Havana, Cuba, August 7-8, 2026

“Defending and honoring the legacy of the Cuban Revolution on the centenary of Fidel’s birth and consolidating solidarity with socialist Cuba; strengthening joint actions and joining forces for peace and against imperialist aggression.”

The communist and workers' parties gathered in Havana, Cuba:

Recognize the complexity of the current international context and the threat posed by the aggressive and interventionist policies of the United States and other imperialist powers, within the framework of the imperialist system and the relations of rivalry/cooperation that permeate it, for the defense of the sovereignty, independence, and self-determination of our peoples, to eliminate the exploitation of man by man and end the causes of imperialist wars, poverty, and the oppression of peoples; as well as to guarantee the protection of the environment.

Underline the importance of unity, solidarity, and cooperation among communist and workers' parties as a fundamental path to achieving a decisive response to the increase in inequality and exploitation in capitalist countries worldwide, as well as the intensification of rivalries and contradictions within the imperialist system itself, and the belligerent offensive led by the United States that is provoking new aggressions and conflicts.

Emphasize the importance of strengthening debates and discussions on topics that contribute to the articulation and synergy among the communist and workers' parties that comprise this historic platform, which is approaching its 30th anniversary.

Reaffirm the enduring relevance of the thought of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, in the context of the centennial commemoration of his birth. His ideas, against capitalist exploitation, profoundly anti-imperialist, humanist, internationalist, and based on solidarity, are essential to confronting the colossal challenges of the current international arena, halting the resurgence of fascism, and protecting future generations from the scourge of imperialism and war. Their efforts and concrete actions in the struggle for socialism and to strengthen unity and joint action among communist and workers' parties, and the entire anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist forces, are of extraordinary relevance today and constitute the path forward for continued progress in a dynamic and robust articulation, in conflict with big capital and its power. Their unwavering commitment to genuine peace for all peoples, international law, and the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, thanks to the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries, and which are being undermined today, compel us to hold high the banners of struggle for a truly just, democratic, and equitable international order for our peoples, which socialism can guarantee.

Reiterate their solidarity with the Communist Party of Cuba and the courageous Cuban people, who are resisting an unprecedented imperialist aggression due to the current United States government's attempts to overthrow the Revolution and reverse the achievements of the past 67 years.

Condemn the genocidal and inhumane economic, commercial, financial, and energy blockade imposed by the United States government, whose terrible impacts severely damage the daily lives of all Cubans and impede the country's legitimate right to development. This system of unilateral coercive measures is becoming increasingly comprehensive, having been intensified by two executive orders that aggravate its illegal and coercive nature.

Denounce the arbitrary indictment of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz by the Department of Justice, as part of a stratagem to tarnish his greatness and his undefeated legitimacy.

Demand the exclusion of Cuba from the spurious and unilateral U.S. list of supposed state sponsors of terrorism, a designation that is entirely meaningless when we recall the more than 3,000 victims suffered by the noble Cuban people at the hands of this scourge.

Emphasize the irrevocable nature of the Cuban people's will to build and achieve socialism as the only system capable of guaranteeing full human freedom.

In this regard, they agree on the following actions.

1. Continue supporting and standing with the Cuban people, the Communist Party of Cuba, and the Revolution in the face of the current imperialist aggression.
2. Coordinate different actions and initiatives to increase denunciation of the economic, commercial, financial, and energy blockade imposed by the United States government against Cuba.
3. Continue advancing toward strengthening cooperation and unity among communist and workers' parties in the struggle against imperialism and capitalism, for the defense and affirmation of sovereignty and rights, and to achieve peace and socialism.
4. Continue developing solidarity with the struggles of peoples throughout the world who defend their sovereignty and rights against imperialist aggression and interference, such as the struggle of the Palestinian people and other peoples of the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa.
5. Promote the solidarity movement with peoples against imperialist aggression, the struggles of the working class and of peoples throughout the world, to honor the history of the communist movement and of class struggles and to analyze the conclusions of the trajectory of the IMCWP in view of the 30th anniversary of their founding in 2028.

Statement by the Communist Initiative of Cyprus on the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of Cyprus, on 15 August: 

"On this day 100 years ago, the Founding Congress of the Communist Party of Cyprus (CPC) was held in Limassol. It was the culmination of a process that had been developing for years, as the first socialist groups in Cyprus had already emerged in the late 1910s. News of the October Revolution reached colonial Cyprus as well, giving fresh impetus to the workers’ struggle against wage exploitation.

The CPC carried out its activity under particularly difficult conditions throughout its 18-year existence. Despite its leadership initially being caught by surprise, the CPC took part in the October 1931 uprising. As a result, on 26 October, Vatis and Skeleas were arrested and, without being convicted by a court, exiled to Britain. By decree of 16 August 1933, the Party was officially outlawed. Nevertheless, the struggle continued, and the CPC expanded its influence even under conditions of illegality through its intervention in the trade union movement.

At the same time, the CPC upheld proletarian internationalism, both as a member of the Communist International and through the participation of Cypriot communists in the International Brigades and on the anti-fascist fronts of the Second World War.

The CPC’s 5th Congress, held in 1944, was also its last. The precise causes and circumstances that led to the dissolution of the CPC require further historical study.

