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Philippine Communist Party (PKP-1930) Communist Party of Poland Portuguese Communist Party Socialist Alliance Party, Romania Communist Party of the Russian Federation Communist Party of the Soviet Union New Communist Party of Yugoslavia South African Communist Party Communist Party of Spain Communist Party of Cataluna Communist Party of the People’s of Spain Communist Party of Sri Lanka Sudanese Communist Party Communist Party of Sweden Syrian Communist Party Communist Party of Turkey Labour Party, EMEP, Turkey Communist Party of Ukraine Communist Party, USA
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Parties that participated
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Redlinks
Documents Press Release Press statement of the KKE
Solidarity statements The world situation and the struggle of the workers and the peoples n Front against the imperialist war - no complacency n Solidarity with the struggles of the working class in Europe n Resolution regarding the reinscription of Guadalupe concerning the ONU’s list on countries to decolonize n Solidarity Statement n Solidarity with the working class of Latin America n RESOLUTION on the Cyprus Problem n Resolution on the Arab region Issued by the 15th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties n Resolution in solidarity with the struggle of peoples of Middle East for peace, democracy and progress ‘
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PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY OPENING SPEECH BY JERONIMO DE SOUSA
Dear Comrades, On behalf of the Central Committee of the Portuguese Communist Party, I welcome you to Portugal and convey to you the fraternal greetings of the Portuguese Communists. We are very pleased with the presence of so many delegations, in an obvious sign of the importance which the process of International Meetings of Communist and Workers' Parties has acquired within the world Communist and revolutionary movement. Among those present, there are Parties which are in power and which place as their goal the edification of socialism, but the vast majority have come from countries where, as in Portugal, an intense class struggle is being waged, a struggle that is very demanding for the Communists; from countries where anti-Communism is an official State policy and where cruel dictatorships are forcing the revolutionaries to confront the perils and hardships of the clandestine struggle; from regions where imperialism sows war, death and destruction. You have come, even when domestic tasks of great importance also demanded your presence at home. We are here, in this 15th International Meeting, united by the common ideal of liberation, by the common conviction that Socialism is the alternative to the barbarity of capitalism, and that the day-to-day struggle in defence of the interests of the workers and the peoples, and for the progressive and revolutionary transformation of society, requires stronger Communist Parties, with a stronger internationalist cooperation, which has class solidarity and proletarian internationalism at its core. We are here to exchange information and experiences, to bring up to date our assessments of the complex international reality and of the main trends in international devel-
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opments; to become better acquainted, with greater mutual understanding and stronger relations of friendship and solidarity between our Parties; to define lines and initiatives of cooperation and common or converging action. In a time of imperialist globalization, when, with the disappearance of socialism as a world system, the capitalist system is extending its tentacles over the whole world and is deepening its exploitative, oppressive, predatory and aggressive nature, at a time when big capital and the big imperialist powers, despite their rivalries and contradictions which the crisis is making more acute, are closely articulating their class offensive against the workers and the people of the whole world, the cooperation of Communist and Workers' Parties becomes more necessary, as does their cooperation with other revolutionary and anti-imperialist forces, in order to build a broad and militant anti-imperialist front. This process of International Meetings of Communist and Workers' Parties, which is not and should not be a structure, nor be subordinated to any illusionary attempt at homogeneity, is undoubtedly the most important instrument to facilitate such an internationalist cooperation. It is a process that we should, and can, improve, as will be debated during this Meeting. But it is a process that must be defended and preserved, consolidating what our practical experience has shown to be useful and seeking to solve any problems that may result from the very development of the process and from the need to ensure that it increasingly meets the needs of the struggle. Each of our Parties has its own historical experience, has to struggle in very diverse eco-
nomic and social contexts, defines Programs that respond to its specific conditions of struggle and puts forth differentiated shortterm tasks. Confronted with the complex challenges that we Communists face, the appearance of differences of opinion, or even disagreements, is almost inevitable. We do not ignore the diversity of points of view which exist in our movement regarding issues of History, theory and revolutionary praxis. But it is the PCP's profound conviction that what unites us is much stronger than what may divide us, on this or that issue, or at any given moment. And that, with mutual respect and an effort at mutual understanding, there is no difficulty which cannot be overcome, through collective work, through a frank and fraternal debate and, above all, through cooperation in common actions that are geared towards the masses. And this is the main thrust towards the desirable convergence of positions and to strengthen the unity of the world Communst and revolutionary movement. In Portugal we are undergoing the most violent offensive against the living standards and the rights of the workers and the people, since the days of fascism. An offensive in which domestic big capital is allied with, and subordinate to, transnational capital. The intervention by the IMF and the European Union, with the so-called “memorandum of understanding� (which we correctly call a Pact of Aggression) that was signed by the Socialist Party (PS) and the [current] Government Parties with the foreign troika, is heightening exploitation, impoverishing the Portuguese people and destroying the country's economy, liquidating national sovereignty, attacking the democratic regime and the Constitution which enshrines it.
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It is an offensive which, in its fundamental lines, is part and parcel of the capitalist system's response to the crisis which it is confronting. The brutal intensification of the exploitation of the workers and the peoples and the ever greater tendency for parasitic rentierism is how finance capital seeks to compensate the tendential decrease in the rate of profit. When compared with other capitalist countries, there are some particularities, which result from the fact that our country experienced a revolution that destroyed State monopoly capitalism and carried out profound changes in the social and economic structure, which placed Portugal on the path to Socialism. Although the major achievements have been destroyed throughout 37 years of counter-revolutionary process, this “unfinished” revolution is still present in achievements, experiences and values - such as the Constitution of the Republic - which the ruling class is doing its utmost to destroy, but which the PCP seeks to defend and project into the future of Portugal, incorporating them into its Party Program. The Advanced Democracy which the PCP proposes to the Portuguese people, as the current stage of the revolution in Portugal, stands in historical continuity with the democratic and national revolution; it has an antimonopoly and anti-imperialist class nature and is an integral and inseparable part of the struggle for Socialism and Communism in Portugal. Many of its fundamental tasks are already tasks of the Socialist society. It is with this prospect that the PCP is carrying out its day-to-day struggle in defense of the interests of the workers and the people, for a break with over 37 years of right-wing policies and with the process of European capitalist
integration, for the downfall of the government and the convening of early general elections, which are a necessary condition to bring to a halt the current course of plunder and national disaster, and to open the way for a patriotic and left-wing policy and government. The situation which we face is difficult and very dangerous for the rights of the workers, for the democratic regime, for national independence. But the reactionary government is increasingly discredited and isolated. Rising up against the anti-people and anti-national offensive, there is a growing broad front of resistance and struggle which, in these very days, is expressing itself in very diversified struggles in the workplaces and on the streets, with General Strikes and other largescale mass actions, such as the demonstrations of October 19th on the bridges of Lisbon and Oporto. In this front, the working class and the class trade union movement – namely the CGTP-IN trade union central – is playing a fundamental role. But other anti-monopoly classes and strata which are also severly hit by big capital are also increasingly taking part. And in the recent local government elections, in which the PCP and its allies within the Braod Democratic Coalition [CDU] scored a good result, the ruling parties suffered a serious defeat. Practice is confirming that, as in other moments of the Portuguese people's struggle for its emancipation, the intensification and broadening of the mass popular struggles is the road to victory. At the same time, it is of fundamental importance to strengthen the Party, by increasing its ranks, rooting it in the workplaces and shop floors, strengthening its links with the masses. There is no alternative without the PCP, and much less so, against the PCP. And the more
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our Party is rooted in our national reality and the more it is committed to its class and national duties, which are inseparable in the Portuguese revolutionary process, the greater will be our internationalist contribution. We are a Party that asserts and defends with conviction our class nature, our MarxistLeninist ideological basis, a necessarily creative view of the world, contrary to dogmatization, as well as to the opportunistic revision of its fundamental principles and concepts; our inner-Party democracy based on the creative development of democratic centralism; our mass line; our project of a socialist society; our patriotism and internationalism. We are a Party that, with justifiable pride, takes into its hands the rich revolutionary legacy of comrade Álvaro Cunhal, whose centenary we are marking this year.
we wish to contribute to strengthen the world Communist and revolutionary movement, considering with great conviction that what best serves its unity is the respect for the principles of equality, mutual respect, non-interference in internal affairs and mutual solidarity. We have done, and will continue to do, whatever we can to ensure the success of our International Meeting and to consolidate, further and improve the IMCWP process. In the same way, your presence here, in a fortunate simultaneity with a major moment in the commemoration of Álvaro Cunhal's centenary, with the commemorative rally on November 10th to which you are all invited, is seen by us a gesture of solidarity with our Party and its struggle. Comrades,
We are a Party that is the product of the development of the Portuguese working-class movement, and which is proud to have been born under the impact of that extraordinary event that was the October Socialist Revolution, when the Russian proletariat, under the leadership of Lenin's Bolshevik Party, seized power and launched, with heroism and creativity, the construction of the new socialist society. In greeting the 96th anniversary of those “ten days that shook the world”, we are convinced that the path that we have treaded since then, with its extraordinary achievements and conquests, and nonwithstanding the dramatic defeats, confirms the need for, and the superiority of, the new economic and social system, and that the cause for which we fight is just and invincible.
Capitalism is enmeshed in contradictions that cannot be solved within the framework of the system and which demand a revolutionary outcome. The crisis of overproduction and over-accumulation of capital which ecloded with the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, continues with no end in sight. An unprecedented centralization and concentration of capital and of power is accompanied by the brutal intensification of exploitation, the assault against wages and labour income, the growth of poverty, unemployment, precarious labour, the dismantlement of any existing social functions of the State. Big business and the big imperialist powers, first and foremost the USA, have not given up on trying to impose their hegemony upon the world, and daily sow death, destruction and terror in the four corners of the world.
In hosting in Lisbon this 15th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties,
But imperialism does not have its hands entirely free. Although unequal and irregular, ev-
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erywhere the resistance and struggle of the workers and the peoples continues, often with major popular struggles as has been the case in Portugal and other countries of Europe; with novel processes of asserting sovereignty and social progress, as in Latin America; in valuable expressions of struggle against imperialist aggressions. And as the social basis of support for capitalism becomes increasingly narrow, so does the rejection of capitalism, and the need for its alternative, Socialism, grow in the consciousness of the peoples. The situation in which we are living, on a world level, is an extraordinarily complex situation, which embodies risks of a dramatic civilizational regression and even of a catastrophe for Humankind. But at the same time, it is a situation that contains great potential for progressive and revolutionary developments. It is a situation that confronts the Communists with great responsibilities, both towards the working class and the people of their countries, in which their rooting is indispensible and irreplaceable; and on an international level, with the necessary strengthening of their friendship, cooperation and solidarity. What the workers and the peoples expect, and have the right to receive, from the Communists, is a message of unity, of organized struggle, of revolutionary confidence. This is a message that no one else can deliver on our behalf. You may be certain, comrades, that the PCP will do whatever is in its reach to live up to this responsibility.
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ALGERIA PARTY FOR DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM (PADS) GEORGE PERLES
The crisis of the international capitalist system continues to worsen . As continue grabbing the fruits of the working class labor by the bourgeoisie and capitalist accumulation. As the rate of profit tends to fall, capitalism is inevitably confronted with the over-accumulation of capital that Marx had predicted and deeply analyzed . This phase tends to reach a peak due to the extension of capitalist relations of production in depth and width at an international scale . The result is an incredibly small size of the capital expansion field in the world, that creates serious difficulties in achieving a normal rate of profit. This highlights clearly and obviously the characteristic of imperialism as the highest and last stage of capitalism, as defined by Lenin. Relocations, privatization and appropriation operations of public services , attacks against the social gains of the working class and the exploited strata – decreasing of nominal wages and not only real ones , rising unemployment , excessive flexibility of the employees condition, postponing the age of retirement - the brutal challenge to the sovereignty of the economically dominated countries peoples, the dictates of the imperialist states economic and financial institutions, financial speculation , are the concrete expression of multiple economic and social aspects of this crisis essence . Collective body of the bourgeoisie, the capitalist state and the set of supranational institutions ( such as the European Union) are conducting a ruthless social war to intensify the working class exploitation , reduce the price of their labor to allow capitalists to reverse the downward trend in the rate of profit and try to find a solution to the crisis . This war is exacerbating the capitalist system crisis as it has the effect of further reducing the purchasing power of workers , increasing the problems of goods flow and investment capital , pushing to seek solutions in foreign markets . By these means each capitalist tries to increase the mass of profits , increase its rate
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of profit or make excessive profits . The working class exploitation in different countries, the monopolization of strategic sectors such as energy , telecommunications, and other economic branches , extortion of huge interests at the expense of workers and the toiling strata through a vicious debt held by capitalist states , contribute to the disproportionate increase in profits of the capitalists. Poverty affects large social groups while the wealth held by the bourgeoisie has reached unprecedented summits . But ultimately it is the working class that is subject to over-exploitation of unprecedented ferocity, who bears the crisis additional burden as the most exploited class. The crisis that began in 2008 accelerated the concentration of capital and wealth. It has increased inequality in income distribution . The bourgeois press admits as a scandalous fact that 1% of the world population owns nearly half of the planet's wealth. At the international level , the most powerful imperialist states are waging a battle without mercy to monopolize the market , maintain and expand their influence sphere, particularly in trying to hinder the rise of new imperialist rivals, called "emerging markets". The bourgeoisie of these countries are trying to snatch their share of the global market to solve the internal class contradictions , including difficulties in selling their products in their local markets, difficulties due to the low purchasing power of workers subject to fierce exploitation. Regimes of these countries have the same goals as the old imperialist states : extract maximum gain within and outside their borders. The same basic contradiction opposes the "Brics" bourgeoisie and the old capitalist countries to the entire working class, the toiling strata in all countries. Contradictions that oppose the imperialist states at the international level are
secondary to the fundamental antagonism between capitalists and the proletariat. These contradictions can be exploited by the states ruled by workers provided that they do not forget the fundamental laws that govern the imperialist system and do not create illusions in demobilizing workers. The aggression, the military interference, the pressures of all kinds, political and economic sharp and growing disputes, reflect attempts by different groups of capitalists and their governments to solve the intractable problems of capitalism in the mercyless struggle they deliver between them to defend and extend their spheres of influence and domination in the world. The imperialist aggression in Libya , intervention in Mali, the threat of air strikes against Syria, deadly interference in many African countries, maneuvers to destabilize Latin American regimes that want to loosen the grip of the U.S. imperialism, foreshadow the extension of war situations in the world. One must not be deceived about the real reasons for disagreements on Syria which oppose the USA, France, Great Britain, on one hand, and Russia and China, on the other, on the Syrian issue. It is not because of friendship for the people that these two countries block in the UN Security Council the other imperialist states attempts to give "legal" cover for their hawkish operations to place puppet head of the Syria. The differences between the members of the Security Council express the struggle to preserve the areas of influence of each of them. People threatened by military interventions have the potential to exploit the inter-imperialist contradictions. But the communist revolutionary forces should aim to gain a leading role in the anti-imperialist resistance, working to raise up the level of awareness, mobilization and organization of
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the working class and the popular strata so that imperialism is not replaced by another, and to create the subjective conditions for political and social revolutionary transformations in the perspective of socialism. Russia and China oppose the board of the UN Security plans U.S., France and Britain on Syria. At the same time they give in the Security Council, their approval to France to intervene militarily in Mali. This is an illustration of the fact that the UN has been transformed since the demise of the USSR in a declared instrument of sharing or division of the world between the imperialist powers, of open interference in the internal affairs of nations in violation of the UN statutes which limit military intervention for resolving conflicts between countries. The imperialist powers use every means to impose their law on the Arab peoples. They have used and continue to use the ultra- reactionary forces disguised under the banner of Islam to divide the masses , weaken the influence of communists by the combined action of spreading backward ideas and using extreme violence, create the battle of wills for the application of anti-worker and anti-people economic and social policies that benefit to multinationals and their associated local capital forces. The U.S., French and English imperialists, in particular, with the active support of social democracy either support these reactionary forces to crush the workers and anti-imperialist forces, or use the contradictions arising between "modernists" and "Islamic" currents in the bourgeoisie to get the maximum benefits to ensure their domination over these countries, or still try to build "modernist" and " Islamists" coalitions that allow to dismantle the working class resistance against exploitation and oppression. Between 1990 and 2000 the U.S. imperialists and the
French Socialist Party had hoped the victory of the Islamists in Algeria to put the country under their dominance, including sacrificing "modernist" currents of the bourgeoisie. Before the defeat of the attempt by the convergence that has been installed between popular patriotic and progressive and modernist bourgeois currents, both threatened in their physical existence by the forces of the obscurantist reaction, to prevent takeover by the Islamists, these imperialist states supported and pushed for the creation of mutually beneficial arrangements between modernist and Islamist currents of the bourgeoisie. These arrangements have excluded the most backward "Islamists", hostile to "the West" for ideological reasons. These arrangements have created a very favorable climate for economic penetration of multinationals in Algeria, business prosperity of the local bourgeoisie in the diversity of its cultural inclinations and its vision of the place of religion in politics. The workers paid the bill of the resulting compromises. To safeguard the interests of the Algerian bourgeoisie, the government has signed economic agreements with the EU and the U.S., has reduced the sovereignty and autonomous decision-making capabilities of Algeria and destroyed the Algerian productive potential for the benefit of importers powerful groups: free trade agreement with the EU (and the Arab countries), linkages with NATO under the pretext of fighting against terrorism, etc.. But imperialism has an insatiable appetite that drives him to seek even more concessions, as the total dismantling of barriers to the movement of capital, the absolute control of energy resources, the installation of military bases and other benefits. Hence its constant pressure using the pretext of "human rights" for complete freedom of action of their
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most docile intermediate, or intrigues through the manipulation of armed Islamist groups, or supporting the armament of the Moroccan monarchy shaking periodically land claims at the expense of Algeria. Algerian Communists denounced the abandonment of the defense of the country's sovereignty by the bourgeoisie. They undertake a propaganda work towards workers to explain that there is nothing to expect from the bourgeoisie, that they are the ones who have an interest in defending the sovereignty and decision-making capacity of the country in order to boost the industrialization to meet their aspirations to improve their living conditions. The construction of the productive forces that ensure full employment and the welfare fer the working class and popular strata requires the establishment of a power led by the working class in alliance with the middle strata who live by their work. It is this system that can thwart the interference of imperialist countries, apply in full sovereignty measures for workers and create mutually beneficial economic and cultural relations between the authentic socialist regimes which are appearing thanks to the revolutionary struggles of the working class in other countries and their consequent communist parties.
Long live to proletarian internationalism ! Let us Strengthen our union to destroy capitalism imperialism and its last and highest stage ! Socialism is the future, the future is socialism !
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF ARGENTINA GUSTAVO PANASIUK
Queridos y queridas camaradas de todas las latitudes del planeta: Resulta de gran importancia que estemos reunidos los partidos comunistas y obreros del mundo siguiendo las mejores tradiciones del marxismo en la construcción de la unidad internacionalista de los trabajadores y los pueblos. En nombre del Partido Comunista de la Argentina, saludamos la tarea del Grupo de Trabajo, y agradecemos en especial al Partido Comunista Portugués, por el ejemplo que nos brinda, y por ofrecernos tan excelente recibimiento. Llegamos desde el hemisferio sur, a una Europa sacudida por la crisis de un capitalismo senil, en el cual un pequeño grupo de corporaciones, brega por sostener y engrosar su inaudita tasa de ganancia a costa de arrojar a millones a la exclusión social, incrementar la explotación del trabajo, empobrecer a los sectores medios, negar futuro a la juventud, y barrer con las soberanías nacionales. De este modo, pretende asegurarse el abastecimiento de los recursos naturales, que demanda su irracional desenvolvimiento, mediante una dominación global. Para esto, no vacila en emprender guerras de agresión y sometimiento, cada vez más sofisticadas y letales. Lo que está sucediendo en Europa y EEUU, nos muestra a dónde llega la degradación económica, social, moral y por supuesto política del capitalismo, cuando alcanza los más altos niveles de su “desarrollo”. Su más alto grado de “desarrollo” es el desempleo, el hambre, los desahucios, la caída del salario, la falta de futuro. Su ley más sagrada, es a la hora del peligro del naufragio, el salvataje de los bancos. Queda a la vista de millones de personas, que el régimen del capital, no está ya en condi-
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ciones de ofrecer a la Humanidad, un futuro de prosperidad, democracia, justicia social y paz. Esto abre renovadas perspectivas, a un pensamiento y una práctica post capitalista de la cual, los comunistas tenemos mucho que decir, por nuestro balance histórico y nuestras posibilidades actuales. Los comunistas, encabezamos revoluciones que demostraron la posibilidad de los trabajadores de conquistar el poder y de alcanzar con ello, logros gigantescos. Ayer se cumplieron 96 años de aquella gesta histórica, que transformo definitivamente el panorama mundial. La gloriosa revolución bolchevique, que con Lenin y el partido comunista, llevo a la otrora Rusia de los zares, a los niveles más altos de desarrollo de las fuerzas productivas, de las ciencias, y de las artes. Al mismo tiempo, podemos hoy señalar con el espíritu de autocrítica que debe caracterizarnos, que ningún proceso es irreversible, si no se desarrollan las fuerzas de los que producen con su trabajo, las riquezas, el poder popular, la conciencia de clase, de pueblo, y de un patriotismo empapado de internacionalismo revolucionario. Para consolidar los cambios económicos, sociales y políticos que benefician a una parte importante de nuestra clase y de otros sectores de nuestro pueblo, no alcanza con defender esas conquistas, ¡¡hay que profundizarlas!! Se trata también de construir con los pueblos, las condiciones de distribución de la riqueza, y el poder que aseguren un digno bienestar social y medioambiental para todos, donde reinen la justicia, la belleza y la alegría.
¡¡¡Qué lejos está el capitalismo, siquiera ya de engañarnos con esa perspectiva!!! Los dolores actuales de las poblaciones europeas, los sufrimos con fuerza los argentinos, cuando en la década de los 90, cayó con toda la saña sobre nosotros, el recetario neoliberal fondo monetarista. Y debemos decir que aún hoy lo estamos sufriendo, porque a pesar de que se aplican desde el actual gobierno, medidas contra cíclicas, y reformas que atenúan los efectos más dolorosos de la crisis, aun no se saltan las vallas que ha dejado la ortodoxia económica, ni se superan sus consecuencias nefastas. En nuestro país, existen otras organizaciones llamadas de izquierda, divididas y desorientadas, que juegan un rol que favorece a la derecha política. Por eso los comunistas argentinos, que aun no contamos con una fuerza numerosa, le otorgamos importancia a los cambios producidos, a partir de las rebeliones populares del 2001, y del gobierno surgido en el 2003. Esto permitió la recuperación de algunas esferas del patrimonio público, los juicios y las condenas a los genocidas, la aparición de los archivos secretos de la dictadura cívico militar, y algunas reparaciones sociales, así como significativos avances en la unidad y la integración latinoamericana y caribeña, con un hito fundamental en el NO al ALCA del cual este 5 de noviembre, se cumplieron 8 años. Sin esa unidad, nuestra región no podrá ser un actor de peso en el mundo multipolar y multi céntrico, que se gesta en el marco del incremento de la crisis, y de la agresividad del imperialismo, particularmente norteamericano. Pero al mismo tiempo, no perdemos de vista
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que no se superan las profundas desigualdades sociales A cada paso, constatamos los límites de clase e ideológicos, del actual gobierno y del proceso en curso. Este sólo podrá prosperar, si las fuerzas avanzadas de diversa procedencia, nos unimos en amplitud, logramos una correlación de fuerzas favorable a los cambios de fondo, asentados en políticas públicas, que aseguren una efectiva distribución de la riqueza, la plena disposición de nuestros recursos naturales, una ruptura definitiva con los centros globales del poder financiero, y un camino consecuente de unidad regional, en el camino de la Patria Grande. Este es el legado de los próceres de nuestra primera Independencia. Y en la búsqueda del Socialismo, que en nuestro continente se recrea con nuevos y consistentes aportes, iluminados con los ejemplos de Ernesto Che Guevara, Fidel Castro y Hugo Chávez. Por ello respaldamos la activa presencia argentina, en el MERCOSUR con la incorporación de Venezuela y en proceso de mayor ampliación; en la UNASUR y la CELAC, y ahora como miembro observador del ALBA. Ello expresa una nueva realidad continental, que vive un proceso que debemos atender cuidadosamente. Abierta sin dudas por el heroísmo socialista de la Revolución Cubana, hoy en la Venezuela Bolivariana, en Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua y otros países, se recrea el ideal socialista, y ello facilita la toma de decisiones autónomas en varios de nuestros países. Pero como señalamos antes, ningún proceso puede considerarse irreversible.
Y los comunistas, debemos ser los primeros en denunciar los planes injerencistas del imperialismo y sus aliados locales, que se hacen fuertes en la Alianza del Pacífico y desde allí intentan palanquear sus políticas restauradoras, que ya tuvieron éxito en Paraguay y Honduras. Allí están también, las más de 70 bases militares distribuidas en nuestro continente, y la IV flota que navega nuestros mares. Un capitulo aparte, es la amenaza a la paz que representa la base militar de la OTAN, en las Islas Malvinas que cuenta con 1500 efectivos, además del equipamiento. Los comunistas argentinos, seguimos reivindicando, junto a la mayoría de nuestro pueblo y de nuestra región, nuestra soberanía. Lo hacemos por razones históricas, en defensa de la paz y con una firme condena al colonialismo. Por eso repetimos junto a nuestros ex combatientes. “Volveremos a Malvinas, de la mano de América Latina” Ello reclama incorporar a nuestras tareas, un plan global de solidaridad con nuestros hermanos venezolanos que hoy soportan la concentración de buena parte de la contraofensiva restauradora en nuestro continente. En los próximos días, ellos deberán afrontar las elecciones municipales por lo que deseamos al PCV, al PSUV y al GPP los mayores éxitos, cruciales para todo el continente. Del mismo modo, seguimos solidariamente a las fuerzas que levantan la candidatura popular, democrática y de izquierda en las prontas elecciones de Honduras, así como a las que se unen para derrotar a la derecha chilena.
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La contradicción central en Argentina y en muchos países de la región, es entre la profundización de los cambios en un sentido antimonopolista y antiimperialista, o la restauración neoliberal con su carga de recortes y represión. En estas tierras, no podemos dejar de sentir la influencia del camarada Alvaro Cunhal, quien nos decía: “Ser comunista, no consiste solamente en tener un objetivo político y luchar por su realización”. “Es una manera de sentir y de vivir”. “Y eso significa que los comunistas no solo tienen objetivos políticos y sociales, no solo tienen una ideología y un ideal de transformación de la sociedad”. Además, Cunhal, nos convocaba a superar la moral de la burguesía, es decir a construir lo que el comandante Ernesto Che Guevara llamo el hombre nuevo, y que hoy reformulamos como la mujer y el hombre nuevo. Esa es la batalla de hoy, para desbrozar el camino al socialismo que está en el centro de nuestra línea estratégica: el desarrollo de un gran Partido Comunista y el aporte a la construcción de un frente unido, que pueda llevar a la victoria una Revolución Socialista de Liberación Nacional.
¡Viva la unidad de todos los comunistas y de todas las fuerzas antimperialistas, populares, democráticas y revolucionarias!
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF AUSTRALIA BOB BRITON
The crisis of capitalism has not abated. Despite assurances from authorities in the US and other imperialist centres to the contrary, the severe economic downturn continues to deepen and it is the people who are being forced to pay the price of capitalist attempts at recovery. “Austerity” has become the byword of governments dancing to the tune of the big banks and winding back the role and responsibilities of states to provide for the well-being of their people. Further spending cuts and privatisation of public assets are being demanded of governments by supranational financial institutions. People's saving are being raided to bail out banks guilty of the theft of the wealth of whole nations. People's rights to defend themselves against injustice are being curtailed and, once again, fascist organisations are being readied to shore up capitalism and divert the disaffected from turning to the socialist alternative. This is the nightmare scenario facing the people of large sections of the world's population, even in formerly, relatively wealthy countries such as those of Europe. Neo-liberal policies have left governments with fewer levers to deal with aspects of the “bust” phase of the business cycle. Lower corporate and personal taxes and the sale of public enterprises have depleted the reserves previously available for “pump-priming” or stimulating the domestic economy. “Free” trade agreements designed to aid transnational monopoly interests further restrict the options open to national governments to protect jobs and even whole industries. The austerity measures have a contractionary impact on economies, deepening the crisis and setting governments up to fail. Where is all of this heading? Already bankers have been brought in to head several European governments. Will the next step be to sovereign bankruptcies and the direct takeover and running of governments by transnational corporations – overt dictator-
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ship of capital. Governments have already contracted out many of their functions and operations, why stop at that and not privatise the whole of government? Deregulation has considerably eroded the sovereignty and powers of the state. Workers, pensioners and other vulnerable people in developed countries are being prepared for a stripping back of social conditions to something like the level imposed on the peoples of developing capitalist countries. The treatment of workers, pensioners and other less privileged people in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and elsewhere is a clear warning. Alternatives to the “haircut” inflicted on the victims of capitalist crisis are attacked by the media-industrial complex and kept away from the people who might benefit. The process of capitalist globalisation has not lifted millions out of poverty as was once claimed by the triumphalists who celebrated the demise of the USSR and East European socialist countries. What it has done is to push workers who once enjoyed the benefits of the long post-World War 2 boom into a new situation of insecurity and declining living conditions. Ruling circles are not only convinced that they must act to defend their power and interests. They also believe the time is ripe to press ahead and use the crisis to take back hard won gains made by the working class over more than a century of struggle. They have declared that “the age of entitlement” is over, that governments cannot afford or should not be providing social security and other services as in the past. The absence of the former socialist countries has removed considerable
pressure on them to at least provide some of the benefits that workers in socialist countries received. The take-back is on in a big way, with the aim of driving wages, working condition and living standards down to the lowest common denominator on a global basis with workers pitted against each other on a global labour market. Cheap labour from the poorer countries is being imported like a commodity to be exploited at far higher rates than local labour in the richer nations. The “third world” countries continue to be subjected to imperialist wars, carved up and plundered, their lands stolen, their peoples dispossessed and millions still subjected to abject poverty without basic needs being met. Trade unions are historically weaker in a number of countries, including Australia. Many have completely abandoned class struggle and see their role as offering a service rather than organising workers to advance their interests against the capitalists that exploit them or electing social democrat governments. Individualism has been successfully fostered, with young people in particular encouraged to shun membership of organisations and collectivism. Racism, xenophobia and anti-Muslim attitudes have been promoted to split the working class and divert attention from the real causes of people’s hardships. Legislation ushered in the guise of preventing terrorism following the September 11 attacks in the US has been used to deal with dissent. A new wave of destruction of protections under the law is underway in many countries. Intelligence agencies spy on their own people, the people of other countries and governments, both friend and foe. People resisting and exposing these realities, such as Wikileaks' Ju-
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lian Assange and Edward Snowden, have been hounded into virtual imprisonment or exile.
The escalation of the imperialist offensive US imperialism has not left off its drive for global dominance. In fact, the looming eclipse of global economic dominance by the US and the decline of its currency as the world's reserve currency has added a sense of greater urgency to achieve different regional targets. Destabilisation, drone attacks and proxy wars have been added to the armoury of the US as the limitations of their capacity for direct invasion become clear. The tactic of regime change via “colour revolutions” has been enhanced with the insertion of ruthless mercenaries, the imposition of blockades and, where possible, a “no-fly” zone. The tactic was successful in the case of Libya but has fallen short of its objectives in Syria. The US has not “won the peace” in Afghanistan and the contradictions are mounting as it attempts to exploit Muslim extremists to destabilise governments and terrorise populations while at the same time continuing its support for Zionist expansion. Access to or control of the Middle East's oil reserves may be a less pressing short-term goal given the development of non-conventional gases in the US but it remains a major determinant of foreign policy. Iran is still on the short list of regimes to be overthrown. The US has not let up in its plans to overturn progressive governments in Latin America. The passing of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was a crucial test of strength for forces wishing to continue the Bolivarian Revolution towards socialism and those aligned
to US interests. Attempts to intimidate other progressive governments, such as those of Bolivia and Ecuador, have become more outrageous. The socialist Republic of Cuba remains a prime target of US ambitions, its illegal blockade remains despite UN General Assembly resolutions calling for it to be lifted. The international campaign to free the Cuban Five is gaining in strength, including inside the US, but their freedom has still to be won. The major shift in US policy in recent times is known as the “Pivot” to the Asia-pacific and Indian Ocean regions. The clear objective of this shift in military priorities is to contain the growing influence of the People’s Republic of China and accelerate war preparations against it. Investment by Chinese companies is on the rise worldwide and has seen dramatic growth in Latin America, South-East Asia and Africa in recent times. The creation of the US Africom Unified Combatant Command in 2006 must be seen in this context. A major expansion of military bases in the Asia-pacific and Indian Ocean regions is underway. A new base for the rotation of US Marines was created at Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory following a visit by US President Barack Obama to Australia in 2011. Australia is already host to more than 30 US bases or military facilities. Australia's military spending has increased considerably in recent years with the acquisition of hugely expensive non-defensive military equipment from the US. The integration of Australia's military with the US war machine continues. Military spending has been effectively quarantined from the cuts that health, education and other services are experiencing. Budget cuts have obliged
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federal governments to conceal the size of their militarycommitment which is opposed by an estimated 70 percent of the Australian population. The lifting of the ban on US and Australia uranium exports to India because of its failure to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is part of this diplomatic offensive. The US has supported violent separatist movements in China, carried on a media campaign about human rights “abuses”, aggravated tensions over disputed islands with its neighbours and in every way possible sought to contain and destabilise the country. While they persist with all these tactics they have clearly failed and so a military “solution” is being prepared. The destruction of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is part of this drive.
The realignment of forces on the international level As mentioned, the US economy has continued its precipitous decline and the role of its currency as the world reserve is being challenged. Countries around the world see this weakness and are considering alternatives. The countries of the BRICS grouping have been considering an alternative. ALBA in Latin America has already instituted a trading currency called the Sucre. Libya's late leader Muammar Gaddafi was gathering support for an African currency based on gold when he was deposed and assassinated by the imperialists. For all these economic difficulties, the US continues to fund the world's biggest military machine by far. It has managed to keep NATO in its orbit even while political pressures within member countries have toned down the bellicosity of the language in support of US mili-
tary adventures. The chaos left in the wake of the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan has undermined what little public support existed for such attacks excused, as they were, in part by a desire to install “democratic” governments in those countries. The Japanese government remains loyal to the strategic aims of the US and has changed the character of its armed forces even further away from the defensive role demanded at the surrender at the end of World War 2. The alternative economic formations have strengthened their position relative to US imperialism in the recent period and this has had consequences for the ability of the US to assert its will. The position of Russia has been enhanced through its involvement with BRICS. The strength of its opposition has been vital to the survival of Syria in the face of the imperialists' drive to smash it up. The present situation does not necessarily improve conditions for peace. The US may respond to developments with acts of desperation. The threat with most potential for devastation involves attacks on the People's Republic of China. While the US economy is now dependent on trade with China and the Chinese government's purchase of US treasury bonds, US imperialism does not tolerate rivals. It is aware that the privileged position of the US in the post-WW2 world economy relies on absolute military supremacy to enforce the dominance of US corporations.
The role of the working class and the Communists’ tasks With such destructive forces at work in the world, the tasks of the working class and the Communists have become even more urgent.
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The choice between socialism or barbarism has become stark. The urgency for measures to head off global warming and provide a sustainable environment for the peoples of the world has added another element of crisis to the present situation. Circumstances vary greatly from country to country. Some peoples have a history of struggle against colonialism, the outlawing of the Communist Party, underground struggle against fascism and even civil war. Others have had decades of liberal bourgeois “democracy� and access to some benefits during the post-WWII boom. Some have trade unions with class-conscious leaderships prepared to struggle for social advancement. Other countries have trade unions under the almost total sway of class-collaborationist social democrats.
While Communist and workers parties work in very different social, economic and political circumstances, they do operate in an increasingly globalised context. The sharing of experiences and, especially, the development of solidarity actions remain high priorities. The opportunity presented by the International Meetings of Communist and Workers Parties is invaluable. Unity in action around agreed objectives should be preserved and enhanced greatly in the challenging period ahead.
There is no one formula for Communist parties that could be applied in all these differing conditions. There must be respect for the judgement of Communist parties to chart the way forward based on knowledge drawn from intimate involvement in the struggles of their working class and other exploited people. Some parties are in a more leading position of the organisations of their respective working classes and others. In Australia our Party needs to build its numbers and fighting capacity rapidly to meet the challenges described above. It must work at building left and progressive alliances in the course of defending the interests of working people that are under a concerted attack. We cannot wait until we have sufficient strength to go it alone in these battles. Parties in other countries may well be in a position to do so but not in Australia.
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF AZERBAIJAN TELMAN NURALLAYEV
Dear comrades! The first thing I wanted to express my appreciation to that the Communist party of Portugal invited us for such quorum of the Communist and workers ' parties and for the excellent organization of the seminar. Portuguese Communist Party founded in 1922, beginning from 1926 to 1974, has waged a relentless revolutionary struggle in harsh conditions underground under the military-fascist regime. Therefore, the communists and the people of Portugal are well aware of the forms and methods of struggle in modern conditions. But in the system of globalization international bourgeois regime, although pulled on his "democratic" curtains, shows sophisticated fascism! The so-called "democratic" methods globalizers create sensitive area and under the motto "Alliance for peace", seize foreign lands and subordinate the will of the people to global capitalism. In this issue, they cunningly play the nationalist card. Manipulating the consciousness of the peoples, they sow ethnic hatred. Thereby globalists have created sensitive area in the Caucasus and in other places. Here already more than 20 years of tensions continue between Azerbaijan and Armenia. 20% of Azerbaijani lands are under occupation, more than a million Azerbaijanis have been expelled from their native hearth. Although the four resolutions of the U.N.O. and even the decisions of the Lisbon Summit on Karabakh issue are still on paper. All questions with the problems of Karabakh initiators of the destruction of the socialist foundations associated with the Communist party, which ruled the country. The Communist party of Azerbaijan recreated again in 1993 hardly proves that the regional conflicts in the hand of the bourgeoisie, who want to
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"strangers Gorbach" generate well-being and the life of Paradise. At that as much as possible to exploit the population of the Third world. In October 2013 in our Republic passed the so-called presidential elections. As in the bourgeois offices they elect who faithfully serving the global world. Not only to his people, who participate in voting. And the pensioners, mainly consists of a majority of the voters are retiring little more than 150 Euro. In such conditions, the communist party of Azerbaijan hardly leading the struggle for socialism. Comrades, so long as our party are revolutionary and fight for the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the national question is, at the present stage paramount and as Stalin said: "the national question is the General question of the proletarian revolution, part of the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat" (I.V. Stalin v.6, page 141). It would be nice if one of the sessions was dedicated to national issues. Comrades! Very unfortunately fragmentation among the communist and workers ' parties gives us lead a decisive struggle against the combined forces of imperialism. By the way, after "Khrushov thaws" in the international communist movement began fragmentation of communist and workers ' parties. These trends were reflected, after the collapse of the USSR and to the communist parties of the post-Soviet space, except of course in Tajikistan. And in our Republic, there appeared also several communist parties. Proceeding from the principles of Marxism not
all of the Communist party can be called a Communist. Using the abbreviations of the Communist party leaders of these parties from the high tribunes say as the Communists, and in the cases they are totally different. Therefore, workers, that is, the working class is having a very difficult – who to believe!? In these conditions the revolutionary struggle of the working class is gained. If the case goes so in the near future success not wait. We believe it is time to stop sharing the Communist parties of left and right. The communist parties must be in positions of Marxist – leninist principles. For the communist party, when it is actually the communist party an acceptable version of fighting, mostly revolutionary. Everything else is a deviation from Marxism . Some communist and workers ' parties insufficient struggle against opportunism and revisionism within their parties. And without crushing blow on opportunism and revisionism we will not be able to unite all the progressive forces. Russian Communist Workers' Party. We believe that the attempt with somebody's manipulations, to withdraw from the composition of the Working Group, the members of the RCWP is the serve to opportunism. We think that comrades have made a right choice. Comrades! Yesterday or rather on October 7th was 97 years of the great victory of the October Revolution. Let me congratulate the communist and workers’ parties and everyone who
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steadily follows the path of the Great October Revolution and of course we congratulate the Head of the Communist Party Sergey Alexandrovich Mozgovoy for his great work in Marxism-Leninism. We are deeply convinced that the Communist Party, newly reconstituted in 2004, under the leadership of Oleg Semyonovich Shenin who is a tireless fighter for the cause of Great Lenin, will unite all left-wing forces of post-Soviet space in the coming years and the banner of Socialism will rise once again above the powerful state of the USSR! And in this cause the international communist movement must comprehensively support all initiatives of the Communist Party to recreate renewed socialistic state. Thanks for your attention.
