our roll-call around 6 in the morning, the police came very close to our camp from two sides. Our PLGA became alert immediately and began firing. Some unarmed Adivasi youngsters, both men and women, from the neighbouring villages, who were with us at that time started to run towards a nearby village. The police shot indiscriminately at those who were running away and also the Adivasis who were fishing in the rivulet adjacent to our camp and killed some. Many of the Adivasis were injured in the firing and some of them were arrested alive. Our squad safely retreated from the camp, under resistance. We did not suffer any physical loss at the camp.

For the rest click here.

US – Drive out the Trump-Pence regime!

United States: An Invitation To Be a Part of a Bold Plan to End the Nightmare on November 4
23 October 2017.

From A World to Win News Service.

November 4 begins demonstrations across the US calling for THIS NIGHTMARE MUST END: THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! initiated by refusefascism.org. We want to promote any events that our readers can initiate in support of this bold step wherever you are. The following is excerpted from revcom.us. 

Think hard about this: Trump is setting us “on a path towards World War III.” Not our words, but those of the arch-conservative senator Bob Corker. What does that tell you?
Everyone who is opposed to this possible “path” becoming reality needs to act now on bridging the gap between the extreme danger posed by the Trump/Pence Regime and the level of mass resistance to it.
There is a way forward: a massive movement of people taking to the streets in non-violent protest every day and night until this regime is removed from power. This begins November 4.
If together we make Nov. 4, and the great cause it begins, known everywhere, at a moment when people are agonizing over what the Trump/Pence Regime has done in just the last 10 days: ratcheted up danger of war; denied birth control; demeaned and gagged NFL players fighting for justice; strangled healthcare; and left millions of Puerto Ricans to die, THIS CAN INSPIRE AND GIVE PEOPLE A SENSE OF THE POSSIBILITY FOR REAL CHANGE. 
There is a mood change that is beginning again, and if we act in this new way together, projecting the bold vision of Nov. 4 and putting it in people’s hands, we could awaken a sleeping giant.
There are two choices we all face right now: Act like the future depends on it; or not... consider what that will mean.

Pix by DCMTL Blog.

Four US soldiers die in Niger and no one dares to ask “why”!

By សតិវ អតុ

Here it is—Sunday morning watching "Face the Nation." And they have an Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford to explain what happened to the four US soldiers killed in Niger. So what does an Oklahoma Republican Senator really know about the African country of Niger? Who cares? He is a conservative supporter of US military presences in the third world. He is conservative and a strong supporter of US imperialism.

Actually it is hard to find a senator of any kind that doesn’t support our military adventures. In the US imperialism is the policy and finding anyone to oppose that on US mainstream TV is nearly impossible.

When it comes to foreign policy, all the reporters, politicians and pundits all march in step together. All they do is sit around and explain why no one should ever dare to disagree with our actions in such places as Niger. The only debate is on how to be effective imperialist warriors. Why are we there? As a Lankford explained the Nigerian Army needs guidance and training. They have al Qaeda and ISIS affiliated groups there. Then they could grow and attack Europe. It is the Domino Theory all over again. Have we learned nothing from Vietnam? This country is addicted to war. This guy Lankford even defended the US staying in Afghanistan.[1]

I'm sick of living in a country that is dominated by imperialism. Even worse is that there are no opponents able to get on TV and dispute all of this garbage. It is like living in a dictatorship where we only hear the government's view. All others are mysteriously silent. I know there are no prisons with opponents of our wars inside and yet those opponents have been successfully kept out of our media. It is censorship without all the police and jails. We don’t have official censorship—we have effective censorship.
I am sick and tired of seeing all this crap about our military heroes. Four soldiers are killed in Africa and the only question of any importance is over the President Donald Trump’s phone calls to the families. How can this country justify its soldiers being in some one else's country—someone else’s’ sovereign homeland? Such interference in another sovereign nation can’t be legal and yet there we are. All our military men are "heroes" and no one dare call them out for the human rights abuses that are taking place around the world by our heroic troops.

This must be what it is like to live in a country like North Korea where you only hear the government’s side. We know there are countries where no opponent is allowed to voice their opinion. Such opinions can land a person in prison. And yet we have the same effectively censored news. That is the only news we can get in the US.

All a blog can do is to print the truth. And that is what I will continue to do.

