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2014 November

This is a publication of the Communist Youth Organization of the Workers Communist Party of Iran

Million Mask March in London

Kiss of Love protest in India

Brussels: Biggest labour demonstration since WWII

How to remember World War I

Global Week of Action to reclaim education

Walmart workers are planning the biggest Black Friday protest on November 28th

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women: a day to condemn the Islamic Re-public of Iran!

The International student movement: the spark to every revolution!

Black Friday protest: “I don’t want to participate in a broken system!”

Editor: Chia Barsen

Assistant Editor : Arash Yazdan

We Are The 99% We are the 99% newsletter is always accepting new writers: please

contact us if you are interested in submitting an article

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“Remember remember the 5th of November”, the famous quote from the main character of the movie V for Vendet-

ta has been engraved in the calendar every year. Annually people march to the parliament to voice their discontent

of the exploitative and starvation system that is capitalism. This year thousands came to the streets to protest

against austerity, social service cuts and low wages. Protestors also gathered outside the BBC and showed their an-

ger and discontent of BBC’s corruption, a media channel that attempts through censure to choke protests and peo-

ple’s voice by disconnecting the people on the streets from the working people around the world and at home.

The group Anonymous has tried to claim credit for this march on the Parliament Square. The Islamic apologist,

Russel Brand, has also tried to put his stamp on these protests and has tried to speak for the thousands of people

there. However, starvation cuts made by the Cameron government as well as other governments around the world

have put the working people against the wall and these working people are fighting to claim back their say in their

own life: to have liveable wages and a higher standard of living than the one imposed upon them by the capitalism

regime.

Every November will be a crisis for capitalism. Protests will only get larger and the banners bigger. Every new per-

son that joins a rally against austerity cuts and fights for better wages, by his/her presence casts a ballot against cap-

italism system as a whole.

Every year the word “anti-capitalism” is written larger and larger on banners. Corporations, national and interna-

tional, have been rightly demonized for being the kingmakers in the parliaments around the world and cutting the

throats of working people with their large scale theft of wages and control of the mafia which we are told is our

“government”. Today the working class, with the use of information technology has become far more organized,

international, and sophisticated. The protests will continue as long as capitalism continues, and will only stop after

a revolution!

Million Mask March in London

1

When a local TV report showed a young couple kissing in a café it created uproar with the youth members of In-

dia’s ruling political party BJP and criticism from various religious and political groups. These groups claimed that

the public display of affection violates the Indian culture and the law of the land under section 294 of the Indian

Penal Code. The Kerala State Women’s Commission also stated that it opposes the Kiss of Love and that it is

against the culture of Kerala.

Following the television broadcasting of the kiss and hug at the parking space on the Jai Hind TV, a large group of

people attacked and vandalized the café. This even followed a number of other incidents where “moral policing”

has taken place in India, where young couples and women are detained, harassed and or assaulted.

The “Kiss of Love” movement began on Facebook where a page called on youth across Kerala to take part in a pro-

test against “moral policing” at Marine Drive, Cochin province. On Facebook this movement gained 90,000 likes.

The “kiss of love” movement touches on one of the most prevalent and on-going concerns in India: women’s rights

and freedoms. The heart of this matter is far more than a display of affection but the place of women in Indian soci-

ety, the embedded patriarchy, and the inability of the government to protect the women in India from daily assault

and harassment. According to the National Crime Records Bureau of India, there are crimes committed against

women every 3 minutes, and a woman is raped every 29 minutes. In 2012 there was close to two and a half million

reported incidents of crimes committed against women. The International Mena and Gender Equality Survey have

reported that 24% of men in India have committed a sexual violence at one point in their life.

The 2012 tragic case of Munirka in New Delhi, the 23 year old that was gang raped on a private bus is still fresh on

the minds of people around the world. She died 13 days later and India witnessed widespread national and interna-

tional protests.

This current incident in Kerala is another example where the government of India only “protects” its citizens

through paper proclamations and nothing more. A large majority of Indians are strongly against violence against

women and want to shorten the hands of patriarchy. Indian people, with their far and wide participation in protests

and rallies have shown that the so called “culture” of India is not that of gender violence, but of gender equality.

They recognize that tentacles of religious misogyny must be stopped by the further empowerment of women

through grass roots social movements, education, a material economic shift out of poverty and government ac-

countability!