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DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVE TRIBUNE, BAHRAIN ABDULNABI SALMAN
ا0Is ق اP.\ ت واUqP.\ا ،، q\ aJ\ واqIkq8\اب ا0%s اo] a` انe\ qCp _ه.p*U وe 0% o]> e` تq& _Y\ [Ued هeqU] o \ اap.Y\ة اkI*]\ K\ \ا cp. آ7 مi\ اoa\ J\ اU]\ا ا,ر هk?&\ SqU8\ اo\ M . \ اoIkq8\ب ا0&]\ mea d و، لU 3v واP q?\ اc4% q" 4 e ا, هeI a !][ اYp ان *مU \ واp.&\ اoP e kJ7 ت%kaC\ . qاآ. 7v اe م وw4\ واoI a !vا ،، قP.\ ت واUqP.\ا O;d وcq` I c` . أآ.` *U\ cp.& \ اdدw Q;I o \*اث ا%s اm]I " ! ت%vارة ا.7 iqP J\*d اo \ا 1102 ط7 /.pا. P 41 ,e` ` رJ\ اq J8\ا ًا. دت آQ 3 اo \ " ! ت ا%u اoوه oP ieq% *ورp ت ` آ ن: ز'_ وإرهc` ، q J7 رات وه تk c` o .J\ اeCq&` pرkia! و2dk c` [ آoP [ ' صY8 و iQU] ` نI.3 o \ وا، q .J\ ا.;` qBا.Uap*\ واp.&]\ 6CJ a\ اe J7 Aq&p a` _L.\ اm]I ، qI a !v*ا\ اJ\وا تQ\ & وq3 q3kq! تp*& c` dدw 3 3* أe 4 ،*qUJ \ اoP p L qe`أ o"q](\ ون اJ \ ا2]"` دولf.Pk ` m\إ i aFd أcq oI P ودoe` أCL c` ىkU\ اg`*U ` m]I وةwI q3 q4\ا *رات دولU` m]I eaqia\ اq\ p. `uا q .&\ اi]qB 3 أ. I _I دc` e UCe` UCe` oP O Ya\ي ا.Y4J\ا!*ه اk و oa\ J\] اC\ ] اc` . _ آi4 q"q ا. 3v اJ]4\ اW] ،AQe\ اm]I ذkQe\ د وا4Q\ى اkT اردهk` ت. J o \ا ed ]*اoP ار.U\[ ا: Q` m]I eaqia\ا زq` ]8P o \ وا، q .J\ واq"q](\ا qCQd * اkI c` i\ m ` OqEk oP . ` *ا4` qae SqU& [! أc` a(> *U\ يkqe []' c` od Jp oeBk\ ; د اTv[ اE *ةp*8\ اp0آ.a\ اg *% c` QI > c`0` ، \ ا\*وoP ; ديTvار ا.U\ إدارة اoP ( ea\ اoeBk\ ا2]"a\[ ا% *J : ' ،o> a\ن ا.U\ اc` 5791 2C4L أoP
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q! d وإq!ا.( 3 ت اI e: و!*تq% ، q! du اJQ .`*` وU ` q`*'و c` _FIs_ ا4U\ اS]' oP _i4 ،مkqea\s ا،AQe\ (اo\ a!u اo]&a\ اe\ا m]I *a J o \ه ) ا.qL وoP.;a\ ع اCU\ا 2Qd oP ieY\ ،ً 3 3 أqeBk\ \ اaJ\ا *p0` بJq 3 اm]I *رةU\ `&*ودة اTk\ا تI CT qU W\ [ ذUp \ aJ\ اf, هc` ]q]T وq! du اqd* a\ اoeBk\ ; د اTvا ،o\ a!u اo]&a\ اe\ اoP مi3uا o\ a! إc` . آs_ ا4U\ اOEk ieY\ \ aJ\ اc` i q \ L و،دw \ اoP \ aJ\ا a` .رk!s اqd* ` ه] وa\ ا.qL q e!sا *ادI أoP .' *J ` I *اpا0 ` ً a(? S]' راتia\ ب ا4% m]I q e!s \ اaJ\ا _(? \ اd ! m\ إ، تqeU \وإد' ل ا \ ع ا\*وCT g _4 p ي,\ اoQqEk\ا fk8 m\ أدى اa` ، JeUa\ \ اC \ اq% بJq 3 اcI 0"J\ واp ; دTv اqe \ا رk!s اod* m\ وإ،AQe\ اc` q\ a\ارد اka\ا W] *% أa آ.*ةqJ *ود% m\ إq! duوا qd Y4\ اqآ. \ اoP هk8 ت3 q4\ا p ; دT واqI a ! ر اiq]I . .Ha "a\ اm]I q ]4\ اp L oP qe`وأ `ا.Y\ وا.!s اei aa\ اq e!s \ اaJ\ P ا.q آCL > g4Qd Tk\ اoP [Y8 ] eT وcqeBاka\[ اaI cر وأ` آk! أm]I .oeBk\ ; د اTv[ واaJ\ق اk3 oP kTk` %26 c` . أآm\ إi 4d ]:* وTو ًp ; دT اC8e\[ اaJ\ة اkT o\ a! إc` o \ اqep.& \ \ اaJ]\ AUP %83 [ U` ا.T [Y8 ً p.U cp*UI [ T ` m\ إd آ ً. p ; دT اC8e\[ اaJ\ة اkT o\ a! إo ] 0آ.a\ .q's ا.p.U \ ا4& و `زt\ * آ نUP ، qae \ ت ا3 q4\ q](\ا . آs ا. s اcp.& \ اi8qJ o \ّة اq3 ّp4\ا q% ، ; ديTv اk`ّe\ اm]I 1102 مJ\ اoP ةq&\ اoPًرا,%ًwCJ Y]aa\*ت اi7 .q8 qa3.\ ا.p رU \_ أن اL ور. p ; دTvا لw' oP J \= اJ *i7 ; دTv أن اm\إ *T %9.3 *ر ـU kad 4d SU&P 2102 مI
ت43 a\ أن اv إ،3102 مI %4 m\;[ إ cp.& \ اOqe; ارا.` ?Q' q\ا\*و g?qQ( ودةJ` لa % اm\ة إ.q8` qa\ I عCT *i7 *T و. ; ديTvد اkآ.\ ا4 ة. Q\ اoP ٪9.5 4e ً J!ا. زM\ واAQe\ا ،AQe\ل اkU% لwM 3 اk3 4 ، i ذا ٪08 c` . ع آCU\ا ا, ه_ ه4p q% c` و.cp.& \ اoP APّe\ادات ا.p إo\ a! إc` 3102 cq` J]\ o\ a\ ا0"J\ اK] p ّع أنTk a\ا نkq]` 057 ر وepن دkq]` 066 دلJp ` 4102و ٪6.6 و٪6 cq ` أي،o\اk \ اm]I رepد *T و.cq` J\ اcp, هoP ي ّ ]&a\اّ اe\ اc` لw' دا.C?` I Q م ارJ\ اcp*\"[ ا3 31 c` . أآK] q\ q> a\ اp.U\ام اkIsا ت43 ` HTk و.2102 مI oP رv ر دوq]` مI oP مJ\ اcp*\ اHQ .p أنqa\ I q\ ` [ ap ` ، رv ر دوq]` 02 c` . أآm\ إ8102 .o\ a!u اo]&a\ اe\ اc` %16 c` . أآ qQ](\ اW] m]Iو أو!*هo \? ت اT e \ ت واep \ اc` لkaJa\ اfk8a\ ; دي اTvذج اkae\ا اردka\ qeM\ اUCea\ اf, هoP g iFTk _\ o \ وا، p.8 \ واqCQe\ا \اk o \ اqa\ J\ اq\ a\ز` اsار *ادات ا &?P [ 8002 مJ\ اp id H` i\k;P ت.a 3* اT و.ه تk8 c` iqP . 3` ا T.3 وid oP ذkQe\ د وا4Q\ى اkT "q d ] ارد هk` وq\ ` وات. c` .Pاk ` \ تCa I .qL ،AQe\ ر اJ3 ع أQ ار q8qJa\ واq ]Ca\ ه اp ?T وi kJ7 ، qTkU&\ واq3 q4\ اi \ C` cI >kI و> عs" ر اQd اoP رع3 ي,\ ا.`sا تC]4\ اiJ` *" _\ qYq `رة دراk; . I ىk3 iJ` [` J ]\ ]q3 وc` cq" &a\ اqqM و6C \ واqe`s ? اU\ا *p." \[ واaJ\ اc` $p.4 \ن واk"4\ اoP _L.\ اm]I،*p.8 \ واq4e"\ اc` راتJ8 S]Cdي ا,\اك ا.&\ اqa]3 c` *i! o \ اIو.8a\ \ اCa\ اW] [a& oP q3 q4\ اfاkT وcp.& \ اoP e J7 3 c` . `*ى أآm]I i]! أc` ? لe\ا
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JP[ ودqYe \اع اkd أO] (a ]Q% ،دkUI i `*U` oP وq3 q4\ اdاkT i\w' c` W] ا.! q\ I p.> [> ea\ اe 0% .نr اm % ة.a 4a\ اqJaU\ ت ا3 q4\ا ،، قP.\ ت واUqP.\ا g اع وأدوا.;\ اJq C\ eqI وc` TwCdوا c` e\ ?d '; أ` م8\*ات اqUJ \"_ ا%و \ دJ\ \ اCa\ اSqU& وqBا.Uap*\أ![ ا Jq]B oP e 0% * آ نUP ، Iو.8a\وا " وo \ اqBا.Uap*\ واqeBk\ى اkU\ا H 4\ ط اUe\* ذات اiJ\ اo\ ` درة وH` oP ;(] o \ وا1102 ذار/ ` رسH]C` `kY% ت وq%w;\ ( آ `[ اe` 2]"` q ( d ا. ودواq J8\رادة اu [ اa o3 q4\ ا2qe" \ اO]a\ J!ا.` د\ وI o\ a\داري واu اcp د4Q\و`& ر ا "\ J` وkiea\ك ا\*و\ اw` دة أJ 3وا 0qqa \ ا3 q3 ا.! دw \ ق% ` g`wI م وإFe\_ اi3 اo \ اoQ C\ا oP .P[ واY8 oa3.\ اg 7 وoa3.\ا \ C` gpk8 \ ge` \ `& وoP " دهpا *اqQ 4` ،g *%ب و.> د\ وJ\ اe J7 g\ ت.P وo \ اqQ C\ى اkU\= اJ c` oaq4U \ اgIو.8` oP o?a]\ q>رsا . e J7 تP cq cqQ3ب ا.>و " وبc` _L.\ اm]Iو درةa\ اW] H` qeBk\ ر> اJa\ى اkT _Y&\ ا43 ` oP ? تT e \ أن اvا حw:ي إs p دJa\ د ا4Q\ى اkU `kI*` Sp.C\* اqia I ر3 *T o3 q4\ا / ` رس31 oP ة.p0"\ات درع اkT لk'*\ cI p*% \ ; در *وره أي1102 ذار cp.& \ و\ *'[ ا،o3 q4\` درة \]&[ ا `*eI 1102 ذار/ ` رس61 ,e` *J i J7و Ha" CUd m]I 3ا.8 مk"i\_ ا c` *اp*! w;P " دوار "ا\] \ ةoP cq" &a\ا نkd T i\ *i` o \ ا،[ U\ واOeJ\دورات ا S]Bي أ,\ اqeBk\` اw4\ \ ا% نwIإ A4 `; درة أoP c`sات اkU\ نeJ\ا AU4q\ و، q3 q4\ ا3 رaa\ ا. هF` HaU\ ت اq]aI رع4 وm] U\ اc` *p*J\ا
، i(p ر. I cp.& \*ه اi8 _\ q8%k نk"4\ اoP e J7 e أc` فvr اqLو *واi8 3 اc` *دI K] *Tت وwU Ja\وا a آ.*اqi7 031 c` . ن أآr اm % o Ud وOEk` `[ وI 0054 c` . ;[ أآP _i رآ8` qQ]' m]I _i\ aI أc` d q% أpki\ اm]I " ! ت و%v اoP cqq Ue\ واcqa]Ja\ ت اa وزج،ة.q آ cq>.aa\ اW\, وآcqqQ&;\ واcqq> p.\وا od 4duا *وره_ اk` T cp,\ اBsوا نk"4\ ه اqL oP p &?\*ة اI 4` oP . q3 T مY% نk`kY&` _i?J زالvو p,J \ ون ا8\ ر ا\( ص.Ua\ اHe` _ aآ دw \ رة اp زc` "0p*e` انk'" &*ةa\`_ اs ا.q ا\& ل آ.qM p _\ و. q\ ` ات.` ثw \ o;U \ ]U 4a\ اe"]\*رت ا:* أن أJ g q:k m]I SPي وا,\ه ا.p.U S U&\ا ن4duق اkU% 2]"` HP ` د،دw \ اW]` / . a 3 oP .p.U *ار: إm\ إoa\ J\ا q:k 671 c` . أآm]I ىk % ا2102 لk]pا أ` مcp.& \*ت اiJ `0]` q:k 541 ieq W\ آ[ ذ.qMp _\ و. ه,qQe o\ ا\*وHa "a\ا ي ازداد,\ اoTkU&\ اH>k\ اp و3 ` c` 2]"` `"*داmI* 3 اa` اk3آ و ة.q's اg دورoP oa\ J\ ن ا4dvق اkU% cp.& \ \ اC` m\ إo> a\ ا. k اآH]C` تq:k c` f,qQe *تiJ a Pk\ا d q o وروs & د اv*ر ا: أa آ، `0]` ام. % وi `ا0 \ ا,qQe cp.& \ اgqP \ B c` . ] أآJP W\, وآ. ن4duق اkU% مFe]\ Qq]% وUp*: دولieq \ دو74 آ تi dv اOTk اk \ B `*eI cp.& \ اoP .cp.& \ اoP ن4duق اkU% ام. %وا داد0p q%و H` *اqUJ o3 q4\ واoTkU&\ اH>k\ا C]4\= اP" رq d اتke4\ م واpsور ا.` ge7 ج.(p أنgd 7 c` o3 q3 [% يs q3 q4\ اi ` أزc` دw \ ا,Uep q\ ت ا\*وBkM?\داد ا0 و. ]&Q 4a\ا مJ\ اO; e` ,e` رع3 ي,\ م اFe\ اm]I ep _\ o]Y7 ارk&\ ةkI*\ اm\ ا1102
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qd ة.Y\* اqJq\ و،_p ا\ زc` *p0` ىk3 *p*! ارk&\ ةkI*\ ا. I م ا\" ريJ\ اH]C` o3 q4\ اS8\ ل اaY 3 وى اI& د w8P [8P ي,\ول اsار اk&\ اc` q3 q4\ ر> اJa\ى اkT g ]' ود،ً Jpذر ، تq\r \_ واJa\ ا$>وع وا.8a ة.a\ اf,ه o3 q4\ \]&[ اq>أر a kوه q% ، i ` أزc` دw \اج ا.'u دk8ea\ا . آs ارk&\ اoP > رJa\ى اkT ت.a 3ا لw 'v اc` _L.\ اm]I .i7 أqd a c` [q a \ اoP P Y \ ` *أ اoP $>اk\ا *تaJ و. C]4\ ا$\ ;\ g \ وB m]c` عke\ g \ % مFe]\ q\اka\ى اkU\ اI Hqa] \ f p (*` إ4` Tk\ اI > وإJ\ا v* و،o\ \_ ا\*وJ\أي ا.\ م أ` م اFe\رة اk: > رJa\ى اkT H` ار ! دk% oP o?a\ اc` q3 3رة أk; لkJp مFe\ اm&>أ oaq]Tu اH>k\ اfز.Qp أن.F ep ` m]I o \ اpرk4\ز` اs ت اqI *اg *% ` أ. I تai`*ه و *ا'] أدوار وUI Y 8 ض.Q &> وأ، iqP cqq3 3s اcq Iw\ا q . m]I _ U\ اoaq]Tu ا\&[ اc` Ikd W\ ذm\ ا$aC a آi `. UCea\أو> ع ا i&\ ;` m]I ظQ&]\ q\ p. `uى اkU\ا ._\ J\ اc` pkq&\ اUCea\ اf, هoP [ار " ه.a 3إن ا اتkI*\*ات وا7 ea]\ cp.& \ اoP مFe\ا o3 q3 [% k&d oJ4\ورة ا.? q\ا\*و m]I q3 3رة أk; f دa I وا،[` 7 \ Ca\ اi!اk` oP qe`s اg ? T Oq Y ام0 \ اc` _L.\ اm]I ، \ دJ\ واIو.8a\ا نkd U\ اca> [aJ o \ اq3 3sى اkU\ا ،وع.8a\ اiاآ.% oP oa]4\ اie\ OeJ]\ ?P راOTاk` c` geI &;Pو` أ دراتa\ i%.B و،f `; درHqa! c`و ،ة.a 4` رةk; q3 q3 ت%. U`و oeBk\ ر اq \ ت اq .` oP ] a a\ اW] آ ` ea\ اUq k ف.I ` وoBا.Uap*\ا درةa iY4a وi UPاk` W\ [ ذTو `زs اp *ا%.B o \د اw \* اiI o\و q\k 4` وp*! m]I * آq\ ، q3 q4\ا
دw \اج ا.'u ;*قiqJ3 ر> وJa\ى اkT CL > q\ دوQTk` oI* 4p ` ، i ` أزc` o3 q4\ص ا\&[ ا.P 0p0J \ . رة أآk; cp.& ]\ *qJ Sp.B B_ \( ر3.p ي,\ا لk& ]\ !ذkad ie` [J" ودوره وi pkq% رةk; داk8e` ي ت,\ اoBا.Uap*\ا i ]a\ اe UCe` بkJ7 [ T c` *ةpا0 ` o \ ا،ة.a 4a\ز` ت اs ت واIا.;\ eaqia\ اq\ p. `u ا\*ول اip,M &>أ &*ةa\ ت اpvk\ اi `*U` oPار و.U\ اm]I ي.Y4I ذkQd . أآ% : qآ.q`sا qJ3 ،ات,\ UCea\ اf, هoP ; ديTوا *راتU`وات و. m]I i eaq هA4 \ ie` .a 4a\ اi p*% c` _L.\ اm]I ، e kJ7 . ن4duق اkU% ام. % واqBا.Uap*\ اcI _Iار د.a 3إن ا تpvk\ اi3 رأm]I وqa\ J\ اq\ p. `vا eaqi\*وان واJ\ اie\ qآ.q`s &*ة اa\ا و`; درةoeqC4]Q\ اJ8\ اm]I دةJ 3 واg>داد أر. 3 اoP gTkU% A4 أ ارات.U\ آ[ اc` _L.\ اm]I ،g `ا.آ ،وع.8a\ اgU&\ aI ا\; درة وا\*اq\ا\*و *p0a q]q ا.3v ا3.CM\ اi] U o \وا [;Q\ ن واCq 3v*وان واJ\ اHp ر8` c` S&\ دة اJ 3ة ا.q رة آk; SqJ \ ي.;eJ\ا qeqC4]Q\ ` ا\*و\ اT إoP oeqC4]Q\ا a و،*سU\ اi a: I] وU 4a\ا i `. A3وsق ا.8\ اUCe` c` [J"p \زاv ار ود` ر.U 3*م اIاع دا _ و.: رة ._\ J\ واUCea\ اm]I iaa& oU] ، ا\( مoPو o`*U \ اoBا.Uap*\ ا. ea\ اoP ed P oeBk\ ا.p.& \ اi "\ ا` *ادkي ه,\ا o`*U o4_ ` رآqFe أولqdا.& \ا .aJ 4a\ اHp ر8` رعT e UCe` oP qeB*ة وe! o> a\ن ا.U\ اO; e` ,[Y\ ai]` gI J7زال اv o`*U oIk وe` i!اk` oP و، e UCe` oP ّرةq(\ى اkU\ا i ,L o \ اqQ C\ ت اIا.;\ا ا.8 3ا تi!اب و0%` ت وأkY% وaFd أip,M و رkC \ اq]aI [qCJ oP &> وا$\ ;` i\
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*مU \ى اkT P Y qie\ ،oBا.Uap*\ا e kJ7 H` c` ? \ ا![ اc` _\ J\ اoP تIا.;\ اc` \_ ' لI k&d رةkiUa\ا *p0` k&d HP*\وب وا.&\ د واU%sوا لk& \ اSp.B m]I *مU \ ت واp.&\ اc` e UCe` oP qاآ. 7v اk&d oBا.Uap*\ا *وانJ\ اid cI wp* f.3 _\ J\وا . دهiC>ب واkJ8\وات ا. T.3 و.` \وا 7I qa\ J\ اq\ aJ\ واqIkq8\ اe آ.% ريq\و. \ اoa`s اc` ? \ ش اI
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WORKERS' PARTY OF BELGIUM (PTB) BAUDOUIN DECKERS
1. Capitalism has known three global and systemic crises. The first, at the end of the 19th century, was countered by imperialism and war for the redivision of the world – but this was also followed by the bolchevik revolution and the birth of the Soviet Union. The second, in the 1930s, led to the Second World War and the rise of US imperialism – but also to the extension of the socialist camp and to a wave of national liberation struggles. The third and current crisis of overproduction and capital over-accumulation has its origins in the early 1970s. It had been dampened by several decades of neoliberal policies, of new opportunities for big capital upon the counterrevolution in the Soviet Union and the European people's democracies, of intensified exploitation of the Third World through Structural Adjustment Programs and the debt burden, and by artificial consumer spending through cheap credit. But the crisis exploded fully since the bursting of the financial and housing bubbles in 2008. 2. Today we are confronted with its dire consequences in the economic, social and ecological fields. At par with this economic crisis is a democratic and ideological crisis in bourgeois society. And at the international level, there are important changes in the correlation of forces and new threats and of local conflicts and wider wars have become apparent. 3. Five years after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers that brought the world financial system to the brink of collapse, the false idea persists that this was a financial crisis. The opposite is true: the widespread financial doping had temporarily masked the true character of this severe disease of capitalism, the disease of overproduction, that only came to light with the bursting of the financial bubble.
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But overproduction is of course situated in the realm of production, in the very core of the capitalist system. That is why neither a neoliberal nor a keynesian response can solve the current crisis and eradicate its root causes. Two scenarios are possible for the near future: either a double dip with a rapid further decline of the economy, or a longer period of relative economic stagnation based on an ever more intensive exploitation of the labour force.An important factor in today's world constellation is the position of the world's hegemonic imperialist power, the United States. While politically the US can claim to be the only superpower, having concluded the Cold War to its advantage and having taken advantage from 9/11 to reaffirm its military dominance, economically the US is in dire straits. The US economy continues to live beyond its means thanks to massive foreign credit and thanks to the dollar's status as world prime currency. But sooner or later, the strongly negative balance of trade and balance of payments will take their toll and diminish the US' stature in the world – or push it to even more aggressive military adventures against previously existing or recently emerging competitors. 4. The crisis of the euro zone reveals a complete unbalanced European construction, with the uneven development of capitalism in the EU member states and no mechanisms in place to remedy this through transfers from the more developed regions to the less developed ones. To the contrary, the major European capitalist economies are involved in a race among themselves to become the
biggest exporter and, therefore, the harshest exploiter. Which entails a race to the bottom regarding unemployment, working conditions, flexibility, contractualization, social and trade union rights, and finally also regarding democratic rights. The economic and social crisis in the euro zone can lead to further social upheavals and major political crises, which may result in serious troubles throughout the euro zone and even in its explosion. 5. But yet the very crisis of the euro zone has pushed the European bourgeoisie to accelerate the construction of the European supra-national State, the European Union, in a more and more authoritarian way. Because the European transnational corporations desperately need an infrastructure and a superstructure capable of waging economic war – and, later on, possibly real war – against the US, Japan and the emerging economies, and against its own working class. Since 2010, the EU has advanced much faster in the direction of a centralized federal European State, particularly with the budgetary treaty (the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance or TSCG), which gives the European Commission not only the right to intervene in member State's fiscal and economic policies, but also in its social policies, imposing competitiveness in the economic sphere and eternal austerity in the social sphere. 6. Because the European Union only serves the interests of European big capital and is based on competition and inequality, it has to be challenged in its core and not at its margins. Major popular movements
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with a revolutionary orientation will be necessary throughout the continent for the workers and peoples to turn their back to the construction of this supranational bourgois state and build a Europe based on solidarity and cooperation, a socialist Europe. 7. In the world correlation of forces, new players have come to the fore, the more important among them having been erroneously lumped together under the acronym BRICS. During the past five years of crisis in the 'old world', they have acted as a strong and counterbalancing motor of growth, which is different from the situation pertaining in the 1930s. But the motor of the BRICS is also starting to sputter. More importantly, the fact of contesting the economic hegemony of the US and the other major imperialist powers doesn't make the emerging economies anti-imperialist. For uneven development is a basic feature of capitalism and imperialism. The growth in strength and influence of the BRICS countries could only acquire an anti-imperialist character if it were to challenge the foundations of the imperialist world order, break with the world capitalist accumulation and contribute to the liberation of the worlds workers and peoples from the yoke of big capital. Instead, in most cases their success rather seems to stem from a competition to obtain a better place in the world capitalist system. As to alliances of countries that aim to radically break with imperialist domination as was the case in the 1960s and 1970s, today it is hard to see any comparable and genuinely anti-imperialist al-
liance, apart from the ALBA in Latin America and the Carribean, centered around socialist Cuba and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. 8. The People's Republic of China constitutes a particular case. It still affirms to be on the path of socialism, and while it has adopted many characteristics of a market economy – and while itself defining its economy as a “socialist market economy” – strong State intervention in the economy remains. But it cannot be denied that capitalist elements in the domestic economy are already creating typical problems such as a housing bubble and a mini credit crisis. Internationally, China's economy is intensely linked to those of the US and Europe, and has to conform to the laws of the international capitalist market, often to the detriment of the workers and the people in the target countries. 9. But it would be wrong to consider China for this reason alone as an imperialist country. The international agreements that China concludes on energy, raw materials and agricultural products broadly respect the principle of mutual advantage. Its development cooperation and agreements on trade and investments generally assist developing countries to build an infrastructure, to develop an industrial base and to accumulate capital with which an indepent course of development can be charted. China does not possess military bases abroad and does not threaten any country with intervention or aggression. Objectively, it offers third countries more possibilities to follow an anti-imperialist road.
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10.The systemic and prolonged character of the world capitalist crisis, the changes in the international correlation of forces and the examples of workers' and peoples' struggles and revolts around the world point to the growing opportunities for developing the forces of revolution against the forces of reaction, and for the growing confidence that in the course of the 21st century, we will see the advance of the only societal alternative to capitalism: socialism.
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BRAZILIAN COMMUNIST PARTY (PCB) EDMILSON COSTA
The Central Committee of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) salutes all the communist and workers’ parties here present and congratulates the host party, the Portuguese Communist Party, a reference to workers and communists around the world in recognition of its historical struggle against capital. Our XV Meeting is celebrated in a complex international context both to workers and to the capital. The world economic crisis has been punishing the capitalist system for almost six years. It is a long, deep and devastating crisis challenging all the bases of the old capitalist order framed after the war. This crisis clearly makes evident the articulated action of the capital in order to take over states’ finances, to cut workers’ rights and securities, and to confiscate public wealth. From a political point of view, the capital is imposing governments directly managed by representatives of the capital whose actions foster the repression against workers and limits the already limited bourgeois democracy. We are facing a permanent state of war against the workers and the people of the world, a war in which the capital seeks, by one hand, to get out of the crisis placing all the burden on the workers shoulders and, by the other hand, to promote a plunder war against the peripheral countries, especially those with non-renewable natural resources. The growing crisis, the difficulties in managing it and the workers and people’s struggles against the capital are making imperialism more and more aggressive. Besides, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, imperialism has invaded Libya, assassinated its president and robbed their immense oil resources. It threatens to invade Syria and Iran; uses unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) in many countries, violating international law and victimizing innocent people; makes threats against Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea.
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Facing this operation theater, workers acquire more and more conscience of the context in a process of learning faster than in times of calm. As in all capitalist crises this is a moment when the system has more difficulties in administering its hegemony. This opens windows of opportunities to the emergence of people and workers’ movements. Gradually workers exercise mass actions, demonstrations, strikes, organize forces, causing class struggle to intensify. In a first wave, the answer of workers was less expressive once all were taken by surprise by the crisis. However, as governments started to take concrete measures against wages, pensions, rights and securities, workers started a resistance with street demonstrations and general strikes. These manifestations spread all over the continents, from Europe to North of Africa, from India to South America, even to the United States. Remember that in Europe, by the end of last year, a promising event took place: for the first time workers performed an international general strike, involving 25 countries, making actual the call of the founders of Marxism: “workers of the world unite!” In spite of the spontaneous character of these struggles, without a revolutionary direction to lead workers in the fight against capital, without a unifying anti-capitalist program, we can say that the class struggle moved to another level and the fissures open in the old capitalist order give space to an emergence of the people’s actions. In a globalized world in which the speed of information becomes extraordinary, the actions and demonstrations in one country are pedagogical to other countries, in spite of the ma-
nipulation of the media. Nevertheless, they cannot hide anymore the popular demonstrations and this influences the psychology of the grassroots for the struggle: people is losing fear and gathering energy to collective actions. In such context we consider fundamental to direct the combat not only towards capitalism and imperialism, but also towards reformism. As a matter of fact, the reformists are, more than ever, serious enemies of the socialist revolution since they deceive workers and demobilize them, simplifying the work of capital. It is more and more senseless to “choose” allies in the field of imperialism and even among their emerging coadjutors. We understand that there is no such thing as “good imperialism” or “bad imperialism”. The difference is only in the form, not in content. However, we cannot underestimate contradictions existing between them, but we understand that they have identical goals. Also, we must not conciliate illusions of transitions to socialism by fundamentally institutional ways, parliamentary majorities or occupation of institutional spaces. The struggle of masses in all its forms adapted to different local realities is and will always be the only weapon in the hands of workers for the conquest of power. We have also considered that the present model of meetings of communist parties has an important role of resistance but must be adapted to the complex necessities of the present world context, with somber perspectives in a short term and possibilities of enhancement of the class struggle with the growth of workers’ actions. We think that it is necessary to end the “meeting-ism” in which
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at the end of events our parties elaborate a generic document and decide the place of the next encounter, and say farewell, until next year. In order to increase the potential of a protagonist role of the communist and workers’ parties in a world sphere of action it is necessary and urgent to construct a political coordination not working as a new International, and which will have the task of organizing regional and world campaigns of solidarity, contribute to the debate of ideas, socializing information on the struggle of the people. Otherwise, besides the indispensable articulation of the communists, it seems important to form a broader front of anti-imperialist character where would fit political forces and progressive individuals identified with the struggles for self determination of peoples, of peace among them, of preservation of natural environment, of natural resources, of labor, social and political rights, and against the imperialist wars and fascist influence over societies. In synthesis, the struggles for humanity. We make clear that our Party considers all forms of struggle. We cannot give place to opportunism disregarding people’s right to rebellion and armed resistance. In many cases, it is the only way to face the violence of capital and overcome it. People can count only on their own force. For this reason we salute our Colombian brothers that resist in cities and mountains through various forms of action against the terrorist state of their country. We understand that there is no military solution to the Colombian conflict. In this sense we salute the dialogues aiming to look for a political solution to the conflict. This dialogue was made possible
by the development of Marcha Patriotica, a combative and broad Colombian movement of masses. We salute people that face the harder battles: the Greek, Portuguese, Spanish workers who have already risen in national strikes and demonstrations, and other workers of Europe, resisting to terrible plans of capital trying to tame the crisis. We salute the Palestinian people in their long lasting and painful confrontation against Zionism that occupies their territory, suffocates and oppresses the people, destroys their houses and farms, arrests their best sons and obstructs their right to a sovereign state. We salute our beloved Socialist Cuba in its fight against the criminal blockade imposed by the USA. We salute the five (now four) heroes submitted to the injustice of arrest in the dungeons of the Empire. We salute the changes in South America directed by governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, changes now at a cross-road between advancements or setbacks in the process. We are nevertheless very much concerned about the real military siege the imperialism is providing in Latin America: the reestablishment of the IV fleet with a fire power larger than the combined power of all Latin American countries bringing threats to sovereignty and peace in the region. The settlement of several US military bases in the region disturbs Latin American people. Now we have the construction of a Yankee military airport in Paraguay, aiming to control the triple border (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay), where the largest world reserve of fresh water lies, the Guarani water source. But it is not only the imperialism of the USA that sieges Latin Ameri-
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ca. In 1986, OTAN built at Soledad Island, Malvinas archipelago, the big military base of Mount Pleasant, with a huge airport and a naval port suitable for atomic submarines and with silos for nuclear weapons and barracks for thousands of troops. This fortress antagonizes the Resolution 41 of the UN that considers the South Atlantic a zone of peace and cooperation, free of nuclear weapons and devices. The military occupation of South Atlantic permits the control of maritime routes between South America, Africa, and Antarctica, and the connection with the countries of the Pacific through the Magellan Straight. Besides that, it allows the control of natural resources of the continental platform of South Atlantic. That is how Latin America is surrounded by sea and land by the military imperialist powers, with the oversight of most of the local governments.
The government of capital and the social struggles Regarding our country we would like to stress that we have a government that poses itself internationally as a progressive one, but it objectively works for capital leaving to the people only crumbs of a policy of social compensation. Never before in Brazil the bankers, the big undertakers, the agribusiness and the monopolies had so huge a profit. The economic external policy of the Brazilian state serves the purpose of making Brazil a large capitalist power in the frame of imperialism. Multinational corporations of Brazilian origin leveraged by public financial institutions already dominate some markets in Latin America. Today the Brazilian government is the orga-
nizer of the transfer of a large part of income and wealth produced by the country to the dominant classes through the payment of interests of the public debt and by an unjust regressive tax system. Around 50% of the budget is directed to pay interests and amortization of this debt for the satisfaction of profiteers and large national and international monopolies. The world crisis also reached Brazil. Albeit without the gravity of that of central countries, the economic, social and political crisis is a reality in our country. The economy registers a low growth in spite of privatizations performed by Dilma’s government, disguised as “public – private concessions”. Right now they are delivering to private capital the larger oil basin of the country. From the social point of view the situation is not the best: an urban chaos, with a public transportation that takes an average of four hours of the workers’ day. Health services are privatized and what remains of public health services requires users to wait for days in lines at the attendance posts and the patients are left in stretchers on the floor in most public hospitals. The lack of housing forces 25 million people to live in shanty-towns, without sanitary infrastructure, with open sewage and no water supply nor garbage collection. Against this state of things millions of Brazilians demonstrated in the streets in more than 600 cities in June this year. These rallies were the result of an accumulation of social, economic and political problems bringing people to demonstrate indignation against the dominant order and against the social-liberal government of the so called “Partido dos Trabalhadores” (PT).
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We understand that these demonstrations started a new cycle of political and social struggles in Brazil. Now the masses are gathering their experience with the government of PT and are looking for new alternatives to solve their concrete problems. It is more and more clear that PT is a manager of interests of national and international monopolist capital, bankers and agribusiness. It manipulates the mass organizations such as CUT – Central Unica dos Trabalhadores – and has no role in orienting workers. These organizations were absent in the demonstrations of June.
posals. We are working hard for that in this new journey in order for the revolutionary left to have a protagonist role.
Long live the international struggle of workers!
With these rallies a whole generation is integrated to action of class struggle all over the country. They show also a serious crisis of representation in Brazil. The institutional apparatuses of Executive, Legislative and Judiciary are not recognized by the people as representative, because of a lack of response to their claims and because of the truculence of police against the poor people and workers. The political parties of the bourgeoisie are also demoralized by corruption, swindles and no commitment to campaign promises. The Brazilian Communist Party understands that the June demonstrations represented an extraordinary movement of action of the Brazilian people. We are just in the beginning of a crescendo of social unrest whose developments are impossible to foresee. We recognize that the struggle is ahead. The Brazilian people lost the fear and the passivity generated by illusions planted by the governments of PSDB and PT. The people felt the power of the action in the streets understanding its force as a possibility of conquests and perspectives of deep changes in society. Action is still intense, in new forms and with better organization, with more convergence of political pro-
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRAZIL (PCDoB) RONALDO CARMONA
Comrades, 1. The Communist Party of Brazil (PC do B) welcomes the Portuguese Communist Party, and in its name, the workers and the people of Portugal, waging a robust and combative struggle in defense of the nation, the gains of the April Revolution, democracy, economic and social rights development in a context of great difficulties. At this time, when honoring the PCP, we join the tributes to the great Portuguese communist revolutionary, Álvaro Cunhal, whose centenary birth is celebrated this year. 2. In our days, the international situation is characterized by uncertainty, instability, conflicts and threats to peace, national independence and sovereignty and the rights of peoples. The crisis of capitalism, entering its sixth consecutive year, persists and shows no signs of cooling; on the contrary, proves to be of long and unpredictable duration. 3. Monopolies, composed of large financial conglomerates, and the political forces and governments that serve to them, seek to throw the burden of the crisis onto the workers, reducing labor’s share in national income levels and increasing the dramatic situation of exploitation and unemployment. Internationally, the U.S. and the imperialist countries of Europe maneuver with measures that seek to impose on developing countries the effects of the crisis, manipulating the exchange rate with the so-called “unconventional” monetary policies and proposing new round of trade liberalization through asymmetric treaties, seeking to increase exports to developing countries at any cost. 4. Developing countries, especially those endowed with large domestic mass markets
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and under expansion, seek to resist the crisis advocating, to a greater or lesser degree, their national economies. This is the case of the BRICS countries, which not only denounce the maneuvers of the imperialist countries, but also take important measures to resist the impositions of the dominant international financial system. Measures such as trade among BRICS in their national currency – putting into question the domain of the dollar as dominant currency –, the recent creation of a common fund reserves, and the imminent creation of the Development Bank of the BRICS are some examples of these important actions. 5. The alliance of the BRICS countries is perhaps the most visible movement of a major contemporary international trend of transition in the context of the world powers, with the decline of U.S. hegemony. The current capitalist crisis accelerates this transition, which simultaneously generates, as we said, more uncertainty, instability and conflict. 6. This escalation of instability we fear can lead to a new wave of wars of aggression. The U.S. president, Barack Obama, in a recent speech at the UN, breaks down any illusions about his conversion to multilateralism. On that occasion, Obama not only declared his adhesion - if anyone doubted it - to the thesis of American exceptionalism, but also renewed its threats against Syria, continuing the State action that moves the United States in an attempt to reconfigure the Middle East. At this time, the communists of the world should reaffirm their support and solidarity with the Syrian people, for the defense of the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, now in the spotlight of the continuing onslaught of American imperialism against the peoples of the world. 7. Likewise, in the analysis of the international situation, we propose that the communist parties renew their solidarity with the peoples of Latin America, important popular resistance laboratory and which has been giving it contribution to the revival of the struggle for socialism in the world, based on its unique conditions - “no decal or copy,” as the distinguished Peruvian Marxist, José Carlos Mariategui, said in his famous quote. At this point, the countries of Latin America face an imperialist and rightwing counteroffensive in each country, but follow the course of deepening progressive changes, seeking to renew the goals and objectives of the political cycle that began in 1998, and which has completed 15 years in 2013 . 8. The countries of the socialist regime, in Asia – China, Vietnam, Laos and the People´s Republic of Korea –, as well as in Latin America the Caribbean – Cuba –, have played a prominent role in the struggle of the peoples. Their strength as sovereign nations, their efforts to make their people, under the leadership of communist parties, in order to enable the national development strategies and the transition to socialism, their actions and international cooperation for peace, have support and solidarity of PCdoB. 9. In the current phase, the new struggle for socialism, beyond the socialist regimes, one must understand and also support the new capabilities and new revolutionary
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processes that begin to awaken and develop, especially in Latin America. Comrades, 1. In just one week begins the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Brazil, to be held in São Paulo and to which many of your parties will give us the honor of attending. The biggest event of the Brazilian communists under the motto “Advancing on changes,” big challenge for the next period for our Party and our people. 2. The central theme of the 13th Congress of PCdoB is holding a large stock of advances and dilemmas faced by democratic and popular forces in the last decade, a period in which a broad coalition of political and social forces is ahead of the government of Brazil. That is, since 2003, a new government takes office in Brazil, as the product of the protracted struggle against the previous government and its neoliberal policies. To take stock of the meaning of this decade is the basis for renewing the goals aimed at advancing more, which is the greatest aspiration of the Brazilian communists and our people´s. 3. President Lula took over the national government in Brazil inheriting what was called “a cursed legacy”. Since the crisis of the national developmental period of the late 70´s, Brazil entered into two decades of regression and prevalence of neoliberal orientation. The “cursed legacy” prevented further progress and limited the pace of change. 4. Having participated and been active player in the unit that led the leftist parties and a
broad coalition to the national government since 2003, the Communist Party of Brazil from the beginning assumed, for the first time in its history of over 90 years, responsibilities under the federal government. Since then, the party is replaced by a new tactical guidance to advance the accumulation of revolutionary forces, and popular mobilization as a driving force of change and jockeying for position in the elections, parliamentary and majoritarian elections, as occurs today in most countries of Latin America. 5. Participation in the federal government and sub-national governments and parliaments is combined with two other dimensions of a system of party work aiming to promote the accumulation of revolutionary forces. Other dimensions are the movement of workers and popular masses and the struggle of ideas. 6. PCdoB carries out the balance of this decade of democratic and progressive governments in Brazil - first with the election of President Lula in 2002 and since 2010, with President Dilma - with reference to the Socialist Program of our Party. A decade that begins with what our Party understands to be a period of transition and of struggle for a new National Development Program to pave the way to a achievement of the political power by the vanguard forces and for a revolutionary rupture to lead Brazil into socialism. This Brazilian path to socialism is not without contradictions, and even partial defeats. 7. We understand that in the last decade our country has recorded significant progress. The country had a sovereign foreign policy,
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advocating causes dear to developing countries and peoples, especially platforms such as the opposition to imperialist wars and the defense of the rights of peoples to develop autonomous national projects. Brazil also promoted the integration with the countries of South America and Latin America and the Caribbean, and alliances with developing countries in other continents. We have progressed in the democratization of the State, now more open to the people and their organizations, even though we still face a struggle for the democratization of the media. We have also progressed in terms of more rights for workers and peoples through active policies of income distribution and valoration of labor, fighting against a legacy of high levels of social inequality. 8. A strong reaction of the right-wing forces, supported by the media monopoly, tried to destabilize the government of President Lula in 2005. At this time the labor movement and other social movements defended the mandate of the president and rejected the action coup. The second Lula government, from 2007, marked a new phase, with a resumption of the state’s role in promoting economic development, particularly in fostering infrastructure, in the expansion of social policies, and soon after, in the search to regain control by the State over the huge oil reserves discovered in the South Atlantic and also over Petrobras itself. 9. The election of President Dilma Rousseff in 2010 marks the third victory of democratic and popular forces. Her election gives rise to a third phase in the trajectory experienced during the decade, where ad-
vances in macroeconomic policy change, making a strong cut in interest rates and devaluing the currency, seeking to create conditions more conducive to economic development. 10.In June this year, massive popular demonstrations came about in all large and medium cities. The schedule of events, diffuse, seeked to defend better living conditions, particularly higher quality in health and education. Quickly, the monopolized media and sectors of the rightwing attempted to influence the mobilization campaign against strong political organization, trade unions and popular organizations - with outstanding destabilizing purposes. 11.PCdoB, which since its 2009 Congress had been advocating the need for profound structural reform agenda as the basis for the government to go further in achieving changes, reaffirmed and continues to reaffirm this question. President Dilma rightly proposed to rely on the strength of the streets to carry out these reforms and thus proposed initiatives that are based on the schedule that you hear on the streets and in turn, the thesis that our party had been arguing with emphasis, for example the allocation of resources of the oil revenues of the pre-salt to education and health, and the binding of 10% of GDP to education by 2020. 12.The next period poses a challenge that our 13th Congress has been describing as the need for a “new rush�; that is, the need to advance the progressive agenda. For this, the great challenge facing the national plan is to win a fourth victory of the people
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in the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2014, developing a clearer progressive program, and strengthening a popular and advanced block to fight for change. Comrades,
the long journey towards the emancipation of the world proletariat.
Long live Marxism-Leninism and internationalism! Long live the unity of the communist and workers parties!
1. We conclude with the appreciation of the critical importance of the unity of the international communist movement in the current global context. The current process of International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties need to continue in the next period as an important forum for discussion and united action of our movement. 2. For this we must promote our political and ideological unity, which exists and is based on Marxism-Leninism, while respecting the different strategic positions and tactics of each party, defined based on specific national and continental realities. 3. We must absolutely not get lost in smaller debates on organizational forms. In our opinion, long has been the time when the international communist movement needed a single center and had a unique strategy. Our challenge is to get the highest possible degree of ideological and political unity, and develop joint actions and internationalist campaigns. 4. There are major challenges which summon the communist and workers parties in a historical context of structural and systemic crisis of capitalism, instability, wars and uncertainties. A lot of drive and a lot of determination and perseverance will be needed to face this historical period, in
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRITAIN JOHN FOSTER
It is an honour to attend this meeting and to bring greetings from the Communist Party of Britain. This annual meeting is of particular importance to small Communist parties such as ours. The existence of a unified world movement provides critical encouragement and support. The Communist parties gathered here struggle in different circumstance. But all are ultimately united in seeking to achieve socialism. Our internationalism and unity is a key part of our strength as Communists. The Communist Party of Britain is indeed small – and we have to struggle against a ruling class that still represents one of the great centres of imperialist power. Today, however, the British ruling class is itself weak and parasitic. I want to focus on the contradictions it faces which Communists and their allies seek to exploit. British finance capital has only a very limited base in productive industry. Its ability to exploit depends disproportionately on finance. Its international power rests on its long-term alliance with the US. US banks use London to control financial markets in Europe. Politically Britain’s role in the EU is to defend these banking interests and to ensure that the EU is tied to the wider geo-political objectives of the US and NATO. What are the contradictions that arise ? The extent of financialisation has meant that Britain is still saddled with a mountain of commercial and financial debt. Over 400 per cent of GDP. Far higher than any other major imperialist power. Investment in the wider economy has collapsed.
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The government’s response has been twofold. One is to seek to resolve the crisis at the expense of working people: to deepen exploitation still further. Real wages have been cut by over 11 per cent since 2008: more than anywhere else in Europe apart from Greece and Portugal. The other is to impose cuts in public expenditure that again match the worst elsewhere in Europe. Equivalent to 10 per cent of GDP. The object is to cut labour’s social wage but, even more, to give the government the funds to bail-out the banks when the next crash occurs. The result has been to prolong Britain’s recession indefinitely. Its economy remains 3 per cent smaller than it was in 2008. However, this has in turn brought significant political challenges for finance capital in Britain. First, its own wider political base is eroding. Small business, the self-employed and the traditionally xenophobic sections of the working class are deserting to support the anti-immigrant, anti-EU UKIP. Second, the trade union movement has moved to the Left threatening the role of the Labour Party as the alternative government for finance capital – a party that under Blair served as the advance guard of US imperialism. This change was illustrated in the historic vote in parliament this September when the Labour leadership was obliged to oppose armed intervention in Syria. The ruling class response has been to attack the organisational and financial links that still
exist between the trade unions and the Labour Party. In order to end the threat of further working class mobilisation, it wants to depoliticise the trade unions and fully capture the Labour Party. In terms of its own electoral base it has imposed racist anti-immigrant policies and taken a posture of criticising the EU. But let there be no mistake. It is only a posture. The Conservative Party has no intention of pulling out of the EU. The Americans would not let them. Finance capital would not let them. Instead, the Conservatives intend to use the threat of an EU referendum to extract further concessions on behalf of the City of London. Currently Cameron is forging a tactical alliance with Germany to push for even harsher anti-working class policies across the EU. This is why the Communist Party of Britain opposes the EU and supports withdrawal. We see the EU as representing the collective interests of the imperialist powers within Europe including our own ruling class and its US allies. The EU is systemically bound to big business policies. It represents the interests of the most powerful monopoly capitalist states against the peoples of Europe. Its further integration is designed to destroy the potential for democratic transformation and popular sovereignty within the nations of Europe. Today our task as Communists in Britain is to win an understanding of these class forces: to be at the forefront of the mass defensive struggles but at the same time expose the nature of our ruling class and exploit the contradictions within its base.
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We back the People’s Assembly movement. This is led by the trade unions and aims to unite organised and unorganised workers, local communities, the women’s movement, peace and ecology – and to do so in struggles to develop the principles of anti-capitalist democracy and public democratic ownership. In this work we are immensely strengthened by the existence of the wider Communist movement, by the achievement of Communists and their allies elsewhere. Dear comrades. Long live Communist internationalism! Long Live socialism!
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF BULGARIA ALEKSANDAR DIMITROV
Дорогие товарищи, На первом месте, мы бы хотели отметить, что в этом году исполнилис 165 лет с выходом на белом свете знаменитого произведения Карла Маркса и Фридриха Енгельса – Манифеста коммунистической партии – величайший програмный документ научного коммунизма. На настоящем этапе развития производительных сил и производсвенных отношении появились много новые факторы, которые нуждаются осмышлением при помощи методологии диалектического марксизма. Концентрация монополистического капитала достигла величайшие размеры, глобализация охватила весь мир. Поэтому общий кризис капитализма затронул все страны мира, без изключении. У нас в Болгарии, самая бедьная сторона Европы, результаты кризиса для огромного большинства народа ощущаются очень сильно. Видимо капитал не найдет выхода. Спасительными за капитала наверно окажутся опять возрождение фашизма и милитаризма- другого выхода нету. Последствия опять лягут на плечах тродового народа. Перед нами встает вопрос – как нам коммунистом противостоять этим процессом? Каковы те современные новые дороги по которым мы должны пойти, что бы постич цели поставленные Манифестом? Что мы пропустили и не смогли реализовать в условия существуващего социализма? На первом месте мы ставим вопрос о создании международного теоретического центра для разработки современных проблем и задач коммунистического и рабочего движения. На втором месте, мы предлагаем создания
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организационного комитета, которых будет помогать в реализации поставленных целях. Попытки обьединения без теоретического и организационного базиса, вокруг частных или конкретных проблем, по нашему мнению, будут безполезными и даже могут принести вред нашему движению.
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA ELIZABETH ROWLEY
It is a great honour and a privilege to speak from a platform in the homeland of the great Communist internationalist and theorist Comrade Alvaro Cunhal. Would that he were with us now to give us his thinking on the very difficult problems facing the international working class and the Communist and Workers’ Parties today. No doubt he would counsel unity of the international Communist movement as an essential ingredient in the struggle against imperialism, war and reaction, and for social advance and socialism. Last spring, our 37th Convention determined that our Party Program which outlines our strategy for socialism in Canada should be reviewed and updated prior to the 38th Convention in 2016. The central question is the transition to socialism, the phases of transition and the objectives of each phase, and the alliances necessary to achieve those objectives. In addition, the national question in Canada and the national rights of the Québécois(es) and of Aboriginal peoples across the country, is a central factor that affects all aspects of the struggle for socialism, and for a united mass resistance to imperialism and war abroad, and austerity and reaction at home. As we prepare for this discussion, which is about the role and objectives of our small revolutionary party in non-revolutionary conditions, we reiterate our conviction that we are in the epoch of the transition from capitalism to socialism and that there is no other rung on the ladder of social and human history but socialism. We also reiterate that the transition to socialism occurs in each country according to a timetable determined by the objective and subjective conditions obtaining in each country, including the strength and unity of the working class and its allies, the strength and influence of the Communist Party, the development of class and political conscious-
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ness among the people, and the development of a revolutionary situation. More than twenty years after the fall of the USSR and the socialist bloc, we can say that the greatest damage to our revolutionary cause, in Canada, was the widespread conclusion that socialism doesn’t work and is therefore not the alternative to capitalism that working people are searching for in increasing numbers today. This is the consequence of the ‘end of the history’ proclamations, which while they are quite wrong, have had widespread effect in the advanced capitalist countries, including Canada. We have an enormous job to do politically and ideologically to counter the state sponsored anticommunist campaigns, and to recreate the magnetism of socialism – working class power – that galvanized workers for socialism in the past. Developments In Cuba and Latin America have sparked the hopes of millions of people that imperialism can be defeated and that a new world order, based on democracy, sovereignty, peace, environmental security, and socialism, can be achieved through the people’s struggle. We are confronted with new problems, including the environmental catastrophe that is engulfing the whole world; the result of unbridled capitalist greed and development. We must become the champions of peace and the environment, linking these issues to the need for profound and fundamental change, to the Communist agenda, and to socialism. In this same time, we have seen the crisis of social democracy play out internationally and in Canada, where the New Democratic Party has abandoned all responsibility and accountability to the working class and the organized
labour movement, and has jettisoned its progressive policies in favour of neoliberal dogma – all in pursuit of government power and corporate approval. The CPC has long since abandoned its 1971 policy of seeking cooperation with the NDP when the NDP leadership abandoned socialism as its stated goal; all references to socialism have been finally purged from that party’s program and constitution earlier this year. Yet there are many socialist-minded members of the NDP with whom we work closely in the labour and people’s movements, who are horrified by the NDP’s positions in support of war and against the best interests of the working class and working people. The NDP’s electoral gains in the last election could easily melt away in the 2015 election, as those votes were mainly against the Conservative austerity policies; not in support of social democratic policies of austerity. As austerity bites deeper into wages and living standards, as unemployment and social conditions worsen, and as the attack on labour and democratic rights sharpens, there is also a growing demand for an organized economic, social and political resistance lead by labour and its social and community allies. A sharp struggle has opened up in the labour movement between left and right social democrats over the direction of the trade union movement, their view of mass independent labour political action, and their relations with the NDP. The central issue is class struggle or class collaboration. Communists in the trade unions and people’s movements are fighting for escalating mass independent political action that will put tens of thousands of people in the streets against
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austerity and anti-labour, anti-democratic attacks, including Conservative efforts to break the trade union movement and eliminate the right to strike with US styled, right-to-work laws. We fight for a people’s agenda of jobs, rising wages, incomes and living standards, for strong public services, affordable housing, quality public and post-secondary education, universal public healthcare, expanded labour, social, civil and democratic rights, for peace and environmental security, for sovereignty, and for the right of nations to self-determination up to and including the right to secession. While we do not advocate secession, and in fact warn against secession in the current political context, we defend and uphold the right to nations in Canada to choose secession, in the same way we defend and uphold the rights of men and women to divorce if that is their choice. In upholding these rights, we create the essential conditions for unity on an equal, voluntary basis in a socialist Canada. We also create the conditions for unity of the working class in English-speaking Canada, in Québec, and among Aboriginal Peoples, in the struggle to resist capitalist globalization, austerity, war, and reaction today, and for socialism tomorrow.
forms. This will not unfold without the strong, revolutionary leadership of the Communist Party. Canadian Communists recognize that the specific conditions in Canada, as an advanced capitalist country deeply integrated into the US economy and being rapidly integrated into the US war machine, will not be the same as in other countries where objective and subjective conditions are different. Lenin looked for the weak link in imperialism’s chain, reflecting the dialectics of the class struggle nationally and internationally. What is universal is the transition to socialism as a historical necessity, based on the specific conditions and alignment of forces in each country. We recognize and respect those specificities, while also expressing our strong support for more coordination and unity of the World Communist Movement and of the international working class movement. In conclusion, we would like to thank the Portuguese Communist Party for generously agreeing to host this important meeting. Thank you.
Our objective is to build a broad-based People’s Coalition which, with labour at its core, is an alliance that can launch an extra-parliamentary counter-offensive against the corporations and their right-wing governments. We anticipate that this will lead to new forms of cooperation and alliances that will have a political parliamentary expression, able to curb corporate power, and introduce far-reaching and fundamental social and economic re-
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHILE MARCOS SUZARTE
Estimadas compañeras y estimados compañeros Agradecemos la posibilidad de intervenir en este encuentro de reflexión sobre los procesos que nuestros partidos llevamos adelante en nuestras países en pos de cambios sociales revolucionarios. Las experiencias de cada uno nos ayudarán a todos a enriquecer nuestras políticas. En nuestro caso, este intercambio coincide con la conmemoración de 40 años del golpe militar fascista que derrocó el gobierno popular revolucionario que encabezó Salvador Allende que avanzó un proceso de transformaciones encaminado a la construcción de una sociedad socialista. Pese a la dura derrota experimentada, el proceso vivido en los años del Gobierno Popular y la posterior resistencia al fascismo, es una fuente de experiencias, que incluye logros y también errores que, apreciados razonadamente, deben contribuir al éxito de nuestras luchas por cambios de fondo en el presente. Lo que la mayoría de las fuerzas de izquierda asumíamos en el período anterior al golpe, con matices y diferencias, era que en las condiciones de Chile de entonces era posible abrir camino a la generación y consolidación de un proceso revolucionario que lograra un poder de nuevo tipo. Los logros democratizadores eran sobre todo producto del accionar de la izquierda y de su capacidad de abrir espacio a alianzas y convergencias con las fuerzas democráticas de centro. Teníamos también presente que era obligatorio prevenir giros drásticos de la situación que implicarían la incorporación de otras formas de lucha, incluyendo la probable necesidad de formas armadas. Se inició entonces un proceso de formación de cuadros militares, especialmente jóvenes, apoyán-
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donos en la solidaridad internacional. Pugnábamos por una vía no armada, pero debíamos considerar que eso no dependía solo de nosotros. No obstante, los hechos mostraron una falencia grave del desarrollo de esa política militar lo que vale también para los tres años del gobierno allendista pese a la valiosa actitud del Presidente Allende y de relevantes cuadros militares institucionales. La Unidad Popular se definió como alianza orientada a abrir paso a un cambio de fondo del sistema político social imperante. La conquista del gobierno era un importante logro, pero debíamos convertir esa victoria en conquista del poder sobre la base de trasformaciones sociales y políticas que condujeran a la construcción de una sociedad socialista. En el avance de ese proceso se llevó a cabo el golpe militar fascista que instaló la dictadura de Pinochet durante 17 años, con sus secuelas de represión generalizada contra el pueblo y la instalación de las políticas neoliberales que han llevado a nuestro país a ser el símbolo mundial de la desigualdad social como lo acreditan las estadísticas recopiladas por la ONU. Una agrupación de partidos democráticos, desde el Partido Socialista hasta la Democracia Cristiana, con exclusión del Partido Comunista, agrupados en la llamada Concertación Democrática, gobernaron desde el fin de la dictadura (1990) hasta que la derecha ganó la elección presidencial con Sebastián Piñera en 2010. Esa derrota fue el resultado previsible de las políticas de la Concertación que mantuvo en lo esencial el neoliberalismo instalado por la dictadura.
