14 Saturday Nov 2015
Posted in International, Left politics
For Fernando Haddad, mayor of the biggest city in the southern hemisphere, a Smart City is all about better public services, democratic space and inclusive growth, even if it comes at the cost of re-election
Source: Simply Sao Paulo: How a ‘Communist’ Mayor is Making a City Smart for its People | The Wire
14 Saturday Nov 2015
Posted in Current Affairs, International
Latest coverage of the attacks across Paris that have left at least 120 people dead
14 Saturday Nov 2015
Posted in Education, International
This September, only days after the re-election of SYRIZA in power, the schools in the country opened. The shortages the schools faced were severe right away ; extending from books, to staff, to regular cleaning and writing supplies. For example, my neighbourhood primary school had to close in September and re-open in early October. I had a discussion concerning the situation of the school with the headmaster, an independent syndicalist, who told me how the school had run out of paper, bleach, soap etc, primary supplies necessary for its functioning but that the budget for the month, and around three-hundred euros split around 5 different regional schools had run out before he had the chance to collect his share. In the end, he confided to me, he had to pay for those expenses from his own salary, making him really anxious concerning the running of the school on a daily basis.
For the purposes of writing this report I asked him to describe some of the most pressing difficulties he currently identifies in school education. He answered:
“For us in primary education, shortages in teaching stuff despite the large number of unemployed teachers, is no longer a surprise. Already in the official third month of the new school year, many schools are under-functioning. Probably more important still is that special schools, support classes and special courses, all-day schools and other specialised courses still await for the teachers to run them. Another problem is that many of the teachers are not permanent in their positions, despite working as supplementary staff for years, each year they face the uncertainty of re-employment and location of their work.”
He then adds that “the continuously underfunded education, lack of any supportive infrastructure in schools, problems of the actual buildings housing the schools, the labour obsolescense of the teachers coupled with the hard social and economic conditions that the typical Greek family, slowly fade away any positive prospects for the role of education in the academic, social and economic strengthening of a country in crisis.”
The Communist Party Youth (KNE) and its representative bodies at schools (SAS) gathered for a discussion concerning the effects of austerity on school education in late October. More specifically the student representatives of the KNE mention in their statement: “Through the discussions we’ve had, we realise that shortages of teachers and infrastructure, books and supplies exist across many schools as well as that our parents and ourselves are forced to put our hands deep in our pockets to cover these shortages.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the demands agreed upon in the meeting exceeded the immediate difficulties in school education and the students called for a better, more holistic and humane education system for them, their families and teachers.”It was emphasised by all that the only way forward is the coordinated struggle of students to cover our needs, for a school that will educate without exhausting us, for an education that is a right and not a commodity.”
These discussions resulted in the call for an all out demonstration of students and teachers across Greece on 2 November, followed with a call for ongoing occupations in schools. In Athens alone, official participation for the protest was agreed upon by 35 different schools- notably the schools from the most working class areas. The demonstration was the biggest and most vibrant we have seen in months, and the first one after the elections this September. Around five thousand students aged 12 to 18 marched alongside their teachers in the centre of Athens, organised in schools or in party and organisation blocs. Their slogans and comments from discussions we had with them showed frustration and angst over the future of their education. Deeply disappointed in SYRIZA (although most claimed to never have had trust in it) they could see no viable alternatives in the current political scene (with the exception of the Communist Party youth who, naturally, look to the Communist Party). The pamphlet that we were handing out, however, named after a recent campaign we launched for opening up revolutionary work in schools “Youth against Capitalism”, grasped their attention and they seemed to agree on most of our points.
The success that KNE saw with that demonstration was made concrete yesterday in the general strike called by both the unions of public and private sectors (GESEE and ADEDY) and the trade union of the Communist Party (PAME). With the students and teachers standing side by side the workers in their strike and demo, the mobilisation in the Syntagma square, reached some ten thousand people at its peak, despite the fact that no public transportation was operating in Athens. Surprisingly, SYRIZA also endorsed the 24-hour strike and announced its participation a day before, calling all the party members to attend the mobilisations in Syntagma.
