By Christelle Néant
During his visit to Ukraine to inaugurate a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Babi Yar massacre, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier literally rewrote the history of the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews, and made Ukrainian collaborators of the Nazis look like victims.
September 29-30, 1941 – November 6, 1943
Monuments at Babi Yar, left to right: to Jews; to Soviet citizens and POWS; to Roma; to children.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed at Babi Yar by the Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators in their campaign against the Soviet Union during World War II. They are said to be the worst committed up to that time, surpassed by even greater crimes committed by the Nazis after that.
Freedom of press of the reactionary ruling classes
In 1961 and for years after, the French and Anglo-American media colluded with the state to cover up the 1961 massacre of Algerians in Paris, ensuring impunity for those responsible for this heinous crime such as the Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, Prefect of the Paris police. This is an apt time to recall what happened. Continue reading
Filed under Africa, Europe, History, Media, Journalism & Disinformation
Police powers unjustly imprisoned hundreds uring 1970 “October Crisis”
October 16 marks the 51st anniversary of the proclamation of the War Measures Act by Pierre Elliott Trudeau and his Liberal government. Trudeau declared a state of “apprehended insurrection” in order to use the powers of the War Measures Act, which had been used in World War I and World War II, to indefinitely detain people without charges or trial.
Filed under Canada, Canadian Forces, History
Remembering the heroic miners of the Battle of Blair Mountain
The Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada remembers with great affection the workers throughout North America who have given their lives, been injured or sent to prison in the many battles for the dignity of labour and for a nation-building project to build the new without class oppression and exploitation.
Filed under History, United States, Working Class
Exactly three years ago, on August 31, 2018, the head of Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine, Alexander Zakharchenko, was assassinated.
710 years ago on August 23, 1305, the English overlords executed the great Scottish patriot, William Wallace (Uilleam Uallas).
Although vastly outnumbered, especially in cavalry, Wallace and Andrew Moray’s Scottish army had historically defeated a much larger English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge on September 11, 1297.
After the victory, Wallace styled himself as “Commander of the Army of the Kingdom of Scotland” and the Guardian of the Kingdom of Scotland. Although he utilized the term kingdom instead of nation, Wallace was not simply protecting a throne for an absentee ruler, he was protecting the independence of Scotland. As historian J.M. Reid observes, “Wallace [was] the champion of a rising of a people in its own defence.” [1]
After eight more years of skirmishing and battling with the English forces, on August 5, 1305, Wallace was betrayed and captured near Glasgow. He was handed over to King Edward I of England, who charged him with high treason. Wallace’s reply to the charge was, “I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject.”
In a ceremony fit for barbarians, Wallace was dragged naked through the streets of London, then hanged, drawn, and quartered, and his body parts sent to various parts of the kingdom as a warning to other “rebels.”
In 1869 the National Wallace Monument was erected, very close to the site of his army’s glorious victory at Stirling Bridge.
Note
1.W. Croft Dickinson, Scotland from the Earliest Times to 1603, 3rd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977, 155-59; J.M. Reid, Scotland’s Progress: The Survival of a Nation, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1971, 64.)
1942 photo of RCAF pilots from Torbay Air Force base in Newfoundland, some of the over one million Canadians who enlisted to fight fascism during the second world war.
On August 23, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Latvian, Estonian and other reactionary cliques are once again staging events to mark the anniversary of so-called Black Ribbon Day. “Commemorative events” are being held on Parliament Hill, the Rotunda of the Alberta Legislature, and a handful of other locales. In concert, Trudeau did not fail to issue a statement on Twitter, equating the victims of fascism with the so-called victims of communism and falsifying history. Scores of Canadians immediately began denouncing his statement on Twitter.
For the information of readers, we have updated an article by Dougal MacDonald originally published by this blog on August 24, 2018 which provides information on the so-called Black Ribbon Day.
