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The Socialist Equality Partys (SEP) fight against Australias anti-democratic electoral laws continues with long standing and new electoral members encouraging workers, students and young people to join the campaign.

The laws threaten the SEP, along with 35 other parties, with deregistration if they fail to submit a list of 1,500 members, treble the previous number, by December 2. Rushed through parliament in late August by Prime Minister Scott Morrisons Liberal-National Coalition government, fully backed by Labor, the laws are aimed at preventing the developing opposition to the major parties from finding a socialist and left-wing expression.

To join the SEP campaign against the legislation, sign-up as an electoral member today.

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Rick, 64, a decades-long supporter of the SEP, met the Socialist Labour League (predecessor of the SEP) when he was a teacher in the 1980s.

Ive been interested in history since I was a young man and that led me to an interest in socialism. Capitalism has no answers to the problems that confront the world. It has systems of oppression that exist to keep working people down and that includes the Australian Labor Party and the trade union movement, he said.

The new electoral laws are terribly undemocratic. Democracy and people having their say in the system, all this ideology is thrown out the window with this law.

Why now? The system is weak, its diseased and theres no longer any pretence about freedom of expression or allowing the peoples will to be heard. Its all about maintaining those structures of oppression.

Rick commented on the recent book launch of Vadim Rogovins Was There an Alternative? and noted that in the 70s and 80s the Stalinist groups were strong in Australia and there was confusion about socialism in the working class and still is today. One of the problems when talking to people about socialism is that they immediately think of Russia and China. They see Stalinism as socialism and say that kind of oppression is inevitable.

Rogovin demonstrates and documents the struggle that took place in the Soviet Union against Stalin. In previous works he wrote about the mass murder of socialists and members of the Bolshevik Party. These pose questions about how this happened? What qualities did Stalin have that allowed him to come out on top? Understanding all this is vital in order to answer the question as to whether or not socialism leads to oppression, he said.

Commenting on the rising danger of war with China, Rick said, The idea that its impossible for trading partners to go to war is false by reading the history of the First World War. Theres a wonderful passage by Leon Trotsky where he talks about how before the war the great powers were tobogganing towards conflict, although no-one wanted it. The UK and Germany were major trading partners and there were even familial connections between the ruling classes. But it happened. If we end up in a war, by any kind of analysis, the results are going to be absolutely terrible and Australia is likely to be on the front line. War is certainly not in our interests.

Rick urged workers and youth to become SEP electoral members, firstly to oppose these anti-democratic electoral laws and secondly, its a good first step to developing a resistance to the terrible reactionary forces that are leading us to war, vast inequality and ecocidethe destruction of the environment. Capitalism not only has no answers to those problems, it is the problem. Becoming an SEP electoral member, he concluded, is a great chance to develop a good understanding of whats going on. Its certainly something you wont get anywhere else.

Biljana, 58 and a former teacher, emigrated to Australia from Yugoslavia 31 years ago. She became an electoral member this year. Im a socialist deep in my heart because my family has always been a socialist family, she said.

We care deeply for social justice and ensuring that people have equal opportunities, decent standard of living and all the interests that a socialist party should stand for. When I arrived, I was only 27, raising a family and furthering my education so I didnt have a lot of time to understand politics in Australia. I was happy that the Labor Party was in power, she continued.

It was only when I started working for the unions that I understood that Labor and Liberal were basically playing a game. They werent sincere in their claims to be serving the people. I started voting for the Greens, but they supported the Labor Party too.

When enterprise bargaining was introduced by Labor it had disastrous results on vulnerable sections of the population because they couldnt negotiate fairer wages for themselves. It was an opportunity for people in power and ruthless employers to underpay them and take away their conditions of work, she said.