Kiss of Love protest in India

2

3

Brussels: Biggest labour demonstration since WWII

Over 120,000 workers gathered in the Belgian city of Brussels to protest against the cut-throat austerity measures

imposed by the Prime Minister Charles Michel and his cabinet. The protesters were met with heavy police pres-

ence that used tear gas and water cannon to push back the protesters. 60 people were injured during the day and

24 of them required hospitalization. Among the workers were steel workers union, teachers, dockers from Ant-

werp and Zeebrugge as well as post office workers. This demonstration will be part of a series of strikes which

will be followed by a general strike scheduled for December 15th.

The Belgian government is following the social service cutting scheme of the rest of Europe. The pension age is

set to be raised from 65 to 66 in 2025 and to 67 from 2030. Also, the government will no longer allow for wages

to increase with inflation, which means that every year workers’ wages will only have less and less purchasing

power.

The crash of 2008, major economies in the EU have shifted the cost of the crash, and their debt to the working

people. Instead of taxing the wealthy corporations in the country that generate the largest revenues, they have

instead turned the knife on the working people, cutting their income through higher taxes, and privatizing their

hard fought for social services. Starving the working people of Europe will only buy the European governments a

short time before the shrinking disposable income of working people take the toll on the markets. The deepening

crisis of capitalism, with its cuts and privatization, is now revealing a raw reality of capitalism system and a bold

division between those who have and their representatives in the government and the have-nots.

How to remember World War I One day, in a better world, Remembrance Day will have a different meaning. Today it is a memorial day observed by

Commonwealth Nations for those who died in WWI. Memorial Day is a day when nationalism is glorified all over the

Commonwealth Nations. It is a day when the Western bourgeoisie government representatives stand over the graves of

the soldiers of the WWI that died for Imperialism’s colonial division of the world and pretends to honour them. The

Commonwealth soldiers, mostly young men, who were brainwashed with the ideas of “freedom”, were sent off to war to

kill the soldiers on the other side that had their heads filled with the similar propaganda. Ironically WWI which had 37

million casualties was once called the war to end all wars, and now, nearly 100 years later, bourgeoisie continues its

plunder of the world.

WWI was not the last war, and since then wars have gotten more global and more destructive and hundreds of times

more expensive. The reason is simply that capitalism needs war to survive. War is a powerful way for capitalism to

open new markets and to displace the accumulated surplus in order to avoid a crisis. War allows bourgeois govern-

ments to install leaders in different countries to support the expanding needs of their domestic markets. War is also

used as a tool by the bourgeois to crush the working class movement and to rob them of their hard fought for wages,

benefits, and social services. For example today many Western governments are using the high deficits as an excuse to

cut wages, pensions and social services that include health care and education. The high deficit that exists in many

Western nations was in part created by expensive wars: the plan is simple, spend billions in war to create a large deficit,

and then use the deficit to attack the working class.

Also war itself, via the military industrial complex, is a market to sell arms. Each year the United States’ industrial mil-

itary complex sells 1.5 trillion dollars’ worth of arms. This is the result of years of compound growth of these arms cor-

porations that need war to sell their products. Without these wars, these corporations, that are large enough to be the

GDP of a country, will go bankrupt.

Today nationalism and patriotism are used in important ways by the bourgeoisie to brainwash the masses to accept

military interventions. Nationalism is used to paint an image of “the other” to justify the working people of one country

to attack and kill the working people of another country only for the sake of corporate profit and bourgeois regional

interests. The words “freedom” and “democracy” are used to create a picture of how surgical military strikes will cre-

ate a better looking country.

War has always been imposed on the working people by the bourgeois. Now, almost 100 years after the First World

War, the working people know that their bourgeois governments are representing different interests to their own. The

Queen of England and the Cameron government standing side by side putting poppies upon the graves of the soldiers

that died in WWI are the same class of butchers that sent these soldiers to die for the sake of profit and world division

nearly 100 years ago. These are the same people that are responsible for sending people to war today.

The only way to end all wars is to end capitalism as a system that propagates war. As long as capitalism exists wars will

continue and will only get larger and more destructive. One day perhaps, the people that died in WWI will be honoured

by the true history of the world: the history of class struggle, the millions that died in a war for the interest of the few.

