The Great Compo Battle Continues - This Time In SA

 Written by: Ned K. on 5 June 2022

On the same day as the new Malinauskas Labor Government in SA handed down its first state budget it tabled a Bill in state parliament to reduce injured workers entitlements!

The new Government did this without even the pretence of consultation with its main supporters in the election campaign, trade unions!

Surprise and outrage abounded from SA Unions, individual Unions and lawyers on the side of injured workers.

Barrister Eloise Theodore said that the changes proposed would affect "every worker who sustains more than one injury".

The Bill tabled in SA parliament aimed to treat multiple injuries arising from an event that caused an initial injury as separate claims to be endlessly dragged through the courts by employers and their government insurance agent ReturnToWork SA.

The Bill was an attempt to by-pass a High Court Decision which had previously refused to hear an appeal by the SA Government's ReturnToWorkSA regarding entitlements to a severely injured truck driver Shane Summerfield.

Government Puts Business Profits First

The new SA Attorney General in the Malinauskas Labor Government, Kyam Maher was toeing the Government line in this attack on injured workers when he said in the press, "The clear advice to the new government was that if we did not act, SA businesses faced the prospect of paying the highest premiums of any state in Australia".

SA Unions affiliates and even "right wing"' unions the SDA and TWU attacked the proposed cuts to injured workers entitlements. Malinauskas was in a previous life the Secretary of the SDA. 

Now he finds himself under attack from those that put him where he is today as Premier!

Great Compo Battle A never-Ending Struggle Under Capitalism

In 1979 The Australian Building Construction Employees and Builders Labourers Federation produced a small booklet "The Great Compo Battle" which summarized workers’ struggles against employer and government attacks on workers’ compensation entitlements of injured workers.

At the time, state governments across Australia of both Liberal and Labor variety were carrying out the ruling class's demands to cut workers' entitlements to reduce employers’ workers’ compensation levies and/or insurance premiums. 

What this was all about and still is today is that employers want more profits and one way of increasing profits is to reduce workers’ compensation entitlements of injured workers.

In the late 1970s when The Great Compo Battle was written, the SA Government set up a tri-partite committee to "investigate" workers compensation. 

"...the MBA (Master Builders Association") and other bodies in evidence to it are pushing to reduce the payments to injured workers to 85% of the worker's wage, to exempt the insurance companies from liability for injuries sustained while travelling to and from work, and to force the injured worker to return to work as soon as he is fit for the same type of duties"

In WA at that time the state government also wanted to reduce the maximum lump sum payment by $12,000 (1979 value), reduce the number of weeks of weekly payments and reduce the notice time of cessation of weekly payments from 21 to 14 days.

The attacks on workers’ entitlements in the late 1970s saw large demonstrations and strikes in the building industry in particular with temporary success.

However, attacks on injured workers’ entitlements by both Liberal and Labor governments in all states and federally under Comcare have continued. For the reduction to 85% of a worker's weekly wage when injured and the elimination of journey accidents to and from work as a workers compensation claim are now reality in SA and elsewhere.

16 years of a Labor Rann and Weatherill Government in SA from 2002 to 2018 did not alter this trend of attacks on the most vulnerable members of the working class, injured workers.

Workers’ Struggle Is The Only Answer

The Malinauskas new Labor Government is intent on continuing this trend but workers and their Unions led by the capable and enthusiastic new SA Unions State Secretary Dale Beasley have other ideas!

The 1979 booklet, "The Great Compo Battle" summed up the situation regarding injured workers in a way that is "food for thought" many years later in 2022.

The booklet concluded with the following words -

There is something basically wrong with a social system where 90% of people do the work and then a mere handful skim the cream off the top. It is worse still when most of the handful turn out to be foreign overlords. It becomes more of an insult when the multinationals flaunt what they are doing in your face.

The working people of Australia will fight every inch of the way to prevent the whittling away of hard-won standards of living. But it is no use beating around the bush; it is the system itself that must be changed if there is to be any real long-term improvement.

The Malinauskas-led SA Labor Government, like previous Labor Governments, is showing signs what while it may do some good things for workers, such as increasing the Health budget funding for the coming year, it will fall on the side of capital to protect the latter's profits, as after all, it is capital's system of capitalism that it is saying it can administer on capital's behalf better than its "Opposition" the Liberal Party.