I came across the Socialist Equality Party, took a couple of brochures and thought, Wow, that sounds really interesting and decided to support the SEP. The world is a mess and I needed to find a party that I was confident in. I believe in social justice, freedom and democracy and equal distribution of wealth, these are the values that the SEP represents. No other parties have these values. I started reading the SEPs Statement of Principles and I continue to find points that reflect my ideas and ethical values. Im happy to support the SEP in any way because there is a global movement and its going to change the whole global atmosphere, she said.

Apply for electoral membership of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia)

Cost: $5 (waged) / $2 (unwaged/student)

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Electoral members call on workers and youth to join the SEP and fight Australia's undemocratic election laws - WSWS

The petty-bourgeois Left Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda, BE) is calling for an alliance with the ruling social-democratic Socialist Party (PS) in legislative elections set for January 30, 2022. The snap elections were called by Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at the start of November, after Prime Minister Antnio Costas six-year minority PS government collapsed amid mass strikes.

The previous week, Costas government had failed to pass its 2022 budget in parliament, as its long-term allies, the BE and the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), suddenly voted against it. It is the first time that a budget has been rejected since the 1974 Carnation Revolution toppled the Estado Novo regime of fascistic dictator Antnio Salazar.

The vote against the Budget by the BE and the PCP was not due to any genuine opposition to the austerity measures the PS planned to impose and had already implemented for several years. Both parties have loyally supported all the PS budgets since the PS came to power in 2015, and are fully complicit in the attacks on workers living standards that have come with them.

The last-minute decision of the BE and PCP to vote against the government came amid a massive wave of strikes across Portugal, involving tens of thousands of workers from multiple different industries. Rail workers, teachers, pharmacists, subway workers, nurses, firefighters, civil servants and prison guards have all taken part in industrial action between September and November, mostly calling for increased wages as the cost of living continues to skyrocket.

Terrified of the growing upsurge of the working class and of anger at years of declining living standards, the BE and the PCP felt compelled to vote against the budget in parliament, to maintain the charade that they oppose austerity, and avert an uncontrollable social explosion.

Far from breaking with the right-wing, pro-austerity politics of the PS, however, the Left Bloc is campaigning for an ever closer relationship with this party. Catarina Martins, national coordinator of the BE, has complained that her party had not been in a formal coalition with the PS over the last two years, presenting such an alliance as a stabilising force.

According to Martins, the Left Bloc had proposed a written agreement in 2019 which, unfortunately the Socialist Party refused. The fact that in 2015 we had an agreement didnt resolve all the problems, Martins continued, but it gave a perspective of common change and common responsibility to the parties which made the agreement, as well as to the country which brought stability.

From 2015 to 2019, the minority PS government ruled thanks to an alliance known as a geringona (or odd contraption) with the BE, PCP and Greens (PEV), a confidence-and-supply arrangement whereby the pseudo-left and Stalinist parties agreed to support the government on all major votes. Since the elections of 2019, the BE and the PCP have continued to back the PS from outside the government, with no written agreement in place.

For five years, the BE made the budgets possible for the minority PS based on agreements to resolve the countrys problems, Martins continued. This is our willingness.

In a separate statement on Twitter, Martins grovelled before the PS leader in her efforts to promote an alliance, replying to claims that she would like to see a new leadership in the Socialist Party by declaring that After the elections, it is with Antnio Costa that I hope to negotiate solutions. And I will raise them during the [election] campaign, even if it hinders the appeal to an absolute majority.

This was in response to statements by Costa himself that he doubts whether a new agreement with the BE would be feasible, declaring in an interview last Monday that I cant say that I will continue the geringona, when the PCP says it is unrepeatable and the BE leader says that it is necessary to change the leadership of the PS.

In an appearance at the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Lisbon, Martins again pleaded for collaboration with the PS.

Asked about potential governance scenarios after the January elections and the possibility of the conservative Social Democratic Party (PSD) once again coming to power, she responded: I dont speak for the PS. But the Left Bloc can say two things. The first is that we will never have a right-wing government if the Left Bloc can prevent it. The second thing, Martins stated, is that the BE has always been clear about how we can construct majority agreements.

