Shameless Syriza MPs represent nobody

Only 32 of Syriza's MPs voted "no" to the horrible Troika impositions (here in detail annotated by Varoufakis himself, who was among the dissidents), 6 other abstained and one was absent. All the others (110) voted "yes", doing what can only be described as "PASOKism". 

The threshold of dignity was well below the speculations of recent days that talked of more than 50 dissidents. This puts the situation very bad for the Left Platform to reclaim Syriza, as they have claimed to intend, even if the majority of Central Committee has signed against the deal. 

The People of Greece voted already a resounding "no" to measures less severe than these but they have been betrayed by politicians who have absolutely no shame nor bravery.

In essence this situation leaves the country without any legitimate government or representation. The Tsipras regime has become a mere protectorate of Germany and the People of Greece owes loyalty to the state no more. 

It is a very sad night for those who believe in democracy. The coup has been formalized by people who have no right to claim any representativity, much less call themselves "radical left" and are only a bunch of cowards and traitors. 

Shame on you.


Appendix: list of honorable Syriza MPs who stuck with the Greek People and voted "no" or abstained:

NO:
A.Kyritsi, Z.Konstantopoulou, G.Varoufakis, N.Valavani, D.Stratoulis, D.Kodelas, E.Sotiriou, V.Chatzilamprou, I.Stathas, I.Skoumas, Th.Kotsias, K.Lapavitsas, M. Kritsotakis, D.Charalampidou, I.Gaitani, L.Amanatidou-Paschalidou, I.Ioannidis, E.Diamantopoulos, St.Samoilis, R.Makri, E.Ouzounidou, I.Zerdelis, K.Delimitros, Th.Petrakos, St. Leoutsakos, P.Lafazanis, Z.Zannas, V.Kyriakakis, M.Psarea, K.Dermitzakis, K.Isychos, K.Zacharias

ABSTAINED
V.Katrivanou, D.Mpaxevanakis, N.Michalakis, The. Diotis, V.Leva, Ch.Karagiannidis

ABSENT
M.Tsanaka

Source: a commenter HERE.

Update:

#Syriza MPs who voted NO/abstained/were absent https://t.co/6C4vQ1wFRq

— Ane Irazabal (@AneIrazabal) July 16, 2015

In synthesis: voting "no" were:

• The 2 MPs from the Trotskyist International Workers' Left (DEA)
• The 4 MPs from the Maoist KOE (formerly a distinct party)
• 15 MPs from the Left Platform, including minister Lafazanis, vice-minister Stratoulis and Spokesman Petrakos
• 10 non-aligned, including former minister Varoufakis, President of Parliament Konstantinopoulou and vice-ministers Valavani and Isychos
• there seems to be one missing because the total count of Syriza's "no" vote is actually 32

Abstentions ("present") 6 non-aligned MPs. An MP from the Left Platform, Tsanaka, was absent.

Honor gallery:

να τους βλέπουμε να τους καμαρώνουμε #greekparliament #Syriza pic.twitter.com/5H0nq31WZ7

— ALExit (@Christos_Fyt) July 16, 2015

Update:

Podemos' leader, P. Iglesias backs Tsipras in his worst day: "it is the only thing he could possibly do".

Iglesias is demonstrating in these last months that he really really really wants to lose the upcoming elections by not forming popular union alliance with other parties and by being a control-freak on his own party and that way renouncing to its identity of participative democracy. These declarations really shows him as totally clueless (or worse).


Update: sign to kick Germany from the EU and save Europe from Merkel and Schäuble.

Uyghuristan: China deploys troops in force

China deployed many troops including tanks and other armored vehicles in Ürümqi, the capital of Uyghuristan (Xinjiang-Uyghur), annexed to China but ethnically distinct.

Around 19:00 Beijing time, thousands of heavily armed soldiers of the so-called Armed Police of the Pople were deployed in the Central Asian city, occupying the central square. I have never seen anything like that before, declared a local.

The deployment ended an hour and a half later. 

It appears to be scare tactics as the 4th anniversary of the Uyghur revolt of 2009 approaches. Recently some 100 activists attacked, armed with knives, a police station in the historical city of Hotan. 35 people were killed, although it is unclear to which side they belonged to. 