A century later, the historical legacy of the CPC remains alive. Social conditions may have changed to some extent, but the fundamental causes that gave rise to the need for a revolutionary workers’ party continue to exist. The activity of the Communist Initiative of Cyprus today forms part of this historical continuity.

With this legacy as our guide, we Cypriot communists must intensify our struggle for a just solution to the Cyprus problem, for the liberation and reunification of our entire people, through an end to the Turkish occupation and the elimination of all its consequences. Only a revolutionary party that unites the vanguard of the working class, regardless of community, origin, language or religion, can lead the struggle against the occupation and the fight for a united and independent Cyprus, without foreign guarantors or protectors and free from imperialist-imposed solutions. A solution born out of the people’s own struggle, for a society free from the exploitation of man by man.

We, as members of the Communist Initiative of Cyprus, draw courage and strength from our political forebears and pledge that, despite the adverse balance of forces, we will continue with unwavering conviction to struggle for the realization of the aspirations of the pioneering communists who, a century ago, laid the foundations for the organized struggle of the Cypriot working class, with the aim of building socialism-communism.

One hundred years later, we continue the struggle." 

On Calle O’Reilly in Old Havana there is a plaque on the wall which says in Irish, Spanish & English:- 

 

“Two island nations on the same sea of hope and struggle; Cuba and Ireland.”

 

Because like Cuba with the US base in Guantanamo part of Ireland is still occupied by the British government. We share the same experience of imperialism and that is why we will always stand with Cuba. 

 

As Communists we understand that the problem is not Trump, the problem is US Imperialism under any US President whether Republican or Democrat. 

 

US Imperialism is a criminal enterprise.

US Imperialist actions against Cuba are criminal. Imperialism is criminal. Imperialism is rampant around the world and that is our enemy. We cannot divert our resources into petty squabbles amongst ourselves over tactical choices. 

 

Ireland is ruled by a comprador class that aligns its interests with imperialism rather than building national sovereignty and liberation. Economic dependency is entrenched through Foreign Direct Investment. 

 

One of our key tasks in Ireland is fighting to defend Irish neutrality, to defend our “Triple Lock”. That means that no Irish troops can be deployed abroad without three approvals:- 

 

First, the approval of Dáil Éireann 

Second, the approval of the Irish Government 

Third the approval of the United Nations Security Council or the United Nations General Assembly. 

 

It is this third approval that the current Irish government wish to remove to enable Ireland to be part of the militarisation of the European Union. 

 

Ireland is also bound by a “Triple Lock” of Imperialism. 

 

Firstly, US domination through transnational corporations and Foreign Direct Investment. 

 

Secondly, by European Union neo-liberal and militarist structures undermining democracy and sovereignty whilst attempting to end Irish Neutrality. 

 

Thirdly, Britain through partition of Ireland and continued occupation and political control of the north of Ireland. Partition sustains sectarian division, blocks national liberation and cements dependency. 

 

The Communist Party of Ireland reaffirms, following Lenin and Irish marxist James Connolly, that class struggle and the struggle for national liberation are inseparable. The fight for Socialism cannot be realised without breaking the chains of imperialist domination. Equality, national independence cannot be secured on a capitalist basis. Our scientific and historical analysis demonstrates that imperialism in Ireland obstructs the development of class politics and divides the working class north and south. Our Party insists that national liberation and socialism must advance together as two sides of the same coin. 

 

This year our Party held it’s 27th Congress and passed these calls to action:- 

 

1. Continue to defend Irish neutrality, oppose militarisation and build a mass anti-war movement. 

2. Continue to build solidarity and aid for Cuba, Palestine and all anti-imperialist struggles. 

3. Continue to build working class power in trade unions, tennant’s movements, women’s and youth struggles and community campaigns. 

4. Continue to fight racism and defeat the far right by uniting workers around the issues of housing, health care, jobs and rights. 

5. Continue to advance the demand for a sovereign and united Ireland as an essential step in the struggle for national liberation and the transition to socialism.

 

 

On the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Fidel it is fitting to remember his words on Ireland:-

 

“Ireland is one single country. 

One single homeland. 

My desire is that one day this entire Ireland will be united and at peace.”

 

Similarly we remember these words from Irish marxist and revolutionary leader James Connolly:- 

 

“The British government has no right in Ireland. 

Never had any right in Ireland. 

And never can have any right in Ireland.” 

 

Today in 2026 the Communist Party of Ireland says:- 

 

The US government has no right in Cuba. 

Never had any right in Cuba. 

And never can have any right in Cuba. 

 

I’m going to finish on this; 

 

We in the Communist Party of Ireland support Cuba with fund raising for containers of medical aid, solidarity and political awareness actions such as the Dublin Cuban Film Festival plus agitprop on the streets and bridges of Ireland. 

 

But Ireland is a small country and we can only do so much. 

 

So we say this:- 

 

We have the greatest respect for the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government. We recognise the substantial aid that China has given to Cuba with Ships containing rice and solar equipment. 

 

But, 

 

But, we plead with you now, 

 

Send the one thing that Cuba is desperate for and is in your capacity to deliver. 

 

Send ships of oil! 

 

Send them now!!

 

Thank you comrades. 

 

Viva Cuba! 

 

Viva Fidel! 

 

Viva Communism!” 