Aplicando su política de revolución democrática aprobada en su XX Congreso del año 1994 y ratificada en su XXI Congreso, nuestro Partido está empeñado hoy en la generación de lo que hemos denominado Una Nueva Mayoría Nacional que haga posible la convergencia del más amplio arco de fuerzas democráticas para conquistar un gobierno capaz de superar la preeminencia que desde la dictadura y por años ha mantenido el neoliberalismo como esencia de la política de sucesivos gobiernos incluyendo los gobiernos de la Concertación y, con mayor razón del actual gobierno de derecha. Ya en el Manifiesto Comunista Marx y Engels plantearon que la política del proletariado debía asentarse en la perspectiva de hacer converger en la acción en pro de la revolución a todas las fuerzas sociales y políticas cuyos intereses chocaran con el dominio de clase existente. Escribieron allí: “los comunistas trabajan en todas partes por la unión y el acuerdo entre las fuerzas democráticas de todos los países y “apoyan por doquier todo movimiento revolucionario contra el régimen social político existente¨. Es claro que la contradicción fundamental en las sociedades modernas es la que enfrenta a los proletarios y el gran capital externo y oligárquico. No obstante, debemos constatar que no solo los proletarios son víctimas de esa dominación sino también vastos sectores intermedios. En ese cuadro, apreciamos que la contradicción principal del período es la que enfrenta los intereses del imperialismo y las oligarquías agraria, financiera e industrial con los intereses de los trabajadores de la ciudad y el campo, pero también de la intelectualidad,
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de la juventud, de pequeños propietarios y de sectores de la burguesía vinculadas esencialmente al mercado interno. Crear condiciones para reunir en un frente común esa diversidad de clases y capas sociales y sus distintas expresiones políticas es el fundamento objetivo de la construcción de una correlación de fuerzas políticas y sociales capaz de enfrentar con éxito el poder de las clases dominantes y el imperialismo y hacer realidad la conquista del poder y con ello la capacidad de construir una sociedad de nuevo tipo. En esa realidad la Nueva Mayoría Nacional es concebida como un espacio integrador de todas las expresiones políticas y sociales que se enfrentan a la permanencia del modelo neoliberal instalado por Pinochet y los suyos y que no fue desplazado por los gobiernos de la Concertación y tampoco, por cierto, por el actual gobierno de derecha de Piñera, que es consecuente promotor y sostenedor del neoliberalismo. La batalla por la unidad es una lucha compleja, un proceso que experimenta avances y retrocesos, convergencias de aliados y también pérdidas. Es esencial mantener firme la vocación unitaria fundada en sus bases objetivas (intereses de clases y capas sociales que tratamos de unir tras el objetivo común del cambio social) así como garantizar el rumbo hacia el cambio de fondo que funda la unidad en la diversidad. Intransigencia ante los sostenedores del sistema social que proponemos cambiar, flexibilidad y tolerancia ante los demás. Lo principal es siempre la organización del movimiento popular: la experiencia confirma que las batallas de las organizaciones
sociales del más diverso espectro generan situaciones que presionan por cambios de fondo y promueven acciones de sectores diversos. Las organizaciones sindicales, el movimiento estudiantil, las estructuras de variada composición que emergen en regiones, han significado despertares que abren camino a los cambios que promovemos. Actualmente, nos encontramos a una semana de la elección Presidencial, conjuntamente con las elecciones Parlamentarias y de los Consejeros Regionales (que actúan a nivel de cada una de las 15 regiones del país). Como coalición de la Nueva Mayoría logramos coincidir en el apoyo a una candidata presidencial única, la ex Presidenta Michelle Bachelet, una lista única de candidatos al Parlamento y de Consejeros Regionales, y –lo que es fundamental para nuestro Partido- concordamos en un Programa común que se propone iniciar transformaciones estructurales en el país, destacándose la decisión de cambiar la actual Constitución, que es aún una herencia de la dictadura. El éxito de esta nueva etapa de cambios profundos dependerá de muchos factores, pero fundamentalmente de la fuerza de los movimientos sociales para asegurar el cumplimiento del Programa y la obtención de una sólida representación de la Nueva Mayoría en el Parlamento. Será muy importante la solidaridad internacional con este proceso para ponerlo a resguardo de las agresiones y eventuales acciones desestabilizadoras del imperialismo. El Partido Comunista de Chile saluda este XV Encuentro Internacional de los Partido Comunistas y Obreros con la firme convicción de que la lucha en contra del imperialismo, del capitalismo en su fase neoliberal, dirigi-
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da en la mayoría de los países del orbe, por fuerzas de izquierda, por comunistas y revolucionarios, continuará sin tregua hasta alcanzar el socialismo. VIVA EL SOCIALISMO VIVA LA PAZ Gracias
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA ZHOU YUYUN
I’m happy to have this opportunity to attend the 15th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties representing the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the kind invitation and hard work of Chairman and the Portuguese Communist Party and I wish the Meeting a great success! Comrades, The world today is undergoing profound and complicated changes. The trends toward a multi-polar world, economic globalization, cultural diversity and IT application are gaining momentum. Technology revolution is conceiving new breakthroughs. Global cooperation is expanding at multiple levels. With the overall strength of emerging and developing countries continuously improving, the international power structure is shifting in favor of world peace and there are more favorable conditions to maintain overall stability of the international landscape. However, the other side of the picture is a world still far from being tranquil. The global financial crisis is producing a far-reaching impact on the world. World economic growth is overshadowed by growing factors of instability and uncertainty, and imbalance in global development has worsened. There are signs of increasing hegemonism, power politics and neo-interventionism, and local turmoils keep cropping up. Global issues such as food security, energy and resource security and cyber security are becoming more pressing. This complicated picture of our world has profoundly changed the domestic and external environment of communist and workers’ parties, presenting both rare opportunities and daunting challenges for the development of socialism. On the one hand, the international financial crisis has flung capitalism into a structural
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dilemma, testifying to Marx’s criticism on capitalism. The socialist values of fairness, justice, solidarity and mutual help have taken deeper roots. We have come to realize that savage capitalism has to be reined in by effective democratic control and regulation. The development model of neo-liberalism can no longer sustain itself, bearing out the need for a change and readjustment. A development pattern must be introduced that combines market economy and government control, ensures balanced development between real economy and virtual economy and addressing both fairness and efficiency. On the other hand, we must not fail to see the capability of capitalism to conduct self-adjustment and the flexibility of its institutions and systems. A number of capitalist countries are shifting the burden of crisis onto others through financial and monetary leverages and the spillover effect of their monetary policies has posed external pressure on the economic development of emerging and developing countries. To address the economic crisis, some countries cut down public services and social welfare which eroded workers’ rights and interests. In the international field, unilateralism and power politics in violation of the UN Charter and the basic principles of international law are manifest from time to time. Some capitalist countries have stepped up efforts to scramble for dominance over the new round of industrial revolution and globalization and a head start in reshaping international rules, so as to restrict the space of development and discourse of socialism via inequitable competition, irrational order and unfair rules. Therefore, we communists must be united to pursue our own development through cooperation.
Comrades, The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in November 2012 laid out the “two centenary goals” of the Chinese communists. First, by 2020 when we mark the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, we will double China’s 2010 GDP and per capita income of urban and rural residents to reach 80.3 trillion RMB and 25,016 RMB respectively and complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects. Second, by 2049 when we mark the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, we will have built China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious and attained the Chinese dream of prosperity, national renewal and people’s well-being. The Communist Party of China believes that under new conditions, the Party faces complicated and severe long-term tests in exercising governance, carrying out reform and opening up and developing the market economy as well as tests from the external environment. And the whole Party is confronted with increasingly grave dangers of lacking in drive, incompetence, being out of touch with the people, corruption and other misconduct. Therefore, this year, the Communist Party of China has launched a mass line education campaign characterized by principles of serving the people, being pragmatic and upholding integrity. Party members are required to thoroughly examine themselves, detect and then correct whatever problems they have. As the General Secretary put it, we must look in the mirror, tidy our attire, take a bath and cure our sickness. The campaign seeks to strengthen the ruling party’s style of work,
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and address the root cause for tackling formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance so as to maintain the party’s close ties with people. The Communist Party of China has all along been committed to the notion of establishing the party for the people and assuming power to serve the people. Following the mass line is the fundamental approach for us to maintain the party’s advanced nature and purity and address various risks and challenges in ruling. Tomorrow, on November 9th, the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee will be held. The Communist Party of China holds that China is in the primary stage of socialism and will remain so for a long time to come. As reform is the source of all impetuses for socialist development, the plenum will lay out a comprehensive plan for deepening reform in all respects with a view to resolutely eliminating the structural and institutional obstacles that hinder the development of productivity and social fairness and justice, to ensuring inclusive growth and to delivering the fruits of development to all people. Comrades! We are living in an interdependent world, a world that is increasingly becoming a community of common destiny. In this new historic era, all the progressive forces in this world must join hands and work in concert to safeguard world peace, promote common development and achieve social advancement. China will hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit and pursue equality, democracy and inclusiveness so as to make the international order and system more just and equitable. Based on the principles for party-to-party relations of “independence, complete equality, mutual re-
spect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs”, we will be committed to strengthening exchanges and dialogues with communist parties, workers parties and other progressive forces of various countries to share experience in governing the party and the country, to explore ways to address global challenges and to promote the continuous development of the cause of socialism in the world! Comrades! After 14 years of persistent efforts, the International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties has become an important platform for communist and workers’ parties of various countries to conduct exchanges of ideas and theories and develop friendly cooperative relations, thus contributing remarkably to the exchanges, dialogues and cooperation among communist and workers’ parties across the world. Though Lisbon is in the season of late autumn, the warmth of my fellow comrades at today’s meeting has made me feel like in spring. As an ancient Chinese saying goes, “Nothing can separate people with common goals and ideals, not even mountains and seas”. As long as all the world’s progressive forces including communist and workers’ parties work together with united strength, the ideal of socialism will be realized! Thank you!
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PEOPLE’S VANGUARD PARTY, COSTA RICA WRITTEN CONTRIBUTION
Estimados compañeros: Reciban un cordial y revolucionario saludo de los militantes del PARTIDO VANGUARDIA POPULAR. Lamentamos profundamente no poder participar en el ENCUENTRO, diversas razones, entre ellas nuestros problemas financieros, nos han impedido estar presentes. Esperamos que el movimiento comunista, en ese Encuentro, logre articular un modelo de unidad, cooperación y lucha, para encarar los nuevos fenómenos sociales, políticos, económicos y éticos. Contamos, como es evidente, con el formidable arsenal teórico que nos legaron Marx, Engels y Lenin, enriquecido por la actividad revolucionaria y el pensamiento de grandes dirigentes revolucionarios, entre los que cabe destacar a Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Ming, Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, José Carlos Mariátegui, Hugo Chaves y muchos más. Estas ideas, estas experiencias, sumadas al enorme caudal ético de aquellos que entregaron sus vidas generosas en la lucha por la justicia social, la soberanía de los pueblos; muchos de ellos en tareas internacionalistas. El imperialismo está sufriendo una profunda crisis que se ha extendido a los países dependientes, lo cual configura una crisis generalizada en todo el mundo del capital. Esta crisis se mantiene más allá de los ciclos propios del modo de producción capitalista. La crisis interna, la resistencia y rebelión de los pueblos, pensamos nosotros, son ya más activas en los procesos políticos que el poder de las armas, incluyendo las de destrucción masiva con que cuentan las potencias imperialistas. En lo que va del siglo XXI las aventuras militares no les han dado los resultados esperados por los dirigentes del imperio, destruyeron países pero al mismo tiempo se ganaron el repudio de todos los hombres y mujeres decentes del mundo. Nos parece que las experiencias revolucionarias en Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador,
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la creación del ALBA, la unidad latinoamericana en el CELAC, el fortalecimiento del Mercosur, han fortalecido al movimiento revolucionario, sobre todo por la originalidad de estos procesos de construcción de una conciencia nacional y denuevos caminos para la transición del capitalismo al socialismo.
¡Viva la unidad de los comunistas y de todos los revolucionarios! ¡Viva la Unidad de todos los pueblos! ¡Proletarios de todos los países, uníos!
Estos hechos aquí apenas bocetados nos indican que es la hora de la unidad de los comunistas, que deben ser una fuerza política capaz de aportar los caminos más certeros para el proceso de la lucha antiimperialista y anticapitalista. No propugnamos una hegemonía formal, sino ser una vanguardia real capaz de reconocer los méritos revolucionarios de los que luchan desde otras trincheras y, en todo caso, trabajar siempre por la unidad popular. Estimados compañeros: El Partido Vanguardia Popular cumplió 82 años de existencia. Obviamente nuestra historia es compleja. Hemos pasado por periodos de auge y otros de debilitamiento. Hemos sufrido ataques diversos, entre ellos divisiones internas que han sido especialmente dañosas. Todo esto nos debilitó pero no logró destruirnos. Estamos en la lucha y haciendo esfuerzos por el fortalecimiento de nuestras filas. Nos despedimos con fundada esperanza que esta reunión fortalezca la unidad de los comunistas y de todos los luchadores por la independencia nacional y la justicia para todo el pueblo. Largo y difícil será el camino, pero la humanidad y el medio ambiente serán salvados por el socialismo. Y solo por el socialismo. El neoliberalismo es la muerte, la lucha, la vida.
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF CUBA OSCAR MARTINEZ CORDOVES
Esteemed Comrades: First of all, we would like to express our gratitude to the Portuguese Communist Party for hosting the organization and holding the 15thInternational Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, which has meant an additional effort in its daily work amidst the difficult conditions imposed by the just struggle for the peoples and workers´ rights as a result of the deepening of the capitalist crisis that affects them. We would like to express to you our acknowledgement and our solidarity support. This event takes place in the context of the centenary of the birth of the historical leader of the Portuguese Communist Party, comrade Alvaro Cunhal, an impeccable and principled communist, a champion of the national interests and the Portuguese workers´ rights and a true friend of the Cuban Revolution. To him, our eternal homage. We hope that this meeting will be a fruitful space of reflection and debate on key issues that will allow us to coordinate our efforts to find alternatives, so that our parties contribute resolutely to face and transform the realities of our peoples. The Communist Party of Cuba considers that, at a time of a difficult and complex international situation, characterized by the economic, financial and global crisis of capitalism, the destabilization of the international order, and the aggressive policy of the U.S. imperialism and NATO, which has led to wars and conflicts for a new sharing of the wealth, it is more necessary than ever the exchange and cooperation, in the first place, among the communist and workers parties, and also with the political forces, social movements and left and progressive parties. We, communists, should have the necessary ability to face the imperialist offensive at world level and take advantage of everything that unites us to advance swiftly and firmly in identifying our true main enemies and the
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common objectives to be pursued, as well as to establish strategies and alliances which allow us to rally the big dissatisfied masses and to lead them in the struggle against imperialism. It has been shown that with political will, big obstacles can be overcome and important transformations can be made.
ciency implies, above all, an increase of the work productivity, and it is in this context where the reorientation of the work force in the state sector plays a role by widening the possibilities in the non-state and cooperative sectors and welcoming other economic components.
In the Latin-American and Caribbean context, the Sao Paulo Forum is a privileged space of unity of the left and progressive forces, different among them but united in the undertaking of building societies with more social justice. This experience can be encouraging and useful for our communist and workers´ movement.
For Cuba, only socialism is a condition for development. Therefore, it will continue to preserve the main social gains that made the Cuban model a reference for many in the world.
Today our country is facing a far-reaching process for the continuity of the Revolution. The 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, held on April 2011, and the First National Party Conference, held on January 2012, gave continuity and, at the same time, a transforming boost to Cuban socialism. The commitment to build a prosperous and sustainable socialism, where social ownership over the main means of production and the need of development will prevail as the basis for achieving a state of wellbeing and prosperity, is one of the postulates of the conceptualization process of the social and economic model that signals the present and future direction of Cuba. It is about managing the economy with formulas which develop the productive forces and where planning is the main tool in the search of the macroeconomic balance, and the socialist state enterprise is the essence of the Cuban economic model and, thus, there are plans to adjust its norms of operation, giving it more freedom and autonomy. The increase of the domestic economic effi-
We are making the changes without copying from others, but we do take into account the positive experiences from other models, mainly considering our own experiences and cultural-historical conditions, as well as the situation of a small and underdeveloped country of 11.2 million people which, in spite of having few natural resources and being subjected for more than half a century to the tightest and most brutal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States, does not cease in its efforts to favor a better life for the people. Likewise, the Latin-American and the Caribbean region is experiencing today a unique time in its history of struggle against neo-liberalism. It is facing a counteroffensive of the Empire and the right in the region, aimed at defeating the progressive and left processes and undermining the integrationist effort expressed at the Community of LatinAmerican and Caribbean States (CELAC), an organization which is set to promote regional integration and consolidate a space of coordination without the United States, a relevant event for the progressive forces. The recent setting up of the Pacific Alliance is actually a redesign of the Free Trade Agreement for America, since it promotes a big area
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of free trade in Latin American and the Caribbean to facilitate a bigger penetration and control of the big trans-nationals, especially those from the United States, bringing about a bigger loss of sovereignty. It is a tool to reverse the process of change in this part of the world, and it is depicted with a face of noble objectives, something we have to warn about.
Revolution; and it will continue struggling for the return of the Five Cubans unjustly incarcerated in U.S. jails. And, in those endeavors, we count on our right and your solidarity. Thank you very much.
A clear example of the deployment of this counteroffensive is Venezuela, where a big scale destabilizing plot, exacerbated after the physical disappearance of President Hugo Chávez Frías, is betting on the disaster of the Bolivarian Revolution. Its strategic objective is not limited to the failure of Nicolas Maduro’s legitimate government, but it is also aimed against the left and progressive processes in the region, using modern technologies of communication to carry out all types of manipulative, diversionist and slandering campaigns. On the face of this, we should be alert in order not to be confused. Finally, I take up this opportunity to express our gratitude to the communist and workers´ parties here for their militant solidarity with our struggle against the blockade, which has been tightened at present in a clear disregard of the claim made by the overwhelming majority of the international public opinion. Just a week ago, for twenty one times in row, Cuba achieved a convincing condemnation of the economic aggression after the voting at the General Assembly of the United Nations, in which the United States was let practically alone with Israel. Esteemed friends: We reiterate that Cuba will continue struggling to improve its socialism; it will continue demanding the lifting of the blockade and the end of the hostility and subversion against its
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AKEL, CYPRUS COSTAS CHRISTODOULIDES
Comrades, Against the background of a complex assault of the ruling class at the level of propaganda, the working class is at a better condition to understand some fundamental issues regarding the capitalist crisis. Can capitalism be reformed in the direction of a real progressive society? The answer is, no. Not only because it has been scientifically proven that it can’t but also because it is clear today in the midst of a grave capitalist crisis. Big capital, assisted by the bourgeois governments, whether socialdemocratic or of the Right, can only push for increasingly more reactionary changes towards the concentration of production, selling-off of public wealth and over-exploitation of labour force. Right now, the big bourgeoisie is implementing, for example in the European Union, all that is envisioned in the Lisbon Strategy and the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. They are crushing the working class. They present themselves as “generous”, offering the working class underpayment and semi-employment without rights, as redemption from the spectre of unemployment. They are increasingly concentrating production and wealth in the hands of a smaller and powerful handful of monopolies. The billionaires today are earning more than before the beginning of the crisis of capitalism, according to Forbs magazine. At the same time the poor have become poorer. They are imposing the single market to serve the ruling class of the imperialist forces. Reducing sovereignty, even more. This trend corresponds to the level of development of the productive forces of the powerful capitalist countries, on the basis of uneven development. Not only they are exploiting the local working class, but they are also creating the conditions for exploitation and their intervention in the rest of the European Union countries. The response of big capital and governments of the EU is the same. Our political work is to unmask the propaganda of the establishment institutions and to formulate
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through our class struggle the premises for a fundamental change into the minds of ordinary people, the poor strata, the army of the unemployed, the working class and even other strata. Currently, AKEL is evaluating the experiences of the government of President Christofias. Certainly the work produced was significant, bearing in mind that the main issue in deciding our choice was the achievement of a fair under the circumstances solution of the Cyprus problem. However, many attacks were organised by the establishment, both local and foreign. With the Cyprus problem remaining unsolved, the occupation by Turkey, the non-implementation of UN resolutions for liberation and reunification of our country and people as a whole, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, our position is that the policy of cooperation at grassroots level and at the broader political level must be utilised - taking also into account and having analysed beforehand how far we can go and what we can achieve based on the international and local situation. But the most important parameter is the empowering of the Party of the working class, its ties to the people. The factor of class struggle and its organization, the response to systemic options, the projection of popularised proposals that create the preconditions for the working class and other strata to understand who their real allies are is a factor that must always be analyzed and prepared. NATO today is intensifying the struggle for the redistribution of wealth resources. It wants to create a web of governments under their control either through economic dependencies, or through war. This is taking place in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America. AKEL supports the struggle of the fraternal parties and peoples against the imperialist policy of the monopolies and the governments of the
US and others. Cyprus is a victim of this policy and its people is still suffering. The current right wing government is bringing Cyprus closer to NATO. On the issue of the Working Group and International Meetings What are the general conditions? Do they allow the functioning of a Working Group operating according to binding decisions? The answer is no. Are there differences between us on issues of struggle? The answer is, yes. Must there be a consensus or at least a clear majority for the inclusion of a party in the Working Group? In our opinion, the answer again is yes. Such a decision must also be based on objective criteria. We agree with the position that the Working Group should not become a forum for confrontation, not because different answers do not exist, but because these are given through the projection of the positions of parties in the International Meetings, through their actions etc. We have a duty to safeguard the International Meetings. This is not to the detriment of our bilateral activity or our other international initiatives. It is not to the detriment of our own character. The conditions still demand, in our view, that consensus should prevail. Yes, we have to work together in order to share our experiences in our countries, maintain and strengthen a body of join initiatives. Constantly work together even if at this point we do not share the same evaluations in some. When we say that in our view the content of our cooperation and solidarity should be enhanced, we mean that, for example, it is important to organize meetings on the consequences for the working class, the poor strata, small businesses, arising from the implementation of the Memoranda and Memoranda demolishing
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policies in the EU. We should exchange views and experiences, to connect the imposition of the Memoranda as the systemic imposition of the advanced stage of capitalism’s development, which is the imperialist era, where the monopolies and finance capital impose their levelling policy. We should express precisely our common struggle against the system and all its inhuman manifestations; prepare through joint proposals, not the acceptance of this situation as a fait accompli but project together with our analysis, our own alternative proposals and also our conviction in overcoming the misery and exploitation through Socialism. We are not only a force of resistance; we are forces that open up a perspective for the people and the working class. In our view, we need to undertake such initiatives. Socialism stands as the opposing force to the system of exploitation and maximisation of profit by a handful of oligarchs. We resist their selfish policies and their system. We must and will keep this faith in our ideals of an advanced developed society, of equality and justice despite the anti-communist hysteria, the overt or disguised war waged by big capital.
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA, CZECH REPUBLIC FILIP VOJTECH
Dear comrades, As an introduction, let me convey to all of you as well to all members of your political parties the most sincere comradely greetings, the fervent one in today’s times of agonizing capitalist crisis, from both the leadership and the membership of the Communist party of Bohemia & Moravia. In the same time, I’d like to give our greetings to our friends and comrades from Portuguese Communist Party, with my congratulation for their significant success in recent local election, winning 11 % with 34 seats of mayors in the framework of the third most powerful political group in the country, the Coalition of democratic unity. I am happy to see the number of chancellors to be increased here, in the host city of our 15th IMCWP, in the beautiful tourist pearl of Lisbon. The power of our movement can grow only if the voters will express their favour towards us by their votes in elections. Today, I also can say you, with proudness, that the Communist party of Bohemia & Moravia (the KSCM) has been very successful with almost 15 % of voters in recent early election to the Lower House of Czech Republic’s Parliament, to be third most powerful political party, with 33 MP seats. By this, our goodwill of very powerful Communist Party within the EU has been confirmed. The work of KSCM’s officials, activists and members, but also of the supporters, is signed under this our good result. What is also important it is the fact, that our country maintains in deep crisis, the longest one in our history, when lasting more than one and half year, with Czech economy falling down amongst three the worst working EU economics. In the same time I must note that our potential Czech ally, Czech Soc-Dem Party, has won the election, but less percentage than expected - only with 20 % of votes, eliminating so a possibility to create any Leftwing coalition, and looking for coalition partners from political centre. The Left in Czech Republic wasn’t able to repeat an important
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success, the demonstration of its power from last January, when Left-wing President, Milos Zeman, was elected into the lead of the country through a joint efforts of all Left-wing parties, the KSCM included. During the Parliamentary election, the KSCM had to struggle heavily against mass-media anti-communist campaign, to oppose new populist political parties to be promoted by Czech mediocracy, of which the ANO political movement of Czech billionaire Andrei Babis managed to persuade more than 18 % of voters, becoming so one of the winners of Czech early election. I must note there in the programmes of the populist parties I had read about building up of a socially fair society as the goal, but when looking for any concrete measures this goal to be fulfilled by, I was finding solely empty phrases. It was shown in this election again, that wide strata of Czech political centre’s voters have been still remaining in the captivity of empty ideological slogans by collapsing European neoliberalism, taking up rather reserved positions towards programmable postulates about social changes of socialism, to be promoted by the KSČM. By all means, we in the KSČM feel encouraged into next struggles by the fact that we have received now 150 000 votes more than in 2010 election. This growing support means that the voters have really found interesting our programmable priorities like the measures to start the economical growth and to decrease the rate of unemployment, to set the progressive taxation, to push through the financial disclosure reports and the law given to the general referenda, to abolish both the Church Restitutions Bill and so-called second pillar of the pension reform. Just now, it is up to the KSCM officials to formulate these priorities even more affectively towards our possible both supporters and future voters.
In this point, I’d like to give our most cordially thanks to all the parties sending us their congratulations to this election result. Dear comrades, In the draft of 15th IMCWP’s Final Document, all of us have attempted to define every hot issue of current world, as to be seen by our communist and workers’ movement. The KSCM sees no problem to sign this document, maybe except it to be a bit unnecessarily both long and large. In my speech, I’d like to pay more attention to some internationally-political issues as well as to some socio-political phenomena and aspects the current communist and workers’ movement is working in. Above all, my point here is the highest value of the civilization; the issue of both the international peace and the security all around the world. The international development of 2013 shows us clearly that a definitive collapse of the neo-liberal capitalism has come nearer again, although the dying liberal economics strives for it’s the longest possible survival. In the end of last summer, as a consequence of imperialist aggressiveness of the NATO’s member states, the whole world came dangerously nearer to some kind of big, all-embracing international war conflict around Syria. It is possible to say that the world finds itself in transitional stage between the peace and the war. Solely the mobilization of all peaceful forces all around the world can stop and reverse this trend, to be so self-crushing for the human civilization. Currently, the communist and workers’ movement has its duty to define clearly, who jeopardizes most the international peace - the NATO member states to be headed by the USA, with some US’ European allies behaving especially in military way, the Hollande’s France the most. Both Russia and the People’s Republic of China
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under the Communist party of China stay just on the opposite side, both performing today as the main guarantors of international both the peace and the security. These two UN Security Council members, together with progressive countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, currently guarantee successful countering of the frontal attack of defenders of fading neo-liberalism on the most important and the most effective tool of the international politics - the modern generally democratic international law. This international law, as it had arisen from mutual competition between the global socialist order and the global capitalist one after the World War II, constitutes currently the most important tool for securing of international both the peace and the security. The countries of the Euro-Atlantic area, to be associated in the NATO under US leadership, strenuously rank with weeds the international law with both the institutions and the categories having no support by the international law, no matter either the written one or the customary one. For example, one of these categories is the principle of responsibility for protection, on the ground of which Libya was destroyed, to be thrown several decades back. Similar scenario was prepared for Syria; however, they met their match there, the imperialist offensive being eliminated for now. It is a great responsibility of the international communist and workers’ movement to face successfully to the attacks against the international peace and security, to define and to name clearly who, as well as which country, is the enemy of the peace and the defender of the war, and who is both the protector and the guarantor of the international peace and security. I presume both our movement and the documents to be passed by us should pay more attention to the danger of ultra-right fascist
both the forces’ and the parties’ rise in some of our countries. My point here is to be able to warn in good time, as well as to proceed against the rise of both the fascism and the ultra-right within our European political space. When seeing an increasing popularity of the extreme right-wing in France, watching the case of murder of Left-wing activist in Greece with the fascist Golden dawn behind, or looking at the persecution of Béla Bisku, a communist of 92 of age and a minister of János Kádár’s government, to be intended by Viktor Orbán’s allegedly democratic government to punish him for meeting his duties given by the law to maintain the constitutional order after 1956 events, I must to ask myself, if we are able to defend ourselves against fascist tendencies to be spread across the EU. Similarly, we should more resolutely mark and denounce in our documents the tendency to equal the communism with the fascism, to be promoted by some EU political elites, but to be in contradiction with the logic of European history. We must, day by day, to remember to those losers-their-way, those forgers of historical true, that no EU would be created without the victory of the socialist Soviet Union over the fascism. It is a simple historical true. There in our Final Document, we maybe should pay more attention to the practice of current anti-communism, to which the communist and workers’ parties are facing in the countries where these parties had been contemporarily rid of their ruling power after 1989. Both the aggressiveness and the sophistication of the anti-communism escalate, as we witnessed, too, in pre-election campaign in Czech Republic. The KSCM faced not only to the anti-communist ideological manipulation by the mass media, but also to rough campaigns of various anti-community societies as well as of our ideological oppo-
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nents’ activities. Amongst extremely disgusting attempts to disgrace us immediately before the election I must mention the dummies to be hung on the streets with the slogan “I marched against the KSCM”, as it had occurred in some larger city agglomerations. Unfortunately, at current legal culture in Czech Republic, no legal protection is possible from expressions of the ideological vandalism like this. That’s why we would welcome more solidarity from the international communist and workers’ movement with the struggle of communist and workers’ parties from the post-Soviet political area against the fierce anti-communism in these countries. In the context of the 15th IMCWP’s Final Document, I’d like to pause briefly at the philosophical category of Marxist criterion of the true. Both Marx and Lenin had clearly perceived the unambiguous need to confront permanently every theory with the praxis, enriching it and correct it retroactively just so. Looking at the development in our movement, I have a feeling sometimes like we would be failing to avoid the damnation of global revolutionary movement - splitting of the theory from the praxis. Even I have an oppressive feeling to hear again the cry “The shame to the praxis, if it doesn’t agree with our theories…”. However, we must be aware of the fact that we cannot build up the socialism if the majority won’t be obtained for its ideas. Neither our theoretical works, nor our the very best programme of revolutionary changes, but just developing of forces of production with its consequences on the running of human society will determine the future development of our civilization. In our ideological weaponry, there is the dialectical historical materialism, witch, in its essence, respects the necessity for both the perpetual changes and the new paths of mankind’s development. That’s why I am
ready to hear our Chinese, Vietnamese, Cuban and other comrades how they do overcome the difficulties when building the socialist society. That’s why I am also ready to inform you how Czech communists strive after returning into the position of our society’s leading force, the position, by the way, to be lost primarily due to our own mistakes. Of course, to reach our programmable goals, the building up the socialism, we must earn the allies. There are many ways of struggles to be mutually dialectically interconnected; amongst others, the resistance against anti-social, anti-people politics, the defence of both the national sovereignty and the democracy, the concrete goals of sovereign economical development of each nation, both the cooperation and the solidarity to resist the trans-national measures, the critics of capitalist integration as to be represented by the European Union etc. In these issues as well as in other ones we can carry on the cooperation, finding our allies there in the left spectre of current European political discourse. To shut ourselves or even to prohibit ourselves any cooperation on the left, it is in total contradiction with the Marxist understanding of the criteria of the true. On its last, VIII. Congress, the KSCM has reaffirmed its invariable political goal, building up the socially fair society, respecting both the demands and the needs of the 21st century. The socialist society to be created by us will respect the values of sustainable development, what means to strive for the accordance between the economical and social progress, maintaining the quality of the environment. The social welfare will be conditional on the sustainable development of the society with some certain limits of the material well-being. The socialism the KSCM strives for will be of the internationalist characteristics, of course.
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Dear comrades, On Sunday, November 10, we commemorate the 100 anniversary of comrade Alvaro Cunhal, a great son of Portuguese nation, the revolutionary and the communist, whose all the long and rich both political and artist’s life had been connected with the troubled history of 20th century. In my personal memories, there is a picture of this gray-haired revolutionary with distinctive characteristics, how it was mediated by global media into the socialist Czechoslovakia after the Carnation Revolution from April 1974, to be recorded forever. I wish, from the bottom of my heart, to current European young generation, to get also a possibility to find some inspiring personalities heroes, like our generation had found in comrade Alvaro Cunhal. In the end of my address, I’d like to give my thanks to our host, the Portuguese Communist Party, as well as to all the organizers, for an excellent organization of our both important and successful meeting. Thank you for your attention.
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COMMUNIST PARTY IN DENMARK BETTY FRYDENSBJERG C.
Since the first beginnings of the present crisis, the widest and deepest in the history of capitalism, we have accurately analyzed how it would develop; predicting that Capital and its state-monopolistic governments would find ways to shift the costs unto the shoulders of the working class. Their tricks have cost the working class and the middle layers dear and will continue to do so. Using the crisis as an excuse, big business and employers exploit the situation to sharpen the class struggle by presenting the workers with ever new demands for wage cuts, longer working hours, and higher productivity. The financial crisis as such has passed. Share prices and profits are again rising, and new speculative bubbles are sprouting. 87 per cent of the world’s accumulated capital is speculative capital and does not contribute to value creation. Economic policy is devoted to building up reserves that can save finance capital when the next collapse occurs. Again, the costs are borne by the working class and the middle layers. In Europe, state monopoly capitalism coupled with the European Union has been built up to a supra-state monopoly capitalism that without inhibitions of any kind robs the working class. Capitalism’s biggest political and economic problem is the classic one: the absence of consumption. In the first round, this has harmed the middle layers, small businesses and small shops. In the next round, the larger chain stores will be hit. The Danish conglomerate Maersk has already prepared for this and is now planning to sell its worldwide discount store chain called ”Netto”. With stagnating and even to a large extent reduced wages, the Danish government decided to lower the tax on work, as per the agreed terms in the Fiscal Pact. This measure was called a ”Kick Start” to stimulate consumption which in its turn allegedly would create jobs. The ”kick”, however, never happened, and for an obvious reason. Lowering taxes means cutbacks and firings in the public sector and
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with increased unemployment and worsening conditions for the unemployed, people do not dare spend money. What, then, are the consequences of unemployment, and how does it influence class consciousness? The demand for efficiency – that is, higher productivity – has led to an explosive rise in work-related injuries, mental disorders making up a considerable proportion, and the number of workplace accidents on building sites has also climbed. The latter fact is due not least to foreign companies and their imported workforce which do not follow safety regulations. Danish employers as well as employers in other countries speak about ”competitiveness” in order to keep wages low. But in fact the Danish wage level squarely matches the high Danish price level with regard to housing and food, and the prices require that every family needs two incomes. Wage dumping from low-cost countries is a major problem and forces wages in Denmark down. This goes for all areas – from agricultural production to the building industry and computer technology. In this way, unemployment hits all population layers with the exception of the very rich. The fear of being fired acts very destructively on the needed solidarity in workplaces and makes those that do have job work overtime to an unreasonable extent. A single ray of hope was recently provided by the slaughterhouse workers. The food monopoly ”Danish Crown” had threatened to move all of its production to Germany and Poland unless the workers agreed to a pay decrease. To compensate for the pay cut, the concern promised to invest the saved wage expenses in pork production, thereby ensuring that the workers would have jobs in the future. The shop stewards (!) supported the proposal, but a large majority of the workers, however, voted it down.
On November 19, Denmark holds local elections to city councils and regional councils. Allegedly in order to rouse the populace to cast their vote, a grand campaign has been launched in all institutions of education and in the media, aiming to teach the voters to prioritize. Both we, the candidates for the councils, and the voters must choose between such issues as for instance, ”Should the municipality spend money on creating jobs or on public transport? Should money be spent on casualty wards or cancer treatment?” This constitutes gross manipulation in one of the world’s richest countries, but it is yet another element in the ideological war waged by those in power: divide and rule. Like attempt to split among employed and unemployed, foreign law paid workers and Danish workers. We communists and the progressive unions do a huge work to ensure solidarity between people with jobs and the unemployed, between Danish and foreign workers in our workplaces, demanding equal conditions at the highest possible wage level. For us, the communist workers’ parties, the main challenge is to put action behind the words, ”Workers of all countries, unite!” Let us stage joint campaigns against being played off against each other – campaigns for common demands and solidarity.
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF DENMARK HENRIK STAMER HEDIN
A question we have been posing ourselves at these meetings since the beginning of the current world crisis is: Has the crisis put socialism on the agenda? Are the conditions ripe for a new revolutionary surge? Three years ago we stressed in the Tshwane declaration the transition from capitalism to socialism as a necessity for civilisation. And two years ago, in Athens, at the meeting named “Socialism is the future!”, we wrote: “Today the conditions have been formed for the construction of wide social antimonopoly and anti-imperialist alliances capable of [...] promoting deep progressive, radical, revolutionary changes.” So, what are these alliances like? The great revolutions of world history come in waves or surges. Each of these surges is characterized by a specific coalition of revolutionary classes carrying through a specific transformation of society in a range of countries. Then the revolutionary thrust ceases, having exhausted its power, the world enters a new equilibrium, so to speak, or even a phase of counterrevolutions, which cancel some of the revolutionary gains, but not all. We are in such a phase of counterrevolutions just now – or perhaps we are already on the brink of leaving it for a new revolutionary surge to take its beginning. This pattern can be traced back more than half a millennium, and it is fascinating to study. But that is not what I am going to talk about. I am going to talk about the latest revolutionary surge, that of the 20th century, and of the one to come. The revolutionary surge we have been witnessing throughout most of the 20th century was characterized by the alliance of workers and peasants. This is almost a truism. It is a fact familiar to us all. We are also familiar with the great results obtained by this revolutionary alliance: The October Revolution and the Soviet Union, the emergence of workers’ and
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peasants’ republics, the first steps towards building of socialism in a third of the world. Even in countries like my own, where change did not take on a revolutionary guise, power was assumed and progress shaped by an alliance of workers and small peasants, inspired by socialism or socialist ideals. This epoch of history, or rather its central phase, during which the revolutionary drive had its full thrust, lasted roughly from 1917 until 1959. The Cuban revolution was the last of the great, victorious revolutions of this era; later revolutionary uprisings, e.g. of the 70’s, were either put down or did not possess the strength to push through to socialism. The alliance of workers and peasants was losing its power to initiate revolutionary change. A few decades later, the counterrevolution set in. What is the reason for this? Throughout the world, there are still workers and peasants; they are still oppressed and exploited. In many countries, the alliance of workers and peasants may still represent a relevant perspective. But in a number of countries, among which some of the most developed, a drastic change in the class structure of society has occurred. In my own country, e.g., Denmark – a country of world-wide renown for high-quality agricultural produce – there are no peasants left. There is no peasantry any more. The farmers are few, they own very large estates and command huge capitals. They are not peasants anymore, they are highly specialized entrepreneurs. Neither are they capitalists, for the capitals they command are not their own; they are heavily indebted. In spite of the size of their estates, they have no or very few employees; they work the lands and tend their livestock themselves. But they are not workers, for they have no employers. In a way, they
are still exploited, for they pay heavy interests to their banks and real estate credit institutes. But the solution to their plight lies not in collectivism but in further concentration and capitalization. At least, that is how they see it, and they act accordingly. Thus, they get fewer and fewer and are rapidly losing their power to influence politics; the liberal and radical parties which used to base their existence on the peasantry are still influential, but they have shifted their electorate emphasis to the affluent urban middle strata and partly to backward sections of the working class. The present Danish government is still composed of Social Democrats and Radicals, the traditional worker-peasants’ alliance; but the Radicals are not a peasants’ party anymore, and accordingly, the policies of the alliance have shifted far to the right of what they used to be. This disappearance of the peasantry is not confined to a few affluent and highly developed countries. It occurs in slightly different ways in less developed countries too. The concentration and specialization of agriculture takes place here too, but the peasant masses are widely excluded from this development; they are driven from the land and forced to migrate to the huge, expanding slums around the cities, where they lead an existence as a modern pauper proletariat. We described this development in the Tshwane declaration. So, if the peasantry is disappearing it is no wonder that the alliance of workers and peasants is losing its revolutionary thrust. What is going to replace it? Where will the working class have to seek its allies for the struggles ahead? How do we forge the alliance capable of bringing about the revolutionary surge of the 21st century? What revolutionary strategy will be needed?
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My party, at its 33rd Congress last year, considered this problem and decided to carry through a “strategy development year”. We are still in the middle of this, but being a very small party I doubt that we will be able to provide a definite answer to the problem. Perhaps some other party of greater resources will even be able to phrase the problem more precisely than I have done. But we do think that these things need to be thought about in the global Communist and Workers’ Parties Movement. A new surge of revolutionary clashes is bound to be upon us in a few decades, if not earlier. The Communist and Workers’ Parties have to arm themselves for victory – for the victory of socialism in the new century.
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EGYPTIAN COMMUNIST PARTY SALAH ADLY
Dear comrades, Allow me in the beginning to thank the Portuguese Communist Party for hosting this important meeting and to convey to your parties greetings from our comrades in the Egyptian Communist Party for your position in support of the revolution of the Egyptian people and their struggle against tyranny, religious fascism and international imperialism. Comrades, Four months have passed since the outbreak of the Egyptian people’s revolution on June 30, which is considered the second wave, more profound and mature, of the January 25, 2011 revolution, as they rose up to rectify the wrong track of the January Revolution and removed the greatest danger suffered by Egypt in its modern history, namely the risk of seizure of power by the fascist religious right led by the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies of terrorist groups; those forces whose political, economic and social orientations represent the most parasitic, corrupt, authoritarian, fascist, racist and reactionary segments of capitalism. They conspired to kidnap the January Revolution and threatening Egyptian and Arab national security for the benefit of a plan led by the United States of America and international Zionism, implemented under the auspices of Qatar and Turkey. They seek to enable the Muslim Brotherhood and fundamentalist currents to control over Egypt and the region, igniting sectarian wars and dividing and dismantling Arab countries and destroying national armies which represent a potential threat to Israel. These associations are being adapted to serve U.S., Zionism and imperialism agendas and continue integration into the globalization policies of capitalism and commitment to the neo-liberal approach associated with World monopolies. No doubt, the success of June 30 Revolution which brought down the rule of Muslim Brotherhood and their allies, in which tens of millions of people came out in unprecedented
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peaceful popular demonstrations. The army sided with them to implement the will of the people and save the country from civil war and sectarian strife; dealing a major defeat for these schemes. This explains the wrath of the United States and European Union governments and their deliberate media and political distortion of the revolution, especially that the position of the army leadership opposed the United States for the first time in forty years. No doubt also that thwarting the plot of U.S. military aggression on Syria and opening the door to a political solution confirming the unity of Syria and achieving the will of the people in democratic and social transition led to deepening the rift within the imperialist camp and stressed the positive shifts taking place in the world, after long years of reaction and retreat in the global revolutionary process... That change is due to deepening of the structural crisis of capitalism and its reaching critical levels after the 2008 crisis. It is also the result of the beginning of the revolutionary and progressive tidal wave the world is witnessing in many parts of the world since the beginning of the third millennium, which we expect to escalate at a rapid pace in the coming years and decades. Comrades, Despite our reservations on some points in the “Map of Future”, on which the national forces agreed for the transitional period after June 30, as well as the formation of the transitional government, which we do not consider to be revolutionary yet it is a reformist technocrat government not having enough courage and initiative to implement the urgent demands to achieve the goals of the revolution at this stage. Yet, we believe in the necessity to continue implementation of the
Map of Future as we can not go backwards. Public pressure is a must for the implementation of these demands, including: Dropping the fascist religious right project once and for all, and elimination of their terrorist resistance to the revolution. This requires the need to consider the Brotherhood a terrorist group and prohibiting its activity as well as its allies and confiscation of their property and funds. Issuing a civilian democratic constitution which is underway in the Fifty Persons Committee - and caring that it becomes decisive in the direction of a civil state, neither religious nor military committed to the economic and social rights of workers, peasants, laborers and the rights of women and minorities. Achieving the urgent economic and social demands of the laborers and the poor. Completing issuing legislations granting freedom to form political parties, trade unions, federations and associations. Completion of parliamentary and presidential elections before the middle of next year. These goals will not be decisively achieved except through the struggle of socialist parties and forces represented in the “Revolutionary Democratic Alliance”, which includes socialist parties and forces and some progressive movements and organizations. This alliance shall accelerate to form a unified joint command, and work at the same time to form a popular progressive mass through alliance with nationalist and Nasserist parties and forces nearest to left positions. This mass shall also include labor, peasant and youth organizations and movements and social movements that explode all over in every place for the formation of a broad front with national
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democratic progressive orientation to correct the balance which is currently unbalanced in favor of rightist forces in the community, so that the left can be an active participant in both of the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.
contradictions between the goals and the demands of revolutions and the results of the elections being contradictory because of the traditional mechanisms of the electoral process and their being dominate by right-wing forces and political money power.
Comrades,
Role and tasks of communist and workers’ parties in the face of the great impact and massive influence of the media and uncovering the media of world monopoly that can distort the facts and launch media wars against revolutions and uprisings of the peoples standing against the interests of imperialism and using them to convince the world public opinion of different results contrary to what happens on the ground. The Egyptian revolution has suffered from hegemony of this media image made by Channels like AlJazeera, the CNN, the BBC, and France 24 etc. This media war has an enormous impact in misleading the people and isolating revolutions and uprisings, which will have a negative effect politically and morally.
The revolutions and uprisings of the Arab peoples, especially the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions, have raised many questions and put many issues on the table for theoretical and practical research, which we think should be taken care of by our revolutionary parties and our research centers. Perhaps the most important of these are: Re- raising the issue of the national democratic revolution in the new changing conditions of development of imperialism and in the light of the tremendous advances made available by the communications and information revolution, and developments that have taken place on the class map in developing countries and the need for our parties to accommodate the new movements in the context of a broad front for radical social and political change. It is necessary to recognize that what is happening in Egypt now will have implications on the Middle East and its European reach for sure. The limits of bourgeois democracy in general, and in our countries where there is oppression, dependency and underdevelopment in particular; and the validity of perception for which several of our parties are prisoners, namely sanctifying the electoral polls and recognizing them alone as a single form of expressing the popular will, especially in periods of revolutionary transformation and periods of transition. This opens the door to our urgent need to create new forms of social participatory democracy... especially when clear
The issue of the necessity to renew theoretical and political Marxist thought and the importance of starting from the actual concrete reality away from systematic analyses and saved stereotypes, recognizing the changes that have occurred in the last hundred years. On the other hand the need to respect the experiences and struggles of local revolutionary forces and dealing in a critical revolutionary spirit in order to absorb the lessons and successes and also learn from mistakes of such live experiences in a comradely manner. Finally‌ Comrades, We also see that the coming years and decades will witness major changes in the direction of victory of peoples’ struggle against imperialism, and that the socialist option will prove being the only alternative capable to
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face disasters caused by global capitalism; being capable to achieve the alternative humanitarian and democratic globalization for a new world free of exploitation, oppression, wars and poverty; a World worthy of humans in the Twenty-First Century.
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF ECUADOR WINSTION ALARARCON
Camaradas asistentes al decimo quinto encuentro de los Partido Comunistas y obreros reciban el saludo fraterno y revolucionaro del Comite Central del Partido Comunista del Ecuador en particular quiero destacar y agradecer al Partido Comunista Portugues por su hospitalidad y esfuerzos por el exito de este encuentro, Partido Comunista, digno heredero del pensamiento y practica del querido camarada Alvaro Cunhal. America Latina vive un proceso de importantes cambios revolucionarios que se manifiestan en la practica y ejecucion de reconocimiento de los derechos de los pueblos por los que tantos anos se a luchado. Esta practica revolucionaria se la debemos en buena medida a la tenaz e imbatible constancia de la lucha del pueblo cubano, del camarada Fidel, Raul y el Partido Comunista de Cuba. Es asi, que sin lugar a dudas, el pueblo venezolano comandado por el comandante Hugo Chavez, hoy representado por el companero Nicolas Maduro, el pueblo Boliviano, dirigido por el companero morales. El pueblo Nicaraguense con el Comandante ortega la cabeza y por que no decirlo el pueblo de Ecuador donde el Presidente Rafael Correa ha presentado una dura batalla al imperialismo, a la oligarquia nacional y propaganda mediatica, abriendo paso a los objetivos inmediatos de una propuesta de liberacion nacional. En si los pueblos de Brasil, Uruguay, Argentina encaminanan su lucha por cambios profundos, destacandose la lucha por la Paz revolucionaria del pueblo Colombiano. Es que no es solo una lucha por sus propios intereses sino una lucha por la integracion latinoamericana politica, social y tambien economica para no depender jamas del Fondo Monetario Internacional, Banco Mundial con la formacion del Alba, Mercosur y todo lo que ayude a la integracion. Nuestro pais desde el ano 2008, se dio una Constitucion que reconoce los derechos de obreros, campesino, indigenas, pueblos y ciudadanos en general, que incluyen los dere-
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chos a la salud, a la educacion, al trabajo, los derechos de las mujeres, de los jovenes y pueblo en general. Estos derechos permiten reconocer la participacion de la mujer en la vida publica y social dando ejmplo el gobierno donde mas del 50% del gabinete son mujeres, la Asamblea Nacional esta encabezada por Asambleistas mujeres y muchos cargo publicos lo tienen las mujeres. Los jovenes cada dia y en mejor forma tienen oportunidad para la educacion y el trabajo. Se encuentra, los jovenes a puertas del Festival Mundial de la Juventud y los Estudiantes. Aunque nuestra constitucion reconoce los derechos laborales, la lucha por esos derechos, al trabajo, por la estabilidad laboral el bienestar laboral es todavia parte de nuestra gran lucha,lo mismo que los a la tierra donde se plantea un combatee decidido por una reforma agraria democratica que no solo entregue la tierra al campesino, al indigenas sino que le de apoyo logistico y economico. Nuestro pais, y en particular el gobierno encabezado por el Presidente Rafael Correa mantiene una firme posicion soberana y antiimperialista no solo con declaraciones sino que a puesto fuera a la base naval de Manta, a la Embajadora de los Estado Unidos, funcionarios impertinentes y logrado sacar de las manos del imperialismo al cuerpo de la Policia Nacional donde tenia funcionario pagados, cuerpo policial que participo en la asonada golpista del 30 de Septiembre que el pueblo y las fuerzas revolucionarias y democraticas y progresistas derrotaron. La teoria y practica del neoliberalismo como expresion economica ha sido dejado de lado y se manejan nuevas reglas economica de rescate de nuestras riquezas naturales, antes los
reditos del petroleo el 80% iban a favor de las empresa petroleras extranjera y solo un 20% iba para el pais que para colmo el 10% de ese valor iba para pagar la deuda externa, hoy es al contrario, el 80% es para el pais. La empresa petrolera Chevron, Texaco, esta obligada a pagar los danos causado a la tierra y a nuestro pueblo, salvaguardano la vida y el medio ambiente. Los principios de solidaridad se mantienen con los pueblos como, Irak, Afganistan, Palestina, Siria, etc. que sufren la agresion criminal del imperialismo en especial del norteamericano. La lucha junto a Cuba por la terminacion del bloqueo y la libertad de los 5 heroes. La crisis del capitalismo en Europa y de los propios Estados Unidos no puede caer sobre los hombro de los pueblo y de sus trabajadores La existencia y unidad del movimiento comunista interncional y de los Partidos Comunistas en todos los paises es fundamental para los procesos revolucionarios, para mantener los gobiernos socialistas y revolucionarios y su liderasgo Economico como China y de ejemplo como Cuba en nuestra America, e alli, la importantancia de este 15 encuentro para ejercer la lucha coordinada de nuestros partidos contra el capitalismo, el neoliberalismo, el imperialismo en particular del imperialismo norteamericano. Viva el 15 encuentro de los Partidos Comunistas Viva el Internacionalismo Proletario Por la liberacion Nacional y el Socialismo viva el Marxismo-Leninismo.
