Check out this interesting article about the devastating effects of capitalism.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nearly-one-third-middle-class-102300614.html

By James Thompson

A recent Rasmussen poll published on March 15, 2011 indicates that 11% of Americans favor communism over capitalism. Put that way, it may not sound like much, but if you look at the numbers it is significant in a country totally brainwashed by the capitalist controlled media. Based on a U.S. population estimate of 312,000,000 it means that roughly 34,320,000 people in the U.S. think that communism would be superior to capitalism.

Another poll recently conducted by the Pew Research Center suggests that 31% of people in the U.S. have a positive view of socialism (see article posted on this blog). That would work out to be 96,720,000 people having a positive view of socialism. In certain sectors of the population, this percentage is much higher. Among the 18 to 29 year old age group, 49% had a positive view of socialism. Among African Americans, 55% had a positive view of socialism and among liberal Democrats, 59% had a positive view of socialism.

All these figures add up to the fact that there are a large number of people in the U.S.A. who are open to both communism and socialism. This is truly amazing given the slander and lies hurled at socialists and communists since the horrible days of McCarthyism in the 1950’s. Because of the uninterrupted torrent of abuse from the right wing which has been so well publicized by the mainstream media, most people in this country don’t have a clue as to what are the aims of communists and socialists.

Many people would be shocked to learn that the primary aim of communists is to support working people in their struggle to achieve a better life for themselves. Communists understand that in order for this to happen, the working class must become the ruling class. As long as the ultra-wealthy are the ruling class, the working class will have to struggle for every scrap they get. Communists also understand that only a united working class can achieve the goal of the working class becoming the ruling class. As long as capitalists can divide working people by race, gender, culture, religion and other innumerable wedges that they use so effectively, true democracy of the people cannot happen and the working class will remain the oppressed class.

So, how has the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) leadership responded to this rising tide of interest in communism and socialism?

Although the party program “The Road to Socialism” and the party constitution point out the importance of the CPUSA fighting for socialism, leadership in a variety of venues has flatly stated that “socialism is off the table.” These venues have included the Glenn Beck show and a variety of publically circulated articles in the party press. There have also been articles suggesting that the word “communism” is unacceptable and should be changed.

Although there is a raging contradiction between the CPUSA program and constitution and what its leaders are advocating, the rift between leadership, membership and the public runs even deeper. Some in leadership of the CPUSA have suggested that “Leninism” is a “foreign” concept and should be dropped.

Many other Marxist-Leninist ideological tools have been jettisoned by CPUSA leadership. These are tools which have served the working class well over the history of the communist movement.

With what have communist strategies and tactics been replaced? The main tactic being advocated by CPUSA leadership today is the “defeat of the ultra-right.” Leadership maintains the only way to do this is to work to elect Democratic Party politicians. Leadership does not advocate evaluating these politicians based on their voting records and platforms, but simply seeks to elect democrats. They fail to recognize that democrats have supported untold imperialist wars and have actively opposed the interests of the working class. Members of the Obama administration have disrespected working people in an effort to cozy up to the enemy of the working class. This should not be forgotten. The positive contributions of progressive democrats should also not be forgotten and these individuals should be supported. In other words, democrats should be evaluated critically and exposed when they work to undermine the working class. Similarly, Republicans should be viewed critically, and when Republicans are more progressive in their positions with respect to the working class than their democratic opponents, they should be supported. CPUSA should be a partisan party for the working class, not a partisan party for any bourgeois political party, i.e. political party of, by and for the wealthy. CPUSA should be a political party of, by and for the working class.

The oversimplification of political struggle by CPUSA leadership has been ruinous to the party and membership has rapidly and dramatically dwindled to almost nothing. Paid party staff members have been laid off and members who disagree with leadership’s approach have been isolated, ignored and alienated.

Many members express fear of being expelled from the party, much like church members in the Middle Ages feared excommunication.

Why would people be afraid of being expelled from the CPUSA if it is only a Communist Party in name?

A number of Communist Parties from around the world have condemned the ideological positions of CPUSA leadership. One statement from Germany went so far as to say, “We don’t have time for this.”

They are right. It is not their responsibility to remake the CPUSA. It is up to the people in this country who identify with the communist movement to work together to build a new Communist Party in this country, either within the structure of the CPUSA or outside of it.

We need an extraordinary CPUSA party convention to address the egregious wrongs committed by current party leadership. Leadership should have an opportunity on a level playing field to address the burning questions of the membership.

Many party members are questioning why leadership’s positions are so divergent from the party program and party constitution.