Sixty-five years ago today (13 August), the “Berlin Wall” was erected. Bourgeois media and all manner of “experts” are once again using the anniversary as an opportunity to wage their anti-communist propaganda campaign and engage in sweeping historical revisionism. Dictatorship, totalitarianism, an “unjust regime,” evil — there is seemingly no end to the labels attached to the German Democratic Republic. Terror, we are told, was omnipresent, with the Wall and the Stasi presented as its ultimate symbols. 

 

Not a word is said about the origins of the GDR, its achievements, or the historical context in which the Wall was built. Even basic facts and figures concerning border security are largely ignored, because they would undermine many of the myths and falsehoods that continue to be repeated.

 

 The GDR as an answer to fascism

The German Democratic Republic was founded on 7 October 1949. For four decades it existed as a socialist state on German soil before being brought down in 1990 in the course of the counterrevolution. The founding of the GDR was a response to the experiences and political conditions of its time. German fascism had destroyed the organized workers’ movement in the interests of monopoly and finance capital, abolished bourgeois-democratic structures, and established an open dictatorship backed by a comprehensive system of terror. At the same time, fascist Germany unleashed the Second Imperialist World War.

The peoples of the Soviet Union and the Red Army, together with the political and military leadership of the USSR, played the decisive role in crushing fascism. Alongside anti-fascist resistance movements and partisan forces in numerous European countries, they made enormous sacrifices in securing fascism’s defeat. It was against this historical background that the GDR emerged, with the declared aim of making a fundamental break with fascism and capitalism and building a socialist society.

The achievements of the GDR and the Cold War

The GDR was thus the socialist and anti-fascist answer to a capitalist system that had repeatedly fed the working class into the slaughterhouse as cannon fodder and reduced entire countries to ruins. In less than thirty years, international monopoly and finance capital had twice plunged the peoples into gigantic wars, leaving millions dead and wounded in the struggle for maximum profits.

For four decades, a socialist society was successfully built in the GDR: peace, social security, greater equality and social justice, no unemployment or homelessness, and the nationalization of industry, banks and trade. Healthcare and education were free of charge. Gender equality was also more advanced than in the Federal Republic of Germany, while homosexuals enjoyed a more progressive legal status. As the Party of Labour states in one of its declarations: “The GDR was a milestone in the world revolutionary process.”

These realities, together with the GDR’s other achievements, represented — and still represent — a threat to the monopolies and their political servants in the bourgeois parties. Once the construction of socialism was proclaimed, anti-communist and counterrevolutionary activity by the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Economic Community, NATO and U.S. imperialism intensified.

As the Party of Labour (PdA) notes: “The GDR was never able to develop under ‘normal’ conditions. During the Cold War it stood on the front line. It had to bear enormous expenditure for the security of the state and its population, while constantly confronting hostile propaganda and espionage, technology embargoes, sabotage, and the problem that its own currency was not convertible on the world market.”

>

The Cold War was felt in the GDR with particular intensity. It was regarded as the forward post of European socialism, while the special situation created by West Berlin — an enclave surrounded by the territory of the GDR — further sharpened the conflict.

Western infiltration – with the destruction of the GDR as the goal

The GDR also had to contend with extensive infiltration from the West. Imperialist states and alliances hoped that a counterrevolution in the GDR — which played an important role in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) — would set off a domino effect, encouraging similar developments in other socialist states.

Berlin in the 1950s became a center of massive intelligence activity, with reports referring to around 80 different secret and intelligence services operating there. The objective was the destruction of the GDR, including the recruitment of informants and collaborators who could carry out sabotage from within.

As Tibor Zenker has observed: “Socialism is not a fool’s paradise in which everyone can simply do whatever happens to suit them. That kind of individualism has nothing to do with freedom. Nor is socialist revolution a magic trick by which all the problems of the world and humanity are solved overnight. It ‘merely’ creates the possibility — the necessary precondition — for solving them.”

>

This reality, combined with the need for economic reforms, Western propaganda and the systematic recruitment of qualified workers and specialists, contributed to sections of the GDR population leaving the country through Berlin. At the same time, economic problems, shortages of raw materials and unfulfilled expectations among parts of the population created additional difficulties.

The GDR was therefore confronted simultaneously with Western aggression and multiple internal crises. This situation ultimately led to the beginning of the construction of the Wall on 13 August 1961. It formed an essential basis for the GDR’s economic survival and for maintaining peace. Even John F. Kennedy recognized the latter point. The Wall also contributed to a greater concentration of social forces on the construction of socialism inside the GDR.

It was certainly not the original objective of the SED leadership to build a wall. It was the outcome of concrete historical conditions and became necessary for defending the continued existence of the GDR until 1989. It safeguarded the power of workers and peasants and the many social achievements won during those decades.

The myth of the Wall’s victims – while Frontex is considered acceptable

Alongside the myths already mentioned, the GDR’s border regime and the so-called “victims of the Wall” remain among the most frequently used instruments of anti-communist historical falsification.

Between 1961 and 1989, 140 people died at the Berlin Wall. Of these, only 101 were people attempting to flee who were shot, suffered fatal accidents while trying to cross the border installations, or took their own lives. Today almost nothing is said about GDR border guards who, over the course of 28 years, maintained peace along the inner-German border and were themselves killed by counterrevolutionaries and saboteurs. On the contrary, such cases are often included in the general number of “Wall deaths,” thereby distorting the statistics.

