We present this interview with Comrade Osamah Al-Maghout, secretary of the Executive Committee of SCYU-KBY, made in December 2011 during the WFDY Assembly. For a number of reasons it has only been prepared for publishing recently. This is the appraisal of the situation in Syria given by Syrian Communists 3 months ago.

A meeting between the representatives of Russian (RCWP-RCP) and Syrian (Khaleed Baghdash Communist Party) Communists was held in Moscow today. A new, more up-to-date appraisal of the situation in Syria will be published soon.

The year 2011 has been rather outstanding because of the events which have occurred mainly in Africa, the Middle East and some other countries. Some of these events may be called popular uprisings.

First of all, we should mention that not all the events in the region are of the same nature. But all of them are caused by the contradictions of capitalism and imperialism, namely the contradiction between the labor and the capital which is represented in the fact that the bourgeoisie and its regimes of the region severely exploit and oppress the working class and the peoples. The second main contradiction is the contradiction between different groups of the world imperialists who are seeking to gain natural resources and spheres of domination in the region.

According to this there are several tendencies in the events which started in the beginning of this year and are still continuing in the countries of the region.

The first tendency is the protest revolutionary movement in such countries as Tunisia and Egypt. The anti-people regimes in these countries caused a certain kind of reaction among the masses of working people and the youth...

The struggle of the extractive industry in Kazakhstan has been going on for several years. Hard labor conditions, low wages, non-fulfillment by the the companies' governing staff and the state of their own promises (the branch and the regional coefficients of wages' raising were announced, but they are not fulfilled in reality) - all these thins exasperated them. In the end of spring 2011 there began a mass strike of the oil industry workers in the Mangistau Region.

The strike enveloped the factories which belong to several closely connected companies...

According to the police data, the number of protesters on the streets of Tel Aviv was about 250 thousand people. It is noteworthy that the majority of the protesters are young people of 25-35 years with an average monthly income of 4-9 thousand dollars, those who are associated with the middle class in Israel.

Main reasons for the protests were the growing of food, lodging, education, medical care and transport prices. Socio-economic situation in Israel is such that some media have already nicknamed it as "a rich country, poor people". Indid, every fifth family in Israel lives below the poverty line. The average salary is about 1,800 euros; for example, teachers earn about 1,400 euros. This is enough only for rent: a modest three-room flat in Jerusalem could costs over 1,000 euros a month.

The coming State Duma and regional parliaments elections are marked by the active building of pre-election unions using the tactics of fronts. We can easily see the growing tension of the ruling party's administrative source. The bureaucratic "elite" under the leadership of V. Putin is obviously using the method of forcing to popularize its "people's" front. In this process the FITU's (The Federation of Independent Trade Unions) nomenclature is being widely used, which is just natural due to the FITU's long-standing agreement with the "United Russia". However, there have been such cases of forcing the working people to join the perverted election union with the big bourgeoisie and the bureaucracy of the "United Russia", which have faced a repulse. It happened in such way in the Kachnakar Ore Mining and Processing Combine and in a cell of the RTULBRW (The Russian Trade Union of the Locomotive Brigades of Railroad Workers) in the Sverdlovsk Region. Where there act class workers' trade unions independent from Shmakov, the nomenclature has been sent to hell.

Formal indications ("Stalinists", "Trotskyists", etc.) can not describe the essence of this demarcation. In whole, several centres of left movement can be named.

The first one, represented by the Communist Party of Russian Federation (CPRF) and its allies, is the social democrats of the European type, however characterized by the conservative phraseology instead of the liberal one and by a nationalist deviation.

The second is the Left Front association (LF), formed as a broad left coalition. It is characterized by a tangled federal structure, diffusiveness of the general policy, preferred course of direct action and working with public organizations. It is difficult to characterize definitely the ideological positions of the LF. Generally, it is a mixture of communism and various elements of radical left (and not only) doctrines with the social reformism deviation.

