www.thecommunists.net Issue Nr.34 April 2015 Imperialism, Globalization and the Decline of Capitalism * Yemen and the Al-Saud Aggression * General Election in Britain * World Social Forum in Tunis * France: “Socialist” Government * Brazil: Danger of Right-Wing Coup * Capitalism in China Price: €5 / $7 / £4,5 2 Content RevCom#34 I April 2015 English-Language Journal of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), No. 34, April 2015 Defend Yemen against the Al-Saud Gang of Aggressors! p.3 Tunisia: Lessons after Four Years of Revolutionary Ferment p.6 The Main Terrorists are Obama, Hollande, Putin, Assad, and al-Sisi! p.7 Brazil: Defeat the Fascist Coup in the Streets! p.8 The General Election in Britain on May 7th 2015 p.10 Britain: 4th Anniversary Syrian Revolution Demonstration p.14 France: The “Socialist” Government’s Neoliberal Autocracy p.15 Review of China: Wang Chaohua - The Party and its Success Story p.19 Imperialism, Globalization and the Decline of Capitalism p.22 RCIT Publications on Russian Imperialism p.21 NEW BOOK: Building the Revolutionary Party p.11 Books from the RCIT p.44 RCIT: What do we stand for p. 45 Published by the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT). The RCIT has sections in Pakistan (Revo- lutionary Workers Organisation, RWO), Sri Lanka (United Lankan Workers Party, ULWP), Brazil (Corrente Comunista Revolucionária, CCR), Israel/Occupied Palestine (Internationalist Socialist League, ISL), USA (Revolutionary Workers Collective, RWC), and Austria (Revolutionary Communist Organisation for Liberation, RKOB). In addition the RCIT has members in Yemen and Britain. www.thecommunists.net - [email protected] Füchselhofgasse 6, 1120 Vienna, Austria RevCom#34 I April 2015 Middle East 3 Defend Yemen against the Al-Saud Gang of Aggressors! No to Sectarian Divisions and Civil War! For a Workers’ and Popular Government! Joint Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency’s International Secretariat and the RCIT Yemen, 3.4.2015 . Since the night of 25 March, a military alliance of people. (Last time Pakistan did this was during the coun- reactionary foreign powers has been attacking Ye- ter-revolutionary suppression of the Bahraini Revolution.) 1men. This gang of aggressors is led by the kingdom 4. In short, this al-Saud gang of aggressors repre- of Saudi Arabia and includes all other monarchies of the sents the ultimate counter-revolution, the desire of the old Arabian Peninsula (except Oman) plus the reactionary ruling classes to crush the Arab Revolution, and to return regimes of Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Morocco, and Pakistan. to the old, pre-2011 order. In the same context, one should In addition, it is also supported by Western imperialist view the reactionary initiative of al-Sisi and King Salman powers like the US, Britain, and France as well as Israel. at the recent Arab League Summit to form a joint military In an assault which Riyadh has dubbed “Asifat al-Hazm“ force of about 40,000 elite troops, backed by jets, warships, (Operation Decisive Storm), about one hundred Saudi and light armor. warplanes plus allied forces are attacking the advancing 5. The reactionary alliance of kings and dictators Houthi rebels in seven different Yemeni cities. During the decided to invade Yemen after their puppet, Abd Rabbu first nine days of this aggression, they have killed at least Mansour al-Hadi, had to flee the country when the Houthi 519 people, including many children, and injured more rebels reached the southern city of Aden. As a result of Al- than 1,700. Egypt has also sent warships to the coast of Hadi’s overthrow, US imperialism was forced to remove Yemen. In addition, Saudi Arabia has assembled as many its military personnel and intelligence operatives from Ye- as 150,000 troops along its border with Yemen, and Egypt, men. In addition, the US, France, Turkey, and their West- Jordan, and Pakistan have expressed their readiness to ern European allies closed their embassies in Sana’a. King take part in a ground offensive as well. Salman and his accomplices are determined to control the 2. The Revolutionary Communist International Tenden- country either by occupying parts of it with ground troops cy (RCIT) calls democrats, anti-imperialists, and socialists or by forcing the rebels to accept negotiations which in Yemen and the Arab world to defend Yemen’s national would result in the re-imposition of al-Hadi, who has lost independence and to support the defeat of the reactionary any popular support in Yemen, as the country’s president. al-Saud gang of aggressors. 