During the days of the tragic fall of Aleppo, a number of rallies took place in solidarity with the Syrian Revolution as well as the popular resistance in Egypt. Since the first rally of Syrian refugees on 15 December, on which we already published a report, four more rallies took place. The Austrian section of the RCIT participated actively in all these rallies and was invited to address three of them.

On Friday, 16 December, 1,500-2,000 people participated in a rally in front of the Austrian parliament. This rally was organized by some petty-bourgeois civil society Austrian activists. Hence, while the majority of the participants were migrants, the organizers kept the rally as a silent manifestation without any speeches and with people only holding candles. Activists of the Austrian section of the RCIT participated and distributed flyers summarizing our main conclusions and slogans for the continuation of the struggle against the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad.

On the next day, up to 3,000 migrants – most of them from Turkey – hold a rally in the inner city of Vienna. Several speakers from the Turkish community, a representative of the Syrian community as well as Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the RCIT, addressed the rally. Comrade Pröbsting denounced in his speech the hypocrisy of the Great Powers and called for the solidarity with continuation of the Syrian Revolution. He also denounced the racist migration policy of the European Union and the Austrian government and called for the opening of the borders for refugees.

On Sunday, 18 December, the Egypt community organized a rally in which the organizers called for solidarity both with the people in Syria as well as in Egypt. The Egypt community is organizing solidarity activities without interruptions since the military coup in July 2013. As it has been the case in the past years, the Austrian Section of the RCIT was invited to address the rally and comrade Pröbsting hold a speech.

Finally, on Monday 19 December, the Syrian community organized another rally. A few hours before the start of the rally, the Austrian police told the organizers that they were not allowed to hold their rally in front of the Russian embassy (where most rallies took place in the past). Hence, the organizers had to redirect people in the last minute to the new place of the rally. Nevertheless, more than 200 people turned up. Again, the Austrian Section of the RCIT was invited to speak and comrade Pröbsting addressed the participants.

The Austrian Section of the RCIT has supported the Arab Revolution from its beginning in early 2011. We affirms our support for the ongoing Syrian Revolution, despite the terrible defeat in Aleppo, along with our hostility towards all Great Powers and lesser, regional powers who all share the desire to liquidate the Syrian Revolution. However, to persevere and to revitalize the revolution, the workers and peasants must draw the lessons of past defeats. Amongst the most important lessons are:

* No trust in and no collaboration with any Great Power!

* No to sectarianism! For multi-religious and multi-national unity in the struggle against the Assad dictatorship! For full national self-determination for all national and ethnic minorities!

* No trust in the official rebel leaderships!

* For the formation of popular councils and popular militias!

* The international workers movement must rally to support the Syrian Revolution! For a workers aid campaign for the Syrian people – as it was done in solidarity with the Bosnian people in 1992-95!

* The international workers movement must organize a campaign to boycott the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his capitalist business friends! For workers actions against the imperialist forces attacking the Syrian people!

* Open the Boarders for the Syrian Refugees!

* Most of all: For the building of a revolutionary party in Syria as part of a new revolutionary International!

It is symbolic that in these days, the German-language department of the international VICE magazine published an article exclusively about the Austrian Section of the RCIT (https://www.vice.com/alps/article/antiimperialisten-rkob-antisemitismus-islamismus). Unsurprisingly, the article is hostile in its characterization of our organization, refers negatively to our collaboration with Muslim migrant communities and repeats the slanderous accusation that we are “Anti-Semitic” because of our opposition to Zionism (to “prove” this denunciation they quote several hard-core pro-Zionist “academics” which claim to have studied the Austrian Section of the RCIT.)

As revolutionary communists we are not surprised about the accelerating hostility of our political opponents as well as of bourgeois media. It simply reflects the ongoing political polarization, the accelerating racist Islamophobia and the increasing public profile of the Austrian Section of the RCIT. Obviously, our opponents are increasingly worried by our successful work. Good!

Aleppo has fallen – the Syrian Revolution will continue!

See pictures and video clips of the RCIT’s speeches at the following link (scroll down below the article):

https://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/aleppo-soli-dez-2016/

Alternatively you can go to the RCIT’s YouTube Account and watch the speeches here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0mX4EKv8j4&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMvdp2x_C0k

See pictures and video clips of the RCIT’s speeches at the rally on 15.12.2016:

https://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/aleppo-soli-15-dez-2016/

After the Fall of Aleppo: Militant Protest of Syria Refugees

Report (with Pictures and Videos) from a Rally of the Syrian Community in Vienna on 15 December 2016

By the Austrian Section of the RCIT, 15.12.2016, www.rkob.net

In face of the fall of Aleppo, more than 1.000 Syrian refugees demonstrated in front of the Russian embassy in Vienna to express their outrage about the ongoing massacre. The demonstrators showed their unwavering solidarity with the ongoing liberation struggle against the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad and against the military aggression of the Great Powers. Given the ongoing tragedy in Aleppo, the mood at the demonstration was particularly militant. Several more demonstrations are planned for the next days.