August 22 Virtual Celebration
76th Anniversary of August Revolution and Vietnam National Day
Farmers hold their Kisan Sansad (Farmers Parliament) in Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
By Jaspal Singh
The fight of the farmers in India to repeal three anti-farm laws and for their rights continues unabated with more and more initiatives being taken by the farmers, while the government’s attempts to defeat them meet one failure after another.
Filed under Agriculture, Food & Farmers, Asia, History
August 15 is the 75th anniversary of the Independence of India which the ruling class is celebrating with pomp and ceremony, but not in the spirit of the people.
82nd Anniversary of the Birth of Hardial Bains, August 15, 1939
 Hardial Bains |
Cuba today, which has withstood so much yet contributes so much to the well-being of humanity, is a testament to Fidel’s vision for humanity.
On the 95th Anniversary of the Birth of Fidel Castro, August 13, 1926
August 13, 2021 marks the 95th anniversary of the birth of Fidel Castro, the legendary leader of the Cuban people and hero to oppressed peoples the world over. On this occasion, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) sends warmest greetings to the Cuban people and their leadership who live out the call Somos Fidel! (We Are Fidel!) and carry forward the revolutionary struggle embodied by Fidel. Although Fidel died nearly five years ago, the strength of the all-sided socialist nation-building project that he founded and led can be seen in Cuba today as a new generation of Cubans heroically defends the Revolution from the stepped-up criminal and inhumane economic blockade and attempts at counterrevolution by the U.S. imperialists, in the midst of a global pandemic.
Cuba today, which has withstood so much yet contributes so much to the well-being of humanity, is a testament to Fidel’s vision for humanity. Cuba embodies a project which permits the human personality to flourish and practices human rights by upholding the right of a people to exercise control over their destiny.
For a moment, hierarchies (historical, economic, political) are turned upside down. It is a brief glimpse of the day when the last shall be first | A Reflection by Tony Seed
(August 3) – You must be watching the Olympics. Did you chance to watch any of the Rugby Sevens matches?
Filed under Asia, History, Indigenous Peoples
The Treachery of Historical Falsifications | Dougal MacDonald
Much has been written by historians about the Warsaw Uprising in Poland which took place from August 1 to October 2, 1944, during the Second World War.[1] Much of it is false. The main aims of the past and modern falsifiers of the history of the Warsaw Uprising have been to attack the Soviet Union and its great leader, Joseph Stalin, to whitewash the Polish reactionaries and their modern-day descendants, and to try to pretend that the innumerable Nazi war crimes which were committed against the Polish people were a mere historical footnote. But the facts of history are stubborn things and they do not change just because of the scribblings of reactionary historians.
U.S. Must Stop All Provocations Against the DPRK and Sign a Peace Treaty Now!
By Nick Lin and Philip Fernandez
On July 27, the Korean people, as well as peace-loving humanity will celebrate the 68th anniversary of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States in 1953 which brought a ceasefire to the Korean War, known in the DPRK as the Great Fatherland Liberation War. The signing of the Armistice Agreement also signalled the first military defeat of the U.S. following the Second World War — a humiliation which has haunted the U.S. imperialists ever since, and for which it has yet to forgive the DPRK and the Korean people.
Filed under Asia, History, United States
Fossilized fish dating back 56 million years have been discovered in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, shedding light on a time period when Earth was experiencing massive warming | ALAA OMRAN
Remains of an early whale from 40 million years ago lies on the desert pavement of Wadi El-Hutan, 100 km south of Cairo. About 400 skeletons of ancient water life such as mammals and reptiles have been identified in what used to be an ancient shoreline | CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP via Getty ImagesAlaa Omran
CAIRO (June 16) — An Egyptian research team that includes Egypt’s Mansoura and Tanta universities, the American University of Cairo and the University of Michigan recently discovered the remains of vertebrate fossils from sediments dating back 56 million years at a site in Egypt’s Eastern Desert.
The scientific journal Geology published last month the details of the discovery of creatures that withstood highly elevated global temperatures at a site that is today in the Egyptian desert.
Filed under History, West Asia (Middle East)
A group of Russian archaeologists made an impressive discovery in Iraq’s Dhi Qar governorate, where an ancient settlement about 4,000 years old was found.
