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SINCE the fall of the Warsaw Pact, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) has been among the most electorally successful of Europes Communist parties consistently finishing in the top five slots in the Czech Republics legislative elections.

All that changed last month when for the first time since the Nazi-aligned protectorate of 1939 to 1945, the territory which makes up the modern-day Czech Republic found itself with no Communists in Parliament. In the October elections, both the KSCM and the Czech Social Democatic Party (CSSD) finished below the threshold required to enter the Chamber of Deputies.

It was not only a setback: its generally accepted within the party that it was a historical debacle, says Jaroslav Roman, the head of the KSCMs international department. Frankly speaking, people are shocked. We had not expected such a heavy defeat.

Roman is speaking to the Morning Star shortly after an extraordinary party congress, at which MEP and former party vice-chair Katerina Konecna was elected the partys new leader.

In the partys impressive office block in Prague, which it shares with the Communist newspaper Halo noviny, Roman does not mince his words as to the scale of the challenge the party now faces. In these elections we had 193,000 voters. But in [2013] we had 750,000 So in these elections, only the strong base of the party voted for the Communists.

The KSCMs loss has been widely credited to its decision to support the previous Czech government. That was a coalition led by Andrej Babiss ANO 2011 party, a populist force with syncretic but ultimately conservative politics. Roman accepts that this was a decision that angered many. It was a topic of the congress as well, whether it was the correct thingto support the Babis government, he says. Because evidently it cost us votes.

We have been aware in the first instance that if you go into the past, when the French Communists went into the government, the Italian Communists, it cost them very expensively.

As for the Czech Republics Social Democrats, who unlike the Communists entered into a formal coalition with Babis, Roman says they ended up losing all their seats because they lost the confidence of the people. He says they only behaved like a left political force two months before the elections and were ultimately opportunists.

He cautions: Im not negative, the Social Democratic party is the oldest party in the Czech Republic, they have a place on the political map here and Im sure they will restart their activities but it must be with new people and with new policies.

But Roman suggests his own party was stuck between a rock and a hard place when it came to deciding whether to give parliamentary support to Babiss government. From our point of view, its well to remember, there was a problem to form the government. It took seven months. We had to decide, [so] first we insisted the Czech Republic needed a government. We had a choice between the bad and the worse. So we chose the better from the worse.

How can the KSCM come to terms with the unpopularity of this decision? Roman believes that the generational and factional change that took place at the extraordinary congress is part of the answer. I have to admit that in the Communist Party there are different fractions, he says. Although the expression of fractions is forbidden by the statutes of the party, its a matter of fact.

There are two fractions one is widely called like, conservatives, led by [former party vice-chair Josef] Skala and lets say the progressivists, led by Konecna, the MEP. This question has been solved because she overwhelmingly won the election.

And frankly speaking, we respect it. I dont want to judge if it will be successful or not, but shes the only one with a team of people around her its mid-generation, young generation and its without any dispute [that] the party needs rejuvenative change, rejuvenation of its membership, its leadership.

In his 60s himself, Roman does not want to discount the input of the partys older generation but he says the KSCD desperately needs to attract younger voters and activists. In Praguethe median age of the members is 80 years. And [across] the Czech Republic its 70 years. And we have lost not lost, but we have not been successful in attracting young people as sympathisers of the party.

It is also crucial that the Communists represent younger voters, he says, because frankly speaking this generation is being [impacted by] decisions on their future.

The electoral defeat has stark implications for the KSCMs finances, which Roman stresses will not only concern the centre here, the leadership, but mainly the districts, which are the base of the party.

But the international chief is hopeful that the new leadership can attract younger voters. In my opinion, Konecna is a very talented politician. She has the gift of giving straightforward answers and that is what young people want to hear.

In the mean time, Roman is concerned that the lefts lack of representation in the House of Deputies will leave a chunk of the Czech population disenfranchised.

1,000,000 votes fell under the table. All the parties that have not reached the threshold and mainly they are the voters that under normal conditions would support the left. And now their opinions are not represented in the parliament.