Members know that a vast treasure of party historical items, items which could have found a home in a party owned and operated museum, were jettisoned off to an exclusive private university, New York University. Membership is wondering why we were not consulted ahead of time in an extraordinary convention. Members are also wondering about whether the university is committed to guaranteeing safeguards to protect these historical treasures or whether some university administrator with an ideological ax to grind could destroy these items at a later date.

Members are wondering about why the party press was closed down without consulting membership beforehand.

Members are wondering about what happened to out of date books and pamphlets published by the party press. Are these books by Gus Hall and other party luminaries in storage somewhere?

Members are wondering what happened to party items such as badges, cards, posters, and banners.

Members are wondering what happened to the organizational office of the party.

Members are wondering why most party publications are just apologist papers for the Obama administration.

Members are wondering when the party will be ready to resume its historical role as the vanguard party of the working class and actually be involved in the working class struggle, rather than commenting on its passing.

Members are wondering when the party will take leadership of anything.

Members are wondering when the party will show any kind of independence and be a partisan for the working class.

Members are wondering when the party will embrace its history rather than defaming it.

Members are wondering when there will be a real educational program to educate people about Marxist-Leninist theory. In fact, members are wondering when we will again be able to call ourselves Marxist-Leninists and really mean it.

Leadership deserves the opportunity to publicly and fully answer all these questions and many more.

So, if you are among the 34,320,000 who are for communism and against capitalism, don’t be put off by the passive ideology of current CPUSA leadership. Come join us to fight the revisionism and opportunism within our party leadership and build a true communist movement which can fight for the interests of the working class. The working class can build a better world for everybody, but we must be united in our struggle. Leadership’s actions and positions divide us since they do not reflect the true interests of the working class. The Communist Party can and will be the party of the 99%, but only when the party stands up for the working class and working people are ready and willing to fight for their interests in unified struggle.

PHill1917@comcast.net

Please read this article and make comments:

http://politicalaffairs.net/lenin-and-democracy-in-america/

Check out this video from the KKE (Communist Party of Greece)

Kyle Mackey, Secretary Treasurer of the Cowlitz Wahkiakum Counties Central
Labor Council in Washington State and a member of ILWU Local 21, has
distributed this Call to Action. It is followed by the resolution passed
on January 2, 2012, by that Labor Council.

ILWU International President McElrath’s statement is here:
http://tinyurl.com/6qvwkfm

Messages of solidarity and donations can be sent to ILWU Local 21,
617-14th Avenue, Longview, WA 98632, Dan Coffman, President, Shelly
Porter, Sec.-Treas., phone: 360.423.0950, fax: 360.423.5498, email:
ilwu21@iinet.com

A Call to Action:

It is estimated, sometime in late January or early February the [scab] EGT
facility at the port of Longview will receive its first grain ship to be
loaded at its berth. The name and timing of this ship will undoubtedly be
kept secret until the last possible moment. It is likely there will be a
few days to as little as 24 hours notice of when the ship will dock.
Notification will be given via the Internet and any other relevant means
of networking throughout the country.

We are imploring all able working class people willing to take time out of
his or her own lives, to come to Longview, Washington for a historic
protest.

This is the time for workers everywhere to take a stand. Unions and the
working class standard of living that have benefited from collective
bargaining for so long are in danger of being extracted completely. You
can see this systematically taking place over the last 30 years or longer,
and especially in recent times. Unions have lost ground over this period
of time due to unjust anti-labor laws, corporate influence on the
government, and complacency on the part of organized labor among other
reasons.

We recognize the danger of, and view the government attack on collective
bargaining of public employees as a warning shot to labor as a whole.
Wisconsin was ground zero and the spark that awoke the sleeping giant that
is labor. Workers are beginning to remember there is indeed strength in
numbers, regardless of how many unjust laws are made to divide us.

We have not been pacified long enough, as to give up our constitutional
rights or to give up all the gains our forefathers fought and died to
achieve over the last hundred years. People inherently ask WHY? Why should
I, or others come to the aid of the ILWU? Why should I care, and what does
it matter if this ship gets loaded and they lose this struggle?

The ILWU has a proud history of being arguably the strongest labor union
in the world for almost 80 years. The secret of this success lies in the
bottom up, rank and file democratic structure. This empowers and involves
every member. And the intelligence and foresight of the leaders who knew
without unity on the entire west coast and unity with the working class,
there was no strength.

