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People wear protective face masks and hold banners as they protest for the fourth day against the Constitutional Court ruling on tightening the abortion law in front of the archbishop's palace on October 25, 2020, in Krakow, Poland. (Omar Marques / Getty Images)

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KrakowWe go right to TVP Krakow! Truth instead of lies! The updates in the secret Telegram chat kept pinging in. Our next protest target: the headquarters of TVPthe Polish state media corporation that since 2015 has been a mouthpiece of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. It was the second big action on a dreary night some two weeks after Polands Constitutional Tribunal placed a near-total ban on abortion. The first protestan automobile and bicycle blockadewas already a success. A seemingly endless phalanx of honking cars and whooping cyclists snaked from the north to the south end of the Vistula River, snarling rush-hour traffic along a major thoroughfare.

The initial Strajk Kobiet (Womens Strike) movement emerged in 2016 in response to proposed anti-abortion legislation that PiS later withdrew in the face of demonstrations. What the partys hard-liners couldnt achieve legislatively theyve now won through the courts. Before the tribunals ruling, Poland already had one of Europes most restrictive laws regarding abortion, banning it except in cases of fetal defects, rape, incest, or threats to a mothers health. Last year, terminations due to congenital defects accounted for 97 percent of the 1,110 legal abortions in Poland. Now, with the high court finding the first exception unconstitutional, legal abortions would drop to near zero.

Opinion polls before and after the new ruling have consistently found that a clear majority of Poles oppose further restrictions, with the courts decision enshrining a minority opinion in a manner somewhat paralleling the fears of many American progressives about how Amy Coney Barretts appointment could threaten abortion access in the United States. Building on momentum from past fights, within a matter of days of the October 22 ruling, the decentralized Womens Strike channeled simmering anger at the right-wing direction of Poland into mass demonstrations drawing hundreds of thousands of Poles into the streets in defiance of coronavirus restrictions.

The daily protests deploy cohesive, Internet-friendly organizing tactics and symbols: umbrellas and wire hangers jutting out of car windows in the blockades; banners with pink lightning bolts hanging from apartment windows; and minute-by-minute updates via encrypted messaging apps letting protesters know where not to be when the police show up. The Telegram group in Krakow is called Solidarno nasza broni: Solidarity is our weapon. And much like the Solidarity movement strikes in the 1980s, the current Womens Strike movement is clamoring to remake a divided Poland.

So farduring the current battle in an ongoing culture warthe protesters seem to be winning. On November 4, the government backtracked in the face of the unrest, delaying implementation of the controversial ruling. Yet the abortion issue is just the tip of the iceberg of discontenta symbol for the wider rollback of rights and the rule of law under the Law and Justice government. Now, a month since the court ruling, my Telegram keeps pinging, and the daily protest actions churn on with a growing list of demands. Kasha, an undergraduate I meet at one of the protests, puts it bluntly: Its not only about the abortion ban at this point. Its about overthrowing the government.

Facing demographic and cultural change, PiS and its conservative coalition partners have only eked out small majorities in the past few elections. As rhetoric heats up, each side trades blame and digs in, further polarizing the country in what feels like the sort of existential cultural battle currently wracking American politics. While many protest chants keep the focus on womens rightsI think, I feel, I decidethe most prevalent mantra, screamed out of windows and spray-painted on walls, is simply Jeba PiS: Fuck PiS. Rather than calm tensions, party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski inflamed them in a fiery speech to parliament calling on supporters to defend Poland, defend patriotism and defend Polish churches against the atheistic mob: This is the only way we can win this war.