Building a strong working people's movement independent of parliament is the way forward.  
  

CPA (M-L) expresses solidarity with Turkish activist Ecevit Piroğlu

 

Written by: CPA (M-L) on June 4, 2022

The CPA (M-L) has written to the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Serbian Ministry of Justice, and the Ambassadors of Turkey and Serbia, to support Turkish activist Ecevit Piroğlu.

Currently jailed in Serbia, Piroğlu faces extradition to Turkey and imprisonment under anti-terrorist laws. He is not a terrorist, but a revolutionary activist, and we stand in solidarity with him.

The letters follow a similar format to that sent to Serbian Ambassador Stepanovic, below:
...............
H.E. Ambassador Mr. Rade Stefanovic
Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Canberra

Your Excellency,

I am writing on behalf of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) in relation to the Turkish national Ecevit Piroğlu who is currently facing an extradition request by Turkey for his return to that country from Serbia.

Ecevit Piroğlu was arrested in Serbia in 2021 because he was on the red list for people wanted in Turkey. He was the former director of the Human Rights Association’s branch in the Turkish city of Izmir and a central committee member of the Socialist Democracy Party. He took part in the Gezi resistance and also in the fight against ISIS in Rojava. Because of the Gezi protests he faces trial for terrorism and 30 years prison sentence. 

His appeal against extradition on June 3 was sabotaged by the deliberate mistranslation of his words by the official translator. The hearing will continue n June 17 with a new translator. 

We are concerned that he faces torture and imprisonment under the Turkish Terror Law. In Turkey there is no guarantee for his life or safety. 

We respectfully request that Ecevit Piroğlu be allowed to seek asylum in Serbia and that the extradition order made on behalf of Turkey be quashed.

Nick G.
Chairperson,
Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
June 4. 2022

ICOR condemns Turkish attack on South Kurdistan

 

Written by: ICOR on June 4, 2022

The International Coordination of Revolutionary Parties and Organisations (ICOR), to which our Party is affiliated, has issued a statement condemning the Turkish attack on South Kurdistan. The statement reads:

ICOR stands with the workers in Turkey and the Kurdish people

While the democratic mass movement is reviving, workers in Turkey fight for their labor rights, for rise in wages and better living conditions and the fascist Turkish state has once again launched a comprehensive military attack on South Kurdistan on 17 April. 

This is a long-planned invasion with the strategic aim to eliminate the Kurdish freedom fighters, to occupy the whole region and to abolish all achievements of Kurdish people. But at the same time, it is a new offense of state terror and chauvinism against the growing mass movement, especially the rising workers movement, which organized independently over 100 wild strikes this year, more than in the last couple of years together.  

With the support of the imperialists the Turkish state uses state terror against the mass movement and commits war crimes in Kurdistan. The collaborationist bourgeois leadership of Kurdish Democratic Party is directly involved in the invasion attack providing intelligence and the Iraqi state started an aggression against the Yazidi self-defense forces in Sinjar. 

Simultaneously, the Turkish army and jihadist militias bomb Rojava while the Turkish police put a crackdown on democratic forces and alliances in Turkey. Political prisoners are tortured and murdered in Turkey.

The heroic resistance of the guerillas with mobile units and an effective tunnel system against air strikes will once again defeat the Turkish army but it needs the urgent solidarity and support of the workers, the democratic mass movements and all progressive people in the world. 

As ICOR we stand by the fighting workers, revolutionaries, antifascists and anti-imperialists of Turkey and Kurdistan and condemn this war of occupation. 

We salute the united struggle of the revolutionary forces in Turkey and Kurdistan, especially within the HBDH (People’s United Revolutionary Movement) and call all progressive people of the world to support the freedom forces and coordinate for an international and regional revolutionary unity. Active resistance everywhere is the only way to defeat this barbaric center of counter revolution in the region.

We will defeat fascism!
Long live the united revolution of Turkey and Kurdistan!
Long live socialism!

SA Labor welcomes third uranium mine

 

Written by: Nick G. on 2 June 2022

 Three months into office in South Australia, Labor has given the go-ahead to uranium mining at Honeymoon on the edge of the Flinders Ranges.