A woman walks toward the Great Ziggurat Temple, a massive Sumerian stepped mudbrick construction dedicated to the moon god Nanna that dates back to 2100 B.C. in the ancient city of Ur, Dhi Qar province, Iraq, June 15, 2020 | Asaad Niazi/AFP via Getty Images
(July 9) – A group of Russian archaeologists discovered June 24 an ancient settlement about 4,000 years old in Dhi Qar governorate in southern Iraq. The discovery was made in the area of Tell al-Duhaila, which is home to more than 1,200 archaeological sites, including the Great Ziggurat of Ur site from the Sumerian era, and the royal tomb. Treasures similar to the ones that were found in the tomb of Egypt’s Tutankhamun’ tomb were unearthed.
Filed under History, West Asia (Middle East)
July 26 marks one of the most important dates celebrated in Cuba, Moncada Day or the National Day of Rebellion. It was on July 26, 1953 that revolutionary youth led by Fidel Castro launched their courageous attack on the Batista dictatorship which led to the ultimate liberation of Cuba on January 1, 1959. To this day, this bold action symbolizes the revolutionary spirit and audacity of the Cuban people. The following three articles on its significance are provided by the editorial team of the The Marxist-Leninist (TML) and originally published on July 26, 2021.
Germany’s contribution to the colonisation of Palestine over the years has been ideological, financial, physical and military | JOSEPH MASSAD*
(July 16) – German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Israel two weeks ago and met Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, whose American parents came from San Francisco to colonise Palestine in July 1967. Bennett has boasted: “I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life and there’s no problem with that.”
Filed under Europe, History, Palestine, West Asia (Middle East)
(July 14) – The Penelakut Tribe is one of six tribes of the Penelakut First Nation whose traditional territories include parts of southern Vancouver Island and of some of the southern Gulf islands in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland. On July 8 Penelakut Tribe Chief Joan Brown, Council and Elders issued an invitation to join in their work to raise awareness of the Kuper Island Industrial School and to inform people of the confirmation of more than 160 undocumented and unmarked graves near the site.
Filed under Canada, History, Indigenous Peoples
1981 (30 June): Forty years ago, 23,000 postal workers in the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) launched a 42-day strike for paid maternity leave and other just demands. They had already held wildcat strikes in 1965 against sexual harassment and for better pay. In fact, the wildcats of ’65 were the main reason why the Canadian government institutionalized collective bargaining for public servants in 1967.
Filed under Canada, History, Working Class
Eighty years ago, Nazi criminals and Nazi collaborators started the first pogroms and murders of Jews in the Baltic States. Baltic collaborators are hounored today as “freedom fighters”. This fascist glorification is enabled by Canada and the United States who present themselves as the greatest opponents of “anti-semitism”. Third in a series.
Rally in Riga, Latvia opposes the annual march to rehabilitate Latvian members of the Nazi’s Waffen SS, March 16, 2017.
BERLIN (german-foreign-policy.com) – In the shadow of the invading Wehrmacht, German Nazi criminals started the first pogroms and mass murders of the Soviet Union’s Jewish population exactly 80 years ago together with Central and Eastern European collaborators. On June 24, 80 years ago, for example, pogroms began in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas under the eyes of Wehrmacht soldiers, in which German and Lithuanian perpetrators fell victim to 3,800 Jews by June 29.
The celebration of Quebec National Day includes the celebration of our 19th century patriots who fought to establish an independent homeland and republic which vests sovereignty in the people. – Youth for Democratic Renewal
Democratic Renewal and a Modern Constitution Are an Urgent Need – The significance of the Meech Lake Accord today is that in this era the people want to be the arbiters and decision-makers. It is the work for democratic renewal which will open society’s path to progress.
On June 23, 1990, the Meech Lake Accord was defeated. It was a set of amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated behind closed doors in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the provincial premiers. The failure of the Meech Lake Accord marked a deepening of the constitutional crisis which has now become an existential crisis due to Canada’s all-sided integration into the U.S. war economy and state arrangements.