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Comrades, Communist party of Portugal, International collective,
COMMUNIST PARTY OF FINLAND JUHA-PEKKA VAISANEN
The globalization of the economy, technology, politics and culture has created increasingly wider and closer mutual dependencies. At the same time, it has also meant exploitation, oppression, and internationalization of many other conflicts. The contradiction between labor and capital, democracy and capital, nature and capital, peace and the pursuit of profit by capital deepens. It is of high importance to be able to share some actual political points of views with You all here in Lisbon present. Thank You for the possibility. Thank You for the hospitality. We wish to lift up questions of imperialisms faces such like nature catastrophes, mass unemployment and oppression of the minorities. We also give information about resent changes in our party. Dear comrades, Mining industry, search for natural recourses; uranium, gas and petrol is increasing in northern Finland, Scandinavia and in the Arctic region. There are catastrophic examples how international mining business destroys local natural resources. Partly nationally owned Talvivaara uranium mine has been run with extremely low environmental precautions causing a huge environmental catastrophe polluting local waters. Imperialism is showing every day a more and more violent face. In our Northern regions, in Lapland mining business and the growing international interest in the Arctic is oppressing the process of the Saami people in their just demand for their rights to land, culture and language. For us finnish communist it is important to declare here internationally that we firmly stand
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with the right of the saami-aboriginals for their basic democratic rights. We demand the Finnish government to approve the ILO 169 declaration. Big capital is safeguarding its own interests. We really experience special times. Mass unemployment, especially unemployment of the young people is in figures of war times. State is shutting down public services and combining our local government to a bigger market areas suitable for international corporations. At the same time we have extremely broadbased government of six parties, running down what is left from the welfare state built up by the working class movement in the past. Today parliamentarian left and social democrats approve all the austerity measures, cutting lists and politics of the Troika Central European bank, European commission and International monetary fund. We are living under dictatorship of the values of the European Union: free movement of the capital,labour, goods and services. In EU-elitpolitics labour rights and peoples basic rights have place only in the empty bourgeois talks. European union is not the answer to this problem. It is the problem. *** Party congress made a radical change to leadership of the party. 25 % of our CC is now younger than 30. These young members face many challenges including process of updating our party program. Even though we are young, our guidelines in this process are ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin. Many members in our central committee are now taking positions and responsibility from
senior comrades. Our new general secretary is Heikki Ketoharju, 24 years old activist and IT enthusiast - Also present here at this international meeting. Please welcome Heikki to the collective. Europarlamentarian elections for us communists function as a visible tool to invite radical left and green activists to join a new truly left and communist front to oppose the current system and neoliberal right wing politics, nationalism and racism. We have a slogan that says “it is time to whistle an end the business play of the bourgeois”. We absolutely don´t want to leave the political floor to the neoliberal, ultra right and nationalist parties to occupy the political debate. With the guide lines of Lenin we will participate in the EU-elections creating speaker platforms for comrades to demand referendum about European union agreements. We have to get rid of those antidemocratic chains in order to rebuild a Europe of peoples, democratic Europe and a socialist Europe. Comrades, ...To finish my speech Central committee of the party underlines the role of the international work as key element in the class struggle. Communist parties of Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden meet yearly in the Arctic North region. Last meeting was held this year in spring in Tromsøin Norway. In the declaration of the nordic communist parties it was underlined that international growing need for more and more natural recourses does not safeguard the nature, climate and communities in a sustainable way.
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Tromsø declaration says clearly that the only sustainable way is long-term economic and ecologic thinking. Communist party of Finland wishes that the collective of the world communist parties and workers´s parties start to pay more attention to environmental issues. Fossil energy resources like oil and gas pollute and emit greenhouse gases. The use of these energy resources must be reduced. We communist should clearly demand a proper environmental processing of energy (gas) and raw materials (minerals) in local integrated industrial complexes with zero emissions of CO2 (carbon oxide). We say the only alternative is to invest in renewable energy solutions. We vote for Sun-, wind-, water- and wave power. We vote for the future. Defending workers rights, working conditions and agreements should not have any borders. There should not be any need to pay attention to the origin, skin color or any other criteria of the worker. We stand against racism, homophobia, gender inequality, fascism and all kind of discrimination. All workers should have the same right to a just pay of the work done. There for workers of the world unite! Long live class struggle! Long live the communist international collective!
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FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY GILLES GARNIER
Comrades, It is a great pleasure for me to speak to you today on behalf of the French Communist Party. As we meet here in Lisbon, where the winds of the April Revolution blow anew, I bring you all our heartfelt, fraternal greetings, and especially wish to thank our comrades from the Portuguese Communist Party who have extended such a warm welcome. The Portuguese people, through their massive mobilisation, are standing up to shake off the deadly politics of austerity, of social and democratic regression, that capitalist forces in Europe – now more discredited than ever – seek to impose on Portugal and indeed on all the peoples of Europe. France is not spared, and it was in the same spirit of struggle that we ejected Nicolas Sarkozy from office in in 2012, rejecting the most vindictive right wing our country has seen since 1945; a right wing that attacked our hard-won social and democratic progress. These forces, joined with the German right under Angela Merkel, have sought to subject all of the people of Europe to the iron rule of financial capitalism. In the spring of 2012, the PCF and our allies in the Left Front made a major contribution to the resounding defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy. We joined forces with other parties of the left to beat Nicolas Sarkozy, although we had no illusions about the choices that François Hollande was likely to implement. Some Europeans harboured illusions about the consequences of the election of François Hollande: not us. We refused to take part in an administration that did not clearly strive to halt the politics of austerity nor to defend workers against the forces of capital. We decided that we would pass judgement on this administration’s work, and take action in Parliament and in the street based on our unqualified criteria: the interests of the workers and the interests of the country as opposed to
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those of the banks, the multinationals and big business. In fact, the first measure taken by the new president was the ratification of the European Budget Pact without changing a single line; he accommodated demands for reduced public spending and increased competitiveness and flexibility. We fought against the budget pact, the French “inter-professional labour agreement”, and a new pension reform – in fact the French Senate rejected that reform three days ago. Each of our battles included the demonstration that alternative solutions are possible. And we are continuing the battle of ideas and actions, undertaking a major national campaign to show just what capital costs us. So-called “austerity” policies in the European Union, led by the Commission and the European Central Bank, along with the idolisation of the principle of free and undistorted competition, are cracking the foundations of the social state in our countries; these foundations were laid following World War II or after the fall of fascist regimes in Portugal, Spain and Greece. The crisis of capitalism, “their” crisis, not ours, has enabled the dismantlement of social and democratic advances. In France, as in many European countries, the social movement has not yielded. We resist in the difficult context of collective, organised despair that is fostered and nurtured by governments in place, forces on the right, the far right, and actively kept up by big business, supported by compliant media. This is why we believe the position of the European Trade Unions Confederation is extremely positive and significant: for the first time it rejected the proposed European treaty.
Another positive sign is the opening of dialogue and joint actions in many countries among citizens’ movements and our parties and organisations. This new development brings us hope. Mobilisation against the transatlantic agreement is underway in our country and we are actively participating in an information and awareness campaign that needs to be amplified in order to cut this agreement at the quick. A first success was setting culture outside the scope of the negotiation; now a broad association of citizens, trade unionists and political forces is growing. It encompasses the same progressive forces that enabled us to defeat the 2005 Constitutional Treaty. * The socio-liberal choices that the French president and his administration have chosen to follow also determine a three-pillar foreign policy: conquering market shares for multinational corporations that are French in name only, the “NATO-isation” of national and European defence and foreign policy, and the militarisation of international relations with a goal to establish France as a so-called “middle power”. Certainly the crisis in Syria, alongside the overall situation in the Middle East and North Africa raises global questions on international security today, and on the need to question the politics of “powers” and the logic of force. And we are all aware of the extent to which neo-imperialist strategies at work in this region and elsewhere in the world have had devastating and destabilising effects that bring great danger to bear on all people. But while we must develop our solidarity with popular democratic uprisings against despotic, oppressive regimes, we must also stand
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firm in our rejection of foreign intervention. Mali is an example of the way in which France views its relations with African countries and its role on the African continent. Denying the responsibility of France, the EU, the IMF and the United States as regards the breakdown of Malian society and the failure of the Malian state, the French military intervention was a stopgap solution. Other means could have been called into play, over the years, to prevent the penetration of jihadist groups in society. The future of Mali is for Malians to decide and this is the task that France should set for herself, beginning by abandoning practices that belong to the past.
Communists, whatever their position, are not dedicated to protest, although that is necessary, but rather to innovation, to finding solutions, acting and uniting to open the path to liberation. Our goal is to give workers, employees, working women and youth, and the underemployed confidence and courage. In 2013, as at the beginning of the 20th century, the problem remains the confiscation of economic and political power by the few. The battle today is to return power to the people everywhere, where the bourgeoisie and big business have seized it from the people, and where the people have never held power, that is in companies and at the workplace.
I will pass over the shame and anger we felt when the French government prevented President Morales from flying over French territory. The pretexts advanced to justify this act of aggression and violation of international law speak volumes about the degree of French submission to Atlanticism – a shackle it is high time we throw off.
National and European institutions have reached the end of the road – the Fifth Republic in France, with its emphasis on the person of the president, has become an obstacle to democracy. We want to move beyond this. Our institutions provide no protection from neoliberalism because they are its defenders.
Events in the Latin America have shown how, over the past 15 years, through the development of struggles and popular movements, left wing and progressive governments have been able to take political power and establish development strategies that have pushed back the hegemony of the United States and neo-liberalism.
We work to strengthen the broadest possible coalitions against the Europe of austerity. This is the meaning we give to re-foundation, based on a clear break from the current EU treaties; it bears the demand for a completely new regional concept grounded in solidarity among peoples and social, economic, environmental and democratic progress for all.
Democratic, economic and social advances are unprecedented: re-appropriation of natural resources, human development programmes that have brought millions out of poverty, nationalisations in strategic sectors and important steps forward for democracy and workers’ rights. Until now, such progress had been possible in Cuba alone.
Indeed it is because the very logic of the system is at the heart of today’s social, economic, political and democratic crises, that the force of capital have no scruples, once again, in allowing the fascist threat to rear its head; fascism feeds on the confusion and disappointment that neo-liberalism has engendered. We are clearheaded. This battle requires a complete about-face in French policy, and an un-
*
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precedented union of the left. But we will not stand by while the peoples of Europe are divided and set against each other in hatred.
cist yoke, hopes to walk freely along to path to liberty, equality, social justice and democracy. Thank you.
Local elections will be held a few weeks before European elections in France, and both are key moments, each in its own right. There will be major efforts to weaken capacity for resistance and prevent the people from taking power. Around the country, communists are preparing for the successive elections with three clear objectives: defeat the right, block the far right, win anti-austerity left majorities to put people at the centre of social choices. Paul Vaillant-Couturier wrote, “Communism is the youth of the world�. Our task is tremendous, and whatever the paths we choose in our countries, whatever the assessments we make of different national choices, it is essential that we maintain forums like this one where we gather today. We are convinced that these gatherings will enable progressive forces to act to transform our societies; capitalism is turning back the clock on human civilisation – we say it is time to move forward instead. Dear friends and comrades, We need an international movement, indeed the communist identity has always been international, through our contributions to broad assemblies of people who fought and are fighting still to defend communist ideals. Our international engagement may take new forms, but it will always be forged in struggle and union. We strengthen that bond here today, in Portugal, homeland of Alvaro Cunhal, a great revolutionary at the head of the Portuguese Communist Party. He carried the hopes of Portuguese people and workers, at a time when other countries were also casting off the fas-
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UNIFIED COMMUNIST PARTY OF GEORGIA ELIA KHACHATUROVA
Dear comrades, The current general crisis of capitalism is the crisis of neo-liberal model of capitalism. It takes a different specific outlines in different conditions. We will try to describe briefly how this crisis reveals itself in the case of Georgia. As it is known Georgia is like a marionette in the hands of the United States. It is called the second Israel in the Caucasus. After the socalled “Rose Revolution” in 2003, Georgia was declared by Americans as a “lighthouse of democracy” and as an example of successful implementation of neo-liberal capitalism model. As a result of 9-year accelerated “neoliberal experiment”, which lasted until October 1 of 2012, that is, until the defeat of the ruling elite in the elections, in Georgia was indeed created a kind of classical system of neoliberal capitalism. Was developed around the same system of capitalist dictatorship, as in Pinochet’s Chile. But the policy of total privatization of the economy and the social system in combination with a completely flawed, hostile to Russia’s foreign policy, the country has led to a complete economic collapse . As a result, Georgia was overtaken by a deep social crisis. The crisis obscured the harsh repression. Neoliberalism is increasingly showed its fascist gist. We are not casually use the term. All or almost all of the major signs of fascism appeared: social demagogy, nationalism and Russophobia , militarization and total control of all aspects of social life , collapsing bourgeois democracy and anti-communism , monopolization and centralization of the economy and even a hoax, as the important element of the official propaganda. All of this in any of opportunity could soon turn into a political crisis. By the autumn of last year, it just happened. In one word, at one point, the neo-liberal capitalist system began to devour itself. The need to turn left, at least within the private-capital-
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istic system, became apparent. Without such a rotation, system would collapse under its own weight as exhausted and paralyzed to death. Therefore, coagulation of neoliberal madness has become imperative for the ruling clans too. There was a split in the ruling oligarchic elite. There was formed a powerful bourgeois opposition ready to soften the above economic line and police brutality and guide a more moderate foreign policy. The main objectives of the present government, a new, more moderate neo-liberal ruling elite team - is the salvation of the oligarchic power as such. But it is possible primarily by easing social tensions. Here is how the current government makes it: To alleviate social tensions by reviving the real economy, the new government has to go against the principles of neo-liberalism and strengthen the role of the state in the economy, which had previously been reduced to almost zero. Main bet for the restoration of the economic potential is made for a quick recovery of agriculture. It is significant, that collective farms are legally recovered. Georgian agricultural goods have been partially re-admitted to the Russian market.
to strike, complicate the conditions of release from work, concepts the idea of the collective agreement. In short, there are signs of worker and trade union rights. If earlier, few could organize opposition to tyranny significant employers in enterprises, now the police and other security agencies cannot openly suppress working resistance. Not surprisingly, that after softening the total police pressure, in a few companies strikes began. Against the background of the flash strikes is also arises the revitalization of trade unions. Therefore the demands of the workers and trade unions do not go beyond the economic principles. In the sphere of democratic rights committed significant shift in the direction of improving the situation. If during the period under Saakashvili was practically forbidden propaganda against NATO, calling for the restoration of good-neighborly friendship with Russia and relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia (with a separate regions of Georgia), now expressing of an opinion on these issues will not lead to reprisals. Propaganda of socialism had more favorable conditions. Even though, the law continues to operate banning of the Soviet symbolic and Soviet ideology. By this law the activities of the Unified Communist Party of Georgia is actually prohibited. The new composition of the Parliament of Georgia is once again openly anti-communist and is not expected to repeal this law.
In the social sphere is a certain turn of the person to humans. The new state budget showed signs of social orientation. Are sensitively increased health care costs, increased pension fund and salary of the lower layer of public servants. The spending on education is also increased. For example, per student state now spends about twice as much as last year.
In other words, the “neo-liberal� fascism fell, but the situation in Georgia - both political and social, remains difficult.
Old Labor Code, which was the legal registration of disenfranchisement of the working man, changed to a new one. Expands the right
Comrades, the struggle of the Georgian Communists for the working people interests is intertwined with the struggle against national-
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ism. Russia is now more covert, but still, is taught as the cause of all social evils and misfortunes of Georgia. In Russia itself, the labor migrants are exposed to increased exploitation. Nationalism again divides the working people of the two countries. In Georgia, from time to time are also being strengthened anti-Armenian or anti-Azerbaijani sentiments, which is in parallel feed by the anti-Georgian nationalism in the neighboring republics. Therefore, a necessary task for the communists in our region remains an analysis of the current situation in terms of internationalism and overcoming differences in our visions of the solutions of national issues. Comrades, we would like to pay your attention as well to one specific part of our activity. In the conditions of capitalist restoration, religious institutes play an important role in formation of public consciousness almost in all Post-Soviet republics. In Georgia the church directly will get into political processes. Unfortunately, communistic movement in Georgia, as well as in some other countries, is exposed to a certain influence from official religious institutes. The matter is that there was a specific situation: traditional religious institutes appeared in opposition on the relation of the American imperialism in reply that they underwent the strong competition from generously financed by the West and different religious trends imported from the West. Therefore communists mistakenly consider church the ally in fight against the American hegemony and almost ceased to criticize their frankly reactionary, disorientation role in workers masses.
had to re-create the material basis for the elementary political activities. Taking part in the recent presidential elections, we have seen once again that the idea of socialism in Georgia is strong. The fact is that for 20 -plus years of profound and permanent crisis of capitalism clearly demonstrated all the Advantages of the socialist experience. Middle and older generation in its absolute majority with approval remembers Georgia’s Soviet past and curses replace the current social system. In all meetings and several television appearances that could organize as part of the presidential election, we felt the enthusiasm and moral support from the population. The Central Committee of the Unified Communist Party of Georgia thanks the Portuguese comrades for organizing a major international meeting, which is absolutely necessary for the ideological improve, to strengthen our ranks and international solidarity! Thank you!
At this stage, in front of the Unified Communist Party of Georgia, the task of strengthening the organizational and ideological after 9year-old pro-fascism dictatorship. The party
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GERMAN COMMUNIST PARTY PATRIK KOBELE
Dear comrades, The global crisis of capitalism has seriously affected hundreds of millions of human beings, many states and many peoples. It confirmed: Who talks about the crises must not remain silent about capitalism, and who wants to overcome the crises must overcome capitalism. The rulers did a lot to cover up capitalism in its imperialist phase as the true cause of the crisis. Capital’s propagandists claim the revival is coming and the crisis overcome. There is little incidence for this. Too deep are the European Union’s structural distortions. In addition, we know that cyclical interim highs and periods of recovery but prepare the next crisis. The economic crisis und the role of German imperialism require a special consideration. The financial capital in Germany—the amalgamation of the banking capital and the industry—had made use of the previous governments, green and social democratic as much as conservative and neoliberal, to convert Germany into a low-wage country compared to its extremely high productivity, and to lower the real wage. As a result, German imperialism was able to consolidate its hegemony in Europe even during the crisis. It developed an economic aggression as a kind of export juggernaut, which primarily the so called peripheral European countries are suffering from. In this field it is supported by its financial and technological superiority and its dominance within the EU administration. Hence, a large share of the German capital has come through the crisis more or less unharmed. And so they succeeded to maintain illusions of partnership of wage labour and capital among a large share of the working class. This has been exacerbated by nationalist tendencies based on the tales of the “diligent
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German” different from the “lazy Greek”, the “lazy Spaniard”, the “lazy Italian”, and so on and so forth. The result of the latest federal elections must be viewed against this background. Basically, it expresses the general consciousness—also among the working class—in our country. Large parts follow localist logics and identify themselves with “their” enterprise, “their” bosses, and “their” superiors. Their motto is “My company is my castle.” The particularly market radical Liberal Democratic Party (FDP) is no longer represented in the parliament. But a new right-wing party—the “Alternative for Germany”— massively gained votes and only narrowly missed the threshold for parliamentary representation. There is strong incidence they will have deputies in the European Parlament from 2014. In this situation, apparently there will be a grand coalition between social democrats and conservatives. For the working class in our country, and also for the peoples in Europe and the world this will not be an advancement. Internationally and on EU level, both agree on politics which will try to fortify and expand German imperialism’s hegemony in political, economical and military terms. Any illusions would be misleading. German imperialism’s abstention from the war against Libya—which ignored all international law—did not express its desire for peace. It was simply hoping for their interests to be put forward more effectively another way. The parliamentary opposition now is formed through deputies from the Green Party and The Left party.
In most districts we, the German Communist Party, called on voting for The Left party. We did not do so, because they would substitute a communist party, but because there is an accordance in topical demands, and because they had a realistic chance to enter the parliament. Regarding their objective role and their platform, The Left party is a leftist social democratic force. However, induced by its historic origin in the “Socialist Unity Party of Germany—SED”, in the past the Marxist-Leninist ruling party in the GDR, there still is a number of members who consider themselves communists. In that party, there is a permanent struggle between various currents. However, it is less prevalent between communists and so called “democratic socialists”, but rather between those forces who leer at coalitions with Greens and social democrats, and those who are more or less fundamentally opposed. Dear comrades, As you might know, last spring the 20th national congress of our party has resulted in a change in the party’s leadership. To a journalist’s question about which mood among the majority of the members of our party was expressed through this, I responded: “I believe, the vast majority of the DKP members is convinced that developments which we observe globally, in Europe, and also in Germany, and which we experience ourselves, do not demand for less, but for more of a communist party. And I am sure that this majority of members also agrees upon how to understand this. It is the desire for a party which analyses the world with Marx’s, Engels’s, and Lenin’s ideas, and which considers its pivotal task to advance the
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working class from a class as such to a class for itself by making it realise that finally the contradiction between wage labour and capital is behind the manifold single contradictions. They desire a party which is aware of this contradiction only to be sublated by the revolutionary break of the prevailing relations of property and in society, and which wants to convey this awareness. Finally there is the desire for a party which states that this break requires the working class to take over the power from the bourgeoisie in alliance with others, if you want to build socialism as an alternative to capitalism. All this makes the necessity for the communist party as an autonomous organisation, and the vast majority of the members of DKP wants this not only to be confirmed in theory, but also wants to demonstrate this in the streets.” In this regard the 20th national congress of DKP has taken important decisions through its main motion “DKP responds to the crisis”, through resolutions on tasks in labour and union politics, on the demand for a 30 hour working week with full wage and staff compensation, on the orientation towards more intense communist local politics and on collaboration with the friendly Socialist German Workers’ Youth SDAJ. Of course, discussions inside DKP have not come to an end. We will have to continue the contentual debates, and at the same time we have to prevent fractional hardenings. The combination of discussion and joint action will be crucial here.
Thus, we attach high value to the collaboration of communist and workers’ parties and hope that also this our meeting serves to intensify the collaboration.
On the international level, the 20th national congress has decided for the priority of collaboration with communists and workers’ parties. It also decided to effectuate DKP’s status as but an observer in the European Left Party, and to decide on remaining in or withdrawing from the ELP on the 21st national congress.
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE GIORGOS MARINOS
Dear comrades, We thank the Portuguese Communist Party for the hospitality and we salute the representatives of the CPs, which participate in the 15thInternational Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties. The KKE honours the communist Alvaro Cunhal, General Secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party, an illustrious figure of the comunist movement, on the occasion of the 100 year anniversary of his birth this year. Alvaro Cunhal devoted his life to the struggle for the interests of the working class, for the cause of socialism, was a strong supporter of the principle of proletarian internationalism. The struggles of this generation of communists inspire us to continue our struggle more decisively in order to implement the tasks that we have ahead of us, to overthrow the outdated capitalist system. Dear comrades, The developments we are witnessing confirm the assessment that capitalism is becoming continually more reactionary and dangerous, it gives rise to crises and wars. It condemns millions of workers to unemployment, poverty, it can not satisfy the expanded needs of the people. This situation manifests itself all over the globe and the communist movement is obliged to make the greatest possible effort for its own independent ideological, political and mass struggle, to acquire a unified revolutionary strategy. We assess that it is precisely this issue that must take its due position in all the discussions of the CPs in combination with the coordinated activity on the people’s problems in conflict with capital’s forces. The communist movement must answer this crucial question, with what strategy will it be able to stand on solid ground and express as effectively as possible the inter-
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ests of the working class, the popular strata in a line of conflict with capitalist barbarity. Treating socialism not as a goal for the distant future, but as an issue of the daily activity as its timeliness is highlighted by the torments of the peoples. From this standpoint, we would like to focus our attention on issues where different opinions, disagreements are expressed in the communist movement, taking into account that the position which argues that we can proceed “on the basis of what we agree on” leads to complacency, does not allow a deeper examination of the weaknesses and the taking of measures in order to deal with matters of strategic importance, which are necessary for the regroupment of the communist parties, so that they can fulfill their role as the vanguard of the working class.
First, the problem of the crisis also concerned us in previous international meetings, but unfortunately we observe that there remain approaches that talk of a “crisis of neo-liberalism”, a “financial crisis”. These approaches are limited to incriminating a form of capitalism’s management, exonerating the social-democratic, neo-Keynesian management, the capitalist system itself. These positions absolutize the role of banking capital, underestimating the role of other sections of capital, bypassing the reality of the merging of industrial and banking capital, the role of finance capital that is a characteristic trait of capitalism in its highest imperialist stage today. The problem is deeper and is related to the laws of the system’s operation. The crisis manifests itself periodically in the capitalist states, irrespective of the form of bourgeois management.
The peoples are facing a capitalist crisis of over-production and capital over-accumulation, the preconditions of which were created in the conditions of the growth of the capitalist economy. The capitalist crisis which stops the expanded reproduction of social capital has its basis in the basic contradiction of the system, in the social character of production and in the capitalist appropriation of its results due to the capitalist ownership of the means of production. It is precisely this that is the source of surplus value and exploitation, the source of the anarchic and uneven development that characterizes the system. The strengthening of the monopolies, the internationalization of the capitalist economy sharpen the anarchic development, sharpen the contradictions with greater intensity and lead to deeper crises, to a tougher competition amongst the major business groups and the capitalist states, and bring imperialist wars closer. Problems emerged during the crisis which are related to the struggle of the CPs and the labour and people’s movement and allow us to provide some examples. The bourgeois governments, liberal, socialdemocratic, and with the participation of the governmental left, imposed harsh anti-people measures in Greece. Memoranda and loan agreements with the EU, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund were signed, but the attack on the working class and people’s rights is not exclusively related to the memoranda, as the European Left Party and other opportunist forces claim in order to support the “anti-memorandum line” and to exonerate the more general strategy of capital.
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The truth is that the measures that were imposed are included in the strategy of the European Union, in the strategy of the monopolies, using the capitalist restructurings since the beginning of the 1990s. This strategy seeks the reduction of the price of labour power, the strengthening of the competitiveness of the European monopolies against their competitors, especially against the major business groups of the emerging capitalist powers of China, India, Brazil where the levels of the price of labour power are very low . In this framework, the anti-people measures are not only implemented in states that have signed a memorandum but also in many other capitalist states in Europe and all over the world. The confrontation over the forms of management of the capitalist economy is intensifying during the crisis. Two blocs of economic and political forces have been formed in Greece. The one with as its core the ND-PASOK government together with the EU which is in favour of the harsh fiscal policy and the other with SYRIZA, the International Monetary Fund and the USA, which support a more relaxed fiscal policy with the aim of strengthening the state-funding of the monopolies. These management proposals respond to the needs of specific sections of capital and are a part of the more general inter-imperialist competition. In conclusion, we can say that each form of bourgeois management serves the profitability of the monopolies through the imposition of the anti-people measures, the intensification of the exploitation of the working class, the deterioration of the situation for the popular strata.
On the basis of the different forms of bourgeois management of the system, (liberal or Keynesian), the reformation of the political scene is being promoted in Greece so that the bourgeois class can control the developments, impede the class struggle, insert every kind of barrier in the face of the struggle of the KKE and the class-oriented movement. The reformation is expressed through the creation of a centre-right pole with the liberal ND party as its axis and the centre-left pole with SYRIZA as its axis. Our party wants to inform the CPs that the ELP and other opportunist forces are attempting in a planned way to distort the reality and present SYRIZA as a pro-people force, which is fighting for the interests of the workers against capital. The truth is that SYRIZA as an opportunist formation which developed into a pillar of social-democratic management is supported by sections of the bourgeois class, it is a defender of capitalism and the European Union. It is a party that extolled the political line of Obama as progressive and fostered the myth that a new wind would blow for the workers in Europe with the election of Hollande. A feature of the reformation of the bourgeois political system in Greece is also the criminal fascist organization of Golden Dawn. Golden Dawn is the creation of capitalism, it is supported by the bourgeois state and its mechanisms. It developed with the toleration of the bourgeois parties in order to operate as capital’s force of repression to strike against the labour and people’s movement, against the communists. Our party argues that the isolation and crushing of Golden Dawn is a matter for the organized struggle of the working class, the people’s alliance. This struggle can not be carried out through the so-called anti-
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fascist fronts which bourgeois and opportunist forces propose, but through the struggle that has as its goals the abolition of the causes which give rise to fascism, the overthrow of capitalist exploitation, the conflict with the EU which has anti-communism as its official ideology and promotes the anti-historical equation of fascism with communism. Second, reality demonstrates that in conditions of capitalist crisis the inter-imperialist contradictions are sharpening, as well as the competition for the acquisition of new areas to invest accumulated capital, for the control of natural resources. On this terrain, the causes of military conflicts and multifaceted interventions are being formed. This is something that we are experiencing in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, in many regions of the globe. The KKE is opposed to the imperialist wars, is fighting against Greece’s involvement and has clarified that in any case, whatever form Greece’s participation in an imperialist war takes, the KKE must be ready to lead the independent organization of the workers’-people’s resistance, so that this struggle is linked to the struggle for the defeat of the bourgeois class, both of the domestic bourgeois class and the foreign one as an invader. The KKE must take the initiative, in line with the specific conditions, for the formation of the workers’ and people’s front with as its slogan: “the people will bring the liberation and the way-out from the capitalist system, which as long as it prevails brings war and “peace” with the gun to the people’s head.”
This position is of particular importance for the international communist movement and protects the peoples from being entrapped by the one or the other section of the bourgeois class, by the one or the other imperialist alliance. This is even more important as in recent years there is an attempt for the view about a so-called “multi-polar world” to be adopted and for false dilemmas to be posed which aim at manipulating the peoples and entangling them in the inter-imperialist competition. Third, the stance of the communists and the peoples against the imperialist system and the imperialist union is of great importance. When he spoke about imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, Lenin was speaking first of all about the economic basis of the system, the dominance of the monopolies. In his work “Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism”, he mentioned that: “Unless the economic roots of this phenomenon are understood and its political and social significance is appreciated, not a step can be taken toward the solution of the practical problem of the communist movement” This position is of great importance for our analysis. The European Union is not dangerous only due to its course of “unification” (integration) but also due to the fact that it is an inter-state, imperialist union of the monopolies. Both the European Union, as well as the other unions that emerged in Asia or in Latin America and also the BRICS have a specific economic base, they are supported on the cooperation and merging of the strength of the major business monopoly groups and despite the contradic-
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tions that manifest themselves in their ranks their basic criterion is their own interests, the control of the markets and consequently they are against the peoples and their rights. Imperialism is not merely an aggressive foreign policy, it is capitalism in its final, highest stage, it is a system in which the capitalist states are assimilated and they take their position in line with their economic, military and political strength. In these conditions it is very important to deal with the issues of “dependency” and “sovereignty” on a class basis. The issue must begin to be discussed, we must concern ourselves because it has very serious political consequences, the mistaken treatment of this leads to the support for management solutions and to an alliance policy with sections of the bourgeois class, with political forces that are defenders of the exploitative system. The 19th congress of the KKE assessed that in the framework of uneven development “Capitalism in Greece is in the imperialist stage of its development, in an intermediate position in the international imperialist system, with strong uneven dependencies on the USA and the EU.” That is to say, the basic issue is the uneven development of capitalism which forms relations of uneven dependency and interdependency and for this reason positions that present Greece as well as other states with a lower position in the imperialist pyramid as being occupied, as being colonies have no basis. Of course, as long as the bourgeois class has the reins of power it builds international relations according to its class interest and on this basis it cedes sovereign rights. The concepts
of “independence”, “sovereignty” are concepts with a class content and they must be dealt with in a direction which stresses that the working class with its own power can become the master in its own country, choose the path of development that corresponds to its own interests and build the respective international relations with disengagement from the EU, NATO and the other imperialist unions. In addition we want to note that the colonies as an element of the historical course of capitalism have disappeared. This is the undeniable reality. Colonialism was overthrown through the struggle of the peoples and the major contribution of socialism. This page has been turned and unfortunately today positions are reviving which present the uneven relations of capitalist states inside the imperialist system as a phenomenon of neocolonialism. Countries with developed monopoly capitalism, with a strong bourgeois class and bourgeois state are characterized as new colonies, an intermediate stage is being adopted as a form of bourgeois management for the resolution of these problems. Fourth, the character of our era is a fundamental issue for the elaboration of the revolutionary strategy. The objective facts prove that, irrespective of the counterrevolutionary overthrow of socialism in the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries, our era continues to be an era of transition from capitalism to socialism. Why? Because capitalism has decayed; because it is plagued by insurmountable contradictions; because it has exhausted its historical limits. The emergence and the development of monopolies, of the big joint-stock companies, the emergence and
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development of the working class, the entrance of capitalism into its higher imperialist stage underline that the material preconditions have matured which allow for the construction of the new socialist-communist society. This is a defining element of the Marxist-Leninist analysis of the developments as it shows the direction of the struggle of the communist parties that have the obligation to prepare themselves in a multifaceted way so as to meet the needs of the struggle for socialism-communism; so as to contribute to the maturation of the subjective factor, to the preparation of the working class as the vanguard class in the capitalist society, in order for it to play the leading role in the alliance with the popular strata and to struggle for the power. The formation of the political class consciousness cannot be carried out with the old tools for managing the system. Political positions that trap the working class into the bourgeois management with the form of intermediate stages between capitalism and socialism, political positions that support the participation in the one or the other government of bourgeois management which is labeled either as “left” or “progressive” have no place in the era of transition from capitalism to socialism. The power will be either in the hands of the bourgeois class i.e. the capitalists or in the hands of the working class. The means of production will be either under capitalist or social ownership. Regardless of their intentions, the solutions within the framework of the system not only do not constitute a form of approaching the socialist solution but on the contrary they favour the perpetuation of capitalism, they buy time for it, they foster illusions among the working people.
Our party does not at all diminish the importance of historical experience; it takes seriously into consideration the complex character of the political and social processes. It studies the developments in Chile but also in Portugal in the 1970s, it studies the recent experience in Cyprus and the developments in Latin America. On the basis of this study we can make the case and on the basis of the results that no management solution has been confirmed as a way for the transition to socialism and it could not have been otherwise. Because this path perpetuates the contradiction between capital and labour, can not prevent the capitalist crises, unemployment, exploitation because it maintains the causes that breed them, because capitalist profit continues to be the criterion of development. The choice of the intermediate stages violates a commonly accepted position, the position that between capitalism and socialism-communism there is no intermediate socio-economic system, no intermediate political power. Of course the communists struggle inside the bourgeois parliaments for the promotion and the defense of the people’s rights combining and giving priority to the extra-parliamentary activity but this has no relation with the adoption of parliamentary views that sow confusion that a pro-people solution can emerge through the bourgeois institutions. The parliamentary path which historically has been extolled by the opportunist forces is one of the most significant factors that lead to the assimilation of strong Communist Parties, to the reduction of the demands of the working people.
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History teaches. The rationale of reforms and the rejection of the revolutionary path, the rejection of the socialist revolution, constitute a painful retreat and negation of the most basic element that characterizes a Communist Party. The class struggle has its own laws which are founded on the contradiction between capital and labour which has a universal character and concerns the capitalist states as a whole. The class struggle is not restricted to the development of struggles in order to determine the conditions for the sale of labour power. But it is determined by the issue of the abolition of the capitalist exploitation, of the struggle for the conquest of power. The Communist Party in each country has the obligation to study the specific situation, the development of capitalism, the course of the sectors and the branches of economy, the changes in the superstructure, the class and social structure in order to chart a revolutionary strategy. However, this is totally different from the positions which in the name of national particularities negate the revolutionary strategy and replace the struggle for socialism by governmental solutions and a policy for alliances which correspond to the bourgeois management. The treatment of socialism merely as a declaration is causing great damage. It downgrades the strategic goal itself, the goal that determines the tactics, the stance of the Communist Parties as a whole, their work in the labour and people’s movement, their policy for alliances. In their programmatic declarations “Eurocommunism” and the other opportunist currents referred to socialism but their political line
negated the revolutionary path. In the name of national peculiarities they fought against the laws of the socialist revolution and construction. In the works of Carrillo and Berlinguer the term socialism appears deprived of its essence: without the working class power, the dictatorship of the proletariat, without the socialization of the means of production and central planning. They were talking about transformation, the democratization of the bourgeois state, of the dictatorship of the monopolies, they were fostering illusions about pro-people solutions through the parliamentary path, through the bourgeois government, the alliance with social democracy. Today, opportunist platforms have emerged which are equally dangerous as “Eurocommunism”, such as “market socialism”, “socialism of the 21st century”, which oppose scientific socialism. There is talk of a “social economy”, the utopia of a humanized capitalism is sought. In several cases there is an attempt to reduce, to negate the crucial importance of the class struggle at a national level in the name of “globalization”. In any case, the front against opportunism is an element of the confrontation with the capitalism system, with imperialism and any tolerance or retreat has a corrosive effect at the expense of the communist movement and its prospect. The so called European Left Party which is forming networks all over the world with the funds of the EU is causing great damage to the communist movement; it is a vehicle that promotes the strategy of the EU in the labour movement, it is inextricably linked with social democracy and it must be dealt with in a strict ideological-political way.
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Its core consists of forces which celebrated the overthrow of socialism, forces which in the framework of anticommunism identify themselves with various bourgeois and other reactionary forces in the name of “anti-Stalinism”. As a conclusion we can say that the class content and consequently the contemporary content of the ideological-political and mass struggle today is determined by the rupture, the conflict against the monopolies and the capitalist system, against the imperialist organizations. It is determined by the organization of the working class in the workplaces, by the formation of the alliance with the popular strata, the multi-faceted preparation for the overthrow of capitalism, for the socialist-communist society, for the abolition of the exploitation of man by man. Our duty is to reflect on the fact that Marx and Engels in their era, which was an era of bourgeois revolutions, spoke about the independent ideological-political struggle of the working class. Our duty is to take into account how deeply they studied the experience of the Paris Commune in 1871 and that they spoke of the necessity of the working class power, of the smashing of the bourgeois state. We have the duty to reflect on the experience of the great October Revolution in 1917 and to contribute to the adjustment of the programmatic directions of the Communist Parties, of their strategy to the requirements of our era. “Imperialism is the eve of the social revolution of the proletariat” stressed Lenin. A revolutionary situation was formed after the First World War in Germany, in Hungary, in Slovakia, in Italy. A revolutionary situation was formed in Greece in 1944 but the possibility was not transformed into a reality.
The crucial factor in order to wage decisively the battle is the prompt preparation of the communist parties and the working class for tough class confrontations that correspond to the needs of our era. The bourgeois democratic character of the revolution corresponded to the period of the overthrow of feudalism, when the bourgeois class was a revolutionary class. Now capitalism has replaced feudalism, the basic contradiction between capital and labour is sharpening. The programme of the KKE, which was approved unanimously by the recent 19th Congress, makes the following reference: “The Greek people will be liberated from the bonds of capitalist exploitation and the imperialist unions when the working class together with its allies carries out the socialist revolution and moves forwards to construct socialism-communism. The KKE’s strategic goal is the conquest of revolutionary working-class power, the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the socialist construction as the immature phase of the communist society. The revolutionary change in Greece will be socialist.” The motor forces of the socialist revolution will be the working class as the leading force, the semi-proletarians, the oppressed popular strata of the urban self-employed, the poor farmers, who are negatively affected by the monopolies. The programme of the KKE analyses the issue of the objective factors that may lead to a revolutionary situation (those below who no longer wish to live as they used to and those above who cannot govern as they used to). It gives a particular emphasis to the deepening
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of the capitalist crisis and the involvement of Greece in an imperialist war, it paves the way for the preparation of the party, and the labour and people’s movement. The KKE and PAME play a leading role in the class struggle and have a significant contribution to the development of dozens of strike mobilisations and other multifaceted struggles. Nevertheless, we note that the labour and people’s movement was not well prepared and organised so as to deal with the aggressiveness of capital in the conditions of the capitalist crisis. The negative correlation of forces, the impact of the employer and government-led trade unionism, the role of opportunism, social democracy, the labour aristocracy, which support the strategy of capital, are crucial factors. Today in conditions of non-revolutionary situation our party gives priority to: The regroupment of the labour movement so that it becomes capable of meeting the needs of the class struggle, so that the working class fulfils its role as the vanguard class in society, as a vehicle of the revolutionary change. The regroupment of the labour movement means strong, mass trade unions that will struggle in a class direction, based on the workers, on the young working people, the women, the immigrants, through collective procedures that safeguard the participation in decision-making and the implementation of the decisions. Strengthening of PAME, of the class-oriented rally in the labour movement, the change of the correlation of forces at the expense of the forces of reformism, opportunism, employer and government-led trade unionism, the vehicles of social partnership. Strong party organizations in the factories, in enterprises of strategic importance.
The labour movement is struggling in a militant and organized way concerning all the problems of the working class based on the criterion of the contemporary needs, achieving the orientation of confrontation against the forces of capital for the overthrow of the capitalist exploitation as well as a high level of class unity. The working class with its vanguard stance must play the leading role in the construction of the people’s alliance that provides an answer to the question regarding the organization of the struggle to repel the barbaric anti-labour- anti-people measures, to organize the people’s counterattack. The People’s Alliance expresses the interests of the working class, the semi-proletarians, the self employed and the poor farmers, the young people and the women of the poor popular strata in the struggle against the monopolies and capitalist ownership, against the assimilation of the country into the imperialist unions. The People’s Alliance is a social alliance and struggles in terms of the movement, following a line of rupture and overthrow. Today it is being formed on the basis of the common struggle of PAME, the class-oriented rally in the labour movement, of PASY among the poor farmers, PASEVE among the self-employed, MAS among students, OGE among women. It struggles for salaries, pensions, for an exclusively public and free system for healthcare, welfare, education, for all the problems of the workers and the people. It supports the view that the struggle for a pro-people way out from the crisis is inextricably linked with the struggle for the disengagement from the EU, the unilateral cancellation of the public debt.
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The struggle for the disengagement from the EU is linked with the struggle against the power of the monopolies and the struggle of the working class and its allies, for working class- people’s power. The People’s Alliance adopts the socialization of the concentrated means of production, the central planning, the workers’-social control. The rallying of the majority of the working class with the KKE and the winning over of vanguard sections of the popular strata will go through various phases. The labour movement, the movement of the self-employed in the cities and the farmers and the form of their alliance, the people’s alliance, with the anti-monopoly and anticapitalist goals, with the vanguard activity of the KKE’s forces in non-revolutionary conditions, constitute the first form for the creation of the revolutionary workers’ and people’s front in revolutionary conditions. In the conditions of the revolutionary situation, the revolutionary workers’ and people’s front, using all forms of activity, can become the centre of the people’s uprising for the overthrow of the dictatorship of the bourgeois class, for the prevalence of revolutionary institutions that undertake the new organization of society, the establishment of revolutionary working class power which will be based on the productive unit, the social services, the administrative units, the producer cooperatives. Under the responsibility of the workers’ power: The means of production will be socialized: in industry, energy-water supply, telecommunications, construction, repair, public transport, wholesale and retail trade,
import-export trade, the concentrated tourist – restaurant infrastructures. Land will be socialized as well as the capitalist agricultural cultivations. Private ownership and economic activity in education, health-welfare, culture, sports and mass media will be abolished. They will be organized exclusively as social services. State productive units will be created for the production and the processing of agricultural products. Agricultural producer cooperatives will be promoted. Central Planning integrates the labour force, means of production, raw materials and other industrial materials and resources, which will be used in the organization of production, social and administrative services. This is a communist relation of production and distribution that links the working people with the means of the production, the socialist organizations. The overthrow of socialism is a heavy blow for the communist movement and the causes of the overthrow teach the essential compliance with the laws of the socialist construction, the observance of the revolutionary principles for the construction and the functioning of the Communist Parties, the ideological-political alertness for the prevention of opportunist mistakes and deviations. This is a duty of high importance. Nevertheless, the counterrevolution cannot overshadow the irreplaceable historical contribution of socialism which was constructed in the 20th century to social progress. The stance of each communist party is judged in relation to the defense of socialism against the slanderous attacks of bourgeois and opportunist forces.
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Dear comrades, The KKE, which undertook the responsibility for the organization of the International Meetings after the counterrevolution, will continue the effort for the joint action and the formation of a unified revolutionary strategy of the communist movement, despite the difficulties. It will continue to contribute to the International Meetings of the Communist Parties insisting on the preservation of their communist character confronting views or plans that support the transformation of the meetings into a space of the “left”. Our party is decisively opposed to the transformation of the Working Group into a “guiding center”, directly or indirectly, and rejects the adoption of positions that violate tested communist principles, introducing positions that lead to the support of the bourgeois management. The KKE devotes its forces, as it has always done, for the coordination of the struggle of the Communist Parties in Europe and considers that the INITIATIVE of communist and workers’ parties to research and study European issues is a great achievement for the strengthening of the struggle against the imperialist EU. In the conditions of the crisis of the communist movement our party supports the idea of the creation of a discrete Marxist-Leninist pole and supports the effort of the “International Communist Review” in which 11 theoretical journals of communist parties take part.
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PEOPLE’S PROGRESSIVE PARTY OF GUYANA NAVIN CHANDARPAI
Dear Comrades, The Peoples’ Progressive Party of Guyana extends warm revolutionary greetings to all participants of this 15th International Meeting and to the glorious Parties they represent. We express also our special thanks to our hosts, the Communist Party of Portugal for the excellent working conditions they have provided for the success of our meeting. Our 15th Meeting is taking place with our planet continuing to suffer from the effects of the global economic and financial crisis that has rocked the world since 2007. The crisis which has been described as the worst since the late 1920s and early 1930s must be clearly seen as a structural crisis of capitalism. While it originated in the USA and spread to Europe and other Developed countries initially, the impact has been disastrous for developing countries the word over. Our own region, the Caribbean, was also hard hit. Many of the region’s economies went into shock as tourism declined sharply and unemployment soared. The region is still feeling the severe impact of the crisis where huge debts have been accumulating in some countries and development efforts are greatly restricted. The people of the Caribbean are highly influenced by the ruling class in the USA resulting from the USA’s treatment of the region as its backyard. We need to give greater attention to the developments in the Caribbean particularly in the context of the special vulnerability of these small island and low lying coastal developing states referred to in the UN system as SIDS. The effects of the crisis, however, are not confined to any particular region. There are devastating social impacts on people throughout the world. The developed economies have adopted vari-
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ous forms of austerity programmes, cutting back on public expenditure and social spending. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) some twenty seven million persons lost their jobs since the crisis began. Wages and salaries are still not at the pre-crisis level. In fact many employers, even those companies that are making healthy profits, have taken advantage of the crisis conditions and are forcing workers to accept cuts in salaries to keep their jobs. Added to this is the fact that thousands of people have lost their homes and many more have been devastated because they have lost their life savings as many banks went bankrupt. In some parts of the world, including in the developed world, this has given rise to regrowth in poverty including hunger and malnutrition. The paradox in this situation is that the world is producing more than enough food to feed the population. Yet hunger and poverty still persist. It is all the more distressing when we consider that according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) a huge quantity of food is dumped or spoilt daily. Something is fundamentally wrong with the system which breeds poverty and starvation in the midst of plenty. The global economic and social conditions have generated a great response from working people across the world. Much of this is still reverberating. We have seen the growth of popular movements and they are raising very serious issues as to the root causes of the crisis.
The responses in countries have varied in terms of the types and extents of actions, the objectives and the leading forces. There is a great need for our Parties to increase our influence in these processes. A major hurdle has been the strong impact of the anti-communist propaganda which hides the true nature of the crisis and prevents the large majority of people from even thinking of the socialist alternative. Our collective task is to skillfully educate the masses on the major contradictions inherent in the capitalist system as they relate to the manifestations of the current crisis. We cannot expect them to accept these ideas easily at this time. However, we have to return to the time-tested method of consistent, persistent, pain-staking work to win the battle of ideas. In the same way, we cannot expect the various forces protesting against the impacts of the crisis to agree in all aspects with our objectives and tactics. Our challenge is to find ways to develop strong working relations and to engage together in actions which, though limited, can win even the short term gains. These victories can help to prevent some of the intended measures to transfer the impacts of the crisis onto the working people, increase the contradictions, build confidence and encourage advances to higher levels of struggle. We cannot afford to trail the popular actions. We need to assert our vanguard role through creative approaches to diverse forces against the common enemy of monopoly capitalism and its oppressive actions. Dear Comrades, On the global scale, it is necessary for us to intensify our work with the world’s democratic,
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peace loving and progressive forces to bring solutions to the global problems of the day. As Parties across the globe promoting the interests of the masses, we need to make our voices heard in the global debate centered at the United Nations on the post 2015 development agenda. Many Governments are content to promote minimal measures to effect cosmetic treatment for the chronic diseases affecting global development. We have to seek ways to move world leaders to deal with the systemic issues critical to achieving genuine sustainable development with emphasis on poverty eradication and reducing inequality in its various forms. It may be useful for Governing Parties here present to take the lead in influencing the Governments of the Group of G 77 and China to pursue measures to this effect. It is also necessary for our Parties in the BRICS to ensure that their Governments also work towards this objective. Towards this objective, the call made by the late founding leader of our Party and President of Guyana Dr. Cheddi Jagan for a New Global Human Order rings much more loudly today than ever. At the World food summit in November, 1996 Dr Jagan proposed a new approach to development which he described as a New Global Human Order. “My friends, we need a scientific, realistic and people centered development strategy. This is why, I have advocated the need for a New Global Human Order premised on sustainable economic development, equity, social and ecological justice and based on the creation of a separate Global Development Fund for assistance to both the North and the South.