That will make it harder for KSCM to advance its programme. Its not a revolutionary situation here, he says, suggesting talk of implementing communism leaves many people nonplussed. What we promote and advocate and try and explain to the people, is that all the structures, the branches of the economy should be under the control of the state.

Now you see its the energy. The main major state-owned company can be influenced by the regulatory intervention of the state. All of our water supplying systems [are in] the hands of the French or Spanish, under very, very bad conditions.

Another fear is that anti-communist forces will now seek to crack down on the party, as well as on supporters of its predecessor, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In other Eastern European countries, Roman notes, Communist parties have been banned.

The question is, will we hold, he says. Even shortly before the elections there was a proposal in the parliament to include in the law the legislative proposal to decrease pensions to the exponents of the former regime like the members who worked in the central committee of the Communist Party, who worked with security. And this can come on the agenda now, now the right wing has an absolute majority not only in the parliament, but in the senate as well.

Roman is determined that the KSCM does not now experience the splits that have plagued other European left parties following heavy defeats. The KSCM now faces competition from a new party, Levice (the Left), which was formed last year from a merger of the the Real Left Initiative and the Party of Democratic Socialism which previously ran candidates under the KSCM ticket.

Levice is perceived to be modelled on Die Linke in Germany, but recorded mere hundreds of votes in the October elections. Its a very minor party, Roman says. But we are open to co-operation. There is no will for the time being to change the label of the party from the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, but we have communal elections next year, [we] may go as like, United Left. We might not go as like, only the Communist Party, but its a question of negotiation.

Roman is also concerned about the impact of identity politics on fracturing the left across Europe. He is critical of other European left parties for pushing forward such issues and stresses that the KSCM is the party that are trying to advocate the interests of the majority of the people.

Does he not think it is possible to support the liberation of oppressed groups while still maintaining a class-based agenda? Romans response suggests the party is still struggling to accommodate causes that the left in many parts of Europe has placed firmly within its programme. Although we respect the rights of minorities, we do not like and do not support this public show-off, he says.

Instead, he says, Communists should focus on globalisation and how it impacts on the lives of ordinary people. He adds: We have very big problems with the energy increase here, etc and other problems to come with inflation at 5or 6per cent here now. The left forces should unite around the major issues that unite us.

The Czech-language newspaper Hal noviny can be found at http://www.halonoviny.cz.

Follow Conrad on Twitter @conradlandin.

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After the elections: Communism in the Czech Republic - Morning Star Online

From dogs yapping on phones to Brazils radical urinalists taking on McDonalds, heres your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.

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Marx, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh raised their glasses last weekend to toast their friend Engels as he tied the knot in southern India. Communism may have fallen out of favour elsewhere, but the dream lives on in Kerala where it is not uncommon to name children after its founding fathers.

The Communist Party has governed Kerala for much of the last six decades, and the chief minister of neighbouring Tamil Nadu is called MK Stalin.

A wedding there in June saw Socialism get married in front of his brothers Communism, Leninism and Marxism.All that was missing was a Trotsky to do the drinks.

Shocking news from Brazil where a hammer and sickle has apparently been taken to McDonalds golden arches. The American fast-food chain has been accused of communism for opening non-gendered toilets in a restaurant at Bauru in Sao Paulo state.

Its scandalous. Communism in Bauru! some locals declared, with the mayor giving McDonalds a fortnight to separate the sexes.

The chain said the individual cabins were about inclusion and respect so everyone would feel welcome to use them.

Supporters of the countrys far-right President Jair Bolsonaro clearly urinalists to a man were not amused and have denounced McDonalds slide into pinko political correct porcelain.

A pair of American tourists who broke into the Colosseum in Rome to drink with the ghosts of the gladiators have ended up with the mother of all hangovers.

The young men were spotted drinking beer as dawn broke after climbing up to the second tier of the ancient arena at the end of a night out in the Italian capital.

Both were fined a sobering 800 euros (R14 593) after police arrested them as they left.

Never has the argument for a digital detox seemed more pressing. Scientists have invested the DogPhone, which will allow bored Beagles or yappy Yorkies to call their owners for a chat anytime they feel the need.

The inventors in Scotland and Finland say it will be a lifeline for lonely dogs and pandemic puppies left at home all day. The pet shakes a ball which triggers a video call to the owners phone.