SA currently has two mines at Olympic Dam (Roxby Downs) and the Beverley-Four Mile mine near Honeymoon. Honeymoon will be the nation’s third mine following the 2021 closure of the Northern Territory’s Ranger Mine.

The reopening of Honeymoon (it began production in 2011 but closed two years later when it proved financially unviable) takes place in the context of calls for an Australian nuclear power industry connected to the switch to construction of nuclear-powered submarines as part of the AUKUS arrangements.

On March 5, the then SA Opposition leader Peter Malinauskas stated that he “saw merit in developing a local nuclear industry based around the AUKUS security pact arrangements”.

Honeymoon owner BOSS Energy’s managing director Duncan Craib followed up on March 17 saying that “it’s time to put nuclear power back on the agenda in Australia”. He was encouraged by the “unfortunate circumstance with Russia and Ukraine” which had led to a global shortage in uranium and a surge in prices. With war proving good for business, he was looking to raise $120 million to kick-start production.

While the identity of actual investors in companies is often hidden behind bank-run nominee companies such as Citicorp, HSBC and BNP Paribas (the three largest shareholders in BOSS), it is known that the Mitsubishi Financial Group became a substantial shareholder in May through Morgan Stanley Nominees, and that the fund-raising by BOSS had succeeded.

On Wednesday June 1, BOSS Energy announced that it would restart the Honeymoon mine.

Significantly, this followed a meeting the previous Friday when Craib presented a briefing update on the project to SA’s Mining and Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis. 

Koutsantonis has long been an advocate of uranium mining. He was a supporter of Marathon Resources a bit over a decade ago when it was exploring for uranium within the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in the northern Finders Ranges. 

Members of our Party, together with the Greens and conservation groups ran a strong campaign against Marathon, forcing the Labor Premier Mike Rann to ban the exploration and mining of uranium at Arkaroola in July 2011. 

Marathon then took the SA government to court. In an affidavit, Marathon director Peter Williams claimed the Mining Minister Tom Koutsantonis had told him that he was one of a few cabinet ministers strongly on the company's side.

Now Koutsantonis is back in charge of mining in SA, with a Premier who sees building nuclear-powered submarines as “a big opportunity” for SA.
BOSS Energy’s Honeymoon announcement has been perfectly timed, with Koutsantonis’s approval, to enable Craib to present at the World Nuclear Fuel Market conference in Canada next week, which will be attended by many of the world’s leading uranium customers and power utilities.

Our Party program declares: “The dangers in uranium mining and the problem of nuclear waste make nuclear energy unviable.”

People and organisations around the country should begin preparations to make Hiroshima Day (Saturday August 6) an occasion for loud and vigorous opposition to uranium mining, nuclear-powered submarines and the AUKUS “alliance”. 

 

How US imperialism is shaping Australia’s regional approaches

 Written by: (Contributed) on 31 May 2022

Within hours of the Australian Labor Party winning recent federal elections the Biden presidential administration presented Australia with a major diplomatic challenge, potentially escalating regional diplomatic tensions with China. The endorsement of the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) regional bloc the same weekend has also presented Canberra with an alternative trade organisation to accommodate. The US has already clearly set the agendas for what they expect a compliant Australian government to follow. References to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) diplomatic meeting hosted by Japan, two days later, has also presented the incoming ALP federal government with a massive US-created agenda spanning issues usually associated with defence and security provision and economic considerations for 'US interests'

Before the celebrations of the ALP federal election victory had even died away, the US issued the incoming administration of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with an ultimatum; their support was required for US-led regional planning. The attendance of Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong was required for the 'Quad' summit hosted by Japan, billed as the new 'US-led Asia-Pacific economic bloc aimed at countering Chinese regional dominance'. (1)

The high-level diplomatic meeting, which included the US, India, Japan and 'key regional partners in the 13-member economic alliance', took place, seemingly, in a cordial manner. (2) Behind the scenes, however, it was accompanied by the IPEF endorsement, consolidating 'the Biden administration's most ambitious attempt to build economic ties with Asian nations'. (3) The move, an attempt to reassert traditional US hegemonic positions following the legacy of the Trump administration and their foreign policy blunders, was noted by a White House spokesperson for a policy which 'collectively represented about forty per cent of global GDP'. (4) The Australian component in the new move would appear to be a $470 million foreign aid partnership and a new special envoy for the region 'in addition to a $525 million plan to boost ties with Pacific countries', together with other responsibilities. (5)

