The Red TideSPQR1776-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scandal has swept through the Model House of Commons. Over the past several weeks information was leaked out of the Communist Party and a few prominent members have resigned. Starting with the resignation of /u/Zoto888 all the way to the expulsion of /u/Phigerinadon and the resignation of /u/athanaton, it seemed like Communist Party members were dropping like flies.

Despite these internal problems the Communist Party has reemerged. The internal disagreements have for the most part been solved. The arguing has ended. This has coincided with a new interest in the Party. In one day the Communist Party has gained 27 new members. While we are saddened to see some of the larger names in the party go, this new surge of members we hope will bring new ideas and new life.

In addition to our surge we have proposed several pieces of legislation. Our Trade Union and Labor Relations Bill’s first reading is set for the 23rd of January, and five others follow that, along with three motions. The Committees with the multitude of new comrades have gotten right to work crafting even more draft bills. Despite their newness to the party, several members have already written full bills for us to debate and eventually submit to the house. All across the party subreddits there is a bustle of the new members all eager to aid in the liberation of the working class.

Every party has its setbacks. This is especially true in a party such as ours. Unlike other parties we are a "big tent party." A wide range of ideologies and view points are held by members, Marxist-Leninists, Trotskyists, Anarcho-Communists, and the occasional Social Democrat. As members of this coalition of factions we have managed to hold together something special. Putting aside some of our differences for the good of the workers of Britian, the party will not fall apart form internal dispute. We have had some tough times the past few weeks, but we have left these problems behind and are now steaming ahead towards a brighter future for the Communist Party and the working class of Britain. Solidarity, Comrades!

Slavery in Qatardanman1950-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is a common sight to see impoverished people's working in difficult conditions: the factory laborers in China, the maquila workers of Mesoamerica, among others. Qatar is no exception in how workers experience poverty and in their monotonous jobs, except, notably, that they are tied to the job as long as their employer allows it - every worker is tied to this system. This system is known as the kafala system, and has ancient roots in Middle Eastern culture, which used to be allowing weary travelers to sleep in your home, feed them food, and all around treat them with good hospitality. The kafala system is entirely different today. The system entails that employers have control over the worker, which includes their rights, possessions, and whether they can leave the job, something that is illegal to do without an employer's permission.

This system has wreaked havoc on the lives of the migrant workers who are building the stadiums for FIFA 2022, who come from many derelict regions of Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. Workers must live in labor camps that are often extremely unsanitary, especially in the kitchens, where mosquitos and flies are rampant, along with the diseases. Often, when workers ask to be given food, they are given beatings by their employers instead. Many of them are worried when they will ever get their salaries, some haven't been paid in nearly a year. This forces many workers to look for jobs elsewhere and without their employer's permission if they are to get any money to feed themselves and their families back home, but this for naught as well, as many have debts to pay first. And there are many young workers as well, some as young as sixteen.

Back-breaking labor is constantly involved, and the sweltering heat makes work extremely difficult for workers. Many workers have died during the work, a few from work related accidents, and mostly from cardiac arrest. Even young workers who were once described as healthy and strong have succumbed to death

from cardiac arrest. It is calculated that a worker dies every two days, and this is a rough calculation, as the deaths are becoming more frequent over time. It is estimated that around 4,000 workers will die from by the time the stadiums are completed by 2022.

The Qatar government has announced that they will investigate the cause of these cardiac arrests, and that the government will reform the kafala system, which will involve improving living conditions, and the prevention of worker's documents from being seized, although it will still keep the employer as owner of the worker. The Ministry of Labor has said “We believe that the people helping us build our country deserve to be fairly paid, humanely treated and protected against exploitation, that is why we are reforming our labour laws and practices. We fully appreciate there is much more to do but, as in every country in the world, change does not happen overnight. Significant changes such as these take more time to implement than some may wish, but we intend to effect meaningful and lasting change for the benefit of all those who live and work in Qatar.”

FIFA has also weighed in on the suffering of the workers, feeling that they deserve their rights to be considered, and FIFA plans on having a monitoring program of the workers. Theo Zwanzinger, a German executive of FIFA, has said FIFA can do little about the conditions, "This feudal system existed before the World Cup, what do you expect of a football organisation? Fifa is not the lawmaker in Qatar." He's also said that Fifa cannot go back any decision already made, "The decision has been taken to grant the World Cup to Qatar, whether I like it or not."

The reforms the Qatar government suggests will do little to change the conditions of the workers, as keeping the workers employed to their individual employers is the central problem. It is because of these employers that workers are not getting the food they need, working long and stressful hours, and getting their payment. These reforms are fruitless without ridding the worker of being chained to their employer, and the abuse of the workers is going to continue because of it, and so will the deaths.

The investigation into the cardiac arrests may also prove ultimately fruitless. It is common knowledge within the medical science community that stress is a cause of cardiac arrest. Rather than cardiac arrests being a separate cause of death in the workplace, it should be counted as a work related death. This stress is all caused by the debt mounting on the workers, the difficult physical labor, the malnutrition, and the thoughts of not being able to feed their families back home all contribute to this stress, and all this is caused by the employer not giving the worker what they need. Indirectly, the employer causes these deaths. Unless the kafala system is completely dismantled, workers will keep dying as a result and it will become one of the worst tragedies of the twenty-first century, if not already.

FIFA is also one of the main causes of this tragedy, as they are the ones responsible for putting Qatar on the bid, and as Theo has said, they knew about the kafala system, and still went ahead with placing the tournaments there for 2022. The unwillingness to stop the construction of the FIFA stadiums shows how little FIFA cares about the torture they have brought to these poor workers.

I predict that the workers will become so agitated from these years of labor and exploitation that there may be riots and that a massive FIFA backlash will come from the public.

