Hamas rallies in Gaza marking 22 years since its foundation.

Below is a sample of socialist realist cinema from Russia. Such films are a reflection of the most progressive features of socialist realism: democratism, humanism, truth to life, civic-mindedness, and close ties to the people. They show the role of people in the history-making process and the shaping of the new man under socialism.

One of countless films about the leaders of the Revolution and he founders of the Soviet state is “Hostile Whirlwinds” by Mikhael Kalatazov, about the life and work of the great F.E. Dzerzhinsky during the years 1918-21.

This is a scene from “The Return of Maksim”, the second volume of Kozintsev and Trauberg’s trilogy about Maksim. The film is set in July 1914, with the Bolsheviks and Mensehviks compete for representation of the working-class in the Duma. Maksim, who just returned from exile, calls the workers to strike as a protest against the firing of six of their colleagues. The traitor Platon Dymba assaults Maksim, wounding him severely. When the strike unfolds the workers demonstrate by the thousands, the news of the outbreak of World War I suddenly arrives. Maksim gets drafted.

Next is a scene from “Pavel Korchagin”, a film based on the book “How the Steel was Tempered” by Ostrovsky. The film depicts the revolutionary upsurge of he people of which Korchagin feels himself to be only a small part. For many generations of Russian youth, Korchagin became a moral example because of his communist principles and unswerving will.

The film “Girl with Personality” by Konstantin Yudin is a light-hearted comedy about life in the new Russia. Katya Ivanova comes to Moscow to try to find justice for a director-burreaucrat who spoiled al the work of a cattle farm in the Far East. Having made a saboteur harmless on her way, she finds work in a dining car, fur shop, and a record factory. She is assigned director of a cattle farm as a reward for catching the saboteur.

Tens of thousands of Iranian people gathered in awe-inspiring protests today in Tehran marking the 30th anniversary of the storming of the American Embassy, an event that landed a final deathblow to U.S. imperialism in Iran. The protests demonstrate the resilience of the Islamic Revolution and are a clear slap in the face of U.S. imperialism, zionism, counter-revolutionary Iranians, and all enemies of the Republic.

Since the 1979 takeover of the American espionage den in Tehran, Iranians have been celebrating the occasion every year by holding rallies on the anniversary and marking it as the National Day against the Global Arrogance.

Thanks to IRIB for the footage

 The aggression against the people of Waziristan undertaken by the Pakistani army is part of a plot hatched up in Washington, Brussels, and Tel-Aviv/Yaffo. There was absolutely no justification for this bloody adventure by the Pakistani military, as it is only further destabilizing the country and generating a humanitarian crisis. It does not have the support of the Pakistani people, as we have heard in the protests of Jemaat-e-Islami and other progressive organizations. As the former amir of Jemaat-e-Islami said:

…the US, Israel and India had hatched a conspiracy against Pakistan and succeeded in their mission to create an insurgency-like situation in the country.

The latest aggression is part of the imperialist strategy to establish total hegemony over the region: they want to weaken and pin down Pakistan, drown in blood the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination, and also isolate China. The current unrest in Pakistan is caused by Washington’s disastrous adventure in Afghanistan, the brazen attacks upon Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and of course Washington’s direct intervention in the northwest. Progressive forces must stand by the Republic of Waziristan and its right to self-defence and self-determination.

The courageous, battle-hardened people of Waziristan will not capitulate, but will send the lawless, barbarian invaders of the Pakistani army straight to their graves.

Despite the fact that millions of people turned out in Iran, India, Pakistan, Turkey, and elsewhere in the world to mark Quds Day, the western commercial media has desperately sought to portray the day on which a right-wing, counter-revolutionary ”Green Day” revolt took place in Iran. They do no have any verifiable, first-hand knowledge of these alleged events, but instead rely on the innuendo, disinformation, and rumors disseminated by assorted counter-revolutionary forces. Here are just some of the absurd headlines written by these liars:

“Protestors Transform Jerusalem Day into Iran Day”

“Thousands Demonstrate in Tehran Against Ahmadinejad ‘the dictator’”

“New Protests surge in Iran as Ahmadinejad denies Holocaust again”

But as this video shows, millions of people poured out into the streets of Tehran, Isfahan, and other cities to demonstrate their revolutionary resolve, steadfast solidarity with the Palestinian national liberation struggle, condemnation of the ongoing Zionist occupation of al-Quds and Palestinian lands, dedication to the ideals of Imam Khomeini, and support to Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad’s democratic government.