It was, therefore, not surprising to find the Quad meeting had a distinct focus upon the South Pacific nations. (6)

The moves, however, have to be seen in the context of other considerations, which have far-reaching implications for the Biden administration and their regional allies. While Biden has waxed lyrical about resetting strong diplomatic links with the ASEAN regional trade body, many of the organisation’s members are apprehensive; they, 'have made it clear they do not want to take sides in the escalating power fight between Beijing and Washington'. (7)

The ASEAN leadership, likewise, has taken steps for over a decade to directly distance the organisation from controversy toward successive US presidential administrations. In 2011, for example, the initial plan for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), was conceived at the ASEAN Summit. Negotiations began the following year at the later ASEAN Summit, which included Australia, New Zealand, Japan and China; India was not included. Following years of preparation, the RCEP was finally established in January, 2022, following the signing of official documentation by fifteen member countries in the Asia-Pacific region; it has been noted it is the largest trade bloc in history. (8)

It was soon noted by representatives of the Biden administration that they regarded the RCEP as 'Chinese dominated'. (9) The sense of urgency by the Biden administration toward countering the RCEP during the past five months formed a conspicuous part of their Cold War regional diplomacy. Those countries associated with the RCEP, furthermore, have taken a position of diplomatic silence, presumably as they have no wish to be seen to take a hostile line toward the US.

Throughout the high-level diplomatic talks in late May the Biden administration placed great emphasis upon Taiwan, which they have assessed as under threat from China. In recent years the US has escalated arms sales to the small island regarded by China as merely a renegade province. It has also been noted the US diplomatic position toward Taiwan has included 'letting US officials meet openly with counterparts and pressing the island's inclusion in international organisations'. (10) The fact the US relies upon Taiwan for an estimated 92 per cent of its most advanced semi-conductors was, nevertheless, played down; 'US interests', remain an important consideration.

The moves also took place in conjunction with calls from the UK to expand NATO provision 'to become more active in confronting Chinese expansionism in the Asia-Pacific'. (11) A number of strategically-placed countries across the wider region remain members of the British Commonwealth. The right-wing Johnson government in the UK has already provided an outline of a new 'global NATO … to expand its reach to boost Indo-Pacific security', although to what extent these sabre-rattling moves have been specifically designed to deflect attention away from Johnson's sex-life and after-hours drinking patterns, has yet to be established. (12) He is a man with considerable baggage, of which he has no intention of discussing or even acknowledging openly.

While the so-called western alliance relies upon frantic 'fiddling' and crying 'wolf', China's economy continues to grow; it presents a formidable challenge to US-led hegemony. Serious commentary about the under-lying economic factors surrounding these US-led defence and security initiatives, for example, have already noted 'all western nations increasingly resemble the chronic debt and deficit economies of Western Europe. Long term, those economies are sclerotic and stagnant, and so are their societies'. (13) It has also been noted global debt, as a percentage of GDP, has already risen from 269 per cent to 348 per cent since the global financial crisis over a decade ago. (14) Throughout the recent US-led high-level diplomatic talks there was no reference to Australia even considering an independent foreign policy as a precaution against being drawn into problems not of their own making; perhaps, however, the matter should now be placed firmly on future agendas, before real-war scenarios actually take place in the Indo-Pacific region.

1.     Albanese signs up to new US-Asia alliance, Australian, 24 May 2022.
2.     Ibid.
3.     Biden deepens US-Asia links, Australian, 24 May 2022.
4.     Ibid.
5.     Albanese signs, op.cit., Australian, 24 May 2022.
6.     See: Albanese's day one: change the climate, Australian, 25 May 2022.
7.     Biden pledges funds to reset ASEAN ties, The Weekend Australian, 14-15 May 2022.
8.     See: Wikipedia – The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
9.     Biden hits China with Asia-Pacific bloc tackle, Australian, 24 May 2022.
10.   Biden sticks to policy on Taiwan, Australian, 25 May 2022.
11.   Strategic partnerships crucial, Editorial, the Weekend Australian, 21-22 May 2022, which has included a high-level diplomatic statement from UK Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss.
12.   UK push for 'a new global NATO', Australian, 29 April 2022.
13.   Strategic partnerships crucial, op.cit., Weekend Australian, 21-22 May 2022.
14.   Challenges for Albanese, Australian, 25 May 2022.