While Kaczynskis bellicose language is hyperbolic, he does accurately pinpoint a defining feature of the current movement: its willingness to challenge the Catholic Church, long the third rail of Polish politics. Activists are actively targeting the powerful institutionfrom disrupting Sunday services to screaming in the face of a local priest (as seen in one viral video). While the church was instrumental in the fight against Communism in the 1980s, many now blame it for facilitating the countrys contemporary rightward drift.Current Issue

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A new encrypted message came though on my phone following the protest against the state media company: We have had enough! The same people who celebrate the pseudo-tribunals verdict defended pedophiles for years, reaping financial benefits. Are you surprised? We arent! This was accompanied by a Facebook event link for a vigil in remembrance of the victims of church abuse. An hour later, a somber crowd of several hundred people occupied the street outside the archbishops palace here. Organized by the activist group DO Milczenia (Enough Silence), the gathering turned religious symbolism against the church. Protesters ripped up chrysanthemums, funerary flowers, throwing the petals on three child-size wooden coffins surrounded by a sea of votive candles in allusion to traditional Polish Day of the Dead rituals.

One by one, activists stepped up to the microphone to speak for perceived victims of the church: for women whose lives have been lost in botched illegal abortions, for children sexually abused by priests, for LGBT teenagers driven to suicide. Police in riot gear separated the crowd from a group of male counterprotesters loudly intoning Catholic prayers. At one point, in response to the counterprotesters, the main crowd chanted, Jesus Christ stands with us. Through her megaphone, Kartarzyna Wojtowicz, a lead organizer, urged the crowd, Throw flowers, not stones. Because theyre the evil ones, not us.

While church leaders may be caught off guard by the intense anger, their alliance with PiSs right-wing agenda has been far from subtle. Marek Jedraszewski, the current archbishop of Krakow, recently expressed disbelief at the aggression unknown so far in Poland, when the sanctity of churches, of sacred places is being violated. Yet just last year, he labeled the gay rights movement a rainbow plague that would inflect Poland much like the red plague of communism. In an announcement unfortunately timed for the embattled priests, last week the Vatican released the long-awaited McCarick Report implicating Pope John Paul IIPolands heretofore unimpeachable modern saintin the cloud of sexual-abuse scandals hanging over the Catholic Church.

Using tools like Facebook and Instagram Live, Magorzata Halber, a leftist writer and activist, has been reporting on protests taking place outside of the media spotlight in dozens of smaller cities deep in PiS-voting regions. When I spoke with her via Zoom, she expressed hope that the marked shift in tone towards the church signaled a greater realignment away from the conservative consensus that has dominated Polish politics since the fall of Communism. No one in those conservative places ever had any power before to criticize the church, she explained. Even in 2016, when women were marching against the proposed abortion restrictions, they were saying: Okay, we just want things as they were, meaning the compromisea 1993 deal between the church and Polands post-Communist leaders that enshrined the strict abortion laws in place before the recent ruling. This time around, the movement demands far more.

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Yet despite all the posturing, symbolism, and the invocations of war, many find it hard to imagine what new social compromise will take root. Polands domestic fight is amplified by a European-level battle between Brussels and the self-proclaimed illiberal democracies of Central Europe. Poland, together with Hungary, is threatening to veto the current European Union budget because of new enforcement mechanisms included to explicitly target the type of erosion of the rule of law that allowed PiS to pack Polands Constitutional Tribunal in the first place. The EU Council, meanwhile, launched a fact-finding mission last month against LGBT discrimination in Poland.

According to Halber, this bureaucratic tit-for-tat is a sideshow to the real work of building power in the streetsand then victory at the ballot box. Revolution is a woman goes one of the popular chants. And, so far, many women in Poland show no signs of letting up in their drive to prove it.

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Polands Women Are in the Streets - The Nation

Marco Eagle Published 5:02 a.m. ET Nov. 17, 2020

Editorial cartoon(Photo: Universal)

We look forward to you addressing the challenges that lie ahead. While we agree with some of the recently proposed capital and operation improvements, it may be prudent to re-assess same.

With tax revenue down, Gov. Desantis recent veto of $1.1 million for water quality and vetoing of $650,000 toward the new fire house; the issues associated with the financing of a bond and, of course COVID, it may be advisable for the city to re-prioritize its spending; similar to residents /taxpayers reworking theirs!

May I suggest that improving the water quality is a much higher priority to that of building a new fire house. It must be dealt with now, and not fiscal 2021-2022!

Candidates who run for election to our City Council always list water quality issues as their primary concern, once elected it gets put on the back burner. I am not suggesting Fire House 50 should not be built but, just asking City Council to focus on projects that will best benefit Marco Island residents now.