4

Global Week of Action to reclaim education

The International Student Movement is calling on all

individuals and groups to join a coordinated world-

wide action. The ISM recognizes that no matter where

students live, they are faced with the same profit ma-

chine that does not represent their interests and has

hold on their education. This action is to protest budg-

et cuts, outsourcing, school closures, costs of living

and tuition fees.

Millions of students around the world are over-

whelmed with the debt they have incurred in order to

access their right to an education. These debts are a

bourgeois tool to keep students out of the streets and

submissive to their bosses. Debts are a political tool

for the subordination of the most revolutionary age

group in society.

The concerns of students are everyone’s concern. Ac-

cess to a free education is a human right. And not just

any kind

of education, but an education that reflects the reality

of our world, that generate emancipatory thinking and

not the “education” that foster ideas of consumerism

and submissiveness that only serve to propagate the

capitalist system!

Changing the education system can help change the

world! By giving students access to emancipatory

thinking and ideas, by breaking the student-debt slav-

ery, and to create a strong anti-capitalism unity among

students we can take a giant step towards a better

world!

Nov 17th to 22nd is the week to stand against the bour-

geois and declare that “we are students not custom-

ers!”

5

Walmart workers are planning the biggest Black Friday protest on November 28th

Walmart earns 16 billion dollars a year

in profits on the backs of its workers

and continues to deny its workers an af-

fordable pay, benefits, working condi-

tions and hours of work. In response the

workers at Walmart have staged large

protests at Walmart locations around

the United States every year. This year

these protests are much larger and bet-

ter organized. The protesters are rightly

striking the Walmart Corporation on its

most profitable day of the year: Black

Friday!

This year 1,600 stores are expected to

join the protest. Everyday more and

more workers are joining in the call

from Los Angeles to all other metropoli-

tan cities. Employees from 2,100 stores

from across the United States have also

signed the online petition that demands

for better wages, hours, pay, benefits

and working conditions.

This is the third time that Walmart

workers are going on strike and protest-

ing on Black Friday. This time the

workers are getting their message

across with the help of thousands of

community members in addition to the

new stores that have joined their pro-

tests.

The Walmart Corporation has been re-

taliating against the workers that or-

ganize and take part in the protests by

firing them. Further, Walmart Corpora-

tion is compensating for the loss of po-

tential profits by keeping stores open a

day beforehand: Thanksgiving. Almost

one million workers will be requested to

stay on a national holiday to keep the

stores open all day.

All corporations should be afraid of the

gaining momentum of the workers.

They should be fearful of their level of

organization and the spread of protests

as their message gets passed on across

the country. The service industry as a

whole is now being pressured by the

workers. Service industry workers, in-

cluding Walmart workers, have all

come together now to demand a $15

minimum wage.

The Corporate run US has been pushed to the ropes by service sector demands. If the state governments bend to the workers’ will, it will give the workers a massive incentive to maintain their

movement which may likely spill over to all other sectors of the economy taking salami slices of other corporations’ prof-its. However the republicans as well as the democrats in government don’t

have a choice in the matter. Both parties have dug their own graves with their hands in the cookie jar of continued austerity measures, bank bonuses, fore-closures, pension cuts, social service

cuts and wage freezes. The service sec-tor workers with their rock bottom wages, no health insurance, ridiculously expensive higher education, late retire-ment and low pensions, are in a desper-

ate fight with nothing to lose. This fight, this large scale class struggle, now a massive sea of alienated and heavily ex-ploited working people, is sending waves upon waves of protests towards

the walls of corporate US until they win! The large scale war against corpo-rate US has just begun to take on a dif-ferent momentum and has shifted to higher gear!

6

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women: a day to condemn the Islamic Republic of Iran!