On FirearmsBigKaine-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To the members of the Communist Party:

Debate has often raged in the party about the place of firearms in our society. Many of our comrades are opposed to relaxing the firearm regulations that are currently in place. Those holding this view make the assertion that firearms should not be widely available to the general population, as it would be endanger the public. The opposite is true - preventing the people from having free access to tools of self-defense is a danger not only to our movement, but to the working class in general.

At the moment, the capitalist state that we live under has both a monopoly on violence and a vast arsenal of weaponry that can be wielded by the police and soldiers that it employs. Living under a state that possesses such power is severely detrimental to one’s autonomy and the power of social movements to affect change. When the agents of the state are the only ones in possession of firearms, the populace can be made to do whatever the state wills them to do. Without the potential for armed resistance, state actors can act with impunity. They can break strikes, enforce unjust legislation, and preemptively act against any potential agitators. The state can do these things and will.

When the majority of the working class are in possession of firearms, they are the ones who influence the actions of the state. For the reformists who may be reading this, capitalists and politicians who must face a massively armed working class are much less likely to push aggressive, exploitative policies. The working class can demand change and their voices will not be ignored. For the revolutionaries among us, it is obvious that a well-armed working class will

be much better equipped to launch a revolutionary campaign than a working class that has been neutered by regulation.

For these reasons, comrades, I urge you to support a reform of firearm legislation. The current situation that we live under hinders the self-defense of the working class and must change - for the sake of our movement and the ideals that we stand for. The power of the ruling class to subjugate us must be diminished. If it is not, I fear that real change may never come.

Response to “Communists in Chaos”THE_STRUGGLE_IS_FEEL------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: The Editor-in-Chief of Full Liberalism

First, let me say, thank you for giving us a chance to reply. However, I must condemn your choice to begin your run as a paper by reprinting and distributing the words of an unrepentant racist, thereby giving them the power they crave. Words that, I should add, were banned from the /r/MHOCPress subreddit by the Speaker for violating MHOC rules. Since you did me the courtesy before, I'll do the same - I feel obligated to notify the Speaker of your intention to publish this information in your paper. I am not sure if such an action is in violation of MHOC rules, but in case it is, such a notification is expected of MHOC participants. I'm sure you understand.

I had a response half-way written up addressing the racist's remarks point by point, but I decided to delete it. I do not wish to give them power by responding. However, I do have a few other things that I'd like to say, not to the recently banned racist former member of our party, but to the House in general.

For those who are curious, the Communist party recently banned a member for using the racial slur nigger to describe the actions of another member. This was not the first time they had insulted a fellow member, but was in fact the last in a long line of antagonistic actions against their supposed allies in the party. I don't think I was the only one who was, though disgusted by their racist words, happy to see them go. The same day the ban was delivered, the statement you linked was posted to the /r/MHOCPress subreddit, and was promptly removed by the speaker from the subreddit. It should be clear to everyone with knowledge of these events that the statement was written by the banned racist to tar the Communist party, to get revenge on us for banning them.

There is something else I'd like to say. Something that I hope will let other members of the House understand, perhaps, a little about where we are coming from.

I will not deny that the party has experienced some internal disputes lately. This is to be expected in a big-tent party such as our own, where we allow members with widely differing views to freely discuss and debate their ideas internally. This, combined with the fact that, as radicals, we see big problems with this world and wish passionately to change it for the better, sometimes means that disputes escalate past the point where they are productive, and become openly antagonistic. However, the vast majority of members get along well, and the party has taken steps to address the antagonism from some members - General Secretary /u/Cyridius, with the full support of myself and the rest of the Central Committee, has let it be known that such antagonistic behavior and other activities that lead to unproductive vendettas will no longer be tolerated. Since then, things have calmed down considerably, and though I'm sure this won't be the last rough patch our party goes through, I'm (if you'll permit me to be a little meta) still having a great time and looking forward to spending more time here in MHOC. Let me tell you why:

As communists, we face a unique challenge: the constant scorn, derision, and derailing of minds addled by propaganda and a warped sense of who we are. This happens in real life, where, depending on where one lives, we are still persecuted for our political beliefs, and here in MHOC, where, often when we try to make a point, we are derided as undemocratic, stalinists, genocide supporting, etc. No party, not even the former British Union of Fascists, has faced this level of derision and scorn, sometimes even from those who see themselves on the left side of the spectrum. This, coupled with the big-tent nature of our party and the fact that MHOC tends form a black hole and devour all of one's free time (if you're anything like me), can mean that MHOC just becomes too much for some. If that's the case, then I completely understand, and I wish you all the best. I hope that the true socialists (cough not the racists cough) will take the lessons they learned here about organizing and working with fellow socialists from across the various tendencies to heart in future real life activism, such that they were.

But to return to the earlier point that I made, about the scorn and derision that we face from the other parties here (and if you need evidence for this, ask the Speaker, who to this day receives countless messages and pleas to ban our party from MHOC), perhaps this is to be expected. Our party has power. In our first election, we received the most votes of any single party; we tied for the most seats gained; we have the largest party by membership, and, in fact, in the past day have received 18 new members; we have submitted three excellent bills and one motion over the past few days, with more on the way; we have created a functioning, democratic internal system with checks and balances, a system that has been called the most democratic of any party by the Speaker; we have developed an MP voting system that both makes our party a crucial swing vote, and gives no individual MP power over the democratic will of the general party membership. As communists, we must exemplify the democratic changes to society we seek, and by Marx, I believe we are doing it. No, it hasn't been perfectly smooth sailing, but that was never going to happen anyway. I, for one, after taking all of this in and looking at the big picture, am damn proud to be a member of this party. No matter what anyone else says, I'll always back the party that fights not for what's easy, or what's convenient, or what's uncontroversial, but the party that fights for what's right.