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[1] See The Resistance against Imperialist War in
Afghanistan must continue and grow

Amnesty International focuses on US- results of imperialism

From The Idiot Factor:

US imperialism isn’t jut immoral, it violates human rights. I say that because recent actions by Amnesty International have come out with some human rights charges focused specifically against the US. The following statement is from Amnesty International:

“We all need safety from violence and terrorism, but no government should sacrifice people’s human rights in the name of national security.

Unfortunately, in the United States and beyond, that’s exactly what’s happening – and Amnesty International is helping stop it.

The Problem

On multiple fronts, the United States government is violating human rights in the name of national security, often in violation of both U.S. law and international law.

·                     People have been held for years at the Guantánamo detention camp in Cuba without even being charged with a crime. Prisoners have been tortured and mistreated, and they are not given fair trials.

·                     The U.S. has used lethal force, including through drone strikes, in several countries, leading to civilian deaths. Military operations have exposed civilians and U.S. service members to toxins that have led to devastating medical conditions.

·                     Surveillance and targeting of Muslims – based on who they are, not what they’ve done – has fueled harassment, discrimination, and violence.

·                     For years, the U.S. government allowed officials to torture people through horrific techniques that violate U.S. and international law. President Trump has vowed to expand the use of torture even further in the years ahead."

This is just one set of examples of human rights violations by the US. Despite claiming to be this “beacon of democracy and freedom” the US has killed, maimed and destroyed people and governments around the world. This is part of a series. We will print more on this later.

Interview with "India Vermella"

From Oscar-elbloquedeleste:

1. What is "India Vermella"?
India Vermella is the information space of the Galician Committee of Support to Popular War in India. From the same we try to reach our readers the reality of the revolutionary struggle that heads the PCI (Maoist).

2. Why your solidarity with the Naxalite revolution?
Well, the Revolution in India is a prominent part of the World Proletarian Revolution that has persisted in the path of prolonged People's War drawn by Comrade Charu Mazundar applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. This makes it, for the communists, an obligation to sustain and support their struggle.

"Spring thunder" as I call it "Radio Pekin" roared throughout the Indian subcontinent breaking with the revisionist talk of peaceful coexistence that the traitors advocated to Leninism. Naxalbari is the direct heir of the path laid out by the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution led by Chairman Mao. Today it remains a clear line that separates the real communists from the opportunists, however much they hide behind false red flags. In the Spanish State we have an example of the so-called Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain whose radical words can not hide their support for the reactionary government of Modi against the Maoists.

3. On the part of the Maoists, in the Mov. Communist international, is there solidarity with the Naxalites?
Yes, for many years. Indian communists have actively participated in international organizations such as the late Internationalist Revolutionary Movement, including the Indian Communist Party ML (Naxalbari), now part of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). The latter participating Party is a founding member of the Coordinating Committee of Maoist organizations in South Asia.

4. What is your work in Galicia?
Well, it is fundamentally propaganda and supportive of the Revolution as well as the denunciation of the situation of political prisoners and prisoners of war in India, as is the case of Comrade Ajith, that of Comrade Kobad Gandhy or as the case of university professor GN Saibaba, that thanks to our work we have led to the European Parliament itself.

5. Are you also in solidarity with the PCF and the revolution of the Philippines?
Yes of course. The people's war in the Philippines is also the result of the rupture with revisionism and its reformist policies outlined by the GRCP since 1966. Comrade Sison has persisted in this path, even facing the pressures of the imperialists and their lackeys as Duterte to end the people's war.

The capitulatory line, driven by some in front organizations, has been swept away by the facts and by the determined support of the oppressed masses to the PC of the Philippines and to the New People's Army.

6. Are you celebrating the 50th anniversary of the uprising in Naxalbari? How would you rate the theoretical and practical work of the Naxalites during these 50 years?
Well, as you can see, these 50 years are full of great teachings, successes and defeats, painful assassinations of leaders like Comrade Charu Mazumdar, Azad, Kishenyi or recently the murders of Comrade Shruthi and Comrade Manikanti. In these 50 years the enemy has often clucked victory, but all this has only reinforced the path of Naxalbari.
The party, the CPI, founded by Comrade Mazumdar, fell to the death of the latter in the hands of liquidators but its revolutionary line remained in others that gave rise to new organizations that held high the great red flag of Naxalbari. Organizations that gave rise to the current Communist Party of India (Maoist) under the right direction of Comrade Ghanapati.