EGT is attempting to break the ILWU. EGT is operating on public port
property where the ILWU have worked for decades. They are in violation of
their lease agreement, which states that the ILWU is to be the workforce
on port property. Longshoremen have done work in port grain elevators
before the ILWU was formed [in the 1930s]. If EGT succeeds, they will have
essentially broken the ILWU.

First, they will set a precedent that work on public port docks is no
longer automatically Longshore Jurisdiction. Then within less than a year,
when the northwest grain handlers agreement is set to be negotiated, all
the other grain elevators will seek to either go non-ILWU or will seek to
match the eroded standard EGT creates. Shortly thereafter in 2014, the
ILWU will negotiate its master contract with the Pacific Maritime
Association. If they lose, you can bet the PMA will take notice and hit
hard.

Most importantly to note is that grain accounts for 30% of the ILWU health
and welfare package. If you lose a third of your bargaining power and your
traditional jurisdiction on port property, what are you left with? Either
no ILWU, or a union that would resemble nothing like what it once was.
There would be little or no collective power up and down the west coast,
and no way to fight for social justice or defend the working class, just
as the ILWU has done for so long, in its entrenched and strategic position
at the gates of international commerce.

Longshoremen have traditionally been a rough and tough bunch, but they
always make sure to educate their members on the importance of history,
unity and the power of collective bargaining. People nowadays forget or
have not been taught their own history, they forget what it means to cross
a picket line, and become a scab the rest of their life. For 30 years or
more we have been sliding downhill, while some would argue unions have
outlived their time. The reality is unions are the last defense when the
imperfect system of checks and balances within our government fails to
serve the interests of the workers.

The class struggle never really goes away. Right now the rich and the
ruling class are attempting to deal a blow that labor might never recover
from. The ILWU has always been the vanguard of labor everywhere. Today,
the ILWU’s value of “An Injury to One, Is an Injury to All” couldn’t be
any more pertinent for all organizations. So please, if you believe in a
better future for the 99% of us that work for a living, do what you can to
support ILWU Local 21.

“The most important word in the language of the working class is
solidarity.”– Harry Bridges

In Solidarity,

Kyle Mackey, Secretary/Treasurer Cowlitz -Wahkiakum Counties Central Labor
Council
ILWU Local 21 Member

RESOLUTION of the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Counties (Washington ) Central Labor
Council –
Adopted January 2, 2012

Whereas: the ILWU has always been at the forefront in the struggle for
social justice and better working conditions. And,

Whereas: ILWU Local 21 has inspired working people worldwide. And,

Whereas: ILWU jurisdiction is under an unprecedented attack. And,

Whereas: It is clear to all working people that EGT is seeking to race to
the bottom and destroy a long history of good family wage jobs throughout
the area. And,

Whereas: The Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Counties Central Labor Council, hereinafter
called the council, recognize the blatant union busting tactics of EGT, as
well, the danger of losing the ILWU as a powerful ally for the working
class. And,

Be it Resolved: that this Council call out to friends of labor and the
“99%” everywhere to come to the aid of ILWU Local 21, and to support them
in any way possible in their fight against multi national conglomerate
EGT. And,

Be it further Resolved: that this Council request that anyone willing to
participate in a community and labor protest in Longview , Washington of
the first EGT grain ship, do so when called upon by this body. And,

Finally be it Resolved: that the Council forward this resolution to all
local unions, the Washington State Labor Council, Oregon Federation of
Labor, California Labor Federation, the AFL-CIO, and all other relevant
organizations.

Respectfully submitted,

Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Counties Central Labor Council Executive Board

[Note: This is the Central Labor Council for the Longview , WA area.]

Distributed by:

All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care–HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 636 1551

Email: nursenpo@aol.com
http://unionsforsinglepayer.org
01/04/2012

Statement of the Central Committee of the Iraqi Communist Party:

Evacuation Day is Triumph of People’s Will along the Path towards Complete National Independence and Sovereignty

Today,
31st December 2011, marks the evacuation of the last American soldier
from the territories of our country in accordance with the agreement on
the withdrawal of military forces signed between the Iraqi government
and the U.S. government. This big and important event comes as an
embodiment of the will of our people and the struggle of their national
forces and organizations, along with the Iraqi Communist Party, against
the invasion and war and for the departure of all foreign occupation
forces from our territories, the restoration of sovereignty and
independence, and the eradication of the heavy legacy and consequences
of occupation.