Reflections On The Federal Election

 Written by: Ned K. on 25 May 2022

The federal election on Saturday 21 May resulted in the Morrison Government being replaced by the Labor Party with Albanese as Prime Minister.

The Labor Party became the government under the parliamentary system which swears allegiance to the British monarchy and its representative in Australia the Governor General.

The Labor Party recorded its lowest primary vote of about 32% as voters showed their lack of hope in the two major parties of capitalism, Liberal Party and Labor Party. 

Several "safe" Liberal Party Seats in capital cities fell to either wealthy individual candidates called "Independents" or the Greens.

The main reason for the wealthy Independents and the Greens (in Brisbane) kicking out Liberal and Labor "safe" Seat candidates was people's concern about climate change and global warming. 

In other electorates such as Boothby in SA, the Labor Party with Greens preferences kicked out the Liberal Party for the first time in decades with the Labor candidate campaigning on local community issues such as aged care crisis, funding for schools and better transport and road traffic systems.

The Liberal Party in these "safe" Seats thought that they were "born to rule" and that would get them over the line, despite them knowing that Morrison as a Prime Minister was disliked intensely by people within the bourgeoisie itself. 

Even the Murdoch press saw the writing on the wall predicting a 3% plus swing against the Morrison Government.

However, the Murdoch press knows that fundamentally capitalism and in particular US imperialist interests in Australia will be in safe hands under an Albanese Government.

So, on the Tuesday after the election, the Murdoch press The Australian has headlines - "Albanese signs up to new US-Asia Alliance". 

The new Albanese Labor Government will continue the Morrison Government's subservience to US imperialism in the latter's struggle for world supremacy against rival imperialist power China. This is a big problem for the Australian people who do not want to be involved in a war between the two largest imperialist powers.

It appears that Labor with the support of the Greens will have a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Therefore it will probably have no choice but to carry out working class pre-election demands such as abolishing the ABCC, funding a wage increase for aged care workers and improving staff to resident ratios.

However, beyond that, other pre-election demands by workers through their unions such as industry wide collective bargaining, right to strike, recognition of union Delegates to name a few, will get swallowed up by a proposed Accord like summit between big business, government and unions with the goal being to "increase productivity" through reducing the "Better Off Overall Test" in collective agreement approvals. The "Work Choices Lite" Fair Work Act will remain pretty much as it is now.

It is a good thing that the reactionary Morrison Government has been kicked out by the people. 

Many people will have high hopes that the dents made in the two-Party parliamentary system will shake up parliament and make it a vehicle for real change.

The practice of parliament over the next three years will provide people with more experience of the limitations of parliamentary road to changing capitalist society and bring more people to the understanding that it is the system itself that has to be done away with completely. 

Russian Maoists: “Feminism is not toxic!”

(Above: Protesting the decriminalisation of domestic violence, Moscow, February 2017)

 Written by: Russian Maoist Party on 21 May 2022

The CPA (M-L) has sent a message of solidarity to the Russian Maoist Party and support for its efforts to fight the deplorable misogyny of the Putin regime. Our message, below, is followed by a statement from the Russian Maoist Party under the heading “Feminism is not toxic!”

Solidarity with the Russian Maoist Party

The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) warmly supports the Russian Maoist Party’s call for the first all-Russia day of action against the misogynist repression of the Putin regime on May 22.

That repression includes the restrictions on abortions and the appalling decriminalization of domestic violence.

The repression of women also extends to the measures taken against the LGBT community.

We pay tribute to the release of the immense potential of working class women in socialist Russia (1920s - 1950s) and their achievements in all fields of life.  Socialist Russia (and the Socialist Soviet Union) laid the foundations and conditions for the liberation of women and inspired all oppressed peoples to struggle for their liberation.

We highly evaluate the attempts by the Russian Maoist Party to unify the feminist organisations and to lead the Russian women’s movement in the direction of a socialist future.

Nick G.
Chairperson
Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) 
………………………….
Feminism is not toxic!