It is interesting and important to see, how a period of political stagnation such as the one that Greece entered after the elections in September 2015 and which has led to an overall mood of defeat found amongst the working class layers at the moment, can still be punctuated by the inspirational determination of the students.
by Stella Christou in Athens, MSF Executive
14 Saturday Nov 2015
Posted in Current Affairs, International, Left politics
Statement of the Central Committee of the PCP, of November 8, 2015
The PCP’s Central Committee, meeting in the November 8, 2015, examined the developments of the resulting policy framework of the 4 October elections and economic and social situation that the workers and the people are confronted; identified the development of the mass struggle as a central element to ensure rising living standards and emphasized the strategic importance of strengthening implementation of the Party lines, its connection with the masses and immediate political tasks, including the presidential elections
I
The Central Committee denounces the deplorable attitude of the President who took over as representative of the PSD and CDS-PP and representative of the interests of big business deciding, in defiance of the hearing to the parties in parliament supported the inference, the nomination of PSD leader as prime minister.
The intervention Cavaco Silva is another example of the assumed confrontation with the Portuguese Constitution that has characterized his political career and his presidential mandates, undermining the foundations of democracy and exposing the country to an attitude of humiliating foreign subservience.
The intervention Cavaco Silva is associated with the development of a brutal ideological offensive last month, from various players and taking various forms, placed at the center of its action the attack on the CFP and the use of blackmail, to fear, lies and demagoguery.
The Central Committee does not recognize the Cavaco Silva nor political legitimacy or democratic dimension to elaborate about the role and the way the CFP as unavoidable Party in the establishment of democratic rule in Portuguese democracy and national political life and condemns their attitude support for a government and a policy that both trail of destruction has left the country.
What is the current situation reveals the real unemployment reaching over one million one hundred thousand Portuguese; that the new contracts of employment, 80% are poor; the harsh reality of workers for others and in particular the 20% who earn a salary less than the national minimum wage; the overwhelming majority of reforms to lower poverty line; cutting, according to the data of budget implementation, in expenditure on social benefits of EUR 520 million in the first nine months of 2015; the two million eight hundred thousand Portuguese at risk of poverty, according to INE data; the high degree of weakening of the productive apparatus and increasing dominance of strategic decision centers by foreign; a six production breaks and a half percentage points that neither in 2017 will be restored; a fall in global investment of 30% and 50% in public investment with heavy and serious future consequences; the unsustainable public debt; the huge scam the promised return of 35.3% of the IRS surcharge and the prospect of new and substantial support to the bank.
The Central Committee denounced also the illegitimate and abusive decision of limited government to the current management to involve the state as a guarantor of debts that may result from ruinous delivery process of TAP to big business. It should also be noted as promiscuity level developer with monopoly capital that the former Secretary of State for Transport, who led the concession and privatization processes of companies in this sector have now been hired by the Bank of Portugal to drive the delivery of the New Bank.
Ignoring the serious structural problems of the country that continue insisting on the misconception that their policy has led to an economic recovery path, repeating empty proclamations regarding solving social problems such as unemployment or poverty and seeking to evade the reality of growing difficulties that reach workers and the people, that the government PSD / CDS-PP presents is the prospect of continuing and intensifying the policy that worsened the exploitation and impoverishment, deepened injustice and inequality and imposed the degradation of democracy.
PSD and CDS-PP still seek to redeem themselves themselves from electoral defeat they suffered integrating in the Government Programme measures and promises aimed at creating the illusion that now would be able and willing to reverse the direction of its policy by reversing some of the decisions that hit the workers and the people over the past four years.
However, confirming the objective of PSD and CDS-PP continue their policy of exploitation and impoverishment, the Government Programme confirms the many compelling reasons for the Government PSD / CDS-PP does not come into functions, not only for losses It has caused but also by those who wanted to continue to cause the workers, the people and the country.
The Central Committee of PCP reaffirms the decision to file a motion rejecting the Government Programme PSD / CDS-PP.
5.The Central Committee of the PCP stresses the importance of the new balance of power in parliament and the potential that can act to address the most urgent problems affecting the workers and peoples. The Central Committee emphasizes that there is no maneuvers they can dodge the heavy defeat of the PSD and CDS-PP, the good result obtained by the CDU and the affirmation of the role and initiative of the Portuguese Communist Party which was confirmed as an irreplaceable force for present and future of the country.