The withdrawal of foreign forces constitutes a
prominent national landmark in the life of our people, and an
achievement of great importance and significance along the path of
consolidating national sovereignty and exercising full control by Iraq
over its resources, waters and airspace. It also opens the path wide
towards complete sovereignty by removing our country from the provisions
of articles of Chapter VII of the UN Charter and its restrictions,
which constitutes a violation of national sovereignty and is totally
unjust to our people because it is no longer justified. It also paves
the way forward towards abolishing the remaining penalties and heavy
obligations that were imposed on our country by more than 30 UN Security
Council resolutions after the invasion of Kuwait by the Saddam’s
dictatorial regime.

This historic achievement by the Iraqi
national will could not have been possible without the combined efforts
of the national forces, and the unification of their positions on
official and popular levels in demanding an end to the presence of
foreign forces on the territories of our country. It is also a fruit of
the patience of the masses of our people, and their steadfastness and
sacrifices. What has been achieved today is truly the triumph of the
positions of the national forces of all tendencies, and for policies
that coincide with the interests of the people and safeguard their
lives. Those positions and policies had called for and worked to remove
the occupiers and force them to withdraw their troops, by resorting to
all the diverse options and possibilities of peaceful mass and political
struggle which were provided by the atmosphere of public freedoms after
the fall of the dictatorial regime.

The withdrawal of foreign
forces puts the government, and its military and security institutions
in particular, in front of new and grave responsibilities, to achieve
full readiness and training, consolidate their reconstruction on the
basis of the principle of citizenship, efficiency and fidelity to the
new Iraq and respect for the Constitution, away from the practice of
sectarian “balance”, power-sharing and narrow regional and partisan
tendencies. However, achieving and maintaining full sovereignty and
seizing complete independence of Iraqi national decision-making, in the
face of external pressures and interference, requires the strengthening
of national unity and consolidating the process of building a democratic
civil state on the basis of citizenship and respect for human rights.

These
big historical challenges have put all the national forces
participating in the political process, and those forces that dominate
political power in particular, to a serious test, requiring them to
enhance their sense of responsibility towards the destiny of the people
and the homeland, by overcoming factionalism, sectarianism, and narrow
partisan calculations, and abandoning the policy of competing to share
the positions of influence and the spoils which is rejected by the
masses of the people.

Unfortunately, the policies and positions
of the blocs that are dominating political power at this stage have
exposed them, in front of the masses of people as well as their own
constituents, as being determined to behave in a strange irresponsible
manner. They have been shown to be unconcerned about drawing lessons and
averting dangerous consequences that may be caused by their rivalries
and disputes.

Instead of thinking about the need for all the
participants in the political process to sit at one table to deliberate
and discuss the obligations of the post-occupation phase and the
mechanisms and tools for its administration, accusations have escalated
between the forces that are in control of power and the political
situation has exploded once again. It is, this time, a dangerous crisis
between the two biggest blocs in the government and parliament, the
Iraqiya and the State of Law. A climate of escalating sectarian and
regional tensions has developed, with widespread fear and anticipation
among all citizens. The fate of the country has once again been held
hostage to the conflict between these two blocs and their bickering.

This
new reality has revived evil plans of terrorist forces, and provided
them with a convenient opportunity to commit a new heinous crime on
Thursday, 22nd December 2011, with hundreds of people killed and
wounded.

The present dangerous situation in Iraq has impelled the
living forces of society and the parties and personalities that are
concerned for the fate of the country, including the Iraqi Communist
Party, to speak out to condemn this dangerous game, reaffirming their
calls upon the competing parties to realize the gravity of the situation
into which they are pushing the country. They have called for starting a
national dialogue that includes all the participants in the political
process in order to prepare for a broad National Conference which would
diffuse the current crisis, correct the path of the political process,
and formulate a concrete joint program of action that emphasizes the
common national positions among political forces and serves as a road
map that is binding on everyone for running the country during the
current phase. This conference would also develop real mechanisms for
national partnership in government, away from the infamous
sectarian-ethnic power-sharing policy.

In this regard, our Party
calls upon all political forces and parties, which are concerned for the
fate of Iraq and the future of its people, to respond favorably to the
sincere calls that have emanated recently from many political and
governmental quarters and reflected the desire of broad masses of our
people, which have called for everyone to sit at one table and engage in
mutual dialogue to diffuse the ongoing crises, search for an effective
solution to the current crisis, and save our country from the unknown
fate into which it may slide.

