DEM VOLKE DIENEN

Here we publish pictures of a graffiti in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Engels, which we received.

In the past weeks we have reported among other things about the lies concerning possible successes of the reaction in People's War in India. The fact that these are largely faked is strengthened by the fact that the reaction has to reinforce and to upgrade their armoury for their fight against People's War and the terror against the people.

In recent months and years, an increasing erosion of democratic rights can be observed in the FRG, which can be seen not least in the new police laws and currently especially in the so-called Corona measures. The current curfew and the de facto abolition of the inviolability of the home are just two of many examples. But in addition to this open reactionary approach, the state also takes a rather pragmatic unofficial approach to its own legislation.

Since 2018 German police in Rheinland-Pfalz is, according to them, „successfully“ using tasers in everyday patrols. From now on (that is, January 2021) these tasers, officially called „Distance Electro Impulse Devices“, this equipment is also to be used for policing three cities in NRW.

Peasants of Camp Manoel Ribeiro, Rondonia (Brazil), successfully repelled an eviction attempt carried out by armed men this week. On January 18, two gunmen of the Nossa Senhora landlords, approached one of the gates leading towards the lands of the peasants of Camp Manoel Ribeiro in an obvious attempt of intimidating them. Realizing the peasants were not intimidated so easily however, they proclaimed they would be visiting for talks as they had to remove parts of the Camp for cattle. The peasants however did not retreat and stood their ground, until the gunmen went away for the time being.

Recently, the annual report of the NGO "Human Rights Watch" was published, which reports on the human rights situation in different countries. France was also examined more closely. We would like to present a few results here. For interested readers, the entire report can be found as a PDF here. Among other things, the reactionary government's handling of the corona virus is denounced. The handling of giving more power to the executive has already been criticised in the past. But now the effects of the measures are also becoming apparent:

Every third person lost their income, millions of people were catapulted into poverty. The school closures also only highlight the contradictions between the different social classes.

Another thing, which we have also reported on here in several contexts, is the continuing police violence. For a long time, for example, an explosive tear gas grenade was used at demonstrations, which was now banned last year but replaced by a non-explosive variant. In addition, rubber bullets continue to be used, which have dangerously and fatally injured thousands of people. When the police act outside demonstrations, it can still be seen that they act in a particularly humiliating way against migrant youth. However, this is not only a problem of the police itself, but also imperialist chauvinism in general is very strong, which is also fuelled again and again by the reactionary government or also bourgeois media (we remember Charlie Hebdo). Figures have now been published on racist offences in 2019; unfortunately, these are still pending for last year and will only be published in the course of this year. The various offences are broken down into anti-Semitic acts (up 27%), anti-Muslim (up 54%) and "all other racist acts" (up 131%). The old French state is at the forefront of this when, for example, it dismantled a settlement of Roma families near Paris without providing them with replacement accommodation. But also the numerous violent evictions of self-built refugee camps give a hint that these are not a few "exceptions".

Militants of the TKP/ML have hung a "bomb banner" - a banner with an attached explosive device - in Istanbul-Küçükçekmece on 15 January in memory of comrades Nubar, Özgür, Deniz, Rosa, Asmin and Muharrem who died in the People's War. Commenting on the action, the class consciousness and class hate of the fallen comrades were underlined, especially the resoluteness that could not be taken over "half a century in the history of the party. Now is the time to muster the will, courage and perseverance of the struggle our comrades left us."

The comrades of Rote Presse have informed us that issue 34 of the Rote Post is online. Furthermore, they have also informed us that after the latest issue reaches them, they will publish the respective previous issue. The latest updated issue can be found here.