Naxalbari which encompasses the disinherited and oppressed masses of the countryside and the city. We are talking about millions of men, women and children and of vast territories in a "red corridor" that does not stop growing, because the people's war is the war of the masses, as President Mao pointed out, and the comrades of India have firmly grasped this beginning of the mass line in the war.
There are ample bases of support in which the masses are the ones that they command through the popular committees, organizing the production, the education, the sanity or the popular justice.

7. Have there been more "green hunt" in India?
In these 50 years repression has been a constant, both by rightist and left-wing revisionist regimes, such as the so-called (Marxist) Communist Party of India. Hundreds of siege and annihilation operations have tried unsuccessfully to extinguish the spark they set in a village of Dajerleen.

The genocidal Green Hunt operation is characterized by a genocidal systematic of the State of the Union to face "the greatest threat" to its democracy, the application of new technologies and that it tries to definitively take away the lands of the adivasis to give them to foreign companies, mainly mining.

8. Is the Naxalite revolution based solely on the peasantry or also about the workers?
India is a large sub-continent and its states and regions are diverse. Center of many contradictions. The main force of the popular masses in the New-Democracy revolution is the peasantry and the proletarian force and the revolutionary intellectuals, fused in a solid block, the Party.
Cities are usually centers of power of the old state as well as where they maintain hegemony over the oppressed masses. This does not prevent revolutionaries from being present in the workers 'and students' movement.

9. Who is Dr. SaiBaba?
Professor GN Saibaba is a well-known Maoist intellectual, who was arrested on false charges of belonging to the clandestine PCI (Maoist).

Its persecution by the old state has aroused multiple protests added to the fact of its condition of handicapped (is in a wheelchair) which violates the minima rights of the political prisoners.

10. What is the current situation of the PCI (Maoist) and its guerrilla PLGA?
The PCI (Maoist) has been strengthened and united around the long line of popular war, striking not only the repressive forces but also and main to the Brahmanic semi-feudal power.

S. Korea's ruling party stresses dialogue with DPRK to resolve Korean Peninsula issue

So we have to wonder what people directly South of Democratic People's Republic (North) Korea actually want to do to resolve their differences over the nuclear build up North of them. They are in the direct line of fire if there is any kind of military exchange. Whether they are pounded by conventional artillery or if they get a nuclear device, the death toll would be a staggering amount. They may lose millions of people. The destruction would be catastrophic. So unlike President Donald Trump, who sits comfortably in his office, with no real danger of being nuked or fired at, the leaders of South Korea have to deal with their own life or death scenario. The South Koreans hope that they can reach some kind of a dialogue and some kind of agreement.

President Trump, shoots off his mouth about starting a war with North Korea and some people are worried that he is serious. If he is serious we can count on a massive death toll and the massive destruction of much of both Koreas. Any nuclear attack will leave land contaminated for decades. With the US 21st Century-sophisticated-technological military this country will surely vanquish North Korea. But the cost in lives, the environment and property damage will be one of the most massive war casualties of the last 100 years.

Maybe that is why this article shows the leaders of South Korea looking for ways to avoid a war.  -សតិវ អតុ

From Xinhua:

SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Lawmakers of South Korea's ruling Democratic Party on Thursday stressed the importance for dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to resolve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

The emphasis on the peaceful resolution through dialogue came as the parliamentary inspection of the government kicked off. The first inspection session under the Moon Jae-in administration, which was inaugurated in May, would last for about three weeks.

Rep. Shim Jae-kwon of the Democratic Party, who serves in the parliamentary committeeof foreign affairs and re-unification, said in a press release that though sanctions and pressure are a necessary tool to deal with the nuclear and missile technologies of the DPRK, its eventual objective should be dialogue and negotiations.

Shim, the head of the committee, said inter-Korean dialogue would be needed at any cost, emphasizing the urgency in the restored hot line between South Korea and the DPRK under the current situations that tensions escalated on the peninsula.

For the rest click here.

Revolutionary Movement in Punjab - The Experiences of Agrarian Revolution: Sukhvinder

50 years after Che Guevara

Lots of folks are posting things about the late great Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Che was not a Maoist. He was not all that found of China. But he also had vast differences with the Soviet Union. Over all he did more good than bad for world revolution. He was not successful, but he has inspired generations of would be revolutionaries both in Europe and Latin America. In his many world adventures he was not successful as a revolutionary but his inspiration is worth noting. Here are a few items to honor Che. -សតិវ អតុ

Understanding Che Guevara — 42 Years After His Murder

Kasama:

Posted by Mike E on October 13, 2009

Che was executed in cold blood 42 years ago by a U.S. lead death squad that captured him in Bolivia. Then, as now, he had emerged as a prominent symbol of  self-sacrifice, armed struggle, internationalism and uncompromising opposition to U.S. domination. His death stands as a glaring example of the role the U.S. and its agents play in the  brutal repression of humanity’s highest aspirations. The torturers of the CIA were not invented on 9/11 — but have a very long and bloody history.

