The Guardian 25 January, 2006
Editorial
The march of history
and the new anti-communist crusade
Millions of Australian workers have returned to work following the Christmas and New Year holidays. During the course of this year, they will begin to face the consequences of the Howard Government’s IR legislation. It will bring attacks on working conditions, wages, the rights of workers in the workplace and their trade unions. The Conciliation and Arbitration system has been virtually destroyed in favour of employers and a wage fixing committee, the chief of which is a former employer.
Student unionism is to come under savage attack as a result of the voluntary student unionism legislation. The "terror laws" are already being implemented against members of the Muslim community at this stage but they can, and as time goes on they will, be used against the political opponents and critics of the government, political parties, trade unions, community organisations and individuals. There are plans to extend the powers of the Australian armed forces and turn them into a police militia that could be used in industrial disputes or against demonstrators protesting the government’s policies.
Associated with this is the revival of a virulent anti-communist crusade which is being pushed in the European Parliament and has already been taken up by several Australian newspapers and, to its shame, the ABC. (see CPA protest)
It is only a little over 10 years ago that the newspapers under banner headlines declared that "Communism is dead". So why the change?
The fact is that communism was not killed off because of the break-up of the Soviet Union. Today, it is resurgent in many countries, including in Europe. A recent article by Gennadi Zuganov, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, reported that the votes going to communists and other left-wing parties in Europe increased in the 10 years from 1990 to 2000 from 6.7 to 15.3 percent.
In Asia strong communist parties lead the governments of China, Vietnam, Laos and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They also hold strong positions in the Mongolian parliament and in Cambodia. Two state governments of India are led by an alliance of communist and left parties and they have been repeatedly re-elected. The speaker of India’s parliament is a communist. There are strong and active communist parties in Japan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Sweeping changes in a left direction are taking place in South America the most recent victory being in Bolivia. Cuba has defied all the attempts of successive US Governments using trade sanctions, sabotage, propaganda and assassination attempts to overthrow the communist government of that small island state. Venezuela is providing heating oil to poor communities in the United States!
There is a similar story on the African continent despite the huge economic, social and national problems that have been created by colonialism in the Congo, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, South Africa and other African countries. Communists are represented in the South African parliament and in the ANC-led government.
It is for all these reasons that, as the capitalist world slips more and more into instability and has no solution to its problems, their governments reach for the anti-communist weapon just as they did in the days of the Cold War.
However, the anti-communist resolution being presented to the European Parliament goes much further than previous efforts. It attempts to re-write the history of Europe since the 1917 Russian revolution and, in particular, to reverse the defeat of fascism in World War II. It is an attempt to rehabilitate fascism through the back door by declaring the governments of all socialist countries to be "criminal regimes".
It has to be noted that in some countries such as Latvia, Estonia and several other former socialist states neo-fascist parties are back in power and it is these forces that are pushing the EU resolution. Their crusade should not be underestimated. Behind them are the big corporations who support and finance the extreme right-wing parties and supported Nazism and fascism. Their campaign must be defeated. They have a vested interest in criminalising the communist parties who have a vision of a new civilised world bringing peace between nations, the cooperation and friendship between all people and an end to their savage capitalist exploitation of all the working people.