This corresponds to an average of around 3.6 deaths per year associated with border enforcement. Compare this, for example, with recent crossings at Ceuta, where as many as 140 people can die in a single day. Yet the European Union is not described as an “unjust regime,” nor does its border system provoke comparable public outrage, because it supposedly exists to defend “our freedom.”

According to the Missing Migrants Project, there have already been 2,185 dead and missing in the Mediterranean this year; in 2016, the figure reached a peak of 5,143. Frontex continues to perform its role in defending the European Union as an alliance of banks and generals. Over fifteen years of border enforcement in the Mediterranean, more than 38,500 people have died or gone missing, many of them as a consequence of policies carried out by Frontex together with the Libyan Coast Guard — intercepting overcrowded boats, forcing people back, sinking vessels and withholding assistance.

Yet none of this produces the same outrage.

There is no comparable scandal over the horrors generated by capitalism, over wars, the climate crisis or the other consequences of the economic system that dominates the world today. Instead, once again, every imaginable anti-communist myth is brought out — not only against the GDR, but against the Soviet Union as well.

Because only through lies, historical distortion and diversion can the existing system continue to present itself as the better alternative.

“Socialism is and will be the hope, the only hope, the only path for the peoples, the oppressed, the exploited, the plundered. Socialism is the only alternative"  — Fidel Castro Ruz

A century after the birth of Fidel Castro Ruz, on 13 August 1926, the hatred directed against him has hardly diminished. Nearly ten years after his death, the same vocabulary is repeated with remarkable persistence: “dictator,” “tyrant,” “totalitarian.” Fidel is vilified, the Cuban Revolution is slandered, its achievements are denied or reduced to inconvenient footnotes, while the Cuba that existed before January 1959 is carefully pushed out of sight.

There is something revealing in this persistence. The bourgeois world does not spend decades fighting harmless ghosts. What remains intolerable to Fidel’s enemies is not simply the memory of a revolutionary giant, but what the Cuban Revolution proved in practice: that capitalist ownership is not eternal, that imperialist domination can be broken, and that political power can pass into the hands of forces determined to reorganize society according to the needs of the working people rather than the profitability of capital.

The revolutionary road opened on 26 July 1953, when a group of young rebels led by the 26-year-old Fidel attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The operation failed militarily. Many of the revolutionaries were murdered after their capture, while Fidel was arrested, tried and imprisoned. Yet Moncada became the political starting point of the process that, less than six years later, would overthrow Batista and change the course of Cuban history.

It was during his trial that Fidel delivered the defense whose closing words became inseparable from his name: “Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.” They were the defiant words of a young revolutionary before the courts of the dictatorship, but they expressed something deeper: the conviction that the Cuban people could cease being an object of foreign domination and capitalist exploitation and become the conscious makers of their own history.

The victory of January 1959 was not simply the replacement of one government by another. Had Batista been succeeded by a more respectable manager of the same social order, Washington could have lived with it. Dictatorship itself had never troubled the United States when capitalist interests and U.S. domination were secure.

The Revolution did something fundamentally different. Agrarian reform struck at the great landowners. Nationalizations confronted foreign monopolies and the Cuban bourgeoisie. The commanding sectors of the economy were progressively removed from capitalist ownership. Cuba broke the chains of dependency that had tied it economically and politically to the United States and opened the road to socialist construction. There lay the real rupture.

Before the Revolution, Cuba was formally independent but economically subordinated. Sugar dominated an economy heavily dependent on foreign capital. Large estates coexisted with deep rural poverty. Havana was sold abroad through the glitter of casinos, luxury hotels, prostitution and organized crime, while behind that façade stood another Cuba: unemployment, illiteracy, miserable housing and profound class inequalities.

Batista tortured and murdered political opponents, but Washington remained his ally. The decisive question was never abstract “democracy.” It was class interest. Batista defended capitalist property and U.S. domination; the Revolution challenged both.

That is why pre-revolutionary Cuba must disappear from the anti-communist account. Once it is restored to the picture, the essential questions become unavoidable: Who lost estates, monopolies, privilege and political power after 1959? And who gained schools, hospitals, land, social rights and sovereignty?

The gains that followed were neither miracles nor gifts bestowed from above by one exceptional leader. They were rooted in the change of power itself. Mass illiteracy was virtually eliminated. Education became a universal social right. A nationwide public health system was created. Cuba trained generations of doctors, teachers, scientists, engineers and other professionals on a scale remarkable for a country of its size. Women entered economic, political and social life in vastly greater numbers, while science, culture and sport were opened to the broad masses of the people.

Socialism did not abolish contradictions, mistakes or bureaucratic distortions. No serious communist would claim that it did. What the Cuban experience demonstrated was something more important: once private profit ceased to be the supreme criterion, society could direct enormous human and material resources toward needs that capitalism routinely neglects.

Cuban internationalism became one of the finest expressions of this new social morality. In it one can recognize something of what Che Guevara meant when he spoke of the formation of a new human being: not a creature of individual competition and private accumulation, but a conscious participant in collective struggle, solidarity and socialist construction.

Cuban medical personnel went to Chile after the devastating earthquake of 1960 and, three years later, to newly independent Algeria. In the decades that followed, doctors, nurses, teachers and other specialists travelled across Latin America, Africa and Asia, often reaching places from which capital saw no profit to be made.