The truth is that Portugal already has a right-wing government, which the BE fully supported. Martins calls for further collaboration with the PS is an exposure of the Left Blocs own anti-worker, pro-austerity politics. With the backing of the BE and the PCP, the PS government imposed a series of European Union-dictated austerity measures, which have slashed living conditions for the Portuguese working class.

Average monthly wages in Portugal are a pitiful 984, one of the lowest figures in the whole EU. Meanwhile, a fifth of Portugals 10-million strong population face poverty and social exclusion, and nearly 10 percent of the employed population live on incomes below the poverty line.

The hostility of the PCP and BE towards the working class was utterly exposed in 2019, when the PS government called out the army to break a nationwide truckers strike, which led many fuel stations to run dry. The BE endorsed the mobilization of the army against the working class, with Martins declaring: In certain fundamental sectors, it is understandable that there are minimum levels of service; in other sectors it is not understandable. About fuel availability, she added, The government will have to do whatever is essential for the country to function.

The last two years of the PS government have also coincided with the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has had disastrous consequences in Portugal. Over 1.1 million people have been infected with the virus in this country, and over 18,000 have diedthe equivalent of nearly 600,000 deaths in a population like that of the United States.

The BE has seen its popularity plummet since the elections of 2019, with its vote share falling from around 10 percent that year to a predicted 5 percent in current opinion polls. The PCPs support has stagnated at approximately 6 percent. This is a direct result of these two parties support for PS policies of austerity, strike-breaking and mass infection. The BE and PCP are correctly seen as entirely complicit in these reactionary attacks.

The main beneficiary of this fall in support for the BE has been the far-right Chega (Enough) party; opinion polls suggest it may win as much as 9 percent of the vote in January, soaring up from 1.3 percent in 2019. The reactionary role of the Left Bloc and PCP has allowed Chega to falsely posture as the sole opposition party.

No opposition to the emerging far-right will be forthcoming from the PS, Left Bloc or PCP. The task of workers in Portugal is to build a politically independent movement to oppose austerity, the growth of fascism and the herd immunity policies of the whole ruling class, as part of a struggle for socialism in Europe and internationally.

WSWS Review

What is the pseudo-left?

This review examines the response of pseudo-left political tendencies internationally to the major world political events of the past decade.

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Left Bloc pleads for alliance with Socialist Party in Portuguese elections - WSWS

Hank Cetola| The Daily Telegram

Rep. Tim Walberg has announced that he is running for re-election. In typical fashion, he used unsupported scare words talking about the … disastrous Biden Administration and radical liberals attempting to turn America into a politically correct socialist regime. Who are these radical liberals?

Perhaps they are the Democrats who want to change health care so we are no longer what Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., called, … the ONLY industrialized country without universal healthcare. Or perhaps they want to ensure the right to vote by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Or maybe they want to actively address climate change. Or possibly they want to have the top 1% pay their fair share in taxes. These ideas dont sound very radical to me.

According to Walberg, radical liberals are also trying to make America into a socialist regime. Huh? Where does he get this stuff? Ill bet he cannot name one Democrat in Congress who promotes this idea because none do. Its a scare tactic. He always seems to come out strongly against socialism, but I think Walberg doesnt even know what socialism is, at least judging by how he supports it during his photo-op at the opening of the Veterans Administration outpatient clinic in Adrian. The VA is an example of classic socialism an organization owned and operated by the government. It is socialized medicine. His blatant hypocrisy is appalling. He uses socialism to scare people.

Considering the economy, Walberg is always saying how bad it is. Really? According to Business Insider (Nov. 5, 2021), the economy added 531,000 nonfarm payrolls in October; the unemployment rate is 4.6%, down 2.3 percentage points from a year ago; and companies plan to hire 939,300 seasonal workers for the holidays, 11% more than last year. As for the stock market(which Walberg always pointed to in the Trump years but hasnt mentioned since), the Dow closed at 35,602.98 on Nov. 19 compared to 28,634.88 when Trump left office.

