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The present situation in Libya is grave, with Philippine attention focused on the thousands of Filipino workers there who are fleeing the turmoil and are in need of immediate repatriation. Almost half of the 26,000 Filipino workers in Libya are in conflict areas, and many of them are technical and construction workers in the industry and infrastructure sectors. Their worksites have become fair game for armed mobs and pro-“democracy” protesters extorting money, mobile phones, computers and other electronic items, food and other things of value. Some of their barracks have been ransacked, and affected Filipino workers had to flee for dear life with nothing to bring with them.

  PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY 

The Portuguese Communist Party expresses its solidarity with the struggles and the popular uprisings in various countries of the Arab world, from the Maghreb to the Middle East, for employment, for better living standards, for social and labour rights, for freedom and democracy.

The PCP reaffirms its solidarity with the democratic, progressive and revolutionary forces which for decades resisted the oppression by regimes supported by the USA and the European Union and by organizations such as the Socialist International, and which are now integrating broad movements of popular struggle which - if their legitimate aspirations are fulfilled – will mark significant democratic advances in the Arab world and important defeats for the strategy of imperialist domination in North Africa and the Middle East.

Ближний Восток в последнее время сотрясают бури народного гнева. Под мощным давлением народных масс был вынужден бежать из Туниса президент Бен Али, правивший страной 23 года и превративший ее в кормушку для себя и своей семьи.

Сегодня социальная буря бушует на улицах городов Египта. Мощные отзвуки эти потрясения находят и в соседних странах, например, в Иордании и Йемене. Народная «улица», которая всегда была весомым фактором политики на Ближнем Востоке, вновь заставила услышать свой могучий голос.

Еще недавно ничто, казалось бы, не предвещало такое развитие событий. Однако напряженность вызревала давно. Взрыв возмущения в арабских странах вызван комплексом обстоятельств. Прежде всего, нищетой подавляющего большинства населения на фоне вызывающей роскоши жизни правящих группировок. Положение усугубил мировой экономический кризис, тяготы которого вновь переложили на плечи наиболее обездоленной части населения, а богатые стали еще богаче.

Нужно учитывать также тот факт, что значительную часть населения арабских стран составляет молодежь в возрасте до 30 лет. Однако прежде всего они не имеют работы. Даже те, кто получил приличное образование на родине или в иностранных университетах. У молодых людей нет перспектив, нет шансов получить жилье, создать семьи. Безработица и бесперспективность даже для высокообразованной части населения - еще один детонатор взрыва народного негодования.

To Solidnet and fraternal Communist & Worker’s Parties, National Liberation and Revolutionary Organizations,

Dear Comrade,

Attached please find the submission of the Communist Party of Canada to the 12^th International Meeting of Communist & Workers Parties held in Tshwane, South Africa, Dec. 2-4, 2010.

Comradely,

Central Office,

Communist Party of Canada

Esteemed Delegates,

Dear Comrades,

Our Party joins with all others in expressing our gratitude to the South African Communist Party, for hosting this important meeting of our international movement. And we pay tribute to this beautiful land and its resolute people, and especially to its many revolutionary leaders and martyrs – past and present – who have helped to forge a pathway to a brighter future, to a socialist future.

Comrades,

Our party shares the analysis of the current global economic crisis that has been expressed over the course of this and other exchanges since its onset in 2008:

that it did not arise as a result of errors, mismanagement or inadequate mechanisms of regulation, but rather as an inevitable consequence of the dynamics of this rotten, exploitative system itself,

that monopoly capital is using this crisis not only to protect its interests, but to squeeze even more advantages and concessions at the expense of the working class and the people;

that the struggle of the workers and their allies to defend their jobs, living standards and social/political rights from the impact of the crisis objectively constitutes a challenge to the capitalist system as a whole, even if they are not always or completely conscious of that fact;

and finally, that therefore the revolutionary leadership role of the Communist parties in each country is absolutely consequential and decisive.

1. These elections fully confirm the correctness and the importance of the PCP's decision to take part,with its own and autonomous voice, in the debate and clarification regarding the country's situation andthose who are responsible for it, regarding the role and powers of the President of the Republic and theover-arching need for a break with the right-wing policies, that may open the way for a path towards amore developed, just and sovereign Portugal.

Francisco Lopes embodied in these elections the alternative candidacy to Cavaco Silva and the right-wing policies with which he is compromised. Having at the core of his intervention and activity theneed for a different course for Portugal, Francisco Lopes brought to the electoral debate the country'sproblems, the exposure of the policies and of those who are responsible for the country's situation, thenature of the powers and role that would be required of a President of the Republic who respects, andenforces the respect for, the Constitution of the Republic. A unique contribution to bring to thiscampaign crucial issues such as valuing workers and their rights, national production, the requirementof subordinating economic power to political power, the assertion of national sovereignty andindependence.

Ako bi se hitne i vanredne mere na sanaciji od šteta od poplava brzo sprovele predsednik Venecuele, Hugo Čavez, ponudio je da znatno pre vremena odustane od ovlašćenja koja mu je nedavno izglasao domaći parlament kako bi se lakše i efikasnije sprovele potrebne akcije. Time su obesnažene sve nedobronamerne kritike koje su se sručile na njega i politički sistem u Venecueli, koje su brže bolje takav potez okvalifikovale kao diktatorski način vladavine. On je spreman da već u maju ove godine povuče takav potez što bi bilo celu godinu ranije od, inače, predviđenog roka važenja najnovijeg predsedničkog ovlašćenja po kome on uredbama može donositi čitav niz mera upravljenih na sanaciju i pomoć pogođenima od poplava. Po zakonu donetom u decembru prošle godine predsednik, Hugo Čavez, bio je u mogućnosti da u roku od 18 meseci uz pomoć dekreta omogući brzu rekonstrukciju i pomoć za 130 000 venecuelanskih beskućnika koji su u takvo stanje došli posle iznenadnih poplava. U obraćanju parlamentu on je istakao da svako ko se oseća ograničenim u pravima posle prenošenja dodatnih ovlašćenja predsedniku može zatražiti vraćanje u ranije stanje i neće biti nikakvih problema. Čavez je poručio svim kritičarima u zemlji i inostranstvu da su njihove primedbe neopravdane i da su usmerene na demonizovanje njegove ličnosti.