The bourgeois media is promoting the fiction that significant anti-government protests were staged by Mousavi’s bands, but the number of people who participated in them is less than a tiny dot in the universe compared to the millions of peoples’ amazing display of dedication to the Supreme Leader. The turnout just for President Ahmadinejad’s brilliant speech at Tehran University was at least 20 times the amount of those pro-Mousavi hooligans who tried in futility to hijack the day. Yet, the bourgeois media has stopped short of ignoring these peaceful and democratic demonstrations in favor of Palestine; at best, they depicted the day as consisting of a bunch of rival protests and clashes. But as Iran’s Press TV proves, this was far from the case:

As millions marched in Iran in a display of solidarity with Palestinians, supporters of Iran’s opposition movement have joined the major annual commemorative rally showing their loyalty to their leaders. The demonstrators chanted slogans in support of Mousavi and Karroubi.

In message from the so-called “Tudeh” party of Iran, the counter-revolutionary and right-opportunist nature of this irrelevant group of cranks has been reaffirmed.

The message slanders and denigrates the Iranian working-class who with their Basij militia volunteers are mounting a resolute struggle against the right-deviationist hooligan gangs of the billionaire oligarch Rafsanjani. The Tudeh has not come out in condemning the savage violence by terrorists and hooligans, including the bombing of a section of the sacred mausoleum of Imam Khomeini, the burning of the Lolagar mosque, the destruction of people’s property, and smashing of windows of shops.

There victory of the Iranian Revolution is denigrated by Tudeh, which equates the unprecedented gains made by the working-class and peasantry of Iran since Imam Khomeini’s arrival in Tehran to the suffering and misery the nation went through in order to perpetuate the wealth and privileges of the royal family, capitalists, and the imperialist-zionist bloc. Tudeh has clearly failed to appreciate the unprecedented progress enjoyed by Iran in all aspects of life, including education, health care, industry, and culture.

Tudeh, despite identifying as a Marxist organization, has failed to analyze the class content and motivations of these disturbances. That they have seemingly aligned themselves with the hooligan gangs of billionaire oligarch Rafsanjani confirms the party’s counter-revolutionary nature. While the Iranian proletariat, peasantry, artisans, and state employees overwhelmingly supported President Ahmadinejad in order to safeguard the hard-won gains, the liberal bourgeoisie and bourgeoisified intellectuals are determined to privatize the economy, slash subsidies, and liquidate the gains of the Iranian toilers. The election of President Ahmadinejad is comparable to the development of popular-democratic governments in countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia. As President Chavez of Venezuela put it, the election of his Iranian counter-part is “an ample victory in all corners.”

For “Tudeh” to construe Khamenei’s inspirational sermon in Friday prayers at Tehran University on 19 June 2009 as “a declaration of war” is cynical. While hundreds of thousands of patriotic Iranians attending the Supreme Leader’s sermon were moved by the great man’s words, Tudeh demonstrates just how out of touch it is with Iranian society. The Supreme Leader called for reconciliation and peace among the country’s different political factions and congratulated the Iranian people on the affirmation of their revolutionary gains. 

While the Tudeh claims to be a party representing the Iranian masses, it turns around and slanders the working-class and its heroic Basij volunteer militia. What Tudeh and other enemies of Iran do not seem to understand is that the revolutionary warriors of Basij are a firm part of Iranian society. The suggestion that the Basij attacked peaceful protestors is contrary to the facts, for the riots and acts of destruction have been anything but peaceful. In one incident, the Basij simply fought back when one of their buildings was under siege by right-wing gangs. In addition, the Basij provide social services, assist the poor, and provide valuable security against criminal elements. Above all, the Basij displayed unprecedented heroism in the sacred era of the defense of the revolution. To denigrate the name of the Basij must be strongly opposed.

Tudeh in this message basically engages in the denial of the fact that there are hostile outside forces at work in these riots. According to Tudeh, the Iranian Government spreads “spurious anti-West slogans.” But the irrefutable fact is that imperialist and counter-revolutionary forces have put in considerable effort to try and smash the Iranian Revolution. Kenneth Timmerman, a prominent American neoconservative, spilled the beans on the premeditated nature of these disturbances. Writing outside of Iran, Timmerman wrote the day before the election: There’s the talk of a “green revolution” in Tehran. As a Pakistani General confirmed on a radio discussion, there is irrefutable evidence that the United States has spent about $400 million to stir a counter-revolution in Iran. This is already considering the fact that the U.S. imperialists have laid siege to Iran’s economy since the Revolution. Imperialist and reactionary regimes around the world have poured billions of dollars in disseminating hostile and counter-revolutionary propaganda through Voice of America, BBC, Al-Arabia, etc. Seymour Hersh’s reporting has proven that the United States has been waging a covert war against the Iranian Republic. As a consequence, there have been countless terrorist attacks against the Iranian Republic, including the one against the Zahedan mosque in the lead-up to the election. As the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Seyyed Khamenei said in his brilliant Friday sermon, “Foreign elements triggered a line of destruction, arson, pillage of public wealth and unrest; they have no link to people or supporters of candidates rather they are related to ill wishers of the Iranian nation and mercenaries of western and Zionist spy services.”