That internationalism also took up arms when history demanded it. In Angola, Cuban internationalists crossed the Atlantic not to acquire colonies, seize mines or obtain concessions for Cuban corporations, but to assist a people fighting aggression backed by apartheid South Africa. Their blood was shed thousands of kilometres from Havana in a struggle whose blows were felt from Angola and Namibia to the very foundations of apartheid.

Here the contrast with imperialism becomes almost brutal in its clarity. The historical trail of U.S. imperialism is littered with coups, invasions, proxy wars, assassination operations, reactionary dictatorships and the economic strangulation of peoples who dared refuse submission. Its tentacles have stretched across Latin America and far beyond it — an imperialist octopus wrapping military bases, monopolies, financial coercion and political intervention around entire countries while speaking, invariably, in the language of “freedom.”

Cuba committed the unforgivable crime of cutting those tentacles.

For more than six decades, the United States has imposed on the heroic Cuban people an economic, commercial and financial blockade — a genocidal policy of economic warfare aimed at exhausting an entire society, sowing hardship and creating the conditions for the defeat of the Revolution from within. Presidents have changed, tactics have shifted and particular measures have been tightened or loosened, but the strategic objective has remained intact.

The blockade is neither an abstraction nor an all-purpose excuse. Its consequences enter hospitals, factories, power stations and Cuban homes. It obstructs access to financing, medicines, technology, fuel, machinery and spare parts; its extraterritorial reach threatens banks, shipping companies and businesses thousands of kilometres from Cuba. The calculation behind it is as cynical as it is simple: make life unbearable enough, and perhaps suffering can accomplish what invasion, sabotage and political isolation failed to achieve.

Yet Marxists have no need to explain every Cuban difficulty through the blockade. Bureaucratic weaknesses, errors in planning, ineffective measures, low productivity and other internal contradictions have existed and must be confronted. Socialist construction does not advance through praise alone, and criticism directed at correcting weaknesses is indispensable. But that has nothing in common with the “criticism” of those for whom every Cuban problem has the same prescribed cure: dismantle socialism, restore capitalist property and return the island to the embrace of U.S. capital.

(…)

A panorama of German Democratic Republic is here. History, Genders, Medias, Culture, Foreign policies, etc. everything you need to know.

With the aim of making the Korean people their slaves and building a military base and an economic foundation for seizing other countries' territories on the Asian Continent and turning their peoples into slaves, the Japanese imperialists occupied Korea and enforced colonial rule for 36 years. From the very first day of their colonial rule in Korea the Japanese occupationists subordinated the Korean economy to their imperialist interests and built many enterprises. power stations, railways and so on at the expense of the Korean people's sweat and blood.

The liberation of Korea from Japanese imperialist colonial rule opened up the possibility for the Korean people of achieving democratic freedom, protecting their public and private property and rehabilitating the country economically and culturally in a short spuce of time.

All the enterprises, mines, power stations, railways and so on which Japanese imperialism built in Korea with the aim of exploiting its people and carrying off its resources to Japan, must become its people's possessions and be used for developing this country and improving its people's livelihood.

Therefore, the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea promulgates the law on nationalization of industries, transport, communications, banks and so on as follows:

All enterprises, mines, power stations, railways, communications, banks, trade, cultural establishments and so on owned by the Japanese state, corporate bodies and individuals or Korean traitors to the nation, shall be confiscated without compensation and nationalized, that is, made the property of the Korean people.

This law comes into force from the day of its promulgation.

Statement by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey(TKP) following the AKP government's signing of the “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement”: 

"The AKP government has signed the so-called “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement” and thereby dragged our country into a new and extremely dangerous military adventure. The agreement’s most important declared clause treats an armed attack on any one of the three countries as an attack on all of them.

The AKP has thus placed Turkey under an obligation of the gravest consequence, one that could drag the country into war under conditions and on behalf of causes nobody can predict.

The ruling party has taken on this obligation in a region where imperialist aggression, regional rivalries and the calculations of reactionary governments constantly intertwine and threaten to produce fresh conflicts at any moment.

Nothing guarantees that Saudi Arabia’s role in the wars in Yemen and the Red Sea will not tomorrow present itself to Turkey as a “joint defense obligation.”

No one can guarantee that a new wave of attacks on Iran, an escalating war in Yemen, or some other regional reckoning will not pull Turkey directly into the fighting.

This is precisely the point: Turkey’s military power is being chained to imperialism’s regional plans, and the road is being cleared for our people to pay the price of these plans in blood. It takes little imagination to picture Trump rubbing his hands together as he announced this deal to the world, boasting of “Turkey’s army and arms industry, Saudi Arabia’s financial power and Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.”

AKP circles have tried to sell this agreement as regional powers mobilizing against Israel, even as the founding of some new balance of power. None of this carries any conviction.

The AKP is not balancing against Israel, its “enemy brother” in the region. It is signing up as a subcontractor for an “American peace,” a peace that strengthens Israel, weakens Iran, and is flanked by reactionary regional powers ready to play whatever grim role imperialism assigns them.