An explosion in Moscow again. This time in the Domodedovo Airport. Tens of people are dead, many wounded. We are mourning, feeling indignant and investigating. But are we drawing any conclusions?

The impression is that from all the previous terrorist acts the most correct conclusions were made by the mass-media, especially television. Consequently, they have prepared for the current situation better than anyone. Immediately after the terrorist act they broadcasted a huge number of news pieces, reports and interviews. In the evening that very day the Independent Television (NTV) broadcasted a show called "Honest Monday" where the problem was discussed.

Commemorative ceremonies in memory of the shooting of Tsar Nicolai the II and his wife and children took place yesterday in Yekaterinburg. 92 years ago in the early morning hours of July 17th the tsar’s family was shot in the cellar of Ipatiev’s house. This was done by order of the Ural Council of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers' Deputies headed by the Bolsheviks. The ceremony started with a procession from the Temple of Blood and ended at the Ganina Yama, where the bodies had been found. One of the pilgrims said: "The memory of the saint tsar’s family is valuable for everyone". But was the "Tsar-father", as it was customary to call the rulers of Russia, really so righteous? What is his reign remembered for?

Today, Russia’s young people are facing more and more social problems. The basic problems are connected with education, housing and employment.

There is an education reform going on at full speed in Russia in order to realize the Bologna Treaty agreements. The adoption of a law on the so-called independent establishments became an important stage in this process. Thanks to this law educational institutions received wide freedom of activity, including commercial activity, while government support was substantially decreased. This means a transfer of a considerable part of educational institutions into the commercial sphere. A bill submitted to parliament in February of this year became a further development for the commercialization of educational institutions. This bill clearly demonstrates the government’s intention to free itself from the remaining social obligations.

The economic crisis promoted the growth of political consciousness among Russian young people. If in the past the deterioration of the standards of living in Russia occurred at a slow pace and became something one got used to, during the previous year the numbers of unemployed people, especially among the youth, have reached a record level. The destruction of a familiar way of life and the fast deterioration of social conditions cause young people to think about the causes of such events. And although most Russian young people are still not politically active, the tendency of this changing is becoming more and more obvious. The usual stereotype that politics are only for professionals has been weakened.

Realizing the presence of these new conditions the bourgeoisie is trying to make anti-communist propaganda more clever and better adapted for youth. People’s minds are being cleverly manipulated.

Speaking about formation in general and about teaching of history of World War II, it is impossible to consider this question in particular separately from the general laws and defining it as an outside category of the society. It has been historically developed that in all our countries at the moment ruling class is the bourgeoisie. Hence, our states are the states of dictatorship of bourgeoisie. And, hence, the bourgeoisie has all possibilities to spread the ideology in all areas of a life of a society as dominating, including first of all an education sphere.

One of the basic directions of ideological war is a history. We know well that the history is the modern politics looking into the past. This or that illumination of historical events in very big degree influences formation of certain outlook. Especially, if it is influence on young minds and the souls which still have not been protected by strong knowledge and a private experience...

The majority of Russian youth are still apolitical and are interested in current political events in our country poorly. The interest in the international events is usually even lower. So, we can’t say there is a young movement in Russia. Socially active youth, which not only shows interest in politics, but is also prepared to fight back for their rights, comprises a tiny minority. Nevertheless, the youth are now more politicised than during Yeltsin’s rule. An extremely slow and contradictory process of politicisation is affecting youth and society as a whole.

The bourgeoisie could not fail to notice this politicisation. They realise that modern youth will be exercising an increasing influence on the society. Thus the bourgeoisie has been trying to direct the youth in its preferred direction in the recent years. To this end, relying on government’s help, several youth organisations were set up, for instance, the pro-president movement Nashi ("Our Youth"), which is widely publicised in the media. The ruling circles also rely on the trick of creating a wide variety of organisations, so as to increase their influence on the youth...