Political Affairs Podcast #115 - Racism in the Obama Era, an interview with Jarvis Tyner
On this episode we talk with Jarvis Tyner about racism in the Obama era and about the importance of Black History Month. Tyner is the executive vice chair of the Communist Party USA.
On Saturday, May 15, an enormous red river of people flowed into Athens' Plain of Ares (Pedion Areos) for a major rally called by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). The banners, the slogans and the electrifying atmosphere of the rally reflected the determination of the Greek people to resist the crippling new austerity measures imposed on them by the Papandreou government at the orders of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The working people of Greece have vowed to intensify their protests, defend their rights, and pave the way for a new economic future for Greece based upon intensifying the class struggle through strikes and other forms of organized protest. From the very first moment, it was obvious that this was one of the most massive demonstrations seen in Athens in recent years, with tens of thousands of Communists arriving from all across Greece.
The strength of the rally and the message that was sent by the Greek Communists, along with all the supporters and friends of the party (among them many prominent intellectuals and artists), representatives of the mass organizations of the people’s movement, and thousands of members of the KNE (the CPG's youth organization) will continue to be felt in the coming days. It will have a special impact on the decisive moments of responsibility which lie immediately ahead, helping to strengthen the daily workers’ and people’s struggles and the tireless efforts of the KKE and the KNE, who are fighting for the formation of a united front and another path of development, based on popular power, democratic control of the economy, and socialism.
The long, fatiguing distances many people had to travel did not prevent them from participating energetically in the rally. The blocs of demonstrators were so huge that it took over an hour for all of them to assemble on the Plain of Ares. "The KKE Will Not Sign a Statement of Repentance for Imperialism!”, “Join with Us - Together There is a Solution!”, “The People Must Win, Not the Monopolies"!, and "Unity, Organization, People’s Power!” were the main slogans of the rally. Although the mass rally and the march of KKE were fully covered by the “902” radio and TV stations (operated by the Communist Party of Greece), the Greek bourgeois media (apart from the state-run TV channel) sought to bury the march and rally. For instance, radio station "SKAI" reported on a demonstration of 30 people in Thessaloniki, while it did not say a word about the 100,000 protesters at the KKE rally in Athens, a monumental example of bourgeois “misinformation”. On the other hand, the Associated Press blatantly distorted the truth when it described a demonstration of "about 6000 people." It is obvious that the massive participation in the KKE rally was very disturbing to the capitalist media monopolies and their reporters. Contrary to the Greek media, several international media outlets such as Euronews and Vesti devoted more time to the rally of KKE.
Watch videos from the rally of KKE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSjwwf91rEg
Aleka Papariga Addresses the Rally
Addressing the huge crowd from the podium, the General Secretary of the KKE, Aleka Papariga, commented on the economic crisis and the government's austerity measures:
“The government is shamelessly lying when it claims that these measures will last for three or a maximum of four years. However, this system, which is rotten to the core, is not eternal. The people’s sacrifices will only benefit the capitalists and the monopolies. Even if we assume that the Greek economy will soon exit from this cycle of crisis and
recover, things will remain just as bad for the people.
The leadership of PASOK is pushing us back many years. By posing to the KKE the misleading, intimidating question “Do you respect and obey the constitution or not?,” it is preparing for new "papers of national loyalty.” The government is attempting to penalize and criminalize the communist ideology, even the mere declaration and defense of socialism and communism. But it is not reckoning on an important factor here, namely the ability of the people to mount a counterattack.
Who are they to talk about respect for the constitution? We once again clearly affirm what has been our Party's position, our self-evident orientation since 1918: To struggle at any cost, not only to confront the problems the people face each day, but also to convince the people that their future is with socialism and communism!
A constitution is the product of the balance of forces at each historical period. When the situation tends to be reactionary, then the constitution ("the state of the nation") changes for the worse. When there is a tendency for the balance of forces to shift in favor of the people, then the situation becomes less blatantly negative for the people. And when the people win they will make their own constitution!
There has never been in history, nor will there ever be in the future, a bourgeois government, either a one-party government or a coalition one, which has not violated specific fundamental articles of its own constitution. People’s sovereignty is incompatible with capitalism!
When you defend the constitution, you defend the right of the capitalists to exploit the wealth that the people produce, to possess the most important commodity, namely the labor force, the ability of man to work. You defend the supreme law, the law of surplus value.
The way out can be seen in a new political choice, a choice that must be carefully and distinctively prepared for through the processes of the people's movement - by a social-political alliance from the bottom up. The streams of resistance exist already; they must merge into a torrential river.
Nowadays, it is not enough for the people to project a list of demands, appeals and requests. The demands, the goals of struggle, the concrete proposals must demonstrate the potential to solve the people’s problems. However, they can only acquire a dynamic and be effective if they are part of a basic strategy, which is the struggle for the overthrow of the monopolies, the struggle for people’s power and and a people-based economy, and they can only succeed if they are linked with the joint struggle of the KKE, an alliance which does not necessarily presuppose agreement with the KKE’s perceptions on socialism and communism.
Today the objective conditions for a different organization of society exist, an organization of society based on the decision of the people to transform the ownership of monopolies into social ownership.
New strike of PAME on Thursday, May 20
The Greek Communists will again join with their friends for the new strike of PAME (the All Workers Militant Front) on May 20. Until then they will work hard to ensure the biggest possible success of the strike.
Significant international participation
At the rally, Angelo Alves, a member of the Political Bureau of the Portuguese Communist Party, Erhan Nalchagi of the Political Bureau of the Turkish Communist Party, Astor Garcia of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party of the People’s of Spain, and David Para, the representative of the National Council of the Workers’ Party of Belgium expressed their solidarity with the national rally of the KKE to storms of applause, as well their support for the struggles of the Party and the class-oriented trade union movement in Greece.