He also misleads us by constantly blaming President Joe Biden for inflation, usually talking about how much food prices are going up, what gasoline costs, and what heating our homes will cost without explaining the causes for the increases, other than its Bidens fault. Is it?

Lets look at some October prices: heating oil (up 59.1% from a year ago) and gasoline (up 49.6%). What caused the price jumps? According to Robert Rapier at Forbes, the vast majority of the gasoline price rise can be accounted for by the rise in the price of (crude)oil both here and around the world. The high cost of crude is also due partly to the collapse of demand during COVID-19 with U.S. producers idling 3 million barrels per day of U.S. oil. Now that we are recovering, the demand is up, but the supply is still lagging. Also, OPEC and Russia are keeping their supplies low while demand and prices are increasing worldwide.

Also, the price of natural gas has increased by 28.1%. Again, Walberg is quick to blame Biden. But according to oilprice.com, the key reasons for higher natural gas and energy bills have been this year's record American exports amid flattish domestic gas production and U.S. (liquid natural gas) exports jumped … 42 percent compared with the first half of 2020. We are exporting the gas that we need here. Why? Ask Tim. He is on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He should know.

Walberg also opposes closing Enbridges Line 5 under the Straits of Mackinac. During a recent town hall, he claimed that Line 5 is safe saying, Its almost a foot thick, solid steel … when that anchor hit, that anchor basically all it did was chip the paint … a foot thick going all the way around. However, according to Steven Meyer @TakeCareTim, Enbridge states that the thickness of the pipe is actually 0.812 of an inch thick! Walberg lied again. We do not need a liar representing us.

Hank Cetola is a professor emeritus at Adrian College and the founder of Lenawee Indivisible. He can be reached at lenaweeindivisible3@gmail.com.

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Scare tactics used in re-election announcement - Monroe Evening News

After the 1989 fall of communism in the Soviet bloc, five self-declared communist states remain today: China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam. Belarus and Venezuela can also be added to the mix as they fulfil the criteria of a communist state even though they do not officially invoke the ideology. So, at present, the number stands at seven. The question is, now that capitalism is the engine of Chinas economy, what is communism today? And if the number of communist states is poised to grow in the near future, as some predict, what does this prospect mean for democracy?

My interest in communism goes beyond my work as a historian its personal. I was born and raised in communist Poland in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a grey country where people seemed to have lost all hope. All essentials, including shoes and coffee, were rationed. But rationing cards did not mean you would get what you wanted, or even needed. Queueing for hours sometimes even days to buy anything that had just been delivered to a shop was a regular occurrence.

I have no doubt that my upbringing shaped my life and inspired my career. My research has examined modern central and eastern Europe, nationalism, and the politics of language particularly in the regions totalitarian and authoritarian regimes during the past two centuries.

Original post:
Communism 2.0: China, capitalism and the new world socialism - The Independent

When students in China returned to classrooms in September, they were provided with a new series of textbooks outlining Chinas president Xi Jinping, or Grandpa Xis, political philosophy.

Each textbook on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era, as Xis political philosophy is officially called, is tailored to students at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

Xi Jinping Thought was enshrined into the Chinese Communist Partys Constitution in 2017. Although the main stated aims are to remain committed to reform and build a moderately prosperous society, the realities of this political philosophy has been a tightening of party discipline and curtailing of social freedom.

While prior textbooks were focused on the Communist Party, the new versions centre on Chinas paramount leader. In this way, they reflect the growing personality cult of Xi Jinping, eerily reminiscent of the days of Chinas founding father Mao Zedong.

According to Chinas National Textbook Committee, the textbooks reflect the will of the Communist Party of China and the nation and directly impact the direction and quality of talent cultivation.

In particular, the committee stated, Primary schools should foster love and right understanding for the Party, country and socialism in students.

The core socialist values highlighted in the textbooks include prosperity, patriotism and friendship.