The organizers of the demonstrations invited the Austrian Section of the RCIT to participate in the rally and asked our comrades Michael Pröbsting and Almedina Gunić to hold speeches at the rally.

In his address Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the RCIT, expressed the RCIT’s unconditional solidarity with the Syrian Revolution (see the link to the video below). He also denounced the reactionary intervention of the Great Powers in Syria. Comrade Pröbsting emphasized that the defeat in Aleppo demonstrates that it is crucial to draw lessons in order to continue the revolution. He said: “First: No trust in the U.S. and the EU. The resistance must not trust that Obama or Merkel would really give assistance. No collaboration with the Great Powers! Secondly: No to sectarianism! Irrespective of religion, of ethnical origin – we have to unite and to fight against the dictatorship of Assad! Thirdly: The leadership of the resistance must be put under control. No one must be allowed to speak unilaterally for the Syrian people but they must be controlled. No militia must act unilaterally but must be put under the control of the people! If we are going this way we can make up for the defeat in Aleppo! Then it is possible to continue the revolution – until Assad is overthrown, until the working people in Syria have achieved freedom and taken power!”

Comrade Gunić, leader of the Austrian section of the RCIT, emphasized in her speech the desperate necessity to continue the international solidarity with the Syrian Revolution. Both speeches were met with enthusiastic response. Both comrades were also asked for interviews by several TV stations (including Al-Jazeera). (See the link to the videos below)

The RCIT has supported the Syrian Revolution from its beginning in March 2011. We call the workers movement, in particular the trade unions, to organize an international solidarity campaign for the oppressed Syrian people and at the same time to oppose any military aggression of the imperialist Great Powers – be it Russia, the US or the European Union. We will continue this solidarity work despite the increasing obstacles in the struggle for the successful liberation of the Syrian workers and peasants!

Aleppo has fallen – Aleppo will rise again!

See pictures and video clips of the rally’s speeches at the following link:

https://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/aleppo-soli-15-dez-2016/

Reports about the RCIT’s intervention at the demonstration on Al-Jazeera and in Turkish media:

https://www.facebook.com/aja.europe/videos/1885943314970465/

http://m.haberler.com/avusturya-da-halep-protestosu-viyana-9067110-haberi/

http://aa.com.tr/tr/dunya/avusturya-da-halep-protestosu-/707331

For our latest statement on Syria see:

Michael Pröbsting: The Looming Kerry-Lavrov Agreement – A Great Power Conspiracy against the Syrian Revolution, 06.10.2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/syria-kerry-lavrov/; Joint Statement: Solidarity with Aleppo! Hands off Syria! 4 October 2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/joint-statement-aleppo/; Syria: For an Independent Revolutionary Road! Down with the Bombing and Siege against Aleppo! Stop the Turkish Invasion and Occupation! No to the Imperialist Conspiracy against the Syrian Masses! Joint Statement of the RCIT and Sınıf Savaşı (Turkey), 25.09.2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/defend-aleppo/; Yossi Schwartz: The Revolution in Syria won a Tactical Victory! Down with Assad the Butcher! 21 August 2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/aleppo-victory/; The Imperialist Counterrevolution Threatens the Syrian Revolution! Down with the Great Powers’ Wars! Solidarity with the Syrian Revolution against the Assad Dictatorship! For a Socialist Federation in the Maghreb and Mashreq! Joint Statement of the Agrupación de Lucha Socialista (ALS) and the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 07.12.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/imperialist-counterrevolution-syria/; RCIT: Great Powers Aim to Liquidate the Syrian Revolution! Mobilize for International Solidarity with the Syrian Liberation Struggle against the Assad Dictatorship! Stop the US, Russian and French Air Strikes! No to Daesh/IS-Terrorism! 18.11.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/great-powers-syria/; RCIT: Revolution against Russian Imperialism! Stop the US, UK and French Air Strikes! Smash the Assad Dictatorship! 9.10.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/defend-syria-against-russia/; RCIT: The Arab Revolution is a central touchstone for socialists! Open Letter to All Revolutionary Organizations and Activists, 4.10.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/open-letter-on-arab-revolution/. For many more RCIT documents on the Arab Revolution see on our website: http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/

For our analysis of the Arab Revolution we refer readers to:

RCIT: Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Arab World: An Acid Test for Revolutionaries, 31 May 2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/theses-arab-revolution/

For other RCIT documents and articles on Syria see:

http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/

Austria: “Left-Wing” Zionists Attack Arab Migrants at Demonstration in Solidarity with Refugees!

Report (with Pictures and Videos) from the anti-racist Demonstration on 26 November in Vienna by the Austrian Section of the RCIT, 27.11.2016, www.rkob.net

About two thousand people demonstrated on 26 November in Vienna in solidarity with refugees and against racism. This was an important signal against the racist offensive both by the Austrian government as well as by the right-wing opposition one week before the presidential election where the right-wing candidate Norbert Hofer has a good chance to win.