II
The effort made from the PSD / CDS-PP coalition, the set of commentators at your service and the mainstream media, to present as winners defeated in elections, succumbed to the initiative of the CFP that since 4 October, stressed that PSD and CDS-PP were unable to alone, pursue the resulting national disaster policy of your government action over the past four years. Initiative also revealed and in all its dimensions, which the PCP said in response to that reduced the election to a false contention for Prime Minister for the political party or government, ie: what truly decide on elections for the National Assembly is the number of seats that each political force elected, parliamentary majorities that are formed in the National Assembly, the institutional base that is created to support a particular policy and the government can take office.
The PCP took the initiative and pointed out the need to extract political and institutional consequences of the election results. The sentence imposed on the coalition PSD / CDS-PP was not only a defeat of his government, was also its policy. This change was the requirement of expression of national political life that the PCP said. It was, and is, the expectation of a policy able to ensure economic development, return stolen income and rights, valuing salaries and pensions, promote employment and combat injustice, restore the full right to health and education, ensuring sound social security and higher levels of social protection, ensure quality public services, workers and the people they aspire to see realized.
The new political and institutional reality arising from the elections and the desire for change expressed by the people put it, and puts the requirement and responsibility to ensure the interruption of the path pursued by the previous government. It is this responsibility that is imposed materialize.
But also as the PCP said, this does not preclude that, in the face of a new political and institutional framework, the CFP does not spare efforts, responding to the interests of workers and the people and honoring their commitments, work and struggle to answer it . That’s what serious and committed the PCP did.
According to the decisions of the Central Committee of 6 October which states that “both the pretensions of Cavaco Silva, whether those of Passos Coelho and Paulo Portas, will only be realized if the PS is willing to facilitate and to be supporting force a new government PSD / CDS-PP “and that in the framework of the Portuguese Constitution, the PS just no way government does not want, as well as the Declaration of 7 October, the PCP examined in recent weeks political solutions corresponding to situation.
The approach and mutual assessment between the PS and the PCP identified a number of matters where it is possible to ensure a convergent action to address some of the immediate problems of the workers and the Portuguese people. The real possibility is open to, among others, to take steps in return for wages and incomes, to replenish the pension supplement of the state of the business sector workers, to value wages and halt the continued degradation of pensions, to repay part of the benefits subject to the means test, to reset the holidays taken, to ensure better access to the rights to health and education, to reverse the concession and privatization processes of land transport companies.
However, the work also confirmed that convergence around a government and a government program, as recognized by both parties, includes a requirement level as the decisive choices of national policy are not met, taking into account the recognized and proven divergent view either on the external constraints and in terms of addressing the interests of big business.
The degree of convergence checked should be reflected in the degree of commitment that matches you. Enhancing the level of convergence, the Central Committee of the PCP reaffirms that are however created the conditions for, in the current circumstances, ensure governance solution that prevents PSD and CDS-PP pursue the country’s destruction policy and contribute to curb onerous aspects in meaning of reversing the path taken so far. There in the new parliamentary matters a majority of MPs constituting condition enough for the formation of a PS initiative of government, which allows the presentation of their program, their duties and the adoption of a policy to ensure a lasting solution in perspective the legislature.
Carry out an evaluation of the work done with the PS and checking the degree of achieved convergence and the level of commitment that you can match the Central Committee of the PCP confirmed the terms of the “Joint Position of PS and PCP on political solution” sent the PS and also been approved by the PS, will eventually have its formalization and public presentation. They are well met by the CFP the conditions to consummate the defeat of the government PSD / CDS-PP and enable the formation of a government of the PS initiative.
Nothing can evade that exists in Parliament an institutional base that will go as far as is the willingness of each political force that makes up to support the way of replacement wages and income, the return of rights, access to health strengthening , education and social security, in supporting micro, small and medium enterprises, pensioners, young people and that can enable the implementation of a set of measures and solutions that address immediate interests of workers and the people.
It is this objective that the workers and the people, democrats and patriots, as all want to ensure the right to a Portugal with a future will continue to take in hand with its intervention and their struggle.
