Australians to vote on landmark Tamil Referendum

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE on 14 April 2010

Australians to vote on landmark Tamil Referendum

Thousands of Australians will convene on ballot boxes across the country this weekend to express their desire for an independent Tamil homeland.

Human rights advocates and political figures have thrown their support behind the initiative organised by the Tamil Referendum Council of Australia (TRCA) and based on the Vaddukoddai Resolution (VKR), a mandate for independence drafted in Sri Lanka in 1976 by Tamil leaders that was rejected by the Government and led to full scale civil war.

“The Australian government has done nothing to educate the public regarding the repression of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. The VKR referendum can help raise awareness of the situation that the Tamils have faced for decades” said Ian Rintoul, head of the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC).

Over 10,000 voters have registered to vote, with thousands more to enrol in the coming days, according to CPI Strategic spokesperson Stephen Newnhman, a consultancy firm hired by the TRCA to co-ordinate the voting process.

Polling booths will be set up in locations across NSW, Victoria and Queensland on April 17 and 18 with large numbers of voters from other states to submit postal votes.

Pip Hinman, federal election candidate for Grayndler in NSW, described the event as an opportunity to “add to the pressure on the Australian government, which is currently turning a blind eye to the ongoing repression of the Tamil people”.

“Together, we must use these polls to push the Rudd government to break completely from the former Howard government's racist refugee policy in which Tamils (and others) are being denied their basic human rights,” Miss Hinman urged citing the recent political furore surrounding Tamil asylum seekers.

The referendum will be the first of its kind in the Southern-hemisphere, following democratically held referenda across Europe and Canada that have established an overwhelming mandate supporting the formation of a sovereign Tamil homeland in the island of Sri Lanka.

The event takes place almost a year since the Sri Lankan government launched a brutal campaign in the island’s North East, slaughtering up to 40,000 Tamil civilians en-route to a crushing defeat against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Seran Sribalan: 0406 123 503 www.vkr1976.com.au

Germany: Big gains for Die Linke as Social Democrats’ support collapses

via Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal:

By Duroyan Fertl

October 5, 2009 – Germany’s ``centre-right’’ Chancellor Angela Merkel was returned to power in federal elections held on September 27, but with a record low voter turnout and an increased vote for the far-left party, Die Linke (The Left).

The election was a clear success for Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Her preferred coalition partner – the free-market fundamentalist Free Democratic Party (FDP) – increased its support by 4.8 per cent to an all-time high of 14.6 per cent, enough to form a CDU-FDP government. The FDP will now replace the CDU’s main rival – the ``centre-left’’ Social Democratic Party (SPD) – as coalition partner in the government of Europe’s largest economy.

At the same time, the SPD’s support collapsed by more than 6 million votes, dropping a massive11.2 per cent to only 23 per cent – its worst result since World War II. As one leading SPD member pointed out on election night, “We have been bombed back into the Weimar Republic”. SPD leader Walter Steinmeier described the result as “a bitter day” for German social democracy.

However, while the result has been widely characterised as a shift to the right, that view is not really borne out by the results. The total vote for the centre-right parties rose by only 3.4 per cent, while the vote for the neo-Nazi New Democratic Party (NPD) dropped to just over 1 per cent, while the total left vote dropped by only 5.4 per cent.

Voter turnout slumps

The election campaign was one of the dullest ever run, with the two major parties – CDU and SPD – being overly polite to each other, neither wanting to alienate voters or lose their chance of remaining in government.

In a televised “debate”, Steinmeier and Merkel acted like old chums, and the unofficial slogan of the entire campaign became “Yes we gähn” (“Yes we yawn”). As Dietmar Bartsch, Die Linke’s general secretary, explained: "It was a very boring affair. None of them were any good. It was exactly what we had expected."

After 11 years in government, presiding over increasing cuts to social welfare and rising poverty and unemployment, the SPD lost the confidence of many of its traditional supporters, and was barely able to distinguish its own neoliberal policies from those of its main rival during the election campaign.

The SPD’s support was also impacted by its refusal to consider going into coalition with the far-left Die Linke, making a vote for an SPD government essentially a vote for the status quo, and another “grand coalition” with the CDU.

Some disaffected SPD supporters shifted their votes to Die Linke or to the Greens, but millions simply stayed home, enjoying a last warm weekend before winter. In fact, the voter turnout was the worst in 60 years, down to 70.8 per cent from 77.7 per cent four years ago, and most of those voters were once SPD voters.

While the CDU managed to retain government, it also suffered a drop in its vote, down by 1.4 per cent to 33.8 per cent, also a record low. And while the CDU-FDP coalition won a slender majority in the Bundestag – the German parliament’s lower house – various left-wing parties still have a majority in the upper house (the Bundesrat),which is made up of representatives from state governments.

The new CDU-FDP government is expected to introduce widespread cuts to social spending, especially under the influence of the FDP. Although the more conservative CDU will temper the FDP’s neoliberal urges, the new government has promised to introduce tax cuts of up to 20 per cent, reduce public spending, reverse the phase out of nuclear reactors, increase the pension age to 67 and continue Germany’s military involvement in the occupation Afghanistan.

Die Linke

The real success stories of the elections were the minor parties. The big winner was the right-wing FDP, whose increased vote makes them the third-biggest party in parliament. The Greens also entered double figures for the first time in a federal election, with 10.7 per cent, and increasing its presence from 51 to 68 seats.

The far-left Die Linke – the newest party in Germany’s political landscape – won 10.9 per cent of the vote, an increase of 3.2 per cent on 2005. It is the first time in German history that a party to the left of the SPD has scored more than 10 per cent in an election. Die Linke’s representation in the Bundestag has increased from 54 to 76 MPs, 40 of whom are women.