Ukraine honours Nazi-collaborators, who, 80 years ago today, participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union and carried out massacres of Jews. This fascist glorification is enabled by Canada, the United States and Germany who present themselves as the greatest opponents of “anti-semitism”.
BERLIN/KIEV (german-foreign-policy.com) – Whereas the German invasion of the Soviet Union 80 years ago is being internationally commemorated today, collaborators, who participated in the war of annihilation on the side of the Germans, are receiving state honours in Ukraine, in particular the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its leader Stepan Bandera as well as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) which originated from that milieu. Together with the German Wehrmacht and troops from several collaborating states, OUN militias advanced onto Soviet territory, where they committed countless massacres of the Jewish population alongside German units. In Lviv (formerly Lemberg), 4000 Jews were assassinated within a very short period. The parliament in Kiev declared the OUN “combatants for Ukrainian independence.” A government decree calls for honouring their “patriotism” and “high morals” in Ukrainian schools. The UPA’s founding day has been a national holiday since 2015. The OUN salute adorns Ukraine’s football League’s jerseys.
80th anniversary of the invasion of the Soviet Union: No commemoration by the German government, and Bundestag, German President under attack because of his commemoration address in the Karlshorst Museum.
BERLIN/MOSCOW (german-foreign-policy.com) – The German invasion of the Soviet Union 80 years ago will be internationally commemorated on Tuesday – without any participation by the German government or the Bundestag. This invasion marked the beginning of the German war of annihilation’s key phase that had cost the lives of 27 million Soviet citizens, devastated large parts of the country and exposed the Jewish population to German crimes of extermination. The Bundestag should hold no special commemoration, but instead maintain an “undivided commemoration of the entire course of the Second World War,” explained Wolfgang Schäuble, President of the Bundestag. Several members of the Bundestag used a “debate” on the war of annihilation to demand that “German crimes” not lead to restraint regarding aggression against today’s Russia. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has Soviet victims of the war of annihilation disappear among the victims of “Central and Eastern Europe” – a choice of terms that conflates Nazi victims and Nazi collaborators: Significant forces from “Central and Eastern Europe” played an active role in the German war of annihilation.
Filed under Canada, History, Indigenous Peoples
Juneteenth is being celebrated by demanding that all the continuing remnants of slavery, in the form of broad inequality faced by African Americans on all fronts and police violence and mass incarceration be eliminated. People of all nationalities and backgrounds together continue to affirm their convictions for new arrangements and their own empowerment, through protests as well as other forms of resistance.
By Dougal MacDonald
June 19, 1865 or Juneteenth (also known as Freedom Day) is celebrated across the United States in appreciation of the vital contributions made by African Americans in emancipating the four million people enslaved by the system of slave labour and in carrying forward the fight for justice and equality before and since the U.S. Civil War. Recent actions across the U.S. salute the determined and undaunted resistance to police violence, government impunity, and demands for accountability and for change that favours the people.
Filed under Americas, History, United States
(June 10) – On June 3, farmers at the encampments surrounding Delhi marked the 74th anniversary of the proclamation of the partition of India by the British. On June 3, 1947, the last British Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, declared that India would be partitioned into two dominions. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the All-India Muslim League, spoke after him and accepted the partition of India and creation of the Dominion of Pakistan. Then came Jawaharlal Nehru whose acceptance of partition made him the first Prime Minister of India. So too, Baldev Singh claimed to represent the Punjabi Sikh community in the processes of negotiations that resulted in the Partition of India in 1947, for which he became the first Minister of Defence of India. The Congress laid claim to secularism but nonetheless demanded that Punjab and Bengal also be divided on the basis of religion. Leaders of the Communist Party of India had already accepted partition and all the parties conspired with the British against the peoples of India. June 2 marks the date when Mountbatten presented the plans for the partition of India to all these people and they accepted it. Mahatma Gandhi, who had been saying, “partition over my dead body,” told Mountbatten that he had vowed to maintain silence and would not oppose it.
Filed under Agriculture, Food & Farmers, Asia, History
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