We must put in place a system whose objectives will be to invest directly in the poor, to seek out opportunities for entrepreneurship among the marginalized, and to provide the social and infrastructural services which would enable the poor to become self reliant and productive members of the global community.” In this regard, it was a very welcome development that the President of the UN General Assembly convened a High Level Meeting on Inequality as a direct result of resolutions of the UN entitled “The Role of the United Nations in the promotion of a new global human order.” There is a need for a new architecture for global governance based on genuine cooperation among all states - developed and developing, big and small. This is especially necessary in view of the additional burdens to vulnerable nations created by the reality of climate change and the increasing incidence of natural disasters. Such an architecture must seek to reduce the growing gaps between and within countries, providing effective forms of assistance to the less developed nations and removing those harsh measures such as the Trade rules of the World Trade Organisation which strangle the less developed economies and undermine their efforts for socio-economic growth. Dear Comrades, In Guyana, there are some national peculiarities in the development of our political landscape since the beginning of the cold war that may be helpful in understanding the dynamics in countries which obtained political independence only after the end of the Second World War. Our Party, the Peoples’ Progressive Party was
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formed in 1950 and immediately became a strong national movement for political independence with a socialist orientation. It repeatedly won parliamentary elections in both the pre-independence and post-independence periods.
ness with and exposure to the global economic system, with our major commodity exports dependent on world market prices, with imported price pressures especially in relation to key inputs like fuel, and with other imported challenges.
Before Independence which finally came in 1966, it was twice removed from Government through the intervention of Imperialist powers. The first was in 1953 by the British Colonial power which sent British soldiers in two warships to the country and then in 1964 by the combined manoeuvres of the US and British with direct involvement of the CIA in subversive activities and by constitutional manipulations by the colonial power.
We have however, by prudent management of our economy managed to move our country forward but could have done much better if these constraints were removed.
The result was that at the dawn of Independent Nationhood, a puppet pro-imperialist coalition government had been installed. That initiated a period of 28 years of dictatorship, baptized though fraudulent elections enforced by the military. By the time we were successful in the struggle for the return of democracy based on free and fair elections, the country was in total ruins both economically and socially. Our Party which won those elections in 1992, started the process of rebuilding, inheriting a huge national debt and a burdensome and restrictive structural adjustment agreement with the International Monetary Fund. Such an inheritance, coupled with consistent disruptive actions by the opposition party which was the former ruling party, caused severe constraints on our developmental process. Additionally in the entire period since, we have had to contend with a very hostile global environment stacked against the aspirations of developing countries. This includes the reality of our continued interconnected-
On the macroeconomic front, we sustained an exceptional trend of real growth in gross domestic product, with uninterrupted positive growth in the last seven years. Throughout this reconstruction effort, our Party in office never shirked the difficult policy choices that had to be made, eschewing at all times partisan preferences, political expediency, and short term considerations, in favour always of that which was and is good for Guyana and the Guyanese people in the long term. Alongside all of these improvements, our Government’s policies have continued to place the greatest of emphasis on protecting and supporting the most vulnerable. Indeed our Party, as set out in our Programme, has been pursuing the National Democratic path of development. Based on our experiences of advances and setbacks, we feel the time is right for a collective consideration by the ICWP of the theory and practice of National Democracy in the conditions of the Global crisis and today’s realities. Among the issues that have been engaging our attention are: n
The broadening of Local Democracy and the merits and demerits of decentralization of essential operations to give greater authority to the Local Structures of Government
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The struggle against corrupt practices by state functionaries and the massive efforts by hostile media to massively magnify such occurrences and attach political responsibility to the Ruling Party The financial and other constraints to satisfying the growing demands of the population in various parts of the country and the political fall-out from some of the dissatisfied electorate fanned by the political opposition The recurring issue of how to deepen national unity in the context of deep divisions in the society and the need for electoral alliances
Our commitment to the Guyanese masses and our steadfastness in doing as much as we can to meet their needs have served our country well, and ensured our re-election to Government in successive general elections. Today however, many of those gains we made are threatened not only by the external factors but also by internal political intrigues. At the last General Elections which took place on the 28th November, 2011, the combined opposition managed to obtain a one seat majority in the National Assembly. Dear Comrades, In assessing the causes of that set back, we have recognized the reduced attention we have been giving to maintaining and increasing the strength of our Party structures and the priorities in the work of our cadres. One major factor has been the wide scale movement of our best cadres to government functions and their focus more on governmental matters to the detriment of their political functions. This was compounded by the failure to treat effectively with the development
of new cadres. These are issues which the Party at its 30th Congress in August this year has placed as a priority of work in the coming period. Since the loss of our Parliamentary majority, the Combined Opposition has been trampling on the traditions of Parliamentary Democracy. We have also seen them using the Parliament to try to trample on the Constitution. A very disturbing factor in the equation is the interference by the top western diplomatic missions in Guyana publicly opposing some Government actions and supporting Opposition positions. The Opposition has displayed a total lack of principles and a readiness to back out of agreements to the detriment of the country. They have opposed major developmental projects including the production of hydro-electricity and the building of a Specialty Hospital to provide health treatment which currently has to be obtained overseas. In spite of the pressures arising from the global crisis and the obstacles posed by the parliamentary opposition, the PPP-Civic Government continues to work to improve the lives of all Guyanese. We are a Party of the working people of our country. We believe that the wealth produced must benefit all the people. We have fought for and continue to promote Equal Opportunity for all, for social and economic justice in our land. We maintain the same objectives at the global level. We support also the struggles worldwide of all peoples struggling against injustice and oppression for peace, democracy and the sovereignty of their countries. While we note the ups and downs in the international sphere, let us not forget that one of
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the most important issues remains the need for world peace.
did against the late champion of the poor, President Hugo Chavez.
We are always supportive of any measures that lead to the reduction of weapons, tensions and conflicts and condemn actions that lead in the opposite direction. That is why we are concerned with the recent modernization of weapons by NATO for its nuclear arsenal in Europe. That will only lead to actions to do the same by non NATO countries leading to an escalation of the arms race.
Dear Comrades,
We condemn the interference by imperialist forces in undermining progressive governments and in processes in many of the countries embroiled in serious conflicts. Special attention must be given to the Middle East where Imperialism has used military actions including invasions of countries to divert popular uprisings from their democratic path in order to impose their puppet groups. We condemn the brutal attacks on the Palestinian people and support their just demand for a State of their own. We call for an immediate end to the embargo against Cuba and the release of the 5 Cuban patriots jailed in the US on trumped up charges. The rise to power of progressive governments in Latin America and the Caribbean has deeply angered the US and other imperialist powers which are hell bent on destabilizing these governments and working to remove them. We need to maintain full solidarity with the progressive trend in the region which can be a great inspiration to struggles in other continents.
The People’s Progressive Party of Guyana urges that our deliberations at this 15th Meeting focus on developing effective strategies to create higher levels of understanding among people everywhere of the systemic nature of the current global crisis of capitalism and to re-ignite popular movements for the realization of the socialist alternative. Meeting here in Lisbon and hosted so well by the Communist Party of Portugal it is appropriate that we leave here with the inspiration of the Great Leader of the Portugese Working Class, Cde Alvaro Cunhal, whose birth centenary we have the honour and privilege to commemorate as a fitting climax to our 15th Meeting. In his Report to the 6th Congress of the PCP entitled “on the Path to Victory” Cde Cunhal gave the following charge: “The times require a stronger day-to-day action to ensure working class unity, the unity of the masses- which are the driving force of the great social transformations. They require a broader and stronger day-to-day action for the unity of all democrats and patriots, impetuously developing their organized strength.” This charge is as valid for today’s task as they were for the April Revolution of Portugal in 1974. Long live Proletarian Internationalism ! Long live Marxism-Leninism !
We especially condemn the US interference in Venezuela aimed at destabilizing the Government of President Maduro like they previously
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HUNGARIAN WORKERS’ PARTY ZSUZSANNA FRANKFURTER
Dear comrades, On behalf of the Hungarian Workers’ Party I express our thanks to the Portuguese Communist Party for organising this meeting. Until 1990 Hungary was a socialist country. You remember that 25 years ago a capitalist counterrevolution took place in our country. It was not because socialism was bad. Socialism was good for the majority. Socialism provided to everybody a normal life - full employment, free of charge education and healthcare, and first of all it guaranteed secure future. It did not allow to become very rich, but it did not allow to become very poor either. The counterrevolution took place for another reason. The point is that the international capital was forced to tolerate socialism but never accepted it, never pardoned socialism. They tried to overthrow socialism in 1956 but they could not achieve their aim. They did it in 1990. To achieve this they built up an internal opposition. Most of the actual top leaders of Hungary got their training in the US. There was one more moment - the activity of social democratic and liberal elements inside the ruling communist party. It was revisionism and opportunism, which paralysed the communist party. This is our historical experience. That’s why our party considers revisionism as the most dangerous enemy of communists. Left-wing communism is an infantile disorder, which passes. Revisionism is a cancer, which can spread also to other parts of our existence if we do not fight it. We consider absolutely necessary to fight against all forms of revisionism also today. 25 years ago the Hungarian opposition won the elections, took the political power and immediately changed the economic basis of the society. They privatised practically everything. Capitalism means market economy based on private property and multiparty parliamentary system. As you can see there
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has not been any step-by-step capitalisation. No! They took the political power and liquidated the political and economic basis of socialism. There is not either any step-by-step socialist revolution. The power belongs either to us or to the capitalists. If communist parties take the power they should transform the society at once. Today we fight against capitalism. We fight for better salary, for better life conditions, for a more democratic electoral law. With other words we fight for some reform of capitalism. But we know that capitalist forces can take back their reforms at the earliest opportunity. That’s why the real solution of the problems of the working people is socialism. Can we cooperate with other political forces? Yes, we can. Now in Hungary there are a lot of people who lose their flats and houses because they cannot pay their debts. We cooperate with them. There are other forces fighting against poverty and injustice. We cooperate with them. These forces come partly from the working masses, partly form the petty bourgeoisie. We cooperate with them. We cannot cooperate with the so called national bourgeoisie. It is true that they try to limit in some way the foreign capital but they are not interested in changing the Capitalist system, they want to keep it intact, so finally their interests coinside with the interests of the foreign and Hungarian big capital. We cannot cooperate with social democracy either. It is not the social democracy of the time of Marx. The present social democracy does not want to do anything in favour of the workers. Their only desire is to strengthen capitalism. They contributed to the counter-
revolution 25 years ago. Anticommunism is their banner also today. Capitalist forces want to destroy the communist movement in Hungary. Politically, financially, physically! They know very well that now we are weak. But nevertheless they are still afraid of us. They are afraid because they have not forgotten the era of socialism, when they were defeated in one part of the world and were forced to make concessions in other parts of it. Capitalist forces know that people have not forgotten socialism and they begin to remember it when facing the actual cruelties of capitalist societies. They are afraid of us because they know things can turn for the worse in the European Union. An in this case communists can get the support of the masses, and we can change Hungary. One can read in the Manifesto of the Communist Party: The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. It is true for our times and the future, too. If we want to win capitalism, we should fight following the rules of class struggle. Comrades, The Hungarian Workers’ Party participates in the international meetings of the communist and workers’ parties because we think that all of us have a common enemy, the capitalism, and if we want to win, we should fight together against our common enemy. Each party should decide what they want: to fight against capitalists or to make a compromise with them. We, Hungarian communists do not want any compromise with the capital. When the time comes and people will really need us, we should be ready to help them. We can do it only if we know the correct way. Our way is revolution.
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Our party has been participating in the international meetings from the very beginning. I would not say that this cooperation has given too much to the Hungarian communists and the Hungarian workers generally. No! But there was something very important. We could feel that we are not alone. We could use the experience of other parties. And this way we felt ourselves stronger. Our cooperation could be better. During the socialist time the Hungarian communists supported other parties not only with words but also with money and other essential forms of aid. Now such countries like China, Cuba, Vietnam and Korea stand beside the road and watch the life-and-death struggle of the communist movement in Hungary. Thanks to those parties, who did not abandon internationalism! They are our real friends. Our cooperation in its present form cannot solve the real problems the different parties face in their everyday life. But this cooperation is our achievement. We have given birth to it. And we should care and protect it. The Hungarian Workers’ Party recommends not to publish any common declaration. First, let’s be realists. The overwhelming majority of the working people do not read these lengthy documents. Second, this document contains a lot of positions, which do not correspond with the program and policy of our party and many other parties. We should continue the discussion, we should create new forums to discuss our problems but we must not endanger the unity of the communist movement even in its present limited form. We suggest to publish a communiqué for the press, and nothing more. If somebody wants to publish special positions, requests of solidarity, do it in the form of a motion, which
can be supported by those parties who want to. The Hungarian Workers’ Party does not accept the draft proposal regarding the Working Group. The limitation of WG to 15 parties would create a monopoly of the so-called large parties. We must not divide the communist movement into small parties and large parties. It violates our principles. On the other hand, who can decide what is small and what is large? Small parties which organise manifestations on the streets, strikes in the factories can have much more political influence than those parties which concentrate their activity on the bourgeois parliaments. The introducing of the voting system would divide our movement into majority and minority. We do not need it. It is absolutely unacceptable that the WG could have closed meetings. Closed from whom? From other communists? Let’s think seriously comrades: what would be the consequences of such a step! We suggest the following solution: all those parties can be the members of the Working Group which desire to do it, and have cadres who speak English and have money to pay their journeys, the costs of accommodation. The concerned parties should inform about their desire the annual plenary meeting of the communist and workers’ parties and the meeting can declare them without voting to become members of the WG for one year. We recommend to add one more point to suggestions for common or convergent actions. Let’s organise common actions on the 25th anniversary of the capitalist transition in the Eastern European countries. Thank you, comrades, forward to the revolution!
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA B DASSARADEN
Dear Comrades, The Communist Party of India (CPI) is thankful for the invitation to this august gathering of the Communist and Workers’ parties of the world to discuss the present crisis-ridden world situation and to take measures to meet it. We particularly want to express our sincere thanks to the Central Committee of the Portuguese Communist Party for hosting the 15th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers Parties. Dear comrades, We would like to put forward our observations on the present international situation. The present phase of contradictions and crises, which began in 2008 in the US, has not abated. On the contrary, it has spread further and has continued to deepen. It has spread to new areas of Europe, engulfing more and more countries. It is having impact of varying degrees on the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. For the first time the very centre of world imperialism, the US, is facing a ‘governmental and state shutdown’. The US has barely escaped a governmental breakdown, after the Senate and House of Representatives granted necessary funds. But that is only a postponement till early next year, when it will again face the problem. The event has shaken the entire capitalist and imperialist world. There is a deepening structural crisis of the world imperialist system, wherein all its basic economic and cultural values are being questioned, both traditional as well as new ones. There is a crisis of overproduction along with an over-accumulation of capital. These and other contradictions are the expressions of the fundamental conflict between the social character of production and its private appropriation. Among the new characteristics of the crisis is the deepening rift between the productive capital and finance capital. ‘Financialisation of capital’, a tendency to make money out of
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money, finds reflection in the rapid growth of the giant monopolies, corporates and conglomerates in financial sectors. The phenomenon has also a tendency to move the capital away from production and push it to speculative stock markets for quick profits. Speculation, sub-prime and securities market, forward trading and such features have grown to a stage where a separate market is emerging for the so-called ‘forward trading’, which only means ‘non-existing’ trading. The US and Europe are witnessing a strange phenomenon of extra-ordinary growth of capital, which at the same time is not available for productive investments. This is one of the major characteristics of the crisis in the US and world imperialism. Dear comrades, The economies in the developing or the emergent countries are also being affected by the present crisis. In the least developed countries, the meagre incomes and resources of the people are being negated by the growing crisis. Agriculture which is a basic sector of several developing countries including India is feeling the impact of the world crisis. The process of monetarisation and capitalisation is reflected in the growing costs of production, leading to large number of suicides of farmers in our country, who are not in a position to pay back the loans. They spend more on production and get less in return. Liberalisation and neo-liberal policies in several countries of the third world, in many cases forced upon them by the US imperialism, have put the economies of the developing countries in a disadvantageous position vis-à-vis the imperialist countries. Opening up to the world market, policies pursued by the US imperialism under the garb of globalisation, several unequal provisions of the WTO, and the increasing cost of production in in-
dustry and agriculture are putting pressure upon the various economies. Politics of oil is being conducted by the US, as also by some other advanced countries, to the maximum, leading to tension, conflicts and economic disasters, as evidenced in the countries of the Middle East and elsewhere. Oil is an important weapon of world imperialism. The achievements of science and technology and information revolution are being misused to the maximum in order to propagate imperialist ideology and cultural values as well as to gain economic profits and super-profits. All these do not mean that the path for the corporates and imperialism is going to be smooth. Non-monopoly and non-financial small and medium sector industry is giving tough competition to the big business houses. In India nearly 40-45 of production is in this sector. Thus, the sector forms an important component of struggle against world imperialism. Dear comrades, Unfortunately the advantage of the present situation is being taken by the rightwing reactionary movements and forces all over the world. It is true that the people’s movements in various countries are opposing effectively the machinations of imperialism. We have to ensure that the world Communist movement takes advantage of the people’s dissatisfaction and anger, channelises them and builds an effective joint mass movement. The revolutionary, Communist and democratic forces must build giant waves against the onslaught of imperialism. The situation of crisis of imperialism contains tremendous possibilities for the growth of the Communist movement. People have to be mobilised for democracy and socialism.
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Dear comrades, We are witnessing a resurgence and realignment of forces at the world-scale. New developments are taking place, which fill us with hope and inspire confidence. For one thing, the plans of US imperialism to create a unipolar world have not succeeded. Multiple groupings of various countries are coming up, including the important one of the BRICS countries, as also in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Their importance lies in the fact that they indicate an emergence of a strong multi-polar world. The regional groupings can and should transform their high rates of growth into equitable distribution system of the social and economic produce, thus paving the way for a more democratic order of things. New sections of younger people are fast coming up as a result of socio-economic and technological changes. They need to be organised. They are already asserting themselves for a new order, as evidenced by the movements in Latin America and the US. The ‘sit-in’ movements in the US have become a wide and effective phenomenon. The slogan of a ‘new world is possible’ is reverberating throughout the world. Dear comrades, Imperialism being in deep crisis, we need to bring together all the forces against imperialism and domination. The US policies of policing the world are being resented deeply. It may have succeeded in Iraq, but not so or not so easily in other countries. This is exemplified by Syria. It is possible to throw back imperialism, and begin creating a new world. Events in Latin America, Europe, countries of Asia including our own give us new hope. Therefore, the Communist movement and Communist and Workers’ parties have to play
a pioneering role in bringing about this unity. The importance of democracy and of democratic institutions has increased as never before. This is evident in many countries and continents, in particular in Latin America and many countries in Asia. Parliamentary institutional rights have been won as a result of our own prolonged struggles. They must not be thrown away. They should be utilised fully and extended further for the interest of the working class and toiling masses. A world-wide powerful anti-imperialist front and cooperation is the urgent demand of the situation. Dear comrades, Within the framework of the struggle against the policies of imperialist globalisation the CPI is trying its best to mobilise people against liberalism, privatisation, neo-liberalism, forces of right reaction and communal-fascism, corporatisation and imperialist penetration in India. In the recent past, our party, singly and along with other left and democratic forces, has conducted several mass mobilisations and movements of the people, including all India strikes, picketing, all India ‘March to Parliament’, state level people’s marches, the long-drawn struggle against POSCO, struggles of the tribals in Chhattisgarh, movements of youth and students, two-day all India strike of the working class jointly with other TU centres and parties and organisations early this year, and many other notable struggles. We are also proud of the fact that it is the CPI which has constantly made most efforts for left and democratic unity. We believe that joint actions and subsequent unification of class and mass organisations is a crucial task which will enhance immensely the role in society of workers, peasants, intellectuals,
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youth and students, women and other sections. Social reform organisations and social action groups that stand for social justice and democratic progress have also to be mobilised for the upcoming movements as also for unity of all the Communist parties on a principled basis. We certainly have achieved some successes in the work towards left and democratic unity.
the Communist and Workers Parties with all good wishes. Thank you
Dear comrades, Finally I want to state that the CPI is firmly wedded to the goal of a just socialist society which will clear the way for ending all forms of exploitation and social oppression arising from class, caste and gender differences. Repudiating all dogmatic and doctrinaire thinking and revisionist trends, the Party will apply the science of Marxism-Leninism to the specific conditions of India for charting out the path to such a new socialist society. This path will be determined by the specific historical conditions obtaining, as well as the particular characteristics and features of our own country, its history, tradition, culture, social composition and level of development. The path as well as the features of socialism in Indian conditions in the historical period can be defined only as the situation develops. Before I conclude let me express on behalf our party our solidarity with the struggling people of Palestine, Syria and the people of Latin America fighting for independence, Peace, social justice and for sovereignty. We also express our support and solidarity with the people of China, Vietnam, Cuba and DPR of Korea who are engage in socialist constructions with their specific characteristics under the leadership of respective Communists and workers Parties. Please also allow me once again to greet all participants at this historic 15th Meeting of
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MARXIST) SITARAM YECHURY
Dear Comrades, At the very outset allow me to thank the Portuguese Communist Party for hosting the 15th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties, and making such splendid arrangements. I also use this occasion to offer my humble homage and salute the memory of Comrade Alvaro Cunhal, legendary leader, not only of the PCP, but also of the international communist movement, on his birth centenary. Global capitalist crisis, that is plaguing the world, has not abated. The recently published IMF, World Economic Outlook Report, October 2013, states: “Global growth is still weak, its underlying dynamics are changing, and the risks to the forecast remain to the downside...old problems – a fragmented financial system in the euro area and worrisomely high public debt in all major advanced economies – remain unresolved and could trigger new crises...the global economy could grow by only slightly more than 3 percent a year over the medium term, instead of reaccelerating to over 4 percent...”It further states: “Industrial production recovered modestly in the advanced economies but is still slowing in the emerging market and developing economies. Together with the MENA region, the euro area is seeing another increase in an already high unemployment rate”. The crisis has once again resoundingly demonstrated capitalism’s inherent oppressive and exploitative character. It is imposing greater miseries on the vast majority of the world’s population. This crisis is also increasingly demonstrating that imperialism, notwithstanding all ideological efforts to obfuscate its existence and role, is leading global capitalism in this offensive against humanity. The internal dynamics of capitalism, as Marx has shown, leads to the accumulation and concentration of capital in a few hands. It is on the basis of a scientific analysis of the development of this tendency that Lenin identified
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the emergence and growth of imperialism from the stage of monopoly capitalism. The Leninist analysis of the politics of imperialism – the highest stage of capitalism – laid the foundations for correct revolutionary strategy and tactics for intensifying class struggles leading, for the first time in human history, to the triumph of the proletarian revolution – the great October Socialist Revolution of 1917. Lenin, with penetrative clarity, anticipates that in the imperialist stage, with the rise of finance capital, ‘The “business operations” of capitalist monopolies inevitably lead to the domination of a financial oligarchy’. He defines imperialism with the domination of finance capital as the highest stage of capitalism where the supremacy of finance capital over all other forms of capital is established. Furthering the analysis of the feature of ‘export of capital’, Lenin anticipates the future saying, ‘Thus finance capital, literally, one might say, spreads its net over all countries of the world’. Further, ‘The characteristic feature of imperialism is not industrial but finance capital.’ Lenin, thus, anticipates not only the dominance and leadership of finance capital in the stage of imperialism, but he also shows that this process will lead to the enmeshing of all forms of capital under its leadership in the pursuit of profit maximisation. This current phase of globalisation, within the stage of imperialism, led to gigantic levels of concentration and centralisation of capital and, hence, accumulation led byinternational finance capital during the last two decades. This led to a reordering of the world where this capital seeks unhindered access across the globe in its quest for profit maximisation. This, in itself, imposes conditions for the removal of all restrictions on the flow of this capital, the
essence of financial liberalisation. The accompanying neo-liberal offensive of economic reforms, seriously threatens and undermines the economic and, hence, the political sovereignty of the nation-states, particularly in the developing countries. Trade liberalisation displaces domestic producers engendering domestic de-industrialization, particularly in developing countries. This also happens in the developed countries due to relocation of production and business operations outside their countries. So also liberalisation of capital flows allows multinational corporations to acquire domestic productive assets abroad (like our public sector), vastly enlarging capital accumulation. This preponderant domination of international finance capital, however, does not suggest the cessation of inter-imperialist contradictions. These not merely exist but are bound to intensify in the future, given the basic capitalist law of uneven development. This leads to conflicts of interests between capitalist centres given their relative future strengths often reflected, today, in the conflict of interests over control of world’s resources or in seeking a reordering of the world – a new re-division for creating specific spheres of influence. Other ways of consolidating capital accumulation are through the imposition of deflationary policies like restrictions on government expenditures in the name of fiscal discipline (making available larger quantum of liquidity to IFC to multiply speculative profits) which leads to the lowering of the level of aggregate demand in the world economy; a shift in the terms of trade against the peasantry in the developing countries; a rolling back of the State sector in providing social services globally, more pronounced in the developing countries, which increasingly become privatised and the opening up of huge new areas of
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public utilities for profit maximisation. Agriculture is increasingly being opened up to multinational seed and marketing companies leading to the virtual destruction of self-reliant agriculture in the developing countries, throwing the peasantry into acute distress. The removal of trade tariffs and imposition of Free Trade Agreements is leading to de- industrialisation in many developing countries. In direct contrast to the freedom of movement for capital, the strict domestic immigration laws in developed countries leads to intensified exploitation and oppression while maximising profits. Common public resources like forests, mines, water, etc., are increasingly being taken over as private property. Thus, a new feature of contemporary imperialism is the coercive prising open of new and hitherto non-existent avenues for profit maximisation. Under contemporary imperialism, the role of the State changes in accordance with its current needs to advance the interests of IFC and it often acts at its dictates. The State’s abdication of social responsibilities and obligations towards the people, therefore, does not mean its withdrawal from economic activities. Its role changes to brazenly advance the interests of IFC. In the process, not only does it relinquish its social responsibilities but also undermines democratic institutions, subverts people’s sovereignty over the law making processes and increasingly adopts an authoritarian character.I n the absence of a powerful political alternative, capitalism will emerge from this crisis but at the expense of further intensifying exploitation and through the process of intensifying primitive accumulation. This manifests in the current imperialist aggressiveness in all spheres. Following the shift in favour of imperialism in the international correlation of class forces, USA has embarked to consolidate its global
hegemony. This new world order is designed to operate in all spheres. This, on the one hand, led to unleashing unilateral wars and on the other, it led to the strengthening of the US military machine. At the same time, the NATO, whose need for existence should have simply disappeared with the end of the Cold War, was further strengthened as imperialism’s global war machine. In pursuit of its hegemonic designs, the US imperialism is now concentrating on Asian continent because it is host to two of the largest populated countries in the world – China and India – which means they constitute the largest market. The imperialist powers, need this region more than anything else today to come out of the deep economic crisis they find themselves in. And to their strategic concentration in this region is another vital class reason – socialist China, which imperialism considers is developing into a formidable foe and a threat to its hegemony. All these reasons translated into prioritising Asia-Pacific as a region that deserves the attention of the US, both economically and militarily. The US, over the years had been developing its strategic plans to increase its presence and ensure its hegemony over the entire Asia-Pacific region. Outlining these priorities, US President Barack Obama during his visit to Australia, stated “After a decade in which we fought two wars that cost us dearly, in blood and treasure, the United States is turning our attention to the vast potential of the Asia Pacific region...As the world’s fastest- growing region – and home to more than half the global economy – the Asia Pacific is critical to achieving my highest priority...With most of the world’s nuclear power and some half of humanity, Asia will largely define whether the century ahead will be marked by conflict or cooperation, needless suffering or human
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progress...I have, therefore, made a deliberate and strategic decision – as a Pacific nation, the United States will play a larger and longterm role in shaping this region and its future...As we plan and budget for the future, we will allocate the resources necessary to maintain our strong military presence in this region...Our enduring interests in the region demand our enduring presence in the region...” Accordingly, the US decided to reposition its Navy so that 60 per cent of its warships would be assigned to the Asia- Pacific region by 2020. The increasing economic integration of South and East Asia has strengthened the strategic significance of the Indian and Pacific Oceans as a continuous throughway for global commerce and energy. The US intends to develop its strategic ties with India in this background. This explains some of the vital reasons for the Indo-US nuclear deal, several defence tie-ups and other accords on various other sectors like agriculture, education, etc. Moreover, to establish its global hegemony, USA needs the containment of China and for this it sees India as a potential ally. Asia-Pacific region has also become strategically important because approximately 90 percent of globally traded merchandise travels by these seas. As much as 50percent of the world’s container traffic and 70 percent of global energy trade now transits the Indian Ocean. In order to improve its economic hold the US now intends to create the worlds’ biggest free trade zone in this region. Considering itself as a leader of all the countries surrounding the Pacific rim and Indian ocean it wants to seal strategic partnership with most of them. This is needed, to break the economic relations of China with these countries and prise open the
markets of these countries for US goods and services. Accordingly the US is moving towards the goal of the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP) to create the world’s largest and most demanding free-trade area in ways that deepen the economic integration of the US and its Asia-Pacific allies. This TPP zone, if created, will include countries from Chile in Latin America to Australia, Japan and all other countries in the Pacific Ocean. The US wants India too to be part of the TPP. As a group, the TPP countries are the largest goods and services export market of the United States. US goods exports to the broader Asia-Pacific totalled $942 billion in 2012, representing 61 percent of total U.S. goods exports. US exports of agricultural products to the region totalled $106 billion in 2012, 75 percent of total US agricultural exports. US private services exports totalled $226 billion in 2011 (latest data available), 38 percent of total US private services exports to the world. The US is also promoting the re-militarisation of Japan in the region as a counterweight to China. To achieve its strategic opportunities, it is pulling India into its vortex and scheme of things as can be discerned through the joint naval exercises conducted in the Bay of Bengal by both the countries along with Australia, Japan, Philippines. The rising bourgeoisie of the advanced capitalist countries, in order to consolidate their class rule, had earlier championed national sovereignty as being sacrosanct. Today, imperialism, is using FTAs and also its military might to subvert and negate national sovereignty of independent countries. The ‘Global War Against Terror’ launched under the leadership of US imperialism is being used as the justification for brazen military intervention, and for trampling national
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sovereignty to impose a ‘regime change’ to suit its interests. Like the ‘war against Communism’ was used as the pretext during the Cold War to justify imperialist military intervention, the ‘war against terror’ is being used today to violate the national sovereignty of independent countries and the basic human rights of its people. State terrorism practised by imperialism and individual terrorism unleashed by fundamentalist outfits feed on each other. The fight against both these dangers, is necessary to build the unity of the working class and other toiling sections of the society and also to counter the growing threat of right-wing fundamentalist forces. We should remember that the devastation caused by the great depression of the 1930s was met in different ways by different capitalist countries. One of these ways laid the basis for the rise of fascism. Georgi Dimitrov, in his speech at the Communist International in 1935, underlined, “Fascism adapts its demagogy to the peculiarities of each country. And the mass of petty bourgeois and even a section of the workers, reduced to despair by want, unemployment and insecurity of their existence fall victim to the social and chauvinist demagogy of fascism.” Further, he explained how “it is in the interests of the most reactionary circles of the bourgeoisie that fascism intercepts the disappointed masses who desert the old bourgeois parties. But it impresses these masses by the vehemence of its attacks on the bourgeois governments and its irreconcilable attitude to the old bourgeois parties”.
ble for their share of the shrinking cake. The absence of a powerful communist-led counter attack, engenders the danger of the rise of reactionary forces. It is hence the responsibility of the Communists and the progressive sections of the society not only to fight back the tendencies that lead to the growth of right-wing politics and neo-fascist forces, but also properly channelise the popular discontent. This is one of the important steps that needs to be undertaken in the present juncture to strengthen the ‘subjective factor’ that Lenin had talked about and utilise the developing objective conditions to usher in a social transformation – a political alternative to capitalism – socialism. Long Live Marxism-Leninism Long Live the Unity of Communist and Workers’ Parties
Hence, how this economic crisis will be tackled and how the world comes out of it will determine the nature of social conflicts that arise as various sections of the people scram-
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WORKERS’ PARTY OF IRELAND GERRY GRAINGER
The deepening crisis of capitalism continues, as does capital’s offensive against the working class across the globe. Stricken by the inevitable crises caused by the inherent contradictions of the capitalist system, capital lashes out aggressively. It attacks the living conditions of the working class by cutting wages, attacking social protection; health; education; public employment and the provision of public services, eroding rights in the workplace won through decades of struggle, and slashing and burning public services, enhancing the opportunities for profit for the monopolies. Internationally, capital utilises the institutions at its service – such as the European Union and NATO – to intensify its exploitation of the world’s population and its resources, violating the democratic and sovereign rights of peoples, using every means at its disposal, from international finance to anti-democratic measures, increasing militarisation, military aggression, imperialist intervention and exploitation. These actions have dealt a devastating blow to working people while serving to increase and expand the power of the capitalist class. Only socialism offers a permanent solution to the injustices and exploitation of the capitalist system. Building socialism requires a militant working class, conscious of its own interests and organised for the struggle in all its forms. Communists must strive to oppose the class power of the bourgeoisie in all its manifestations, to expose the true nature of capitalism and the crass opportunism of social democracy, and to foster class consciousness among the working class. The greatest crisis of capitalism for almost a century has exposed the lies of those who told us that capitalism is the end of history; that no alternative is possible; that capitalism is the natural order of things. As communists, we are under no illusions about the nature of capitalism, its contradictions and the inevitability of crises. The promise of an end to economic
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boom and bust offered by the social democrats was only ever a fantasy, but one that exposed the true nature of social democracy. Capitalism cannot be anything other than it is - a system dependent on the exploitation of the many in the interests of the few. The social democrats, the careerists and opportunists stand in the way of developing genuine class consciousness; they serve the interests not of labour, but only of capital. Of course, one of the major tasks of the communist and workers’ parties in the present crisis is to defend public services, and to agitate for the provision and expansion of health, education and social care by the state. At the same time, however, we must ruthlessly expose the falsehood of social democratic illusions and lies, to wage a political struggle against their influence in the labour movement and among the people, and to stress always that while reforms have value, only the revolutionary transformation of society, that is, the building of socialism, can truly emancipate the working class. Capital, operates on a truly global scale, and has at its disposal vast resources at a national and international level. As in the past, the primary aim of communists must be to confront the bourgeoisie of their own states, to effect political and social change in their own societies. At the same time, in a world where capital implements reactionary and antipeople policies across several countries, it is essential that we strengthen and deepen cooperation and coordination among communist and workers’ parties. This is made all the more urgent by the attempts to outlaw communism across much of Europe, attempts which are specifically designed to prevent young people from developing class consciousness, from learning about the achievements of the USSR and the socialist countries, and from embracing the creation of so-
cialism as the answer to the problems of unemployment and emigration that are the consequences of capitalism. Nowhere is the need for increased cooperation clearer than in opposition to war and militarist adventures by the leading capitalist powers. Widespread opposition among the workers and popular strata of many countries to further military intervention in Syria has, at least for the present, frustrated the plans of those circles most eager to attack that state. Capitalism relies upon violating the democratic rights of the people. It denies workers their rights, to decent working conditions, to a good standard of living, and to control their own destiny through the exercise of democratic control in all spheres of political and social life. Workers in the Republic of Ireland know this all too well. Since the onset of the current crisis, unemployment has rocketed, especially among young people. Welfare and wages have been slashed, state assets – including natural resources - sold off cheaply to speculators, and what is effectively unpaid labour introduced for the young if they wish to be able to claim the social security to which they are entitled. The investments and profits of banks and of a tiny number of speculators within Ireland and abroad have been protected at the cost of many tens of billions of euros added to the state debt, which the working class are required to pay for over the course of generations, in reduced wages, higher taxation, decimated public services, and lower living standards. The national bourgeoisie has worked in tandem with the troika to violate every democratic principle and the sovereignty of the people. The government, made up of a coalition between the most right-wing party in the state and social democrats, has not only happily enforced these cuts, but it is also encourag-
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ing young people to emigrate, both through policies that impoverish young unemployed people and by encouraging them to apply for jobs in countries such as Canada. At the same time, supported by the capitalist media, they boast that they are about to exit the so-called bailout, that they are the success story of the austerity agenda; that economic sovereignty is about to be restored. The only people to have benefited from their policies have been the bourgeoisie at home and abroad. The case of the Republic of Ireland well illustrates capitalism’s multi-faceted approach to save itself, and to ensure profits continue to flow and exploitation continues to intensify. Living standards for workers have been attacked in every way possible, and the message that there is no alternative is reinforced by the government, bourgeois political commentators, and the media. The resources of the state have been used to crush protest against Shell as it endangers the environment and exploits the country’s natural resources with little taxation. By enthusiastically adopting the Lisbon Strategy and EU 2020 the social democrats have abandoned the pretence of the so-called “Social Europe”. Capital has exploited the crisis to implement fundamental changes to labour laws and workers’ rights. Intensified market liberalisation together with the implementation of the “structural reform” advocated by capital and the subordination of the peoples’ interests and workers’ rights to the overriding priority of “competitiveness” as exemplified in the decisions of the European Court of Justice in Viking and Laval in 2007 and the Ruffert and Luxembourg cases in 2008 represents a further victory for the monopolies. Only socialism can guarantee the democratic rights of the people to control their own economic and natural resources. Communists
must ensure that they lead the struggle for the democratic rights of the people, whether it is in the workplace, in local or national government, or against the manifestations of imperialism, be they economic, political or military; defending and asserting the democratic rights and interests of the people against the class power of the bourgeoisie at home and abroad. The international situation is characterised by the deepening structural crisis of capitalism which strains under the contradiction between the social character of production and its private appropriation. The interests of capital and labour are irreconcilable. The driving force of history is the struggle between classes and the conflict of their interests. The working class can only emancipate itself by transferring power to the workers and building a socialist society. The English liberal, J.A. Hobson, in his work on “imperialism” had the merit of providing a material explanation for imperialism. Lenin, however, was clear and specific about the nature of imperialism, highlighting the changes in the structure of capitalism which underlined it. Lenin contended that imperialism “emerged as a development and direct continuation of the fundamental properties of capitalism in general. But capitalism became capitalist imperialism only at a definite, very high stage of its development”. Lenin identified a number of distinct features of imperialism. For Lenin, imperialism was capitalism at its highest stage. The era of imperialism is one of constant competition and as Lenin pointed out, agreements and alliances between states “no matter what form they may assume, whether of one imperialist coalition against another, or of a general alliance embracing all the imperialist powers, are inevitably nothing more than a “truce” in periods between wars.”
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Kautsky, who failed to understand the nature of imperialism, concluded, incorrectly, that war did not arise from the character of capitalism itself and that inter-imperialist rivalry would diminish reducing the threat of war. The growth of opportunism led to a betrayal of the principles of proletarian internationalism and the adoption of social and national chauvinist positions. In reality, as long as we remain within a capitalist system war will continue to be a permanent feature of our existence. Peace and an end to war can only be realised in a society without exploiter and exploitation and without private ownership of the means of production. Defeating capitalism’s multi-faceted offensive requires a multi-faceted response. It is not simply enough to oppose what the capitalists are doing, the cuts they are imposing on the people. It also means articulating the communist vision of what society can and should be like. This ideological struggle, this battle of ideas, is a crucial task for communists. The capitalist mantra that there is no alternative must be exposed for the lie it is; the social democratic and opportunist mantra that capitalism can be tamed, can be successfully reformed must also be exposed and refuted. This is an essential task of the communists at both a national and international level. We must produce clear, coherent, and rigorous analyses of the failings of the capitalist system and demonstrate how workers can develop the process of effecting revolutionary change from the different starting points in the different countries, but all the while operating with an awareness of the international situation. Only the working class can lead the struggle for socialism, and the most effective political vehicle the working class can have is a strong party of the working class committed to com-
munist principles. It is necessary, throughout any struggle in which we engage, to keep a clear focus on our ultimate goal, the building of socialism. As Engels stated: “Revolution is the supreme act of politics; whoever wants it must also want the means, political action, which prepares for it, which trains workers for revolution and without which workers will always be duped by the Favres and the Pyats the day after the struggle. But the politics which are needed are working-class politics; the workers’ party must not be constituted as the tail of some bourgeois party.” As we celebrate the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, we remember an event of historic global significance which changed forever the power relations between exploiter and exploited and made real the vision of a new socialist society of equal nations and peoples. It created the basis for material and social advancement, for the transfer of power to the working people, the creators of wealth, and provided workers with the opportunity, through their labour and struggle, to build the social, political, economic and cultural conditions which offered the prospect of a free and fulfilled life. The decisive factors in all social development are class relations. It is the role of the Communist and Workers’ parties to build the unity of the working class and the alliance with the popular strata; to develop political and programmatic initiatives which establish a clear class identity; to set out clearly the social and political transformative project on which we are engaged – the creation of a centrally planned economy, based on workers’ power in which the means of production is socialised in the interests of the workers and their allies.
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF ISRAEL OFER CASIF
Dear Comrades and friends, The CPI salutes you all – communist and workers’ parties of the world, and convey revolutionary greetings to all the delegates that participate in this distinguished conference. Special greetings to the PCP whose courageous revolutionary history is well known and appraised by all: its continuous struggle under the leadership of comrade Álvaro Cunhal against the authoritarian Estado Novo and its colonialist and fascist tendencies, its role in the Carnation Revolution and the democratization of Portugal – are all celebrated by communists and workers’ movements around the globe. I would also like to take this opportunity and send our greetings to the Lebanese and to the Syrian Communist Party on their 89th anniversary, and salute them on their continuous struggle against imperialist and Zionist intervention, and for free and just Lebanon and Syria. Dear comrades, If I may quote comrade Rosa Luxemburg, it seems that particularly nowadays the world as a whole faces two options only: socialism or barbarism. When capitalism runs amok and destructively tries to invade wherever and however it can; when imperialist powers (primarily USA and EU) are systematically in the offense, when the people’s rights to democracy and social justice, control of natural resources and wellbeing are under vicious attack by imperialism, capitalism, chauvinism and xenophobia – it’s our obligation, not solely right, to join forces and fight back our common enemies, namely capitalists and their allies. If we fail in doing so, thus pave the way to our foes and their malicious master plan, we will be doomed forever. Let us unite and defeat that evil empire of poverty and corruption, violence and exploitation, wars and depression. Dear friends, The situation in Israel proper as well as in the Palestinian Occupied Territories is grave. As far as the occupation is concerned, Israel col-
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onization of the territories is not only going on under the auspices of USA and its financial and political support, but actually only getting deeper and crueler. Natural resources like water and land are regularly robbed by Israeli Zionist authorities for the sake of Jewish settlers; Palestinians’ freedom of movement, worship and assembly are strictly limited; peaceful demonstrators and non-violent protesters are often arrested, beaten, and occasionally even shot; and trees, fields and other assets owned by Palestinians are burnt and damaged on a daily basis by Jewish settlers, while Israeli soldiers and other officials ignore that fascist vandalism – as if we were talking about KKK in Alabama under George Wallace. The levels of poverty and unemployment in the Palestinian territories are also significant, primarily due to Israeli blockade on Gaza and the constraints the Israeli government imposes on the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (e.g., the massive prevention of Palestinian workers to work within Israel proper). PCBS (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics) reports that 25.7% of Palestinians live in poverty, and nearly one quarter of Palestinian youth are classified as poor. Poverty rates are higher in the Gaza Strip with 38% living in poverty, compared to 18.3% in the West Bank. Also, about 33% of Palestinian youth are unemployed, with the highest unemployment rate among young people with higher education (nearly half of all graduates are unemployed). Israeli authorities also repeatedly employ arbitrary detentions and house demolitions, and frequently harass human rights organizations (e.g., Addameer). The brutal colonialist regime that Israeli Zionist governments have been retaining for decades in the Palestinian occupied territories
is accompanied by vicious capitalist and racist policies in Israel proper. Israel has one of the highest poverty levels in the OECD, one of the highest levels of inequality, and one of the lowest achievement levels in international school tests. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, a third of Israelis are in risk of falling below the poverty line, whereas no less than 40% of Israel’s children are at risk of poverty. The statistic shows a 5% increase during the decade since 2001 – the sharpest rise in comparison to the European Union, aside from Germany and Sweden. Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel found that 21% of the elderly in Israel live below the poverty line even after receiving assistance. A recent report by OECD shows that Israel has become the poorest of all developed countries, as it were, and fifth with regard to richpoor gap – only after Chile, Mexico, Turkey and USA. In fact, the real situation in Israel is much worse – given that the definitions of poverty, income gaps and alike that are employed by the OECD and the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (e.g., the Gini Coefficient) are rather biased and underrate the genuine facts so as to present a better picture at the service of the ruling classes and their bourgeois governments. Needless to say, the socioeconomic state of affairs in Israel is a direct by-product of the neo-conservative policy of Israeli governments, at least in the last decade, whose gist is basically one: privatization, privatization, and more privatization. Another result of that policy, apparently an intentional one, is the socioeconomic circumstances of the ArabPalestinian citizens in Israel, which constitute more than 20% of the overall citizenry. The rates of unemployment and poverty among them is the highest. Thus, according to Adalah
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report, over half of all Arab families in Israel live in poverty and of the 40 towns in Israel with the highest unemployment rates, 36 are Arab towns. The most deprived population in Israel is the Arab Palestinian Bedouin of Al Naqab. Not only that that population is the poorest, with the least access to healthcare, education and other social services, but a great part of its communities live in historic villages which the governments of Israel consistently refuse to recognize and supply with elementary goods such as running water and electricity. Furthermore, just a few weeks ago the Israeli parliament (the Knesset) enacted the infamous Prawer Law whose realization is going to confiscate 800,000 dunums of land in Al Naqab and expel over 50,000 Bedouins from their native land and residence. This inhumane plan will also lead to the demolition of 35 historic Arab villages that the governments of Israel continuously refuse to recognize, and will confine 30% of Arab Bedouins in Al Naqab to 1% of the land. Dear comrades, In the last few years, the Zionist capitalist governments of Israel have been waging a war of a fascist character against the remnants of bourgeois democracy that still exist in Israel. A sequence of governmental bills were proposed aiming to abolish the independence of the courts, limit the freedom of the press, simplify the persecution of asylum seekers and refugees (primarily from Africa), repress the right to strike, and to restrict civil society – practically human rights organizations and leftist groups. I would like to draw your attention to two particularly heinous laws, the first would be the “Bill for prevention of damage to the State of Israel through boycott”, which was enacted in July 2011. In this law, “Anyone who publishes a public call for a boycott of the
state of Israel and its content, and circumstances may reasonably be expected to lead to a boycott, and the publisher is aware of this possibility – is committing a civil wrong and the law of Tort [new version] shall apply to him/her.” The other law is the racist “Israel Lands Law (Amendment No. 3)”, from April 2011. The Law dictates that “foreigners” shall not have land rights, i.e., a right of ownership, or a right to lease land for periods that total more than five years. Foreign, says the law, includes those who are not “entitled to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return”, i.e., non-Jews. Dear comrades, As Marxist-Leninists, we know that reality should be analyzed as a totality. Indeed, the abovementioned elements are dialectically interrelated and together constitute one whole: a totality of capitalism interwoven with Zionist colonialism and racism. In the case of Israeli governments and ruling classes, Zionism and politics of fear are regularly used in order to divide the working class and the exploited strata as a whole and rule them by means of panic and intimidation. Thus, instead of directing their rage against their exploiters and oppressors, Israeli masses (especially the Jewish ones) are encouraged by those ruling forces to aim their anger and frustration at Arabs, refugees and other “outsiders”. Incidentally, that is the way we have to analyse Netanyahu’s enthusiasm to describe Iran as the archenemy of humankind: fear serves him and his allies better than any peace or compromise, let alone justice or democracy. If thus far the picture I depicted was quite gloomy, I would like to conclude with some optimism. The Philosopher Voltaire said that the history of humanity consists of all mal-
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adies, crimes, disasters and madness. Voltaire might have been right, but his words depicted only one-half of the picture; the other half would be the struggle against those maladies, crimes, disasters and madness. Led by the Arab-Jewish partnership of the CPI and Hadash (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality), the aforementioned misconducts and criminalities committed by Zionist governments and their allies always encounter public objection; wherever and whenever there is a misconduct, there we are opposing it with all possible power. On behalf of the CPI, I would like to call you to support our struggle against the occupation, against Zionist racism and injustice, for real democracy and socialism in Israel, and for the establishment of a truly sovereign and independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. It is important to bear in mind that fighting capitalism and imperialism necessitates a struggle against their collaborators and associates; in the Middle-East, it means an unequivocal battle against Zionism just as against Arab reactionary regimes and movements. Hasta la victoria siempre! Venceremos!
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WORKERS’ PARTY OF KOREA RI YOUNG CHOI
Distinguished Comrade Chairman, Dear Delegates, I would like, first of all, to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Central Committee of the Portuguese Communist Party for its kind invitation to our Party delegation to attend the current meeting. I would also like to avail myself of this opportunity to offer warm congratulations to the host on its successful holding of the 15th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties amidst great interest and expectations of progressive political parties across the world and extend warm greetings to the party delegations and delegates who are attending this meeting. Comrades, For the delegates from several communist and workers’ parties to gather at the same place for the fifteenth time to exchange successes and experiences gained in their respective work and show their support for and solidarity with each other is really an event of great significance. This meeting is a meaningful theatre that stages a show of unbreakable will of the progressive political parties in various parts of the world moving forward shoulder to shoulder in their joint struggle to realize the aspirations and desire of mankind for socialism and achieve victory in the cause of socialism. I have no doubt that the current meeting will mark an important occasion in fully encouraging and giving renewed impetus to the struggle of the progressive peoples all over the world to oppose imperialism and push the cause of socialism forward and further strengthening the unity and solidarity among communist and workers’ parties throughout the world. Now the imperialists are thrown into utter confusion over the worsening crisis of capitalism in its entirety, and they are resorting to aggression and plunder, despotism and arbi-
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trary behavior more blatantly than ever before just to roll back their declining fortune.
mankind and its just cause will certainly emerge victorious.