7

The Islamic Republic of Iran denies women their most central human right to gender equality before the law. In Iranian courts women are not entitled to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which stipulates that “all persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals” (Article 14). The Islamic Penal code which was enacted after the 1979 Revolution violates the principle of gender equality. Further, Iranian courts recognize wom-en’s testimony, evidence, and compensation, as half of that of a man. The IRI violates women’s rights through compulsory hijab, forcing women to cover their whole bodies with the exception of their face and hands and feet and violations are severely punished with seventy four lashes, imprison-ment and fines. A woman’s body is not taboo! The IRI uses these laws to legally control women’s body to subordi-nate and oppress her. The IRI also sanctions gender inequality in matters of marriage, such as making the male “guardians” (father, brothers and husband) the legal authority marriage matters. The IRI has also legalized the age of marriage to be as early as 9 years of age for girls. This law has effectively legalized paedophilia, destroying the lives of thousands of Iranian girls and putting thousands more at risk. Within the marriage, the IRI laws stipulates the “rights and duties” of women, which include sexual submission (unhampered sexual availability), which is in effect legalizing rape, allowing women no place or institution for protection when or if sexual violence occurs in a marriage. Recently the IRI has begun a campaign of acid attacks against Iranian women. Passing a law that gives further power to morality patrols (Basij) and protection in courts, the Basij has been witnessed throwing acid at Iranian woman not abiding by the Islamic dress code. Women have a revolutionary character in Iran. They have time and again resisted against the Islamic Republic’s continuous assaults on their rights and freedoms. When the IRI first introduced compulsory hijab after the 1979 revolution, women flooded the streets of Tehran in the millions. From 1979 until today, when women are fighting against the Basij patrols’ acid attacks, by holding protests across major cities in Iran, their struggle and resistance has never ceased and their revolutionary character has only been further accentuated. Despite the Islamic regime’s attempts to repress women, domesticated them, and treat them as second class citi-zens, women are using everyday life as a platform to voice their protest. Women in Iran defy the Islamic regime by wearing improper hijab, pursing higher education, seeking employment, listening to music, dancing, engaging in sporting activities and occupying public spheres wherever possible! The Islamic Republic of Iran must fear Iranian women for they are revolutionary in their demands for secularism, gender equality and life free of state sanctioned repression! On the International Day for the Elimination of Vio-lence against Women we must condemn the Islamic regime for its acts of violence towards Iranian women. We must stand together with Iranian women to echo their voice and their cry for change to the outside world. Communist Youth Organization

The International student movement: the spark to every revolution!

This year the International Student Movement was successful in organizing a 10,000 people march in London and

other cities around the world. The Free Education march attracted college students, school children, veterans, and

many human rights activists from across the country.

This was by no means a defensive protest to freeze tuition fees and other education costs, but rather an offensive

action for a tuition-free education. This was a march on governments around the world to demand for the human

right to education.

Student debt is a political tool to dominate, subjugate and repress the most revolutionary group in society. Students

who are in-debt are far less likely to be agitators in society. Debt forces youth to keep quiet and not to question

working conditions, benefits, job security and to accept high levels of financial exploitation. Student debt discour-

ages youth from joining and attempting to create labor unions to fight for better wages and working conditions. In

other words, a student’s debt is the chains in which capitalism keeps him/her as “obedient” wage slaves in our soci-

ety.

Students around the world must also demand to change the content of education they are receiving. Fighting for a

tuition free education is one important step forward, however if the content being taught in colleges and universities

only supports the reproduction of a despotic system of exploitation, than it must be stopped! Universities must not

be for-profit corporations that only function to increase their net profit value. Universities must be free institutions

that teach emancipatory ideas that at the least challenge the statuesque and promote innovative thinking that up-

holds human rights and freedom at their core.

Western countries such as Britain and US, with their high tuition, are only generating short-term surplus at the cost

of a catastrophic long term dwindling demand in the markets. It has now become clear that by increasing tuition

fees and consequently, student debt, it only works to reduce the purchasing power of a large section of consumers

in society. Being in debt means that less goods and services are bought and in turn less revenue is generated by

businesses across the country: the system shooting itself in the foot.

Changes to education are introduced as “reform” by the governments around the world, which translate into more

privatization of educational institutions in addition to higher tuition fees. However these failed government policies

are by no means miscalculated out of short sightedness of capital accumulation formula that favors short-term prof-

its: this is a gross misinterpretation of the current education policies by capitalist governments around the world.

These “reforms” are in reality far less about the short-term so called “deficit reduction” economics of a nation, but

rather they are highly politically motivated to choke the student movement at its most revolutionary time in human

history.

It is clear in history that youth are the group in society that create the biggest spark for revolution that other groups

join. It is this revolutionary character that alarms capitalist regimes around the world and it is this spark they are so

desperately trying to extinguish!

8

Black Friday protest: “I don’t want to participate in a broken system!”