Die Linke was formed in 2007 when the Party of Democratic Socialism (the successor to the former ruling Socialist Unity Party of the German Democratic Republic – ``East Germany’’) merged with the Electoral Alternative for Social Justice and Jobs (WASG) – a group of disillusioned SPD members, trade unionists and socialists formed in 2005 to oppose the right-wing policies of the SPD-Green coalition federal government of the time.

Since then. Die Linke has continued to increase in popularity despite a media scare campaign about the threat of “communism”. Die Linke’s election platform of improved social justice and public welfare, the introduction of a minimum wage, higher taxes for the rich, relaxing harsh unemployment laws and cutting greenhouse gases emissions by 90% by 2050 have resonated with an electorate suffering the effects of the economic crisis.

Unemployment is already more than 8 per cent and will continue to rise as Germany’s export-dependent economy tries to ride out the crisis. Well over 10 per cent of Germany’s population already lives below the poverty line.

While more than 80 per cent of the population is opposed to the war in Afghanistan, Die Linke is the only party calling for the removal of German troops.

In two years, Die Linke has now won seats in 10 of Germany’s 12 state parliaments. In the western state of Saarland, an SPD heartland and home to Die Linke spokesperson Oskar Lafontaine, the Die Linke won more than 21.3 percent of the vote in state elections in September, placing it just behind the SPD. In Bremen, Die Linke scored more than 14 per cent, and even in the conservative state of Bavaria Die Linke’s support more than doubled, reaching 6.5 per cent.

In the states of the former German Democratic Republic, Die Linke fared even better, becoming the second-biggest party in the region after the CDU, and well ahead of the SPD. Die Linke won more than 25 per cent support in a majority of eastern electorates, and leading members Gregor Gysi and Petra Pau won their seats in Berlin with nearly 50 per cent of the vote.

In state elections held on the same day as the federal poll, Die Linke also entered parliament for the first time in Schleswig-Holstein – winning 6 per cent of the vote and five seats in the legislature – while in the eastern state of Brandenburg, it received 27.2 per cent, just behind the SPD on 33 per cent.

Can the SPD move left?

The SPD’s disastrous results, and the increased support for Die Linke, mean the SPD leadership is under significant pressure to move the party to the left and work with Die Linke, or risk losing more support. Adding to that pressure, a recent survey found that more than 50 per cent of Germans think that socialism is a good idea, but had been badly applied.

Die Linke co-leaders Oskar Lafontaine and Gregor Gysi have both called upon the SPD to “re-social-democratise” in order to build a strong left-wing alliance against the new government. According to Die Linke’s deputy leader – and ex-SPD member – Klaus Ernst, if the SPD does not change “the last one out can turn off the light”.

This may not be as easy as time seems, however, as many SPD members still hold a visceral hatred for Lafontaine. As former chairperson of the SPD and former federal finance minister, Lafontaine is considered to be a “traitor” to the SPD. Lafontaine resigned from the SPD in 2005 in protest against anti-social policies of SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. He became a central leader of Die Linke, and an outspoken critic of both SPD policy and “finance capitalism” more generally.

So, while Die Linke has eclipsed the SPD in a number of state elections, and has indicated its willingness to enter coalitions with the SPD and the Greens to fight the looming attacks on public spending, in government as well as on the streets, it is unclear if the SPD will cooperate.

Only days after the federal election, the SPD in the eastern state of Thuringia refused to form a coalition with Die Linke – despite indicating it would do so during the election campaign. Although already in coalition with Die Linke in Berlin and Brandenburg, in Thuringia the SPD have chosen instead to work with the right-wing CDU.

There can be no guarantee, then, that the SPD will move quickly to the left or develop a coherent relationship with Die Linke, a situation which means that the social resistance to the new government’s spending cuts and reforms will be weakened.

Despite its significant gains, Die Linke is faced with a new series of challenges. As the clearest opposition voice and defender of social programs and public welfare, Die Linke must now find a way to relate to the millions of disillusioned SPD voters, and to organise the strongest possible response to the economic crisis and the pro-business policies of a right-wing government.

Restore democracy in Honduras!

For more news on the situation in Honduras, visit http://links.org.au/node/1124

A statement from the Socialist Alliance, Australia, July 2, 2009

The Socialist Alliance strongly condemns the June 28 coup d’etat by the military, members of the oligarchy and their political agents in Honduras. The violent kidnapping and expulsion to Costa Rica of democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya Rosales is an attempt to deny the people of Honduras their fundamental human rights to determine their own government and political future.

The coup took place as millions of Hondurans were preparing to exercise their right to vote for the first time in a consultative referendum on the future convening of a constitutional assembly to reform Honduras’ constitution. The Zelaya government’s proposal to draft a new constitution is the culmination of other measures under his presidency that have come under attack by conservative forces, including a significant raise in the minimum wage, measures to re-nationalise energy generation plants and telecommunications, signing a bill to greatly improve labour conditions for teachers, joining the Venezuelan Petrocaribe program, and delaying recognition of the new United States ambassador after the Bolivian government implicated the US embassy in supporting paramilitary groups destabilising Bolivia.

The Socialist Alliance also condemns the June 28 assassination by the armed forces of Honduran congressperson Cesar Ham, the organiser of the consultative referendum on a new constitution, and the abduction of Honduran foreign minister Patricia Rodas. The assault and attempted kidnapping on the Venezuelan, Cuban and Nicaraguan ambassadors in Honduras, who were trying to protect Rodas was a direct attack on the Bolivarian movement for unity and progressive change in Latin America.

The Socialist Alliance is very concerned for the safety of the human rights organisations that have supported the president and the efforts for constitutional reform. Reports of the military pursuing civil society leaders in the street and of leaders of the National Council of Indigenous Peoples being forced into hiding must be responded to be all who support freedom.

We applaud and stand in solidarity with the thousands of brave Hondurans who have mobilised to defend democracy by demonstrating in the streets and attempting to exercise their right to participate in the referendum despite intimidation and assault by the armed forces. We also solidarise with the Honduran trade unions and social movements calling for a general strike in support of their ousted president.

