Videos from the Conference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThUTVb9gAiM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pxF7s-IHKE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGwKde8eRfw

EEK and DIP at the antifascist demonstration in Budapest (3 April 2014)

Photos from the 2nd Workers Euromediterranean Conference

Cyprus in the international situation by Aziz Şah

Our name is Neos Anthropos-Yeni İnsan. We used this name because of the historical meaning of Neos Anthropos. Neos Anthropos was a newspaper of the first Leninist-Bolshevik political cadre in Cyprus. It was the mother of the Cyprus Communist Party. Neos Anthropos, had in the year 1926 two main mottos: Workers’-peasants’ government and “Balkan socialist federation”.

Balkan and Mediterranean socialist federation of the soviets is our aim and reason to live in Cyprus. Cyprus as an island, isolated and alone can be only military base of imperialism! Like todays Cyprus: 40 years ago Turkey occupied Cyprus. The colonisation and settlement began!

Report on Iran

Iran is a country with an interesting and rich political history. It is one of the most geopolitically strategic countries in the middle-east. Its unique policies throughout its various political regimes in its history constantly keep it at the center of attention. Here, we will briefly attempt to cover important events in the last months and years.

The discussion will begin with Ruhani’s rule after Ahmedinejad, touch important issues regarding the “green movement” and conclude with the situation of minorities in Iran.

Ruhani’s rule after Ahmedinejad

Throughout the history of the Islamic Republic, we repeatedly observe a more relaxed and stable period right after a suffocating period of hardship and repression. While it would be far-fetched to claim that this happens 100% under the control of the religious leader, it would equally be naive to think that he does not play a part. Even though Ahmedinejad and the religious leader came to opposite terms at the end of Ahmedinejad's rule, he was the religious leader’s supported candidate in the beginning. On one hand the economic hardships, partly due to his ‘strict’ (fundamentalist) policies, and on the other hand his desire to organize the masses to support policies different from Khameney's resulted in the establishment’s desire of a new government. We have already seen such a period of “relaxation” after the Refsencani rule mainly in the cultural domain and now the establishment required another relaxation in the economic and social spheres. Various speeches by Ruhani before his election show extensive proofs of this claim.

Report from Bulgaria: The years of transition in Bulgaria from the totalitarian regime by Evgeni

Mass privatisation - the biggest facturies and resources felt into possesion of the former communist party leaders, which became wild capitalists and like ones, they immediately sold part of them to big western corporations and rest they just led to bankruptcy and sold them for scrap, leaving all workers behind with no job.

Organized crime - when the transition started, the old Militia fell apart - the powerful police machine with tens of thousands of members, was no longer needed. The former police officers had no job and because of thei represion training they formed wide spread organized crime groups. They started widespread blackmailing, kidnapping, tourturing, extortion and so on. All the current huge insurance and financial companies in Bulgaria emerged from these groups. So did our previous prime minister. While the current minister came from the former totalitarian party leaders, who sold the country for no money to western companies.

Western proraganda - the Soviet propaganda was totally replaced by the western one. The word ''communist' became ofensive, the shamans of the free market ënlightened the people of the "new gods" - the foreign investors, for whom we needed to make the sacrifice of mass privatisation. The result was that 3 million people vanished from the country. 1 million died from poverty and preventable deceases, 1 million emigrated and 1 million were never born.

Cyprus, The Communique and Imperialism by Kostas Apostolopoulos

Contribution to the 2^nd Workers’ Euro-Mediterranean Conference

40 years after the war that divided Cyprus in two and filled the country with sorrow and thousands of people from both main communities went missing -but also 100 years after the break of WWI- both the Cypriot people and humanity as a whole, are now confronting great historic challenges.

On the one hand, global capitalist crisis, along with the new erupting problems, stirs up and persistently asks for answers to all the unsolved historical issues - and Cyprus has many.

On the other hand, it is harder to describe in words the devastating changes in the Republic of Cyprus and in the life of Greek-Cypriots in the past period.

Grave Crisis Facing the South African Capitalist System by Latief Parker

People’s steps emphasized by the Ukrainian crisis: attention, we are in 2014 by Ana Bazac

[this text was sent as a contribution to the conference]

Introduction: Why should we go over to Russia? We must go over to it … and more

My standpoint here is to connect the geopolitical and the social/class views – just opposite to Alexander Dugin’s opinionsⁱⁱ – and to condition the constitution of a sustainable Eurasia by rejecting the capitalist relations and by fulfilling an alternative model of society.

Therefore, the problem is no longer that of the obvious legality of the referendum in Crimea or that of the obvious legality of the behavior of Russia towards Ukraine and Crimea. This legality was demonstrated point by pointⁱⁱⁱ. But the problem is, forwards, that of the moral and geopolitical legitimacy of the procedures used by Russia and the Crimean authorities.

Neo-Nazi in Ukrainian Power is a Crucial Challenge to All Lefts in Ukraine and Russia by J. Abramson

Massive actions in Kiev and other cities since October 2013 till February 2014 have demonstrated that Ukrainians are been tired due to injustice and total corruption, due to anti-social policy and authoritarian power behavior. They have shown total bankruptcy of “guided democracy” pattern foisted on the people by oligarchs. In the same time the tragism of the situation in Ukraine reveals itself in that that broad social protest of active majority of Ukranian people labor part has been used by liberal-nationalist opposition and by the part of oligarchy standing behind it. Their goal was – to lead in the power their collaborators who will continue anti-social policy of liberal reforms under banner of Eurointegration. The events after February, 21-22, have put Ukraine on the border of the disintegration and civil war. Political forces came to power in Kiev have already in first days demonstrated their anti-communist, anti-Soviet, anti-Russian intents. Regional power is being transfer itself to local oligarchs of pro-West orientation.