The Austrian section of the RCIT joined the demonstration with a very lively and militant contingent of about 100 activists – the biggest of any political organization at the demonstration. (See the pictures and videos below.) In addition to the activists of our youth organization RED*REVOLUTION, many activists from the Syrian, Iraqi, Egyptian, Ahwazi Arab, Moroccan, Palestinian and other communities – with whom we have organized numerous activities in past years – participated in our contingent.

We shouted many slogans against the racist rabble-rousing, for the opening of the borders, and for solidarity with the Arab Revolution as well as with the Palestinian liberation struggle. Like in past demonstrations against racism, our contingent varied significantly from other left-wing groups not only because of its size and its militant spirit. In contrast to all reformist and centrist groups, the RCIT in Austria stands in active solidarity with the liberation struggle in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Palestine and other countries against the dictatorships and against imperialism. Furthermore, one could see yet once again that we are not merely white anti-racists who are only in favor of the rights for migrants and refugees; but that we actively fight together with migrants and refugees, and that we are building a multinational revolutionary organization. At the end of the demonstration Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the RCIT, addressed the participants of our contingent and explained the necessity to continue the struggle for liberation.

The militant multi-national character of our contingent and our solidarity with the Arab Revolution as well as with the Palestinian liberation struggle aroused again profound hatred from a sector of demonstrators – the so-called “anti-national Black Block” people. These people – nearly all of them White Austrian middle-class people – combine some silly ultra-left phrases (their front banner read “Communism instead of Austria”) with fanatical support for the Zionist state of Israel and strong hatred against Muslim people. As a result, these dumb thugs slander all Muslim people as “Islamo-Fascists” and denounce our Anti-Zionist stance as “Anti-Semitic”. These Zionists have close connections, among others, to the youth organization of the Communist Party and most reformist and centrist organization refuse to distance themselves clearly from this scum. As we have reported in past articles these people hold pro-Israel rallies during the Gaza Wars in the past years. (See e.g. https://freegazafromhamas.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/kundgebung-solidaritat-mit-israel-befreit-gaza-von-der-hamas/)

While these people did not dare to attack our contingent, they attacked a small group of Arab brothers when they briefly left our contingent. One of these brothers was violently thrown to the floor. This attack provoked the intervention of the police which – in the final part of the demonstration – created a cordon in front of our contingent so that as a result we became effectively isolated from the rest of the demonstration. This Zionist attack against our Arab brothers caused a lot of attention. The national state TV reported about the incident and about the Zionist slander against the Austrian section of the RCIT. (See http://wien.orf.at/news/stories/2811311/. A video with scenes shortly after the Zionist attack, published by a rather pro-Zionist source, can be viewed on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdyvIqLwFpI)

This attack was not the first incident as these people already attacked (unsuccessfully) our May Day demonstration this year (see http://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/report-may-day-2016-in-austria/). At the annual fete of the Communist Party on 3 September, Almedina Gunić – leader of the Austrian section of the RCIT – was physically attacked by these “anti-national” Zionists. (See http://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/bericht-vs-fest-2016/) All these incidents demonstrate once more the thoroughly reactionary, racist and pro-imperialist character of the so-called “Anti-Nationals”. It is a scandal that Arab brothers and sisters who have been forced to flee from dictatorship and war and who face racist discrimination in Europe – that they have to face again racist attacks on a demonstration is supposed to demonstrate against racism!

While we believe that the organizers of the demonstration – a coalition of NGO’s, Stalinists and the centrist Cliffite group (“Linkswende”) – do not support such violent attacks (at least we hope that they will distance themselves in a public statement), they certainly have to share political responsibility for this incident. Several of these organizations have expelled the Austrian section of the RCIT from united fronts – and sometimes even tried to expel us from demonstrations – with the argument that our solidarity with Palestine equals “Anti-Semitism”. The Communist Party expelled the us from its annual fete this year because of our anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist positions. (See http://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/cp-bars-rcit-from-festival/) We will continue to appeal to these organizations to refute this reactionary attitude.

However, irrespective of the attitude of the reformists and centrists or the attacks of the dumb Zionists, the Austrian section of the RCIT will continue its revolutionary work and its collaboration with migrant brothers and sisters.

See numerous photos and video clips at the following link:

Pictures: http://www.rkob.net/wer-wir-sind-1/rkob-aktiv-bei/let-them-stay-26-nov-2016/ (Scroll down to view the pictures)

Videos: The daily paper “Kronen Zeitung, one of the biggest Austrian dailies, published a video about the demonstration. The contingent of the Austrian section of the RCIT can be viewed from minute 2.00 to 2.30 (http://www.krone.at/oesterreich/fluechtlingsdemo-in-wien-chaos-auf-shoppingmeile-160-kraefte-vor-ort-story-541192)

Interview with Michael Pröbsting on the Arab TV Station Al-Karamh

Below is the link to an interview with Michael Pröbsting which was aired on the Arab TV station Al-Karamh. It was recorded during the conference against the imperialist occupation of Iraq in Beirut on 24/25 September 2016 (see our report as well as the speech of comrade Pröbsting at the conference here: http://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/video-iraq-syria-palestine-solidarity/)

The interview was conducted in German language and translated into Arabic. You can view the whole interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J48j-ygK_EM

In the Wake of the PSTU/LIT-CI Split, What Lessons Can Be Learned?