The Socialist Alliance congratulates the nine governments of ALBA, the Organization of American States, and the UN General Assembly president Miguel D’Escoto for their immediate condemnation of the coup and support for Zelaya as the only legitimate president of Honduras. We note that the European Union and numerous governments have condemned the coup, and call on the Australian government to:

Refuse to recognise the Congressional appointed ‘de facto’ government of Roberto Michelletti; Demand the immediate, safe return of the President Zelaya and foreign minister Rodas, and the reconstitution of the elected government; Demand the immediate release of all political and social movement organisation leaders who have been detained by the military; Insist on respect for the safety and human rights of all Hondurans; and Support calls from the Honduran people for the coup leaders to be arrested and tried for their crimes. We pledge the Socialist Alliance’s active solidarity with the Honduran people’s fight for democracy and justice, and will continue to protest until the coup is overturned and democratic rights are reinstalled in Honduras. For further information: Lisa Macdonald 0413 031 108

Protest against suppression of Iranian People's struggle for freedom

Solidarity Committee with Iranian Workers-Australia
www.unionkar.com

"Protest against suppression of Iranian People's struggle for freedom"

Freedom loving people!

Once again the ruling dictatorship of Iran has unleashed its thugs on our people and their call for freedom and democracy.

Protesters and dissidents are being illegally arrested, some are shot dead, and many others are savagely beaten. They shot dead a brave young girl by the name of Neda Agha Sultan (Neda means Herald of Freedom in Farsi). Through these savage acts of vengeance, they are trying to silence our people's demand for freedom and democracy.

In solidarity with our people, and to commemorate the martyrdom of our loved ones, we will have a gathering in front of NSW Parliament House.

We call upon the Australian public, International human right organisations, NGOs and governments to support our peoples struggle for freedom, human rights and democracy. We simply ask you to join us in condemning this outrageous assault on humanity. We ask you to do whatever you can to put an immediate stop on arbitrary arrests, torture and use of live ammunition on defenceless protesters.

We will light up candles and sing songs in the memory of our murdered countrymen and women. We will put on display pictures of the recent street protests and images of the deceased who lost their precious lives in defence of freedom and democracy.

The Committee for Solidarity With Iranian People - Sydney

When: 3PM-5PM - Friday, July the 3rd 2009

Venue: NSW Parliament House

Macquarie Street, SYDNEY

For more information please contact Ali on 0425227914

BNP wins 2 seats in Europe

Via Socialist Unity and Hope Not Hate:

Who is Andrew Brons?

Yorkshire and Humber constituency will return Andrew Brons (at the left of the picture) to the European Parliament if the BNP gets 11.5% across the constituency. So far the results coming in show it to be on a knife edge.

The BNP have 10% in Sheffield, much more in Barnsley.

If they do win a seat there, we will have to deal with that situation as we come to it.

But I imagine there will be some fun and games inside the BNP is Griffin fails to be elected in the North West, which would give Andrew Brons a higher profile than the leader, and his own significant budget.

So who is Andrew Brons. Certainly if he is elected the press should give this Hitler lover some serious scrutiny.

Brons, 61, started his nazi career in the National Socialist Movement, an organisation that was deliberately founded on Hitler’s birthday by Colin Jordan, the British nazi leader who died in April aged 85. NSM members were responsible for an arson campaign against Jewish property and synagogues in the 1960s.

Brons appears to have approved. In a letter to Jordan’s wife, Brons reported meeting an NSM member who “mentioned such activities as bombing synagogues”. He declared: “On This subject I have a dual view, in that I realise that he is well intentioned, I feel that our public image may suffer considerable damage as a result of these activities. I am however open to correction on this point.”

He also sent Mrs Jordan money to buy a swastika badge and other Nazi material, explaining he was about the undertake a “crash programme” of publicity for the NSM in Yorkshire by deluging areas with Nazi stickers, posters and slogans.

Brons was a prominent member of the National Front, notorious for its extreme racism and violence, from its early days and was voted onto its national directorate in 1974. Later as the NF’s education officer he hosted seminars on racial nationalism and tried to give its racism a more “scientific” basis.

After the departure of John Tyndall from the NF in March 1980 Brons was promoted to NF chairman. One of his allies during this period was Richard Verrall, the author of Did Six Million Really Die?, with whom he edited the NF journal New Nation. In 1982 Brons led an NF march through Northfield on which marchers chanted: “we’ve got to get rid of the blacks”.

In June 1984 Brons was convicted of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace following his arrest in Leeds while selling papers in a shopping centre.

He and another NF member were heard shouting slogans such as “Death to Jews”, “White Power” and “National Front”. When approached by PC John Raj, Brons stated: “inferior beings like yourself probably do not understand the principle of free speech”.

Brons resigned as NF chairman in 1984 and later faded from public view. He has been a BNP member for around four years.

"Make Greed History"

Scottish Socialist Party EU Election Broadcast

Colin Duffy to contest Euro elections

Regular readers of the Wombat Hole would be familiar with the name of Colin Duffy, the dissident northern Irish republican accused of involvement in the recent attacks in the six counties, and who went on hunger strike to protest his innocence and ongoing detention without charge, a detention which was ruled to have been illegal.

Well, it now appears that Duffy is set to stand as an independent candidate for the European elections, on June 4-7.

According to Ciaran Cunningham, a Belfast spokesman for "an umbrella organisation representing a number of dissident republican groups",[1] Republican Network for Unity:

"Colin Duffy intends to stand as a candidate in the upcoming European elections," he said.

"He will be standing on an end-28-day-detention ticket and an anti-internment ticket. A steering committee has been set up to direct the election campaign and RNU fully endorses that committee."

Naturally the Unionist spin-cycle has gone into hyper-drive accusing Duffy and his friends of "using this election as a personal and perverted referendum on a return to terror.” Whatevs...