The Permanent Instability of Capitalism by Hillel Ticktin

Introduction:

It is now around 7 years since the initial events around the current depression began, with the housing market having peaked in July 2006 in the United States, followed by the collapse of the US subprime mortgage industry by March 2007. The house of banking cards gradually fell in, reaching its depth with the Lehman bankruptcy in October 2008. Japan, of course, has remained in its own downturn since 1989, when their stock exchange declined over time to one quarter of its peak in 1989. The whole period from 1989 to March 2000 was marked by a high level of instability, with a downturn to 1993 followed by an upturn which led to a flow of money to East Asia which fled in 1997 precipitating an East Asian crisis, and then a dot com boom and collapse in March 2000. The combination of 9/11 and the war on Iraq drew the global economy out of its slump, albeit with a low rate of growth.

From a perspective in which we look back from 2014, the turning point appears to be around 1989, when there was a downturn in Western economies following the stock exchange crash of October 1987. Japan has even now to recover to a period of consistent economic growth, while Sweden and Canada went through major transformations. . It is no coincidence that the end of the Cold War was in 1989-91, during that global downturn. The entire period from 1940-90 was lived in the shadow of war and Cold War. Without the political and economic stability that it induced in ‘Western capitalism’, the future became uncertain. The next ten years saw a series of bubbles- in East Asia, with the implosion of the Long-term capital management fund, and the end of the dot-come boom in March 2000.

Διακήρυξη της 2ης Εργατικής Ευρωμεσογειακής Συνδιάσκεψης

[Tο EEK προτείνει στις οργανώσεις της επαναστατικής αριστεράς το παρόν κείμενο της Διακήρυξης της 2^ης Εργατικής Ευρωμεσογειακής Συνδιάσκεψης ως βάση συζήτησης για τη συγκρότηση κοινού ψηφοδελτίου για τις Eυρωεκλογές.]

Αθήνα, 29-30 Μαρτίου 2014

Κάτω τα προγράμματα κοινωνικού κανιβαλισμού της τρόικας! Διαγραφή του χρέους! Για μια σοσιαλιστική διέξοδο από την κρίση!

Κάτω όλες οι καπιταλιστικές κυβερνήσεις! Για την εργατική εξουσία!

Κάτω η ιμπεριαλιστική Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση – για τις Ενωμένες Σοσιαλιστικές Πολιτείες της Ευρώπης!

Εμείς, οι συμμετέχοντες στη 2^η Εργατική Ευρωμεσογειακή Συνδιάσκεψη στην Αθήνα, μαχόμενοι εργάτες και κοινωνικοί αγωνιστές, εκπρόσωποι λαϊκών οργανώσεων και κοινωνικών κινημάτων, τόσο στην Ευρώπη, όσο και διεθνώς, καθώς και άλλων δυνάμεων της επαναστατικής Αριστεράς, καταγόμενων από διαφορετικές παραδόσεις, που συμμετέχουμε σε κοινωνικούς αγώνες σήμερα, καλούμε την εργατική τάξη και όλους τους καταπιεσμένους σε μια αποφασιστική αναμέτρηση με τις δυνάμεις του κεφαλαίου:

• Για να νικήσουμε τα προγράμματα «λιτότητας» και κοινωνικού κανιβαλισμού που επιβλήθηκαν από την τρόικα της ΕΕ/ΕΚΤ/ΔΝΤ και όλες τις καπιταλιστικές κυβερνήσεις της Ευρώπης, προκειμένου να ανατρέψουμε τις κυβερνήσεις της τρόικας.
• Για να διαγραφεί το χρέος στους διεθνείς τοκογλύφους του χρηματιστικού κεφαλαίου.
• Για να σπάσουμε αποφασιστικά από την ιμπεριαλιστική Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση, για τη σοσιαλιστική ενοποίηση της ηπείρου κάτω από εργατικές κυβερνήσεις και εργατική εξουσία, ανοίγοντας το δρόμο για μια διεθνιστική σοσιαλιστική διέξοδο από την κρίση.

Declaration of the 2nd Workers Euro-Mediterranean Conference

Athens, March 29-30, 2014

Down with the “austerity” programs of social cannibalism of the troika! No payment of the debt ! For a socialist way out from the crisis!

Down with all capitalist governments! For workers power!

Down with the imperialist European Union - for the United Socialist States of Europe!

We, participants in the 2^nd Workers Euro-Mediterranean Conference in Athens, militant workers and social fighters, representatives of popular organizations and social movements in Europe, and internationally, as well as of forces of the revolutionary Left coming from different traditions, involved in social struggles today, we call the working class and all oppressed for a decisive confrontation with the forces of capital

• to defeat the “austerity” programs of social cannibalism imposed by the troika of the EU/ ECB/ IMF and all the capitalist governments of Europe, to overthrow the troika governments
• to cancel the debt to the international usurers of finance capital,
• to break decisively from the imperialist European Union, for the socialist unification of the Continent under workers governments and workers power opening the road for an internationalist socialist way out from the crisis