Targeted at children, the moniker of Grandpa Xi is part of the ongoing strategy towards creating a personality cult in China. Authoritarian regimes like the Soviet Union also used the grandfather figure (Grandpa Lenin) as part of propaganda aimed at children. This enhanced Lenins personality cult across the Soviet nations.

Political scientist Pao-min Chang defines the personality cult as, The artificial elevation of the status and authority of one man [] through the deliberate creation, projection and propagation of a godlike image.

Like Lenin, a personality cult around Mao Zedong emerged during Chinas Cultural Revolution (19661976). Although later leaders Deng Xiaoping, the architect of Chinas economic reform and Wen Jiabao, who was Premier between 2003 and 2013, are popularly known as Grandpa Deng and Grandpa Wen, they did not overtly push for this image.

Xi returns to Mao in his efforts to build a personality cult around himself. Since coming to power, he has cultivated the image of being a man of the people in a bid to make his authoritarianism more palpable to the masses.

The new primary school textbooks emphasise Xis wisdom, friendliness and care for the children. Early signs of this strategy can be seen in the government propaganda video, Grandpa Xi is Our Big Friend, which circulated online in 2015.

The video was recorded at Yanan Yucai Primary School in Shaanxi. The location is significant because the school was founded by Mao Zedong in 1937.

In the video, Xi Jinping is not presented as a distant authority figure. Instead, Grandpa Xi is a caring big friend. The children sing that his warm smile is brighter than the sun. Images of children waving sunflowers and lyrics that describe Xis visit as better than the warmth of a spring day serve to accentuate his friendly disposition.

Most importantly, the children sing about the need to study diligently to achieve the Chinese Dream. This dream is Xi Jinpings vision for China to become a prosperous society.

The children wear red scarves and red stars in the video. These symbols represent the national flag. The colour red alludes to the blood of revolutionary martyrs. They remind children of their connection to the nation and the Party.

Xi wears a red scarf in the video. In one scene, he places a red scarf over the shoulders of a child. This accessory and gesture are depicted in the 2021 primary school textbooks as well. The act of placing a scarf on a child signifies children taking on the mantle of happily fulfilling Grandpa Xis vision.

The textbook for lower primary students contain photos of Xi planting trees with children and meeting them at school.

The books include statements such as, Grandpa Xi Jinping is very busy with work, but no matter how busy he is, he still joins our activities and cares about our growth.

Xi shares his memories of being emotional when joining the Young Pioneers of China (the Communist Partys youth organisation) in 1960. He then invites readers to describe their own feelings about becoming a part of the Young Pioneers, thus encouraging young people to join.

The textbooks use illustrations with speech bubbles to make the ideological content more interesting. Some illustrations are of students sitting around a table teaching each other Grandpa Xis expectations to become a person of good moral character and who is diligent and thrifty.

The books also emphasise acquiring knowledge about science and technology, as well as being creative and innovative.

The children must cultivate these markers of good citizenship to become what the books refer to as qualified builders and successors of socialism. This rhetoric of children as the hope of the nation has been in use since the late nineteenth century.

The emphasis on being qualified suggests children must live up to the expectations set out by Xi. The textbooks imply this is only possible because of Grandpa Xis continued care for them.

This image of Grandpa Xi as a big friend is a gentler form of propaganda than that seen during Maos Cultural Revolution. Propaganda aimed at children during the Cultural Revolution positioned the Party as the surrogate parent. It also highlighted childrens violence as they fought for the socialist cause. Young Red Guards sang patriotic songs and read the Little Red Book. These rituals fostered Maos cult of personality.

It remains to be seen whether the new school curriculum is a harbinger of the future deification of Xi Jinping.

Shih-Wen Sue Chen is a Senior Lecturer in Writing and Literature at the Deakin University. Sin Wen Lau is a Senior Lecturer in China Studies at the University of Otago.

This article first appeared on The Conversation.

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Chinas new school textbooks reflect the rise of Grandpa Xis personality cult - Scroll.in