An Open Letter to Members and Sympathizers of the International Workers League (Fourth International)

Issued by the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency and Corrente Comunista Revolucionária (Brazil Section of the RCIT), 11.7.2016, www.thecommunists.net

Dear comrades of the LIT-CI,

Without doubt, the split in the PSTU – the largest section of the LIT – is an important event, not only because it involves nearly half of the Brazilian section’s membership, but also because it reflects fundamental problems within this organization.

As you are well aware, the immediate cause for the split was the shameful, neutral, abstentionist position of the PSTU majority during the institutional coup of the big bourgeoisie in Brazil against the popular front government of Dilma Rousseff, which was overthrown with the complicity of the judicial branch of the state apparatus, the private media as well as the neoliberal right-wing opposition. Even today the unrepentant PSTU leadership refuses to form a united front with the reformist mass organizations FBP, FPSM, CUT, MST, MSTS, etc. aimed at mobilizing against the right-wing, neoliberal government of Temer!

At the same time the PSTU leadership combines such Third Campist sectarianism with the arch-opportunist call for a general strike demanding new general parliamentary elections! What would be the result of such general elections? A strengthening of the right-wing parties? A consolidation of the PT? How on earth can revolutionaries possibly want to orient the working class vanguard to such a parliamentary electoral maneuver which would only stabilize the capitalist regime?!

The PSTU minority, which initiated the split, appears to have criticized this policy and certainly justifiably so!

The RCIT and its section in Brazil characterize the PSTU leadership’s abstentionist position as an outright betrayal of the working class movement. Of course, revolutionaries could not have given any political support to the Popular Front government led by the reformist PT, as the latter made a reactionary coalition with the openly bourgeois PMSB and accommodated to the bourgeoisie by initiating neoliberal reforms. But this was hardly the reason that the PMSB left the coalition and why the united big bourgeoisie overthrew the government in an institutionalized coup. Instead, for the PMSB, the reason was that the Popular Front government did not go far enough with its adaption to neoliberalism. In this, the PT was hampered by its broad social base, i.e., the support it derives from the trade unions, the peasant organizations, the organizations of the urban poor, etc. It is precisely because of this base that the PT-led government was forced to introduce social programs like the Bolsa Família.

The big bourgeoisie – with the support of US imperialism – instigated the coup because it wanted to impose a right-wing government which was not limited by its social base in implementing a full blown neoliberal attack on the working class and the poor. And this is the main reason that the reformist mass organizations of the working class and the poor mobilized against the coup, and are now mobilizing against the Temer government.

The institutional bourgeois coup against the government of Dilma Rousseff was an attack against the popular masses. It was the responsibility of revolutionaries to understand this, and to have called for a united front with the reformist mass organizations against the putschists. Revolutionaries should have participated in the anti-coup mass demonstrations, without having given any political support to the government of Dilma Rousseff. They should have combined the struggle against the coup with a perspective of breaking the working class and their organizations away from the popular front and building a strong revolutionary party. This was in fact the consistent policy of the RCIT and its Brazilian section which we attempted to implement as well as possible given our limited forces. (1)

Comrades of the LIT: An organization like the PSTU, which claims to represent the vanguard, completely fails to give the popular masses any direction if it is incapable of differentiating between the popular front and the putschists; between Kerensky and Kornilov; between Negrin and Franco.

The policy of the PSTU leadership was ostensibly ultra-left, but in fact it was mainly an adaption to the reactionary prejudices of the liberal middle class milieu which despises the PT for its support among the supposedly “unenlightened” workers and poor.

Comrades, many of you may have largely agreed with our criticism of the PSTU’s policy during the playing out of the institutional coup. But lest you think that this was simply an isolated error in judgment by the PSTU’s leadership, we say unequivocally: No, this was no isolated error but the inevitable result of an incorrect political method.