Free Media Productions is unwavering in its solidarity in its defense of the popular-democratic Revolution of Iran and firmly supports the right of the Iranian people to choose their own form of government as they did in the referendum of 1 April 1979. We demand Tudeh and other petit-bourgeois right-opportunists to reconcile with the Iranian Revolution and come out of the fringes of the Iranian emigrant community.

In contrast to the utterly irresponsible position taken certain so-called leftist organizations concerning the right of the DPRK to develop an effective military deterrent, this statement issued by the  Party for Socialism and Liberation says:

The North Korean government has adopted a military strategy of deterrence with the goal of maintaining its independence and sovereignty. Its standing military and arsenal serve to protect its right to self-determination, to defend the gains of its socialist revolution, and to hold off the capitalist plunder that would follow its overthrow by Washington. Having defended its country from a near-genocidal assault between 1950 and 1953, the North Korean government has made it clear to all that, while it seeks peace and the normalization of relations with the United States, it has readied all weapons in its arsenal to defend itself against its nuclear-armed foe.

Hands off North Korea!

It has been reported that Mexico’s first suspected case of the swine flu was detected in the remote farming village of La Gloria a month ago. Hundreds of people in the village became sick. According to the scholar Mike Davis, the virus originated in the “fecal mire of an industrial pigsty.” It is important to emphasize that there is an industrial farm run by a subsidiary of Smithfield Farms in the area. Smithfield raises a staggering 950,000 pigs in the operations. A Mexican lawmaker correctly pointed out that factory farms are breeding grounds of the flu pandemic. When such large animal populations are crammed into small spaces, the danger of the development of viruses is likely.

In the early 1990s, the land of thousands of Mexican farmers were stolen by US monopolies and their stooges in the Mexican “government”. Author Robert Wallace says the swine flu is to a considerable extent the outcome of neoliberal policies that forced poorer countries to allow the penetration of their economy by Western monopolies.

It is particularly disturbing how certain right-wing reactionaries are inciting hatred against Latinos in a reprehensible effort to cover up the crimes of their masters. They claim that “illegal aliens” are the ones spreading the virus. But they fail to take into account that cases in the U.S. have been spread by tourists. Such right-wing scoundrels are vicious enemies of the people and they must be resolutely combated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/world/asia/17pstan.html

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=174880

According to an article in The New York Times, the Pakistani resistance has been thriving by providing leadership to the class struggle against the rotten landlords. The resistance was able to liberate the Swat region by pushing out a few dozen landlords who held most of the power. The Times quotes a Pakistani observer as saying that the Resistance is “promising Islamic justice, effective government and economic redistribution.”

An article in a Pakistani newspaper asserts that that it is “Pakistan’s ruling class, desperately clinging to its privileges, is seeking to preserve an outdated medieval order.” This author of this article explains that the root of the popular struggle of the national liberation movement is found in the the “alienation of the mass of the population by a ruling elite which has used the state to protect and expand its own privileges, pushing the common man into deeper and deeper poverty and hopelessness.” The West’s depiction of the conflict as one between reaction and modernity is misleading, for it is a more like a movement of the masses against inequalities in wealth and the failure of the bourgeois-landlord regime to provide jobs and social services for the people. The struggle in Pakistan today is both a struggle against neo-colonial aggression characterized by drone strikes and obsolete feudal modes of production.

The Pakistani counterrevolutionary regime with direct assistance of the imperialist hordes has treachorously violated its agreements with the Resistance in an vain attempt to drown in blood the Pakistani people’s struggle for liberation. On Sunday, the Islamabad regime on orders from Washington unleashed a savage offensive against Dir in violation of the Sweat peace deal. They deployed helicopters and artillery against the Pakistani people. By contrast, the resitance led by TNSM and its leader Sufi Muhammad have reiterated their commitment to peace and social progress.

All progressive forces must support the struggle of the Pakistani Resistance against the counterrevolutionary regime in Islamabad and imperialist aggression. Anything less than that would betray the Pakistani people’s just struggle for social liberation and facilitate the discredited regime that continues to shed the blood of Pakistanis and perpetuate the rule of the parasitical landlords.