Che is a highly romantic martyr of the people’s cause. But he was also a revolutionary leader and thinker  in a particular complex time; he was associated closely with a specific series of approaches and strategies.

Che (and the Cuban  movement he was part of) had a particular line on the role of the people in their own emancipation. It was  a view that exalted the actions of small military groupings of “heroic guerrillas” (called focos) in galvanizing revolution. Unlike the Maoists at that same time, Che and Fidel Castro were not advocates of a “land to the tiller” agrarian revolution, but sought to nationalize the existing plantation structure of Cuba and similar countries.

The fact that so many people revere him is a testimony to the deep desires for liberation throughout the world. And at the same time, revolution is not made by symbolism alone. The controversies surrounding Che’s strategies have contemporary significance.

The following piece was written over ten years ago in appreciation of Che’s impact — while also making a critical assessment of his strategic concepts. There has been considerable excavation of these events since this piece was written. Kasama intends to  publish other essays on Che reflecting a number of different assessments.

For more on this click here.

From Democracy and Class Struggle:

"Socialism and man in Cuba" (by CHE GUEVARA, 1965)

Columbus Day - How Is This Still A Thing: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

New Black Lives Matter protests in St. Louis should be no surprise

By Chris Otto, from A Blue Collar View:

I ​was speaking to a woman the other day, when she brought up the latest round of Black Lives Matter protests that are sweeping the St. Louis region.
     “Everything was quiet, and now this” she said, with an air of disdain in her voice. I was tempted to explain it to her, but in the context of the business I was trying to conduct, I let it go.

     You may not have heard, but St, Louis is again the focus of daily protests by BLM activists. This time, the catalysts was the not guilty verdict of a white (now former) St. Louis police officer, Jason Stockley, who had been accused of murdering Anthony Lamar Smith, a young black man, and then planting a gun on Smith to cover it up. Here’s the condensed version of the incident: Stockley and his partner pulled Smith over, there was a confrontation in which Smith fled the scene in his car. Stockley perused the car and was heard on camera saying, “Going to kill this motherfucker, don’t you know it.” Less than a minute later he killed Smith, claiming Smith had a gun. Somehow the gun contained no DNA from Smith, but did have DNA from Stockley. During the incident Stockley violated a dozen or so STL police procedures and rules, including brandishing a non-police issue AK-47, (which he had been warned not to carry when on duty), and mishandling evidence, (taking his gloves off to retrieve the gun, after retrieving something from the squad car). Oh, and his partner pleaded the fifth and refused to testify in his partners trial. The whole thing stunk of murder and cover up, but justice system being what it is, Stockley was acquitted. Thus, the new explosion of protests over the past three weeks. Although the first weekend of protests had a few instances of vandalism (broken windows), and some episodes of rocks and stones being thrown at police officers, the protests this time have been peaceful, causing none of the widespread destruction we saw three years ago. The protests have also been more disciplined and strategic, taking place in trendy upscale neighborhoods in the city, shopping malls in St. Louis County, and even white flight havens like St. Charles.
​
    

Black Lives Matter protesters on the trendy, upscale Central West End neighborhood.

 Meanwhile, regional political leaders, the local press, and many white people reacted with astonishment that our unresolved issues have once again resurfaced in the form of social unrest. “How could this happen again?’, and “this isn’t fair” they whine. Except, it is fair, because we failed, as a region, to deal with the issues raised by the Ferguson Uprising. Before the Michael Brown shooting in 2014, we could pretend we didn’t know how bad relations were between poor black communities and the various municipal police departments, but not any more. 
​     The Justice Department investigation laid out a clear and undeniable pattern of civil rights violations by police of black citizens, who’s findings we have largely ignored. Missouri’s Governor put together the obligatory “blue ribbon” panel to study racial disparity in the region, “the Ferguson Commission”. It’s findings and recommendations were also largely ignored, and are now gathering dust on the shelf of indifference. Other than making a few minor weeks to the predatory municipal court system in St. Louis County, nothing has been done to stop the abuse that our black friends and neighbors are subjected to by the police and our “justice’ system. We have all failed here in St. Louis, me included, to make fighting institutionalized racism a priority. Our state legislature was too busy loosening guns laws, and the city was preoccupied with begging the Rams to stay in town. St. Louis made the fatal mistake of thinking the unrest was “the problem”, not a symptom of our inability to come to grips with systemic racism.