Look at the shameful position of the LIT leadership during the military coup in Egypt, or the pro-Western imperialist mobilizations in the Ukraine against the Yanukovych government with the participation of significant fascist forces. In the case of Egypt, the LIT leadership welcomed the bloody coup of General Sisi of 3 July 2013 as an expression of the ongoing revolutionary process in Egypt! What a scandalous assessment for a coup in which the old guard of Mubarak – with the support of all the Great Powers (e.g., US, EU, Russia, China) – took power, massacred thousands of people and abolished the democratic rights which the masses had achieved in 2011! The RCIT and its comrades in the Middle East opposed the military coup from the start, and called for a united front of the organizations of the working class and the people (including Islamist mass organizations) to resist the murderous putschists. (2)

In the Ukraine, the LIT leadership hailed the insurrection led by the fascist Right Sector (with the support of US imperialism) at the end of February 2014 as a “democratic revolution.” Surely, revolutionaries could not defend the Yanukovych government, which was clearly a lackey of Russian imperialism. But to have supported, from start to finish, the reactionary mobilizations which were initiated and controlled by the US and EU imperialists and the right-wing and fascist opposition parties! – This is nothing but an outright mockery of Marxism! (3)

Comrades of the LIT: How could all of this have happened? Are such betrayals isolated mistakes? No. When a leadership repeatedly fails to analyze major events of the international class struggle during the past few years, this is no accident; it is rather the product of a terribly faulty method!

These repeated failures are derived from the LIT’s method, which can be characterized as “fatalist objectivism” and “opportunist processim.” The LIT leadership believes that the “objective process” will inevitably push all political mobilizations and movements in a progressive direction – irrespective of their leaderships, their social class compositions, and the relation of forces. While this method may be justified in a very general way with regards to the crisis of capitalism and the objective need for the socialist revolution, Trotsky scornfully dubbed it “fatalist objectivism.” Captive of this overly simplistic method, the LIT leadership completely ignores the living forces of the class struggle and the “the importance of class-conscious revolutionary activity in history“ (Trotsky). Consequently, the LIT leadership’s phrases about the “revolutionary process” hide an opportunist adaption to the liberal middle class.

Yes, capitalism faces an historic crisis and we are living in an historic period in which the socialist revolution is on the agenda. However, and unfortunately, capitalism in decay not only knows that the socialist revolution as a way out of the crisis, but that there is also an alternative: barbarism. In fact, in such an historic period of the capitalist crisis as that which commenced in 2008, both the class struggle of the workers and the oppressed and the attacks of the reactionary forces are advancing and accelerating!

In such a period, it is vital that revolutionaries combine a transitional program for working class independence and for socialist revolution with a concrete policy of the united front tactic. Such a policy takes into account the concrete dynamic of the class struggle; it differentiates between the direct, immediate aggressors against the working class and the oppressed and the rotten reformist and populist traitors who inhabit the upper echelons of the mass popular organizations. Such a Marxist policy allows us as revolutionaries to both denounce the reformist and populist leaderships while at the same time apply the united front tactic which appeals to the base of these mass organizations, by calling for joint actions (and placing demands for such joint action on their leaderships).

Such a policy – or even initially only consistent propaganda and agitation for it – demands the existence of an authentic revolutionary organization. Such an organization must not succumb to forming strategic alliances – or even a joint non-revolutionary party – with reformist or centrist forces (like the PSOL in Brazil). This would just be another form of opportunism – opportunism in party building. No, such an organization must fight for a revolutionary program and for working class independence. It must strive to build the revolutionary party as the highest organizational form of proletarian class consciousness. It must keep the vanguard aware of the revolutionary character of the present historic period and fight against all forms of petty-bourgeois pessimism (like the one we are supposedly experiencing in a period characterized by the collapse of Stalinism and a regression in the class consciousness).

At the same time such a revolutionary organization must intervene in the class struggle with a correct assessment of the different class forces and must implement the united front tactic to mass organizations which, unfortunately, still rally the majority of the class conscious workers and oppressed behind them. Doing so is the only way to break the reformist and populist workers and oppressed away from their treacherous leaderships!

We fear that the comrades who split from the PSTU have not sufficiently understood the methodological failures of the LIT. They wrote in their public statement: "We recognize the PSTU as a revolutionary organization. We do not think it is less revolutionary than before. But sometimes it is impossible for revolutionaries belonging to the same organization. (…) We remain, therefore, in the framework of the International Workers League, as a sympathizing section.” We ask the comrades: If the PSTU is indeed a revolutionary organization, and the only difference is tactical, why the split? In fact, the comrades themselves probably suspect that the political problems are much deeper, but they have yet to draw the correct political conclusions from their organizational split.

The RCIT is building such an organization. We appeal to all comrades from the LIT – majority as well as minority – to reconsider the method of their leadership and to enter into discussions and collaborations with the RCIT! Comrades, now is the time to draw the right lessons from the past struggles and to jointly build a revolutionary world party fighting for the socialist revolution!