Duffy, 41, currently faces eight charges in relation to the attack on the Massereene barracks in Antrim on March 7th, an attack which the Real IRA has already taken responsibility for.

While there is little (well, stuff-all, really) chance of Duffy replicating the victories of the likes of Bernadette Devlin MacAliskey or hunger-strikers Bobby Sands and Kieran Doherty,[2] and win one of the three available seats, the Belfast Telegraph probably has it right when it points out that "the campaign would highlight the introduction of 28-day detention under the Terrorism Act and could diminish Sinn Fein’s Bairbre de Brun’s prospects of topping the poll ahead of the DUP’s Diane Dodds."

For more (if not directly related) discussion of Norn Iron and what goes on there, see the ever-engaging Organised Rage, and the finger-on-the-bleeding-pulse reportage of Splintered Sunrise, as well as the bods over at éirígí and An Phoblacht.

---

[1] Apparently this includes a large number of ex-POWs and ex-members of Sinn Fein, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and the IRSP.
[2] While the Representation of the People Act of 1981 banned serving prisoners from running in elections in respnse to these victories, Duffy is on remand, rather than a convicted prisoner, and is still able to run.

'Sinn Féin and the Politics of Left Republicanism'

From An Phoblacht:

A NEW BOOK, Sinn Féin and the Politics of Left Republicanism, by An Phoblacht columnist and Sinn Féin activist Eoin Ó Broin, is set for release next week in Dublin and in Belfast.

Published by Pluto Press of London, the book is a critical analysis of the past, present and future of Sinn Féin and ‘left republican’ politics.

The premise of the book is that, despite the growth of the party in recent years, Sinn Féin is much misunderstood and often misrepresented.

Speaking to An Phoblacht this week, Ó Broin said:

“I wanted to write a book which, on the one hand, told the history of Sinn Féin and left republicanism from its origins in the 18th century to the present while, at the same time, offering a critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the left republican project.”

CHAPTERS

The book is divided into four chapters.

Left Republican Origins explores the history of the United Irishmen, Young Ireland and late 19th century socialists.
The Arrival of Left Republicanism takes a critical look at Connolly’s Irish Socialist Republican Party and asks why this project was such a political failure.

Left Republican Interventions looks at various left republican forces during the 20th century, including Liam Mellows, the Republican Congress, Clan na Poblachta and the Workers’ Party/Democratic Left. Again, the author explores why each of these projects failed to develop into significant long-term political projects.

The book’s final chapter, A Century of Struggle, charts the history of the Sinn Féin party from Arthur Griffith to the present.

Ó Broin again asks why left republicanism failed to become dominant within the broader nationalist movement or indeed in the country as a whole. He also explores the relationship of Sinn Féin’s nationalism to its socialism, and issues of class, gender and the party’s attitude to unionists.

HISTORY LESSON

The book’s conclusion, The History Lesson, looks to the future and asks how Sinn Féin can become the dominant political force in Ireland.

“The vast majority of books on republicanism,” Ó Broin says, “are written by non-republicans. This does not diminish the value of books by such authors but it is time that we started to engage in the debate about our own past, present and future in a more analytical, critical and reflective way. To do so can only strengthen our ability to advance the struggle for a 32-county democratic socialist Ireland.”

The Dublin launch of Sinn Féin and the Politics of Left Republicanism will take place on Monday 16 February at 6pm in the Pearse Street Public Library, 138-144 Pearse Street. Councillor Daithí Doolan will chair the event and Sinn Féin MEP for Dublin Mary Lou McDonald will speak. The Belfast launch will take place the following Wednesday, 18 February, at 7pm in Lecture Theatre 2, St Mary’s College on the Falls Road. Sinn Féin Mayor of Belfast Tom Hartley will chair and former Hunger Striker Dr Laurence McKeown and Queen’s University Belfast Professor Richard English will speak.


The publishing of this new book has already stimulated some interesting discussion over at Mick Hall's Organized Rage, where Mick writes:

Irish Republicanism is currently passing through a traumatic period of reassessment and regroupment. It is not an exaggeration to say that many Republicans have been shaken to the core by Sinn Fein’s (SF) willingness to not only enter the Stormont Assembly, which many support, but to also help administer British rule in the north of Ireland and by so doing sending out a signal that it accepts the Police Service of Northern Ireland as a legitimate vehicle of law and order.

Whilst the more traditionally minded Republicans have found a home in Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s Republican Sinn Fein,(RSF) which was founded after Ó Brádaigh’s supporters broke from the Provos back in 1986, over Republicans taking their seats in the southern parliament. Although firmly established RSF has failed to gain a mass support base in either of the Irish political jurisdictions.

Those who defected from the Provisional’s over the last decade, after the terms of the ‘Peace Process’ became to onerous to accept, have also struggled to build an alternative to SF. The largest group to emerge has been éirígí, whilst it has managed to recruit some of the more experienced activists from the SF, along with young people who are new to Republicanism, it has yet to decide whether it will stand candidates for local and parliamentary office. Which demonstrates that this is still a contentious issue amongst its membership. It has carried out some audacious act of agitprop, but as one experienced left republican said to me, “Fine, it gets éirígí name into the public consciousness but it does not put bread on the table.

What he meant was that for Republicans to be effective there must be a combination of political activity on the street and within local councils and other elected bodies. One of the major failures of Left Irish republicanism has been its inability to gain a foothold within and thus have a left republican voice within Stormont and the Dáil, the lower house of the ROI parliament. This leaves the way clear for SF’s brand of Republicanism, which some critics believe comes close to being a form of collaborationist politics, which has resulted in SF making major concessions in both jurisdictions to the political right.