III
In the current situation deserves particular attention, following a more than two-year struggle that, resisting the interference of the government PSD / CDS-PP, secured the fixing of 35 hours of work in most local authorities, now recognized by the decision the Constitutional Court and with the publication of the Collective Agreements Entity Public Employer (ACEEP). A great victory for workers pointing to the possibility of replenishment of 35 hours of work for all workers in public administration. They are still to highlight the achievements of the struggle of teachers for the purpose of evaluation test of knowledge and skills, as well as the progress made in the fight developed in various sectors and companies.
The development of vindictive action and struggle of workers and peoples, and the strengthening of organizations and unit mass movements is a task of utmost importance. In time near is particularly important concentration convened by the CGTP-IN for the next day November 10, next to the Parliament, in order to consummate the coalition’s defeat PSD / CDS-PP, complaining answers to the demands of the workers and affirm the need a policy that promotes economic development to workers’ service, the people and the country.
Fulfilling the commitment to workers and the people, the PCP has submitted to the Parliament a set of legislative initiatives for the recovery of cut rights and the reversal of steps taken by PSD / CDS-PP.
The first set of initiatives – proposing the replacement of the 35-hour working week in the Public Administration, the replacement of holidays taken, replacement of the payment of pension supplements in the State Business Sector companies and the repeal of coercive measures and conditioning on women access to abortion – followed by those relating to the cancellation and reversal of mergers, restructuring and sub-granting companies Carris and Lisbon Metro, the privatization of EGF and CP-load, the merger of REFER to the Estradas de Portugal, as well as the sub STCP and Metro do Porto. The initiative in the National Assembly will continue, reflecting the combined commitments of the CFP with the workers and the Portuguese people.
The applications framework already now known and the development of pre-campaign confirms the correctness of PCP’s decision to present the candidacy of Edgar Silva, proves the distinct nature and positioning of this, and clearly shows its essential and irreplaceable role in this political battle .
An application that since its announcement, collecting a growing current support and revealing a significant participation and enlargement, says a sense of confidence in the possibilities of the country and in the strength and capabilities of the people to build another direction in national politics.
The Central Committee calls on the mobilization of the whole Party to the achievement of the necessary tasks related to the presidential elections, as well as the intensification of contact action and enlightenment, a framework in which each support is the best contribution to a strong vote in Application Edgar Silva. A truly coherent and combative application, committed to the interests of workers and the people, linked to the values of April and the Constitution of the Republic, an application that does not give up Portugal and hit by a developed country, fair and sovereign.
IV
The current situation demonstrates the role and initiative of the Portuguese Communist Party, its unwavering commitment to the workers and the inseparable people of his communist identity, the need for its strengthening, the articulation of immediate intervention with the struggle for a patriotic alternative left, for an advanced democracy, socialism and communism.
13 Friday Nov 2015
Posted in Current Affairs, International, Left politics
By Diego Gonzalez, Julia Muriel Dominzain
For the first time in Argentine history there will be a run-off election for President. The ruling party candidate Daniel Scioli and the opposition leader Mauricio Macri will face off on Nov. 22 after receiving 36.8% and 34.3%, respectively in the Oct. 25 first round.
The results surprised the candidates, the voters, the military, and the bureaucrats, and discredited the pollsters. And if the tight race was unexpected, the victory of the Macrista candidate in Buenos Aires Province was a bombshell. María Eugenia Vidal will be the next governor of the country’s most heavily populated region, with some 37% of the electorate. For the first time in 28 years, the province will now be governed by someone who does not belong to the Justicialista Party.
Debate has flared in a country that, until Sunday evening, assumed that Scioli would win, and that it was just a question of when–whether in the first or second round. The big issue, at this point, involves the 21% who voted for the third-place candidate, Sergio Massa, also a Peronist and former government official, and now a staunch member of the opposition who insists on the need for “change.”
Candidates Responses
Sunday night in Scioli headquarters the news of the discouraging numbers arrived like an unwelcome visitor. Supporters were singing with their heads bowed, looking at their mobile phones. The stage was empty, the remixed cumbia blared at an intolerable volume and was superimposed on the sound of the bass drums and the sporadic efforts of the organizations to sing a complete song.