Footnotes:

(1) See on this the documents of the RCIT:

CCR: Brazil: After Rousseff’s Impeachment, Temer’s Interim Government Deepens Attacks on Brazilian Workers. The coup was mainly against the workers and social movements, 12 June 2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/brazil-temer-government/

CCR: Brazil: The Arrest of Lula da Silva – Yet Another Step in the Creeping Coup. For the Organization of Struggle Committees! For Mass Demonstrations against Those Plotting the Coup! But No Confidence for the Pro-Austerity PT-PMDB Government! 9.3.2016, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/arrest-lula/

CCR: Brazil: No to Impeachment! No to the Call for New Elections! All workers and oppressed: Out into the streets of Brazil to fight against the threat of a coup! The anti-coup struggle should be in conjunction with the class struggle against the austerity attacks of the government! 6.12.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/brazil-impeachment/

(2) See on this the documents of the RCIT:

RCIT: Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Arab World: An Acid Test for Revolutionaries, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/theses-arab-revolution/

RCIT: General Sisi – The Butcher of the Egyptian People – Sentences another 683 People to Death, 1.5.2014, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/egypt-mass-death-sentences/

Michael Pröbsting: The Coup d'État in Egypt and the Bankruptcy of the Left’s “Army Socialism”. A Balance Sheet of the coup and another Reply to our Critics (LCC, WIVP, SF/LCFI), 8.8.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/egypt-and-left-army-socialism/

Michael Pröbsting: The Military’s Coup d'État in Egypt: Assessment and Tactics, 17.7.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/egypt-meaning-of-coup-d-etat/

(3) See on this the documents of the RCIT:

Michael Pröbsting: The Minsk Agreement and the Civil War in the Ukraine, 20.2.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/minsk-agreement/

Michael Pröbsting: The Uprising in East Ukraine and Russian Imperialism. An Analysis of Recent Developments in the Ukrainian Civil War and their Consequences for Revolutionary Tactics, 22.October 2014, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/ukraine-and-russian-imperialism/

RCIT: After the Fascist Pogrom in Odessa: Advance the Struggle against the Counterrevolution in the Ukraine! Commemoration for the Fallen Fighters in the Struggle against the Counterrevolution! All Out for the International Day of Antifascist Solidarity on 8 May! 6.5.2014, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 23, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/after-odessa-pogrom/

RCIT: Counterrevolution and Mass Resistance in the Ukraine, 17.4.2014, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 22, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/mass-resistance-in-ukraine/

Joint Statement of the RCIT and the Movement to Socialism (MAS, Russia): Ukraine: Rivalry between Imperialist Powers escalates after Right-Wing Coup: Stop the Imperialist Saber-Rattling! 2.3.2014, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 21, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/ukraine-war-threats/

MAS: Ukraine/Russia: The victory over the imperialist colonialism is impossible without the proletarian revolution! in: Revolutionary Communism No. 21, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/mas-declaration-5-3-2014/

RCIT and MAS: Right-Wing Forces Take Power in the Ukraine: Mobilize the Working Class against the New Government! 25.2.2014, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 19, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/right-wing-coup-in-ukraine/

MAS: No to the Terror of the Bandera-Fascists! Stop the Repression against the Communists of Ukraine! 22.2.2014, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 19, http://www.nuevomas.blogspot.co.at/2014/02/no-to-terror-of-bandera-fascists-stop.html

RCIT: “Ukraine: Neither Brussels nor Moscow! For an independent Workers’ Republic!” 18.12.2013, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 18, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/ukraine-neither-brussels-nor-moscow/

Announcement: Fusion between the ALS and the RCIT

Adopted by the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and the Agrupación de Lucha Socialista (ALS), 8 July 2016, www.thecommunists.net and https://agrupaciondeluchasocialistablog.wordpress.com

After 9 months of discussions and collaboration, both the ALS and RCIT positively view this process, and have therefore concluded that the basis has been achieved to fuse our two organizations, effective immediately, with the ALS becoming the Mexican section of the RCIT. The joint statements issued by the ALS and RCIT for May Day 2016 and on the situation in Syria, together with the RCIT-Manifesto, constitute the programmatic basis for this fusion.

Given the importance of the revolutionary process in Mexico, along with the concomitant ongoing reactionary offensive throughout Latin America as a whole, with all the massive class struggles that the latter will unavoidably entail, the RCIT and ALS – as well as the RCIT’s militants in Brazil and Venezuela – announce our intention to intensify our efforts to intervene in the class struggle and to fight for a revolutionary program. Lucha Socialista (the paper of ALS), Centelha Vermelha (the paper of the CCR) and Comunismo Revolucionario and O Comunismo Revolucionário (respectively the Spanish the Portuguese language journal of the RCIT) will play a crucial role in this undertaking.

We call upon revolutionaries in Mexico and throughout Latin American to join us in our struggle to rebuild a revolutionary World Party – an international party determined to fight for socialist revolution!

Long live the Struggle of the Mexican Teachers!

Solidarity Message from the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 3.7.2016, www.thecommunists.net

The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) sends its warmest greetings to the teachers in Mexico which are fighting against the reactionary education reform of the bourgeois government of President Peña Nieto. In particular we hail the heroic teachers of Oaxaca and the whole people of this state which have fought back the terrorist Policia Federal despite the killing of 12 people in the region of Nochixtlán.

The struggle of the Mexican teacher is not only important for all worker, poor peasants and popular sectors of the country but for the whole Latin American region and beyond. If you defeat the Nieto’s assault on free education, it will be a setback for all neoliberal enemies of popular education around the world!