When revisiting the Fire House 50 plan please, reflect back to when approval was made by City Council for an expenditure of:

Suggestion: Put on the back burner the exponential increases for the Dreams of Fire House 50.

Respectfully.

Virginia Bingle, Marco Island

My parents took me to see the great leader who had come to campaign in our hometown to make Germany great again. The people cheered him on. Flags were everywhere. No one feared the loss of democracy in the process. The enemy was cloaked under the word communism.

Fascism was the opposite of communism, but both systems advocated rule over many by a handful of insiders.

Fast forward to the cult of Trump. When I see the signs, the flags, the radicals and thugs who defend the great leader under some skewed concept of patriotism and nationalism, I see images of the past repeating.

I dont know whether it is lack of education or plain stupidity that causes these folks to side with dictators in advocating the demise of democracy in our country. About 75 million (voters) said no in order to save democracy.

In my native country it went the other way. Right after Hitler took power, government agents went door to door, looking for his enemies. They arrested socialists, communists, trade union leaders and others who had spoken out against the party. Democracy was dead and concentration camps were built to house socialists. The con had worked, as it almost did here.

Fred Rump, Golden Gate Estates

What does the Republican Party stand for? They had no real platform before the 2020 election other than blind loyalty to the eventual loser. The vast majority of Republican politicians refuse to acknowledge, let alone congratulate, the duly elected president, Joe Biden.

Why? They are cowards who fear losing their next election if they cross Trump and his followers. So, my answer is the Republican Party is run by cowards and stand for nothing!

Bill McMaster, East Naples

Our nation is moving into uncharted territory as multiple legal challenges have been and are being filed in response to the election. Biden has declared himself the winner even though no state has yet certified its election, and several states are unresolved.

The integrity of the election process must be preserved. The investigations must be allowed to play out so in the end we can know it was a fair and honest election, regardless of who ultimately is proved the winner.

Joseph T 'Chip' Buxton III, East Naples

Fraudulent cries of fraud are not harmless.

The soil of American democracy is being poisoned by evidence-free claims of fraud in our recent election.

The fraud allegations are being dismissed one after the other by courts.

Privately, many Republicans acknowledge theyre pointless. But by continuing to cry fraud in public, they are sowing a mistrust of our bedrock democratic institutions and leaving a toxic legacy that may linger for a generation or more.

Suzanne Cherney, East Naples

More: Letters to the Editor, Nov. 13

And: Letters to the Editor, Nov. 10

Also: Letters to the Editor, Nov. 6

Read or Share this story: https://www.marconews.com/story/opinion/2020/11/17/letters-editor-nov-17/6303559002/

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Letters to the Editor, Nov. 17 - Marco News

Santeshivara Lingannaiah Bhyrappa (S L Bhyrappa), one ofIndias most distinguished novelists, is a conscious artiste who depicts fundamental human emotions in his works of art. Well known for hisprofound knowledge of Indian philosophical and cultural traditions, he is a writer who has had intense personal experiences in both rural and urban milieus.

He is known for describing dwindling human emotions and experiences. His characters are deeply rooted in Indian sensibilities.He has authored 24 novels, four volumes of literary criticism and books on aesthetics, social issues and culture. Most of his novels are translated into almost all the Indian languages and six into English.

Uttara Kaanda,Bhyrappas latest novel, is an attempt to view Ramas story from Sitas perspective. The novel brings outthe sensitive voice of a neglected female character.It fills in and uncovers the philosophical gulf, the overhyped mythological sub-stories inside the Ramayana that had masked and covered her up so far. The novel capturesmyriad emotions as he narrates the storyfrom a womans perspective.

The raw emotions runningthrough the minds of Sita, Rama and Lakshmana and Sitas thoughts about Rama, his Rajadharma and Lakshmanas unmatched love towards his brother are the elements thatmake Uttara Kaanda worth a read. Excerpts from an interview

Parva was your response to Mahabharata 40 years ago... Why did you take so long to respond to Ramayana?

