Launched today, at a protest at the American Embassy this afternoon commemorating the 13th grim anniversary of the creation of the US imperialist concentration camp at Guantanamo: the hard copy edition of Communist Explorations. 24 pages of genuine communist politics and programme. Also distributed, a hard-copy version of the statement ‘Muslim-baiting Charlie Hebdo slaughtered by vengeful Islamists‘, issued on the day of the attack.

It is fortuitous that this was able to be launched at such an event, which is obviously counterposed in real life to the obscene spectacle in Paris of speech in defence of ‘freedom’ from all kinds of mass murderers and dictators, including the mass murderer of Palestinian children, Netanyahu, and his client, Egypt’s dictator Sisi,whose corrupt judiciary has sentenced hundreds of his fellow countrymen to death for supporting Egypt’s only ever democratically elected president, Mohammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

It was also counterposed to Boris Johnson’s attempt to organise a mini Charlie-fest in London centred around Trafalgar Square.

Obviously, the Charlie Hebdo sometimes-racist satirists did not deserve their fate, and their killings should be condemned. But they themselves described their activities as ‘provocation’ and they were right. Given the current conciousness that exists on questions regarding religion, and the depth of illusions in Islam as a weapon against oppression given the apparent failure of secular and left-wing politics to deliver any tangible relief from oppression, let alone liberation, this abuse against Islam and its symbols was indeed provocation. It was designed not to undermine religious illusions, but to provoke, and exploit for sensationalist purposes, social anger expressed in religious form.

It was provocation against the peoples of the Muslim world, and particularly those in the Middle East who face Zionist and imperialist terror, ethnic cleansing, and the denial of the most basic democratic rights. To an extent, though their killing was indefensible and indeed terrible and horrific, they were also the authors of their own misfortune, and their reactionary project has drawn the appropriate mourners.

Communist Explorations issue 1, Winter 2014-15, price £1 +75p P&P. Subscriptions £5 for 3 issues. Email for overseas rates to correspondence@commexplor.com. Send cheques with blank payee to: BM Commexplor, London WC1N 3XX.