Together with our comrades of Agrupación de Lucha Socialista the RCIT dedicates its forces for the creation of a world party fighting for socialist revolution. We call all democratic and socialist activists in Mexico to fight for:

* For the defense of public education, free, secular, scientific and popular!

* Solidarity with the people's struggle in Oaxaca! Freedom for all political prisoners! Stop the repression! For a workers, peasants and popular government!

* For the creation of popular committees of action all over the country which should include all popular mass organizations, trade unions, sections of MORENA etc. in order to unify the struggle! For a national assembly of delegates of popular assemblies, committees of action and mass organizations in order to plan the struggle against the government!

* For the formation of popular assemblies in Oaxaca to organize public life as well as self-defense against state repression!

* For a general strike to stop the reforms and to bring down the government!

* Down with the government of Peña Nieto! For a workers' government in alliance with the poor peasant and the urban poor!

* We call organizations of the workers and oppressed (e.g. UNT, SME, NCT, CNI etc.) to break with corrupt politicians and corporatists bureaucracies and to build a new mass party of the working class!

Syria: Defeat imperialism, down with Assad!

On the tasks of Syrian revolutionaries and the character of the Syrian civil war

Joint Statement of Dördüncü Blok and Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), July 2016, http://dorduncublok.blogspot.com/, www.thecommunists.net

1. In 2011, after many decades of brutal rule, the capitalist and sectarian Assad dictatorship started to crumble. Inspired by the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions, the multinational masses of workers and peasants in Syria started to stand up against the injustices imposed on them by the Assad dictatorship and the world economic crisis. We characterize this uprising as a justified attempt to foment a democratic revolution and at the same time to fight for important social demands.

2. Because of the treacherous bourgeois or petty-bourgeois leaderships of the uprising, the first attempt to topple Assad failed. At the same time, the Western Great Powers (the US and EU) in conjunction with the Gulf monarchies and Turkey, tried to exploit the Syrian Revolution for their own particular interests. Assad, for them a puppet of Russian imperialism, was an obstacle to implementing the various plans they had for the region. Western imperialism tried to buy off the anti-Assad rebels, but they were unsuccessful in this and even today they do not have any reliable allies among the rebel movements.

3. As a result of the failure of the official Arab left, which was mostly in bed with Assad (both of Syria’s Stalinist parties are part of the Assad’s National Front) and corrupt liberals, many poor Sunni Syrians joined radical Islamist forces. They did so because of the absence of an alternative leadership, because the Islamist forces provided food for the poor, and because these reactionary forces did most of the fighting. We don’t judge a mass movement exclusively by its leadership; it is also important to examine the essence of a movement and the classes standing behind it. The Syrian Revolution is not a CIA conspiracy; it is a legitimate mass movement of the workers and peasants against a corrupt, pro-imperialist dictatorship.

4. Syrian revolutionaries should oppose and criticize the political forces who are now leading the Syrian Revolution, but at the same time they must also demonstrate to the workers and peasants what a revolutionary struggle against Assad looks like. They must show the masses that a red Syria is worth fighting for.

5. When the Syrian Revolution started, it was multinational: Sunnis, Shias, Kurds, Alawites, Christians, Turkmens and Druze all participated in the uprising against the Assad. But both Assad and the reactionary Islamists (who were aided by the Gulf monarchies) had a vast material interest in splitting the masses along ethnic and religious lines. The reason that Assad released many Salafists in 2011 was precisely to undermine the revolution! We must understand Assad’s action for what it was and reaffirm that it is the role of true revolutionaries not only to struggle against oppression, but to do so by fighting for the unity of all oppressed peoples.

6. Since 2014 and the rise of Daesh/IS, the western Great Powers have entirely dropped even limited rhetorical support for the Syrian Revolution. While still skeptical of Assad, the West nevertheless intervened in the fighting in Syria alongside the regime by bombing not only Daesh/IS but also the forces of anti-western-rebels. Revolutionaries must unequivocally oppose intervention by any imperialist Great Power in the region, regardless of whether this be the US, the EU, Russia or China (or of any of their respective lackeys).

7. Daesh/IS is an arch-reactionary mass movement, which arose in the wake of the horrific crimes by US/EU imperialism in Iraq and Russia/Assad in Syria. While opposing the imperialist bombing campaign, revolutionaries should do everything in their power to encourage Daesh/IS’s being smashed by the masses.

8. We oppose an imperialist peace that will try to carve up Syria between the Great Powers who want to establish different protectorates for themselves. We demand the opening of the borders for all refugees from the conflict in Syria to Turkey and from there to Europe!

9. All revolutionaries must support the right of the Kurdish people for self-determination. We defend the Kurdish people against the reactionary attacks of the Turkish army, Daesh/IS and Iran. But at the same time we criticize the pro-imperialist leadership of the PYD/YPG and the petty-bourgeois ideology of Apoism. We are for a united, socialist Kurdistan from Rojava to Orumiyeh and from Bakhtaran to Qers.