At about 10 p.m., much earlier than anticipated, the candidate stepped out onto the stage at Luna Park and gave a speech that confirmed that the campaign was continuing: “There are at play two very different visions of Argentina’s present and future. Our priorities are the humble people, the workers, and our middle class. To those who voted in favor of a different proposal, I appeal especially to you, because for an Argentine there is nothing like another Argentine, and I believe, like Perón, that united we will all triumph.”
Near midnight the Minister of Justice Julio Alak announced the first official numbers. At that moment, with 60% of the votes counted, Macri led Scioli by almost two points. Although in the course of the evening the numbers flipped, the effect was immediate: the headquarters emptied out as if someone had pulled the fire alarm.
In the press room, the stress reached peak levels. Within a few minutes, on the mythical premises where Perón and Evita met in 1944, all warmth was drained.
“Now we go back to eating polenta and drinking bad wine,” one man shouted. Meanwhile, at Costa Salguero, the Cambiemos (Let’s Change) Party started the frenzy that went on for days. Balloons, dance steps, emotional speeches, generic words: “Let’s change,” “for change,” “to change.”
Macri’s Republican Proposal (PRO) is a young party of right-leaning business interests that was spawned by conservative thinktanks after the crisis of 2001 and grew in strength in the city of Buenos Aires. This is the first time it has gotten involved in elections.
Its campaign centers around the idea of “change.” In the Let’s Change Party, the PRO joined ranks with the Radical Civic Union and diverse Peronist sectors. The party proposed a new aesthetics, and presented itself as “the new”.
But by mid-2015 it made a discursive swerve and began to say it would guarantee continuation of many of the Kirchner measures it had previously opposed–universal Allocation per Child (unemployment insurance) and refraining from re-privatizing Aerolíneas Argentinas. It even erected a monument for Juan Domingo Perón.
Perhaps the biggest news has been that the new governor, Vidal, a technical staffer formed at the Catholic University of Argentina, won in the province over Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s current Chief of Staff, Aníbal Fernandez. In Buenos Aires there will be no run-off; the 39.4% that Vidal won sufficed to beat Fernández’s 35.1%.
A more detailed analysis of the region reveals that votes for Julián Domínguez, who competed against Fernandez in the Front for Victory (FPV) primaries, did not transfer completely to the other ruling-party candidate. There were also those who split their ballots and voted for Scioli as President and Vidal as Governor. Let’s Change won such key voting districts as La Plata, Mar del Plata, Quilmes, and Tres de Febrero, among others. Vidal not only won, but also helped Macri better position himself for the run-off.
On Aug. 9t in Buenos Aires, it poured rain and there were many who could not get out to vote. Last Sunday’s election produced two million additional votes. With a participation of more than 80% of the total number of registered voters, almost all the candidates received more votes than before. Nonetheless, Macri managed to reduce the lead of 8.5% that Scioli, the current Governor of the Buenos Aires Province, had over him in the primaries to only 2.5 points. From one election to the other, Macri drew an additional 1,600,000 votes, Sergio Massa 600,000, and Scioli only 280,000.
Although all the candidates increased their votes, the distance between the three leading forces, instead of lengthening, grew smaller. The FPV could not maintain its 38.7% and fell by 2 points. Let’s Change grew almost 5 points (from 30.12% to 34.4%) and the Massa’s Reformist Front (Frente Renovador) held steady (from 20.57% to 21.3%).
Real Power
There weren’t just elections for president and vice-president on Oct. 25; the country also voted for 11 new governors, 43 Mercosur parliamentarians, 24 senators, and 130 seats in the House of Representatives were elected.
In the House of Representatives, the FPV Party lost 24 seats to Let’s Change. The ruling party will still be the largest minority (107 representatives), as compared to Macrismo’s 93. Neither, by itself, can manage an absolute majority. The Massa bloc, which had a great election in the Buenos Aires Province in 2013, will hold 31 seats. The FPV was able to maintain a majority in the Senate with a noteworthy total of 45 seats; Let’s Change garnered 15, and Massa’s group has veto power.
What is left to contest in the November 22 elections are the 8,000,000 votes distributed among the 22.3% who voted for Massa, the Trotskyist left that supported Nicolás del Caño (3.2%), Margarita Stolbizer (2.5%) of the Progressives, and the ex-governor of San Luis, the also Peronist Adolfo Rodríguez Saá (1.6%).
