And after the enormous pressure and blackmailing, the EU finally reached its aim, while caring not so much about Ukraine’s nature. On November 24, the President of The European Commission Jan-Claude Juncker stated that in coming weeks Ukraine is set to cancel the timber export ban and president Poroshenko is ready to submit the corresponding bill to the parliament. Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, linked fulfillment of this condition will allow EU to release EUR 600 million macro-financial assistance. A quite disturbing fact is that the decision (though still not approved by the Parliament) was made on the background of the recent statements like: ‘Ukrainian forests are on the verge of extinction’, as reported UaToday (i): “The forests are … [read more]

The EU intended to force Ukraine into a neo-liberal free-trade agreement largely cutting its vital economic tries to Russia. The internal conflict over this capitulation allowed the nationalist bloc to seize state power. As the vast majority of the south-eastern population did not want to be ruled by rightist anti-Russian forces a popular rebellion developed which the Kiev regime put down by military force. In Donbass, the old Soviet industrial heartland, they, however, failed while the popular forces could take over with Russian support. A peaceful solution could be very simple and the Minsk agreement does contain it: autonomy for Donbass. What it does not provide for is democracy for the south-east like Odessa and Charkow which would also vote against Ukrainian nationalism. But Kiev … [read more]

Do not harm the good name of the Robert Bosch Foundation by collaboration with the JNF Dear Professor Rogall, Dear board members of the Robert Bosch Foundation, Dear Minister Schmid, On 3 December 2015, there was a meeting in Stuttgart between the board of directors of the Robert Bosch Foundation (which owns 92% of the multinational automobile supplier Robert- Bosch GmbH), the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and representatives of the Israeli embassy, the Baden-Württemberg State government (Minister for Economic Affairs Nils Schmid) and prominent businesspeople and politicians. According the reports by the Jüdische Allgemeine newspaper on 10 December and the Jewish National Fund itself (on its website), the main topic was joint projects in third countries. The two organizations … [read more]

A break with the Euro-German creditor’s oligarchy will most likely run through Syriza. An anti-EU liberation front will become necessary comprising all forces determined to defend the popular classes rallying the majority. They will need massive international solidarity especially from the anti-systemic forces within the Euro core countries. The International Anti-EU Forum scheduled for the end of June in Athens will be the place to forge this European alliance. The Left Platform of Syriza together with all the Greek forces preparing for the Euro exit are preparing this meeting. Following excerpts of an interview with the Greek minister of reconstruction of production, environment & energy whose original has been published on the website of the ministry. It was originally … [read more]

The signing of Eurogroup’s 20/2/2015 declaration by the SYRIZA-ANELL government signifies a point of no return. During the previous period SYRIZA has been retreating continuously from its programme and his electoral declarations. He has already abandoned debt’s write off and is begging for its extension. He has abandoned the nationalization of the banking system. He has forgotten his declarations about ‘tearing apart the Memorandum’ and already declared that it accepts 70% of it. He has abandoned any notion of confrontation with the EU and its policies and instead, by hiding behind the unrealistic and hypocritical position of ‘no confrontation, no submission’, he accepts a disgraceful compromise with EU’s dominant countries. SYRIZA in the post-electoral negotiations with … [read more]

The elites and their media are however continuing with their campaign, and cry “populism”: they say it is necessary to make cuts, because Greece supposedly had lived beyond its means. And they try to frighten the public: without austerity, there will inevitably be insolvency. What they keep to themselves is, that at the heart of the matter this is a question of distribution. Obviously it is a global matter, but if we restrict the view to the national level. Even if we take as granted the current level of capacity of the Greek economy set by the global frame, there is absolutely no reason that a tiny elite is unflinchingly enriching itself, while the vast majority – and especially the poorest strata – are impoverished. (In fact Greece could be much more productive, and of course … [read more]

The groups already involved at that time coming from France, Spain and Austria were again present. Only the Greek participants could not come for obvious reasons but pledged to continue their participation. (See the Assisi call with the detailed names of the groups involved. ) The Finnish Independence Party joined in. The biggest part of the participants came from Italy. A new development was the strong involvement of activists and personalities from the Five Stars Movement among them also several members of parliament. Members of Rifundazione Comunista as well as several leftist groups were also present. The former voice minister of economy, Stefano Fassina, conveyed greetings. It emerged as a consensus that the next step would be to enlarge the “Leftist Co-ordination against the … [read more]

The attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is a further escalation in the unequal confrontation between the West and the Islamic world, which is increasingly taking the form of a kulturkampf or clash of civilizations. We condemn the attack on Charlie Hebdo. At the same time, we do not join the ranks of the united front for the defence of the imperialist West and its “superior civilization”, which is emerging as a reaction to the attack. In France, this front ranges from the secularist left all across to the radical right of Jean-Marie Le Pen. As anti-imperialists, social revolutionaries and “enlightened”, rationally thinking people, we insist: 1. Not to forget the imperialist character of the present world order, which denies the majority of humankind any perspective … [read more]

Demise of the French elites For the EU France is not one country among others. She neither belongs to the southern periphery such as Greece and Portugal, nor the peripheral centre like Italy. Paris used to be the union’s spiritus rector, its very demiurge. It was the French bureaucracy to forge the German-French axis, the European integration with the aim to build a supra-national regime of the capitalist classes. Together with their partners they wanted to institutionally strengthen themselves to wipe out the social and democratic gains achieved by the popular classes after WWII. The goal was a European quasi-state. In this way they wanted at the same time to control the stronger and potentially dangerous German neighbour. The formula: In exchange to adopting the German economic … [read more]

The quintessence: none of the regional and global players want Kurdish self-rule in Northern Syria to survive! The decisive role is being played by Turkey: In Kobani Ankara got the final say. The Turkish calculus is obvious. If Rojava held on it would serve as a precedence enormously strengthening PKK. The pressure on Ankara to grant substantial autonomy also to its own millions of Kurds would increase massively. The US, on its part, is pushing Turkey, pillar state for the NATO, to join their alliance against the Islamic State (IS) thus defining the Jihadis to be the main enemy in the regional civil war. The US air campaign is turning Asad into the lesser evil potentially upgrading his regime even into a partner. This is, however, unacceptable for Turkey’s ruling AKP. For them … [read more]

1) Iraq: The fox set to keep the geese As a start one needs to look at the results of the American war on Iraq: For two decades Washington starved Iraq by a genocidal embargo in order to suppress the worn-out remnants of formerly proud Arab nationalism. In a certain sense we can read it as the continuation of the US strategy of “dual containment” pitting Iraq and Iran against each other by maintaining the balance in the Golf war from 1980 to 1988 and weakening both. After the end of the war the US continued to keep both states in check. Driven by the hubris of the Neocons in 2003 the US went for “regime change” by direct military invasion. The result so far: their arch enemy Iran has been strengthened enormously and is now wielding decisive influence over Baghdad. This … [read more]

Despite all the attempts to silence Ukrainian neo-fascist and far-right groups, they cannot be hidden or whitewashed totally – the reports about rioting Nazi-ultras, neo-fascist battalions and pro-government far-right gangs in modern Ukraine can be met even in mainstream media. They are too notorious and too noticeable so that to turn a blind eye on their leading role in current Ukrainian crisis. Actually, without virulent neo-Nazis the coup in February and current war in East Ukraine couldn’t happen. Some analysts consider Ukrainian neo-Nazis as mere tools of Ukrainian oligarchs, while the other analysts are more worried and state that neo-Nazis wish to seize all the power and push through their dreams about ‘united white Europe’, uniting with their western colleagues into … [read more]

A Call for Solidarity May 8 is celebrated all over the world as a day of victory over Nazism that caused millions of losses and much suffering to many people of the world. However, now we see that neo-Nazism raises its head again. Far-right groups and parties are striving to power in many countries. Their members unleash real terror against the dissenters, migrants, the ‘others’, leftwing and anti-fascist activists. We have to stop the rise fascism again – that’s our duty to stop it till it is not too late. On May 2, 2014 in Ukrainian city Odessa neo-Nazis and far-right groups unleashed a real massacre. Far-right paramilitaries burned alive and beaten to death 46 local residents in the ‘House of Trade-Unions’. They brutally finished off the wounded, shouting ‘Glory … [read more]