While worried dog lovers hailed the breakthrough others say youd be barking to get one.

With the prospect of prank calls from a Pekinese, you can understand why a man in central France might be driven to get a mobile phone jammer.

Unfortunately, the device he bought to stop his neighbours from stealing his wifi connection ended up knocking out mobile phones in and around the city of Clermont-Ferrand. The man was out when armed and masked police raided his home after tracking down the rogue device, which he had left in a drawer under his television.

Officers said he had no idea he had turned his whole neighbourhood into a mobile phone, wifi and GPS dead zone.

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This week's offbeat news: From dog phones to toilet 'communism' - The South African

Two skyscrapers are illuminated during a light show to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China on June 25, 2021, in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. (Liu Yan / VCG via Getty Images)

Has the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), 100 this year, become capitalist? Since the introduction of Deng Xiaopings economic liberalization reforms 40 years ago, more than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty and the one-party state now leads the worlds second-largest economythe largest if calculated in purchasing power parity, with 18 percent of global GDP. The introduction of the market economy and the acceleration of growth have gone hand in hand with an exponential rise in inequality: The Gini coefficient, which measures the extent of inequality, rose by 15 points between 1990 and 2015 (latest available figures)

Translated by Hunter Wilson-Burke.This essay continues our exclusive collaboration with Le Monde Diplomatique, monthly publishing jointly commissioned and shared articles, both in print and online. To subscribe to LMD, go to mondediplo.com/subscribe.

These changes have facilitated growth in the private sector, but the state maintains direct control over large portions of the economythe public sector accounts for around 30 percentmaking China a textbook case of state capitalism. Moreover, the CCP has largely succeeded in co-opting the elites produced by this liberalized economy. But if communist ideology no longer informs party recruitment, its Leninist organizational structure remains central to the relationship between state and capital.

The CCP, which continues to grow and now has some 95 million members (around 6.5 percent of the population), has gradually transformed itself into a white-collar organization. In the early 2000s, then-President Jiang Zemin lifted the ban on recruiting entrepreneurs from the private sector, previously seen as class enemies, so that the CCP would no longer represent only the revolutionary classesworkers, peasants, and the militarybut also the countrys advanced productive forces.

The selected businessmen and women become members of the political elite, ensuring that their businesses are at least partially protected from predatory officials. Their enrollment into the CCP has accelerated under President Xi Jinping (from 2013 onward), with the aim of forming a group of individuals from the business world who are determined to march with the Party.

As a result, the CCP has rapidly become more and more elitist. In 2010, professionals and managers with higher education qualifications already equaled peasants and workers in number. Ten years later, they have overtaken them, making up 50 percent of the membership, compared to less than 35 percent of workers and peasants.

While working for communism was one of the main reasons for joining the Party during the Maoist era (194976), todays motivations are more pragmatic: primarily to facilitate ones professional advancement. Indeed, internal training courses show that the CCP presents itself as a neoliberal-inspired managerial structure, aiming at efficient management of the population and the economy.

However, the minimal importance accorded to communist ideology does not lessen the high level of allegiance and Party spirit demanded of CCP members. Similarly to corporate culture, this is focused on ensuring the success of the Party itself by creating a sense of belonging. It is also tinged with nationalism. Members are regularly reminded of the Partys centrality in the transformation of China, either during training sessions or through the development of red tourismvisiting places linked to the history of the revolution. Current Issue

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Under Xi Jinping, internal discipline has also got stronger. The aim is to guarantee the morality and loyalty of both leaders and members through a massive anti-corruption campaign. Not only have potential opponents of Xis personal power been removed, but control over officials has increased, as has the fight against the four bad [professional] styles: formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance.

This injunction to loyalty and professional ethics, in line with the image the CCP wishes to present to the general public, applies to all its members, including those from the private sector. According to Party guidelines, they are expected not only to remain loyal to the party line, but also to regulate their words and actions, cultivate a healthy lifestyle, and remain modest and discreet. And those who do not play the game may suffer consequences. The charismatic Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, is a prime example. After openly criticizing the states stranglehold on the banking sector, he became the target of an orchestrated attack by Party authorities.