10. In Syria we are for the formation of popular councils of the workers, peasants and poor. These councils should organize the defense against Assad and topple him. Following their victory, these councils will be able to rebuild Syria, ensure that it is not dived by the Great Imperialist Powers and abolish capitalism. This will reignite the fire that first broke out in 2011, revitalize it and spark workers’ and popular rebellions throughout the entire region.

11. The first urgent step to this is to found genuinely revolutionary party organizations throughout the Middle East, incorporating revolutionaries who have learned the respective lessons from the failures of Arab nationalism, Stalinism and Kurdish left-nationalism. Only such parties can liberate the masses of the region from the horrors of imperialism and their regional allies – the Arab dictatorships; only such parties can lead the workers and poor towards the abolishment of capitalism; and only such parties will be able to liberate the oppressed peoples – form Palestine, to Kurdistan, from Ahwaz to the Southern Sahara!

For an Internationalist Working Class Campaign against Nationalist and pro-EU Chauvinism!

For a Joint Struggle against Racism and Imperialist War! For a United Socialist States of Europe!

An open letter to all revolutionary organizations and activists from the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 28.6.2016, www.thecommunists.net

The results of the BREXIT referendum in Britain have ignited a political crisis not only in the UK itself but throughout the entire European continent. On the one hand, the referendum has obviously strengthened reactionary nationalism, as is reflected in the increasing numbers of hate-crimes against migrants in Britain as well as in the surge of the far right in other Western European countries. On the other hand, the vote to remove Britain from the EU has also created confusion, uncertainty and nervousness among the forces of monopoly capital both in Britain and in Europe in general.

Shamefully, in the months leading up to last week’s historic referendum, large sectors of the left in Britain had called either for the country to LEAVE or REMAIN in the EU. In both cases, the proponents of these diametrically opposed positions were guilty of adapting to one of two imperialist camps. Those who supported LEAVE unabashedly adapted to the reactionary “UK First” imperialist camp dominated by the most extreme right-wing forces like UKIP; those in the left who called for a REMAIN vote no less shamelessly adapted to the pro-EU imperialist camp of the big bourgeoisie and the leadership of the Labour Party. Again, we contend that both strategies were and remain nothing more than variants of social-imperialism.

From the moment that the Cameron government committed itself to holding the referendum on the future of British membership in the EU, the RCIT repeatedly stated the dire importance for revolutionaries to oppose both versions of social-imperialism and instead raise the banner of working class internationalism. This meant and continues to mean that revolutionaries must join forces in order to:

1) Unequivocally reject support for both the “UK First” and the “EU First” positions, by abstaining in any such referendums in imperialist countries belonging to the European Union.

2) Organize the working class to struggle against the austerity offensive in all countries – whether inside or outside the EU – and come together to fight against the bosses on an international level.

3) Battle for Open Borders for all refugees, in addition to equal rights for all migrants.

4) Unite the working class in all countries – both inside and outside the EU – in an unrelenting struggle against imperialist wars; specifically: Down with Britain’s and the EU’s military intervention in Syria, Iraq, Mali etc.!

5) Give the highest expression to our struggle for the interests of the international working class by calling for a United Socialist Sates of Europe.

Naturally, as Marxists, we combine such a focused program with a socialist perspective which aims to bring about the revolutionary overthrow of all capitalist regimes and the founding of workers’ republics.

If you agree with the general outlook of this Open Letter, we urge you – both organizations and individual activists -- to contact us, giving us both your own ideas and any criticism you may have, so that we can take concrete steps towards further discussions and collaboration in launching such a campaign: rcit@thecommunists.net

The RCIT has sections and activists in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Tunisia, Israel / Occupied Palestine, Brazil, Venezuela, Britain, Germany, the US, and Austria.

For a more extensive overview of the RCIT’s viewpoints, we refer you to our website www.thecommunists.net. In particular, we draw your attention to the following RCIT documents:

For more information on the RCIT’s position on the BREXIT referendum, please refer to the following statements posted on our website:

RCIT: After the BREXIT Vote – Stormy times ahead for the workers and oppressed in Britain!, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/brexit-vote-results/

RED*LIBERATION: UK: No to Cameron’s Trap: Neither YES nor NO to UK membership in the EU! For Abstention in the Referendum! We call on Momentum to create a “Third Camp” and to launch a socialist and internationalist campaign! For international Unity of the British, Migrant and European Workers! http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/redlib-brexit/

RCIT: Boycott Cameron’s Trap: Neither Brussels, nor Downing Street! For Abstention in Britain’s EU-Referendum! For international Unity and Struggle of the Workers and Oppressed! Fight against both British as well as European Imperialism! Forward to the United Socialist States of Europe, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/eu-referendum-in-uk/

Michael Pröbsting. The British Left and the EU-Referendum (Download as a PDF), http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/british-left-and-eu-referendum/