The impact of the financial crisis that broke out in the United States in 2007 has spread out to Europe and across the whole world and has been dragging on, causing the gap between the rich and the poor to yawn wider than ever and giving rise to a vicious cycle of social and political turmoil.
The Workers’ Party of Korea has a great pride in having paved a way for a people-centered socialism and followed the road of steady development for over half a century according to its own conviction and determination.
The imperialists are finding a way out of their aggravating economic and financial crises in aggression and war against other countries and, to this end, are clinging to political and military pressure, economic sanctions, psychological smear campaign and interference in the internal affairs of many countries. The present international situation in which independent rights and interests of sovereign states are being trampled upon ruthlessly due to the high-handed and arbitrary manner and behavior of the imperialists demands more urgently than ever that all communist and workers’ parties throughout the world resolutely crush the attempts of the hostile forces at infringement upon sovereignty of independent states by supporting and cooperating with each other and firming up the bonds of solidarity among them while holding fast to independence. In this sense, we express our unqualified support and approval for the theme of the current meeting being that of advancing socialism more vigorously to cope with the pernicious offensive of the imperialists. Socialism suffered temporary yet heartrending setbacks in the 1990s due to the schemes of the imperialists and opportunists, but, because of its truth as a science, it remains alive as ever as the trend of the times and in the very hearts of progressive
The Korean-style socialism, which is the life and soul of our people, has taken deep roots in the minds of the entire population, and our people are full of confidence in the victory of the Korean-style socialism, which is the genuine people’s system that provides them with worthwhile and happy lives. Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of our Party and people, said as follows: “The permanent strategy of our revolution and its final victory lie in marching straight along the road of independence, the road of Songun and the road of socialism, as indicated by President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il.” Today the Workers’ Party of Korea headed by respected Comrade Kim Jong Un is registering unprecedented successes on all fronts of socialist construction under the unfurled banner of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism. Our respected Marshal Kim Jong Un elucidated a new philosophical principle of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism, the guiding ideology of our Party, defining it as a people-first doctrine in essence, and has been administering genuine politics of love for people, the politics of regarding people’s interests as top priority and absolute. As a result, in our country monumental edifices representing the era of Songun and contributing to people’s cultural and emotional life and health have mushroomed, unfolding
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an amazing reality of the country turning into a civilized socialist state and infusing the people with joy and happiness and vibrant life.
struggle for the building of a thriving socialist country and for the independent national reunification.
A stable and peaceful environment for economic construction is essential to the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government of the DPRK, which put forward improving people’s living standards as the most important principle in their activities.
I would like to conclude my speech by expressing my full confidence that the current meeting will serve as a landmark in demonstrating the militant unity and solidarity of all communist and workers’ parties across the world in the struggle for victory in the cause of socialism.
The Korean people who have been living in the face of the US war exercises and nuclear threat and blackmail, oppose aggression and war and desire peace more earnestly than anyone else.
Thank you.
The Workers’ Party of Korea has been making responsible and sincere efforts with an unbreakable will to remove tensions on the Korean Peninsula and contribute to peace and security in Northeast Asia and the rest of the world. Our Party sets great store by the militant support and solidarity of communist and workers’ parties of all countries in its just struggle for security and a durable peace on the Korean Peninsula, one of the most dangerous hot spots in the world, and in the surrounding region. In the future, too, our Party will strive hard for peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the rest of the world and for victory in the cause of mankind for independence, the cause of socialism, by pooling efforts with communist and workers’ parties all over the world. Availing myself of this opportunity I would like to express deep thanks once again to the Portuguese Communist Party and other communist and workers’ parties and peoples across the world for their unfailing support and encouragement to our Party and people in their
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SOCIALIST PARTY OF LATVIA RAYMOND RUBIKS
Дорогие товарищи! Рад возможности передать горячий братский привет коммунистам Португалии от Социалистической партии Латвии. Нам хорошо известен трудный и героический путь, который прошла ваша партия, борясь против многолетней фашистской диктатуры, выступая за права трудящихся и за идеалы социальной справедливости. Сейчас обе наши страны находятся в Европейском союзе и НАТО. Характерно, что хотя Португалия вступила в Европейский союз гораздо раньше Латвии, проблемы, возникшие в последствии в наших странах, во многом похожи. Данное обстоятельство показывает, что ЕС — это союз крупной буржуазии европейских стран, созданный, прежде всего и главным образом, в интересах капитала. Таковым его появление предсказывал еще В.И. Ленин в статье ««О лозунге Соединенных Штатов Европы». Выводы, сделанные тогда Лениным, например о том, что «неравномерность экономического и политического развития есть безусловный закон капитализма», по-прежнему актуальны и многое объясняют в современной жизни. Это продемонстрировал и очередной кризис мировой капиталистической системы, начавшийся несколько лет назад, достаточно серьезно затронувший и экономику, и социальную сферу наших стран. Рост безработицы, урезание социальной части бюджета тяжелым бременем легли на плечи народа. Правда, недавно руководители ЕС, МВФ и Латвии объявили о «победе» над кризисом в нашей стране. В подтверждение этого они указывают на «сбалансированный бюджет», начавшийся экономический рост и на такое «великое достижение», как вступление Латвии в еврозону. Необходимо отметить, что пресловутая сбалансированность бюджета достигнута прежде всего жестоким урезанием
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расходов социальной сферы, поставившим целые группы населения на грань выживания, а так же кредитами, выданными МВФ и Европейским банком, которые еще придется отдавать. Народ заплатил за это дорогую цену — за последние годы из Латвии, с ее двухмиллионным населением, на работу и постоянное жительство за рубежом уехали от 200 (по официальной статистике) до 400 (по оценкам независимых экспертов) тысяч человек. Это самые трудоспособные и активные люди, в основном, молодежь. Они фактически сбежали от нищеты, безработицы, вопиющего несоответствия низких зарплат и высоких цен на жизненно необходимые товары и услуги. В сельской местности целые поселки стоят брошенными, в городах можно видеть безлюдные, необитаемые улицы и многоэтажные дома. Смертность в стране по прежнему почти в ДВА РАЗА превышает рождаемость! Такой катастрофы Латвия не переживала со времен Второй Мировой войны. Что касается введения в Латвии евровалюты, то вряд ли безработный, занятый несколько месяцев в году на общественных работах и получающий за это сегодня 100 латов в месяц, что-то выиграет от того, что c 1 января 2014 года будет получать в месяц 142 евро... Возрастной и социальный состав уехавших объясняет такой латвийский феномен, как отсутствие массовых протестов против антинародной политики правительства. Ведь действующая сила любой протестной акции — это, прежде всего, организованный пролетариат, молодежь. Правым партиям, находящимся у власти в нашей стране уже два десятилетия, ценой потери современной индустрии, еще в 90-е
годы ХХ века удалось добиться депролетаризации Латвии, фактического уничтожения многотысячных рабочих коллективов. Социально-демографическую картину завершил массовый отъезд молодежи после вступления в ЕС. Оставшиеся трудящиеся массы разрозненны (в том числе и этнически из-за националистической политики правящих сил), работают в маленьких трудовых коллективах, не охвачены профсоюзами. Руководство имеющихся профсоюзов демонстрирует крайне лояльную, мягко говоря, позицию к политике правительства, не желает идти на конфликт с властью и капиталом. Влияние нашей партии на профсоюзное движение, к сожалению, тоже недостаточно и блокируется объединенными усилиями власти и проправителственных профсоюзных лидеров. Поэтому мы с большим интересом и надеждой смотрим на активную борьбу португальских товарищей против антинародной политики властей. Ваш опыт по организации массовых выступлений трудящихся, митингов, демонстраций и забастовок, умение наращивать влияние в профсоюзном движении очень ценны для нас. Несмотря на трудности, с которыми сталкивается наша партия, социалисты Латвии полны решимости продолжать борьбу. Хорошо понимая при этом, что успех будет невозможен без поддержки европейского и мирового рабочего и коммунистического движения. Выраженная много лет назад формула солидарности трудящихся и сегодня является принципом нашей борьбы и залогом нашей победы - пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!
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NEW COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE NETHERLANDS WILL VAN DER KLIFT
Dear comrades, We thank the PCP for organizing this important meeting and we are greeting all communist and workers’ parties that are represented here. The theme of this event is very compete and therefore also very complex. Too much to give a complete answer. As Antonio Gramsci said many years ago: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear”. Written in an other time, but very much recognizable. Such periods ask for deep analysis, understanding, inflexibility – that means no opportunism – but the necessity of revolutionary patience and the will to unite, not to split. That’s our main task. Looking for what are common positions, what can we do together. Not to create separation, but platforms to discuss and learn from each other, to overcome differences. The NCPN is very glad to be part of a group of four parties DKP, KPL, PTB and NCPN from Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, al parties with political, ideological, and organisational differences. But also with many common backgrounds, similar conditions in the for countries and most of all a common enemy, the European Union. So, much to discuss and to do practically, as we do now for nine years. Every year more deepening and effective. Step by step ahead. Dear comrades, Capitalism in crisis however succeeded in deepening the living conditions of millions of people all over the world. Capitalism can not be reformed into a state that benefits the working class. Capitalism in crisis is fighting like hell to stay alive. It is dangerous monster. The balance of forces now is very negative for the working class and the working class movement. Till recently the working class movement was too much divided to stop the attacks by the bourgeoisie. We need more cooperation, better understanding and meanwhile we have to continue our struggle and
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strengthen our parties and the class orientated peoples’ movement The New Communist Party of the Netherlands is a small party and therefore organisational weak. With a small group of leading cadre we try to fulfil all - too many - tasks that are necessary. This is daily practice, trying to maintain, not growing but survive, taking small steps under very complicated circumstances. Too many tasks, so continuing making priorities for the work in neighbourhoods, factories, public and social organisations and trade unions. After 21 years of struggle to maintain as a communist party based on marxist-leninist principles in a hostile society it is not easy to continue. It really is a matter of surviving, (big) steps forwards are not possible to make. So revolutionary patience is needed. Although new young cadres are coming to the party it is very complicated to educate them. Generally speaking the young working class generation has to pay much attention to survive under capitalist conditions and they are very much involved in their own struggle for life to work out there own strategies for a decent future. So these young cadres are not sufficient educated and are involved in a daily struggle for life, Both quality and quantity are under extreme pressure in relation to the building of the party. The young cadres don’t have enough time for organizing collective activities, although they are very much inspired, full of good will and see the necessity for such activities. The party is not able to pay some of these young cadres a salary to be free to work for the party and not be depending on finding a job in the capitalist society. Dear comrades, We all know the negative role for the working class of the EU. So that’s not a question. The
question is what can we do against it and how can we find more and stronger cooperation to struggle together? The reality is that there are many differences between countries and many differences between and in communist and workers’ parties. So a common answer or common force is not easy to develop. Anyhow we need more political and ideological unity, better and more frequent exchange of information and if possible more common actions. A bridge too far at the moment, but the goal is clear. Dear comrades, the situation in the Netherlands is rather complicated. The organized working class is very, very weak. Many of them still believe in neoliberal solutions within a capitalist society. Trade unions are trying to unite, but the actual base for unification is far too much social democrat. After many years of class cooperation and social partnership it will take time and discussion to build a new class-bases trade union, although the social-economical situation is becoming worth for even bigger parts of the (organized) working class strata. Generally speaking there is no base in the Dutch working class at the moment to fight for socialism, although the struggle for better conditions of groups of workers and in several sections of the labour movement are growing, sometimes even rapidly. The majority of the (working) people, influenced on a daily base by the bourgeois class mass media is still hoping that neo-liberal measures and parties will solve their growing daily problems and that capitalist parties and government(s) will be able to do so. What we see is a rising doubt in the lower strata of the social-democrat party, and also a growing amount of members of that party that leave that party, but still a majority that see no other alternative for the present government
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of social-democrats and liberals. Also in the trade unions there is no radical will to struggle, but rather illusions, false hope and expectation. So in parliament still we see a overwhelming majority for rightwing opinions and ideas and support for the neo-liberal demolition of social and labour rights of the European Union. It’s at this tine only a small minority that wants to change the system or fight for socialism. That’s how it is at the moment. Dear comrades, The only one party that has a more or less reasonable leftwing policy is the so called SP. The S stands for socialist, but in practice the SP is a new type leftwing social-democrat party without any real influence. The S changed into another content: not socialist, but social. And social in a capitalist society. No more Mao, Marx , Engels or Lenin. This former maoist party now is a reformist party without a clear goal for the future. No real idea about a socialist future. In practice this party became a real barrier for us as it stands between our party and the working class, supported to do so by the mass media. The existence of the parliament orientated SP makes it more difficult for us to reach the more radical strata of the working class better then we do now, as they are hoping for solutions of their problems in parliament only. At the same time the SP lost it’s historical influence in neighbourhoods and enterprises as the only line for them is to win seats in the parliament and looking for the possibility to get in government. The main problem is the lost of the insight that only by class-struggle positive changes are possible. Under such conditions we try to survive. The Union of Communists (VCN) - started in 1981 - that existed before we established the NCPN in 1992 had to start without any (finan-
cial) means after the former CPN (Communist Party of the Netherlands) started the process of cancellation at the beginning of the eighties. The CPN disappeared as a party, became part of a new GreenLeft party and took all financial and other resources with her. So we are still fighting to remain and build up a real marxist-leninist communist party since 1992 as NCPN and before that as VCN. All together now more than 30 years in one of the centres of imperialism and also fighting against reformism of the old and new socialdemocrats. During that time the SP – after revisionist en reformist ideological transformations - grew and became seats in parliament and part of the bourgeois political spectrum in our country. The SP however is a real expression of the ideas of the majority of the social feeling people in our country that does not want to change too much and has many illusion about their future. Now the real base for capitalism in the Netherlands is crumble more people are looking for better answers, analyses and solutions than the SP is giving. After more then 30 years now time is on our side! But still the barriers are high and extremely difficult to ‘pull down’. Dear comrades, So our main task is to bring into the discussion in the neighbourhoods, enterprises and trade unions our ideological points of view, under as many people as possible. That’s not an easy task. Therefore we must succeed in maintaining our party as an independent organisation, with a paper, an office, a library, with members that become more class consciousness and a marxist-leninist education. That our priority now. Small successes are giving us the power to continue. As long as capitalism is able to convince the masses that this system is the most profitable and successful, as long as a big part of the working class believes in the fairy
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tales of new and traditional social-democracy it is not easy to continue and survive. But comrades we will maintain and grow, because we own the only effective instruments tot make proper and useful analysis of social, economical, political and ideological human developments. That means practically – now many more people are open for socialist and communist ideas – we are able to convince more strata of the working class. Not big groups but person after person will understand that to get a better life, socialism is the only possibility. What we do is to change the individual feelings of anger, opposition and resistance more political and ideological. Not an easy task but our daily experience shows us this is possible and successful. What we need is self-confidence, self-consciousness and revolutionary patience. What we need now is wisdom, not splitting, but unity, nopt easy but absolutely necessary. Venceremos.
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PALESTINIAN COMMUNIST PARTY KHOURY ANWAR
On behalf of the Central Committee of the Palestinian Communist Party allow me to thank you for your kind invitation to this important seminar. Since the fall of the capitalist system in 1975 after the meeting in Rambouillet in France and the real devaluation of the Dollar value and printing of billions of Dollars by the American Federal Reserve Bank with out any cover, the so called capitalist countries initiated a fierce attack on the social and democratic benefits of the working class such as health and social security benefits. State debts rise phenomenally due to the consumption which has increased many times their production. These states start looking at the gains of the working class as well as other lower classes and the marginal people, those gains which the working class has fought for many years ago. Under the pressure of the international organization such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization and others initiated an austerity programs attacking labor and democratic rights which is gained by the working class and other classes by their struggle in many years. The theorists of the capitalist system think that these measures will renovate their system which is destructed in front of their eyes. The International crises which hit all European states and United States was a result of their consumption culture can not be solved by the fierce attach on the gains of the people which fought and struggle many years for it. The direct reason for this crises is the changing of the capitalist mode of production by a Consumption mode , that is the state consumed much more than(many times more) it produce. This increases the debt of these states many times more than their National Income. The development of the capitalist system to consumption one instead of more productive one contradict the expectation Dialectic Ma-
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terialism which calls for the transformation of the capitalist system (in which capitalist owns all means of production) to socialist system (in which the means of production are publicly owned). Which means, the changing of capitalist mode of production to the socialist mode. In the fifties the main profit obtained by the capitalist in the United States is from is from the employment of the labor force (75 Million labor). Today only 32 Millions are employed which means that 60% of capitalist production has disappeared and Labor power has transferred to non-capitalistic production. add to that the lowering of the surplus value as a result improving the level of living and increase in consuming services. The profit which is obtained from the 32 Millions of labor was Gained by 16 Million labors. In addition the falling rate of the profit due to the development and renovation of the means of production. All the above has resulted in increasing the economic and financial crises in North America and the euro states, which resulted in the financial crises in the United States by bankrupting of many Banks and companies. Also the financial crashes occurred in the euro countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain, and all other states which consumes much more than it produces. For the working class, to defend their gains which was won through long struggle over the years, they must device strategic plans to defend herself and its gains. The working class must form a progressive front against the finance capital which is controlled by the bourgeois class and utilize it to increase the profit and her capital through speculation, buying and selling currencies and share in the stock market which has no relation with the com-
modity production the backbone of capitalism. The communist and workers parties must take on their shoulders to organize the working class to struggle against the real exploiters, the owner of the finance capital, the bourgeoisie whose the beneficiaries Of increasing the magnitude of the finance capital while working class lives on subsistence. It is the duties of the communist parties, the Marxist-Leninist Parties, to continue struggling against the bourgeoisie class and not to cooperate with them for the purpose of obtaining a seat in the Parliament and/or a seat in the ministry, or employment here and there leaving class struggle who move and make history to parties divorced the Marxist- Leninist struggle since the early fifties after the dismantling the Soviet Union. We are confident that victory will be for the working class if she took the initiative and form an International Front against the bourgeoisie which control the finance capital. The request of the communist parties in establishing forming an International from the Marxist-Leninist Parties, and non partisan Marxist-Leninist persons become an immediate necessity. This Communist International, if formed, will be able to lead the working class to victory over the bourgeois class and the finance capital which they dominate and allow the re-establishment of Lenin great project of socialism.
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PERUVIAN COMMUNIST PARTY FLORENTINO TELLO QUISPE
Camaradas del Partido Comunista Portugués Camaradas presentes Permitanme en primer lugar agradecer a nombre del Partido Comunista Peruano, por la invitación efectuada para participar en el XV Encuentro Internacional de los partidos comunistas y obreros. El Movimiento Comunista Internacional viene de sufrir un enorme trauma a fines de la década de los ochenta e inicios de los noventa del siglo pasado, con la desolución de la Unión Soviética considerada como “La mayor catástrofe geopolítica del siglo XX”, la desaparición del Pacto de Varsovia, la desaparición de la Comunidad Socialista Europea (y su ente económico integrador, y el Consejo de Ayuda Mutua Económica - CAME) etc. Este hecho tuvo una enorme repercusión en el mundo entero, porque dejó sin el variado soporte que brindaba la Comunidad Socialista a otras naciones alrededor del mundo, y posibilitó el envalentonamiento del Imperialismo en todo orden de cosas, incluyendo la embestida militar. Sin embargo, y a pesar de todo ello, el Movimiento Socialista Mundial no murió. Ni siquiera en la antigua URSS y sus ex-aliados. De manera heroíca se sostuvieron Cuba, Vietnam, Corea del Norte, en buena medida, gracias a que la República Popular China se mantuvo bajo la dirección del Partido Comunista Chino, a pesar del intento sedicioso de 1989. En América Latina vimos la formación del Foro de Sao Paulo en el año de 1990 gracias al impulso del lider sindical y político brasileño, Luis Ignacio “Lula” Da Silva, y el respaldo que le fuera otorgado por Fidel Castro, legendario dirigente cubano y ejemplo de lucha para todos los revolucionarios. Este movimiento de orientación popular a dado buenos resultados y hasta sus enemigos reconocen que es una experiencia”extremadamente exitosa”. En nuestra querida América el faro luminoso de la Cuba Revolucionaria hoy está acom-
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pañado por Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, El Salvador y otros países que luchan por construir una América Nueva dentro de un Mundo Nuevo. Claro es, cada uno con sus particularidades y peculiaridades, “la revolución no es calco ni copia sino creación heroíca del pueblo” como lo planteara nuestro fundador, el Amauta José Carlos Mariátegui. En el Perú, en el último proceso electoral suscribimos un Programa de Gobierno con el actual presidente Ollanta Humala, quien llegado al gobierno decidió continuar con el modelo económico neoliberal; de esta manera traiciona las aspiraciones del pueblo peruano que dio su voto por el cambio. La izquierda peruana, junto a las organizaciones populares y movimientos sociales estamos constituyendo el Frente Amplio que avisora éxitos en la lucha revolucionaria. Esto se pudo cosntatar en el Paro Nacional que convocó la Central General de Trabajadores del Perú (CGTP), el 26 de octubre, que se desarrolló con éxito, donde el gobierno y la derecha señalaron que era un paro político.
cional que vive la clase obrera, lo mismo, que una gran parte de capas medias y otros componentes de las sociedades a escala mundial. En este escenario, en extremo complejo, los partidos comunistas no pueden ni deben apartarse de los sectores sociales que pueden ser cortejados por adversarios, que utilizan engañosos discursos populistas o populacheros, como es usual entre los demagogos y fascistas. No debemos los comunistas dar las espaldas a políticas de alianzas indispensables para seguir avanzando en su misión histórica. Hoy nos toca luchar unidos. Viva los Partidos Comunistas y Obreros del Mundo! Viva el Internacionalismo del Proletariado!
En la esfera mundial, el capitalismo salvaje neo liberal se ha sumergido en una crisis económica que se expande y se prolonga, descargando la crisis sobre los hombros de los trabajadores, con graves consecuencias. Además las transnacionales y las grandes empresas actuan con el único fin supremo de obtener jugosas ganancias sobre todas las cosas, sin importarles el grave daño que vienen efectuando a nuestro hogar, el globo terraquio, destruyendo el medio ambiente. Frente a este panorama, los comunistas peruanos valoramos enormemente este magno evento y les manifestamos que estamos de acuerdo para realizar acciones comunes y convergentes, por cuanto, refleja un sólido trabajo de reflexión sobre la realidad interna-
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PHILIPPINE COMMUNIST PARTY (PKP–1930) WRITTEN CONTRIBUTION
The Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP1930, the Philippine Communist Party) thanks and congratulates the Communist Party of Portugal for hosting this 15th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties. We also send our warmest fraternal greetings to all the participants of this International Meeting, although we regret the inability of our Party to send a delegate to this very important and historic event. I. The Deepening Systemic Crisis of Capitalism This international meeting is being held at a crucial time when world capitalism finds itself in deep systemic crisis, which it has never experienced in its historical development. In the wake of the dismantling of the USSR and of the socialist community in Eastern Europe over two decades ago, came globalization of production and marketing, the present stage of the imperialist drive for global hegemony. This stage is characterized by the penetration of imperialist finance capital everywhere, and by the imperialist drive to tie-up or reign-in together the international community not only as an expanded investment area, but also as a supra-national market for transnational products and services, as well as a borderless source of raw materials. The inherently chaotic and anarchic nature of capitalism, even under conditions of the globalization of production and marketing, and of the globalization of finance capital, inevitably resulted not only to the over-accumulation of capital, but also to greater over-production and the saturation of markets. Even in our country, which is not a developed capitalist country, the results of over-production are evident. The production of vehicle parts and electronic items is down, yet the market for imported vehicles and electronic products (including mobile phones, cameras, computers and the like) is already saturated. There is a glut in conventional housing and condominium projects, and supermarket
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shelves and malls are overstocked with products, even while the number of homeless and hungry continue to grow. Together with the crisis of over-production, the world is facing a graver food crisis, as a result of macro-economic policies and climate change. For example, despite the decrease in total grains harvest, the USA still allotted over a million tons of grains for ethanol distilleries to produce fuel for cars. With over-production and the saturation of markets, capitalism finds itself plunged into recession and stagnation (that primarily victimizes the working peoples), thoroughly exposing its decadent nature. This could clearly be seen even in the capitalist criteria of economic development —- in the very low (if not negative) level of growth of the gross domestic product from 2010 to 2012 of the G-7 member countries. This crisis is not only happening in the imperialist centers, but also convulses the whole world. Even the member countries of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) suffered a slowing down of the growth of their gross domestic product from 2010 to 2012. The Philippines had the same experience. As the capitalist crisis deepens, the social situation drastically deteriorated even among the member countries of the imperialist circle. The rates of unemployment are in their highest levels in the history of these countries. Many more millions of people throughout the world now suffer from extreme poverty due to long-term unemployment, and millions are at dire risk due to hunger and homelessness. Faced with chaotic economic crises, European and other capitalist governments which are unable to pay their foreign debts and to bail out their own banks and investment firms, are forced to accept EU/IMF control of their
economies. Additional debts are incurred with more conditionalities, primarily the cutting of public employment levels and benefits, and the slashing of outlays for education, health, housing, social security, retirement and other social services which are badly needed by the working peoples. It is also through government indebtedness to supra-national financial institutions that the development and social progress of “Third World” countries (like the Philippines) is impeded, and past gains of national sovereignty and even territorial integrity are subjected to a process of recolonisation. It is the greed for greater profits of these financial institutions and banksters which fuels the imperialist drive for global domination, which is imposed on some resisting countries through covert and overt military aggression. II. The Escalation of the Imperialist Offensive As a reaction to the deepening crisis of capitalism, imperialist forces are waging economic, social, political, and military offensives worldwide. In the economic field, transnational corporations and financial institutions are able to derive superprofits through a new international division of labor which reduces “Third World” countries under their control into platforms for the production of labor-intensive products destined for export to the world market. Imperialist powers employ the debt trap to consolidate their hold on their sources of superprofits in the Third World. Imperialist-controlled multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank and other such banks, are responsible for perpetuating a system of international debt slavery by imposing onerous terms in the granting and
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renegotiation of “development”, “budget stabilization”, “structural” and other loans.
integrity of those countries which are special targets of imperialist recolonization.
To perpetuate iniquitous conditions in imperialist-dictated countries, the political “stability” of their pliant regimes is ensured through repressive measures, through the creation of new US-controlled military blocs, and through the imposition of military treaties and agreements which will allow the presence or constant “visits” of US forces in these countries. The reimposition of US military bases or military “visits” on other countries is aimed at stemming the growth of forces for national independence and socialist transformation.
III. The International Realignment of Forces
Currently, a special target of US and NATO warmongering is the socialist-oriented Syrian Arab Republic, the main stumbling block to the realization of the US-Israeli plan for a “New Middle East”. Two years of AlQaidalinked islamist terrorism funded and militarily supported by the USA and other NATO powers, as well as by Israel, has bled the Syrian people, who however remain defiant and unbowed. For this reason, the Syrian Arab Republic deserves more militant solidarity not only of communist and workers’ parties, but of all peace-loving peoples throughout the world. At the same time, US imperialism carries on with its destabilization plots against Cuba, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and other socialist-oriented countries which are members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). US imperialist sabre-rattling also continues against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Communist and workers’ parties, and all peace-loving peoples throughout the world, also need to express more militant solidarity against the US-NATO schemes to denigrate the independence, sovereignty and territorial
The deepening crisis of capitalism weakens the economic clout of imperialist countries, with the closure of some major private industrial and commercial firms, with the bankruptcy of some leading private banks and financial institutions, and with mounting external debts and huge budget deficits, among others. This deepening crisis therefore compels the imperialist powers to coordinate their actions to minimize the impact of inter-imperialist contradictions which continue to divide them. The series of summit meetings of leaders of the USA, Germany, Japan, France, UK, Italy and Canada reflect their increasing inability to coordinate their strategies and positions. The continuing rivalries among them result in the strengthening of tendencies towards economic protectionism, which in turn generates trade wars. Other imperialist-created economic alliances, such as the G20, similarly exerted efforts to coordinate their national economic strategies. However, contradictions among member countries of the G20 could still be observed. Efforts by the decades-old Trilateral Commission, whose function is to forge unified coordination of the three centers of world imperialism, have also failed to moderate inter-capitalist contradictions or to mitigate the effects of the general crisis of capitalism. The latest exposures about US spying on leaders of other imperialist countries can only aggravate the contradictions within the imperialist circle. The PKP-1930 notes the growing prestige and clout of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) which together
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account for half of the world’s population, investments and productive capacity. The cooperation and integration of their economies, and their growing detachment from ties with the USA and other imperialist countries, is leading to the creation of a new (although still capitalist) counterpoise to imperialism. The BRICS countries can, together, compete formidably with the USA and other imperialist countries, not only in the economic arena. Their political and military capability could help contain the hegemonist drive of the USA and its NATO allies. Although we can surmise that the subjective factor for socialist revolution in the highly developed capitalist countries of Europe may still be lagging behind the objective conditions, it is encouraging to note the heightened anti-imperialist militancy of the working masses in Europe, especially in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland. In many parts of Africa and Asia, revolutionary movements may not be strong, but they nevertheless help in containing the hegemonic ambitions of the USA and other imperialist powers. Of course we cannot forget that in South Africa, Nelson Mandela emerged as president of the country after being released in 1989 from 27 long years of incarceration, due to the strength of the anti-apartheid national liberation movement in that country. A relatively new development in Africa and Asia is the steady penetration of investments, particularly in petroleum and mineral resources, of the People’s Republic of China which is now driven by the desire to dispose of the vast US dollar holdings accumulated over the past three and a half decades of her strategic partnership with the USA. Of great importance in the balance of forces on the international arena are the progressive developments in Latin America and the Caribbean, where Cuba has become the bea-
con of the anti-imperialist struggle not only in this region, but even throughout the world. With Cuba’s example, a new integration of economies along socialist lines is being forged by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), in Latin America and the Caribbean. All the above developments help impede and even frustrate the hegemonic drive of US imperialism and its allies in many parts of the world, but the turn of events in the international balance of forces will depend on how the working class will play its role, and how communists could fulfill their tasks, in the struggle for workers’ and peoples’ rights and in the struggle for socialism. IV. The Role of the Working Class, and the Communists’ Tasks in the Struggle for Workers’ and Peoples’ Rights, and in the Struggle for Socialism The deepening systemic crisis of capitalism, and the growing worldwide condemnation of the imperialist recourse to military aggression and foreign occupation, demonstrate the historical limits of the international capitalist system. Of course, the only solution to the global crises is the advance to socialism. The working class, which does not have the means of production at its disposal, however has the power to reverse today’s unjust situation. But for the working class to fulfill its mission as the “grave digger” of the capitalist mode of production, the strengthening of its revolutionary party is necessary. In the case of the Philippines, which is far from being a developed capitalist country, and which in fact is a mere appendage to the operations of transnational corporations, the task of the broad patriotic sectors of our people is to struggle for national democracy —- for national freedom from imperialist control and exploitation, and for a democratic system
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where there will be a strong public sector which could ensure that the working people’s rights are safeguarded and their basic needs are met. The struggle for socialism through the national democratic path should be seen as the logical continuation of the Filipino people’s struggle against imperialism and all forms of exploitation. Socialism is the culmination of our people’s struggle for real freedom, peace, progress and equality. The anti-imperialist struggle in the Philippines is intertwined with the anti-imperialist struggles in other countries. Our different national struggles give strength to each other, and thus the issue of anti-imperialist solidarity is more crucial than ever. The PKP-1930 remains convinced that the worldwide struggle of the working peoples for socialism will overcome imperialism, and that socialism remains the only hope for humanity’s survival and humane future. Brief Philippine Situationer The continued orientation of the Philippine economy along neocolonial lines imposed by world imperialism is largely engineered by the WB, IMF, ADB, WTO and other multilateral institutions controlled by imperialism. The economic policies of the present administration of Pres. Benigno Simeon Aquino III, and of all previous regimes in the past half century, are essentially based on the prescriptions of international agencies of US imperialism. The role of the Philippine government is reduced to that of an implementor or executive committee of the consultative group of foreign financing institutions. With the dire economic, political and social impacts of imperialist dictates on the Philip-
pines, there is greater impetus for the masses of our people, and especially for progressive organizations, to step up the anti-imperialist struggle. A main thrust in our anti-imperialist struggle is the ending of the “Visiting Forces Agreement” and the “Mutual Defense Treaty”, under which the USA practically controls the national security and other military policies of our country. In the particular situation of the capitalist crises engulfing our country today, our most pressing concerns in the economic field are the following : ending the privatization of public services ; re-nationalization of privatized electric, water and petroleum utilities ; establishment of a strong state sector of the economy ; ending the policy of import liberalization which has allowed the dumping in our country of commodities by transnational corporations ; ensuring transparency and accountability in government dealings with imperialist-controlled multilateral institutions and banking groups ; and the thorough audit of all the foreign loans secured by the present and past regimes (with the aim of repudiating all onerous loans which benefitted only the partnership of foreign banksters and local kleptocracies). On the political front, our most pressing concerns are the following : removal of governmental measures preventing the participation of progressive parties in electoral exercises ; ending of warlordism and political dynasties ; empowerment of progressive mass organizations through their participation in advisory councils (of national agencies and local governments) concerned with the sectors represented by such mass organizations ; and the elimination of graft and corruption in all branches of government (executive, legislative, juridiciary and special constitutional bodies).
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On the social front, of urgent concern are the following : opening of more jobs through the government’s direct undertaking of all infrastructure projects ; setting of a nationwide minimum living wage ; safeguarding and advancement of workers’ benefits and social security ; defense of trade union rights ; extension of agrarian reforms (primarily land acquisition by the government, and their redistribution to landless peasants or their cooperatives) in all crops and agricultural fields ; expansion of public schools, universities, hospitals, day-care centers and homes for the elderly ; and the massive opening of housing projects to allow the relocation of present residents in typhoon- or flood-prone waterways, earthquake faultlines and other calamity-prone areas. On the cultural front, of particular concern are the ending of local mass media reliance on US and other imperialist news agencies and entertainment industries ; control of fundamentalism or bigotry engendered by religious institutions ; safeguarding of education from anti-science teachings and superstitious rituals ; and the development of a more tolerant or liberal atmosphere for the battle of ideas where the merits of socialism, and concepts of the national democratic path towards socialism, will surely win more adherents.
F. Municipalities .................................1,494 G. Population (2010 est.) ........92,337,852 2. Government Statistics : GDP (2012 est.) .................US $257 billion GDP per capita......................$2,614 (2012) GDP by sector (2011 est.) ............................ .....................................agriculture (12.3%), .........................................industry (33.3%), ..........................................services (54.4%) Population living below poverty line........... ........................................22.6% (2006 est.) Labour force (2011 est.) .......59.81 million Unemployment.....................................7.3% ............(gov’t. estimate, end of June 2013) (Note : Unemployment is estimated by the private SWS survey firm at 26.1%, as of the end of June 2013.) Exports............................$52 billion (2012) Imports......................$57.24 billion (2012) Main trade partners ...........................Japan, ................................................................USA, .............................................................China, ..................................................South Korea External debt .........................$68.39 billion ............................................(Dec. 31, 2012).
(Note: Following are some Philippine statistical data.) Brief Profile of the Philippines 1. Geographical data : A. Total land area in sq. kilometers .............. .........................................................342,351 B. No. of islands ..................................7,107 C. Regions .................................................17 D. Provinces ..............................................80 E. Cities ...................................................140
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вывода о конце капитализма. Отсюда уверенность, что открывающаяся историческая эпоха будет эпохой крупных революционных перемен. Однако капитал пока еще имеет большие ресурсы для подавления освободительного и коммунистического движения и, как это уже было в истории, будет стремиться выйти из кризиса с помощью войн. Мы являемся свидетелями возрастания агрессивности империализма, его стремлением взять под контроль и подчинить своим интересам социальные движения в разных частях планеты, а также разделаться с народами, ведущими антиимпериалистическую борьбу. Мы выражаем солидарность с народом Сирии и Коммунистической партией Сирии, с народом Палестины, с народом Корейской Народно-Демократической республики и Трудовой партией Кореи, с народом Кубы, со всеми, кто ведет борьбу с империализмом. Успешная борьба с капиталом и успех революции во многом зависит от зрелости коммунистического движения. Крупный монополистический капитал давно объединился и действует сообща и агрессивно против народов планеты. Поэтому задача развития Международного Коммунистического и Рабочего движения сегодня актуальна как никогда. Однако одним из принципиальных условий сохранения единства коммунистического движения является борьба с оппортунизмом. Мы с вами видим, что партии, участвующие во Встрече и входящие в список «Солиднет» придерживаются
разной стратегии и тактики рабочего и левого движения, по-разному видят свою роль и задачи в борьбе за социализм. То же самое происходит на национальном и региональном уровне. На постсоветском пространстве также представлены две основные линии: это 1) марксистские революционные партии под эгидой и в составе КПСС и 2) оппортунистические, соглашательские партии, входящие в систему так называемого СКП-КПСС (Союза Компартий – КПСС). Поэтому прошу нас не путать. КПСС ставит вопрос и видит свою задачу в демонтаже капиталистической системы посредством социалистической революции, а другие соглашательские партии, входящие в так называемый СКПКПСС, говорят о смене политического курса и создании правительства парламентского большинства. Это есть реформизм. Оппортунисты и соглашатели участвуют в совершенствовании капиталистической системы. Мы же не питаем иллюзий, будто в рамках капитализма, посредством реформ, возможно “исправить” эксплуататорскую систему. Еще никогда реформизм не приводил пролетариат к власти и не способствовал осуществлению социалистических преобразований. Поэтому наши разногласия вытекают из того, что мы придерживаемся разных направлений борьбы: мы сторонники марксистко-ленинского революционного пути, наши оппоненты являются продолжателями «горбачевской» линии. На опыте России и ряде других стран мы видим, что встраивание партии в современную буржуазную систему, особенно работа в исполнительных
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органах власти на министерских постах бюрократизирует и дискредитирует партию в глазах миллионов обездоленных людей. Оппортунисты часто идут на сговор и сделку с буржуазией, предав интересы пролетариата в обмен на министерские портфели и социальные реформы. Это не способствует продвижению к социализму. Напротив, наблюдается откат от главной стратегической цели. Наша партия считает, что главным в деятельности марксистских коммунистических и рабочих партий должна быть революционная стратегия и тактика пролетарского движения. Марксистская партия должна быть ориентирована на приход к власти рабочего класса революционным путем. Мы должны понимать и открыто говорить о том вреде, который оппортунизм нанес рабочему и коммунистическому движению. Оппортунисты и соглашатели – враги рабочего и народного движения. Вся история мирового коммунистического и рабочего движения – тому свидетельство. Так, с началом Первой мировой войны фракция Социал-демократической партии Германии (СДПГ) в Рейхстаге голосует за военные кредиты правительству на ведение войны. А затем из-за предательства СДПГ в январе 1919 года были убиты основатели антивоенного «Союза Спартака» и Коммунистической партии Германии Роза Люксембург и Карл Либкнехт. Кратко остановлюсь на современной ситуации в России, так как Россия является ключевым звеном и главным игроком на постсоветском пространстве. Поэтому от России во многом зависит будущее большинства соседних
республик, некогда входящих в СССР. Общественная напряженность постепенно растет, наблюдается полевение политических настроений сотен тысяч людей, потеря властью своего авторитета и влияния в обществе. Правящая группировка господствующего класса стремительно теряет свою поддержку в обществе, а ресурсы, находящиеся в ее распоряжении, непомерно малы в сравнении с предстоящими социальноэкономическими проблемами. Постепенно вызревают признаки предреволюционной ситуации, хотя говорить о ее наличии еще преждевременно. В этих условиях, буржуазные политтехнологи активно используют национализм и религиозный фанатизм, чтобы отвлечь трудящихся от классовой борьбы. В этих целях российская власть делает ставку на церковь и осуществляет клерикализацию страны. В этих же целях буржуазия провоцирует межнациональные и межконфессиональные (религиозные) конфликты. Буржуазная власть навязывает обществу так называемые «национальные интересы», являющиеся, по сути, интересами правящего буржуазного класса и монополий. Следует помнить, что национальный вопрос является производным от классового вопроса. Поэтому его можно решить только классовой борьбой за интересы трудящихся всех национальностей. Марксистская партия должна быть настойчивым и последовательным проводником пролетарского интернационализма, преодолевать националистические и шовинистические предрассудки в среде трудящихся и в целом населения. В.И.Ленин в «Тезисах по
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NEW COMMUNIST PARTY OF YUGOSLAVIA ALEKSANDER BANJANC
Dear comrades, I warmly greet you on behalf of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia, and express gratitude to the Communist Party of Portugal on the organization of the XV international conference of communist and workers’ parties. Plenty of issues to be dealt with in this year’s event reflect the complex situation in our movement at the present time. Since the eruption of the latest crisis of capitalism, in our organization the situation is rapidly changing in response to the existing situation and strategies of capitalism to survive. Many of these strategies, as well as the reactions of the Communists are not a historical mystery, but also we are faced with many completely new and authentic historical problems of the modern world. In relation to this topic’s, I will in my speech concentrate on the situation in our country and the problems that our party is facing in its work. If we tried to summarize what is the first and foremost problem facing Serbian society, then we would no doubt say imperialism. Imperialism is the main reason for the collapse of socialism in our socialist Yugoslavia, imperialism is the main regulatory principle of Serbian economy and politics today, imperialism is a brutal destructive way obvious in Serbia and in the former Yugoslavia as surely as nowhere else in Europe, which is continuing occupation of the southern Serbian province Kosovo and Metochy (Metohi). Several factors are involved in this shameful and by all measures of international law, an illegal act. NATO, after the military intervention in 1999 which was done in the style of “spanking the disobedient” to this day through the so called “Peacekeeping” in Kosovo, is the main and largest armed force which is concentrated in the heart of the Balkans. To the most of you, the military objectives and strategy of imperialism in destruction of Yugoslavia and especially in case of Kosovo are not unknown. These military targets and their
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realization in 1999 were a clear continuity, while in the political field these goals were quite dynamic. They are characterized by a continuous new pressures and demands, the constant redefinition of the goals of imperialism that are infinitely being increased. The major political lever that implements imperialist political actions is the United States along with the European Union. Our party said and repeated that the EU is imperialist creation which therefore cannot be democratized, cannot be reformed so that the people of Europe could live in prosperity. The European Union is a dungeon of European nations, where every day there is less and less democracy and prosperity and more poverty, more social and political injustice, it encourages the most retrograde and reactionary political forces that thrive as its strategy for the rescue of the system that stands in its essence. Our response to the EU may be only one, ruthless and definite deviation and insisting on its dismantlement. Of course it is not surprising that the European Union is quite involved in the fate of the development of the situation in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo and Metochy (Metohi). Due to its objectives that derive from the nature of the European Union, the imperialist and hegemonic, the European Union clearly decided to make and illegal recognition of Kosovo’s independence. To this end, with economic and political pressures it dictates the policy of Republic of Serbia on this issue. The ruling class in Serbia and its bourgeois political parties support the association with the EU at all costs, and have de facto declared themselves for the Independence of Kosovo, although there is a small percentage of people in Serbia who agrees whit this platform. The absurd situation in which the bourgeois government of Serbia does not officially recognize Kosovo, but co-
operates fully in the process of dialogue with the government so called Republic of Kosovo with the EU as a middle man in the field of socalled “Normalization relations”. This cooperation goes so far that the Serbian government is aggressively agitating among the Serbian population in Kosovo to vote in local elections of Republic of Kosovo, held just this weekend, and thus gives the legitimacy of Kosovo’s institutions. It’s crazy that the same government of the country on which NATO bombs were falling, in accordance with European principles in foreign policy imposes sanctions on Belorussia and Syria. I’m using this opportunity to say in my name and in the name of our party, and the vast majority of our people, that we sincerely apologize to the parties, our comrades, dear brothers and sisters, Belarus and Syria and send the message that this attitude of pro-imperialistic bourgeois government in Serbia has absolutely nothing to do with what our people feel and what is ultimately their true interest. We support the anti-imperialist struggle of the people of Belarus and especially Syria today having a lot of innocent victims in the struggle against Western imperialism and its beloved children of religious fundamentalism. Very important, and the most important factor in all the imperialist political processes in the Balkans is Turkey. The presence of Turkish monopoly and the various political interventions of Turkish authorities in other Balkan countries, especially during the recent election process in Kosovo when the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan came to personally campaign in support of agitating puppet regime in Pristina, has little to do with the socalled Neo-Ottomanism as some bourgeois media likes to present. These are authentic and modern imperialist aspirations which are an integral part of the domination of Western
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imperialism in entire region, with the ruling class of Turkey one of the main allies, minions and protagonist. What does the working class and people and the broadest layers of Turkey think about the politics of the Turkish ruling classes, was more than evident during the summer events in Geza park in Istanbul, which our Party has given its full support and organized solidarity actions. The Balkan today is an important experimental region of Europe when it comes to strategies for surviving the crisis of capitalism which was created. In the Balkans today we have hordes of fascists and religious fundamentalists being recruited, whose rampage and terrorism affect in many cases, and creates pressure against powerful working-class’(klasis) response to the crisis. In the Balkans today they examine to what extent all the measures can go in the way of political pressure and the conditioning by the European Union, The International Monetary Fund and NATO. Our party is firmly committed to close cooperation and solidarity among the Balkan peoples. The problem of disunity and discord among the Balkan people has been one of the main factors that go into the hands of the imperialist domination of our region. We are in favor that all the national issues in the Balkans must be solved only under the anti-imperialist platform, each self-determination under the sponsorship of imperialism is only the option for imperialism and against the interests of the broadest social strata respectively. Therefor communists of Balkan countries have a special responsibility and commitment in the process of unmasking the imperialistic aims behind such projects as “Independence of Kosovo”. The existing situation in the Balkans is not a precedent. The Balkans are on record for their long history of bloody imperial “divide et impera” politics. Here is what more than
fifty years ago a Serbian social democrat Dimitrije Tucovic had to say about it: „The peoples of the Balkans, taken separately and not united, are systematically targeted by the imperial conquerors in every war. [...] and they shall always be targeted unless they unite. The History has taught us the lesson, more than once unfortunately, that our disunity suits our conquerors’ interests, never our own. Grouping and mutuality of countries and peoples in the Balkans is the only road that leads to economic, national and political liberation. Clearly the government and the entire establishment in Serbia are not just puppets put to power by the European Union and the big powers, to obey and implement the imperial politics. Their own interests are also at stake. These interests are responding to broad strategic and economic imperial objectives : 1/ Dismantling of national economic and social infrastructure under the plundering privatization program that transferred the most profitable state assets into the hands of foreign big capital; 2/ free-market sponsored regionalization and further dismantling of Serbia. The conditions created under cover of attracting foreign investors actually are that of economic occupation and total submission of Serbia, crippling domestic industries, prompting massive job cuts and the replacement of living wage union jobs with jobs in sectors with low pay, minimal benefits and no job security. The European Union sponsored corrupt legal system, having policy of free market plunder as its primary objective, is in all evidence supervising the interests of the capitalists, domestic or foreign Mafia. The catastrophic New Labor Law written by the foreign non-governmental organizations such as USAID in accordance with the IMF that
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SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY SOLLY MAPAILA
The South African Communist Party (SACP) expresses its fraternal greetings to all participants of the 15th Meeting of the International Communist and Workers Parties. We particularly express warm regards to the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) for their efforts in making this meeting a success and creating excellent conditions for the success of the 15th ICWP. The South African democratization process will next mark an important milestone - 20 years of independence and defeat against the policies of racism and exploitation of the indigenous peoples of our country. This will also be marked in a year where an important set of elections national and provincial elections will take place - in 2014! At this crucial stage of the democratization point, it will provide the Communist Party and it’s allies, the opportunity to interrogate the post-colonial state and its challenges - and the extent to which the progressive alliance led by the African National Congress (ANC) has been able to advance the goals of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR)! In fact, in much of Southern Africa (at least) the antidote of easy assumptions that former national liberation movements are the timeless and authentic voices if their respective countries and peoples abound. The role, we want to argue, is earned DEMOCRATICALLY - in daily work with and for the people! And that is the challenge facing the post-53rd ANC National Conference of the ANC and the wider alliance. Comrades, We coming together in Portugal in this 15th Meeting of the ICWP, under the theme: “The deepening crisis if capitalism, the working class role and the communist tasks in the struggle for workers and people’s’ rights. Imperialism’ offensive, the international realignment of forces, the national issues, class emancipation and the struggle for socialism”.
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We are coming here also in the centenary of one of the most important figures and actors in the struggle for socialism and internationalism, the PCP has produced - the centenary of the late former general-Secretary of PCP, comrade Alvaro Cunhal! The events of 25 April Revolution and many efforts before and after in solidarity with the people’s of our region, are important indelible marks of internationalism. The anatomy of colonialism and exploitation in our region of Southern Africa, also bear colonial-Portuguese exploitation. It has been through the tireless work of PCP and other comrades, such as Alvaro Cunhal, that the forces fighting for liberation were able to overcome the yoke of colonialism in our region. National liberation movement do not emerge one fine day out of the mind of some superman or at the instigation of some foreign power. They are born out of popular discontent , we want to argue. They emerge over long periods to combat oppressive conditions and express aspirations for different kind if society. They are, in short, the agents of class and national struggle. In the case of Southern Africa, they were born in the crucible of the colonial experience.
tional communist movement. This we believe will prepare our international communist and workers parties movement to take advantage of the crises of capitalism, but more importantly to embed the democracy and win over the majority of the people’s of the world, over to socialism. The SACP is currently preparing important events to mark the centenary of the SACP in 2021 - and indeed many other parties born during this period will also mark 100 years of existence! This we believe could also provide a platform to prepare the international communist and workers parties movement to observe centenary of the Great Socialist October Revolution in 2017! We wish this 15th Meeting of ICWP all success! Socialism is the future - build it now!
