The World Federation of Trade Unions expressing the voice of more than 105 million workers in 132 countries, stands in solidarity with the workers of Amazon in their four days strike demanding the recognition of collective bargaining agreements, health and safety measures and salary increase. The strikes are taking place in warehouses in Rheinberg, Werne, Koblenz, Leipzig and two sites in Bad Hersfeld.

The international class-oriented trade union movement supports the fair demands of the employees and workers of Amazon and calls upon them to intensify and extend their struggle for the satisfaction of their contemporary needs.

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The Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), erected a state of Lenin in front of their party headquarters in Gelsenkirchen, Germany on June 20. More than 1100 people took part in the event.

In her welcome speech, Gabi Fechtner, Party Chairwoman of the MLPD, declared, “I was often asked during the past weeks whether the erection of the statue was intended as a provocation. No, but perhaps it is the breaking of a certain taboo – the taboo that in this society one should not even talk about the achievements of socialism and about its representatives. For the sake of bringing down anti-communism’s reservations and bans on thinking, this day also is part of the movement 'Don’t give anti-communism a chance!'”

The event included classic and modern working-class and freedom songs. Messages of greetings came from all over the world.

The message from Freedom Road Socialist Organization said in part, “Here in the U.S., statues of slaveholders and reactionaries are being torn down. Everything reactionary is certain to fall. The downfall of our rulers is historically inevitable. We find it inspiring that in Germany, communists are unveiling a statue of Lenin for all to see. We join you in looking forward to a bright future.” The entire message can be read here https://frso.org/statements/message-to-the-mlpd-on-the-unveiling-of-lenin-statue/

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“This will also be the start of a nationwide movement 'Don't give anti-communism a chance,'” says Gabi Fechtner, the chairwoman of the MLPD. “In times where monuments of the great communist thinkers and revolutionaries are still being torn down, where more and more right-wing governments, as in Hungary, ban communist symbols, we are consciously setting an example against anti-communism, which is also the state religion in Germany. The scandal in Thuringia, where a minister-president was elected with votes from the AfD, shows where anti-communism is leading. To direct the main thrust against communists and Marxist-Leninists, to equate right and left, to give anti-communism a legitimacy as an ideological justification of fascism – all this has only been made possible by the rightward development in society. We are therefore pleased to erect the first such monument in West Germany, and one of the westernmost in Europe, as a signal against this unspeakable anti-communism.”

The MLPD succeeded in acquiring an original Lenin statue from the 1930s, which was cast in the Soviet Union. Worldwide there were and are only a handful of statues from this mold. “This gives Gelsenkirchen a real rarity, which is not only a political signal, but is also of cultural and touristic importance,” says the chairwoman of the MLPD. Some people may see this as a provocation, others as a courageous sign against the rightward development. Like so much in the current social discussion, this event will polarize. “We welcome and want especially a broad discussion about questions that are often taboo in the bourgeois media: against anti-communism, about the merits of Lenin and the socialist construction in the Soviet Union, and also about the conclusions that can be drawn from the betrayal of socialism and from crimes in its name.”

In the weeks before, the MLPD will do broad public relations work in Gelsenkirchen so that the population learns even more about this revolutionary and why it is important to erect a monument to him. Particularly in times when capitalism is once again quite rightly coming into disrepute: as an exploitative and oppressive society that produces, inherently in the system, wars and environmental destruction.

The ceremonial unveiling will take place on March 14 between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. at the intersection of Schmalhorststrasse/An der Rennbahn. It is part of the celebrations of “100 Years of the Red Ruhr Army,” which will take place in many cities of the Ruhr area that weekend.

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