Thus a new book by Sinn Fein member and left republican Eoin Ó Broin is to be welcomed, Eoin was part of a left republican grouping within Dublin SF. Whilst many of these comrades went on to found éirígí, Eoin has remained within SF and regularly argues his corner in the Party’s paper An Phoblacht.

Click here to read the full post & comments at Organized Rage.

Democracy wins in Venezuelan referendum

A statement from the Australia–Venezuela Solidarity Network

February 17, 2009

On Sunday February 15, Venezuelans voted in a referendum to change the country’s constitution to allow elected officials to re-stand for election without restriction. Previously, Venezuela’s constitution allowed elected officials, including the president, to stand for only two terms.

With 94.2% of the votes counted, the National Electoral Council announced that the “Yes” vote had won with 6,003,584 votes (54.36%). The “No” vote received 5,040,082 votes (45.63%). Dozens of election observers from international bodies such as the United Nations and the Organization of American States verified that the referendum was free and fair.

The constitutional change allows Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez Frias to stand for re-election in 2012. At a media conference soon after the results were released, the US-backed right-wing opposition – which had run a campaign of lies, intimidation and violence in the lead-up to the vote - reluctantly accepted the outcome.

The victory of the “Yes” vote bolsters support for the newly formed United Socialist Party of Venezuela, which played a central role in the “Yes” campaign, and for measures towards establishing Venezuelan sovereignty and social justice. This assertion of the right of Venezuelans to elect whoever they choose to govern the country is also an assertion of the majority of Venezuelans’ desire for the Bolivarian revolution, currently symbolized and led by Chavez, to continue.

Soon after the results where announced, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans gathered in the streets of central Caracas and outside the “Balcony of the People” at the Miraflores Presidential Palace to hear Chavez speak and join the celebrations.

“This victory belongs to all the Latin American peoples, it is our America. It is a really historic victory”, Chavez declared, adding that he had received a message from former Cuban President Fidel Castro saying that the vote “is a victory impossible to measure due to its magnitude”.

Chavez told the people, “Here I stand firm. Send me the people, as I shall obey them. I am a soldier of the people, you are my bosses.” He added: “We must dedicate ourselves to consolidating what we have achieved in the past 10 years of revolution... [this] will include revision, rectification, adjusting and strengthening the gains of the Venezuelan people... We need to strengthen the social missions and soon we will be in a better situation from 2010 to open up new horizons and new spaces.”

Chavez emphasised that the people must lead in this process: “This democracy must be more and more revolutionary, authentic, participative and popular.”

The Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network congratulates the people and government of Venezuela on this victory for democracy, and reaffirms our solidarity with the struggles for sovereignty, justice and socialism of the 21st century that the referendum result has mandated.


Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network

PO Box 5421 CC, Melbourne 3001

info@venezuelasolidarity.org

Germany: Die Linke, Hesse and the `super election’ year

Oskar Lafontaine

By Duroyan Fertl, via LINKS - International Journal of Socialist Renewal

January 29, 2009 -- Germany kicked off a “super election year” on January 18 when voters in the western German state of Hesse returned to the polls for the second time in twelve months. The new election had become necessary after months of negotiations to form a coalition government collapsed late last year, when four parliamentary members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) rebelled against a plan to form government with the assistance of the far-left party, Die Linke.

The SPD had benefited in last year’s poll from voter rejection of the racist scapegoating and law-and-order politics of the ruling right-wing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Prime Minister Roland Koch. Despite its vote, however, the SPD still lacked the numbers to form government, even with its preferred allies, the Green Party, and the SPD’s leader in Hesse, Andrea Ypsilanti, turned to Die Linke for support.

In the lead-up to the election, however, Ypsilanti had bowed to pressure from SPD hardliners and promised not to deal with the Die Linke. Many in the dominant right wing of the SPD have an almost irrational dislike of the left-wing party, partly fuelled by the fact that it formed in out of a fusion of the Party for Democratic Socialism (PDS – the successor to the former East Germany or German Democratic Republic’s ruling party, the Socialist Unity Party) with the WASG (Electoral Alternative for Social Justice and Jobs) – a group made up of radical trade unionists and breakaways from the SPD, included former SPD chairperson Oskar Lafontaine.

Nevertheless, when neither the SPD nor the CDU were able to form government with their preferred alliance partners – the Greens for the SPD and the radical free-marketeers of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) for the CDU – Ypsilanti backflipped on her promise in order to win government, securing an agreement with the Greens and Die Linke, but losing support in her own party.

All attempts to form government having fallen through, the Hesse parliament was left with little choice but to dissolve itself, which it did on November 19, 2008, forcing new elections, and the left-leaning Ypsilanti was forced to step aside in disgrace, to be replaced as candidate with Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, a relatively unknown SPD backbencher.

The January election resulted in a further disaster for the SPD, which has been battling poor polling for months, and is desperate to restore its fortunes by winning state government. Its support dropped thirteen points to only 23 per cent – the worst result in the party’s history, a fact made bearable only by the fact that the CDU’s showing was equally unimpressive. They managed only a 0.4 per cent increase on last year’s result of 36.8 per cent, making this its worst result in Hesse as well.

While voters punished both the SPD and CDU, the main beneficiaries in the election were the minor parties – the Greens’ vote almost doubled to 14 per cent, while support for the FDP rose from 10 to 16 per cent. Many more people simply refused to vote, however, and the election saw voter turnout in Hesse drop to an all-time low of 61 per cent.

While the SPD lost considerable support, it is perhaps surprising that Die Linke – which aims to win over disenfranchised SPD supporters – achieved only moderate gains, increasing its support by 0.3 per cent to 5.4 per cent. While failing to capitalise immediately from the SPD’s disarray, Die Linke has nevertheless managed to hold on to the six parliamentary seats it won last year – still a major breakthrough for the young party.

In the end, then, after twelve months of caretaker government, incumbent CDU Prime Minister Koch has been returned to power, in alliance with a strengthened FDP, a political constellation that many see as the likely outcome in the federal election due for later this year.