The left has already initiated a blank-vote campaign. Rodríguez Saá is holding his tongue for now. Stolbizer is talking about change, and Massa has already said he does not want Scioli to win.
No one owns the votes, but everything indicates that, despite the ruling party’s technical victory in the first round, it will be hard for them to expand. While the PRO is wearing a victory halo despite coming in second, for now the news for Scioli’s supporters is grim.
13 Friday Nov 2015
Posted in International, Left politics
Final political document of the National Political Committee of 7/8 November 2015
The National Political Committee reiterated the need to continue on the path of revival of political activity of the Italian Communist Refoundation Party and the construction of a left and anti-neoliberal alternative to the Democratic Party and the government Renzi.
The revival and strengthening of the party, from recovery pride and sense of belonging to the Communist Refoundation and the role it has played and plays “towards obstinate and contrary”, has nothing to conservative nor bureaucratic but stems from the awareness that there is more need than ever of the contribution of Communists and Communists to oppose global capitalism, the growth of inequality, the emptying of the social gains and democratic, the spread of wars, xenophobia, racism.
The major difficulties encountered in recent years there have folded, and in recent months we have registered positive signs of vitality and recovery. This tell us about the extraordinary result of the campaign of 2 per thousand combined to the excellent result of the Feasts of Liberation, and in particular of the national one, which are a strong encouragement to generalize in all areas and at all levels the commitment to revival of the party in terms of organization, processing, training and social roots.
The National Political Committee calls on all party structures maximum effort and maximum mobilization in the campaign ” The money is there “, with ‘ target of making socially and politically perceived the PRC on that content and those buzzwords. It is a long-term campaign, which does not end in a few weeks, or it comes to making recognizable our political proposal, at least as it was the 35-hour, on the social level.
We must be clear that the party reveals that the crisis , whose dramatic effects visited upon the working classes, it is not given by scarcity, but it is a crisis of excess production capacity, to an unprecedented concentration of wealth and power in a few hands. Explain that “The money is there” means counter the hegemony of the causes of the crisis that has been imposed as common sense and dominant narrative, and at the same time concrete proposals that speak to the condition of our social subjects of reference. Exit from the policies of austerity and sacrifice is possible, but only by challenging the neo-liberal policies pursued by the EU and Italian governments.
The building, of a political and social that make us recognizable and identifiable as participation and ‘internità movements and struggles, he must go hand in hand with continued revival also organization of our party. In recent months, in implementation of the last Conference Organization, we have taken the first steps forward since the establishment of the office organization that has taken a systematic reorganization and verification in connection with the regional and provincial party following objectives defined in the document “We share” approved by management last September. We are aware that many still are the steps to building a party with the tasks and the project of Communist Refoundation.
There are, today, the conditions to relaunch also on the accession to the party and the membership: this year has been achieved the goal of distributing 20,000 cards paid by the local structures, and on the occasion of this National Political Committee we started the distribution of cards in 2016. The goal is to close on 31 December membership in 2015 by starting immediately and with maximum momentum to the membership in 2016 with the determination to achieve a turnaround and the increase in subscribers.
Rifondazione Comunista should continue and strengthen its efforts in conflict and social struggles, and through the presence concrete and through social practices mutual grown in recent years in different territories. Our intuitions about the “social party” came today in widespread awareness of the left and represent a heritage which must be generalized and raised.
Another crucial aspect of our policy is the construction of a left and anti-neoliberal alternative to the Democratic Party to be able to answer the question alive, although fragmented, unity and effective opposition to the neoliberal policies of austerity, one question that comes to most people who continue to feel the left, but mostly from the working classes and working classes that are subject too long of a systematic attack.
The document ” We have, we launch the challenge “ , which calls for a national assembly in January 15-16-17 open, is an important step in the direction of the allegations made by the Communist Refoundation in these years, often in solitude: the forces of the left parties to move it from the document sharing exhaustion and failure of the season of the center. Our proposal to build a political unit and the plural left highly independent and alternative to the Democratic Party is beginning to become a reality. We reiterate, as we are concerned, that this plant lives regardless of the electoral law and its changes. For us, the left is an alternative to the Democratic Party because it does not agree with the policies. Do not feel like orphans of a center that produced the renzismo as the terminal phase of a long genetic mutation.