     No one in this town would deny that there is a deep racial divide, but many are content to pretend, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that this divide does not infect law enforcement.  How deep is this racial divide? The members of the St. Louis Police Department have two representative bodies, the official police union (the SLPOA), and the Ethical Society of Police, an organization formed by black police who believe the official police union does not represent their interests. By the way, the Ethical Society of Police called for Jason Stockley to be convicted of murder.

From the frontlines of the battle of Hamburg against the G20

From A World to Win News Service:

What follows is a report from supporters of the new communism gathered in the Revolutionary Communist Manifesto Group in Europe (RCMG) who were involved in the massive protests held against the G20 summit in Hamburg on 7-8 July. This gathering of the heads of the world's most powerful imperialist states, a time of unprecedented crisis around globally, represented a blatant affront and a serious challenge to the world's people that had to be met head-on. It was a major political event at a crucial juncture in Europe and around the world.

Dominated by the most powerful imperialist countries accompanied by some notorious reactionaries such Turkey's Erdogan and India's Modi, it aimed to bring together the representatives of the most exploitive and oppressive rulers of the existing world in order to contend and negotiate with each other over how to prey upon the masses of the world and its resources. But the presence of the fascist Donald Trump signalled that this was more than the usual annual G20 event. The emergence of the fascist Trump/Pence regime at the head of the world's most powerful imperialist country has dramatic implications for people everywhere. The same deep contradictions that led to the installation of the Trump regime in the US are also at work in Europe, fuelling racism, xenophobia, misogyny and a more repressive political environment everywhere. This rightward lurch by the rulers is being expressed in the growth of fascist movements around the world, including the possibility of fascist regimes in Europe itself, even in countries like Germany and France where the dictatorship of the capitalist class has long been exercised in the form of social democratic regimes.

The significance of this G20 summit called for something beyond protest as usual. Many tens of thousands of people from Germany, other European countries and even beyond were expected to take part in four days of protests against the summit all that it stands for, united to oppose some of the most brutal aspects of what the capitalist-imperialist system dishes out to people daily. It was clear that among those who attended there would be a large spectrum who recognise, to one extent or another, the need to get rid of the capitalist system itself, including some looking for a revolutionary alternative. All of this resistance and opposition was extremely important. At the same time, it is a fact that the merciless domination and exploitation of the overwhelming majority of people and nations on this planet by a handful of rich countries will continue as long as this capitalist-imperialist system exists. It is a scathing indictment of the criminal and inhuman nature of this system that in a world where humanity's basic needs could already be met, suffering, misery and ignorance stalk vast swaths of the human landscape.

On the stage set in Hamburg, the fascist Trump-Pence regime was receiving an official welcome and being given legitimation by the rest of the other heads of state, while whetting the appetites and fueling competition from other imperialists, with Germany's Merkel seizing on the occasion to forcefully assert Germany's ambitions for a bigger role running the world. All this posed urgent responsibilities on those who understood this to greatly step up their struggle against this life-devouring capitalist world order.

Revolutionary communists took part in planning activities in Hamburg and in Berlin to prepare the anti-G20 Summit protests months in advance of the event and developed an understanding of the features shaping the political terrain and the nature and line of the forces aiming to protest the summit. The Revolutionary Communist Manifesto Group of supporters of the new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian in Europe called for an all-out mobilization to take part. 

There was a firm understanding among the comrades taking part of the need to boldly take out the need and desirability of communist revolution and the importance of promoting the architect of the new synthesis of communism, Bob Avakian. With this goal in mind, the comrades wrangled with how this could be done in relationship to the major issues that the masses coming to Hamburg would be raising? The question that came into sharper focus was what kind of work to unfold among the masses? What is the relation between partial struggles and particular demands (for example, ''drive out the fascist Trump regime'') and the overall task of preparing the proletarian revolution? How do we further advance the communist work of propagating and fighting for the new synthesis under these circumstances? The political approach RCMG supporters and others united around was reflected in the slogans adopted for a main leaflet to be distributed massively in German and English: "Fight the G20 Summit of Exploiters, Mass Murderers and War-mongers! Help Drive Out the Fascist Trump/Pence Regime! Humanity Needs Revolution and the New Communism!"