It has become plain that Washington is working systematically to remove every point of resistance standing in the way of a broader regional settlement centered on Israel, and to realign the whole region to serve its own interests. The attacks aimed at weakening Iran, the rollout of the Gaza Plan, and the signing of the Turkish-Saudi-Pakistani security pact as tensions in Yemen and the Red Sea escalate: none of these developments stands apart from the others.

Washington wants to spread the military burden of this strategy across its regional allies, and at the same time fold its regional orientation into NATO’s common strategy. Turkey has become critical precisely on this point. It was no accident that the NATO Summit in Ankara pushed Turkey’s war-making capacity and arms industry to the fore, or that the bargaining over the regional role assigned to our country took place there.

Now we watch that bargain being carried out step by step across the region.

The Mecca Agreement is therefore not a “defense agreement” signed between three countries. Turkey’s NATO-embedded war machine and military capacity are being bound, through new mechanisms with reactionary regional powers like Saudi Arabia, to imperialist plans spanning a still wider geography.

A harsh period awaits the vast expanse stretching from the Middle East through the Red Sea to Africa. As the fight over control of energy and trade routes, and over new and profitable fields for investment, intensifies, it is plain that this fight will bring new military alignments and bloody reckonings in its wake.

For all these reasons our people must stay alert to the new war scenarios the government will place before them, dressed up in nationalist bombast, dreams of a “new Ottoman” order, sectarian rhetoric, or the language of “national security.”

Turkey’s security does not lie in more military alliances, more armament, or taking on ever greater roles in imperialist plans.

Turkey’s security lies in withdrawing from NATO, shutting down the imperialist bases, sending foreign troops out of our country, and building relations with all our neighbors on the basis of equality, sovereignty and mutual respect.

Only a consistent and strengthening anti-imperialist popular will in Turkey can secure this.

Without the organized strength of our people growing, Turkey cannot break free of the war machine into which the ambitions of its capitalist class have thrust it.

Rejecting the fate that imperialism and reactionary forces have written for our country, and seizing hold of our own future, has become a vital necessity that demands organization. The TKP will do whatever this requires."

On Saturday morning June 27 at around 11 am, U.S. human rights lawyer, professor and journalist Daniel Kovalik was detained by three counter-terror police officers at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport under paragraph 4 of Schedule 3 of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, which allows border police to detain and question people they believe to be involved in “hostile state activity.”

Kovalik — who was visiting England to attend a wedding — was detained for approximately two and a half hours and interrogated extensively on his political views about “everything under the sun,” including on Israel, Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organisations Hamas and Hezbollah, the war against Iran, and on China and Russia. He told Crispin Flintoff that despite the scope of questions, ultimately, “I think what they wanted is my electronic devices. That’s what they wanted and they got them.”

Kovalik was told he would be arrested if he did not co-operate with the interview or provide the passwords to his electronic devices. Officers seized his phone and laptop, took his DNA, fingerprints and photographs from nine angles, copied his bank and credit cards and rifled through his luggage. They also questioned him about a book he was carrying — a gift from a student by Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, Palestine’s Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories — before releasing him.

During his interview, Kovalik repeatedly informed the interrogating officers — who refused to identify themselves when asked — that he is a practising lawyer, that his electronic devices contained material protected by legal professional privilege and that he objected to their seizure. A supervising sergeant subsequently confirmed that Kovalik had properly asserted legal professional privilege but said his devices would nevertheless be retained “with intention to copy.”

The 24th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP) begins today, 7 August, in Havana, bringing together communist and workers’ parties from around the world at a particularly difficult moment for Cuba and the international communist movement.

Hosted by the Communist Party of Cuba, the meeting will continue through 9 August under the theme: “We defend and honor the legacy of the Cuban Revolution on the centenary of Fidel Castro; we deepen our solidarity with socialist Cuba; we strengthen our joint actions and unite our forces for peace and against imperialist aggression”.

 

The gathering takes place amid intensified imperialist pressure against Cuba, including the tightening of the U.S. blockade and renewed threats against the socialist island. In April, the IMCWP Working Group stressed that solidarity with Cuba is a historic responsibility of communist and workers’ parties and declared that the Cuban people are not alone.

Following the IMCWP, Havana will also host the 1st International Symposium “Fidel: Legacy and Future”, organised by the Communist Party of Cuba in connection with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Fidel Castro. The symposium will take place from 10 to 13 August and will focus on the political and revolutionary legacy of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution.

The Havana meeting is therefore expected to be not only an important forum for discussion and coordination among communist and workers’ parties, but also a strong internationalist expression of solidarity with socialist Cuba, at a time when the island is once again facing severe economic pressure and imperialist threats.

Engels and His Role in the Creation of Scientific Socialism

Forty years ago occurred the death of Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's closest comrade-in-arms, one of the greatest revolutionary thinkers in human history, organizer and leader of the international proletarian party. The names of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels will forever remain in the memories of the peoples as the names of two great geniuses, of the creators of scientific socialism and the founders of the international Communist movement.

The revolutionary activities of Engels are inseparably bound up with the life and activities of Marx.

Forty years ago Lenin wrote:

>Ancient legends tell of various touching examples of friendship. The European proletariat may say that its science was created by two scholars and fighters whose relations surpass all the most touching tales of the ancients concerning human friendship

>* Lenin, Marx, Engels, Marxism, p. 40. International Publishers, New York.