Central Committee
Iraqi Communist Party

31st December 2011

Via http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2012/01/2011-2012-summing-uptaking-stock.html

People across the political spectrum share one thing: they sense that we are living at a critical moment in the history of capitalism. Where the last decade of the twentieth century brought a near-universal and smug celebration of capitalism’s success, the second decade of the twenty-first century and beyond finds uncertainty, doubts, and fears in every conversation about global capitalism.

As recently as 1999, capitalism’s managers – look-alike, sound-alike politicians, media puppets, and swaggering corporate managers – enjoyed the confidence of all but obstinate skeptics and those many living on the margins.

True, the so-called “anti-globalization movement” gained traction at the end of the twentieth century, but as a scattered, unfocussed movement against capital’s excesses and not its mechanism.

Today, everything has changed. Confidence in capitalism and its institutions is at a low never seen in most our lifetimes. While I plead guilty as much as any Marxist in finding a “crisis” at every juncture, one can construct a plausible argument for locating profound contradictions in every bourgeois institution – the economy, the political system, ideology, and culture.

Few would argue that the global capitalist economy is healthy. Instead, leaders and thinkers of every stripe are occupied with offering road maps for delivery from the four years of intractable chaos. Little progress has been made.

The four years of economic turmoil has taken its toll on political legitimacy. The US political system and its two-party manifestation have likely never known such deep and popular disapproval. Alternative movements of left and right have boiled over to express this frustration.

The Obama administration, after three years, appears stuck in a historic rut slightly more activist than the Hoover administration in 1932, but far from the audacity and experimentation of the Roosevelt administration of 1933.

Looking back, it is easy to see the political revival of the right in 2010 as the obstacle and subsequent log jam to progress, but that abuses history. Armed with a Congressional majority, the Democrats could have moved decisively in 2008, but not with the cabal of neo-liberal advisors chosen by Obama to craft policy. One can better see the rise of the right as a measure of the disappointment with the Administration’s inadequate management of the economy.

In Europe, elected governments have ceded authority to technocrats approved by international financial interests. Frustration with social democratic impotence has lead to a series of “protest” victories by conservatives.

In the near future, there is a real chance that Germany will achieve, by peaceful means, the dominance of Europe that it sought in World War II.

Ideologically, most of the world’s leaders remain caught in the web of neo-liberalism – the worship of markets, balanced budgets, government restraint, and the sanctity of capital. Despite much sensationalist commentary early in the economic crisis about the death of neo-liberalism or the passing of the Thatcher-Reagan moment, political leaders, most economists, and too many labor leaders have failed to escape neo-liberal thinking.

Fundamentalist market dogma, enforced by an extortionate financial complex, breeds the crisis-deepening austerity favored by leaders in the US and Europe. And there is no escape in sight.

Culture, dominated by monopoly capital entertainment behemoths, has sunk to new levels of vulgarity and triviality. At the same time, it counts as the distraction that holds together the fragile politico-economic system. The coarseness of “reality” television, the violence and moral depravity of cinema, banal, soulless corporate-crafted music, and the faux-loyalties of spectator team sports pass as entertainment. Equally distracting is the ubiquitous cult of the celebrity.

The once-promising diversity of the internet is, thanks to commercial penetration, transforming into a medium of personal, individualistic self-indulgence.

The same monopolies that own the entertainment industry own the news media and employ the mass opinion makers. The result is timid, conformist coverage, slanted to respect officialdom and the corporate paymasters. Likewise, what passes for analysis is a useless brew of shallowness and deference to the rich and powerful.

Entering the New Year, dangers abound. Italy alone must refinance nearly a third of its national debt in 2012-2013—591.9 billion euros. Spain must refinance nearly half and Greece nearly two-thirds. None can sustain refinancing at current yields asked by financial markets without harsh, dramatic counter-cuts in spending. And these cuts necessarily will shrink economic growth, resulting in even greater debt as a percentage of GDP. Growth rates are already shrinking in the European Union: On December 16, Ireland announced a 1.9% drop in GDP for the 3rd quarter, well below expectations. Overall EU growth has slipped to .8% in the 3rd quarter from 3.1% in the 1st quarter. The politics of austerity will only exacerbate this trend in 2012.

In the US, the Federal Reserve reports that households’ net worth fell by $2.4 trillion from the second to third quarter of 2011. For the year, growth in personal disposable income has been flat or trending downward, while the personal savings rate has dropped dramatically and consumer credit debt is again on the upswing— mimicking the pre-crisis trend. Debt-driven consumer spending fuels what little economic growth is shown by the anemic US economy. These same consumers must contend with escalating food prices: year-over-year increases in food costs hit 4.6% in November.