In Hamburg and later Berlin, during the latter part of June, two public meetings were held to discuss ''the Trump regime, the rightward lurch in Europe and the danger of fascism'' as part of the preparations for the G20 protests. Although the number of the people attending these public meetings was not large, they nonetheless helped to bring out the urgency of fully coming to terms with the dangers posed by the fascist Trump-Pence regime, making this part of the today's political discussion as broadly as possible, and organizing to fight with this understanding. Posters with the slogans ''NO! In the name of humanity, We refuse to accept a fascist America!'' and ''Drive out the Trump-Pence Regime!'' in several languages appeared on walls in areas of Hamburg known for their concentration of youth and radical-minded people. Comrades were invited to make presentations of their views at radical street events. Several different leaflets were widely distributed in large numbers on topics such the migrant crisis and ''Das Trump Regime, der Rechtsruck in Europa und die Gefahr des Faschismus'' [The Trump Regime, the Righward Lurch in Europe and the Danger of Fascism]. 

During the tumultuous days of the G20 protests, the strong presence, resolve and visibility of a clearly multi-national force, with Avakian[1] “Revolution Nothing Less” t-shirts and banners with the three slogans in different languages became a recognized feature in all the major demonstrations. More than 20,000 leaflets were distributed and they were in the main eagerly received. Many curious to know who the RCMG supporters were and what they were advocating were introduced to communist revolution and the existence of the line, leadership and the strategy for the struggle to turn into an actual revolution. Several hundred copies of a pamphlet put out by the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, How We Can Win: How We Can Really Make Revolution, were taken by those eager to check out a how a revolution could be prepared and actually win in a country like the United States. The contingent was uniting with and encouraging the more radical sections of the demonstrators while striving to promote revolutionary communism as a real pole of attraction on the anti-G20 protest terrain. There were many discussions about the crucial significance of Avakian's further development of the theory of communist revolution on a higher and more scientific ground and the decisive importance of this for solving the problems of preparing, making and carrying forward an actual revolution aimed at the worldwide elimination of all forms of exploitation and oppression and the behaviours and thinking based on them. 

One important example of how this stand was translated into action came at the 6 July late afternoon demonstration named ''Welcome to Hell'' that brought together a variety of forces around the “black bloc” anarchists and other rebellious youth who had called for it. (Trump had earlier called immigrant neighbourhoods in Europe's big cities 'hell".) Riot police attacked the hundreds-strong front line black bloc fighters because of their proclaimed intention to disrupt the G20. In the ensuing struggle, the RCMG people were able to successfully raise their revolutionary banners to regroup and lead several hundred demonstrators to continue marching into the city. This was possible because of the group's revolutionary stand and resolve on the strength of the political understanding they were propagating, and because they took responsibility for building unity as widely as possible among those opposing the system, despite the influence of entrenched anti-communism of the black-bloc leadership on many of them. In general, it could be said that the week of anti G20 protests would not have been the same without the determined presence and struggle of the RCMG activists.

The criminality of this system is rapidly becoming more clear and unacceptable to millions and many people are even questioning the legitimacy of this system, and the need and possibility of an actual revolution urgently needs to become the focus of attention of the advanced forces. In response to these protests, the Merkel government deployed a massive, deliberately intimidating range of force, including 23 helicopters and 32 of the world's largest water cannon. The Bundestag, Germany's parliament, is now discussing the possibility of outright police state measures to stop such protests in the future, including electronic control measures confine potential protestors at home, and massively stepped up video surveillance. All this is an indication that even the Europe's essentially social democratic regime intend to and are compelled to accelerate the rightward lurch despite growing opposition. Battles will surely arise around crucial issues like immigration and the need to help drive out the Trump/Pence regime. By joining and strengthening these battles and above all by bringing out the possibility of an entirely different world, today's embryonic communist forces can begin to transform themselves and the political landscape.

Pix by Daily Mail.

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[1] Once again this blog does not endorse Bob Avakian and his new synthesis, but we left this in out of respect for the author of this well written article.

US- Tom Petty- sometimes a progressive musician

It's a big los for me to see Tom Petty die. He was a great musician and he was sometimes progressive. Here is one of my favorites:  -សតិវ អតុ

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- Something in the Air