Exchange among the people – not power-brokering First of all, let us recall the aim of the “All Sides Consultation for a Political Solution” which took place in the “Peace Castle Schlaining” close to Vienna, Austria, from 7-10 March, 2014. The idea was to give a voice to Syrian society in its full diversity, voices emerging from the people who have been silenced and excluded by the powerful. It was not intended to hold negotiations between the conflicting sides and their global and regional sponsors as has failed in Geneva. A consultative forum of personalities not directly representing the sides involved but indeed representing the societal richness was called upon to explore ways to stop the catastrophic bloodshed. Thus we were not in search of sophisticated and … [read more]

In the poorest countries of the world, where hundreds of thousands of people die of hunger and diseases, many have celebrated the massacre of New York. Among those peoples who in the last decades have been suffering from all kinds of humiliations, aggressions, massacres and injustice, many have cheered in occasion of the twin tower collapse. They see the evil where the rich see the good. Only priests with fully stuffed stomachs could condemn these extreme sentiments of the damned of earth. In fact, the poor and miserable consider the USA and their allies as those responsible for their inhuman conditions of life, for the hopeless barbarism they have to suffer from. Are they wrong? The hypocrite governors of the US and the NATO states are threatening, cursing and crying that peace … [read more]

Responding to the contribution of Anton Holberg: While it is obvious that Sunni Islamism is exclusivist, the regime’s secularist narrative constitutes a hidden, more covered de facto communalism. It is true that it does not refer to religion in the same way as Islamism does. It is fair enough to notice this difference but politically it does not matter much. We know that even the French role model behind the formal façade of egalitarism is de facto very exclusivist and elitist. In Syria everybody starts from the assumption that loyalty to the leading group is not based on ideology or whatever criteria but on communalist group solidarity provoking counter-reactions by the excluded, exploited and oppressed. Unfortunately under the given conditions the popular rebellion was susceptible … [read more]

The conflict’s background The base of the antagonism between the West and Iran remains the revolution of 1979 which had a strong anti-imperialist momentum and remains until now one of the most important popular revolutions of the regions or even the world. The Islamic Republic is, however, not a direct, linear, immediate expression of the popular and anti-imperialist tendencies but rather its mediation broken by clerical rule. We just have to remember the Iraq-Iran war. With its approach of dual containment Washington carefully balanced its proxy support to both sides. The war served the Mullahs as a formidable tool to bend the power of the popular movement having emerged during the revolution. Take as further evidence the unequal couple of Rafsanjani and Khatami during the … [read more]

I wonder what does "democracy" mean for the Anti Imperialist Movement, specially when we are facing an armed fascist groups supported by the biggest imperialist power which is USA? What does "democracy" mean for a revolutionary group in such a situation? How come you neglect that Muslim Brothers was the new elites assembled around the generals since 2011? Or should we condemn only the old one but welcome the new faces of these elites? I wonder why the Anti-Imperialist Movement kept silent when a Constitution was announced by Muslim Brothers in November 2012, which was considered the real coup d'etat declaring Mursi the new dictator of Egypt?[fn]see two articles on this topic: Mursi's presumption www.antiimperialista.org/mursi_s_presumtion Mursi: pharao or revolutionary? … [read more]

This international initiative is composed of prominent civil society figures from Europe and Latin America (list attached) representing all those concerned with peace and justice in Syria. Its aim is to contribute to the end of the war and the suffering by helping create favourable conditions for the advancement of the political process through dialogue and negotiations. In order to achieve such an aim, we met with State officials at high levels and various groups and parties of the opposition inside and outside the country, along with religious organizations and international and non-governmental bodies. We have been received, have been informed on the aspects and essence of the conflict, and have been heard. On the basis of the discussions held, the Initiative identified key … [read more]

I. Crisis of unequal distribution II. EU under German hegemony III. The only solution: dissolve the eurozone IV. Breaking with casino capitalism   This catastrophic crisis is at the same time a great chance: in some of the most crisis-stricken countries the rule of the EU financial oligarchy might be toppled. Trying to analyse the acute crisis of the last five years and the build-up that preceded it, we suggest a rough separation into two basic levels: a global momentum on one hand and a specific European one on the other hand. The latter is connected to the actual constitution of the EU and the economic predominance of Germany, combined with the political weakness of its elites. This configuration triggers a powerful amplification of the crisis, turning Europe into its centre … [read more]