SPD in crisis

In the wake of the Hesse results, the SPD remains in total disarray, having lost considerable support due to its anti-social fee-market policies, for which it lost government in 2005. Support has dropped to a dismal 22 per cent nationwide, well behind the CDU on 37 per cent, and the SPD is desperate for political victories to revive it in this important federal election year.

Having replaced unpopular national leader Kurt Beck – who flip-flopped on the question of working with Die Linke – with the machiavellian Franz Münterfering, the SPD was hoping for a revival of its fortunes. However, as the unwilling junior partners in a federal “Grand Coalition” government alongside the right-wing CDU, the SPD is continuing to implement neoliberal policies, further alienating its traditional support base, which is already suffering the effects of the economic crisis.

When the German economy fell into recession late last year, the CDU/SPD government’s response was to announce a €480 billion “bail-out” of the country’s major banks. At the very same time, unemployment in Germany is expected to rise by nearly 1 million over the next few months, and the country is facing a poverty rate that is estimated to stand as high as 18 per cent, and it is rapidly rising.

There are already suggestions that the country’s second largest private bank, Commerzbank, is using its first €10 billion ($20 billion) handout simply to finance a takeover bid of Dresdner Bank, while the major German banks are already calling for a second “emergency bailout” to divest them of a claimed €300 in “toxic debts”.

At the same time, workers’ industrial action is on the rise in Germany. Last November, more than 500,000 metalworkers held short strikes across southern Germany, demanding an 8 per cent wage increase, and Lufthansa workers at Frankfurt airport are currently threatening strike action, also over wages.

`Super election’ year

Germans will vote this year in sixteen polls, including local, European and presidential elections, as well as state elections in Saarland, Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, before the federal elections on September 27. In the former East Germany, Die Linke maintains popular support of more than 25 per cent, where it has built on its former PDS support base. In many of these eastern states, such as Thuringia and Saxony, Die Linke is expected to outpoll the SPD, and support for Die Linke is expected to grow as the economic crisis deepens.

In the west, however, the SPD also has reason to be worried. While the PDS had failed to reach into the west, Die Linke has fared better, winning seats in every west German state election it has contested except Bavaria, which has a more complicated electoral system

In the industrial centre of Saarland, which is home to co-leader Oskar Lafontaine. Die Linke has polled as high as 29 per cent – double SPD support in that state. There is a real chance that Die Linke could poll high enough force the SPD into an alliance government – Die Linke’s first in the western part of the country.

The `red threat’

Since its official formation in 2007, Die Linke has grown to the point that it is now the third-biggest party in Germany, polling up to 15 per cent nationally. This popularity results from Die Linke’s criticism of neoliberal economic policies, and in its calls for greater social spending – on education, health, housing and employment – and higher taxes for the rich.

Oskar Lafontaine, who has been openly critical of the role of finance capital and globalisation, recently called for income tax on all “shameful” incomes – those above €600,000 ($750,000) – to be increased to 80 per cent. While many of Lafontaine’s statements are simply anti-neoliberal, he as gone as far as to identify “globalisation” with capitalism, and to call for the inclusion of sections from the Communist Manifesto in Die Linke’s constitution, stoking right-wing fears of a “communist revival”.

This rhetoric – genuine or not – is also striking a positive a chord in Germany, where economic and social problems have hit hard in recent years and enormous corruption scandals have rocked the country. As the global economic crisis has hit, Germans have found a renewed interest in Karl Marx, whose major work Capital has returned to the bestsellers list in Germany, and publishers have run out of stock. Linksjugend – Die Linke’s leftwing youth organisation – recently organised a national series of schools on the Marxist classic.

The German state has been less than positive about the rise of Die Linke. A 2007 report from the Verfassungsschutz – a German secret service agency – indicated that the government had placed Die Linke under surveillance, leading to a public outcry, and a number of legal cases. Die Linke is also opposed to militarism and calls for an end to German involvement in the war in Afghanistan, putting it at odds with every other party in the German Bundestag, and with Germany’s imperialist allies abroad.

A year of challenges

Despite its rapid growth, however, Die Linke still faces challenges in uniting former PDS members and social democrats, revolutionary socialists and left-wing radicals around a common, militant, platform.

In Berlin – where Die Linke is in coalition government with the SPD – Die Linke has been involved in implementing a number of the same neoliberal policies it claims to oppose. Klaus Lederer, Die Linke’s leader in Berlin, spoke at a recent rally in support of Israel’s war in Gaza, defying the party’s official opposition to the onslaught.

Unionists have also pointed to Die Linke’s contradictory positions in a number of recent industrial disputes, and the party has been accused of pursuing an electoralist strategy at the detriment of building the social and union movements.

These problems are often ascribed to the influence of the more socially conservative ex-members of the PDS within the party, but while Die Linke may be largely dominated by the former PDS, it has attracted thousands of more-radical members, including far-left groups, militant trade unionists and socialists, and has become a far more diverse and effective organisation.

Despite these challenges, and the ongoing media campaign against Die Linke as “neo-communist”, including attempts to link leading members with the Stasi – the former East Germany’s secret police – Die Linke has shaken up the political landscape in Germany, and has forced the four main parties to move to the left on a number of issues.

If it can overcome its own internal problems and the attacks of the mainstream media, Die Linke looks set to score major electoral wins this year, and force German politics leftwards.

[Duroyan Fertl is a member of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, an Marxist organisation affiliated to the Socialist Alliance of Australia.]

Operation Disrupt Democracy in El Salvador

January 2009 By Erica Thompson
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International observers have denounced recent activities of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as designed to overthrow democratically elected presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. A similar strategy is underway to undermine the electoral process in El Salvador by striking fear and confusion into voters before legislative and presidential elections in 2009.