The fortieth anniversary of the death of Engels which we are commemorating today coincides with the change that has occurred in the world labor movement, with the turn – caused by the influence of the victory of socialism in the U.S.S.R. and the very profound crisis of capitalism – which the broad masses of the Social-Democratic and non-party workers have taken towards Communism, and with the accelerated collapse of the Second International. 

The victory of the proletariat in the U.S.S.R. and the growth of the Communist movement all over the world are the direct result of the fact that the Bolshevik Party, the international Party of Lenin and Stalin, has remained loyal to the end to the teachings of Marx and Engels.

The collapse of the Second International, the defeat and bankruptcy of its parties, are the historically inevitable consequences of their desertion from the doctrines of Marx and Engels, of their vulgarization and distortion of Marxism. Millions of toilers – gripped in the vise of the crisis, hanging on the gallows, incarcerated in fascist jails and lying in the trenches of the imperialist wars that are flaring up – are now paying dearly for this desertion. 

The opportunists of all colors, of the Second International – Bernstein, Cunow, Kautsky, Vendervelde and others like them – accused Engels of all mortal sins and opposed Marx and Engels in their effort to "refute" both, their real object being to extract the revolutionary spirit from Marxism. It was not an accident, it was inevitable, and absolutely in keeping with the laws of development, that the revisionists in the Second International, who first fought precisely against Engels on all the fundamental questions of theory and practice, passed to the position of cooperation with the bourgeoisie and gradually slipped into the mire of reaction. 

From the very outset of his revolutionary activities Engels, together with Marx, waged a fight to lay the foundations of and to develop scientific socialism in the sphere of economics and the social sciences, in the sphere of philosophy and natural sciences; he waged a struggle to permeate the minds of the proletarian masses with revolutionary Marxism as widely as possible. (…)

As devastating wildfires continue to ravage Southern Europe, the Communist Party of Greece(KKE) and the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE) have sharply condemned their respective bourgeois governments, arguing that the repeated destruction is not merely the result of extreme weather conditions but of policies that systematically leave public fire protection services understaffed, underfunded and unprepared. 

 

The criticism comes as Greece and Spain are among the countries hardest hit by this year's catastrophic wildfire season. 

In Greece, the KKE accused Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of cynically calling for "trust in the Fire Service" while his government has systematically left it stripped of the personnel, equipment and infrastructure necessary to prevent and combat large-scale fires. 

 

The Party stressed that the heroism and self-sacrifice of firefighters cannot conceal the long-standing policy of understaffing, fragmented civil protection and the absence of comprehensive forest management and prevention measures. It argued that every summer exposes the consequences of treating fire protection as a cost rather than a social necessity, demanding the immediate reinforcement of the Fire Service with permanent personnel, modern equipment, effective prevention planning throughout the year, and full compensation for those affected.

Likewise, the PCTE expressed its solidarity with the victims of the devastating wildfires in the Madrid region and with the firefighters, forest brigades, healthcare workers, Civil Protection personnel and all public-sector workers battling the flames under extremely difficult conditions. 

 

While acknowledging that extreme weather has intensified the fires, the Party insisted that their catastrophic impact is the result of decades of neglected forest management, insufficient investment in prevention and territorial planning subordinated to profitability. It called for year-round strengthening of public forest management and firefighting services with stable staffing, sufficient resources and public ownership, while insisting that the recovery of the affected areas must serve the collective interest rather than private profit and that no affected family should be left without support.

Both communist parties underlined that the recurring wildfire disasters expose the contradictions of capitalist management, where prevention is neglected until catastrophe strikes and public services are treated as expendable costs rather than essential social needs. Their interventions stand in sharp contrast to the attempts of bourgeois governments to present these tragedies as unavoidable "natural disasters," while refusing to address the structural shortcomings that leave workers and local communities increasingly vulnerable.

Note:Also available on Substack.

I will try to translate more and more foreign speeches and articles that were never translated in English for the site.

On July 19^(th), more than 200 neighbors attended the festival organized by activists from the Delaunay Duclos Fabien Neighborhood People’s Committee for Mutual Aid and Solidarity (CPES DDF) in Saint-Denis in Fabien Square, located in the heart of the neighborhood between Duclos, Dourdin, and Fabien. More than 200 people gathered and enjoyed the CPES festival, La Cause du Peuple reports.

Residents organized the festival along with militants of the CPES DDF. From the very first moment the children and teenagers rushed towards the activities such as graphic design workshop and boxing.

A presentation took place with the title “Our strength lies in the collective”. La Cause du Peuple reports that the CPES “aim to unite and organize solidarity, but above all, to be a political tool that mobilizes and organizes residents.” The presentation brought together representatives from several neighborhoods and struggles. Among them there was a representative of the Siqueiros hostel committee, whose members struggle since January 29^(th) against the eviction of 1,000 workers by the landlord. At the same time the Gaston Dourdin association, housing movement newly formed, explained that they refurbished several apartments with the participation of the neighbors, and that they are struggling against the landlord that wants to close the ground floor, where the Gaston Dourdin association meets and has its center. The landlord is Logirep, big company that offers social housing.