The initial public offering of Ant Group, a financial subsidiary of Alibaba Group, was halted at the end of 2020, and the group was ordered to limit its operations. This incident demonstrates the CCPs willingness to use pressure as a means of ensuring loyalty from entrepreneurs and as a way of maintaining a degree of control over their companies financial and technological resources.

Ant Group holds valuable personal and financial data on the hundreds of millions of people who use its payment tools and online loans; the equivalent of billions of dollars flows daily through its platforms. The increased control over the private sector is in line with the CCPs hegemonic tendencies, characteristic of the Xi era. The Partys charter was amended in 2017 to emphasize that in government, the army, society and schoolsin the east, west, south and norththe Party leads on all fronts.

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In companies, this translates into an increase in the number of grassroots organizations or party cells. As early as 2012, the CCPs Organization Department, whose mission is to manage human resources, issued a directive calling for exhaustive coverage of the private sector, and since 2018 companies listed on the Chinese market have been obliged to set up a Party cell: Now 92 percent of Chinas 500 largest companies have one. Although no precise figures have been made public, regular leaks reveal the high presence of members and cells in foreign companies operating in China.

This presence provides the Party with leverage even beyond the large parts of the economy it owns. The CCPs disciplinary apparatus, embodied by the Discipline and Inspection Committee, is able to hand out extrajudicial punishments to members who have failed to comply with its rules, and its powers have been enhanced by the anti-corruption campaign. Sessions of criticism and self-criticism, known as democratic life meetings, have been revived as a means of rooting out corrupt or disloyal officials. Traditional Maoist practices are thus recycled, no longer focusing on the ideological purity of Party officials and members but on their allegiance to the organization and its leader.

Until now, Party cells played a minor role in companies: They mainly recruited members and organized courses or social and cultural activities. Now, with the aim of developing a modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics, guidelines have been issued requiring private companies to adhere to the principle that the Party has decision-making power over human resources. It is too early to know what form this will take, but to Ye Qing, vice chairman of the CCP-led China Federation of Industry and Commerce, it is clear that this means the Party will have control over the management of staff.

Party approval would be required for hiring and firing, to stop managers promoting whoever they want, says Ye. He also recommends setting up a monitoring and auditing structure within companies, under the authority of the Party, to ensure that companies comply with the law and to deal with breaches of discipline and abnormal behavior by employees. The Partys disciplinary apparatus is thus expanding to include everyone, even non-communists.

According to the new guidelines, the management of Party cells should be formally incorporated into company statutes, with a specific budget reserved for their activities. This amounts to legally codifying the CCPs requirements so that they become binding, even for companies that are not under its direct control. Thus the CCPs role in the private sector increasingly resembles the one it has in state-owned enterprises. Focused on its own survival, displaying pragmatism, and even an ideological vacuum, it is bringing a growing number of capitalists into its ranks, as it becomes ever more present in companies.

This asymmetrical alliance is found outside national borders: The Belt and Road Initiative is accelerating the internationalization of Chinese companies, both private and public, which are creating party cells abroad to supervise their employees. While it has set aside Maoist internationalism, the CCP is now exporting its organizational mode and disciplinary tools.

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Whats Left of Communism in China? - The Nation

Gorbachev was arrested at his Black Sea dacha, but the coup leaders failed to take control. The GKChP consisted of a bunch of weak conservative leaders, some of them drunk at a TV press conference. Yet, unwilling to shed blood, soldiers refused orders to forcefully quell the resistance, leaving the door open for the wily and popular Boris Yeltsin to take control, and for the Soviet republics to declare their independence. Within three days the coup leaders had capitulated and were jailed.

The coup was a miserable failure on the part of the conservative rebels, leaving a long tail of consequences that were opposite to what had been intended, particularly the feeble demise of the Soviet Union and its Bolshevist ideology being consigned to the dustbin of history.

However, much of what was gained was lost in the decade of Yeltsins chaotic rule: particularly preventing democracy from taking root and making way for authoritarian Putinism. In the end the democratic victory and new freedom from totalitarian oppression were simply wasted, giving away to former KGB apparatchiks. Yeltsin won the coup but lost the plot.