AfterParva, my friends wanted meto respond toRamayana. It didnt have the complexity of problems and characters to enthuse me. As I began reading it, I realised that characters like Sita, Lakshmana and Urmila had the scopeto explore mycreativity. The problem of a single parent and an abandoned female baby fascinated me. Valmiki had many hints, whichI thought I could develop.

Did you intend to beloyal to Valmiki, Sita or the theme youhad in mind for Uttara Kaanda?

Uttara Kaanda is my creative response to the Valmiki Ramayana. Valmiki and Vyasa are the greatest propounders of values. Most of the later writers have responded to these two epics. I found that Sita had great scope for development.

Any parallels in the novel between Sita and the 21st century Indian women?

Its too complex to draw parallels between the injustice meted out to Sita andthe 21st century Indian woman. Rama isnt a villain. His approach to be an ideal king was impractical. He volunteeredself-suffering and the suffering of the queen so that his subjects realised theirmistakes. I believe M K Gandhi borrowedthe idea of self-suffering by fasting from Rama. Both Rama and Gandhi failed to realise the impracticability of the method.

Why is the engaging narrative technique of your other novels missing inUttara Kaanda?

Narrative technique depends upon the story. Considering Ramayanas simple story, I chose a different narrative technique. Eitheridealistic characters or demons pervade the Ramayana.There is less scope for complexity in the story.Saartha and Parva have complex stories and hence, the technique had to be different.

Whatdid you really intend to achieve in Uttara Kaanda? Appeal to the heart or the mind?

There cant be Bhakti (devotion) without Jnaana (knowledge). You cant experience Rasa (aesthetic pleasure) without understanding the situation and experience. You cant strictly separate the two.

Is Uttara Kaanda an attempt to shed your label of being ananti-feminist?

The self-titled critics must understand that I created characters like Nanjamma, Satyabhama, Kunti, Draupadi, Chandrika, Ubhaya Bharati and Vyjayanti. Ramayana is nearly a 5000-year-old story, so then, whydid feminists notcreate the Sita of my Uttara Kaanda all these years? Over 30 books have been written on me by learned people who arent self-titled critics.

Why are you opposed to isms in literature?

The isms are fixed ideologies, which block free thinking and creativity.I kept my intellectual freedom due to understanding ofphilosophy, sociology, history, economics and travel in countries of different economies and religious beliefs.

Your take on corporate literary festivals.

Awards and literary festivals sponsored by the corporate world are dominated by the leftists who use the capitalists money to promote themselves and their ideology. Infiltration of ideologies, leftists, events and lobbyinginto literary organisationsis detrimental to literature.

What is your basic concern as a novelist?

I dont have any ideology. For me, each of my novels is an effort to explore some aspects of life. I touch the depth of Indian culture through the hearts of the learned and common readers.

You are yet to receive the Jnanpith award...

Ive received the Saraswati Samman, Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, National Professorship and honorary doctorate from seven Universities. The Indian governmenthas selected Parva for translating into Chinese and Russian languages. Ive millions of readers from across the country. I consider it as the greatest award ifreadersfind my books worthy of reading after I am gone.

Something on rightists, leftists and the increasing atrocities against women and dalits after the BJP came to power at the centre?

Communists and socialists coined the termsleft and right. In the Indian context, leftists want the government to own all industries and businesses. Those advocating freedom of enterprise are dubbed rightists.Nehru relied on communism, while hisdaughter relied on communists to continue in power. They pushed India to poverty. The leftists born after 1990s cantimagine the situation in India during Nehru and Indira Gandhi. For the former prime minister Manmohan Singh, the minority community has the first right on the wealth of the country. Those opposing Singhs idea are dubbed rightists and communal.

Today, over 30 per cent of students in the institutions of higher technical learning are girls. Some find faults forabolishingthe Triple Talaq. For them,freedom of speech and expression is at stake when the government tries to fixfalsities in textbookspropagated by the previous regimes.

Increasing atrocities on dalits, women and attempts to curb freedom of speech and expression are fictitious theories floated by a section only to defame the Narendra Modi government.