Four years ago, brutal riots confronted the native Uyghurs with the Han colonists, which make up some 40% of the population, resulting in a death toll of 200, including the victims of police repression.

Source: Gara[es].

Just in case anyone had doubts... North Korea removes Marx and Lenin all over the place

The North Korean regime is founded on a peculiar ideology known as Juche, not too different from the fascist autarchy (militarist and nationalist self-reliance) of Franco, of arguable Marxist (or rather Stalinist) influences but in practice acting as a totalitarian nationalist fascism. 

It was already well known to those interested that North Korea discreetly welcomes foreign private "investment", i.e. exploitation of a most cheap and defenseless working class, business that is managed by a select few foreigners' club like the aristocratic and eccentric Spaniard Alejandro Cao de Benos, who get good benefits from their mediator role. 

But now is wholly official: the Korean authorities have removed the portraits of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin from the Kim Il Sung Plaza, signaling that they no longer consider them influential in any way. 

Before and after: no difference in practice

Source: Disidente del Capitalismo[es].

Most of the Maoist grassroots join the new Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

Jayapuri Gharti Magar
leader of All Nepal Women’s Association (Revolutionary)

The schism among Nepal Maoists seem consolidated by now and Prachandra and camarilla seem to only represent themselves. While only one third of the Central Committee of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), UCPN-M, defected to the newly formed party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), CPN-M, almost all of the "sister organizations", the real backbone of the party, have joined the new organization. 

The several dozen "sister wings" are representative of the oppressed communities of Nepal, ethnicities and castes marginalized and oppressed and also professional associations and the women's movement:

The chiefs of sister wings joining Baidya´s party are Jayapuri Gharti Magar of All Nepal Women´s Association (Revolutionary), Gunaraj Lohani of All Nepal Teachers Association, Tilak Pariyar of Nepal National Dalit Liberation Front, Ishwar Chandra Gyawali of United All Nepal People´s Cultural Federation, Suresh Ale Magar of Indigenous Nationalities Federation, Maheshwar Dahal of Revolutionary Journalists Association, Mangal Bishwakarma of All Nepal People´s Health Workers Association, Ekaraj Bhandari of Association of Fighters Disappeared by State, Shiva Kattel of National Industries and Commerce Federation and Jayandra Bahadur Chand of Republican Sports Federation.

Likewise, Rukma Lamichhane of Nepal National Employees´ Organization, Santosh Budha Magar of Magar National Liberation Front, Takma KC of Nepal National Professors´ Organization, Padam Rai of Kirat National Liberation Front, Bharat Chepang of Chepang National Liberation Front, Chun Bahadur Thami of Thami National Liberation Front and Bartaman Rai of Rai-Danuwar National Liberation Front have also joined the new party.

Similarly, Raman Shrestha of National Lawyers Council, Bishnu Pukar Shrestha of Campaign for Human Rights and Social Transformation Nepal, Laxman Pant of All India Nepal People´s Rights Forum, Deependra Kumar Chhantyal of Chhantyal National Liberation Front, Nagendra Dhimal of Dhimal National Liberation Front and Pawanman Shrestha of Newa National Liberation Front are the other chiefs of sister wings joining CPN-Maoist.

Instead the leaders of some organizations remain alligned with Prachandra and Bhattarai, who, right now, exert the nominal government of Nepal but are watching the grass cut under their feet, as they accepted almost all the impositions by the bourgeois camp and India. The officialist organizations are:

Chitra Bahadur Shrestha, chief of All Nepal Peasant Federation (Revolutionary), Shalikram Jamakattel, chief of All Nepal Trade Union Federation, Himal Sharma, chief of All Nepal National Independent Students Union (Revolutionary), Amar Tamu, chief of Tamu National Liberation Front, Ram Charan Tharu, chief of Tharu National Liberation Front, Suryaman Dong, chief of Tamang National Liberation Front, Hitaraj Pande, chief of Sahid Pariwar Samaj, Deependra Pun, chief of Ghaite Yoddha Pariwar, Khim Lal Devkota, chief of All Nepal Intellectual Association, Gyandera Kumal, chief of Kumal National Liberation Front, Shree Jabegu, chief of Limbuwan National Liberation Front and Mukti Pradhan, National Human Rights Concern Center, have stayed with the mother party. Of them, Kumal, Jabegu, Pradhan and Devkota are close to the faction led by party Vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai.