“People before profit”, was one of many chants at the

anti-capitalism demonstration taking place in major

cities around the world during Black Friday.

Black Friday is one of the most profitable days for

major retailers such as Wal-Mart. It is also a day that

displays the desperation of working people who have

lost all their disposable income to the continuing as-

sault on their wages by the large retailers themselves.

These workers storm the marketplace to purchase the

product of their own exploited labour.

Moreover, the price tags placed on products also re-

veal the level of exploitation of the workers. Prices are

dropped at times to the tenth of what they normally

were and the corporation are still able to generate a

profit. However, this is easy to understand when con-

sidering the low wages paid to over sea sweatshop

workers (places such as China, Cambodia, and Thai-

land) in addition to the raw materials bought in coun-

tries that have zero regard for the human beings living

there or the environment.

Further, the price tags on objects also hide one of the

most systemic contradictions within the capitalist sys-

tem: the contradiction between use-value, the social

labour embodied in products, and the exchange-value.

In short, we live in an exchange-value driven system

that has lost sight of the social labour that is embodied

within the products being sold, and are sold at arbi-

trary prices that are mostly influenced by the supply

and the demand of the market rather than their use-

value.

The United States as well as most modern Western

Economies, after years of increasing technological

growth has effectively pushed millions of industrial

workers into the low-paying, no job security, service

sector employment. Workers living in the West today

have been effectively cornered and are being forced to

pay with their wages for the nonsensical compound

growth of capitalism.

“Putting people profit” is the call for the liquidation of

the entire system, for capitalism cannot and will never

be able to produce a human face due to its own inter-

nal contradictions. Facing immense despotic exploita-

tion and forgoing the ability to buy products at a lower

price: the workers protesting during Black Friday

demonstrate a worker consciousness never witnessed

before. The connection between poverty and corporate

profit has now been cemented in the minds of the peo-

ple! The most profitable day of the year for corpora-

tions has now been turned into the day of protest

against the totality of the system! Corporations call

out to the people to come out to buy their products

and the people answer with chants against corporate

profiteering and the systemic misery inherent in capi-

talism!

9

10

International student protest against the murder of 43 Mexican students

Demonstrators in Mexico are continuing their protest in support of the missing 43 students. Last September 43

students from the Teachers’ college of Ayotzinapa went missing in Iguala, Guerrero. These students were on their

way to protest the government‘s hiring and firing practices when they were intercepted and detained by the police

which handed them over to the “United Warriors” crime syndicate operating in the area. The 43 students are now

considered by many to be murdered by the hands of the syndicate. These students were all attending a local teacher

training college with a history of left-wing social activism and radicalism.

Since the news of their disappearance the people of Mexico have come together in support of the 43 students. Fur-

ther, the working people of Mexico know too well that crimes such as Murder are not exclusive to crime syndi-

cates but are propagated by the actions and the inactions of the government and the state police force. Mexicans

know well that the activity of drug cartels and syndicates are predicated on the collusion of the state police, and

that such heinous crimes are blooding the hands of the police as well.

This was not the first time that the state has blocked protest movements from rural areas. The current right-wing

government wants nothing more than to crush all the germinating social movements in the country and is using all

the corrupt infrastructure of the previous governments to aid him in his pursuits. Further, the United States under

the Obama administration is waving the “freedom” and “justice” flag in the media while turning a complete blind

eye to this issue, no doubt due to NAFTA and other inner house trade pacts.

As more and more tortured and burnt bodies of these students are uncovered, it only adds fuel to the anger and rage

of the Mexican people and students around the world. Over 50,000 people have been protesting in the streets of

Mexico, and support rallies have been taking place in Venezuela, El Paso, London, Paris, Vienna, and Buenos

Aires.

The protest movement around the world has completely shamed the Mexican corrupt government. The protest

movement has also underscored the people’s international unity and that attacks on the student movement is no

longer isolated to the nation state! Pressured by the people, the governor of Guerrero has been forced to step

down. However this is not enough, this attack on the student movement only further highlights the need for the

people of Mexico to protect themselves. The so called “vigilante” groups in Mexico (groups of armed civilians

against drug cartels) must take on a more prominent role in the struggle against police corruption and drug cartels.

Only the people through their unity, both locally and internationally, can defend themselves against the right-wing

assaults such as these.