6. The al-Saud Gang of Aggressors is striving to sub- 3. While the ongoing war in Yemen reflects differ- jugate Yemen not only to deliver another blow to the Arab ent axes of conflict, currently the most important issue is Revolution but also to control a country which is strate- the attack of the foreign, arch-reactionary powers against gically located for world trade. Whoever controls Yemen Yemen’s independence in order to install their disposed controls the Bāb al-Mandab Straits and subsequently the reactionary lackey, “President” Abd Rabbu Mansour al- Gulf of Aden and the Suquṭra Islands. Furthermore, who- Hadi. While the Saudi King Salman and the other reac- ever controls the Bāb al-Mandab Straits also controls the tionary petro-sheikdoms claim to have launched an “anti- southern approach to the Suez Channel. It is for this rea- terrorist operation,” they in fact represent the Arab Ancien son that the Western imperialist powers support the Saudi Régimes. They represent a coalition of ruling classes which war against Yemen. has at its core the thoroughly decadent and corrupt Saudi 7. The Saudi-led alliance fears that the victory of the and other Gulf monarchies which are closely aligned with Houthi movement could lead to a strengthening of the re- the Great Powers and which unashamedly support fled gional power of Iran and hence a weakening of its old ri- dictators like Tunisia’s Ben Ali, have financed the blood- vals, Saudi-Arabia and Israel. This fear has increased with thirsty coup d’état in Egypt of General al-Sisi on 3 July the recently concluded deal between the Great Powers and 2013 which so far has led to the slaughter of more than Iran about the latter’s development and use of nuclear en- 6,000 persons, and have crushed the popular uprising in ergy. Bahrain in March 2011. Characteristically, this very same 8. The Yemeni people well understand that the pres- regime of al-Sisi is an integral part of this gang of aggres- ent Saudi aggression is an attack on the country’s national sors. It is joined by the ultra-reactionary, pro-Western independence. This was reflected by the huge mass dem- monarchy of Morocco which has decades of experience in onstration in Sana’a on 1 April as well as similar marches national oppression of the Sahrawi people in the western in Ta’izz and Amran. People chanted “Death to the USA!”, part of the Sahara (again under the pretext of “anti-ter- “Death to the Israel!” and “Down with the Saudi Aggression!” rorist operations”). Finally, this alliance is completed by Another popular slogan was “From Sana’a to Qatif, the revo- the Pakistani regime of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who lution will not stop,” referring to the city of Qatif in eastern also regularly launches “anti-terrorist operations” against Saudi Arabia. There are popular calls for the boycott of their own people in Balochistan, Waziristan, and Khyber goods made by countries which participate in the Saudi- Pakhtunkhwa. It has traditionally close relations with the led war of aggression. Since the beginning of the Saudi Saudi Kingdom whose petro-dollars it desperately needs. attack, there have been important changes in the politi- Add to this the fact that the Pakistani military has a long cal awareness of the Yemeni people. Today, many people history of sending troops in support of the corrupt Gulf who in the past did not support the Houthi rebels, includ- monarchies, which have little reasons to trust their own ing many Sunnis as well as supporters of the old Socialist 4 Middle East RevCom#34 I April 2015 Party (which ruled South Yemen until 1990), now see the fight for the unity of the working class and the popular foreign attack as the main issue. Today, the majority of the masses. Yemeni people, Shiites as well as Sunnis, support the mili- 12. Socialists should fight for a revolutionary Constitu- tary struggle led by the Houthis against the Saudi aggres- ent Assembly. Its delegates should be controllable and open sion. to recall by the popular masses. This Assembly should 9. The foreign aggression has transformed the na- work out a new constitution for the country, one which ture of the civil war. As the RCIT has elaborated in past will unite the workers and poor irrespective of their reli- statements, the popular uprising against “president” al- gious believes. Revolutionaries would fight inside such an Hadi in the autumn of 2014 after massive price rises had Assembly for a socialist program. a democratic and legitimate character. Al-Hadi served for 13. The task of the working class as well as of the 17 years as the deputy of the ousted Yemeni dictator Ali peasants and the poor is to advance the formation of their Abdulla Saleh and came to power as a result of a Saudi- independent organizations. They should strive for the arranged deal after the Yemeni Revolution forced Saleh to foundation of new, popular, council-based democratic flee the country in 2011. Socialists supported the Yemeni councils of action as well as popular armed militias.