The new party also counts with the People's Liberation Army, whose never completed dissolution was one of the main contention points between the two camps. 

Source: Revolution in South Asia.

From the Net: 'China: The Wukan uprising and its lessons' (Socialist World)

China: The Wukan uprising and its lessons

23/02/2012

Workers’ strikes and new local rebellions use the slogan “Learn from Wukan”

Vincent Kolo and Zhang Shujie, chinaworker.info

Wukan is the fishing village in southern China’s Guangdong province that achieved worldwide fame as a symbol of mass resistance. Like thousands of other rural communities in recent years, the 13,000 inhabitants of Wukan rose up against corrupt local officials who have stolen land and made millions in profits. But Wukan achieved something else, by displaying a new level of organisation and mass mobilisation, setting up independent popular committees and campaign structures. In so doing, Wukan has become a benchmark for future struggle in China. 

(...)

(...) the impact of the Wukan uprising is enormous and goes far beyond its boundaries and even those of Guangdong province. This was, according to numerous commentators, the first time since 1949 that the CCP totally lost control of an administrative area. During a few short weeks the struggle in Wukan shattered the idea that the Chinese people need one-party dictatorship and are incapable of governing themselves democratically. 

(...)

Along with several other concurrent struggles – including some very significant workers’ strikes – Wukan shows that mass protests in China are becoming more organised, more bold, and their methods and tactics more sophisticated. In short, they are adapting to the changing situation, studying and taking stock of the evolution of the one-party dictatorship as it upgrades its repressive methods. (...)

“What is happening in Wukan gives an extraordinary view of the social tensions that exist in China,” noted BBC reporter Martin Patience, who was one of several foreign journalists inside Wukan during the struggle. Incredibly, China experienced more mass protests last year than the entire Arab world, based on sheer numbers. (...)

Official figures show that 43 percent of China’s villages have suffered from land seizures over the last decade, and every year four million peasants lose their land. A whole generation of local ‘communist’ politicians have become millionaires as a result of this lucrative trade in what is technically still ‘collectively-owned’ land. This massive sequestration of land, smashing the fiction of communal ownership, has been a major ingredient in China’s booming economy. 

(...)

... full article at Socialist World. Found via Kasama.

External article: 'Wukan peasant victory sets stage for Chinese turmoil' (A. Ford at The Commune)

Adam Ford reports on the Wukan rebellion and asks what it means for the future of social struggles in China

The villagers of Wukan in south-east China appear to have won a victory over the misnamed Communist Party regime, and prevented the sale of some communal land. This triumph is the result of direct action, direct democracy, and the community’s ability to get the word out, in spite of government censorship. These factors will be crucial in 2012, as factory workers come into conflict with multinational corporations in the cities.

The struggle began in September, when Wukan residents became suspicious that the local government was in the process of selling common farming land to Country Garden - a company which builds residences for the rich. The 21st sawhundreds of villagers gathered at nearby Communist Party offices, to nonviolently protest against the sale. But as crowds grew and grew in numbers, so too did their confidence. Protesters began blocking roads and attacking buildings in an industrial park.

Three villagers were arrested at the Communist HQ demonstrations, and the next day hundreds laid siege to the police station, demanding their release. The state responded to this challenge with unrestrained ferocity, with police and mercenaries beating villagers apparently without discrimination – men and women, children and the elderly.

Cops were eventually called back to their posts, and the government struck a conciliatory tone, even asking villagers to elect delegates who could air their grievances. In retrospect, this seems to have been a ploy to uncover the ‘leadership’. One of these – respected village butcher Xue Jinbo – died in police custody, apparently the victim of a state killing. The state news agency claimed that Xue was the victim of a heart attack, but the bruised knees, bloodied nostrils and broken thumbs reported by his son in law indicate this took place under torture.

What happened next stunned Beijing authorities, and sent shockwaves around the world in mid-December. The furious Wukan villagers banded together and drove the police and Communist Party officials out of town. They then set about running things for themselves.

... continue reading at The Commune.