Since November 2007, El Salvador's leftist party, the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front), has been consistently polling at a 12-14 point advantage for upcoming legislative, municipal, and presidential elections—ahead of the right-wing ARENA (National Republican Alliance) party's presidential candidate and former national civilian police director, Rodrigo Avila, who has peaked at around 38 percent by conservative estimates. Because an FMLN victory could deal a profound loss to Washington and Wall Street by countering attempts to increase the corporate privatization of land and public services, business media and government officials have stepped up attempts to defeat them in the press and behind the scenes.

In a recent address to the American Enterprise Institute, Salvadoran Foreign Minister Marisol Argueta implored the U.S. government to intervene in the elections on ARENA's behalf. In addition, international press reports have propagated ridiculous claims of a mounting "terrorist conspiracy" between the FMLN, the FARC in Colombia, and Hugo Chavez. Wall Street Journal editor Mary Anastasía O'Grady has complained that if the FMLN wins, foreign investors will suffer. Indeed, several countries that participated in the 18th IBERO-American Summit in October agreed that corporate privatization has failed the majority of people in Latin America. Presidents in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Guatemala are proposing increased regulation and oversight of corporate expansion. An FMLN victory in El Salvador promises further movement in this direction.

FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes has said that an FMLN administration would work to oppose biofuel production and the current profit structure for mining projects in favor of spurring agricultural development. "We have to improve agricultural production. Over the past 19 years of ARENA government, the infrastructure for food production has been neglected and dismantled. It is essential and a priority to allot land use for food production and the harvesting of vegetables and staple grains. This is what the people need. We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of allotting areas of land for biofuel production because we are not going to work to feed machines; we have to work to feed human beings."

In its attempt to confuse and ultimately sabotage the FMLN's campaign, right-wing Venezuelan-based pro-U.S. media organization Fuerza Solidaria has released a set of television ads and door-to-door leaflets that assail potential voters with the usual dose of misinformation and scare tactics that accompany every electoral campaign in El Salvador. Designed to suppress votes for the FMLN, one of the ads portrays Funes and the FMLN party as an out-of-touch, antiquated relic rather than a political manifestation of the Salvadoran peoples' historic, and ongoing, broad-based resistance to foreign exploitation. Simplistic "flow chart" arrows on the ad imply that an FMLN-led government would sacrifice remittance money from the U.S. to be a puppet for Chavez's "anti-American expansion project." The intended message is clear and has been the preferred threat of the immigrant-bashing Bush administration to Salvadorans on both sides of the border: those who support the FMLN are against the U.S. If the FMLN wins the election, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will begin massively deporting Salvadorans and the U.S. will cut off remittances.

USAID, NED, and Fuerza Solidaria—with the help of corporate-owned media and the U.S. government—have been a major motor behind anti-democratic political strategies in Venezuela and Bolivia since 2001. In April 2002, the United States utilized the NED to channel funds to private organizations that were running covert propaganda campaigns in support of a failed coup in Venezuela, which detained President Chavez and recognized the short-lived, pro-U.S. government. According to the New York Times, the NED "funneled more than $877,000 into Venezuelan opposition groups in the weeks and months before the unsuccessful coup attempt."

In the wake of the failed coup, the NED channeled another $53,400 to help create a U.S. backed organization called Sumate, a group designed to unite, strengthen, and mobilize opposition to the popularly elected Chavez government, and which supported Sumate's efforts to disseminate disinformation. In 2004 the group published fake exit polls that claimed Chavez lost the referendum recall vote. While their strategies have mostly failed, the actions of Sumate and NED have effectively cast doubt on the legitimacy and democratic goals of the Chavez government, weakening its image internationally.

In Bolivia, investigative journalists Jeremy Bigwood and Benjamin Dangl's inquiries through the Freedom of Information Act and one-on-one interviews showed that the former U.S. embassy there—through USAID and NED—had maintained close relationships with right-wing opposition groups to "promote democracy" by undermining President Morales as well. Through these connections and a USAID Political Party Reform Project, the U.S. has supported forces that could "serve as a counterweight" to Morales's MAS (Movement Toward Socialism) party. In response, Morales recently kicked the U.S. ambassador out of Bolivia. USAID and Fuerza Solidaria were also exposed for their attempts to influence Bolivia's referendum in August 2008.

In November 2007, another NED recipient, the International Republican Institute (IRI), presented Salvadoran President Tony Saca of the ARENA party with the "Freedom Award" for promoting U.S. values in El Salvador such as "linking economic growth with democratic governance and vigorously defending freedom at home and abroad." Never mind the re-emergence of death squads, unsuccessful attempts to convict protestors and vendors as "terrorists," and an unprecedented post-war increase in Salvadoran migration to, and deportations from, the U.S. during his term. This exercise in elite back-patting not only unveils the biases of the IRI, which is chaired by Republican Senator John McCain, but also underscores the U.S. government's explicit endorsement of the right-wing ARENA party, another act of intervention and electoral manipulation.

In January 2008 U.S.-based CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) received a familiar warning from the Department of Justice accusing the group of "acting as a foreign agent" of the FMLN party, presumably as backlash for its political connections with the leftist social movement in El Salvador. An identical letter 14 years ago signaled the beginning of a massive three-year FBI infiltration project aimed at destroying the organization. When asked to name CISPES's "conspiratorial allies" past and present, Executive Director Burke Stansbury responded: "People and popular movements organized to challenge U.S. sponsored political, economic, and electoral violence are the ones that get our attention and our commitments. Our government has designed and rewarded the brutal repression of countless uprisings in El Salvador, and is still very active in this way." Is the FMLN a CISPES ally? "Absolutely. We have always maintained political solidarity with the FMLN and will continue to do so. What is more, we are committed in every way to challenging U.S. attempts to deny El Salvador its basic rights as a sovereign country. Elections are only the tip of the iceberg."