The document “We are, we launch the challenge” to be considered, therefore, as a starting point. Communist Refoundation is committed to the development of such a path in the direction of the full involvement of stakeholders and social forces, of areas as large as possible of movements and societies that daily struggle and build alternative experiences, participation and inclusiveness; the placement of the plural subject that we intend to build within the Gue and the European Left; characterization of a strong alternative to the Democratic Party. If we are aware of the articulation of positions and different sensitivities present, we are also aware of how much our political coordinates are potentially majoritarian left. The commitment of the whole party in the unification process is essential to determine a positive development and a character of radical alternative. We are convinced that this process should take a broad and popular characterization, which aims to rebuild a web of social practices that are settled in the territory after the suburbs, also to prevent the right-wing populism, reconstructions and practices that do not stop and do not act only in institutional places.
The left is reconstructed primarily on the streets, in the neighborhoods, in the workplace and everyday life.
In this sense the continuity and consistency with the policy conference of Perugia, with regard to strengthening and revitalization PRC together with the aim of building a broader left, subsidiary and alternative to the Democratic Party continues to be the compass of our political initiative.
We believe in this important transition directly involve members and party members on the outcome of our work and – in light of what happened – propose to continue, according to the coordinates choices to Congress, asking for a review of the mandate he received at the conference. In the congress of Perugia we put at the center of the knot of recognized democracy and members, stressing that our objective was to engage the body of the party in the relevant passages and not only in the conference schedule. Therefore, we propose aconsultation of members and members of the PRC .
The National Political Committee then called to express themselves in the consultation on the following text:
“Our goal is to place at the center, in continuity and in implementation of the policy established at the Congress of Perugia, the way of strengthening and revitalization of the Communist Refoundation Party and the building through a unified process, participatory and democratic, the new party of the left in Italy. This process which will see the first positive stage in the notice of the meeting of 15/17 January 2016 convened on the basis of the document “We are, we launch the challenge” should be aimed at building a unified entity and the plural of the anti-liberal left, clearly alternative to pd and placed in Europe as part of the GUE and the European Left ”
The consultation will take place in the period December 1 to 19 through the organization and holding of active local members and the members of the single circle or circles convened jointly. Federations are responsible for ensuring that all facilities are activated. You have the right to vote who has the card 2015. Using the appropriate forms provided by national sponsors – indicated by Federations – record the vote (for, against, abstentions), and blatant show of hands, and will make a report overall outcome.
Unripe
Flamini
Mainardi
Rinaldi
Document approved with 53 votes in favor. The document with the petitioner Azzolini has obtained 20 and what he had as first signatory Bellotti 3. Abstentions 4.
13 Friday Nov 2015
Posted in Economics, International, Prices
Venezuela is leading a global campaign among producing countries to raise and support the prices of crude oil at $ 80 or so. What are the causes of his fall ?. Here we explain.
Since 2004, crude oil prices have been volatile, with a downward trend. Venezuela is leading a global campaign to gather wills between the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other world producers, to try to raise it and maintain it.
Know the main causes that destabilize the global oil market:
Western interest
Since 2002, major oil producers have experienced sabotage, invasions and military offensives by US and its allies.
.- Oil strike in Venezuela from 2002-2003 promoted by the United States after the failed coup of April of that year.
.- US invasion of Iraq in 2003, under the excuse of the alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction.
.- Sabotage the flow of oil in Nigeria.
.- Sanctions and threats against Iran by the governments of George Bush and Barack Obama.
.- Overthrow and murder of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. NATO bombing and financing mercenary groups that dismembered Libya, which before the war was one of the largest oil producers in Africa.
.- Western support for terrorist groups in Syria with the aim to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
All these factors had a negative impact on the oil market, which initially undertook a rally after having remained for 16 years below $ 30 a barrel until 2002.
After invading Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration threatened to countries that did not follow their guidelines to be the next targets.
Not yielding to his pretensions, Washington sought to intimidate the producers (especially in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf) with carrier visits, maneuvers, contramaniobras, weapons deployment, military exercises, support for terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq and other area countries.