September and October factory orders dropped and the index of service sector activity declined in November.

Unemployment remains dangerously and intransigently high despite minor adjustments in the official rate that reflect, at best, deep structural changes in the employment and compensation options available to those without work or underemployed. Even the Wall Street gasbags who fill the airwaves with Pollyanna optimism know that US standards of living have taken a radical and gloomy turn for the worse.

The electoral landscape in the US shows little to celebrate. While many on the left are again raising fears of a Republican Party in ascendancy, the truth is that the Republicans are engaged in an intense, bitter, and bloody struggle between the corporate wing and the no-nothing fanatics who occupy the Party’s extreme right. With Obama-mania now reduced to a tepid enthusiasm for blocking the crazies, corporate Republicans sense a real opportunity to win executive power as many of their European counterparts have in recent months. At the same time, they recognize that voters overwhelmingly reject the ranting of the extreme right Neanderthals. So far, corporate Republicans have used their financial resources and media control to turn back the tea-party pretenders: Palin, Bachman, Cain, Perry, and now Gingrich. Clearly, they want Mitt Romney, a man who can talk the tea-party talk, but walk the pro-corporate walk.

And just as clearly, the Democratic Party has its counterpart to Romney. Obama can skillfully rouse the liberal base by scoring the rich, the powerful, and the privileged while delivering for the corporations. The words are there, but where is peace, health care, EFCA, strengthened Social Security and Medicare, enlightened foreign policy, tax fairness, a robust social safety net, Constitutional guarantees and other “liberal” goals promised four years ago?

Obama and Romney are the designated hitters for the ruling class. Where do working people find their political voice in this charade?

Once again, the New Year promises intense struggles against imperialism, against exploitation, and for social justice and sovereignty. But again, the focus of these struggles will likely remain on the periphery of the most advanced capitalist countries where workers and the poor are more organizationally and ideologically advanced and fervent in their commitment. Despite healthy developments like the Occupy movement and only-too-rare labor militancy, North America seems destined to confine the fight to the corrupted field of electoral politics, especially in the US, where the Presidential election will soon overshadow all other action and siphon off oppositional energies.

The uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East were unexpected and important developments in 2011. They brought masses into the streets and shook ruling elites throughout the region. Yet observers overestimated their political impact and potential and underestimated the ability of imperialism to exploit these events for its own interests. The billions committed at the G-20 summit, the rapid response of the “soft” imperialist Western NGO’s, and the violent intervention of NATO quickly re-directed or superseded many of these movements with regime changes beneficial to the NATO allies, an attempt to create a reprise of the infamous “color revolutions.”

Libya was the clearest example of this, with Syria now fixed in imperialism’s sights. Egypt, another target of imperialist intervention, continues to resist the “helpful” hand of the US State Department and many US-funded NGO’s that hope to shape the political landscape in a way friendly to US interests.

The same kind of struggle is emerging in Russia after the strong showing of Communists and their allies in the Parliamentary elections. Enjoying little popular support and with much encouragement and resources from the West, Russia’s liberals have sought to bring down the Medvedev/Putin government through mass protests against electoral irregularities. While electoral fraud is a fact and directed mainly at Russia’s Communists, while the Communists support the struggle for transparent elections, the liberals are seizing on the issue as their own best chance to better their marginal role in Russian politics.

At the same time, in the time-honored bourgeois tradition, Vladimir Putin –the ruling class candidate for Russian President in the forthcoming elections – has thrown up a Trojan horse candidate disguised as the opposition: an expatriate, playboy billionaire who owns a US NBA basketball team. The hope, of course, is that the billionaire’s resources will generate a hollow media campaign to confuse and split the opposition.

The deceptions and ruses of imperialism and its liberal chess pieces ultimately serve imperialism. The broad masses astutely see the call for “democracy” or “free elections” as useful only insofar as they actually lead to their empowerment and well-being. For working people, this is, and should be, the litmus test for their support.

In Russia, as in the Egyptian revolution of 2011, the masses will rally against bad leadership under the banner of “democracy,” but they want more than a hollow procedural victory; they want peace, a better life, a promising future. Twenty-first century liberals offer only the meager morsel of elections and not the nourishment of justice and prosperity. That is why Russian and Egyptian liberals fared so poorly in recent elections. That is why Russian Communists made big gains.

My hope for the New Year is that working-class-oriented, working-class-based movements, especially Communist and Workers Parties, will bring this nourishment to all the peoples of the world.

Zoltan Zigedy
zoltanzigedy@gmail.com