We point these out this in order to reinforce our the important notion of the Tripartite Alliance and its historic evolution in the unique conditions of South Africa. It is against this background that, we should properly contextual use the conjunctural endeavours of the Tripartite Alliance, led by the ANC and its strategy for achievement of the goals of the Freedom Charter - and thus further advance the struggle for socialism. We want to further advance a proposal for doing an analysis of the state of the interna-
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF CATALUNA ANGEL CRESPO
Camaradas, En primer lugar un saludo revolucionario en nombre del Partit dels i les Comunistes de Catalunya, al tiempo que expresar el agradecimiento al Partido Comunista Portugués por la buena organización de este 15e Encuentro y la felicitación por los recientes resultados en la movilización y en las elecciones municipales, que demuestran, una vez más, el arraigo y prestigio del PCP entre las masas trabajadoras. Desde la coincidencia en líneas generales con la propuesta envíada por el PCP sobre las conclusiones del encuentro, desde nuestro pequeño país y desde la modestia de nuestro Partido, queremos transmitiros los principales retos que consideramos que tenemos los comunistas, y como nosotros los afrontamos. Vivimos tiempos convulsos, estamos en la crisis del capitalismo más importante de los últimos 80 años, una crisis que hace evidente la incapacidad del capitalismo para satisfacer las necesidades de la gran mayoría de la población. Un sistema basado en la desigualdad, que muestra niveles de riqueza exorbitante y ofensiva para una parte importante de la población mundial que vive en la más absoluta pobreza. Un sistema voraz, explotador de las personas, desde muy jóvenes, y expoliador de los recursos naturales que habrían de ser propiedad de la humanidad como el agua y los recursos energéticos. Pero desde las entrañas de esa misma crisis surgen señales de esperanza, con una pérdida de la hegemonía económica de EEUU, con importantes conflictos en unos casos inter-imperialistas, en otros liderados por gobiernos progresistas. En el mundo se desarrollan procesos democráticos y progresistas en diferentes países, especialmente en América Latina, y crecen en todos los continentes las expresiones de rechazo y de protesta frente a las injusticias, la corrupción, los recortes de derechos y libertades que estamos sufriendo. Estamos al final de una etapa del imperialis-
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mo que va desde la unipolaridad actual a un mundo más multipolar, y que con el fin del dominio de los EEUU en el terreno económico, está reforzando su carácter militarista, guerrerista y agresivo. De hecho ante un cuestionamiento generalizado de su papel en el mundo, está intentando recomponer su presencia y hegemonía a partir de la desestabilización de gobiernos y países. Una crisis capitalista que requiere mayor unidad de los trabajadores, una potente lucha ideológica y no cejar en la defensa de derechos sociales y laborales. La globalización se nos ha presentado como la construcción de un modelo neutro en función de un desarrollo aséptico de las fuerzas productivas, tecnológicas, escondiéndose el papel de dirección política y económica del neoliberalismo y de la oligarquía financiera, en este proceso de construcción de la globalización. El capitalismo y el imperialismo han desarrollado una ofensiva económica e ideológica a través del neoliberalismo, imponiendo su hegemonía cultural y de valores, en la esfera productiva y reproductiva de la sociedad, lo que denominamos pensamiento único donde prima lo individual a lo colectivo, lo privado a lo público, el consumo a la necesidad, y que da pie a una nueva conciencia social más individualista, competitiva e insolidaria que está en la base de la pérdida de conciencia e identidad de clase de importantes sectores de trabajadores y trabajadoras. Uno de las principales dificultades que hemos tenido en el período neoliberal ha sido esa pérdida de la conciencia e identidad de clase, y como consecuencia la despolitización y la desideologización de la clase obrera ante el conflicto capital/trabajo y que ha afectado de forma directa a la pérdida de identidad de la
izquierda política, social y sindical, llevándola por un lado a una aceptación acrítica de la realidad, que pensando que la lucha y el conflicto de clases estaba superado llevo a muchos a abrazar las tesis reformistas o por otro lado a negar la evidencia de los cambios sociales y de todo tipo que se están produciendo en nuestras sociedades, buscando refugio en él dogmatismo en lugar de aplicar el análisis científico e intervenir para modificar las correlaciones de fuerzas . La oligarquía financiera y el gran capital pretenden, una vez más, una salida de la crisis sobre las espaldas de los trabajadores y trabajadoras, así como de otros sectores y clases sociales que están siendo golpeadas por las medidas de austeridad. En nuestro país, los altísimos niveles de paro, la precarización constante del empleo, las congelaciones y rebajas salariales, el vaciado de la negociación colectiva y el debilitamiento y desprestigio de las organizaciones sindicales son parte de una estrategia neoliberal iniciada hace muchos años, que tiene por objetivo desarmar a la clase trabajadora material e ideológicamente, pero que se viene agudizando con la crisis y que tienen su colofón con la reforma laboral aprobada por el Partido Popular. Las consecuencias de la ofensiva liberal esta en el origen de la grave situación que atravesamos centenares de miles de trabajadores y trabajadoras, ya sean asalariados ó autónomos; pequeños comerciantes, etc., y que se expresa en la destrucción del tejido industrial, el exponencial incremento de la pobreza, el desalojo de miles de familias de sus casas, la estafa bancaria a miles de pequeños inversores, las dificultades de la juventud para construir su proyecto de vida autónomo, el endurecimiento del acceso a la Universidad a las
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capas populares y la expulsión de miles de jóvenes del país por la ausencia de trabajo. En ese contexto la ofensiva recortadora y privatizadora de los derechos sociales y de ciudadanía suponen no solo una agresión a los sectores más débiles de la sociedad, sino una profundización de las desigualdades sociales y una transferencia de recursos del sector publico a manos de empresas privadas. Es por esto que los comunistas catalanes apostamos por la necesidad de desarrollar la lucha ideológica y la unidad de los trabajadores, que ha de desarrollarse en los centros de trabajo, actuando en base a un nuevo impulso unitario que pivote sobre el protagonismo de los trabajadores y las trabajadoras, de su participación e implicación, de una forma de trabajo unitaria, abierta e inclusiva también en la estrategia y la propuesta, así como romper con la cultura delegativa y de tutela que se ha abierto paso los últimos años.
históricamente un conflicto nacional. En la medida que en ese debate se producía una hegemonía de la izquierda y especialmente de los comunistas mantenía unas dimensiones de equilibrio entre lo social y lo nacional. En el último período, y en la medida que ha avanzado la crisis, las posiciones nacionalistas han crecido en influencia y se ha generado un fuerte debate mediático y social, a veces artificial, sobre la independencia o la secesión de Catalunya de España. En este debate, los comunistas defendemos como concepto inseparable de nuestro proyecto de construcción nacional su dimensión social, democrática e inclusiva, que nos hace confrontar con el proyecto de nación identitario, territorialista, historicista y etnicista que caracteriza a la derecha nacionalista.
Es por ello que esta es una apuesta estratégica por la unidad sindical, que incluya al movimiento sindical en su conjunto, desde la autonomía, la autorganización, la solidaridad, la democracia y el sindicalismo de clase.
Hay que reforzar la apuesta republicana y federalista como una opción que combina la democracia, la soberanía y la justicia social. Hay que hacerlo ante las opciones de derechas del nacionalismo conservador o de un soberanismo comprensivo con las políticas neoliberales si estas en vez de que vengan de Madrid llegan de Frankfurt o Bruselas.
Al mismo tiempo es importante continuar dando aliento a las luchas populares contra los recortes sociales, por el derecho a la vivienda y contra los desahucios, en defensa de la salud y la sanidad pública, a favor de la educación pública, laica, democrática y de calidad, que junto a la defensa de los derechos laborales, la defensa del empleo, las pensiones y contra el paro configuran el terreno de la ofensiva del capital en el terreno social, democrático y laboral.
El PCC caracteriza la necesaria confluencia de la lucha social, democrática y nacional ya que si nosotros queremos desarrollar el autogobierno de la nación catalana es porque tenemos derecho democrático a hacerlo, y porque objetivamente la clase trabajadora y con ella el pueblo de Cataluña han caracterizado la opresión histórica que ha desarrollado la oligarquía terrateniente y centralista española, que ha hecho y todavía hace, muchos pactos históricos con parte de la burguesía catalana.
Comunistas por el Derecho a Decidir con vocación Republicana y Federal En Catalunya, junto al conflicto social, existe
Por lo tanto el desarrollo de marcos de autogobierno es una forma de afrontar la lucha de clases en España ya que nosotros defende-
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mos este autogobierno bajo unos parámetros de profundización de la democracia política y social y objetivamente la lucha de los pueblos de España que aspiran a más autogobierno es aliada de las luchas sociales y económicas de la clase trabajadora española y del conjunto de los pueblos de España. Esta situación combinada con la lucha contra los recortes sociales está poniendo en cuestión el orden político, social y económico surgido de los pactos de la transición. El PCC apuesta por procesos Constituyentes en Europa, España y Cataluña y los comunistas debemos actuar en cada uno de estos marcos, conscientes que nuestras propuestas por una República Catalana, Social, Democrática y Libremente Federada, que establezca un nuevo proyecto de convivencia entre Cataluña y el resto de pueblos de España republicano, federal y cooperativo.
nismo, un partido nacional e internacionalista, que aspire a construir otra Europa, social, democrática, una Europa de los trabajadores y los pueblos, y un Partido empeñado en construir la Unidad de la Izquierda para ampliar las alianzas que contribuyan a los cambios democráticos, en lo político económico y social y que avancen en una perspectiva socialista.
Una apuesta inequívoca por la Unidad Comunista Para avanzar en la lucha y las tareas de la revolución democrática y por el socialismo es fundamental un gran Partido Comunista que sea capaz de superar la fragmentación existente, y que sea capaz de atraer a las nuevas generaciones de luchadores y luchadoras que aspiran a superar el capitalismo y desarrollar una sociedad justa y libre. Un Partido para la movilización para frenar y derrotar las políticas neoliberales, un Partido para contribuir a la lucha ideológica y al cambio de la correlación de fuerzas, un Partido de clase que trabaje para la recuperación de la conciencia de clase y la unidad de los trabajadores y trabajadoras. Para ello planteamos la necesidad de desarrollar un proceso de unidad abierto a organizaciones y personas que se reclaman del comu-
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF SWEDEN WRITTEN CONTRIBUTION
About the monopoly capital, the opportunism and the necessity of a new Communist International Capital dictatorship is primarily manifested in two ways: on the one hand by the bourgeois so-called democratic formula - either as a republic or parliamentary monarchy, on the other hand as a criminal fascist dictatorship, both variants mask that the state is in capital ownership. Fascism and bourgeois democracy is so to speak, two sides of the same coin but at different stages of the class struggle. Capital dictatorship is a system of oppression against the majority of the people- the working class. With the foregoing together with Lenin’s words that: “capitalism is private ownership of the means of production and the anarchy of production” seems the idea of trying to limit capitalism statutory freedoms and to provide a fair distribution within the current system is very peculiar. It is not the experience of what the working people are doing today, and after the disassembly of the Soviet Union and the world socialist system. “Capitalism does not share otherwise than in proportion to the strength,” says Lenin further on. The opportunity for system improvement is that when clergy once misguided the people that they would soon get it better “above there.” The opportunism and left reformism has in many aspects replaced the clergy’s role from the past, namely that of the working people trying to implant a collective and eternal patience against their oppressors, and to become “still silent.” Sweden during the 1920 - century was a country where the working class was very combative. That we do not notice that much of today after decades of reformism and opportunism of “truce” and agreement with capitalism to divert the working class from the class struggle, its own goals and interests. Capitalism however, has said through their political agents succeeded the admirable feat
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to kidnap the working class, tie it up to the capitalist state and passivate it. To get out of this requires that the workers organize themselves into a specific party that Marx must be the quite opposite of the possessors. That’s what the Great October Revolution succeeded through Lenin’s theory / practice of Marx and Engels of scientific socialism. That the CP of Sweden today isn`t near the common memory and heritage that all of us communists have to manage does not mean that we should refrain from statements of socialism / communism goals. We will continue to commemorate the 96-year legacy of the Socialist October Revolution, stand up for it, make known and to convert its argument to the present. This is for a Communist a daily tasks. It’s not the case that communists reject reforms where the population needs support in one respect or another after destruction done by the capital “but it would be as Lenin says simply a bourgeois fraud preaching reform policies to address the issues that of history and the real political state have been putting revolutionary. “ “Sweden has become much better over the years with the bourgeois government security and freedom in everyday life” said the Conservatives after their congress this year. Now they also want to argue with the Social Democrats who it was that created the socalled “Welfare State.” In truth, they are both equal history counterfeiters. The so-called “Folkhemmet” (People´s home) arose as a consequence of the Great October Revolution: The memory brings us back to the days when Gorbachev allowed himself to be patted on the shoulder of both Reagan and
Thatcher to the landslide which in 1991 began the dismantling of the Soviet Union by the overall reaction from the IMF and CIA to the criminals and would-be oligarchs with Yeltsin in the lead. The changes drew with them what the Great October Revolution had accomplished, against the will of the majority of the Soviet people and caused great destruction of the working people also outside the socialist world-system boundaries. In Sweden, the ax fell on the community sector and state property that was carved up, privatized and went listed on the stock exchange. Unemployment was allowed to rise violently, the cultural sector wiped out capital’s financial indebtedness were again on the shoulders of the working people who were said to have “ lived beyond their means, pension money was placed on the stock exchange etc. The extensive social- and labor law insurances as the Soviet peoples had been living with and that became a reality also for workers in Sweden since the capital has forced into major concessions to the working class disappeared . The capitalists who had wintered under the blanket of the Social Democrats could now crawl out again. The rest we know: Social democrats took sole credit for the “ People’s home, “ when they in fact had only managed and saved capitalism from socialism. As minimal as the capital allow itself to be reformed, nor can any kind of a “People´s home arise from just reforms. For that purpose it was required a significant revolution, if so even rather far from the borders of Sweden. Anti communism goes hand in hand with fascism and the attacks on the working people to pay for the consequences of the capitalist cri-
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sis. We are witnessing the elimination of union, - work, - and political rights, mass unemployment and increased homelessness, private interests has soon put their teeth into everything that once was owned together. This is the humanity, freedom and equality as the capitalist society offer, a condition that in other contexts and by the bourgeois megaphones are presented as the best of all worlds. The bourgeois dictatorship has for too long been legalized as a democracy, partly by the bourgeoisie as itself, and partly by the bourgeois in reformist left disguised. Time has done that the people now find it very difficult to distinguish them apart from each other, and even more difficult to see the interests behind. The bourgeois media then very effectively prevent people from finding alternative avenues to get alternative tools needed to remedy their woes. Until the people succeed the capitalist state doesn`t need to show off its fascist character. Thus it is the task of communists to destroy this scheming. The communism thesis about the impossibility of putting an end to wars and economic oppression, without overthrowiing the imperialist bourgeoisie and its governments still apply. The opportunists in the so-called parliamentary labor parties does today accept wars and military interventions on assembly line in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, the dismissal of the democratically elected leaders, coup d`ĂŠtat, falling into the lies and propaganda apparatus of the imperialism and sometimes to be at at the forefront of it. Although they never stood up for the interests of the working class they still must be called and declared as traitors!
The capital in the crisis shows more aggression. It is a decaying system, unable to reproduce. Although we are not in a revolutionary situation, the fact remains that capitalism’s continual crisis mean that the ruling class can no longer maintain their rule unchanged. In Europe and in many countries around the world show the masses their discontent. However, this requires far more than the vague increase in activity from the Swedish working population until an objective revolutionary situation have been satisfied here, but with the international working class awakening and with help from the CP of Sweden the eyes will open, also for the Swedish one. International solidarity and cooperation with the parties that from the crisis already have made great experience and received general and specific lessons, theory and practice in the fight against monopoly capitalism and imperialism, dictatorship and fascism also improves the perspective of our struggle. Taken together, it is needed an International who follow and practice the Marx-Engels and Lenin indistinguishable theories to more effectively counter the suffering of the people under the capitalist tyranny, until it has been overcome for all future. ======================== The ideological confusion that both right-and left-bourgeoisie developed in society created a vicious circle of political ignorance and disinterest which also led to considerable difficulties for the communists to reach out to the working class in its plight during the capitalist crisis and the reaction. One hundred years in the past, the world population was more numerous who understood that the new challenges in accordance with
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the knowledge and the tools of marxismleninism provided them with the ability to solve social problems in connection with the ruling, oppressive and exploitative capitalist class. Therefore, the latter developed new ways to create complications between people, foment conflicts between different groups, all to preserve the exploitation of the working people and the ownership of the means of production. Like the previous oppressive social systems the capitalism one continued to suppress any notion of economic equality and collective solutions. The world domination of the monopoly capitalism in its imperialist stage reached a solution to the problem for it´s advantage since the majority of the working people in the world were not aware of the class issues In that way the monopoly capitalists were able to create conflicts between and new behaviors of the humans, competition between the workers or in different ways succeeded to involve them on their own terms. Dividing and individualizing people was succeeded by using the opportunism. Capitalism in the neoliberal form managed to establish individualism and together with opportunism to create sympathy for a new wave of colonialism in the world. Hand in hand they went against the working class both what the individualization culture and the new exploitation methods concerned . Eventually this created so far-reaching consequences that national disagreements arose when independent nations no longer wanted to live under the conditions that monopoly capitalists presented. Imperialism became aggressive and provoked conflicts between oppositional forces in the countries that stood against imperialism and allied itself with traitors who stood near colonialism or with
other conservative and reactionary forces. Neoliberalism was described as a new way to “save the world “ . Its actual ideological goal however, was to recolonize the world, an idea that was appreciated by both industrialists and the opportunists whose mission was basically to further enslave the workers under the capitalist system. Monopoly capital stands for both war and social cutbacks and it’s not just against the working class, but to all who in any way are affiliated with it. We are with this description from the CP of Sweden trying to enthuse and encourage communists to bring about a new political tactic. The ideological confrontation will continue, but in response to follow up the new expectations / problems by the working masses and to be able to fight against opportunism in the working masses, the communist mass movement more effective and as far as possible also must free itself from both opportunist and reformist tendencies so that they wont be able to be assertive. We appeal to all communist parties at a national level to look around for the formation of a wider communist front and in each country to enable these existing powers under the marxist-leninist scientific management ( communist exil organizations in each nation, war refugees, unorganized communists, etc.). With a wider communist force, the challenges of the class struggle will be easier managed and also tasks that lies ahead of us. The practical approach will obviously vary from country to country. In working-class organizations communists have plenty of things to do. Every major communist cooperation secretariat shall be head-
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ed by the party and with a practical Leninist political one from scratch. For every participant to contribute in the best way they have to be involved in the work and the responsibility for the execution of joint operations.
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for the development of stronger communist operations worldwide.
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to recruit anti-imperialists and the working masses against all the imperialist actions.
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to strongly react against war and for peace and against their oppressors and exploiters of the world.
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to save our nature and earth for future generations from the ruthless plundering of capitalism in pure profit motive.
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that orphans in the world not should need to be adopted to be rescued, but where everyone will be received by the help and protection of the socialist system. Children should not have to be the subject of human trafficking.
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to ensure that women and men should not be set against each other, both what cosmetic politics like feminism and bourgeois individualism is concerned.
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to ensure that women and men should be and feel independent and upgraded to equal people in a classless society, against all imperialist attempts with personal culture that never will be able to help human development in an equitable manner. Equality in society can only be achieved with collectivity and only communists are able to organize and systematize such a culture.
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so that socialism with assistance from the world communism can appear in reactionary countries and nations.
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to convince that communism is the counterforce to imperialism and therefore the savior of the world and the people.
For a stronger voice An extraordinary affair is to develop a Communist International as a very valuable instrument against the the fragmentation of communists, against opportunism and for developing the communist movement in marxismleninism in each country and region.
CP of Sweden believe that today’s world communism is facing major challenges and then we are in need of a Communist international. But before a new International will be built, it is ought to be a solid preparatory work to prevent opportunism from being adopted into it and prevent its ability to sabotage and try to confuse the marxist-leninist spirit. To be able to link up with the International, all communist parties have to be mapped ideologically. A Communist International is needed: n to become a strong communist voice at an international level, against the capitalist dictatorship and imperialism. This will also promote the development of communist parties at a national level.
to keep the class struggle alive (and not to be stopped by opportunism as illusions) and that it is the spirit of revolution and the knowledge to defeat capitalism. n
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to prevent world communism split. The Communist international is needed to respond to the neoliberal politics and to reveal new methods of the capitalism for its exploitation in the whole world.
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The Communist Party of Sweden suggests and urges all communists and communist fraternal parties in the world to take responsibility for the formation of a new communist international. The CP of Sweden will as party do whatever it is in force for to make this come up on the world communist agenda to become a reality.
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3ŽرLC7zت ا-آLCz ا3Cn-w~ •nًاH> L•aE •n P•z 3•ƒ`‰zى ا‰sz وا3 e‚‘وا y0 ،_sn =•{Fz_ واQ‰7 z• اrLT 3saƒ~ uz ~• ذL; وأآ.ً-]Žورة أ-? z•} اz-r‘• اnو uŽLT ‹z إ/‚ا‰?z[ اi0 •n 5z‰C6 -‡‚إ -‡7Q-•Q •n 3•z-ŽL1~“ ا3~‰eƒ {z L•kX •r-0 و3Žد‰iRz- آ،3•‚واHiz وا3•iQ‰7zا ،ىLE أ3‡> •~و.=•{Fzرات ا-~ وإDŽ-U~ 3s{i7 z وا،y~ا‰iz ~• اHŽHiz ا/1R0 ى‰s{z gŽLRzر ا‰a7z-0 ‹z ا‘و3>رHz-0 5‚-• آ7zول اHz[ اi0 ك-ƒ'ن هn ،3?7ƒ zا )افL`‘ (أو دول ا3•~-‚ ولHًآ-s0-Q mƒY6 y;~ ،ً-•z-B 3oYz„ اJ‡0 -‡o•ƒY6 •w Ž • •n 3•z- QأLzر ا‰a6 إن.Hƒ‡z أو اyŽازL1zا دول3ŽL;آ# آ،ً-s0-Q 3i0-7zول اHz[ اi0 يL?Ž يJz وا،ل-; z اy•1Q ‹{h ،PwŽL0 د- 7h-0 أي،ً-~‰ h 3•ƒ`‰z اL`‘• اn اJ (هyŽNŽ • ،3•{EاHzق ا‰Rz{‹ اh L•1آ L•kŽ _sn y0 ،moFŽ • ‹7B و،y0 )ر‰a7zا ولHz„ اJ•• ه0 HŽHUz[ اr-ƒ7z اywT y0 .»3ŽH•{s7z «ا3•z-ŽL1~“ اNاآL z اg~ ••0 -~ [r-ƒ7z اywT JE#Ž [r-ƒ7zا اJه ywUzا اJ‡0 ،ر‰a7Ž يJz وا،•z- QأLzا ،•z-ŽL1~“•• ا0 -~ [r-ƒ7z‹ اz إ،أو ذاك ل- QأLzرات وا-w7B•ة ا‰r دة-Žر زHs0 y{‹ آh.ولHz اu{6 •n •z- zا أي،ةHh-sz• اk{6 • ات-ƒ;7Q•ال ا‰B‘ا •ƒ`‰zر اLC7zت ا-آLCz •h‰\‰ z اgrا‰zا 3Žد-i z ا3•Q-Q‘ى ا‰sz ~• ا-‡‚‰آ ،••Žر‰Rz••• اh‰•Uz ا،•C‚.3•z-ŽL1~”z رLC7zت ا-آLB •~ mr‰ zى أن اL‚ 3Ž–ل رؤE •~ دHC7Ž أن/?Ž •ƒ`‰zا ••• أيh‰•Uzل ا-]ƒz 3•Q-Q‘ ا3s{Czا ،3•اآL7T• ا-ƒ0 و3•z- QأLz{‹ اh -]szا grا‰z• اn و.•?•6اL7Rzر ا‰eƒ zا ~• اJه 3•?•6اL7Rz ا3ŽؤLz„ اJ هqsC76 •z-Czا ت-آLCz„ اJ ~• هmr‰ z اHŽHC6 –لE •~ 3•z-ŽL1~“ ا3‡>ا‰~ •n -‡or‰~ –لE •~ 3‡1?zر ا-iT ‹ƒ17‚ •C‚ .3• z-izا •ƒiŽ اJ وه،3•z-ŽL1~”z 3]ه-ƒ z ا3• z-izا y\-ƒ6 •7zى ا‰sz اy آg~ mz-C7zورة اL\ •h Leƒz[ اk0 3• z-iz ا3•z-ŽL1~“ اH\ .3•>‰z‰ŽHŽ“ ا-‡6-‡>‰6 و3•s1az ا-‡7i•1`
ةHB‰ z ا3‡1?z ا3• ‹ أهz إLeƒ‚ •C‚و ‹{h ن- إن آ،3•z-ŽL1~”z 3]ه-ƒ zا ،• z-iz{• • أو اr“• أو اƒ`‰zق ا-aƒzا ن‰w6 • أنw Ž ت-oz-C7z„ اJ هy;~ ن أن‰آ ،3•ƒ`‰z وا3•1iUzت ا-آLCzب اJ?zًاNآL~ ت ذات-oz-C7z„ اJ هuzJ0 ن‰w7Qو yX-B •~ L•;w0 L1 أآL•:#6ت و-•‚-w~رة وإHr افL`‘ة ا‰sz _•R1z• ا0-RCz اg ?zا فLd •n …‚ى أL‚ •C‚ و.-‡•n 3{EاHzا فLd •n أي،-Žر‰Q -ƒƒ`وف وLd y;~ ن‰wŽ ،3•z-ŽL1~“ اg~ 3~H7C z ا3‡>ا‰ zا رLC7z ا3آLB •~ً–•Yn •h‰•Uzب اNCzا دة-•Rz–ل واs7Q•• اhً-inاH~ •ƒ`‰zا 3•h‰•Uz ا3آLCz• اnً–•Yn و3•ƒ`‰zا •n•• وBد-wzق ا‰sB y>\–ً~• أ-ƒ~ -‡Žأ.HB• !ن واn ،3•اآL7T•ر ا-Y7‚ اy•1Q •~ mr‰ z ا3z#R~ إن،mQ’z،ق-nLzا ،-‡z 3‚‰w zى ا‰sz• واƒ`‰zر اLC7zت ا-آLB -ƒ0اNB•• أ0 [•o7R~ ywU0 Sr-ƒ6 • ،3•z-Cz ا3{BL z• اn ،3•z- iz وا3•h‰•Uzا نLsz–ل اE L~‘{•… اh ن- آ-~ Pwh ‹{h „J‡0 L•1wzم ا- 7ى ا•هL> 9•B ،•ŽLUizا ىHz ت-‡>‰7z[ اi0 ىL‚ •C‚ و.3z#R zا H0• …‚ أHs7i‚ •7z ا،ابNB‘ق وا-nLz[ اi0 3• ~• أهy{sŽ •~ ك-ƒ‡n .-‡7Ur-ƒ~ •~ • -‡6د-•r ًأن-??C7~ ،ت-آLCz„ اJه ة‰sz{ • وأن اizاآ• اL7T• اLwoz اy C6 .-Žر-7•zوL1z ا5R•z -‡•n 30ر-]z ا3•Q-Q‘ا 3•z-ŽL1~“ ا3‡>ا‰~ ‹z إ‰hHŽ •~ ك-ƒ هy0 •ƒ`‰zر اLC7zت ا-آLB دة-•r و3• z-izا ازي‰>ر‰1zازي وا‰>ر‰1z اg0-azذات ا اJ هy;~ إن.-‡Ro‚ ةL•6‰z-0 L•kYzا •ƒ• Ž …ƒwzً» و-Žرو-RŽ«ً–wT JE#Ž حLazا 3• ~‘ ا- h زmr‰ 0 -‚LآJŽ ،ز-•7~-0 ري‰;zن ا‰ w{z q{a~ ywU0 Lآ-ƒz ا3•‚-;zا ةL i7R zول اHz• اn رLC7zت ا-آLCz نLsz ا3ŽاH0 •n ةL i7R z… ا1Tو /1Rzن ا‰wŽ • أنw zو~• ا.•ŽLUizا رLC7zت ا-آLB دورy•{s7z •R•*Lzا ً-Žر-7•zوL0ً-i0-` y C6 •w6 }z إذا،•ƒ`‰zا ن‰{ ‡Ž }‡‚ أ‰ ه،ق-nLz[ اi0 ىHz ،ً-nLX •ل ه-]ƒ{z 3•Q-Q‘ ا3s{Czن أن ا‰آ وHizا اJ ه،3•آL•~‘ ا3•z-ŽL1~“ ا3‡>ا‰~
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ى‰sz•• اi\ وا،3•‚واHh L;ى وا‘آ‰r‘ا 3‚-w z• اn 3• z-iz ا3•z-ŽL1~”z 30ر-]zا ،-ƒŽأL0 و.3•{C z ا3Žاز‰>ر‰1z اg~ -‡Ro‚ 31Rƒz-0 3X-E ،)`-E q{aƒ zا اJأن ه زال-~ 9•B ،3•z- QأLzاف اL`‘ول اHz [i0 Hƒh uzJة وآL•kYz ا3Žاز‰>ر‰1zى اHz y•{r L•j ن‰ آ3•ƒ`‰z ا3Žاز‰>ر‰1zط ا-Qأو /RBو.3• z-iz ا3•z-ŽL1~“داة ا-i~ •n 3•z-ŽL1~“ ا3‡>ا‰~ 3z#R~ أن،-ƒŽرأ • أوƒ`‰z–ل اs7Q• اq•sC6 y>~• أ ،-‡6 ذاHC0 • ه،„NŽNi7zً-•iQ… وƒhً-h-nد 3•h- 7> ا3i•1` اه• ذاتLz ا-‚LYh •n ى‰sz ا3i•1` 5‚- آ- ‡~ ،3•~Hs6 .3 ‡ z„ اJ‡0 م‰s6 •7z ا3•h- 7>•ا A•CYz• اs1az اmr‰ z ا‰ا هJ ه-ƒŽأL0 •w Ž •« :••ƒ•z …z-r - 0 •ŽHTL7R~ ‹{h • إ،3•h- 7>•رة ا‰;z اqsC76 أن ••0 3•{ب ا‘هLCz ا-‡•n =~Hƒ6 31sB ywT •~ y~- آmX g~ 3Žاز‰>ر‰1z وا-Žر-7•zوL1zا -‡•n - 0 ،3•`اLr‰ ŽHz وا3Žر‰;zت ا-آLCzا رة‰a7 z اL•j ولHz• اn ،3ŽرLC7z ا3•ƒ`‰zا ،••ƒ•z(.»ةHـَهa] z وا3o{F7 zوا 3•Rرآ- z{‹ اh ر‰6-wŽر-wzل ا‰B ت-oz% z»ا3•z-ŽL1~“ ا3Žدو-Y7r•و «ا 3i1az ا،/211/ ص،/03/ H{? z ا،3{~-wzا أنcB–‚ ،ىLE أ3‡> •~)و3•QوLzا ع-s0 •n ،ط-Q[ ا‘وi0 ىHz …>‰6 ك-ƒه ابNB‘ دور اP ` ‹z إ،}z-iz ~• ا3ƒ•i~ .-‡`-U‚ 3• ~• أهy•{s6 أو3•h‰•Uzا ً-Ž‰]h ابNB‘„ اJج ه-~‹ إدz• إiRzوا 3•~‰sz وا3Žر‰;z ا3•`اLr‰ ŽHzى ا‰sz اg~ - 0 -‚LآJŽ -~ اJ وه.3•z-ŽL1~”z 3]ه-ƒ zا انH{1z• اn ابNB‘[ اi1z 31Rƒz-0 ىL> •\- zن اLszت ~• ا-ƒ•7Rz• اn 3•0Lizا qŽL`« ل‰B 3•oŽLC7z ا3ŽLeƒzة ا#` و5C6 ةLeƒz وا،م‰hN z•» اz- Q– رأzر ا‰a7zا 3•‚-w~'0 3•Rرآ- z• اh 31ŽLkz وا3Žا“رادو •••`اLr‰ ŽHz~••• أو (اHs7z~••• ا‰szا .}‡‚اH{0 •n 3•اآL7T• ا-ƒ10 )••Žر‰;zا تL~ •7z ا30L?7z–ل اE •~ و،ىL‚ •C‚ ،3•0Lizان اH{1z• اn 3•h‰•Uz ا3آLCz ا-‡0 ًراL\ ywU•Q …>‰7zا اJ هy;~ ن#0 •7z ا3•h‰•Uzاب اNB‘{‹ اh _sn P•z
3•`اLr‰ ŽHzاب اNB‘• اn -‡?~اد دLŽ -‡‚‰ آ- ~• دورهy•{s7z أو ا3Žر‰;zا …>‰7zا اJ هy;~ •wz و.•••~Hs7zا رات‰;z اy1s7R z 31Rƒz-0ً-]Žر أ-\ •C‚ و.3•h- 7>• ا-‡r-n! و3ŽرLC7z ا3•ƒ`‰zا 3•Q-Q‘ ا3آLC zة ا‰sz•• أن اsŽ ‹{h -Žر-7•zوL1zاآ• ه• اL7T• اg 7? z ا-ƒ1z 3ŽLeƒz-0 3C{R7 z ا3i•{azدة ا-•s0 3•Rرآ- z-0 أي3• {iz ا3•h‰•Uzا ،••Žر‰Rz••• اh‰•Uz ا،•C‚.3•ƒ•ƒ•{zــ ا ت-oz-C6 •Ž‰w6 y>ً~• أ-•FŽر-6 -ƒ{ h 3•‚‰•‡Yz وا3•z-ŽL1~”z 3]ه-ƒ~ 3•ƒ`و g~دة وHi7~ 3•s1` ى‰r g~ 3•i>L{zو ً-~ دو-ƒ آ،m{7F~ Lwn ذات3•Q-•Q ابNBأ ‹{hً-•z-B ن‰YŽLB •C‚ - آ،••YŽLB -Ž-]sz• اn ys7R z ا-ƒ0NB …>از وL0إ .ىL1wz ا3•Q-•Rz ا-Ž-]sz وا3•*H1 zا -ƒor‰~ 3CX 571: أ30L?7zل أن ا‰sz ا/?Žو HUB •nً- ‡~ً دورا/iz يJzا واJه 3‡>ا‰~ •n ى‰sz• ~• اw Ž -~ L1أآ •nًاLY7ƒ~ -ƒ1iT وجLE`• و‰zا اHhأ …•{h ظ-oCz} ا: •~–ل وs7Q•رك ا-i~ }ه-RŽ م‰•zوا.3•ƒ`‰zدة ا-•Rz اNŽNi6و د‰ Yz• اn ن‰Žر‰Rzن ا‰•h‰•Uzا م‰?‹ ه7h• و>… أn }‡ƒ`‰z yQ-1zا ••~-h •~ L; أآJƒ~ و.…z ضLi7Ž •z-ŽL1~إ } –ؤهhن و‰•z-ŽL1~“ اy i7Q اmY‚و •7z ا/•z-Q‘ اy آ3saƒ z• اn ً•‰X و/ŽLF6 ‹zر إ-YB •~ ،}‡6ز‰B •n -]sz اy> ~• أA{R zن ا-•Yiz‹ اzإ /•z-Q‘„ اJ هLE! •~ ن- وآ.-Žر‰Q ‹{h 3•z-ŽL1~“ اy1r •~ HŽH‡7z ا3•‚واHizا يLwRh y i0 م-•sz-0 3•آL•~‘ا -‡*-o{B [i0 g~ ون-i7z-0 -Žر‰Q H\ .3saƒ z• اn 3•i>Lz ا3 e‚‘ ا-‡•n - 0 أي،-Žر‰Q ط-sQ… إnH ه/z-w7zا اJ هyآ رLC7z ا3آLCz 3ƒ•7 z ا3i{sz{‹ اh -]szا gŽر-U z اyrLi6 -ده‰ Y0 •7z وا،3• z-izا •6#Ž •7z وا3saƒ z• اn 3Žر- i7Q•ا _Qق ا‘وLUzوع «اLU~ -‡7~Hs~ •n …YFT يJzدي وا-1i7Q•» اHŽH?z اL•1wzا •wz و.»ىL1wzن ا‰•‡X« وعLU~ …‚ أ-ƒ0NB -Žر‰Rn •C z وا/h-Y z اy} ~• آjLz-0
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF TURKEY KEMAL OKUYAN
DEFENDING the PRINCIPLES DOES NOT MEAN INEFFICIENCY IN REAL POLITICS! Dear comrades, Turkey witnessed a historical mass popular movement at the end of May this year. Even the police records stated that 11 million people more or less, took part in the demonstrations on May 31 all over the country exceptfew cities. We tried to share our Party’s evaluations regarding the “June Resistance” with fraternal Parties and continuously inform you about the developments in Turkey on a regular base. Thanks to that material, I will now try to go further on and try to explain brieflythe political and theoretical conclusions that TKP has reached from the historical events while social struggles in Turkey are entering into a new phase. As you all know, the “June Resistance” was a mass movement without a political vanguard, in which the people rose up against the Islamo-fascist power for freedom, protection of public area, secularism and independency. The fact that, some political actors such as the TKP which took part in the movement and managed to lead and affect it at certain times and localities do not change this reality. In this respect, the quality of large masses’ relation with our Party constituted a unique experience regarding how the reactions that created this movement would resonate with struggle for socialism. Our Party’s political line was developed without making any compromises from the perspective of a socialist revolution by completely considering the policies for alliances as a phenomenon within working classes, and by identifying any part of the exploiting classes not as fellows but enemies in any way. The widespread opinion inferring that this line would fall short, received a major blow during the popular movement this year. It is a reality that, left in Turkey generally, including TKP, receive little vote during the
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elections due to several reasons: Unique structure of political arena in our country; 10%electoral threshold; weak ties of the progressive forces with the people as they mainly focused on surviving the assaults coming from the state. The “June Resistance”, however, demonstrated that social dynamics may mature in a very rapid way and embarked on a political quest in Turkey that was considered as a “stabilized country” by capitalist order. This revealed more valuable findings for us in comparison with any electoral practice. Millions of people rose up against the AKP government’s attempts to impose Islamic way of life. From the very beginning, the TKP has developed such a political attitude to resist these impositions, and criticizes and even stays distant from the unreasonable “Left” attitude saying “this is not our business”. This was also valid in th eon going Islamization of the “secular” political structure even though secularism in Turkey reflects the hypocrisy of bourgeois class.
It appeared that even masses seeking for an immediate solution took the opinion defending that freedom and independency are impossible without socialism in a very serious way. Being affected by the fact that the TKP sincerely and persistently tells the truth about what is going on in Turkey, the most energetic and decisive elements of the masses have appealed to our party for membership or become our permanent friends. More to say, large masses began following and discussing a party, which was considered strange and alien until a few years ago. This method can be useful only if you are ideologically and politically well-grounded. We know that in the past, working class movement have suffered a lot in Turkey and in other countries, when the movement choose to limit itself with the actual demands and prospect of the masses and gave up with the goal of socialism. In our case, TKP prefers to act according to some red lines. First and above all: Not to seek for an alliance or contact with any section of bourgeois class except for petit bourgeois strata living on its own labor and not to collaborate with bourgeois political circles. This is the way of staying away from nationalism and liberalism which we consider as twins.
As a secular and patriotic working class party, the Communist Party of Turkey was neither surprised when millions rose up, nor was concerned about the ideological complexity of the movement. We did not even think of softening or balancing the anger towards the ruling party in Turkey and Erdoğan and people’s passion for freedom and independency by the help of the socialist ideal. On the contrary, we tried to sharpen and maintain all these sentiments and demands.
The second red line: Not to mention any term or expression in our documents, activities or speeches echoing a phase that overshadows the goal of “socialist revolution” that is underlined in our Party Program.
We looked for a way within the struggle to introduce socialism as an alternative and class contradictions and that Turkish bourgeoisie was the first degree responsible for what was happening.
We can speak about more red lines that were drawn by concrete developments in the world and in our region. TKP never tolerates religious fundamentalism and opposes to the use of religious references in political life. TKP
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takes the part of struggle with an absolute principle against imperialist projects, organizations and aggressions as there is no such a thing like a better or preferable imperialism! Thanks to those red lines, our Party evaluated the AKP government properly, did not fall into a tragicomic position like other forces; more importantly considered its principles not as sacred things on political field but as a trustworthy weapon that strengthens struggle for socialism. Thus TKP ventured to organize a big rally in Istanbul during the 90th foundation anniversary of Republic of Turkey. What we were saying was “establishment of a republic wasa historical progress” and explained “what became of the idea of republic in the hands of bourgeoisie” to the people joining the rally, who listened to communists for the first time and had no opinion about the class contents of demands for laicism and independence. Our word was simple: We said, if you want an independent and secular country then you have to free the country from this exploitative capitalist system! Tens of thousands of people stood under the banner “Socialist Republic” against the AKP power and listened to us for hours.
The popular uprising in Turkey this year, clearly showed that a party without having a secular and patriotic character will have no room among the people. Furthermore, there is an additional conclusion which is no way less important: Without a decisive aim for socialism there is no need for a communist party. There are other forces that are much more fit for playing around inside the bourgeois system. We think that the world communist movement, in any case, should avoid mechanical and sectarian approaches, defend the actuality and necessity of socialism and experience a radical break from imperialism, bourgeoisie and reactionary forces not in words but in practice. DOWN WITH CAPITALISM! LONG LIVE SOCIALISM!
We know that this is only a beginning. But we did also learn something: When you follow a courageous and effective political line, you should not loosen but find a way to strengthen your principles, political program and political course. That is what we are doing. Struggling for socialism means dealing with complex ideological and political issues, that have open or covered link with class contradictions. If you undermine those issues for the sake of the class contradictions it does not work. Same happens when you loose the essence of the revolutionary politics: The seizure of political power.
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LABOUR PARTY (EMEP), TURKEY KAMIL TEKIN SUREK
Dear friends, I’d like firstly to thank our host, the Portuguese Communist Party, for their hospitality. We have gathered at a time of important developments around the world. I believe that discussions and exchanges of knowledge and experiences in these meetings will be useful for all of us. Dear friends, The crisis that started in 2008 in the USA and spread throughout Europe and the world has demonstrated the immediate need to tear down capitalism. As the parties of the class, we can lead workers struggles - and primarily the main mass of labourers - to build their own communities only through tangible analyses of tangible conditions and by identifying politics that meet their daily needs. The growth witnessed in the second quarter of 2009 has today given way to stagnation and the capitalist world economics is again shrinking in almost all fields. The data points to a path towards a new crisis. The data on the development of world trade volume point to worldwide industrial production growing faster than the markets and that the capitalist world is face to face with overproduction, the basis of crisis. The inevitable results of overproduction are; shrinking of production, closure of or reduction in capacities of factories, rise in unemployment and poverty, poverty within wealth and the shrinking in markets that follows. This is the base for the sharp drop in the rate of industrial production worldwide in the second quarter of 2011, and the reduced rate of trade growth worldwide. Developments in North Africa and the aggressive economic packages witnessed in Greece, Spain, Italy, England, Portugal, etc. have become another factor that hastened this process and exacerbated the consequences. Armies of unemployed have grown in the countries in crisis and those where the rate of growth is falling quickly, especially in countries facing debt crisis. The official unemploy-
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ment rate in Greece and Spain has reached 25%. Unemployment in Europe has risen to 11.2% in the second quarter of 2012, according to official figures. Retirement age has risen following a quick succession of aggressive packages. Cuts in almost all areas including education to health have increased and become widespread. Rights won by workers’ and labourers’ struggles have been restricted worldwide. While no measures are taken against national and international monopolies that led the country to a debt crisis (such as increasing the taxes on banks and national and international monopolies), taxes on workers have been increased. Real wages have continued to drop. Most countries went through an unmistakable period of impoverishment. Modes of work such as flexible working, temporary work, part-time work, etc. have increased worldwide. While the 2008 crisis has lead to acceleration in the conflict between work and capital, the nature of capitalist economics led to a further deepening of the contradictions between sectors, countries, production, markets, etc. If we approach the situation from a countries perspective, with the exception of Germany, industrial production in all developed capitalist countries can be seen to be below the levels pre-2008 crisis. Industrial production in most developed countries did not even reach the levels of 2005, especially in England, France and Italy. The German industry grew by %11.5 and %9 in 2010 and 2011 respectively and its position within EU and the Euro zone strengthened. This led to its imposition of belt-tightening policies in a number of countries. In this period, China again has expanded its economy and especially its industry and
strengthened its position among countries with the largest economies in the world. A similar situation is also true for Russia. These two imperialist powers have been declared by imperialist powers, primarily the USA, as the countries whose development and expansion should be prevented. Within the last year workers and mass movements have developed all around the world; with different demands, in different forms and at different levels. We should especially mention the struggles developing in countries facing ‘debt crises’ due to their mass social basis and results. The miners’ strike in Republic of South Africa, youth movements and strikes in Chile and Brazil, the demonstrations that lasted a month with the participation of four million people in Turkey and the mass people’s movements in Egypt and Tunisia have been noteworthy struggles. In many countries facing debt crisis, especially in Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy, strikes, general strikes and mass people’s demonstrations have become widespread. But the workers’ movements have, despite some clashes, not managed to go beyond peaceful protests and one/two day strikes or resistances. Those long term strikes, resistances and factory occupations that took place were limited to work places or small sectors. Economic situation in these countries and the aggressive packages of so called austerity and stabilisation have affected not only the working class urban and rural semi-proletariat masses but also petty-bourgeois and nonmonopoly bourgeois strata and especially lower strata. The mass basis of struggle against imperialism and financial capital has widened. The conditions for the working class and revolutionary parties to be leaders of the
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widest masses of society, and the opportunity to organise united peoples’ front and movement have developed. Despite the wide social basis of the movement, international financial capital and national monopoly bourgeoisie have not stepped back (Only in Portugal the last aggressive package was held back). At the expense of parliaments and parties losing support and their social bases eroded, daring and driven aggressive packages are implemented. One of the consequence of this was the masses realising they will not be able to resist the aggressive packages with one/two day strikes or peaceful protests, and discussions among advanced sections of modes of struggle and continued general strikes. Union bureaucracy, social reformist parties and trends that dominate workers’ movements followed a line of ‘reducing to a minimal’ level of not only the organisation and methods of struggle but also the platforms and demands of workers. But this approach has led to them losing influence on workers and labourers. Attacks and worsening conditions, while affecting the lower layers of worker aristocracy and bureaucracy also deepened contradictions among their layers.
would demonstrate, through their own experiences; the necessary steps to overcome the hardship faced by the population of the country and those social forces that stand in the way of this, and also would facilitate the raising of slogans, demands, struggles and the types of organisation and make it widespread among the masses. Dear friends, The forthcoming period will be one where, in line with the world economy, working and living conditions of workers and labourers will worsen; attacks in all areas of economy and politics will become harsher and widespread; tendencies of dissatisfaction, anger and struggle among workers and labourers will increase; and the infighting and contradictions among imperialists will intensify. We must advance by drawing lessons from the historical experiences of the world working class and labourers and recent developments.
Mass struggles in countries facing ‘debt crises’ developed to a platform of protests against organisations like IMF and EU, bourgeois parties and governments that introduce these aggressive packages and of demands for the withdrawal of packages. This, within the narrow bounds of an initial spontaneous movement is natural and understandable. But the inability of the developing movement to go beyond these narrow limits has been one of its main weaknesses. This weakness could only have been gotten over, along with other things, through an agitation programme that
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построение в Украине гражданского общества с высоким уровнем жизни и благосостояния народа. Объективным фактом также является экономическая, политическая, социальная и гуманитарная неготовность Украины к интеграции с Европейским союзом, например, системы стандартизации и синхронизации всех форм народного хозяйства и экономики потребуют внесения изменений в более чем 20.000 позиций от изменения стандарта бытовых электроприборов до полного изменения государственных программ Twinning – по интеграции законодательств и стандартов государственной службы Украины под стандарты ЕС. Опыт недавно присоединившихся государств Европы к Европейскому Союзу – показывает нам во многих сферах жизни, что вступление в Европейский Союз отнюдь не означает улучшения качества жизни, а скорее наоборот. Налицо – увеличение безработицы, налоговой нагрузки, отсутствие возможности расширять бизнес в связи с введением квот, трудовая миграция, снижение социального обеспечения, монетаризация льгот незащищенным слоям общества и т.д. В то же время совершенно ясно, что в результате вступления нашей страны в Зону свободной торговли с ЕС, куда в ультимативной форме «приглашает» ее Брюссель, будут до основанья развалены многие (в частности, все высокотехнологичные) отрасли украинской промышленности. Причем пропагандисты этого пути не могут привести ни одного (я подчеркиваю, товарищи: ни одного!) конкретного факта экономической выгоды, которую получит
Украина от участия в Зоне свободной торговли. Они ограничиваются пустопорожней болтовней о «высоких демократических и социальных стандартах Европейского Союза». Куда Украину, к слову сказать, в ближайшие десятилетия никто не собирается звать. Она интересна Брюсселю исключительно в качестве политически бесправного придатка, рынка сбыта товаров и источника дешевой рабочей силы. А заодно - восточного форпоста Евросоюза и США против России. Однако украинские олигархи, чье благополучие в условиях глобального экономического кризиса полностью зависит от неприкосновенности украденных ими у народа миллиардов, припрятанных в западных банках, сделали однозначный выбор в пользу Европейского Союза. Они превратились в геополитических приказчиков Запада, и беспрекословно выполняют приказы своего босса, цинично жертвуя при этом национальными интересами. Отстаивая узкоклассовые позиции олигархов, все без исключения буржуазные партии Украины категорически выступают против ее присоединения к Таможенному Союзу и за подписание соглашения об ассоциации с ЕС и вступление в Зону свободной торговли. В том числе и стоящая у государственного руля Партия регионов, которая пришла к власти благодаря обещаниям восстановить всесторонние братские отношения с Россией, испорченные после так называемой «оранжевой революции». Вместе с националистической оппозицией она добивается «евроинтеграции» во что бы то ни стало. На любых, даже самых
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невыгодных для отечественной экономики, условиях. И планирует подписать соответствующие соглашения уже в ноябре нынешнего года. Сегодня наш народ подвергается массированной агитационнопропагандистской обработке, граничащей с откровенным зомбированием. Ее цель - с помощью психологического террора заставить людей согласиться с пресловутым «европейским выбором», сделанным вместо них иноземной и «своей» буржуазией. Тем не менее, результаты всех социологических опросов показывают, что значительная часть (а по некоторым данным - большинство) моих соотечественников являются сторонниками евразийского направления интеграции. Коммунистическая партия Украины считает, что народ, а не олигархи, должен решить, в каком геополитическом направлении двигаться нашей стране. Поэтому мы инициировали проведение референдума по вопросу о выборе путей ее интеграции. Это сделано в полном соответствии с Конституцией и национальным законодательством, с соблюдением всех формальных юридических процедур. Однако буржуазные правители Украины, грубо попирая все существующие правовые нормы, категорически отказываются дать согласие на проведение сбора подписей за проведение референдума. А заправилы Европейского Союза, которые постоянно бахвалятся своим «демократизмом», демонстративно закрывают глаза на этот произвол.