Why the Gulf? Because in that area much of the world’s oil (No. 1 producer with 10.3 million barrels per day Saudi Arabia) occurs. Most oil exports pass through the Straits of Hormuz, the only exit to the oceans.
Fracking
Since 2014, the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro , has warned about the method used by the United States for the production of oil, called “fracking”.
Maduro has reported that US oil flooded the world market with the aim of lowering oil prices, and destabilize the economies of the exporting countries, especially Venezuela and Russia.
“(Obama) recognizes the economic war against Russia, here we have it, we can read now, I read yesterday; recognizes war oil prices for the first time it recognizes the strategic line that is under development and it is behind it. Moreover, he says more seriously, to take effect this year, next year and the other, 2015 and 2016, oil war, war of prices, “the Venezuelan president in December 2014.
The so-called “fracking” is a technique for extracting oil and gas from underground. We proceed to fracture the rock hundreds of meters deep injecting between the cracks, water and other chemicals at high pressure.
See also → The fracking unbalanced the world oil market
The technique has served the United States to raise its oil production and at the same time to make them cheaper in the international market. This method poses serious health risks for the contamination of groundwater with the liquid mixture introduced underground during the process, in addition to affecting the global seismicity.
The Fact: The US is the largest oil consumer in the world with 18.2 million barrels per day (2014).
Speculation
The oil market speculation is a factor that affects the price volatility.
The Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) , Abdullah al-Badri said the current state of the oil market does not justify the collapse in oil prices.
“We want to know the real reasons that led to such a fall in prices,” he said in Dubai on December 14.
Al Badri said that the production ceiling of OPEC “has not changed in the last 10 years (remaining) in about 30 million barrels” per day.
“Supply and demand were up -ligera- does not explain this drop 50 percent” since June 2014. If this continues, “speculation contributes greatly” to the collapse in prices, he added.
International impact
According to the American economist Jack Rasmus, there are at least three major potential impacts on global economic instability, following deflation of oil prices.
1- rapid appreciation of the US dollar, and the corresponding relative decline of the currencies of several emerging market economies (EME) – particularly those dependent on commodity exports, especially those for oil exports represent a significant percentage of total exports.
There is a long, documented historical relationship between the fall of oil prices and rising dollar.
2- Contribution to the general deflation in Europe and Japan economies are already in recession.
Despite the billions of dollars of liquidity injections by central banks, price levels still have been reduced to zero or less. Deflation oil added a deflationary drift significantly in Europe in general and in Japan.
This in turn is likely to lead to even more liquidity injections by central banks in the form of more quantitative easing (QE), further fueling the stock markets and bond asset bubbles.
3- The decrease in financial assets linked to oil could increase the trend to global financial instability.
Oil deflation can lead to widespread bankruptcies and defaults for various non-financial companies, which in turn precipitate financial instability events in banks linked to these companies.
The collapse of financial assets associated with oil may also have a “chain effect” later in other forms of financial assets and financial instability spreading to other credit markets.
Venezuelan proposal
President Maduro has insisted on a proposal for members and non-members of OPEC, which consists of two points:
1- Apply a mechanism of progressive cuts in oil production, in order to control prices.
2- Establish a first floor in oil prices at $ 70 and a ceiling of 100.
13 Friday Nov 2015
Posted in Current Affairs, International
The idea that the U.S. must impose its authority on the world with violence goes largely unquestioned by candidates
Source: U.S. imperialism was the real winner of the presidential debate – Salon.com
13 Friday Nov 2015
Posted in Current Affairs, International
As Congress debates the Trans-Pacific Partnership, we speak to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz about the trade deal. “The irony is that the president came out and said, ‘This is about who makes the trade rules—China or the United States?'” Stiglitz said. “But I think the big issue is, this is about who makes the rules of trade—the American people, our democratic process, or the corporations? And who they’re made for, which is, for the corporations or for all of us?”
Source: “A Very Big Mistake”: Joseph Stiglitz Slams Obama for Pushing the TPP | Democracy Now!
12 Thursday Nov 2015
Posted in International
Source: The Bosses Bring War to Space | COMMUNISM NOW!
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