RMP Russia calls for a day of action on May 22, 2022 under the slogan "Feminism is not toxic"

AGAINST ANTI-WOMEN CENSORSHIP AND REPRESSION IN RUSSIA!

After the fall of bureaucratic capitalism in 1991, the mass women's movement in Russia began to grow gradually. This was facilitated by the vanishing power of Soviet revisionism and a strong cultural exchange with Western countries. 

However, the most important basis for the development of Russian feminism was the government's neo-liberal reforms, which severely affected the position of women in society. The number of women's workplaces decreased because of the collapse of whole sectors of the economy. Women's incomes were hit by the general decline in living conditions. The number of women involved in prostitution increased and there was an active export of women abroad. During the 1990s, the criminal environment did not improve due to the high level of banditry and the high level of alcohol consumption. All this led to a consistently high level of violence against women. However, the Yeltsin government did not pursue an active anti-feminist policy.

A new era in the development of the mass women's movement began with the New Imperialist rise of Russia and Putin's accession to power. As in any new-imperialist country, Russia witnessed both the growth of liberation movements and the reactive growth of regime fascism and reactionary transformations in society. 

Since the late 2000s the Russian government, increasingly clerical and anti-democratic, began to consistently advocate restricting abortion in the country ("week of silence" - a time for contemplation for a woman if she really wants an abortion, consultations with a psychologist and priest, sudden week-long abortion bans in certain regions of the country, discussions regarding the need to adopt German practices of articles 218-219 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Germany). 

In 2013, a homophobic and lesbophobic law against "propaganda of homosexuality" was adopted, followed by a crackdown on the LGBT community. In 2017, domestic violence was legalised in Russia. In parallel, the rhetoric of imposing childbirth (as part of a fertility incentive programme along with financial rewards for having many children) and anti-feminism on the part of the ruling United Russia party as well as Putin's proxy opposition in the CPRF, LDPR and Just Russia has intensified. At the same time, the Russian women's movement was actively developing. 

Whereas in the early 2010s Russian feminism borrowed heavily from Western trends in the women's movement and relied on the support of Western foundations for its activities, in the second half of the 2010s Russian feminism shifted massively to radical feminist stances, which had a more solid mass base. 

The early 2019-2020s saw the first major street demonstrations by feminists as the Russian State Duma considered a law against domestic violence (which was not eventually adopted). The Russian women's movement is growing rapidly on social media as well. Unfortunately, however, the movement is still decentralized. All attempts to create a nationwide feminist organization/feminist party have so far failed. Feminists are scattered across the cities. In some cities there are 2-3 feminist organisations that are at odds with each other.

Finally, on 29 January 2022, at a meeting of the Russian Human Rights Council, Putin instructed his deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, to consider creating a register of "toxic content" by 1 June. By "toxic content," Putin's order includes demagogically equated radical feminism, LGBT, and Child Free on the one hand, and violence, zoophilia, and anti-vaccination on the other. Furthermore, it is important to note that officials understand radical feminism as any kind of feminism, as they are ignorant of the trends. To them, anything that requires some kind of change in the position of women in Russia is radical. This last initiative, if successful, will have a serious impact on the rights of women and LGBT people in Russia, which is what the monopolistic bourgeoisie is counting on, promoting it through its reactionary politicians.

Russian feminism remains fractured at the moment. The women's movement in Russia has also been hit hard by the wave of mass emigration of democratic activists from the country following the outbreak of the war of aggression against Ukraine. The LGBT movement has been severely stifled by repression in recent years. The imperialist war with Ukraine is a convenient excuse to force fascism and reactionary reforms. Putin's regime is fast moving towards a fascist dictatorship, total censorship and mass repression.

The Russian Maoist Party is actively preparing a protest against the anti-woman initiative of the Russian bourgeoisie. We have scheduled the first all-Russia protest for 22 May. We are trying to unite the feminist movement of the country, we are setting up a resistance committee, we are strengthening the initiative on the local levels. We're trying to involve in the struggle all the democratic, women's and youth forces that will be affected by the repressive, censorship initiative of the Russian authorities.

We are calling on our ICOR comrades from other countries to show international solidarity and to hold actions of solidarity with our struggle for women's freedom in Russia, the struggle for democracy and true socialism on 22 May 2022.