отрабатываются методы закабаления империализмом государств европейской «периферии», их превращения в лишенные реального суверенитета нищие бантустаны, где права человека нарушаются на каждом шагу. Уважаемые товарищи! В заключение своего выступления хочу обратиться к каждому из вас с призывом рассказать трудящимся своих стран о том, как внешняя и внутренняя реакция - не побоюсь этого слова! - насилуют сегодня народ Украины. Также, уважаемые товарищи, мы будем рады Вашей любой помощи, которую Вы сможете оказать для Коммунистической партии Украины и для украинского народа в виде информационной поддержки наших действий, а также выступлений и заявлений Ваших товарищей в парламентах и представительских органов всех уровней, для того, чтобы показать нашему народу, что далеко не весь Европейский Союз выступает в поддержку евроинтеграционных устремлений украинской власти. Ваша братская поддержка будет для нас бесценна в трудной борьбе, которую мы ведем за будущее своей Родины. А, в конечном счете - за будущее Европы и всего мира.
Таким образом, Украина превращена сегодня в полигон, на котором
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COMMUNIST PARTY USA SUSAN WEBB
The Communist Party USA expresses its appreciation to the Communist Party of Portugal for hosting this important international gathering, and we also express our solidarity with the communist and workers’ parties of the world. 1. I would like to open by raising the pressing issue of the climate/ecological crisis as an overriding challenge for the world communist and working class movements. This crisis is intensifying immensely and adding new complications to the class and democratic struggles at the national and international level, and will continue to do so. It is no exaggeration to say it will determine humankind’s fate. The impact of the climate/ecological crisis is and will continue to be uneven, falling heavily on the working class, the racially and ethnically oppressed and impoverished people and especially on countries and people of the global South. The crisis is intertwined with capitalism in its global stage in many ways. Its effects, such as drought, desertification and loss of cropland, are already playing a role in some of today’s political crises. Yet the attention that it receives from the left and broader democratic movement does not rise to the level of importance that it demands of us. Latin American leaders, beginning with Comrade Fidel Castro, have expressed the urgency and necessity of addressing this issue. This is a challenge for our party and for the world communist movement. Two years ago at our meeting in Athens, our South African comrades proposed an international meeting on climate change and the environmental crisis. I believe the meeting endorsed this proposal. Our party would like to lend its support to the convening of such a conference at the earliest possible date. 2. Comrades, the recent rapid reversals, twists and turns, in U.S. policy regarding Syria and Iran suggest the complex status of the
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U.S. today, both in the world and domestically. Economy: - Neoliberal policies have had profound consequences: deindustrialization, export of jobs, export of industry and technology/know-how, globalized U.S. corporations draw larger percent of profits from outside U.S., less dependent on U.S. workforce and infrastructure; lopsided balance of trade = increased foreign debt; regressive tax structure favoring the wealthy deprives government of revenue; emphasis on private sector/privatization as profit source and destruction of public sector jobs and services, lowering of standard of living of U.S. working/middle class, rising insecurity, decreased domestic consumption ability. - Financialization has had deep effects: distortion of the economy to useless financial activity, destruction of useful production (coupled with neoliberal/globalization), drive for acquisition of the public sector for private profit-making, leading to crises in state and municipal government services, schools, etc.; rising consumer insecurity; financial sector plays an increasing role in government. - Continuing dependence on fossil fuels to run the economy empowers far-right sections of U.S. capital in both domestic and foreign policy. A fresh look is needed, in our country and internationally, at the dynamics and contradictions of the domestic and global capitalist economy: - We have to make an estimate of the trajectory of the recovery and the medium-term prospects of the U.S. economy. - We need to note and think more about the fact that the old grouping of U.S., Britain, Ger-
many and Japan no longer drives global economic development. Instead, the new dialectically connected poles are the United States and China and the East and Southeast Asian states. This region has been the most dynamic center for accumulation over the past decade or so. Other rising powers include Brazil and South Africa. - We need to explore the new production platforms that are regional or global in scope and dominated by transnational corporations that are in many cases involved not in actual production but only in the design and marketing stages; and yet they sit atop the entire production process. - And we need to look again at the role of finance and financialization and what has changed in the recent period. Politics: - The American public is war-weary. Some people high in foreign policy and military circles are looking back over our Iraq and Afghanistan ventures, and even aspects of the so-called war on terrorism, and saying it was not worth it. - On the one hand, these people are taking a sober look at U.S. foreign policy and making some adjustments in light of experience. Some adjustments create some new constructive openings, for example on Iran, and this is a good thing. Others are negative: expanded use of drone warfare; greater reliance on allied countries and NATO for military ventures as in Libya and Syria; operating via some of the Gulf states; use of so-called special forces; a new level of spying/privacy violations, both foreign and domestic; and the quiet expansion of military installations and bases - in Africa in particular, as well as in Asia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
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These people could be characterized as foreign policy “moderates” and “centrists” in today’s political context even though some have in the past been some of the worst warhawks. An example is Zbigniew Brzezinski, an architect of the U.S. anti-Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s, for which we are all still paying the price today. - On the other hand, U.S. leaders have not given up on the notion of U.S. primacy and dominance in the world, the U.S. as the indispensable nation, even while making some adjustments in how they go about seeking to maintain it. Their chief concern remains to create a friendly environment for the global process of capital accumulation, especially for America’s own transnational corporations. The war on terrorism proclaimed by U.S. leaders is intertwined with these efforts. The so-called pivot to East Asia includes not only new bases, but also negotiation of a free trade pact for the Pacific Rim countries which have been the most dynamic centers of capital accumulation for the past 20 years and remain so today, notwithstanding a slowing down of growth in recent years. With regard to Latin America, the “Bolivarian” dynamic in South and Central America has produced great concern in U.S. ruling circles. Efforts are being made to continue to push neoliberal trade policies to maintain U.S. economic dominance, bringing the U.S. into conflict with Venezuela, Bolivia and others. The U.S.-created “Pacific Alliance” is the pivot for U.S. policy in the area; this alliance consists of Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile. U.S. interference in elections in the region is also part of the effort to maintain an environment friendly to U.S. transnational capital.
- U.S. political leaders and groups who are sober-minded on foreign policy and moderate or even progressive on domestic issues grapple with: a) how to reconcile survival and growth of the present U.S. capitalist system with contradictions of the economy and rise of the far-right, all of this also conflicting with their general orientation to promote various democratic reforms domestically, as well as with awareness of real threats to the system from climate change, and b) how to reconcile problems of the U.S. economy, dependence on oil, continuance or spurring of U.S. corporate growth, with changes in the world scene: specifically democratic movements that advance their own country’s national development and may put in place regimes not cooperative with those U.S. interests – the Middle East being a particular flashpoint. In this category are many leading Democrats including the Clintons, Obama and others. Their specific inclinations vary but in general their policies reflect efforts to reconcile these contradictions, veering more in one direction or another depending on the strength of domestic public pressure. - Profound progressive social changes (for example, on issues of racial equality, ethnic diversity and multiculturalism, women’s rights, gay and lesbian equality, immigrants’ rights), coupled with and profound economic transformations as described above, have spurred the rise of fear-driven far-right populist movements fomented/funded/utilized by right-wing sections of U.S. capital. The emergence of an extreme far-right accelerated sharply in reaction to the overturning of the eight-year rule of the right wing with
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the 2008 election of Barack Obama, an African American and a liberal with a grassroots base and generally progressive agenda. At that time a new, well-financed racist, fascist-like “populist” movement known as the “tea party” (a reference to an action during the American Revolution where rebelling colonists rebelling against the British monarchy dumped tea into the harbor in Boston, Massachusetts) emerged on the scene. They have gotten enormous media attention for extremist, inflammatory rallies, protests and slogans attacking the government and Obama personally, including use of swastikas, Hitler references and threats of violence. In the last round of congressional elections, in 2010, this very well-funded movement within the Republican Party succeeded in electing some 90 members of the 535-member Congress . - As you know, for a number of historical and legal reasons, the U.S. currently has a twoparty, winner-take-all, electoral system at the national level. Both Democratic and Republican parties are ruling class parties in the sense that both are funded and backed by corporate and financial ruling circles. Both had a hand in imposition of neoliberalism starting several decades ago. But these two parties are not identical by any means. For the broader movement and ourselves not to see and utilize these differences and their meaning for the struggle for democracy, progress and socialism would be not only sectarian but also irresponsible and harmful to the struggle. - It is important to note that strong domestic opposition to a U.S. attack on Syria came not only from the broad public and progressive forces, but also from sections of the far-right, so-called libertarians, who saw it as an opportunity to attack the president in hopes of advancing their right-wing agenda.
- Regarding relations with Cuba, while there have been numerous indications that highlevel U.S. figures think U.S. policy toward Cuba has been a dead end, moves on opening new relations with Cuba have so far been minuscule, at least in public. In part this is undoubtedly due to continuing fear of the symbolic and practical role that Cuba plays as a leader of anti-imperialism in the region. However it is also and perhaps primarily due to the extremely negative role of reactionary Cuban exiles in the U.S., which has been given renewed power with the Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives. - The recent shutdown of the U.S. government illustrates aggressive efforts of the far-right to nullify elections and democratic rule, to turn back social reforms, to beat back any moves to curb excesses of U.S. capitalism in its present phase. These efforts involve fundamental challenges to legality, to constitutional authority, to democratic governance in the U.S., and are being widely perceived as such. - In key organizations of the people - labor, civil rights and equality, women’s groups, and others - there has been a growth in level of political understanding and seeking of connections, coalitions and direct working relationships with others. There has been a growth in non-labor groups’ appreciation of the importance of the labor movement in bringing about social change. - Nevertheless, general democratic public sentiments and dissatisfaction with the growing economic inequality and insecurity in our country have not as yet developed into a mass social/political movement with sufficient size, breadth and depth to be able to transform the political scene and tilt the balance of forces in a more progressive/leftward direction.
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- Within the overall democratic and progressive movement, the left is too small and divided to be able to advance the building of such a mass transformative movement. - Within that left, the Communist Party is still too small to play its vital role in this process, adding the necessary understanding of the strategy and tactics needed to conduct winning short- and long-term struggles, of the critical significance of racism and the fight against it, of the dynamics of capitalism in its present stage, of the nature, new features, and significance of the working class, and of the vision and possibility of American socialism. - Recognizing the need to create such a movement, major people’s organizations, first and foremost the labor movement, have undertaken comprehensive and probing self-examinations, and are profoundly restructuring and reshaping themselves to meet this challenge. The Communist Party USA, heading into its 95th anniversary year in 2014, is undertaking a similar process, aiming to build a transformative 21st century party and movement.
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Guidelines GUIDELINES FOR COMMON OR CONVERGENT ACTION The participant parties of the 15th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties define the following guidelines for their common and convergent action and mandate the Working Group to try to implement these guidelines in coordination with other Parties of the Solidnet List. 1 – Commemorate, during the year 2014, the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I, and the 75th anniversary of the beginning of World War II through a joint campaign alerting to the dangers of new international military clashes, alerting to the need to enhance the struggle for peace and against imperialist aggressiveness and wars and highlighting that the struggle for peace is intimately linked with the struggle for socialism. (In this sense the German CP, the New CP of Netherlands, the Workers' Party of Belgium and the CP of Luxembourg informed about the preparation of an action in the German boarder town Aechen, on 15th February). 2 – Mark the 15 Years from the beginning of criminal imperialistic NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a new phase in the development of military imperialistic strategy and the beginning of the occupation of Kosovo and Metohija, southern serbian province. 3 – To stimulate, in coordination with the parties from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribe, the organization of an international seminar on the capitalist crisis's impact in the developing countries, focusing especially on issues such as the right to economic and social development and protection of natural
resources, as well on issues of agriculture, land tenure, and food security. Highlight the role of monopolies in the destruction of the global environment, asserting an anti-monopolist and anti-capitalist viewpoint on the growing environmental crisis. 4 – Organize an international campaign in solidarity with the ongoing processes and struggles in Latin America and Caribe, and in particular with Socialist Cuba - against the USA blockade, the common EU position, and for the return of the four Cuban patriots still held in US prisons - with Bolivarian Venezuela and with the Colombian people's struggle for peace with social justice. 5 – Examine the possibility of - taking advantage of international events where a large number of Parties are present – organizing a working meeting to debate the ideological offensive and the mass media's role, as well as to exchange experiences on mass communication work. 6 – To celebrate the International Woman’s Day (8 March 2014) highlighting the effect of the crisis and of the imperialist multifaceted offensive on working women and national oppressed women, expressing solidarity with their struggle and their anti-imperialist movement. 7 – Honor 1 May (May Day) with participation in the struggles in each country for the defence of workers and peoples economic and social rights, for the right to work and for labour rights, highlighting the importance of the class struggle, for the abolition of exploitation of man by man. Consider the possibility of announcing on this date a day of ac-
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tion, with initiatives in each country, against unemployment and its real roots, giving particular importance to the mass unemployment among youth. Defend the trade union rights, denounce the political persecution and demand the liberation of the detained trade unionists. 8 – Examine the possibility of convergent actions on the combat against racism, xenophobia, against fascism, stressing the importance of the ideological struggle against anticommunism and the rewriting of History, denouncing the EU in what concerns its institutional campaigns and measures aiming to equate communism with fascism.
fense of their social, political and democratic rights. 12 – To continue to denounce the imperialist intervention against Syria and Iran, and to continue the struggle for the recognition of an independent Palestinian state. 13 – To promote the international front against imperialism and the support for the international anti-imperialist mass organizations, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), the World Peace Council (WPC), the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), and the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), in the specific framework of every country.
9 – To determine a day of action, with expressions in each country, against the persecution of the communist parties and the ban of communist symbols, affirming solidarity with the communist parties banned in their countries. 10 – Commemorate the 95th Anniversary of the Creation of the Communist International (March 1919) underlining, on the occasion of 90 years of Lenin's death, his central contribution to the international communist movement. 11 – To stimulate, in coordination with the Parties from the Arab countries and Middle East, the organization of an international seminar about the social and national emancipation struggles of the peoples of Arab countries and the Middle East, expressing the solidarity with all the peoples of the region that are victims of the imperialist and Zionist crimes and aggressions, among others the Palestinian and Syrian people, and also with the people's that rise up against repressive, dictatorial and reactionary regimes, in de-
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PRESS RELEASE
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by Portuguese Communist Party
The 15th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties was held in Lisbon, on November 8-10, under the motto “The deepening of the crisis of capitalism, the role of the working class and the communists’ tasks in the struggle for the workers and peoples’ rights. Imperialism’s offensive, the realignment of forces at the international level, the national question, class emancipation and the struggle for socialism”. In the Meeting, 75 parties, from 63 countries participated and greetings were received from an additional 14 parties which, for various reasons, were not able to participate. The Meeting analysed, among other main aspects, the development of the international situation in the context of the deepening of the structural crisis of capitalism and of a complex process of realignment of forces at the international level, alerting to the great dangers deriving from imperialism’s offensive. At the same time, the participants saluted and valued the resistance and struggle of the workers and peoples, reaffirming the real potential that the current situation holds for the development of the liberating struggle, for profound changes in the anti-monopolist and anti-imperialist direction, for Socialism. The Meeting noted the deepening of the crisis that exploded in 2008 with the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. A crisis that is far from over, belying the ruling class discourse on an alleged “recovery” and confirming the analyses of the communists about its nature and evolution which, among other aspects, confirms it as a crisis of over-production and
over-accumulation of capital. A crisis that expresses the sharpening of capitalism’s contradictions – in particular its fundamental contradiction between the social character of production and its private appropriation – highlighting the historical limits of the system and the timeliness of the struggle for the fundamental alternative to capitalism – Socialism. It denounced the aim of big capital, of the major imperialist powers and their international and supranational structures of imperialist concertation – such as the European Union – to impose on the workers and peoples a social regression of a civilizational dimension assaulting economic, labour and social rights, violently attacking the living conditions of the working and popular masses and declaring war on the sovereignty and independence of States. It referenced in particular the harsh reality of the peoples and the impact of the crisis and of the capitalist offensive on developing countries, where the peoples find their right to economic and social development even more curtailed. In this framework, attention was drawn to the impact of capitalism’s crisis on agriculture and food, jeopardising still more the food sovereignty of numerous countries and dooming great masses of the world population to starvation and malnutrition. It highlighted the dangers that arise from the intensification of the militarist, warmongering and interference policy of the major imperialist powers and NATO. It stressed that the wars of aggression, the processes of interference and instigation of internal conflicts,
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the strengthening of repressive, authoritarian, control and espionage measures are part of the force-based response by big capital to capitalism’s crisis, having as its central aims to maintain the control of the resources and sources of energy and contain the revolt, the struggle of the peoples and the inevitable social and revolutionary explosions that the current situation entails. Participants expressed their solidarity with the ongoing struggles in all continents against the aggressive imperialist offensive, for social progress, independence and sovereignty, peace, the right to social and economic development, for the construction of alternatives of sovereignty and progress to imperialism’s hegemonic domination, the real fundamental alternative to capitalist barbarity - socialism. It reaffirmed the central role of the working class and its alliance with other anti-monopolist strata in defence of their rights, namely the right to employment, for labour and social rights, in defence of the social functions of States.
tial for the development of a revolutionary struggle grows, important factors emerge in various regions of the world to contain imperialism’s hegemonic domination. Participants saluted and valued the struggle of the peoples, of the communists and other progressive forces in Latin America, considering that the processes of struggle, progressive and of sovereign affirmation in this region, as well as the cooperation based on solidarity that is emerging in the region, constitute an important factor and stimulus for the development and strengthening of the anti-imperialist struggle. The participants reasserted their solidarity with Cuba and its socialist revolution, as well as with the Venezuelan people and their Bolivarian revolution, among others. It stressed the importance of the struggle in defence of democratic freedoms, against the advance of the far right, against xenophobia and racism, against religious fanaticism and obscurantism, against anti-communism. It reaffirmed solidarity with other communist parties and all revolutionary forces that are the target of political persecution and anticommunist campaigns – namely in the European continent, which is carried out by several governments as well as by institutions like the European Union.
Participants valued and expressed their solidarity with all the peoples who resist imperialism’s policies of interference and aggression – especially to the peoples of the Middle East, saluting the ongoing struggles in that region against all forms of aggression and oppression, for sovereignty, democracy, social justice and national unity, as in Egypt and Tunisia. It reaffirmed its solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for national rights, as well as with other peoples in the region who are victims of aggressions and interferences, such as the Syrian people.
Concrete experiences of struggle in different countries and regions were present in most interventions, confirming that the workers and peoples do not conform and that, even in the current difficult conditions, liberating advances and achievements of an anti-monopolist and anti-capitalist nature are possible.
In a framework of continuing resistance and gathering of forces, but where the poten-
It was affirmed that socialism increasingly emerges as the real fundamental alternative
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to capitalism and its crisis. Drawing lessons from the delays, mistakes and distortions that countered basic principles of socialism, but valuing as highly positive the experiences of building socialism and what they meant and mean for Humanity, highlighting the achievements of the new social system, recognising that there are no models of revolution, the participants stressed the determining role of the masses in the construction and management of socialist societies.
the 16th Meeting. Its date, place and motto will be decided during the meeting of the Working Group of the International Meetings of Communist and Workers’ Parties to be held in due time.
It was stressed that the current international situation makes it particularly necessary to strengthen the cooperation among all progressive and anti-imperialist forces and, firstly, among communist and workers’ parties from all over the world, one of the most solid guarantees for the strengthening of the peoples’ struggle and the construction of the alternative of socialism. In this sense, the rich experience and advances made with the International Meetings of Communist and Workers’ Parties was highlighted, as a space for exchange of information, experiences and opinions, of possible convergence of positions and decisions on common and converging initiatives, reaffirming the importance of ensuring their continuity. The Meeting adopted various lines and initiatives of common or converging action by Communist and Workers’ Parties to be materialised until the 16th IMCWP (which can be found at the end of this press release), having mandated the Working Group to stimulate and monitor their implementation and materialisation.
The International Meeting welcomed the existence of three proposals for the venue of
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PRESS STATEMENT OF THE KKE On the discussion and the results of the 15th International Μeeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties
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The 15th IMCWP was held in Lisbon on 810 of November 2013 with as its theme: “The deepening crisis of capitalism, the role of the working class and the Communists' tasks in the struggle for workers' and peoples' rights. Imperialism's offensive, the realignment of forces on the international level, the national question, class emancipation and the struggle for socialism”. 75 Parties from 63 countries participated in the meeting. In addition 14 parties which for various reasons were not able to attend sent messages. The participants honoured the 100 years since the birth of Alvaro Cunhal, General Secretary of the Portuguese CP and a significant figure in the International Communist Movement. They saluted the struggles of the workers all over the world, the paths that have been opened for the promotion of the alliance of the working class with the popular strata against the monopolies, for the struggle against capitalism, for socialism. They confirmed their internationalist solidarity with the peoples of Palestine, Syria and the wider region, with the people of Socialist Cuba, with all the peoples that find themselves face to face with imperialist aggressiveness, war, blackmail and interventions. They expressed their support for the communist and workers’ parties that operate in conditions of illegality, face state repression, anticommunist persecution and restrictions. At the meeting there was an exchange of experience and views in relation to the devel-
opment of the capitalist crisis, the realignments in the international imperialist system and the sharpening of the inter-imperialist contradictions and the dangers of wider imperialist wars and interventions, the course of the class struggle and the tasks which flow from this for the communists. The meeting analysed basic aspects of the international developments against the background of the crisis of capitalism which continues to manifest itself in a very sharp way for the 6th year in a row and is deepening. The KKE and other parties assessed that this a crisis of over-production and over-accumulation of capital, which expresses the intensity of capitalism’s contradictions, particularly the basic contradiction between the social character of production and its private appropriation, and underline the historically outdated and inhuman character of the capitalist system. At the same time the realignments in the international imperialist system are intensifying, with as their basic feature the retreat of the USA, EU and Japan in favour of the emerging capitalist powers, a fact that is leading to a great sharpening of the competition and contradictions especially in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, the Africa and the regions of the southern Pacific. Different opinions were expressed during the International Meeting about the nature of the contradictions between the established and emerging capitalist powers. Certain parties consider that these contradictions operate in favour of the peoples and their struggle. The KKE and other parties assess that these
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are contradictions between countries with a strong monopoly base, where the capitalist relations of production are predominant and that the working class can not take the side of any bourgeois class in the rivalries taking place amongst them. There were also diverging views about the nature of the developments in Latin America. The KKE and other parties assess that the capitalist development is anti-people in this region as well, that bourgeois governments and indeed of strong capitalist powers, which take part in the G20, can not lend impetus to the anti-imperialist struggle. This discussion is also extended in regards to the stance towards the various inter-state capitalist unions – it has its roots in different views concerning the concept of imperialism. The KKE and other parties noted that imperialism according to the Leninist theory is the final and highest stage of capitalism and is not merely limited to the aggressive foreign policy carried out by strong capitalist states. We note that the detaching of politics from the economy leads to mistaken conclusions and we underline that the characteristics of imperialism flow from its nature as monopoly capitalism, as capitalism which is decaying. The controversy is developing around the various versions of bourgeois management in order to distribute the losses from the devaluation and destruction of capital. However, regardless of the form of bourgeois management, there remains the goal to increase the amount of profit through the intensification of the rate of exploitation of the working class and the greater concentration and centralization of capital at the expense of the urban and rural small-scale producers, at the expense of the popular strata. The depth of the crisis and the difficulties in
the management of the crisis intensify the aggressiveness of capital and its political representatives. Authoritarianism is strengthening, as well as state repression and anti-communism. Democratic and sovereign rights are being struck against. The bourgeois political systems as a whole are becoming more reactionary, the attempts to buttress and reform them are being reinforced. In this framework and while the labour and revolutionary movement has not passed into the counterattack, fascist forces are re-emerging and being strengthened, as well as other obscurantist tendencies. There are diverging views on the issue reform or revolution and on the issue of reforms on the terrain of capitalism. The KKE and other parties noted that specific antimonopoly anti-capitalist goals of struggle of the labour movement can not be mixed together with a reformist strategy that will allegedly “democratize” and transform capitalism and will pave the way for socialism. We assess that working class-people’s power is a necessary precondition for the overthrow of the dominance of the monopolies and the capitalist relations of production. The KKE and other parties noted the need to confront social-democracy and stressed that without a struggle also against opportunism the struggle against imperialism is an “empty phrase”. In addition, they highlighted the laws of the socialist revolution and construction and noted that historically serious dangers regarding the distancing from the principles of our worldview were concealed behind the “national models” and the “variety of paths to socialism”.
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The KKE and other parties underlined the necessity of strengthening the communist and workers’ parties, the reinforcement of the class-oriented labour movement. They stressed the necessity and timeliness of Socialism, which constitutes the only true alternative way out for the peoples.
PARTY OF SPAIN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF TURKEY, COMMUNIST PARTY OF UKRAINE
International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE
In addition, the unity of the International Communist Movement can not be achieved on the basis of the lowest common denominator amongst the parties, but on the basis of what is dictated by the sharpening of the class struggle for socialism, the defense of Marxism-Leninism and the contribution of Socialism, by the need to form a unified revolutionary strategy against capitalism. The 15th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ parties finalized a framework of Joint Actions, which the CPs together can develop, while certain motions were submitted on various issues. The expansion of the Working Group was also decided on with other parties, which will engage with the preparation of these International Meetings, which is now comprised of the following parties:
WORKERS’ PARTY OF BELGIUM, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRAZIL, COMMUNIST PARTY OF CUBA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BOHEMIA-MORAVIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF ECUADOR, COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE, COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MARXIST), LEBANESE COMMUNIST PARTY, PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY, COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, RUSSIAN COMMUNIST AND WORKERS’ PARTY, SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY, COMMUNIST
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ALBANIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF ALBANIA E-Mail: gjonbruci5@yahoo.com code:(+355) phone:382274111 fax:4251271 ALGERIA, ALGERIAN PARTY FOR DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM http://www.lien-pads.fr E-Mail: pads.dz@laposte.net code:(+331) phone:46637607, 46772082, 42537882 fax:42537882, 46637607 n
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ARGENTINA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF ARGENTINA http://www.pca.org.ar E-Mail:relacionesinternacionales@pca.org.ar code:(+5411) phone:43040066/0068 fax:43040068 n
ARMENIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF ARMENIA code:(+37410) phone:567933 fax:541917 n
AUSTRALIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF AUSTRALIA http://www.cpa.org.au E-Mail: international@cpa.org.au E-Mail:cpa@cpa.org.au code:(+612) phone:9699 8844 fax:9699 9833 n
AUSTRIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF AUSTRIA http://www.kpoe.at E-Mail:international@kpoe.at code:(+431) phone:5036580 fax:5036580-499 n
AZERBAIDJAN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF AZERBAIDJAN E- Mail:nurullayev@mail.ru , kommunist-az@mail.ru , hasanov_1951@mail.ru E- Mail: r.kobalt@mail.ru n
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code:(+99450)3253256, (+99455)6138749, (+99450)3165853 code:(+99412) phone:4417533 fax:948937 BAHRAIN, DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVE TRIBUNE http://www.altaqadomi.com/ E-Mail: fa.almenbar@gmail.com code:(+973 17) phone:780007 fax:780006 n
BANGLADESH, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BANGLADESH http://www.cpbbd.org/ E-Mail: cpbinter@gmail.com E-Mail: info@cpb.org.bd code:(+8802) phone:9558612, 7172845 fax:9552333 n
BANGLADESH, WORKERS’ PARTY OF BANGLADESH E-Mail: wpartybd@bangla.net code:(+8802) phone:9567975 fax:9558545 n
BELARUS, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BELARUS http://comparty.by E-Mail: karpenko@house.gov.by code:(+37517) phone:222 62 11 fax:222 43 79 (222 64 61)
BELGIUM, WORKERS’ PARTY OF BELGIUM http://www.wpb.be http://www.ptb.be E-Mail: international@ptb.be E-Mail: ptb@ptb.be code:(+32) phone:25040139 fax:25040141 n
BOLIVIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BOLIVIA http://www.pcbolivia.net/ E-Mail: marxmil@hotmail.com E-Mail: pcb.rrii@gmail.com code:(+591) phone: 2423252 fax:22770535 n
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, WORKERS’ COMMUNIST PARTY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA http://www.rkp-bih.org http://www.rkp-bih.cjb.net E-Mail: kontakt@rkp-bih.cjb.net E-Mail: goran.rkpbih@gmail.com code:(+387) phone/fax: 55 240 973 n
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BELGIUM, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BELGIUM http://www.particommuniste.be/ E-Mail: parti.communiste@skynet.be E-Mail: kommunistische-partij@skynet.be code:(+322) phone:512 23 84 fax:512 23 84
BRAZIL, BRAZILIAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pcb.org.br E-Mail: pcb.partidocomunistabrasileiro@gmail.com E-Mail: pcb@pcb.org.br code:(+5521) phone/fax:22620855 n
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BRAZIL, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRAZIL http://www.pcdob.org.br http://www.vermelho.org.br E-Mail: internacional@pcdob.org.br code:(+5511) phone:3054-1800, 30541822, 30541821 fax:3054 1848 n
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BRITAIN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRITAIN http://www.communist-party.org.uk E-Mail: international@communist-party.org.uk E-Mail: office@communist-party.org.uk code:(+442) phone:(0)86861659 n
BRITAIN, NEW COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRITAIN http://www.newworker.org E-Mail: party@ncp.clara.net code:(+44) phone:207 2234052 n
E-Mail: info@idcpc.org.cn E-Mail: yuliagustavo@163.net code:(+8610) phone:83907267 fax:83907268 COLOMBIA, COLOMBIAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pacocol.org E-Mail: pacocol@etb.net.co E-Mail: pacocol@notipaco.org code:(+571) phone:3203204, 2854188 fax:3384742 n
COLOMBIA, FARC-EP http://www.farc-ep.co The peace delegation in spanish http://www.pazfarc-ep.org The peace delegation in English http://www.farc-epeace.org. E- Mail: delegation@farc-epeace.org. [In English] E-Mail: contacto@pazfarc-ep.org [In Spanish] n
BULGARIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BULGARIA http://comparty-bg.com E-Mail: comparty@abv.bg code:(+3592) phone/fax:9816093 n
BULGARIA, PARTY OF THE BULGARIAN COMMUNISTS E-Mail: bcp.gd@mail.bg code:(+359) phone:8961133, 898 322 455 fax: 24702573
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CANADA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA http://www.communist-party.ca E-Mail: inter@cpc-pcc.ca code:(+1416) phone:4692446 n
CHILE, COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHILE http://www.pcchile.cl/ E-Mail: internacional@pcchile.cl code:(+562) phone:729 5700 fax:729 5714 n
CHINA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA http://www.idcpc.org.cn http://www.china.org.cn/english/index.htm http://english.cpc.people.com.cn/ n
COSTA RICA, PEOPLE’S VANGUARD PARTY E-Mail: vanguardiapopularinternacional@gmail.com Ε-Μail: pvp.costarica.internacional@gmail.com E-Mail: partido.vanguardiapopular@gmail.com E-Mail: vanguardiapopularcostarica@gmail.com code:(+506) phone: 2225 8300 fax: 2281 0484 n
CROATIA, SOCIALIST WORKERS’ PARTY OF CROATIA http://www.srp.hr E-Mail: srp@srp.hr n
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E-Mail: vladimir.kapuralin@pu.t-com.hr code: (+ 385) phone:1 4835340, 91 2219036 fax:1 4835340 CUBA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF CUBA http://www.pcc.cu/ E-Mail: coordeor@cc.cu E-Mail: despacho@cc.cu code:(+537) phone:8605678 fax:8556836 n
CYPRUS, THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY OF THE WORKING PEOPLE - AKEL http://www.akel.org.cy E-Mail: InterBureau@akel.org.cy Phone: (+357) 22761121 Fax:22761574, 22764725 n
CZECH REPUBLIC, COMMUNIST PARTY OF BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA http://www.kscm.cz http://www.kscm.cz/english E-Mail: info@kscm.cz code:(+4202) phone:22897111 fax:22897207 n
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, FORCE OF THE REVOLUTION E-Mail: fuerzadelarevolucion@latinmail.com E-Mail: frevolucion@latinmail.com code: (+809) phone:685-9362 fax:687-3423 n
n EGYPT, COMMUNIST PARTY OF EGYPT http://www.cp-egypt.com E-Mail: cpegypt@gmail.com code:(+20) phone:101 078617 fax: 223 921315
EQUADOR, COMMUNIST PARTY OF EQUADOR http://pcecuador.org/ E-Mail: ccentral@pcecuador.org E-Mail: winstoncamp@yahoo.com E-Mail: mariomendoza2004@yahoo.es code:(+593) phone: 2 2909454, 4 2401462, 4 22248643 Mobile: 997195448 n
ESTONIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF ESTONIA E-Mail: narvaSRG@rambler.ru code:(+37) phone /fax: 23591174 n
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DENMARK, COMMUNIST PARTY IN DENMARK http://www.kommunisterne.dk E-Mail: KPID@kommunisterne.dk code:(+45) phone:38882833 fax:38882433
FINLAND, COMMUNIST PARTY OF FINLAND http://www.skp.fi E-Mail: skp@skp.fi code:(+3589) phone:77438150 fax:77438160
DENMARK, COMMUNIST PARTY OF DENMARK http://www.dkp.dk E-Mail: dkp@dkp.dk code:(+45) phone: 33916644
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FRANCE, FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pcf.fr E-Mail: international@pcf.fr E-Mail: interpcf@gmail.com
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code:(+331) phone:40401293, 40401286 fax:42404027 FYROM, COMMUNIST PARTY OF MACEDONIA E-Mail: cpmmkd@gmail.com code:(+389) phone:23177248 fax:23177248 n
GUYANA, PEOPLE’S PROGRESSIVE PARTY http://www.ppp-civic.org E-Mail: ppp@guyana.net.gy E-Mail: pr@ppp-civic.org code: (+592) phone: 2272095, 2274301 fax: 2272096 n
HUNGARY, HUNGARIAN WORKERS’ PARTY http://www.munkaspart.hu E-Mail: mp200@t-online.hu code:(+361) phone:780-83-06 fax:787-86-21 Mobile: +36309443520 n
GEORGIA, UNIFIED COMMUNIST PARTY OF GEORGIA E-Mail: cpgeo@narod.ru E-Mail: tpipia@rambler.ru code:(+995) phone:93 761363, 32 546587 fax:32 546587
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GERMANY, GERMAN COMMUNIST PARTY (DKP) http://www.dkp.de E-Mail Central Committee: dkp.pv@t-online.de E-Mail International Relationships: inter@dkp.de code:(+49201) phone:1778890 fax:17788929 n
INDIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA http://www.communistparty.in/ E-Mail: internationaldept@communistparty.in E-Mail: cpiofindia@gmail.com code:(+9111) phone:23235546, 23235099, 23235058 fax:23235543 n
INDIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MARXIST) http://www.cpim.org https://www.facebook.com/cpimcc E-Mail: cc@cpim.org E-Mail: intl@cpim.org E-Mail: cpim@vsnl.com code:(+9111) phone: 23344918, 23747435, 23747436 23363692 fax:23747483 n
GREECE, COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE http://inter.kke.gr E-Mail: cpg.kke@gmail.com E-Mail: cpg@int.kke.gr code:(+30) phone:210 2592111 fax:210 2592298 n
GUADELUPE, GUADELOUPEAN COMMUNIST PARTY E-Mail: DC500009@exchange.FRANCE.NCR.COM code:(+590) phone:821945 fax:836990 n
IRAN,TUDEH PARTY OF IRAN http://www.tudehpartyiran.org E-Mail: mardom@tudehpartyiran.org n
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E-Mail: navid.shomali@btinternet.com code:(+44) phone:7790277770 code:(+49) fax:303241627 IRAQ, IRAQI COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.iraqicp.com Mail: salamsaadi@hotmail.co.uk Mail: icpinter@yahoo.co.uk Mail: info@iraqicp.com code:(+44208) phone: 6422981 n
IRAQ, COMMUNIST PARTY OF KURDISTAN-IRAQ http://www.regaykurdistan.com Mail: maib55@hotmail.com Mail: kcp_ibrahim@kurdistancp.org Mail: kcp_kurdistan@hotmail.com code:(+4131) phone:3719612 fax:3719628 n
IRELAND, COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRELAND http://www.communistpartyofireland.ie E-Mail: cpoi@eircom.net code:(+3531) phone:6708707 n
IRELAND, THE WORKERS’ PARTY OF IRELAND http://www.workerspartyireland.net/ E-Mail: wpi.international@gmail.com E-Mail: wpi@indigo.ie code:(+3531) phone: 8733 916 fax: 874 8702 n
ISRAEL, COMMUNIST PARTY OF ISRAEL http://www.maki.org.il E-Mail: info@maki.org.il code:(+9723) phone:6293944 fax:6297263
ITALY, PARTY OF THE ITALIAN COMMUNISTS http://www.comunisti-italiani.it http://www.oltre-confine.it E-Mail: esteri.pdci@gmail.com E-Mail: esteri@comunisti-italiani.org code:(+3906) phone:6862721 fax:68627230 n
ITALY, PARTY OF THE COMMUNIST REFOUNDATION http://www.rifondazione.it/ E-Mail: esteri.prc@rifondazione.it code:(+3906) phone:441821 fax:44182207 n
JAPAN, JAPANESE COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.jcp.or.jp http://www.japan-press.co.jp/ E-Mail: intl@jcp.jp code:(+813) phone:54748421 fax:37460767 n
JORDAN, JORDANIAN COMMUNIST PARTY E-Mail: jcp@nets.com.jo E-Mail: jcplive@umniahlive.net code:(+9626) phone:4624939 fax:4624939 n
KAZAKHSTAN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF KAZAKHSTAN E-Mail: komparty@list.ru code:(+772) phone:72911400 n
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KIRGIZIA, PARTY OF THE COMMUNISTS OF KYRGYZSTAN E-Mail: mars40@list.ru code:(+996) phone:312 624999 fax:312 660401 n
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DPR of KOREA, WORKERS PARTY OF KOREA http://www.kimsoft.com/dprk.htm E-Mail: wpkint@start-co.net.kp E-Mail: ekodpr@alice.it code:(+850) phone: 2-381-5855 fax: 2-381-4657 code:(+3906) phone:54220749 fax:54210090 n
MALTA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF MALTA http://communistpartymalta.blogspot.com/ E-Mail: pkmalti@hotmail.co.uk E-Mail: communistpartymalta@yahoo.com code:(+356) phone/fax:21223537 n
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LAOS, PEOPLES’ REVOLUTIONARY PARTY E-Mail: party.relationsdep.la@gmail.com code:(+85621) phone:414042 fax:414043
MADAGASCAR, PARTY OF THE CONGRESS FOR THE INDEPENDENCE OF MADAGASCAR (AKFM) E-Mail: aakfm@netclub.mg code:(+261) phone/ fax: 202227065, 202226828
n LATVIA, SOCIALIST PARTY OF LATVIA http://www.latsocpartija.lv E-Mail: latsocpartija@inbox.lv code: (+371) phone/fax:67555535
MEXICO, COMMUNIST PARTY OF MEXICO http://www.comunistas-mexicanos.org E-Mail: comunista@prodigy.net.mx code:(+52 734) phone/fax:3425838
LEBANON, LEBANESE COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.lcparty.org E-Mail: lcparty@lcparty.org E-Mail: mariedebs@dm.net.lb code:(+9611) phone/fax:739615/6/7
MEXICO, POPULAR SOCIALIST PARTY - NATIONAL POLITICAL ASSOCIATION , MEXICO E-Mail: ppsprens@prodigy.net.mx E-Mail: ppsdn2003@yahoo.com.mx code:(+5255) phone:330816-18 fax:330816-18, 257131
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LITHUANIA, SOCIALIST PEOPLE’S FRONT http://www.slfrontas.lt E-Mail: slflit@yandex.ru code:(+370) phone:52431070 fax:(+370)52606130
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LUXEMBOURG, COMMUNIST PARTY OF LUXEMBOURG http://www.kp-l.org E-Mail: kpl@zlv.lu E-Mail: aruckert@zlv.lu code:(+352) phone:446066 21 fax:44606666 n
MEXICO, POPULAR SOCIALIST PARTY OF MEXICO http://www.ppsm.org.mx E-Mail: ppsmexico@gmail.com E-Mail: amezcua910@yahoo.com.mx code:(+525) phone: 5672-2057 fax:5609-1896 n
MOLDOVA, PARTY OF COMMUNISTS OF REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA http://www.pcrm.md/ E-Mail: info@pcrm.md E- Mail: pcrmcc@gmail.com n
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code:(+3732) phone:2249441 fax:2233673 NEPAL, COMMUNIST PARTY OF NEPAL (UML) http://www.cpnuml.org E-Mail: umlcpn@gmail.com E-Mail: uml@ntc.net.np code:(+977) phone: 14278081-82 fax:14278084 n
NETHERLANDS, NEW COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE NETHERLANDS http://www.ncpn.nl E-Mail: manifest@ziggo.nl E-Mail: ncpn@ncpn.nl code:(+31) phone:70 3603676, 20 6825019 fax:20 6828276 n
NORWAY, COMMUNIST PARTY OF NORWAY http://www.nkp.no E-Mail: nkp@nkp.no code:(+4722) phone:716044
PALESTINE, PALESTINIAN PEOPLE’S PARTY http://www.ppp.ps E-Mail: info@ppp.ps code:(+97) phone:22963593 fax:22963592 n
PANAMA, PARTY OF THE PEOPLE http://www.elpartidodelpueblo.org E-Mail: partidodelpueblopa@yahoo.com E-Mail: elpartido@elpartidodelpueblo.org code: (+507) phone:2259025/2272194 n
PARAGUAY, PARAGUAYAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pcparaguay.org/ E-Mail: inter@pcparaguay.org code:(+595) phone:21 225116, 972 624390 phone/fax:21 621836 n
PERU, COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU (PATRIA ROJA) http://www.patriaroja.org.pe/ E-Mail: pcdelp@patriaroja.org.pe E-Mail: partidosec@yahoo.com E-Mail: amorenor@speedy.com.pe code:(+511) phone: 4262366/993869280
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PAKISTAN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF PAKISTAN http://www.cppak.org E-Mail: cppak2003@yahoo.com code:(+92) phone/fax: 222654531
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PALESTINE, PALESTINIAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pallcp.ps E-Mail: palestinian_cp_alqam@hotmail.com code:(+97) tel:9 2515830, 2 2267055 phone/fax:2 22267644, 9 2515075 n
PERU, PERUAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.pcperuano.com E-Mail: unidad@ec-red.com E-Mail: pcperuano.rrii@gmail.com code:(+511) phone 4331634 fax:4715399 The PHILIPPINES, PHILIPPINE COMMUNIST PARTY [PKP-1930] http://www.pkp1930.org E-Mail: parisantonio2001@yahoo.com E-Mail: philcompar@yahoo.com code:(+632) phone:3590201 fax:9395791 n
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POLAND, COMMUNIST PARTY OF POLAND http://www.kompol.org E-Mail: int@kompol.org code:(+48) phone:228334288 fax:228334288 n
PORTUGAL, PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.international.pcp.pt http://www.pcp.pt E-Mail: internacional@pcp.pt code:(+35121) phone:7813800 fax:7969824 n
ROMANIA, ROMANIAN COMMUNIST PARTY E-Mail: pantazipcr@yahoo.com code:(+4021) phone:6423615 fax: 642 3615
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n ROMANIA, SOCIALIST ALLIANCE PARTY http://www.pasro.ro E-Mail: contact@pasro.ro E-Mail: gheorghitazbaganu@yahoo.com code:(+40) phone:212522887, 314057078, 314057077, phone/fax:214133354
RUSSIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (KPRF) http://www.kprf.ru E-Mail: inter@kprf.ru E-Mail: zabirov@duma.gov.ru code:(+7495) phone:6927646 fax:6927646, 6925685
code:(+7812) phone:2742772, 2748073 fax:2742818 RUSSIA, UNION OF COMMUNIST PARTIES-CPSU http://www.kprf.ru E-Mail: inter@kprf.ru E-Mail: zabirov@duma.gov.ru code:(+7495) phone:2927646, 2928736 fax:2925685 n
RUSSIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOVIET UNION http://www.cpsu.by E-Mail: cpsu.msk@gmail.com code:(+7495) phone:6844175 phone/fax:9747342 n
SERBIA, NEW COMMUNIST PARTY OF YUGOSLAVIA http://www.nkpj.org.rs E-Mail: int_nkpj@yahoo.com code:(+38111) phone: 2400628 ; code:(+38111) fax: 2400640 n
SERBIA, COMMUNISTS OF SERBIA http://www.komunistisrbije.rs/ E-Mail: komsrb@open.telekom.rs code:(+38111) phone/fax:3514-478 n
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RUSSIA, COMMUNIST WORKERS PARTY OF RUSSIA (RKRP) http://www.rkrp-rpk.ru/ E-Mail: rkrp-ck@yandex.ru n
SLOVAKIA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF SLOVAKIA http://www.kss.sk E-Mail: sekr@kss.sk code:(+4212) phone:44644101 fax:44362540 n
SOUTH AFRICA, SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.sacp.org.za E-Mail: international@sacp.org.za n
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E-Mail: lucian@sacp.org.za code:(+2711) phone:3393621/2 fax:3394244 SPAIN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF SPAIN http://www.pce.es E-Mail: internacional@pce.es E-Mail: comitefederal@pce.es code:(+3491) phone:3004969 fax:3004744 n
SPAIN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PEOPLE OF SPAIN http://www.pcpe.es Mail: internacional@pcpe.es code: (+34) phone: 915329187 fax: 915329187 n
SPAIN, PARTY OF COMMUNISTS OF CATALUNA http://www.pcc.cat E-Mail: pcc@pcc.cat E-Mail: internacional@pcc.cat code:(+34 933) phone:184 282 fax: 180 011 n
SPAIN, UNITED LEFT SPAIN http://www.izquierda-unida.es/ E-Mail: iu.internacional@izquierda-unida.es code:(+3491) phone:7227500 fax:3880405 n
SRI-LANKA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF SRI-LANKA http://www.communistpartyofsrilanka.org/ E-Mail: compartysl@gmail.com code:(+9411) phone:2695328 fax:2691610 n
SUDAN, SUDANESE COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.midan.net E-Mail: alilad47@yahoo.com E-Mail: alilad47@hotmail.com code:(+4202) phone:33555668 fax:33555668 n
SWEDEN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF SWEDEN http://www.skp.se E-Mail: skp@skp.se code:(+468) phone:7358640 n
SYRIA, SYRIAN COMMUNIST PARTY http://www.syriancp.org E-Mail: syriancommunistparty@gmail.com code:(+96311) phone:4455048 fax:4422716 n
SYRIA, SYRIAN COMMUNIST PARTY [Unified] http://www.syrcomparty.org/ E-Mail: scp@scs-net.org E-Mail: scp@syrcomparty.org code:(+96311) phone:4410264 fax:4422383 n
TADJIKISTAN, COMMUNIST PARTY OF TADJIKISTAN E-Mail: communist_party@mail.ru E-Mail: talbakov-555.@mail.ru code:(+992372) phone:232953, 231853 fax:351482, 232292 n
TURKEY, COMMUNIST PARTY OF TURKEY (TKP) http://www.tkp.org.tr http://int.tkp.org.tr/ E-Mail: int@tkp.org.tr n
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code:(+90216) phone: 4185351 4146504 fax:3461137
code:(+1) phone: 2129894994 fax:(+1) 212 229 1713
TURKEY, LABOUR PARTY (EMEP) http://www.emep.org (Turkish) http://en.emep.org (English) http://es.emep.org (Spanish) E-mail: international@emep.org code:(+90) phone:539 328 1323 fax:212 587 56 86
VENEZUELA, COMMUNIST PARTY OF VENEZUELA http://www.pcv-venezuela.org http://prensa-pcv.blogspot.com/ E-Mail: internacional.pcvenezuela@gmail.com E-Mail: carolus1111@yahoo.com code:(+58) phone:2122566386 fax:2122566386
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UKRAINE, COMMUNIST PARTY OF UKRAINE http://www.kpu.net.ua/ E-Mail: Lorinser@ukr.net E-Mail: anatolii.sokoliuk@gmail.com code:(+380) phone: 44-4253137, 425-54-87, fax:463-57-02 phone/fax: 463-57-03 [International Department ] n
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VIETNAM, COMMUNIST PARTY OF VIETNAM http://www.cpv.org.vn E-Mail: perc@fpt.vn E-Mail: cpvic@cpvic.org.vn code:(+844) phone:8436278, 8436274 fax:38234514, 8045657 n
UKRAINE, UNION OF COMMUNISTS OF UKRAINE http://un-comm-ukr.ucoz.ru/ E-Mail: marx-journal@mail.ru code:(+38044) phone:2906225 fax:2906225, 2906228 n
URUGUAY, COMMUNIST PARTY OF URUGUAY http://www.pcu.org.uy/ E-Mail: pcuinternacional@montevideo.com.uy E-Mail: partidocomunista@adinet.com.uy E-Mail: profdcoira@gmail.com code:(+5982) phone: 9242697 9247056 fax: 9242697 9247056 n
USA, COMMUNIST PARTY USA http://www.cpusa.org E-Mail: international@cpusa.org
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