As noted by Felix Light in the Moscow Times in August: The post-collapse 1990s are seen (by most Russians) as a traumatic period of economic destitution, political turmoil and cultural upheaval, a repeat of which must be avoided at all costs. In the end, it was clear that Russia was not ready for democracy, paving the way for Putins emergence as the saviour of the Rodina.

Seems irreplaceable

With a discredited Yeltsin gone in 2000, Putin, a former KGB apparatchik, and his siloviki (former KGB strongmen), took over as the ultimate winners. Much of the Soviet status quo ante was reintroduced, nullifying the democratic interlude. Totalitarianism, albeit sans the communist ideology, was progressively reintroduced in a reckless spurt of usurpation of power by the new Kremlin rulers. Ironically, after the trauma of the coup and a decade-long chaotic democratic interlude, modern Russia was simply claimed back through the GKChP putschists introducing a draconian security establishment, a veritable police state.

After 20 years firmly at the helm of Russian politics Putin seems irreplaceable. There is no plausible alternative as he keeps his options open to rule up to 2036 (his current presidential term ends in 2024). Russian Orthodox bishop Patriarch Kirill calls Putin a miracle of God for Russia, while the adoration expressed by Prof Alexander Dugin of Moscow State University is almost nauseating: There are no more opponents to the Putin course, and if there are any they are ill and need psychiatric treatment. Putin is everything, Putin is absolute everywhere, and Putin is irreplaceable. Most Russians seem to concur, as opinion polls have rated Putins popularity for most of his rule at 70%-80%.

However, as even Putin should know, all good things seldom go together. With poll-boosting bold foreign adventures such as invading the Crimea, Eastern Ukraine and Georgia no longer in the offing, the popularity of the United Russia party, his main support base in the Russian duma, is in decline ahead of the upcoming September elections. In the wake of the devastating effects of Covid-19, a declining oil price, runaway corruption and cronyism, economic stagnation, biting Western sanctions and disaffected young citizens taking to the streets and internet, his leadership will be severely tested.

Colour revolution

If Putin leaves in 2024 his legacy could arguably emulate that of his hero, Peter the Great. However, should he choose to carry on until 2036 (as the new constitution makes possible) he may be presiding, as former Soviet Union president Leonid Brezhnev did, over an era of stagnation. At 69 years old, his ambition to rule until 2036 seems a bridge too far.

Putins existential fear is that a colour revolution similar to those in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, might engulf Russia. Hence his obsession with security and his relentless suppression of opposition and democracy. Democrats such as Alexei Navalny, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Boris Nemtsov and many others have been ruthlessly eliminated. He has transformed Russia into a virtual police state, creating an environment in which sustained economic development and modernisation are hardly possible.

As Winston Churchill observed, Kremlin political intrigues are comparable to watching bulldogs fighting under a carpet. With this in mind, predictions are mere guesswork. However, what is no secret in Russian politics is that the Kremlin political elite are already fiercely competing (under the carpet) to replace Putin when the time comes. My guess is that he will step down before 2036, probably in 2024.

His successor is likely to continue with Putinism in one form or another.

Olivier, a former SA ambassador in Russia and Kazakhstan, is extraordinary professor at Pretoria University.

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Soviet putsch relieved Russia of communism, but it remains a matter of shame - Business Day

In the 1950s, the communists sought to suppress the Marian shrine of atin, as they did with other shrines in Slovakia. Today, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, patroness of the country, accompanies the nations families and those suffering in the pandemic.

This is what Fr. Martin Kramara, spokesman for the Bishops Conference of Slovakia, declared during a virtual meeting with journalists from Rome organized by ISCOM, in connection with the preparation of Pope Francis apostolic journey to Slovakia (September 12-15).

With Mary and Joseph on the way to Jesus: this is the motto for Pope Francis visit to Slovakia, which will be in the midst of a two-stage journey. The first will take place in Budapest, Hungary; there, the pope will preside at the Closing Mass of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress. The second will take place in Slovakia, where he will visit Bratislava, Koice, Preov and atin.