In June the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, Charles Glazer, told a CISPES delegation that the U.S. government's days of interfering in El Salvador's elections are over. He said that although they did intervene in the 2004 presidential election, they would not do so again in 2009. His aide then explained that the delegation "wouldn't have to worry about fraud this time because the NDI and IRI will be training [Salvadorans] how to conduct a quick count." One has to wonder what the embassy's definition of intervention is.

To make the U.S. government and ARENA party alliance even more transparent, Ambassador Glazer appeared publicly in early November with the outgoing Salvadoran president at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC. President Saca was on the campaign trail again—with Salvadoran taxpayer money—to raise the profile of ARENA with the ironically titled "Peace and Prosperity" conference. Glazer was at his side, ready to field questions and concerns.

There is no doubt that major changes underfoot in the Latin American region have put Washington on edge. Country after country is electing governments who represent the majority of people instead of the financial interests of a few. El Salvador's left appears destined for both an historic victory at the polls and a new phase of struggle against U.S. dominance, as USAID and NED have become the faltering empire's new "diplomatic weapons" of choice.

Z

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Erica Thompson works with CISPES in San Salvador.

AVSN EOY drinks & forum on Venezuelan elections

An eyewitness account by PETER BOYLE, just returned from the Australian solidarity brigade to Venezuela, plus NELSON DAVILA, Venezuela's Charge d'Affaires in Australia, will speak about what the results of Venezuela's November 23 regional elections mean for constructing socialism of the 21^st century in his country.

Saturday, December 13^th at 2pm

Gaelic Club

Devonshire St, Surry Hills

(across the road from Central station)

Drinks and snacks available.

All welcome.

For more information, phone 0400 320 602 or 9690 1977, or email sydney@venezuelasolidarity.org

www.venezuelasolidarity.org

Strong surge in socialist vote in Victorian council elections

Socialist Alliance press release;

December 2, 2008

“The surge in the vote for socialist candidates in the weekend Victorian local government elections shows that increasing numbers of working people are looking for candidates whom they trust to defend their interests as economic crisis looms”, Socialist Alliance Victorian State Convener Sue Bolton said today.

Noting that the socialist vote had grown most in Labor heartlands Bolton said that it largely came from working people who were fed up with being taken for granted by the ALP, but didn´t trust the Greens to take a forthright pro-worker stance.

“The vote is also an expression of trust in socialists who are active fighters for people’s rights, and known as organisers against developer and Brumby government plans to close or privatise essential services as well as bulldoze the urban environment.”

Bolton congratulated Socialist Party Yarra City Councillor Steve Jolly on his re-election with 29.2% of the formal vote. “Steve Jolly’s vote is testimony to all the work he has done in defence of the community and the workers of Yarra City Council”, she said.

The Socialist Alliance spokesperson said that the socialist vote also showed that the Brumby government would have a very hard time driving ahead with the cross-city tunnel and the freeway extensions envisaged in the Eddington plan. “Votes like the 18.9% for the Socialist Alliance’s Stuart Martin in Maribyrnong City Council indicate that a lot of the community is dead against the Victorian ALP model of urban vandalism.”

The Socialist Alliance campaign also struck a strong response in Geelong, where candidates Bronwyn Jennings and Lisa Gleeson won 10.8% and 11.8% of the vote on a platform of “making Geelong a climate action council”, with a strong emphasis on improving public transport and housing and residents’ democratic participation in council decision-making.

Bolton added that the increase in the socialist vote was part of a progressive swing in politics, as the increased vote for the Greens confirmed.

“People are increasingly voting against mainstream Lib-Lab politics. The Socialist Alliance will build on these results to strengthen real worker and community resistance to the economic crisis, destruction of services and degradation of the environment. We look forward to collaborating with all other political forces that support those goals.”

The Socialist Vote in the November 29 Victorian Local Government Elections

Candidate	Organisation	Council	% of formal vote
Steve Jolly	Socialist Party	Yarra City	29.2
Stuart Martin	Socialist Alliance	Maribyrnong	18.9
Margarita Windisch	Socialist Alliance	Maribyrnong	12.4
Lisa Gleeson	Socialist Alliance	Greater Geelong	11.8
Bronwyn Jennings	Socialist Alliance	Greater Geelong	10.8
Sue Bolton, Vannessa Hearman, Turan Ertekin	Socialist Alliance	Moreland	9.0
Anthony Main	Socialist Party	Yarra City	5.5
Chris Johnson	Socialist Alliance	Queenscliff	3.2
Denise Dudley	Socialist Party	Yarra City	2.1

For more information or interviews: Sue Bolton on 0413 377 978

Socialist Party councilor re-elected in Yarra

From the Socialist Party website, 30 November

Best result for a socialist in more than 50 years!
Australia’s only socialist councillor Stephen Jolly has been re-elected in the City of Yarra. Preliminary results are showing that Socialist Party member Stephen Jolly has in fact beat the Labor Party candidate in their traditional heartland of inner city Melbourne.

Jolly, who has been a councillor since 2004, has won approximately 28 per cent of the vote in the Langridge Ward of Yarra City Council. This is by far the best result for any socialist candidate in more than 50 years!

In the other wards of Yarra Socialist Party members have also achieved decent results. Anthony Main won about 5 per cent of the vote in the Nicholls Ward and Denise Dudley won about 2 per cent of the vote in the Melba ward. (All figures are based on preliminary results from the VEC)

Jolly said today “this result sends a wakeup call to both Labor and the Greens. This shows that socialist ideas do get an echo if explained in the right way.”

In light of this important victory the Melbourne Branch of SP will be holding a meeting to discuss the Victorian council election results and which way forward for socialists and community campaigners.

The details are: 7pm Thursday December 4th @ Trades Hall, corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South. All welcome!

The wombats also strongly advise anyone interested in further left unity and discussing strategies for socialists in Australia today to get along to the Socialist Alliance national conference this weekend (Dec 5-7) in Geelong. More details here.