Several organizations set up information tables, such as the Communist Youth, the International Anti-imperialist League (AIL) – Section France, the recently formed Gaston Dourdin Association, etc. Many children participated, writing letters for Palestinian prisoners and taking photos in support of Ahmad Saadat, imprisoned Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Additionally a football tournament and a barbecue was organized, where residents could discuss about their ideas and problems, and children could propose new ideas such as trips to the library or swimming pools during the hot-wave. La Cause du Peuple finishes the report with an evaluation and great optimism: “This celebration was a great success for the CPES activists, who brought together over 200 people for a friendly event steeped in activism. The day ended as night fell, full of hope and the promise of future struggles.”

Where the CGT stands after its 54th Congress — a response to a union member who wants to keep the CGT a fighting, class-struggle union

A few days ago I attended a meeting of CGT activists, where I made the following points.

The 54th Congress was staged as a show to promote Sophie Binet, with plenty of help from the media and politicians. It was tightly controlled, and behind the fanfare, the delegates’ democracy and free debate were reduced to almost nothing, treated as a mere formality. Even so, a good number of those present pushed back against the direction the leadership wanted to impose. On several amendment votes, the leadership was rebuked by 30 to 50% of voters, including on a change to the union’s statutes. What this tells us is that we need clear thinking, and frankly some courage, to size up the situation properly and meet a difficult moment head-on. In other words, we need to refuse the risk of watching class-struggle unionism, which the CGT has embodied throughout its history, fade away and die out in this country.

So we have to build. We’re in a position much like 1921, when our predecessors had to make hard decisions in the aftermath of the First World War, after the “union sacrée” and the choice of class collaboration had taken over the CGT. They had to shoulder real responsibility, and they did, fully aware of what was at stake. If we want an influential, organized, class-struggle union movement, we’ll need to make actual decisions, not just hide behind slogans like “this can’t go on” or “things need to change.”

That means reckoning honestly with the mistakes of the last 25 years and with the disastrous idea of “unified unionism,” which made the CGT the second-largest union federation in France by influence, but only by getting it to give up its independence. It chose to fall in line, and we all know where that led: a merely formal opposition to an unprecedented rollback of social gains, what Krasucki would have called a civilizational setback. The dismal turnout at the rally the Confederation organized on June 16, 2026, in front of the Senate to defend May Day, proves that Binet’s strategy is continuing on the same path. It’s a strategy built on failure: defeatism and capitulation before the fight even starts, all so as to argue that conditions aren’t ripe for a broader movement and that we need to lower our sights.

The CGT leadership isn’t drifting toward reformist “social dialogue” unionism. It’s already there, and has been for a while. Just reread Binet’s speech submitting to the ETUC’s line at its last congress, or her remarks aligning with the CFDT at the recent DGB congress in Germany, and the picture is clear. The CGT leadership is now actively helping carry out these orientations: support for European construction, defense of the euro, and a war economy geared toward a possible conflict with Russia, in step with other European confederations. The CGT is drafting a joint policy paper on this with the CFDT and the DGB. None of this came up at the 54th Congress, and it’s not hard to see why, even though it was a collective decision of the confederal bureau, recorded in the minutes of its meeting. Given the partners involved, you can guess what the paper will say. The intersyndicale that got so much praise at the congress serves the same purpose too: building a broad, reformist, euro-friendly union bloc in France that includes the CGT, with the “Maison commune” alongside the FSU playing its part. It’s no accident that the business paper Les Echos wrote approvingly about how smoothly the CGT and CFDT’s general secretaries now get along. And it should also be said that the CGT leadership and its international department gave a platform to the Ukrainian union KVPU, led by Mikhail Volynets, who is publicly known to have close ties to the neo-Nazi Azov group.

Quite logically, then, the “politicization” Binet talks about is really just the CGT’s social-democratization. On the international stage, the fight is no longer against capitalism, the CGT’s stated purpose for over a century and something that has all but vanished from its speeches and documents. Instead it’s a fight against the far right, or even the “far-right international,” not even against fascism as such. Brecht once said fascism is a form of capitalism. Apparently not, for the CGT leadership. Applied to the coming presidential election, this means following the same logic that led people to vote for Macron against Le Pen, a choice Binet and Martinez themselves openly made as recent Socialist Party candidates in municipal elections. The truth is, Binet never really broke with the PS. She’s still tangled up in that party of betrayal, in both its ideas and its tangled practices. And that is exactly what the CGT’s orientations amount to, whether at the national, European, or international level.

So this is what needs to be criticized, not moaned about as though we were simply victims of this destructive drift. We have real assets, and people are starting to wake up to what’s happening. We need to use what we have to win this battle of ideas and help that awareness grow. We need to build, to do something new, from the ground up, starting with company unions and local branches, to push back against defeatism and resignation. It can be done.

Let’s all get to work building the CGT that workers actually need. It’s worth celebrating that combative, clear-eyed activists are already working toward exactly that, with real determination and a genuine concern for the CGT’s unity and cohesion.

It’s worth rereading Benoît Frachon, one of the CGT’s great leaders. Back in January 1949 he wrote: “Neither the working class nor organizations like ours suffer from shameful ailments. Of course there’s no pride in falling into the enemy class’s traps. But shame only sets in once we get comfortable there. And it does set in, because it’s the workers themselves who end up settling accounts with the officials who let them down. Against that kind of danger, the best remedy is still the one we give ourselves collectively, through honest, open public discussion. It’s also the quickest and most effective.” (from Les porteurs de serviette)

Jean-Pierre Page