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The man and the myth - Deccan Herald

The fight against the fascist threat cultivated and promoted by Donald Trump is not over. During the weekend of November 14, the most reactionary elements of the extreme right made their way into Washington, D.C., for the so-called Million MAGA March to demand an overturn of the election results and to keep Trump in the White House for another four years. Mayor Muriel Bowsers citywide mask mandate and quarantine order for visitors from areas outside the city where the COVID-19 caseload is high did not seem apply to fascists and supporters of Trump.

These maskless white supremacists converged on Black Lives Matter Plaza and immediately tore down the murals and signs on the fencing surrounding the White House. These signs portrayed victims of police violence and racial terror, and slogans from the anti-police rebellions that took place over the summer. During this desecration, the D.C. police protected these fascists and prevented the counter-protesters from stopping them. Later on, these same forces tore down the Black Lives Matter mural on the AFL-CIO building. It is a damn disgrace that the police did not stop the vandalism by these folks invited in by Trump and his forces. We demand investigations into the failure of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department to contain these fascists. We also reject the false equivalency between the rebellions on behalf of Black lives and extreme-right terrorist groups.

Trump also drove his motorcade through the crowd and sent supporting tweets out to his followers who were and are continuing to terrorize D.C. residents. Proud Boys, QAnon conspiracy theorists, America First-ers, and other fascist groups joined the fray as counter-protesters began to fight back. Later in the evening, violent confrontations took place where fascists began beating and stabbing anti-fascists in the streets. Andy Ngo, known as a fascist grifter from his antics in Portland, OR, posted edited video clips online blaming BLM-Antifa for violence against Trump supporters and so-called peaceful protestors.

We know from the history of our Party that anti-communism and racism are monopolys twin weapons to destroy our movements.

Just a week earlier, those who voted against Trump celebrated in the streets of downtown D.C. by popping champagne corks and dancing as Biden and Harris were declared the victors in the election for presidency. Shouldnt the anti-Trump movement have planned an even broader and larger demonstration to defend democracy and the vote? Lets make no mistake Trump is trying to strip the vote from Black voters in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta.

Organizations and individuals who dont want fascists taking over D.C. are actually physically fighting against fascism in the streets. We cannot go into a honeymoon period just because Republicans are out of the White House.

Anti-fascists have the right to defend themselves, their friends, and families from far-right violence and terror in D.C., and we stand in solidarity with them. This open terrorism has an eerie resemblance to the massive Ku Klux Klan rallies that happened in the 1920s in D.C. and the American Nazi Party rallies that happened at Madison Square Garden in New York in the 1930s. We must continue fighting these forces, even with Trump being defeated at the polls, and continue our struggles with the coalitions we built in our all-peoples front against fascism.

It is beyond a disgrace for the lack of response to the violence that falls upon D.C. residents, especially from the police, corporate developers, and Trumpian fascist forces. Everyone responsible at the local and federal levels for not averting violence that descended upon the District this past weekend should be called to account. We demand actual accountability from our representatives in office.

We demand the following from the D.C. council members and Mayor Bowser:

Want to join the fight against the extreme right? Join our Party today: cpusa.org/join; contact us at dccp@cpusa.org

Statement by DC Metro Club CPUSA.Image: kelly bell photography (CC BY 2.0).

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Fascists converge onto downtown D.C. to overturn the vote - Communist Party USA

Wearing red masks due to the pandemic, workers, members and supporters of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) marched through Red Square in order to pay tribute to the most significant event of modern history.

"There has been nothing more magnificent than the Great October", said CPRF chairman Gennady Zyuganov during his address, praising the achievements of the 1917 Revolution.

He also blasted Russian media because while commemorating the iconic parade of November 7, 1941 - when the Red Army marched straight into the battle against the Nazis from the square - they didn't say a word about the reason the parade was held in the first place, which was to mark the October Revolution anniversary.

Zyuganov also praised the decisive and invaluable role of Vladimir Lenin in the victory of the 1917 Revolution and called the people of the country to fight "for a strong, modern and socialist Russia, for the USSR!".

IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM

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Russian communists paid tribute to the October Revolution in Moscow - In Defense of Communism