The communists took men and women religious to concentration camps. The monasteries were closed. They also tried to wipe out the Marian shrine in atin. The communists were pressuring Slovaks not to visit the shrine. But, this was not enough; it has always been a place loved by the people, said Fr. Kramara.

He added that the shrine is a symbol of peaceful resistance rooted in the values of faith: It shows that we are not afraid.

These words echo those of St. John Paul II when he visited the shrine on July 1, 1995; he compared it to the upper room where the apostles prayed with Mary and received the Holy Spirit, being transformed from being fearful to being courageous witnesses.

On the last day of his Apostolic Visit (Wednesday, September 15) the Latin American Pope will preside over Mass at the National Shrine of atin, after which, at 1:30 p.m., he will bid farewell at the International Airport of Bratislava where he will board the plane that will depart for Rome at 1:45 p.m. local time.

The spokesman for the Slovak Bishops Conference said that this is a significant last stop, given the history of the shrine.

Here, in 1564, a woman named Angelica was abandoned by her husband, a Hungarian nobleman named Imarich Czobor, who hated her. Heartbroken, sad, and now abandoned, Angelica prayed with all her might and asked for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, while promising to erect a statue in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows if she received the miracle she sought.

Her husband had an unexpected reaction: he returned to look for her and asked for her forgiveness. She kept her promise, and subsequently the place became a place of pilgrimage, even visited by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Up until the appearance of COVID-19, Slovaks flocked to the shrine every September 15, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, to pay homage to their national patroness who has been by our side in difficult times, said Fr. Kramara.

Angelica kept her promise. Many people say that their prayers have been heard, he added. Miraculous healings have been reported around the shrine, which were recognized in 1732 by the bishop of Esztergom. In 1927, Pius XI proclaimed Our Lady of Sorrows the patroness of Slovakia.

The Soviet government tried to suppress the popular devotion, turning the shrine into a military barracks. The attempt failed; the images of the Mass presided over by John Paul II in 1995 at the shrine, after the fall of the Soviet regime, with the presence of more than 200,000 faithful from all over Slovakia, were a confirmation of this long history of unwavering popular piety. The resilience of this devotion reflects the legacy of Sts. Cyril and Methodius (in the 9th century), also known as the apostles of the Slavs, missionaries of Christianity in those lands.

Pope John Paul II also had ties to the devotion of Marys Seven Sorrows, which he mentioned in particular in his first homily in Slovakia during his 1995 apostolic journey, six years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

This shrine, said the Polish pope, preserves the memory of all that makes up your lives: joys, but also sorrows and sufferings, which have not been lacking in your history, as in that of every person and nation of the earth. It is good that we have someone with whom to share our joys and sorrows. It is good that in your great Slovak family there is a Mother to whom you can confide and entrust your sorrows and hopes.

The pope, who was instrumental in the downfall of communism, said that Our Lady of Sorrows, the Mother of Seven Sorrows, is the Mother whose heart, at the foot of the Cross, was pierced by the seven swords of suffering, as tradition says.

This Marian shrine is where the Slovak people go on pilgrimage in search of consolation for their not at all easy existence, especially in the periods most marked by suffering, he noted. Here Mary, the Mother of Christ, wants to be a mother to you; she wants you to be especially sincere and simple with her. Here is her dwelling place and, thanks to the fact that there is a house of the Mother of God in your Slovak land, none of you is homeless. Everyone can come here and feel at home in the Mothers house.

Pope Francis has said that, as people think about the aftermath of the pandemic and all the problems that will arise: problems of poverty, work, hunger , we should pray to Our Lady of Sorrows. This veneration of the people of God has existed for centuries. Hymns have been written in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows: she was at the foot of the cross and they contemplate her there, suffering. Christian piety has collected Our Ladys sorrows and speaks of the seven sorrows.

The pope detailed the meaning of the seven sorrows:

Pope Francis prays to Our Lady of Sorrows every evening when he prays the Angelus, and comments that he prays the Seven Sorrows as a remembrance of the Mother of the Church, how the Mother of the Church gave birth to us all with so much pain.

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Pope in Slovakia will visit shrine that prevailed over communist rule - Aleteia EN